They called him the Polka Padre. Later, they called him the Polka Predator. For decades, the Rev. Robert Kapoun charmed parishioners with his accordion at “polka masses” across Minnesota. Privately, he took young boys to saunas, rectories and a secluded cabin in Cold Spring and sexually assaulted them, according to court testimony. Parents complained but leaders at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis did little to stop him. Kapoun remained in ministry until 1996, the year a lawsuit brought by Dale Scheffler, one of his victims, went to trial. It was the biggest clergy sex abuse cas…
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A retired police officer with expertise in Internet sex crimes against kids, a law professor and a sex-abuse psychologist are among six lay people who had their first meeting Wednesday as members of a new task force looking into clergy sexual misconduct and how the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has responded. The task force was named following allegations last week that archdiocesan leaders mishandled situations involving a priest who confessed to sexually assaulting two boys and is in prison as well as another priest who may have had child pornography on his computer. One of …
News ReleaseOctober 8, 2013 Hearing Tomorrow at 1PM in Crookston Regarding Release of Secret List of Priests with Credible Allegations of Sexual Abuse The Diocese of Crookston seeks to throw out efforts to make public the Diocese’s list of known child predators (Crookston, MN) – Tomorrow at 1:00PM in a Polk County courtroom, a sexual abuse survivor, along with her attorneys, will request the public release of a secret list possessed and maintained by the Diocese of Crookston that contains the names of several priests who have credible allegations of sexual abuse. Judge Tamara Yon will hear…
Roman Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis drafted a letter to the Vatican last year asking whether pornography found on a Hugo priest’s computer could “expose the archdiocese, as well as myself, to criminal prosecution,” according to a copy obtained by Minnesota Public Radio. The letter was provided to St. Paul police by Jennifer Haselberger, a former archdiocese official who said it was never mailed. In a letter to Cardinal William Levada, Nienstedt said the pornographic images were found on the Rev. Jonathan Shelley’s computer hard drive…
A day after Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba told parishioners that he is “completely committed” to assisting victims of clergy sexual misconduct, a St. Paul mother accused him of participating in a coverup involving a priest who abused two of her boys. “There’s nothing Catholic about it. There’s nothing Christian about it. There’s nothing decent about it,” the mother said Monday in an interview with the Star Tribune. She was referring in part to a phone call she received from Sirba in 2009, when he was vicar general of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese. She said Sirba called her after learning…
Archbishop John Nienstedt was in the middle of a heated political fight over same-sex marriage in February of last year when he learned of a disturbing secret, hidden in the basement of the chancery — pornography from a priest’s computer, some of which appeared to depict children. Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger had uncovered several computer discs and a white three-ring binder kept in the basement archives of the chancery building — the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was evidence from a 2004 internal investigation of sexually explicit images found on the…
A retired Catholic priest who served much of his career in the Northland has been removed from ministry after an accusation of child sexual abuse more than a generation ago. The Diocese of Duluth announced Sunday that the Rev. Cornelius Kelleher “has recently been credibly accused in the sexual abuse of a minor female during his time as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm from 1975 to 1986.” A statement from the diocese said that when the accusation came to light, Kelleher was immediately removed from public ministry and has been stripped of his abilities to function as a priest in ret…
Archbishop John Nienstedt kept a relatively low profile on clergy sexual abuse until last week. Now he finds himself overseeing an archdiocese scrambling to react to charges of a pornography coverup inside his chancery. Nienstedt’s top deputy resigned abruptly Thursday in response to an allegation that he covered up evidence of child pornography on a computer owned by a Hugo priest. The accusation came from attorney Jennifer Haselberger, a former high-ranking lay official within the archdiocese. And it followed her earlier accusation that the archdiocese overlooked for nearly a decad…
An attorney for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Friday that neither police investigators nor a computer forensics expert found evidence to support allegations by a former archdiocesan employee that one of its priests had viewed child pornography on his computer. Tom Wieser, an attorney for the archdiocese, said some “false inferences” have been drawn from police reports that seem to imply that child pornography was found on the priest’s old hard drive. The St. Paul police, Ramsey County and Washington County all indicated they would consider new investigations should evidenc…
News ReleaseOctober 4, 2013 Former Shattuck-St. Mary’s Teacher Lynn Seibel Sentenced to 52-month Prison Term Today New details emerge in second sexual abuse lawsuit filed (Faribault, MN) – A Rice County judge sentenced former Shattuck-St. Mary’s teacher Lynn Seibel, to 52 months in prison today after Seibel pled guilty in July for sexually abusing six male students at the elite private boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota. As an AP Drama teacher and dorm parent, Seibel encouraged “naked dance parties,” showed students pornography, and held group masturbation sessions with …
Upset that her superiors had refused to take action, a former church official reported to police that leaders of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had kept secret for eight years images of pornography — some of it appearing to show children — belonging to one of its priests. Jennifer Haselberger, the archdiocese’s former chancellor for canonical affairs, marched the images she’d found into the offices of one church leader after another in May 2012. But none responded. The last straw for Haselberger came after she provided Archbishop John Nienstedt with copies of some of the images …
A top lieutenant of Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned suddenly Thursday, saying his departure was necessary following an explosive court development that suggested the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis may have covered up a priest’s possession of child pornography.
The Rev. Peter Laird had served as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese, making him junior only to Nienstedt in the hierarchy.
His resignation came shortly after allegations emerged in a St. Paul court that church officials knew a priest had been in possession of child pornography but continued to as…
A top lieutenant of Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned suddenly Thursday, saying his departure was necessary following an explosive court development that suggested the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis may have covered up a priest’s possession of child pornography. The Rev. Peter Laird had served as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese, making him junior only to Nienstedt in the hierarchy. His resignation came shortly after allegations emerged in a St. Paul court that church officials knew a priest had been in possession of child pornography but continued to as…
A former Little League baseball and Salvation Army youth basketball coach pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Peter Jay Olson, 47, faced eight felony charges on allegations that he sexually assaulted two preteen boys he coached through Little League. Judge Heather Sweetland accepted Olson’s plea and dismissed six other — mostly lesser — charges he faced. Sweetland ordered a presentence investigation and a psycho-sexual evaluation and scheduled sentencing for 1:30 p.m. Nov. 25. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Olson’s defense attorne…
Father Robert L. Brennan was ordained in 1964 in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and appointed pastor of St. Ignatius in Yardley, PA in 1988 by Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua. Since then, the Archdiocese has learned of inappropriate behavior by Brennan, with more than 20 boys from four different parishes. Brennan remained in ministry despite these reports and Father Brennan remained pastor of Resurrection parish until June 2004. Brennan’s name was contained in the 1994 memo from Fr. William Lynn to the Asst. Vicar for Administration in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and listed under “All…