0001
01 NO. 93-05258-G
01
02 JOHN DOE I, et al. ) IN THE DISTRICT COURT
02 )
03 )
03 VERSUS ) OF DALLAS COUNTY
04 )
04 REVEREND RUDOLPH KOS, et al. ) 134TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
05
05 REPORTER'S RECORD
06 VOLUME____OF _____
06
07 APPEARANCES:
07
08
08 MR. WINDLE TURLEY
09 Attorney at Law
09 1000 University Tower
10 6440 N. Central Expressway
10 Dallas, Texas 75205
11
11 MS. SYLVIA M. DEMAREST
12 Attorney at Law
12 DEMAREST, SMITH, PRESLAR, JONES & GIUNTA
13 Cedar Maple Plaza
13 2305 Cedar Springs Road, Suite 350
14 Dallas, Texas 75201
14
15 FOR THE PLAINTIFFS
15
16 MR. RANDAL MATHIS
16 MR. DENNIS ROOSSIEN
17 Attorneys at Law
17 MUNSCH, HARDT, KOPF, HARR & DINAN, P. C.
18 4000 Fountain Place
18 1455 Ross Avenue
19 Dallas, Texas 75202-2711
19 FOR THE DIOCESE OF
20 DALLAS
20
21 On the 10th day of June, 1997, the
22 above-entitled and numbered cause came on for a hearing
23 before the Honorable Anne Ashby, Judge presiding of the
24 134th Judicial District Court of Dallas County, Texas, and
25 a jury, at which time the following proceedings were had:
0002
01
01 W-I-T-N-E-S-S-E-S:
02
02 PAGE
03
03 MOST REVEREND MONSIGNOR ROBERT REHKEMPER
04
04 BILL OF EXCEPTIONS
05
05 By Mr. Turley.....................4610
06
06 Cross Examination (Resumed)
07 By Mr. Mathis.............4612
07
08 Redirect Examination
08 By Ms. Demarest...........4763
09
09 Recross Examination
10 By Mr. Turley.............4811
10
11 Recross Examination
11 By Mr. Mathis.............4839
12
12 Recross Examination
13 By Ms. Demarest...........4846
13
14 Recross Examination
14 By Mr. Mathis.............4849
15
15 Recross Examination
16 By Mr. Turley.............4850
16
17
17
18
18
19
19
20
20
21
21
22
22
23
23
24
24
25
25
0003
01
01 E-X-H-I-B-I-T-S:
02
02 Marked Offered Admitted
03
03 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 177
04 9-66 Redacted Lynch
04 letter..................4602/4611 4611
05 bill
05 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 180
06 1995 Reducing Risk of
06 Sexual Abuse -
07 All Saints................4864 4866
07
08 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 181
08 4-3-84 Peebles letter
09 from Tschoepe to Judge
09 Marshall..................4864 4866
10
10 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 182
11 5-22-84 letter from
11 Fellhauer to Ft. Benning
12 Georgia...................4865 4866
12
13 Plaintiff's Ehibit No. 183
13 5-22-84 letter from
14 Fellhauer to Dr. Meyer....4865 4866
14
15 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 184
15 5-22-84 Peebles letter
16 from Fellhauer to
16 Dr. Pattison..............4865 4866
17
17 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 185
18 5-22-84 letter from
18 Fr. Gill regarding
19 Fr. Peebles...............4865 4866
19
20 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 186
20 1-11-85 letter from
21 Fr. Fellhauer to Chaplain
21 regarding Peebles.........4865 4866
22
22 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 188
23 12-5-95 cover letter
23 from Mathis regarding
24 Tschoepe file.............4866 4866
24
25
25
0004
01
01 E-X-H-I-B-I-T-S:
02
02 Marked Offered Admitted
03
03
04 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 189
04 Canon 478.................4866 4866
05
05 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 190
06 8-5-86 letter from
06 Hughes to Rehkemper.......4866 4867
07
07 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 191
08 2-17-86 Practicum
08 regarding Hughes..........4866 4867
09
09 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 193
10 7-23-90 letter from
10 Rehkemper to Hughes.......4866 4867
11
11 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 194
12 7-17-90 letter from
12 Hughes to Grahmann........4866 4867
13
13 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 195
14 7-20-90 letter from
14 Grahmann to Hughes........4866 4867
15
15 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 196
16 8-21-90 letter from
16 Hughes to Rehkemper.......4866 4867
17
17 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 197
18 Rehkemper Notes
18 regarding Hughes..........4866 4867
19
19 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 198
20 11-4-91 letter from
20 Rehkemper to Hughes.......4866 4867
21
21 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 199
22 11-27-91 Hughes
22 personnel file............4866 4867
23
23 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 200
24 7-10-92 Jaeckle notes.....4864 4866
24
25
25
0005
01
01 E-X-H-I-B-I-T-S:
02
02 Marked Offered Admitted
03
03 Defendant's Exhibit No. 11
04 4-24-81 letter from
04 Sheehan to Tschoepe.......4855 4855
05
05 Defendant's Exhibit No. 12
06 3-81 letter composed
06 by Rehkemper before Kos'
07 ordination................4855 4850
07
08 Defendant's Exhibit No. 16
08 8-7-81 Kos Assignment to
09 All Saints................4856 4856
09
10 Defendant's Exhibit No. 17
10 11-17-81 Clinical
11 pastoral education
11 evaluation of
12 Rudy Kos..................4648 4649
12
13 Defendant's Exhibit No. 20
13 2-4-83 Certificate of
14 Seminar in parish
14 managment.................4648 4648
15
15 Defendant's Exhibit No. 21
16 7-24-83 letter to
16 Tschoepe from Susan
17 Scott.....................4858 4858
17
18 Defendant's Exhibit No. 22
18 7-2783 letter to Kos
19 from Tschoepe regarding
19 Susan Scott's letter......4858 4858
20
20 Defendant's Exhibit No. 23
21 7-27-83 letter from
21 Tschoepe to Susan Scott...4858 4858
22
22 Defendant's Exhibit No. 24
23 4-11-84 letter from
23 Kos to Tschoepe requesting
24 stay at All Saints........4858 4858
24
25
25
0006
01
01 E-X-H-I-B-I-T-S:
02
02 Marked Offered Admitted
03
03 Defendant's Exhibit No. 25
04 4-12-84 letter from
04 Tschoepe to Kos regarding
05 stay at All Saints........4858 4859
05
06 Defendant's Exhibit No. 26
06 6-2-85 letter of
07 appointment to
07 St. Luke's................4859 4859
08
08 Defendant's Exhibit No. 27
09 1-15 phone message
09 slip......................4859 4859
10
10 Defendant's Exhibit No. 30
11 2-26-86 note regarding
11 guarantees................4859 4859
12
12 Defendant's Exhibit No. 31
13 2-25-86 letter to
13 Str. Maureen from
14 Clayton...................4861 4862
14
15 Defendant's Exhibit No. 32
15 5-12-86 letter to
16 Sister Maureen............4863 4863
16
17 Defendant's Exhibit No. 33
17 6-10-86 Rehkemper
18 note regarding Kos
18 shaken by workshop........4863 4863
19
19 Defendant's Exhibit No. 34
20 7-21-86 Clayton
20 letter to Kos.............4862 4862
21
21 Defendant's Exhibit No. 35
22 7-23-86 Letter from
22 Kos to Clayton............4861 4862
23
23 Defendant's Exhibit No. 36
24 8-18-86 letter from
24 Father Clayton to
25 Bishop Tschoepe...........4862 4862
25
0007
01
01 E-X-H-I-B-I-T-S:
02
02 Marked Offered Admitted
03
03
04 Defendant's Exhibit No. 37
04 2-28-86 Rehkemper note
05 regarding meeting with
05 Kos, Clayton & Kamel......4862 4862
06
06 Defendant's Exhibit No. 38
07 1-12-87 Dr. and
07 Mrs. Jim Frost letter.....4862 4862
08
08 Defendant's Exhibit No. 39
09 2-12-87 letter from
09 Kos to Tschoepe...........4859 4859
10
10 Defendant's Exhibit No. 40
11 5-22-87 letter from
11 Clayton to Tschoepe.......4860 4860
12
12 Defendant's Exhibit No. 41
13 8-9-87 letter to
13 Tschoepe from Kos
14 regarding military........4859 4859
14
15 Defendant's Exhibit No. 42
15 8-12-87 letter to Kos
16 from Tschoepe regarding
16 military..................4859 4859
17
17 Defendant's Exhibit No. 43
18 4-14-88 Spanish letter
18 to Tschoepe from Kos......4859 4859
19
19 Defendant's Exhibit No. 44
20 5-2-88 Kos' Assignment
20 to St. John's.............4860 4860
21
21 Defendant's Exhibit No. 47
22 May '89 Behavioral
22 Anchored Reflection
23 Scale.....................4863 4863
23
24
24
25
25
0008
01
01 E-X-H-I-B-I-T-S:
02
02 Marked Offered Admitted
03
03
04 Defendant's Exhibit No. 48
04 7-11-89 letter to Kos
05 from Rehkemper............4860 4860
05
06 Defendant's Exhibit No. 49
06 5-21-92 letter to Kos
07 from Grahmann.............4860 4860
07
08 Defendant's Exhibit No. 50
08 5-7-92 memo from
09 Zelda to Rehkemper........4860 4860
09
10 Defendant's Exhibit No. 51
10 5-8-92 letter to
11 St. Luke's from
11 Rehkemper.................4860 4860
12
12 Defendant's Exhibit No. 52
13 5-8-92 letter to
13 St. Luke's from
14 Rehkemper.................4860 4861
14
15 Defendant's Exhibit No. 53
15 Evaluation of
16 (John Doe #I)...............4861 4861
16
17 Defendant's Exhibit No. 54
17 5-10-92 (Father to John Doe #13)
18 letter to Bishop..........4861 4861
18
19 Defendant's Exhibit No. 55
19 5-14-92 letter from Gene
20 Knize.....................4861 4861
20
21 Defendant's Exhibit No. 56
21 6-5-92 Father Williams'
22 12 page letter............4861 4861
22
23 Defendant's Exhibit No. 67
23
24
24
25
25
4601
01
02
03 10 June 1997
04 (Out of the presence and
05 hearing of the jury)
06 THE COURT: Okay. We've got extraneous
07 offenses -- not extraneous offenses, but we've got --
08 MR. TURLEY: What is this, Judge?
09 THE COURT: I have to put my different hat
10 on.
11 (Laughter in the courtroom)
12 THE COURT: Sorry. I'm not in criminal
13 court anymore.
14 MR. MATHIS: Well, I don't know that I
15 disagree with the word extraneous.
16 THE COURT: Let me think about this.
17 MR. TURLEY: That's probably true, Judge.
18 MR. MATHIS: Extraneous, improperly
19 collateral, irrelevant, all of those terms seem to apply.
20 (Laughter in the courtroom)
21 THE COURT: Okay. I have 176, but I don't
22 have the one that's whited out, Windle. I've got to admit,
23 I snatched this last night. Okay. Do you want to profer
24 176 and 177, or just 177?
25 MR. TURLEY: Really, 177, Judge. I think --
4602
01 we don't need to offer 176.
02 THE COURT: Okay. 177 is offered -- why
03 don't you go ahead and make your response on it? I mean,
04 make your arguments on it, because it's been four days
05 since I've seen it.
06 MR. TURLEY: All right. Your Honor, Exhibit
07 177 is a record from 1966, September of 1966, on the
08 Dallas/Fort Worth Diocese letterhead regarding a particular
09 priest whose name we have blacked out here, who was
10 reported to the Diocese for becoming sexually involved with
11 a student while he was stationed at St. Pious Church here
12 in Dallas.
13 And the part that is relevant and material
14 is the part that says, "This should be kept confidential,
15 but should be a matter of record in view of future
16 appointments."
17 This is offered for two purposes; one, to
18 show the pattern and practice of the Diocese, the Defendant
19 Diocese to keep matters of sexual involvement confidential
20 and secret, and offered for the purpose of impeaching the
21 testimony of Monsignor Rehkemper, who said that that type
22 of practice was not carried out by the church.
23 THE COURT: Okay. Response.
24 MR. MATHIS: Am I right, 177 has the name --
25 THE COURT: Uh-huh.
4603
01 MR. MATHIS: -- blocked out?
02 THE COURT: It's blocked out.
03 MR. TURLEY: That's correct.
04 MR. MATHIS: This is the Lynch memo that
05 everybody already knows what it is anyway; right?
06 THE COURT: Yeah. This is not what's being
07 proffered, that's -- 177 has it whited -- marked out.
08 MR. MATHIS: Well, I -- I understand, but
09 the jury has already heard the name, Lynch, and so the --
10 although there may be general privacy considerations with
11 respect to his name, the fact of the matter is, the jury
12 has already heard his name, and so the damage has already
13 been done.
14 Your Honor, this was argued at length on
15 Friday morning when the plaintiffs raised it then, and it
16 was argued additionally on Thursday, and in other context,
17 a number of times before that.
18 We object to the admission of this exhibit,
19 as we objected to any questioning with respect to any
20 matter concerning Father Lynch on all of the reasons set
21 forth in our Objection A.
22 This is something back in 1966. There is no
23 way for us to know what that was about, what it concerned,
24 or to be able to respond to it more than thirty years after
25 the fact at this point in the context of the trial
4604
01 involving Rudy Kos.
02 It is a perfect example of the application
03 of where 403 should be applied, and 404, as well as all of
04 the other things that we have set forth in our -- in our
05 prior objections that have been heard with respect to this.
06 It's the same thing as -- as these other
07 matters that we have talked about repeatedly in the case,
08 whether they are Father Peebles and the lawsuit -- lawsuits
09 involving him, Father Hughes, this matter involving Father
10 Lynch, and the other things that have -- have been
11 discussed.
12 For that matter, it's also objectionable, in
13 that Monsignor Rehkemper would not have even been Vicar
14 General at the time, and would have had nothing to do with
15 this matter, and so it's not appropriate with respect to
16 him, regardless of all of a these other objections.
17 The decision has to be made, I think,
18 whether we are going to just blanketly allow evidence of
19 any kind of complaint or accusation under the sun in this
20 lawsuit, leaving the implication that are there a number of
21 other priests, leaving me in the position of having to try
22 to rebut and respond to that evidence, thirty years after
23 the fact, when testimony is not available -- testimony is
24 not here in this case.
25 And for all of those reasons, we strenuously
4605
01 object to the admission of that exhibit. This has been
02 discussed at length last week. And the same thing applies
03 to everything else that has -- has been admitted in the
04 case so far.
05 Now, it's a question of how much we're going
06 to compound the problem that already exits, because I am
07 left in the position -- I have to respond with respect to
08 the insinuations concerning Peebles and Hughes and all of
09 these matters that have been raised.
10 THE COURT: Additional comments?
11 MR. TURLEY: Only, Your Honor, that -- not
12 that it really matters to the issue before the Court, but
13 the -- the Diocese does have a file on this matter. And I
14 think that's where this brief -- this memo came from.
15 They have a recent file on this particular priest involving
16 recent occurrences. That's not what we're going into now.
17 So he has all of that information available to him.
18 THE COURT: Okay. Objection to 177 is
19 sustained. I find that 403 and 404 lacks reliability. We
20 will not be going into these matters. Anything else we
21 need to take up?
22 MR. TURLEY: Yes, Your Honor. The Diocese
23 still has not responded as the Court asked them to, I think
24 now twice, for the production, or -- or at least a response
25 on what they want to do about the financial information
4606
01 that we have asked for. We would -- we could go tomorrow
02 -- the Court asked them to look at it and respond to us. We
03 still haven't heard anything.
04 This is a motion -- you know, we -- we filed
05 a Request for Production a long time ago, it didn't happen,
06 and then we filed a motion to compel, and the Court -- we
07 kind of ran out of time in the pretrial matter after the
08 Court considered it very briefly, and I thought -- my
09 recollection was -- asked the Diocese to respond on it in
10 some reasonable way. That has not happened.
11 And we're running out of time. We need this
12 information so we can look at it.
13 THE COURT: Okay. Windle, I think a fairer
14 situation would be to let Randy know this, because I did
15 read the transcript from this, and I had said that --
16 MR. MATHIS: Yes. That I gave you the other
17 day.
18 THE COURT: Yeah. And I did see that any
19 matters would be referred to a special master. I need --
20 depending on the length of time, I would -- I would be
21 happy to entertain this one, because it's something that
22 needs to be -- and you need to have notice on it to go
23 forward, and obviously you haven't had notice on it.
24 My suggestion is, why don't we do it Friday
25 afternoon at about 2:00?
4607
01 MR. MATHIS: That would be fine. Are we --
02 what did we decide on Friday?
03 THE COURT: The schedule on Friday is the
04 trial is going to go stop at 2:00, and then I've got my
05 asbestos docket that starts at 3:00.
06 MR. MATHIS: So there will be an hour there
07 where we could --
08 THE COURT: No -- we've got a little bit of
09 time in there. What are we going to do about lunch? I
10 mean, I hate for this group to go until 2:00, and I know
11 y'all can't go until 5:00 without lunch. Do you want to
12 try to do a forty-five minute lunch in there?
13 MR. TURLEY: Why don't we provide them
14 sandwiches?
15 THE COURT: Well, it's certainly okay with
16 me.
17 MR. TURLEY: If that's okay with Counsel, we
18 can chip in on that.
19 MR. MATHIS: That would be fine.
20 THE COURT: It could be the sandwhich
21 motion.
22 MR. MATHIS: The sandwich motion is fine.
23 THE COURT: The pizza motion is granted.
24 MR. MATHIS: Yeah. I think that's fine.
25 So -- so we're going to start at the regular time?
4608
01 THE COURT: Start at the regular time, go
02 till about 12:30, have sandwiches delivered at 12:30.
03 MR. MATHIS: And then stop at 2:00.
04 THE COURT: Yeah, come back -- do like a
05 forty-five minute lunch, and then that way we could come
06 back in about forty-five minutes.
07 MR. MATHIS: That's fine. And we'll be
08 prepared to go forward with discussion on that other
09 matter.
10 THE COURT: Or we can do an hour, and go to
11 2:15, or something like that.
12 MR. MATHIS: Okay. I don't think it will
13 take an hour to do this.
14 THE COURT: Okay.
15 MR. MATHIS: But we need to allow an hour,
16 just in the case.
17 THE COURT: Okay. Then let's stop at 2:00,
18 because I'm going to have to really do some major gear
19 changing to go into asbestos from this on a Friday
20 afternoon.
21 MR. MATHIS: Couldn't you figure a way to
22 get out of that?
23 THE COURT: No. But I thought about it.
24 MR. MATHIS: Okay. That's all we have right
25 now.
01 THE COURT: Okay. We told them to be back
02 at 10:00?
03 MR. MATHIS: 10:30.
04 THE COURT: Okay. This will be on-- who's
05 first?
06 MR. MATHIS: My continuation of Rehkemper.
07 THE COURT: Okay. Okay, then, y'all, let's
08 take a real short break and we'll get going at 10:00,
09 assuming we've got all of our jurors.
10 MR. MATHIS: Okay.
11 (Whereupon, after a brief recess
12 the proceedings resumed out of the
13 presence and hearing of the jury
14 as follows:)
15 THE COURT: Do you want Father Rehkemper?
16 MR. TURLEY: Yes, I think so, Judge. This
17 would be a good time for the bill.
18 THE COURT: Father Rehkemper, would you come
19 up here for just a second, please?
20 (Brief pause)
21 MS. DEMAREST: We don't have every -- we
22 don't have everything on this priest --
23 THE COURT: I'm just saying, let's grab what
24 we can. Come sit down for just a second. We need to do a
25 bill of exceptions before we get going, so -- you came
4610
01 back. Did you have a good weekend?
02 THE WITNESS: Dizzy.
03 THE COURT: I'll bet. I'll bet.
04 MR. TURLEY: Good morning.
05 THE WITNESS: Good morning.
06 MS. DEMAREST: Good morning.
07 MOST REVEREND MONSIGNOR ROBERT REHKEMPER
08 having been duly cautioned and sworn to tell the truth, the
09 whole truth and nothing but the truth was examined and
10 testified as follows:
11 BILL OF EXCEPTIONS
12 EXAMINATION
13 BY MR. TURLEY:
14 Q. Exhibit 176 and 177 -- 176, Plaintiffs'
15 Exhibit No. 176 is a copy of a memo in the file starting in
16 -- dated 1966, from the Diocese file regarding Father
17 Lynch, is it not?
18 A. It is.
19 Q. And do you recog -- you know that there has
20 been a file maintained on Father Lynch, and had some recent
21 activity here not too long ago?
22 A. No.
23 MR. MATHIS: Your Honor, we object to the
24 question on the basis of our Objection A.
25 MR. TURLEY: It's a bill.
4611
01 MR. MATHIS: I know, but we've got some
02 discoverability questions because of the Constitution.
03 Q. (BY MR. TURLEY) You recognize that as the
04 letterhead of the Dallas Diocese?
05 A. Dallas/Fort Worth.
06 Q. Yes, the old -- the old Diocese.
07 A. Yes.
08 Q. And --
09 A. 1966.
10 Q. That's right. You -- if someone was told to
11 put this in Father Lynch's file, it would have stayed there
12 throughout the years, would it not? As far as you know, it
13 should have been?
14 A. As far as I know, yes.
15 Q. No one would take it out and destroy it?
16 A. No, I would hope not.
17 MR. TURLEY: Okay. Your Honor, we offer
18 Plaintiff's Exhibit 177 as a document taken from the
19 Diocese's file regarding Father Lynch.
20 THE COURT: Admitted. Bill only.
21 MR. MATHIS: For the record, we incorporate
22 our prior objections.
23 THE COURT: Sure. So noted.
24 MR. TURLEY: Okay. Thank you, Monsignor.
25 MR. MATHIS: It will be just a minute,
4612
01 Father, until the jury is ready to go.
02 (Following a recess the proceedings
03 resumed within the presence and
04 hearing of the jury as follows:)
05 THE COURT: Good morning. did y'll have a
06 good weekend? I understand that y'all are now official
07 deputies. Y'all have been deputized.
08 (Laughter in the courtroom)
09 THE COURT: Y'all may be seated. You may
10 proceed.
11 MR. MATHIS: Thank you, Your Honor.
12 REVEREND MONSIGNOR ROBERT REHKEMPER
13 having been duly cautioned and sworn to tell the truth, the
14 whole truth and nothing but the truth was examined and
15 further testified as follows:
16 CROSS EXAMINATION - RESUMED
17 BY MR. MATHIS:
18 Q. Good morning, Father Rehkemper.
19 A. Good morning.
20 Q. Father, I want to pick up where we left on
21 on Friday when we had just begun my questioning of you, and
22 I want to emphasize here at the outset, we are not going to
23 jump around year to year on the time-line. I want to try
24 to take it a step at a time, and just start at the
25 beginning, and let you go through and tell your side of
4613
01 this story. Okay?
02 A. All right.
03 Q. &nbs