Pedophile ex-priest linked to boys-ranch case

SPOKANE — Patrick O'Donnell, whose infamy as the abuser of as many as 66 children was inextricably linked to the scandal that bankrupted the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, also insinuated himself into a nonprofit home for troubled boys, a Superior Court jury was told on Wednesday.

The former director and a former resident of the Morning Star Boys' Ranch testified in the case of Kenneth Putnam v. Morning Star Boys' Ranch about their acquaintance with the defrocked priest O'Donnell.

Putnam accuses the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, 77, who retired as ranch director in 2006, and a now-deceased counselor of sexually molesting him at the ranch in the '80s.

Putnam's is one of 19 lawsuits claiming sexual or physical abuse at Morning Star.

Under questioning by Putnam's Seattle attorney, Tim Kosnoff, Weitensteiner testified that he's known O'Donnell for decades and that O'Donnell was a Boy Scout in his troop in the early 1950s.

Their acquaintance was renewed in the 1960s after Weitensteiner became a ranch counselor and later — after being ordained a Catholic priest in 1966 — director of Morning Star.

Weitensteiner testified that in the late 1970s or early 1980s, O'Donnell, a child psychologist who frequented the ranch, was preparing to conduct psychological evaluations of some boys. But a woman called Morning Star to complain that O'Donnell was a pedophile who'd undergone sexual-deviancy treatment in Seattle from 1976 to 1978. O'Donnell served at Seattle's St. Paul Church from 1976 to 1978 and has been accused of abusing boys in the Seattle.

"We decided we better not use him," Weitensteiner said.

Also testifying was Paul Baggett, 48, who said he was repeatedly sexually abused by O'Donnell on ranch property and on trips in the '70s.

Under questioning by attorneys, Baggett acknowledged that he was a recovering drug addict who hallucinated and heard voices.