The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of internal files last Thursday on priests accused of sexually abusing children, saying that it was finally abiding by a settlement it signed with victims six years ago to make the painful history public. But it now appears that the files the church released with much fanfare are incomplete and many are unaccounted for, according to the abuse victims’ lawyers. In addition, on many documents the names of church supervisors informed of abuse allegations were redacted by the archdiocese, in apparent violation of a judge’s o…
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A trove of confidential church files detailing how the Los Angeles archdiocese dealt with priests accused of molestation must be released “as soon as possible” and include the names of Cardinal Roger Mahony and his aides, a judge ruled Thursday. In a written order, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias gave the church a Feb. 22 deadline to turn over about 30,000 pages of internal memos, psychiatric reports, Vatican correspondence and other documents. “Let’s just get it done,” Elias said in court Thursday. Her order brought to a close five and a half years of legal wranglin…
The archdiocese of Los Angeles learned in the late 1970s that one of its priests had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy so violently that he was left bleeding and “in a state of shock.” The priest said he was too drunk to remember what happened and officials took no further action. But two decades later, word reached Cardinal Roger M. Mahony that the same priest was molesting again and improperly performing the sacrament of confession on his victim. The archdiocese sprang to action: It dispatched investigators, interviewed a raft of witnesses and discussed the harshest of all church penalti…
Earlier this month, a state judge ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to include the names of church leaders who mishandled sex-abuse claims when it finally releases scores of confidential priest files as part of a 2007 settlement. Yet despite that court order, the archdiocese has continued to act as if the rules don’t apply to it. This week, the church resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions we…
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday that Cardinal Roger Mahony would have a reduced role in the church and that Santa Barbara Bishop Thomas J. Curry has stepped down from that job amid recent revelations over their handling of the priest abuse scandal in the 1980s. “Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regiona…
SAN FRANCISCO – A California man is suing a regional Boy Scouts council, alleging he was sexually abused by his scout leader more than 30 years ago. Coast Guard veteran Mark Dietrich filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Solano County Superior Court claiming the scoutmaster of his Vacaville-based troop frequently molested him between 1978 and 1981. The suit claims that Boy Scouts officials at the local and regional level knew the scoutmaster had inappropriate contact with other boys. Deitrich’s lawyer, Irwin Zalkin, would not provide further details. Neither the Boy Scouts’ Golden Empire Cou…
LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has said the names of church leaders who made key decisions on how to deal with cases of sexual abuse by priests will not be blacked out in some 30,000 soon-to-be-released pages of confidential personnel files. The names of any bishops, vicars for clergy and supervisory parish priests will be included in all the documents and they will be turned over to lawyers for abuse victims soon, archdiocese attorney Michael Hennigan said Wednesday. Vicars for clergy are responsible for priestly discipline and often made significant decis…
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Jerry Sandusky lost a bid for a new trial Wednesday when a judge rejected his argument that his lawyers were not given enough time to prepare for the three-week proceeding that ended with a 45-count guilty verdict. Judge John Cleland’s 27-page order said lawyers for the former Penn State assistant football coach conceded that their post-trial review turned up no material that would have changed their trial strategy. “I do not think it can be said that either of the defendant’s trial counsel failed to test the prosecution’s case in a meaningful manner,” Cleland wrote. “…
MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota judge on Tuesday ordered the handover of confidential national Boy Scout records on sexual abuse from 1999 to 2008 in a move attorneys said could add to the body of evidence showing that the organization failed to take adequate steps to protect young people from molesters in its ranks. Ramsey County District Judge Elena Ostby issued the order in a lawsuit involving former suburban Minneapolis scoutmaster Peter Stibal II, who is serving a 21-year prison sentence for molesting four scouts in his troop. The lawsuit was filed by one of his victims. That victim’s…
(St. Paul) In a civil lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and convicted sex offender and former Scoutmaster, Peter Stibal, Ramsey County District Judge Elena L. Ostby has ordered the release of previously secret records relating to sexual abuse within the BSA from the years 1999 to 2008. The records, referred to by the BSA as the “Perversion Files”, are an internal system maintained for over 80 years to track adult leaders who sexually abuse boy scouts. The pe…
PHILADELPHIA — A jury convicted a priest and teacher today in a pivotal church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a church official to prison for child endangerment. The verdict upholds the stunning account from a troubled 24-year-old policeman’s son that he was sexually abused as a boy by two priests and his sixth-grade teacher. One priest took a plea deal before trial, while the jury convicted the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and former teacher Bernard Shero of all but one count. The 2009 complaint describing the abuse led to the landmark conviction last year of Monsig…
LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has said the names of church leaders who made key decisions on how to deal with cases of sexual abuse by priests will not be blacked out in some 30,000 soon-to-be-released pages of confidential personnel files. The names of any bishops, vicars for clergy and supervisory parish priests will be included in all the documents and they will be turned over to lawyers for abuse victims soon, archdiocese attorney Michael Hennigan said Wednesday. Vicars for clergy are responsible for priestly discipline and often made significant decis…
During the first month of 2013, the issue of sexual violence and abuse has loomed large in the media and public consciousness. From reports into Jimmy Savile “grooming a nation” to the rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in India, there has scarcely been a day when the issue has not featured in public debate; and rightly so.For the girls I have interviewed over the past seven years who have been subjected to sexual, physical and emotional abuse within their relationships, peer groups and street gangs, such concern is long overdue. Take 17-year-old “Becky”. She had been sexually exploited…
A former California state senator has called for an independent investigation into what she says is “alleged rampant sex abuse” of Latino students in the LAUSD. Former California Democratic State Senator Martha Escutia, an attorney and child sex abuse survivors advocate, has called for the investigation in the wake of what she said was a “pattern of alleged sexual abuse” perpetrated against students by teachers and other employees at LAUSD schools. “There’s a pattern of all these sexual abuse scandals popping up everywhere in poor, minority neighborhoods,” she said at a press confere…
JACKSON, Miss. — A woman who was sexually abused as a child is on a 50-state mission to urge lawmakers to make education about child sex abuse part of schools’ curriculum.For 2½ years beginning at age 6, a neighbor raped Erin Merryn, now 27, of Schaumburg, Ill. A teenage cousin started molesting her when she was 11. Now, she’s the force behind “Erin’s Law” legislation, which her home state enacted earlier this month.”I never had to run out of a burning building and I knew how to say no to drugs when I was approached in high school, but when two men were molesting and raping me I didn’t know wh…