Jesuits settle suit over Los Gatos priest who killed himself

BROTHER HAD CLAIMED ABUSE BY COLLEAGUE AT FACILITY

By Kim Vo
Mercury News

Article Launched: 12/13/2007 01:31:26 AM PST

Father Jim Chevedden was already mentally fragile when another Jesuit allegedly molested him. But it was his superiors forcing Chevedden to live in the same building as his accused abuser that led him to leap off a sixth-story San Jose garage, his family said, committing suicide on his 56th birthday.

"That's the last place you want someone with psychological problems," his brother John Chevedden said, "living with the person he said sexually assaulted him."

Last week, the Jesuits settled a wrongful-death suit with the Chevedden family for $1.6 million. However, Jesuit officials said the settlement was an offer of "closure," not an admission of culpability.

"Father Chevedden had a diagnosed severe mental illness that was at the core of the health struggles in his life," said Father John McGarry, head of the Jesuits' California province. "We did our best to take care of him."

Chevedden's accused abuser already had a troubled past. Charles Connor was one of two Jesuits convicted of molesting mentally retarded dishwashers at the center. In 2002, the religious order paid a $7.5 million settlement on that case.

Chevedden's accusations were never substantiated, said McGarry, who declined to let the Mercury News interview Connor. The octogenarian Connor, like several accused local Jesuits, lives at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

"Brother Connor is very elderly and unable to talk," McGarry said. "This settlement is not about sexual abuse. It's about the tragic loss of Father Jim Chevedden."

To the Chevedden family, the two are related.

Jim Chevedden knew early on he wanted to be a priest, reading missionary magazines while other boys thumbed through National Geographic. He entered the priesthood after graduating from a Jesuit high school in Los Angeles.

He suffered a mental breakdown after living alone for years in a rural section of Taiwan, said his twin brother, Paul Chevedden. He went back to the United States, and eventually to the Sacred Heart center.

The center, perched on a ridge overlooking Los Gatos, is where elderly Jesuits retire - and broken ones go for help. It's also where those accused of sexual misconduct are sent.

McGarry would not say how many of the center's current 65 residents have allegations against them or how much the province has paid in settlements since 2002, when the church sex scandal exploded nationwide.

Paul Chevedden says the facility never properly helped his brother and in 1998 he jumped off a scaffolding, fracturing both feet during an attempted suicide. While recovering in the infirmary, the family alleged, Connor pushed Chevedden's wheelchair and one day groped his genitals.

Chevedden didn't immediately tell his superiors, said his older brother, John Chevedden. But in 2002, when he heard Connor was moving back to the center, he told his superiors what happened and asked to be transferred. Leaders said they found no evidence of abuse.

The Cheveddens said their brother kept them apprised but Paul Chevedden suspects "the tragic thing was he always attempted to conceal the intensity of the difficulties he was going through, to protect the order, unfortunately."

The brothers said if Chevedden had known about Connor's history, he could have avoided him from the start - complaints against Connor stretch back to 1995, according to the lawsuit.

They said the center openly admits who is recovering from alcoholism so others could keep an eye on them; they wonder why the same wasn't done for the priests with sexual misconduct allegations.

McGarry said the center is monitored. "The leadership at this place was very aware of Brother Connor's situation. I think it's important to respect his privacy."

The center is the province's only health care facility, he said, so it had to accommodate both Connor and Chevedden. The two lived in the same building, but he was unsure if they were housed in same wing.

As Chevedden appealed for transfers, his siblings fretted over his limited options. He faithfully lived his sacred vows - poverty, chastity and obedience - and couldn't easily rebel against his superiors' orders to stay in Los Gatos.

"I don't know of any way he could have left and still been a priest," John Chevedden said.

"It was the obedience that was foremost on his mind. They forced him to live with his attacker," Paul Chevedden said. "He was a committed priest."

Paul Chevedden believed the Jesuits would eventually do right by his brother. He said he stopped believing on May 19, 2004 - their shared birthday and the day his brother jumped. In a bizarre coincidence, Jim Chevedden had jury duty that day. The priest that drove him to downtown San Jose was another accused child molester.