As he recommends how much money each victim of sex abuse should receive from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, attorney Matt Garretson knows he won't be able to distance himself from the horrors the victims went through.
He knows that from his experience as settlement commissioner in recommending how the $25.7 million settlement reached last year between the Archdiocese of Louisville and its abuse victims was to be apportioned.
"I can assure you that it has changed my life in the most profound way. It has broken my heart. It is past very painful," Garretson said of the files he reviewed in the Louisville settlement.
"Until you sit down, as I did in Louisville, with hundreds of victims, you may think this is overly dramatic.
Not only do you have empathy with the pain, but you are aware that you are engaged in the process that is invoking part of that pain."
As administrator of a tribunal selected to distribute $3 million the Archdiocese of Cincinnati agreed to set aside for victims as part of its historic criminal conviction last year, Garretson will have to go through much the same process in his hometown.
A Montgomery resident, Garretson, 33, graduated from Lakota High and Yale before going to work.
Later, he went to law school, graduating from Northern Kentucky University's Salmon P. Chase College of Law.
Garretson will provide key input to the tribunal on a seemingly unanswerable question:
How do you put a price on the shame, guilt, betrayal, rage and other emotions victims experience after being sexually abused by priests?
"It is inherently difficult because you're trying to quantify items that are definitely unquantifiable," Garretson admitted.
Despite the controversy over the $3 million pool -- archdiocese critics and attorneys of accusers say it isn't enough and a cheap way for the church to buy its way out of scandal -- Garretson doesn't expect money will be the motivating factor for those who file claims, a lesson he learned in the Louisville settlement.
"From a non-economic perspective, the fund also has to provide the claimants with a benefit other than money -- closure," Garretson said.
"Sometimes, all people want is to sit down with a third party who is empathetic, to have (the abuse) acknowledged and to have someone admit that wrongdoing occurred."
Garretson's goal in making recommendations on the claims is to treat all equally and to resolve each fairly.
"I am clearly a victims' advocate in this process,'' he said.
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