News & Events

News outlets around the world reported Monday on the dismissal of the case against the Holy See. Oregon U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman’s dismissal of Plaintiff John V. Doe’s case against the Holy See was, admittedly, disappointing. After a 10-year battle against the sovereign Catholic nation, Judge Mosman ruled from the bench that the Holy See was not acting as an employer in this case of clergy sexual abuse. This ruling, however adverse, nonetheless affords us an opportunity to examine this case from the beginning as we look to appeal the decision.The case was originally filed in 20…

A Philadelphia jury made history today when it found Msgr. William Lynn guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. The jury’s decision is historic and unprecedented. Until now no top Catholic official has been criminally convicted for child endangerment. The result of this difficult and arduous trial presents the first true day of reckoning in the criminal justice system against any top official in the Catholic church hierarchy.For decades the top officials of the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and elsewhere, have operated above the law and with impunity, believing that th…

(Terre Haute, Indiana) In what is believed to be the first childhood sexual abuse case against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis ever argued in Terre Haute Indiana, Hon. Michael Lewis gave the green light to a Terre Haute man to present his case to a Vigo County jury.  In the case John Doe CD v. Archdiocese of Indianapolis et al., the Archdiocese argued to have the case dismissed because too much time had passed since Fr. Harry Monroe had sexually abused a boy in 1981.  The Court disagreed.  According to the Court’s Order, there was evidence that the Archdiocese concealed that it …

Top Vatican officials in the U.S., India and the Vatican’s own Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, knew, since 2006, about the threat Fr. Jeyapaul posed to minors, after he was charged with sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl in the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota. For six years prosecutors have been working to extradite the Indian priest to face charges in Minnesota. Finally, Indian police arrested Fr. Jeyapaul  last Friday in Erode, India, after Interpol alerted the authorities of his whereabouts. Jeyapaul’s case highlights the Vatican’s continued policy of covering for predator …

Yesterday, a federal
judge awarded money damages to a victim of child pornography
using the federal anti-child pornography law named “Masha’s Law.”  In one of the first cases of its kind, a
victim of sexual abuse and child pornography won a judgment for $240,000
against his former foster and adoptive parent, Gregg Alan Larsen, for injuries
relating to child pornography produced when the victim was a child.

Last year, the Irish Christian Brothers (ICB) became the 10th US Catholic diocese or religious order to declare bankruptcy to avoid public child sex abuse trials or depositions. In the case of the ICB, the order was faced with more than 50 lawsuits at one of its Seattle schools and had to act quickly before any of the cases went to trial. Our offices have handled hundreds of cases in these bankruptcies across the country, but there are some unique attributes of the Irish Christian Brothers bankruptcy that victims and the public need to know.1) It’s very hard to track the brothers. And the brot…

Under national scrutiny after a number of recent arrests of teachers and aides, the chancellor of the New York City public schools, Dennis Walcott, has ordered a review of cases of teacher misconduct. But his direction parallels yet another teacher’s arrest and for many is too little, too late. This week’s arrest saw Reserve Officers Training Corps teacher Darryl Lynch, a teacher at Manhattan’s High School of Graphic Communication Arts, taken from school and charged with sexually touching a 14-year-old female student. Mr. Lynch worked at the school since 1997.

Last week I wrote about the Los Angeles Unified School District’s failure to notify parents of reports of sexual abuse by teachers. Their failure to inform parents went to such an extreme that parents didn’t know that a teacher in their students’ school was suspected of abuse until the media reported on the arrests. The story is shocking and unacceptable, but these three incidents demonstrate failure on the part of one school district, so at least we can find solace in the fact that this is isolated, atypical behavior, right?

When Los Angeles school officials choose to protect their own image over the protection of the children they serve, they are mimicking the long time behavior of Catholic Bishops who for years kept quiet about clergy predators in order to prevent “scandal”. Indeed, when will we ever learn? Clearly, when there is even the slightest chance that children could be in harm’s way, parents, and the community, must be informed when, and why, a teacher has been removed from the classroom because of child molestation. 

This morning we argued in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court on behalf of sexual abuse survivor Jim Keenan. Pictured above are the three co-counsels: Mike Finnegan on the left, myself, and Jeff Anderson on the right. The case, John Doe 76c v. Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Diocese of Winona, is on appeal over whether evidence about repressed memories can be used in court. The case was dismissed by the District Court last year when the Judge ruled that experts cannot testify about repressed memories.

After Rev. Bartley A. Sorensen, pastor at St. John Fisher Catholic Church in Churchville, Pennsylvania was arrested December 10th and charged with possession of child pornography, a bishop called on the congregation to report any suspected sexual abuse by the priest to a Catholic hotline. Incredibly he made no mention of calling the police.

As feared, Rev. Uriel Ojeda has been deemed a flight risk, and the court today delayed Rev. Ojeda’s bail hearing until January. In our blog on December 1, 2011, I wrote of the hope that this predator not be permitted to flee the country to Mexico, as no less than six other priests facing credible allegations of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Sacramento have done. Here we see the very same risk. The courts should ensure that Rev. Ojeda is not permitted to flee the country and is made to face the allegations of child molestation of which he is accused.

A young priest in California’s Sacramento Diocese was arrested yesterday for lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. Father Uriel Ojeda is only 32 years old. The survivor’s family reported the abuse to the diocese, which did the right thing when it immediately contacted police and child protection.   With this case we again see that the problem of priest sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and elsewhere is not limited to certain types of perpetrators, and is, unfortunately, not something that came and went with the 1970s. Catholic bishops and leaders would prefer us to “blame Woodstock”…

We commend this brave survivor with whom we stand, John Doe A, for being the first to speak up and out in bringing a civil lawsuit against his abuser, Jerry Sandusky, and the institutions that enabled Sandusky, Penn State University and The Second Mile. By bringing this lawsuit, this courageous survivor is bringing hope, healing and power to other Sandusky victims who may be living in silence, shame or fear. This lawsuit represents an effort to expose institutional failures in child protection.

When it comes to child protection and childhood sexual abuse, Jim Boeheim and Syracuse University’s quick defense of and rebuke of the courageous victims is fundamentally wrong.  Boeheim’s comments immediately dismissing the victims reflect his own and our society’s general lack of understanding and ignorance regarding childhood sexual abuse. Society is quick to rally around an offender without knowing more than just his or her public persona as a trusted person who is also in denial.