By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter
An attorney who once represented baseball player Pete Rose will chair a panel that will administer a $3 million fund for victims of sexual abuse by priests.
Robert Stachler, 73, represented Rose in a lawsuit he filed against Major League Baseball and former Commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989.
The former University of Dayton linebacker has also represented the Cincinnati Bengals football team and other sports figures.
"I'd like to make whatever contribution I can to the cause. I think it's a worthy cause," Stachler said of the fund, which the Archdiocese of Cincinnati created in November when it pleaded no contest to five counts of failing to tell authorities about sexual abuse allegations against priests.
The panel will evaluate compensation claims and award money. Even those whose claims are barred by the statute of limitations are eligible.
But to be eligible, claimants must abandon any legal action they have pending against the archdiocese over sexual abuse claims and agree not to file any such claims in the future.
Stachler was asked to serve Monday by the panel's other two members, former Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judges Ann Marie Tracey and Thomas Nurre.
Tracey was named by the archdiocese as its representative on the panel, and Nurre was appointed by Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen's office. The two were then asked to agree on a third member who would act as chair.
"I think he's as well known in the legal community as anyone around," Nurre said of Stachler. "He has an excellent background and excellent credentials."
Stachler has handled large settlements before, Nurre said, including when he worked on litigation that followed the 1990 explosion of a BASF Inc. plant in Evanston.
Nurre said he and Stachler were classmates at the University of Cincinnati School of Law, which is also Tracey's alma mater.
Stachler's first job as an attorney was with the firm of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister. He has served the firm for about 45 years, he said, including 30 years as head of its litigation department.
A lifelong Catholic, he is a member of St. Mary's parish in Hyde Park.
Neither he nor Nurre had any idea how many claims the panel would handle. They plan to meet with Tracey as soon as possible.
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