Appeals planned in ruling

The civil lawyer for a man claiming he was sexually abused and that the Mormon church is partially responsible promised to press on in appeals to higher courts Monday after a judge dismissed the allegations.

“The fight’s not over. We’ll fight this to the bitter end,” said Vince Finaldi, lawyer for his client, referred to as John Doe.

The man’s lawsuit claims he was sexually abused by Mormon church member Todd Summers between 1990 and 1999, when he was between 12 and 21 years old. The lawsuit names the church and its Newport Beach stake as defendants.

“We’ll take this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” Finaldi said.

In ruling last week on a motion for summary judgment in which a civil case’s claims are whittled down to the triable arguments, Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer threw out the claim against the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Churches are simply not responsible for the misdeeds of their members, without more specific facts that are not even alleged in this case,” Bauer wrote in his opinion.

The lawsuit claims that Summers abused the boy for years on church grounds, on church field trips and in Summers’ Newport Beach business and Costa Mesa home.

The victim did not come forward to police or the church until seven years after the alleged abuse.

In filings with the court, Finaldi argued that the church should have been suspect of Summers because of his behavior around children.

He also claimed the church did a poor job investigating the claims and tried to hide any misconduct.

Summers’ dad was a past leader at the church and is also named in the suit.

“Even the plaintiff has not suggested that child abuse is a tenet of the church or that such misconduct is, by any stretch of the imagination, encouraged as a means of evangelism or for any other purpose,” the judge wrote. “Nor is there a hint of any aberrant activity in the local church of any nature or of any manner in which the parents were instructed or encouraged to seduce the plaintiff as a path to membership.”

Birchdale Properties, which owns the property Summers’ business sits on, settled with Finaldi’s client last week. The details of the settlement are confidential, Finaldi said.

The jury trial for the charges remaining in the suit against Summers and his parents who supposedly knew of the abuse and did nothing is scheduled to begin in late August.

Timeline

Past: John Doe files a lawsuit claiming that Mormon church member Todd Summers of Costa Mesa molested him between 1990 and 1999, and that he, the church and his parents are responsible.

Present: A civil court judge throws out the claim that the church is responsible.

Future: Further motions and a jury trial are scheduled for next month.