A dozen former Yeshiva University High School students have joined a bombshell $380 million lawsuit, claiming they were molested by staffers, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Tuesday. The number of alleged victims in the suit against the prestigious Manhattan school now stands at 31 — up from the initial 19, said attorney Kevin Mulhearn. Former students said in the initial claim filed last month that officials covered up decades of sexual abuse by Rabbi George Finkelstein, the school’s former principal, and Rabbi Macy Gordon, a former Judaic studies teacher. The accusers come …
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Not all Catholic priests who abuse minors escape justice. A California superior court judge sentenced Father Uriel Ojeda, 33, to eight years in state prison on Friday for molesting a teenage girl multiple times. “My actions were those of a weak and sinful man,” Ojeda said in court. Ojeda pleaded no contest to sneaking into the young girl’s bedroom at her parents’ Sacramento home on the night he was ordained and climbing into bed with her as she slept. “You traumatized me,” the girl told him in a letter that was read in court by Deputy District Attorney Allison Dunham. “And you th…
Three former Penn State University officials, including ousted former president Graham Spanier, were ordered to stand trial Tuesday on criminal charges related to an alleged cover-up that temporarily shielded convicted child predator and former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky from law enforcement scrutiny. Following two days of testimony, a Pennsylvania judge ordered Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and former university vice president Gary Schultz to face perjury, conspiracy, failure to report suspected child abuse and other related charges in a decision that opens…
In a major victory for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, a federal judge ruled that funds set aside for cemetery operations cannot be tapped to pay sex abuse settlements in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case. U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa ruled that taking even a portion of the funds would violate the archdiocese’s free exercise of religion under the First Amendment. Randa issued the decision Monday in a lawsuit filed by the archdiocese to keep its cemetery trust from being tapped to pay sex abuse settlements in the bankruptcy. The ruling was made public Tuesday. Randa’s decision overturn…
At a news conference on Monday in Rochester, prominent St. Paul-based sexual abuse attorney Jeff Anderson announced the filing of civil lawsuits on behalf of two former Rochester residents who allege they were sexually abused by a Boy Scout Leader in the 1970’s.
During the investigation of sexual misconduct by Father Leo Koppala, 47, Blue Earth, locked files were discovered on his computer. The defendant had been charged with 2nd-degree criminal sexual conduct in relation to an alleged June 7 incident involving an 11-year-old girl. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was able to unlock the files on his electronic devices on July 8 so that local police could view them for any other instances of misconduct. Among the files on his electronic devices, there was a homemade pornographic video found where it was deemed questionable if the young woman…
NEW YORK(1010 WINS) — In a massive shift in policy Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has released the names of 46 convicted child sex-abusers, according to a published report. On Sunday, The New York Post, reported that Hynes had turned over the names of 45 men and 1 woman in the Orthodox Jewish Community who were convicted in ‘sex-attack cases’. In the past Hynes had avoided releasing those names amidst concerns that doing so could cause victims to be exposed to intimidation tactics by other members of the community and that it might deter other victims from speaking out, the Post re…
When the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese recently released secret documents linked to how the church dealt with sexual abuse of children by priests, the headlines focused on former Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s plans to pay abusers to leave the priesthood and to move $57 million into cemetery funds to protect the money “from any legal claim or liability.”
ST. LOUIS–(MO)–Archbishop Robert Carlson is named in a civil suit, accusing him of attempted tampering with physical evidence in the case of a priest accused of sexual misconduct. The suit alleges Carlson telephoned the mother of a Lincoln county teenaged girl — a girl under the age of seventeen — who had reportedly been molested by Father Joseph Jiang. The suit claims Carlson asked the mother to give to him a check for $20,000 Jiang had reportedly placed on the family’s car. “This suggests the Archbishop was possibly attempting to coverup the crime of trying to buy off the parents,” said…
At the height of the clergy sex-abuse scandal in 2002, Catholic leaders stayed silent as California lawmakers passed a landmark bill that gave hundreds of accusers extra time to file civil lawsuits. The consequences were costly. California dioceses paid $1.2 billion in settlements and released thousands of confidential documents that showed their leaders, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, had made plans to shield admitted molesters from law enforcement. Now, state legislators are considering a bill that would give some alleged victims more time to sue. But this time, the chu…
The University of Connecticut disclosed Monday that allegations of sexual abuse of minor children by a music professor went unreported for years until the appointment of a new dean, who notifed police and touched off a criminal investigation going back decades and involving a famous children’s camp and a Virginia junior high school. The professor, Robert Miller, 66, of Mansfield, was suspended with pay in June and is the subject of a criminal investigation in Connecticut over sexual contact with four boys, ages 10 and 13, in 1992 at his home in Mansfield. Police also are investigating a long-…
MILWAUKEE — At least one more priest’s personnel file will be made public as the Archdiocese of Milwaukee wraps up its investigations of sexual abuse claims filed in federal bankruptcy court, the archdiocese’s spokesman said. The archdiocese released personnel files for 42 priests on July 1 as part of a deal with sexual abuse victims suing it for fraud. Some victims have criticized the church for not releasing more records. Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said this week that another priest’s file has been given to the archdiocese’s attorneys, who will work with victims’ attorneys to…
Five more former Yeshiva University High students have stepped forward to say they were molested by staffers at the prestigious Jewish institution — just days after 19 other alumni filed a bombshell $380 million lawsuit that claims the school had covered up decades of sexual and physical abuse. Attorney J. Michael Reck said he has been unable to reach a suitable settlement with Yeshiva University officials and that he is preparing to file a lawsuit on behalf of the five men. “Institutions like Yeshiva University failed to put the safety of children ahead of their reputations,” Reck said….
FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) — A former Shattuck-St. Mary’s teacher pleaded guilty Friday to sexually abusing six students at the Faribault boarding school more than a decade ago. Rice County District Judge Christine Long accepted the plea from Lynn Seibel on Friday, Minnesota Public Radio reported (http://bit.ly/1aA3lOb ). “This is something I am not proud about,” Seibel said. “I apologize to my family and everyone involved. I’m very, very sorry.” The 71-year-old entered the plea more than a year after police opened an investigation into his alleged sexual contact with students. Seibel was charge…
Six more people have come forward with accusations against Yeshiva University, days after 19 former high school students filed a $380 million suit charging that Y.U. covered up decades of physical and sexual abuse. Mike Reck, an attorney representing the six, said his clients are disappointed they have been unable to reach a settlement with Y.U. and are poised to file lawsuits. If the impasse continues, “the survivors have no choice but to avail themselves of the court system,” said Reck, an attorney with the New York office of Jeff Anderson and Associates, a Minnesota firm that spec…