Church may be able to withhold names in molestation suit-Ruling protects those who spoke to pastor

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/1/5 | Bob Egelko

[SmithL]

A Walnut Creek church accused in a lawsuit of allowing an abusive youth minister to be covertly transferred to Southern California may be able to withhold the names of parishioners who responded to a pastoral appeal to discuss the minister's conduct, a state appeals court has ruled.

The suit was filed by three men who claim they were molested by the minister-in-training, Gary Carson-Hull, after he moved from the Walnut Creek United Methodist Church to a church in Long Beach in the mid-1970s.

The men allege, and church officials deny, that the Walnut Creek church arranged Carson-Hull's transfer after learning he had molested youths connected with the Bay Area church. The men's lawyers want to contact parishioners to learn about the church's actions while Carson-Hull worked there.

Carson-Hull, whose career in the church ended in the late 1970s, was arrested in 2002 on molestation charges dating from his years at the Long Beach church. But the charges were dismissed in 2003 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law that had allowed decades-old molestation prosecutions to be revived after the original deadlines had expired.

Thursday's ruling by a Court of Appeal panel in Los Angeles involves information sought by a lawyer for the Long Beach men in their suit against churches in Northern and Southern California where Carson-Hull worked.

The Walnut Creek pastor, Renae Extrum Fernandez, said she learned of the allegations against Carson-Hull in 2002 and sent out an appeal urging anyone who had taken part in the church's youth ministry from 1973 to 1975 -- long before her arrival -- to take part in a "process for healing.'' About two dozen people responded, she said, but she declined to identify them or describe their statements, citing confidentiality between clergy and parishioners.