Dan kept in touch with me by phone but not as much by email. Dan said he wanted to represent me on the citations and for a civil claim against the Abbey. He asked me if I'd ever been sexually touched and I said no, truthfully. He asked a bunch of questions and felt convinced I had "a viable claim".
When I went to Gatti, I was completely ignorant to every aspect of law. I literally did not know the difference between "plaintiff" and "defendent". I had to ask what it meant. The learning curve was steep, as it had been at the Abbey when I was learning about Catholicism. I didn't know what a "claim" was, or "tort", or anything. I knew the legal terminology "lawyer", "judge", and "court", and that was about it.
I didn't know the first thing about law, legal representation, or attorneys. But Dan handed me a stack of papers or books he called "torts" and asked me to go through them all and see if anything "fit" and to let him know. I took home legal books, about civil torts with zero knowledge of the law. Within a week I had identified several torts which "fit" what had happened to me, but I was confused about what some of them meant, like "vicarious liability".
Dan sat down and went over them with me and agreed as to how the facts fit different torts. He gave me many opportunities to claim I'd been touched sexually but I never changed my story. My story was clear and complete from Day One and has NEVER changed, because it was and is the TRUTH.
In the meantime, Dan asked for the physical address of the City Hall of Mt. Angel and for the police and he contacted Paul Elsner, attorney for the City of Mt. Angel. Dan knew I had photos of the flyers and other things, to prove I was unfairly charged. I had already found out charges were never filed against me, but Dan was still saying he was going to "take care of it."
He wanted to talk to Dick Whittemore and he wanted me to meet his law partner, Greg Smith. I agreed and Dan set up an appointment for me to meet Greg.
Everything changed.
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