Mater Dei football, track coach raped female student in 1980s, lawsuit alleges

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

The suit alleges that Mater Dei coach Patrick Callahan repeatedly sexually
assaulted a minor aged student, often in the presence of other Monarch
coaches

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/01/20/mater-dei-football-track-coach-
raped-female-student-in-1980s-lawsuit-alleges/

Mater Dei High School football coaches and players referred to it as “Hell
Week,” a string of twice-a-day workouts as the Monarchs prepared for
football season shortly before the start of the 1987 school year.

Because of the workout schedule, and in an effort to build team chemistry,
players and other students who worked with the team, managers, trainers,
stat crew members, slept overnight at the Mater Dei gymnasium.

It was on one of the Hell Week nights that Patrick Callahan, a Mater Dei
assistant football coach, allegedly led a 17-year-old stat girl, who was a
student at the school, to the Monarchs’ nearby football field and raped
her, according to a civil suit filed against Mater Dei and the Diocese of
Orange in Orange County Superior Court Thursday.

Callahan repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl over a period of years at
different places on the Mater Dei campus, at social functions, and at
local restaurants, often in the presence of other Mater Dei coaches,
according to a court filing. The suit also alleges Callahan repeatedly
served the girl alcohol in the presence of other Mater Dei coaches.

The suit does not state whether the other coaches were aware that Callahan
was sexually abusing the girl. The suit also does not name the other
coaches who were allegedly present when the girl was served alcohol.

“The significance is that another victim of abuse at Mater Dei has come
forward to uncover and expose the culture of abuse and cover-up that is
rampant through the athletics of Mater Dei and its community,” said
Michael Reck, an attorney for the woman.


Over a period of years, starting in 1985 when the girl was 16, Callahan
“sexually assaulted (the) Plaintiff countless times over the years that
(the) Plaintiff was a student at (Mater Dei),” according to the lawsuit.
The Orange County Register is not naming the woman because of the nature
of the allegations.

Callahan when asked about the lawsuit on Thursday said, “I don’t have any
comment on that.”

He denied having sex with any minor age girls while coaching at Mater Dei.
Callahan, who later worked as an assistant coach at Dodge City Community
College in Kansas, said he was unaware of the Orange County diocese making
payments to the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Thursday.

Diocese spokesperson Tracey Kincaid said “we have not yet been formally
served with the complaint and as a matter of general practice we do not
comment on pending litigation.”

The lawsuit was filed against the backdrop of a Mater Dei-commissioned
investigation by a Sacramento law firm into the culture of the school’s
football and athletic programs.

The investigation commissioned by then-Mater Dei president Father Walter
Jenkins on Nov. 30 was in response to an Orange County Register report
detailing an alleged hazing incident involving the Monarchs football team.
A current Mater Dei football player punched a teammate, 50 pounds lighter
than him, three times in the face during an alleged hazing ritual called
“Bodies” on Feb. 4, 2021, while some Monarchs players present shouted
racial epithets at the smaller player, according to two videos of the
altercation obtained by the Register.

The suit filed Thursday alleges negligent supervision, negligent retention
and negligent supervision of the plaintiff, then a minor.

Callahan, who also worked at Mater Dei as an assistant track and field
coach, later coached football and track at Santa Margarita Catholic High
School, and served as an assistant football coach at Cerritos College.

Callahan was sentenced to two years in jail in 2006 for falsifying
government documents in order to secure more than $150,000 in federal
grants for athletes who were not eligible for the financial aid.

Callahan admitted fraudulently obtaining federal financial aid grant money
for 13 Cerritos football players between July 1999 and March 2004,
according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.

The suit alleging sexual assault was filed under a California law that
allows sexual abuse victims to finally confront in court their abusers and
the organizations that protected predators.

Assembly Bill 218, which was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019
and went into effect Jan. 1, 2020, created a three-year window to file
past claims that had expired under the statute of limitations. The bill,
authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), also extends the
statute of limitations for reporting childhood sexual abuse from the time
a victim is age 26 to 40. The period for delayed reasonable discovery is
also increased from three to five years. The law requires that plaintiffs
meet a mental health practitioner and receive a certificate of merit to
file under AB218. The woman has received a certificate of merit, Reck
said.

Alleged survivors must file civil suits within eight years of becoming an
adult or three years from the date an adult survivor “discovers” or should
have discovered they were sexually abused, under current California law.

Under the 2019 law, defendants cannot be publicly identified in complaints
until the judge formally accepts the case. The initial filings can list
the addresses of defendants, however. The addresses of the diocese and
Mater Dei are both listed for the two defendants in Thursday’s filing.
Reck also confirmed that Mater Dei and the diocese are named in filings
with the court.

The girl first met Callahan at a track camp on the Mater Dei campus in
1984, according to the suit. In the following months Callahan groomed her
for sexual abuse, the suit alleges. Callahan allegedly began sexually
assaulting her in 1985 when she was 16, Reck said.

Callahan “sexually molested, assaulted and abused Plaintiff on the
premises owned, operated, and controlled by Defendants (Diocese of Orange)
and (Mater Dei), including, without limitation, on the school campus of
(Mater Dei),” according to a court filing.

As an assistant to Callahan and Mater Dei, the girl, the suit alleges “was
forced to accompany Callahan to various athletic events of or sponsored by
(Mater Dei). These athletic events were both on and off the high school
campus of (Mater Dei) during the day and night, and included dinners at
restaurants and other venues in California where alcohol was served to
Plaintiff by (Callahan) and where other coaches and agents of (Mater Dei)
were present. Often during these dinners, the PERPETRATOR sexually
assaulted Plaintiff while they were sitting at the table with the other
coaches and agents of (Mater Dei) present.”

“In his capacity as a track coach and/or an assistant football coach of
(Mater Dei), PERPETRATOR often gave alcohol to Plaintiff, then a minor, to
consume,” the suit said.

“Why did Mater Dei, why did the adults present during these times not
raise a red flag?” Reck said.

The diocese has been aware of the allegations since 2011 when officials
agreed to pay for the woman’s counseling, Reck said.

“Why hasn’t the diocese said anything?” Reck said.

Longtime Mater Dei head football coach Bruce Rollinson was not named in
the suit. He was an assistant coach on the staff at the time.




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