A California man has been awarded a whopping $16 million in a civil lawsuit regarding allegations against a former priest of the Diocese of Oakland.
On April 22, a jury in Alameda County Superior Court awarded an eight-figure settlement to an unnamed John Doe amid bankruptcy proceedings brought by the Oakland Diocese.
Law Firm Jeff Anderson & Association said in a press release The settlement was “the first case to reach a jury verdict under the California Child Victims Act.” Legislation passed in 2019 opened a three-year window for alleged abuse victims to file claims outside the standard statute of limitations.
The allegations made by John Doe in Oakland relate to Father Stephen Kisley, a priest who has been accused of multiple abuses since the 1970s. The victim said Kisley abused her during that decade.
Kisley pleaded no contest to a charge of indecent conduct with two boys in 1978, for which he received probation, while in the early 2000s he was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading no contest to a charge of molesting a girl near Sacramento.
Kisley was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence in 2022 after a man was killed in a crash in Rossmoor, California. He pleaded no contest to those charges in 2023 and was sentenced to more than six years in state prison.
The Diocese of Oakland says this List of credibly accused priests Kissel was removed from the ministry in 1978 and retired in 1987.
In November 2024, the Oakland Diocese said it would pay up to $200 million as part of a larger abuse settlement. The diocese filed for bankruptcy in May 2023.
The bankruptcy petition halted nearly all abuse lawsuits against the diocese, although several were allowed to proceed to trial, including the John Doe lawsuit, which was settled on April 22.
