Priest’s guilty plea opens door for civil lawsuits

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, Jan. 3, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

The five boys who accused their Henderson priest of sexually and physically abusing them are one step closer to a civil lawsuit that seeks hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.

The civil suit had been on hold pending a resolution of criminal charges against the Rev. Mark Roberts. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, the 51-year-old former priest of St. Peter the Apostle church pleaded guilty Thursday to lesser charges of one count of open or gross lewdness and four counts of child abuse and neglect.

In March, a civil lawsuit had been filed against Roberts on behalf of the five boys and four additional alleged victims, claiming Roberts "sexually abused, assaulted and exploited" the boys. Roberts' guilty plea can now be used as evidence in the pending civil suit. The civil suit seeks more than $10,000 in compensatory damages for each of the nine boys and each of their parents and more than $10,000 in punitive damages for each boy and each parent.

"By entering his plea, Roberts has already admitted that he did these things beyond a shadow of a doubt," said Al Massi, the lawyer representing the boys and their parents in the civil suit. "We'll ask the court to accept that as fact. That way we're only left to prove damages, not that the incident happened."

And while criminal cases must be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, civil cases must only be proven by a preponderance of the evidence, Massi said.

As a result of his plea agreement, Roberts will have to register as a sex offender and is not to have unsupervised contact with children.

Roberts will have to resign from the priesthood but that won't protect the local diocese from a court judgment if the boys and their families win their civil suit. The lawsuit alleges the diocese, former Las Vegas Catholic Bishop Daniel Walsh and his successor, Bishop Joseph Pepe, were negligent because they knew or should have known about the abuse and stopped it.

Neither the bishops nor diocesean officials could be reached for comment on the pending civil suit and the alleged negligence.

Roberts' attorney, George Foley Sr., was unavailable for comment Thursday evening. But in a prior court document filed in District Court, Foley said none of the young men deserve to benefit from a civil suit.

Massi said Foley couldn't be more wrong.

"These young men have been used, abused and vilified," Massi said. "The only remedy these young men have is a monetary remedy. That's why we have the jury system."

Massi said the best thing about Thursday's conviction of Roberts was "that these boys were vindicated and people know they were telling the truth."

Massi had suffered a minor setback in September, when District Judge Ronald Parraguirre delayed the civil proceedings until after the criminal proceedings were resolved. The Nevada Supreme Court in December upheld Parraguirre's ruling.

Massi on Thursday filed a motion asking Parraguirre to lift the stay and said he expects to receive a reply in the next few days.

The incidents with the boys occurred in Roberts' living quarters on church grounds "under the guise of spiritual counseling," Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said.

Before District Court Judge Joseph Bonaventure, Roberts admitted to fondling and massaging the boys as well as whipping them and forcing them to whip themselves with a leather belt and a wire hanger.

Roberts also pleaded guilty to dripping hot candle wax on the boys' chests.

Prosecutors had dropped the four other boys from the criminal complaint.

Roberts was initially charged with taking pornographic photos of some of the boys but the photos were destroyed, so those charges would have been hard to prove, Herndon said.

In exchange for Roberts' guilty plea, prosecutors dropped two felony counts of using the boys to produce pornographic photos.

Roberts will likely be placed on probation for the five gross misdemeanor counts, Herndon said.

If District Court Judge Donald Mosley chooses to sentence Roberts to prison, he could face a maximum five-year sentence, Herndon said.