Founding SMCHS Principal to Face Molestation Suit

Michael Harris, the founding principal of Santa Margarita Catholic High, will be at the center of a civil lawsuit later this month involving allegations that he molested a boy in the mid-1980s.

At the time of the alleged incident, Harris was principal at Mater Dei High. The trial is set to begin June 18.

Harris had previously been a defendant in a 2001 lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Church in which $5.2 million was awarded to former Santa Magarita Catholic student Ryan DiMaria.

Harris, who has never been charged criminally, has always maintained his innocence in these matters.

According to Stephen Bohannon, media relations officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, Harris was removed from the priesthood in 1994 and laicized—made a lay person—in 2002.

Harris was handpicked to be the principal at Santa Margarita, which opened in 1987. In 1994 he resigned, reportedly from stress.

The incident for which Harris is being sued in Orange County Superior Court allegedly took place in 1986. The suit claims Harris called a boy out of class who had stopped a purse snatching and rewarded him with a rosary blessed by the pope—and oral copulation.

For more information about the impending lawsuit against Harris, see this story in the Orange County Register.