Last Jailed Priest in County Is Released

The only priest still jailed while awaiting trial in Los Angeles on child molestation charges was released Monday as the county’s top prosecutor vowed to press forward with his investigation of alleged wrongdoing in the Roman Catholic Church.

“This is not over by any means,” Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Monday. “The fat lady hasn’t sung yet.”

“There is no doubt there was a huge moral institutional failing and personal moral failing,” Cooley said. “Whether that amounts to criminal culpability remains to be seen. We don’t have the facts yet.”

Across California, prosecutors struggled Monday with the legal ramifications of a controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits prosecution in decades-old child molestation offenses. The decision affects about 800 cases statewide, involving people who have been convicted, who have confessed or who have charges pending. About 200 cases are in Los Angeles County.

Prosecutors are finding an average of about 10 cases per county in California that are affected by the ruling, said Nancy O’Malley, head of the sexual assault committee of the California District Attorneys Assn.

In other developments Monday:

* Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Horwitz ordered former priest Carlos Rene Rodriguez released from County Jail, pending a court appearance July 9.

* Superior Court Commissioner Jeffrey Harkavy said he probably would dismiss child molestation charges against John Anthony Salazar on Wednesday.

* In Ventura County, a judge dismissed molestation charges against retired priest Carl Sutphin.

In each case, judges cited the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Last week’s ruling overturned a portion of a California law that allowed prosecution of certain sex offense cases, even if the statute of limitations had expired, if district attorneys filed charges within a year after the offense was reported.

In Rodriguez’s case, Deputy Los Angeles County Public Defender Arthur C. Braudrick said he expects the case to be dismissed, probably on a motion by the prosecution.

Rodriguez, 46, of Commerce, was charged with molesting an altar boy from 1985 to 1987 when he served at St. Vincent de Paul Church. Rodriguez has been in jail since September, awaiting trial. His bail was $400,000.

Salazar’s case is expected to be dismissed Wednesday with the defendant’s having to return to court, unless the district attorney’s office decides to try to continue prosecuting him, the court commissioner said.

Salazar was charged last November with molesting a youth at the rectory house at St. Bernard High School in Playa del Ray.

“It’s a kick in the head,” said Carlos Perez-Carillo, 37, the complaining witness in the Salazar case. “I’ve been in therapy for a year, and I feel like I’m back to square one,” he said. “The criminal case would have been priceless for me, because I would have received justice and there would have been a message sent out to people who molest children that they were not going to get away with that.”

In Ventura County, the charges against Sutphin, 71, were dismissed at the request of the district attorney’s office.

Sutphin was accused of molesting six boys, ages 7 to 12, between 1968 and 1978 while he was an associate pastor at a Camarillo church and a chaplain at an Oxnard hospital.

Saying that those who claimed to have been attacked by Sutphin are extremely disappointed “doesn’t even come close to describing the emotions they are feeling right now,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Doug Ridley said outside the courtroom. “It’s a sad day for victims of child molestation in this state and in this county.”

Sutphin, who had pleaded not guilty, had tears in his eyes after Judge James Cloninger granted the dismissal, said defense lawyer James Farley.

In San Diego, authorities have said that they would seek the dismissal of charges against a retired San Diego priest accused of molesting a 15-year-old church worker in the late 1970s. The priest, Franklyn Becker, was arrested in May 2002 in Mayville, Wis., and was to be extradited to California next week. The California attorney general’s office has decided not to pursue extradition, said Peter Quon, deputy attorney general in San Diego.

As prosecutors, defense attorneys and state corrections officials struggled with the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, the non-criminal claims against priests continued to advance in court.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Marvin Lager, who is overseeing hundreds of claims against the Catholic Church, Monday agreed to let lawyers for alleged victims issue subpoenas to priests accused of molesting children.

There was concern that accused priests would leave the country as their criminal cases were dismissed to try to avoid being deposed in the civil litigation, said Venus Soltan, a Costa Mesa attorney. Soltan has filed 30 suits against the dioceses in Southern California and is expected to file at least 20 more.

Once subpoenaed, if they flee, “we can have an order of attachment issued to bring them back to the state of California,” said Beverly Hills attorney Raymond P. Boucher, who represents more than 200 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests. “It significantly limits their ability to hide.”

Lager also granted a request by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to halt all other proceedings, at least until the next court hearing on July 17.

Cooley is scheduled to meet today with his top managers and prosecutors to decide how to proceed on the 200 child molestation cases affected by the ruling.

“These cases involve not only priests, but doctors, fathers, boyfriends and Scout leaders,” Cooley said.

A pending ruling by a retired judge on whether prosecutors are entitled to more than 2,000 pages of church communications may be key to that decision. Cooley’s office is seeking the information through a grand jury subpoena. Lawyers for Mahony and individual priests are fighting to keep them secret.

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Times staff writers Jean Guccione, Li Fellers and Fred Alvarez contributed to this report.