BOSTON (AP) -- Cardinal Bernard Law answered more questions Friday about his oversight of the diocese and the breakdown of a settlement with alleged sex abuse victims of a priest, an attorney said.
Law answered questions behind closed doors at the chancery of the Boston archdiocese in a lawsuit brought by alleged victims of former priest John Geoghan.
A transcript was not immediately available, but attorney Michael O'Donnell said after Friday's morning session that questioning had continued along similar lines as Wednesday.
``He responded that the management tools he had in place was the trust and confidence he put in his subordinates,'' said O'Donnell, who represents some alleged Geoghan victims but none of the plaintiffs in the case Law was addressing.
Law left to celebrate Mass in the Roxbury section and was expected to return for an afternoon session.
Patrick McSorley, an alleged victim of Geoghan, attended the deposition and said Law had offered his hand as the session began but McSorley declined to shake it.
``I couldn't shake the man's hand because I knew what was about to come was a lie,'' McSorley said.
The highly unusual deposition of a high-ranking church official was ordered in the sex abuse lawsuit by 86 alleged victims of Geoghan. Geoghan was convicted in January of molesting a boy and is serving nine to 10 years in prison.
Law and other church officials are accused of negligence for reassigning him in the archdiocese and allegedly ignoring warning signs that he was dangerous to children.
Plaintiffs' attorney Mitchell Garabedian had indicated that Friday's sessions would focus on the breakdown of a settlement, estimated at $15 million to $30 million. A settlement was voted down by the archdiocese's finance committee a week ago.
Geoghan has been accused of sexually abusing more than 130 children over three decades. The lawsuit accuses Law and the Boston Archdiocese of failing to protect youngsters from the now-defrocked priest.
Law says he argued for the committee to approve the settlement but was outvoted.
In his testimony Wednesday, Law acknowledged that he labeled as ``urgent'' a 1984 letter that asserted Geoghan was a pedophile. However, he said he couldn't remember reading it. He said he relied on subordinates and doctors to handle Geoghan.
Garabedian called it ``astounding'' that Law didn't recall the warnings.
Law said he did not remember a letter from Margaret Gallant, a relative of seven alleged Geoghan victims who was upset that the church gave Geoghan another chance at a parish in Boston. Nor did he recall Bishop John D'Arcy's letter saying Geoghan was unfit to be reassigned.
Law, however, said he recognized his own handwriting on a note forwarding one of Gallant's letters to Bishop Thomas Daily, one of his subordinates, with the instructions, ``Urgent, please follow through.''
In the 1984 letter, Gallant alleged that Geoghan had abused seven people at a Boston parish.