The family of a deceased man who said he was repeatedly sexually abused by a Bay Area Catholic priest when he was a child is suing the Diocese of Oakland.
Under provisions of a new state law allowing suit in such cases, the family and estate of Jim Bartko, former Fresno State University athletic director filed it last week in Alameda County Superior Court.
It alleges that Bartko suffered repeated sexual abuse between 1972 and 1975 at the hands of Stephen Kiesle, then a priest of the Oakland Diocese and assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Pinole.
It also claims the diocese knew of Kiesle’s “history of sexual conduct and sexual assault against minors” prior to his alleged abuse of Bartko and negligently allowed Kiesle to continue working with children.
Kiesle was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing a child, was released from prison in 2009 and lives in Walnut Creek, according to the California Megan's Law website.
He was also convicted in 1978 of sexually abusing boys at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Union City, but was allowed to return to work while on probation, according to Bartko's attorneys.
Kiesle left the priesthood in 1981 but returned to St. Joseph's in 1988 as a volunteer youth minister, Bartko's attorneys said.
He is listed as a “credibly accused clergyman” on the diocese’s website, which says he was removed from ministry in 1978 and “laicized” — independent of all religious influence — in 1987.
Bartko, who wrote a book about his abuse and subsequent struggles titled “Boy in the Mirror,” sued the diocese in 2020 but died at the age of 54, just three days after announcing his lawsuit.
"The cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver, a result of decades of alcohol use to cope with his childhood trauma," Bartko's attorneys said in a news release Monday.
"Jim's first drink came at the age of 7, provided by Father Stephen Kiesle as a means to make Jim more vulnerable to Father Kiesle's sexual advances," the statement said.
The new law, SB447, went into effect on January 1 and allows families of deceased victims of child sexual abuse and other crimes to sue for non-economic damages, or “pain and suffering,” on their behalf.
Under previous law, such claims typically ended when the victims died.
"Now it doesn't matter what they die from, the case is still alive no matter what the cause is," said Bartko's attorney, Rick Simons.
"It also means that the gain from stopping these cases and keeping them secret until the end of life, the gain from making as many motions and delaying tactics as possible in the hope that people will die is taken out of the equation," Simons said.
A diocesan spokesman said Monday that they have not yet received the complaint and declined to comment.
You may be interested in: Child Caregiver Accepts Child Pornography Charges
