St. Paul lawyer’s attacks on church show increasingly international reach
News & Events
The
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued an unprecedented opinion today allowing our client’s case using the Alien Tort Statute to go forward. You can find the entire text of the opinion on our site. In denying Defendant Cardinal Roger Mahony’s and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, the Court permitted Plaintiff’s…
In a groundbreaking decision, a Federal judge in California today denied a motion by attorneys for the Catholic Church to dismiss a lawsuit based on a unique international law against two Cardinals and a priest for their roles in the sexual abuse of a Mexican man as a boy in 1997, saying the plaintiff has sufficiently plead rape and sexual abuse of children as “…cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” and crimes against humanity.
Today, our firm and Anthony DeMarco, an attorney in Los Angeles, filed a suit on behalf of a courageous survivor who was abused as a young boy by a Salesian priest, Fr. Gerald Wertz, at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California. You can find a copy of the lawsuit here. Importantly, Fr. Gerald “Jerry” Wertz is still considered to be in ministry, and is residing in the Salesian Provincial House in San Francisco, adjacent to a high school with over 1,000 students.
In a recent blog post Archbishop Dolan is incorrect in claiming that we accused him of secretly “hiding” the assets referred to in his blog. The fact is, we simply stated that we had questions about certain financial moves made by the Archdiocese. Indeed, what he did wasn’t hidden. In fact, he and his financial advisors brazenly “moved” the assets out of the control of the Archdiocese in broad daylight—after the Wisconsin Supreme Court allowed some victims of clergy sexual abuse to sue the Archdiocese. We think we have grounds to be suspicious…
A case
filed today in Philadelphia by our office, as well as attorneys Dan Monahan
and Marci Hamilton, is brought on behalf of a courageous survivor who was
sexually abused as a child. The suit names ten defendants, including the
Archdiocese and Archdiocesan officials, alleging a conspiracy to endanger
children by actively concealing sexually abusive priests, and continuing the
priests in ministry despite known credible allegations of child abuse.
In 1983, Jeff Anderson was just another lawyer working in St Paul, Minnesota. Then, by chance, the 35-year-old’s career — and life — changed forever when a man walked into his office saying he had been abused by a priest.Soon after taking on the case, Anderson realised the problem was much greater than he had first imagined. It wasn’t just a paedophile priest who was culpable, but also senior bishops who had conspired to cover up the abuse. He promptly sued the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St Paul.The bishops responded with $1m to settle the matter out of court, but Anderson’s client…
An attorney for victims of clergy sex abuse suggested Friday that the
Archdiocese of Milwaukee moved as much as $75 million off its books over
the last six years in an effort to shield it from sex abuse settlements
– allegations denied by the archdiocese.
Dozens of people have come forward since the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
filed for bankruptcy protection last month alleging they were sexually
abused by priests as children, attorneys for victims said Thursday.
In
Philadelphia, three priests and a parochial school teacher are being charged for
sexually abusing two children and the Secretary for Clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is being
charged for endangering the welfare of children by knowingly allowing dangerous
priests to continue in ministry roles where they had access to children.
On February 10, 2011, a
Philadelphia Grand Jury released a report and a presentment following an
investigation into allegations that two priests and a teacher sexually abused a
10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish in Philadelphia, and that another priest
assigned to St. Jerome sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has provided a rare look at its finances with a federal bankruptcy court filing.
Financial statements filed Monday show the archdiocese has nearly $41
million in assets and $24 million in liabilities. The archdiocese filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January after it failed to
reach a settlement with two dozen victims of sexual abuse by Catholic
clergy.
The Journal Sentinel says the court will determine what assets are
available to compensate victims and creditors. Then it will oversee a
reorganization plan to keep the…
A Roman Catholic diocese in Delaware agreed to settle 142 claims of sexual abuse
by priests for $77 million, a spokesman for the diocese said
Thursday.
The settlement by the Wilmington diocese is roughly $3 million more than the
diocese proposed in mid-January, when it said payouts would likely range from
$75,000 to $3 million per victim, depending on the severity of the alleged
abuse.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2009 due to mounting sex abuse claims
dating as far back as the 1950s.
In the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some
$2 bill…
That is exactly what the Vatican stated when it was faced with accepting service of Terry Kohut’s lawsuit relating to the sexual abuse of hundreds of boys by Fr. Lawrence Murphy at the St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to a document filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the Vatican accepted service of the legal documents involved with the lawsuit and then, four days later, the Vatican contacted FedEx and asked FedEx to retrieve the package because the package was “undesired and unwanted.”
Refusal states legal service of lawsuit naming the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinals Bertone and Sodano as defendants was “undesired and unwanted” In a slap to US justice system, they send it back. Attorney calls audacious move “troubling”—says it shows the Catholic hierarchy still considers itself “above the law.” Click read more to view the video