CNN aired a powerful documentary last weekend, “What The Pope Knew”, that features many of our courageous clients. In the documentary, Jeff Anderson is interviewed and provides insightful commentary on the Catholic hierarch’s failures in handling the childhood sexual abuse crisis, and the strength of our clients in coming forward to expose pedophile priests. Jeff described the church’s policies and procedures to handle child sexual abuse by clergy as being institutionally deficient: “the whole process is designed to avoid scandal.” Many of our courageous clients are…
News & Events
The Lawsuit charges that St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and hierarchical leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) knew/or should have known..
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is facing a fifth lawsuit over a former priest accused of sexually abusing multiple children.
Martha Escutia, a lawyer and former state senator in California, is partnering with our firm to combat the clergy childhood sexual abuse crisis in the Latino community. She will appear on CNN this evening as a panelist discussing “What The Pope Knew”, a documentary that aired last weekend on CNN and will air tomorrow globally on CNN Spanish channels. Ms. Escutia recently authored a compelling op/ed piece for the Latino community newspapers in Southern California. Ms. Escutia’s op/ed is a call to Latino Catholics to make child safety a priority by making it safe for those… (Con traducción en español)
Mañana CNN presentará un documental sobre la participación del Papa Benedicto XVI en los abusos sexuales contra menores por parte del clero. Lo que el Papa Sabía se presentará hoy a las 9 de la noche. Hasta ahora, la mayoría de los reportajes sobre el Papa y su papel en el abuso sexual a manos del clero se ha enfocado en casos particulares. El documental de CNN es mucho más amplio e incluye las decisiones que tomó el Papa cuando era arzobispo en Alemania y cuando estaba a cargo del departamento del Vaticano se suponía debía manejar los reportes de abuso sexual perpetrados por el…
This weekend CNN will air a documentary about the Pope’s involvement in clergy sexual abuse. What the Pope Knew debuts Saturday at 8 pm EST and runs again Saturday at 11 pm EST and Sunday at 8 pm and 11pm EST. Until now most of the coverage about the Pope and his role in clergy sexual abuse has focused on individual cases. CNN’s documentary takes a much broader look at the Pope’s decisions when he was an Archbishop in Germany and when he was in charge of the Vatican’s department that was supposed to deal with clergy sexual abuse. More information about the documentary is…
This weekend CNN will air a documentary about the Pope’s involvement in clergy sexual abuse. What the Pope Knew debuts Saturday at 8 pm EST and runs again Saturday at 11 pm EST and Sunday at 8 pm and 11pm EST. Until now most of the coverage about the Pope and his role in clergy sexual abuse has focused on individual cases. CNN’s documentary takes a much broader look at the Pope’s decisions when he was an Archbishop in Germany and when he was in charge of the Vatican’s department that was supposed to deal with clergy sexual abuse. More information about the documentary is available at CNN’s bel…
Editor’s note: A one-hour CNN special, “What the Pope Knew,” will air Sept. 25 and Sept. 26, 8pm and 11pm ET. This story is drawn from that exclusive report. By Scott BronsteinCNN Special Investigations Unit MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – Terry Kohut has kept a dark secret for nearly 50 years. Now he is breaking his silence, becoming a key figure in the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the growing controversy over what Pope Benedict XVI did about it. When Kohut was barely a teen, and for years afterward, he says, he was sexually molested and assaulted by the headmaster and priest …
An article in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune about the case of Gregg Larsen and his exploitation of foster children in his care highlights how important our state and county agencies are to protecting our most vulnerable. Much has been written about ways to protect our kids from sexual exploitation. However, what happens to those children who have no one to watch over them. Foster children
An associate of St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who often sues clergy members in sexual abuse cases, says Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota may be liable for actions of a foster parent convicted of producing and possessing child pornography. Attorney Patrick Noaker, who works in Anderson’s firm, served notice to the county and state last month that three foster children and their parents may have a claim involving Gregg A. Larsen, a former special education…
One of the most effective tools in fighting child sexual abuse and protecting kids has been the internet. The internet has been a source of constant information about predators and those who protect predators. Tomorrow I will appear in court in St. Louis, Missouri to represent a website author who created a website to protect kids called http://protectkidsfromclergypredators.com/. This website contains mostly court records from a child sexual abuse lawsuit against Rev. James D. Manning . Manning settled the child sexual abuse suit out of court and then turned around and filed a lawsuit against…
Five years ago, John Doe RG contacted our law firm seeking help. He had been sexually abused by Fr. Harry Monroe, at the time, an unknown Catholic priest/perpetrator in Indianapolis, Indiana. RG was the first to publicly expose Fr. Monroe’s abuse and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ concealment of that abuse. Fourteen more boys followed in bringing lawsuits. Last week, RG settled his lawsuit and one of the questions is whether this is the end of this chapter in his life, or just the beginning. One thing for sure is that RG cannot change the fact that he was sexually abused by his priest. He ca…
Five years ago, John Doe RG contacted our law firm seeking help. He had been sexually abused by Fr. Harry Monroe, at the time, an unknown Catholic priest/perpetrator in Indianapolis, Indiana. RG was the first to publicly expose Fr. Monroe’s abuse and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ concealment of that abuse. Fourteen more boys followed in bringing lawsuits. Last week, RG settled his lawsuit and one of the questions is whether this is the end of this chapter in his life, or just the beginning. One thing for sure is that RG cannot change the fact that he was sexually abused by his priest.
You can’t knock progress… right? Well, the German Catholic Church has made some this week and you can be the judge. Yesterday, the Church adopted stricter guidelines for leaders to follow when reporting and handling cases of clergy sex abuse. Since 2002, church leaders in Germany have been required to report “established” cases of child sex abuse to law enforcement, unless the victim has other wishes. You can imagine the wiggle room this allowed: not only could church leaders loosely define what constitutes an “established case” in order to suit themselves and their reputations, they cou
A former St. Paul schoolteacher has been sued again – this time by two foster children and their guardians – for allegedly using the children to produce pornography. Gregg Alan Larsen, 49, of Minneapolis worked as a special education teacher at Central High School until he resigned May 4. Two weeks later, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of producing child pornography. He pleaded guilty in the criminal case and awaits sentencing. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, alleges that Larsen used two brothers, ages 5 and 7, for pornography. He “engaged (them) i