The Diocese of Orange will pay $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who alleged he was sexually abused by former Mater Dei High School principal Michael Harris decades ago.
Attorney Jeff Anderson held a press conference in Garden Grove, CA, on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, about the Diocese of Orange settlement to pay $3.5 million to an unnamed survivor who was sexually abused by former Mater Dei principal Michael Harris. Attorneys said Wednesday that the survivor, referred to in court filings as John Doe, was abused as a young teen decades ago while attending Mater Dei High School.
During a news conference announcing the settlement outside Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, victims' rights attorneys alleged that their ongoing legal battle against the Diocese of Orange, which oversees Mater Dei, has unveiled “at least 13 child predators” who had worked at the campus over the years. A once-popular and high-profile figure in Orange County, Harris served as principal at Mater Dei and Santa Margarita Catholic high schools before leaving the priesthood after the clergy scandal erupted more than two decades ago. Though Harris denied molesting minors and was never criminally charged, John Doe, in a statement read by one of his attorneys, wrote that he still struggles to overcome the abuse he suffered 40 years ago, when he was 14 years old. “Harris, Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange made promises to me and promises to my parents,” the man wrote. “They promised I would be safe at school. They promised I would be part of a community — a community that would help me grow as a student, as a Catholic and as a human. Instead, they put me in the path of a serial predator, Michael Harris, who took all those promises and broke them.” The man wrote that he decided to come forward two years ago when he realized he could “stand up, not just for me, but for all the kids who were sexually abused,
SEX ABUSE CLERGY ABUSE DIOCESE OF ORANGE MATER DEI HIGH SCHOOL MICHAEL HARRIS
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