New Cult Trial for Damages Denied Sisters

SANTA ANA —  Two sisters who successfully sued their 76-year-old mother over allegations that she subjected them to years of physical and sexual abuse during satanic rituals were denied a new trial Friday aimed at winning a monetary judgment.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert D. Monarch reminded the sisters’ attorney that the jury ruled in their favor after the April 12 trial, despite the fact that no monetary damages were awarded.

“The jury gave them exactly what they wanted,” Monarch said.

The judge added that the sisters, identified only as Patty and Bonnie, stated throughout the trial that they filed the lawsuit “not for the money” but rather “to let the world know” what had happened to them.

The jury, in what was one of the most sensational civil trials ever held in Orange County, decided that the sisters had been abused, but that their mother was guilty of negligence and not of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on them. The mother, a Mission Viejo widow, was identified only by the pseudonym Ellen Roe.

After the verdict, attorneys on both sides said the jury’s ruling was essentially a compromise, with jurors expressing sympathy for the sisters’ suffering, yet unwilling to say that the mother abused them as part of satanic rituals.

During the 11-day trial, the sisters testified that their mother exposed them to various forms of sexual abuse, torture, pornography, druggings and human sacrifices in secret caves. They also alleged that their mother abused the older sister’s 11-year-old daughter.

The sisters, now 48 and 35 and living in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, respectively, said they revived these ghastly, long-repressed memories after counseling in 1988.

The mother denied all of the accusations and said that her daughters were only after money.

Despite the unusual verdict, Monarch said Friday that the sisters were “the prevailing party.” He ordered the mother to pay about $2,400 for the sisters’ court expenses, excluding their attorney fees.

R. Richard Farnell, the sisters’ attorney, said after the hearing that even though the judge refused to revise the jury’s verdict, the two women were still pleased with the outcome. He said the money issue was secondary to the sisters.

“They are more satisfied they won the case,” Farnell said.