The Boy Scouts of America’s “perversion files” are stored in locked cabinets at the organization’s headquarters in Texas, accessible to only a few people.The documents detail allegations of sexual abuse against expelled Scout leaders, ostensibly to prevent them from participating in Scouting again.”It is a fact that Scouts are safer because the barrier created by these files is real,” Boy Scouts Chief Executive Robert Mazzuca said in June.But a review of the files by the Los Angeles Times found that more than 125 men on the blacklist were able to access – and allegedly continue to prey on – Bo…
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As a priest, he absolved others of their sins in the anonymity of the confessional.Thursday afternoon, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan stood in the very public forum of a federal courtroom and confessed to some of his own.Ratigan, 46, pleaded guilty to using five girls to produce or attempt to produce child pornography over several years while serving as pastor to congregations in the Northland and St. Joseph.Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison.“When a defendant who wears a religious collar, who has the trust of the community, engages in conduct of this nature, his…
Minneapolis, Minn. —The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out a clergy abuse lawsuit by a man whose case rested on a repressed memory claim, siding with a lower court’s ruling that repressed memory is an unproven theory.James Keenan sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, claiming that as a teenager he was sexually abused four times in 1980 or 1981 by Thomas Adamson, a priest who has since been defrocked.Keenan brought his claim in 2006, well outside the state’s six-year statute of limitations, but argued that it should be allowed because he repressed …
News ReleaseJuly 25, 2012New clergy sex abuse case filed against Archdiocese of PhiladelphiaSt. Augustine religious order and prominent school Malvern Prep also cited as defendants(Philadelphia) A new lawsuit was filed today in Philadelphia County Court on behalf of a Delaware County man against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Order of St. Augustine, a/k/a Augustinian, the prominent Philadelphia area Malvern Preparatory School and the alleged offender, John R. Liggio–a priest assigned to the school under the authority of both the Archdiocese and the religious order of Augustinians….
July 25, 2012Statement of Jeff Anderson re: Minnesota Supreme Court decision – John Doe 76C v. Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Diocese of Winona“We are deeply disappointed and shocked by the decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court to deny access to justice for this victim of childhood sexual abuse who repressed the memory of his abuse because it was so traumatic. In its decision the court determined that science concerning repression of memory is unsettled enough that it can’t be used in the court and thus denies Jim Keenan access to a trial–for this we are deepl…
(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA – coveMonsignor William Lynn, the first U.S. Roman Catholic church official convicted of covering up child abuse claims, was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years behind bars.Lynn, 61, had faced a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for his felony child endangerment conviction. He was cleared of three related charges at trial.Lynn , the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, handled priest assignments and child sexual assault complaints from 1992 to 2004.Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said that Lynn enabled “monsters in clerical garb … …
A lawsuit filed today against St. John’s Abbey accuses the religious order of knowing about sexual abuse allegations against a member of the order as far back as 1958, yet letting him teach at St. John’s until 1990.The lawsuit alleges fraud by intentional non-disclosure and fraud by intentional misrepresentation and accuses the abbey of keeping what it knew about the Rev. Allen Tarlton quiet.The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a former student at St. John’s Prep, where Tarlton taught English. Identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe LP, the student was sexually abused by Tarlton in the early …
A judge on Wednesday ordered a new trial for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by two childhood victims of clergy abuse.In an 11-page decision, Outagamie County Judge Nancy Krueger threw out a $700,000 verdict awarded to two brothers, now adults, by a jury in May. Krueger outlined information a juror should have expressed to the court before the fraud trial, WLUK-TV reported.An attorney for the diocese had argued a retrial is necessary because jurors who made the award had expressed concerns about possible bias by one of the jury members.
A former student who attended the prominent St. John’s Preparatory in
Collegeville, Minnesota, has filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually
abused by a mentoring priest in the early 1980’s and that the school and
it’s superiors were negligent and could have prevented the sexual
abuse.
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — Three men who filed the first sexual abuse lawsuits in the Navajo Nation court system against the Catholic Church have recently settled their cases.The Gallup Independent reports (http://bit.ly/4FPz5i) that the men will receive money as part of the settlement from the priest who is accused of sexually abusing them, the Diocese of Gallup, the Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Albuquerque and another church entity.Patrick Noaker, an attorney who represented the men, said his clients have asked that the settlement amounts not be publicly disclosed.The lawsuits al…
HARRISBURG — Legal experts say emails and other evidence from the
Penn State sex abuse case suggest that Joe Paterno and other university
officials put boys in danger with their failure to report sexual abuse
allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago.The
allegations are similar to those made against a top Philadelphia
archdiocese official who was convicted on child endangerment charges
last month.Duquesne University law professor Wes Oliver
said former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s investigative report on the Penn
State scandal reads like a prosecution case for a…
July 12, 2012Freeh Report: A step towards transparency, but far from the whole storySerious concerns about the limitation of scope remain Broader and deeper investigation neededStatements of Jeff Anderson and Marci Hamilton:Jeff Anderson: The release of the investigation by Louis Freeh, hired by the Board of Trustees, is a major step in the direction of transparency. It reveals in sorted and candid detail what has happened and gives us a glimpse of why it happened and the institutional failures at the top on down from 1998 to the present. What is most notable it not only the …
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The first Catholic bishop criminally charged in the decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis will have to grant prosecutors access to a range of files regarding his diocese’s response to previous accusations of clergy abuse, a county judge ordered Thursday.According to the decision, Bishop Robert Finn and his Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese will have to turn over notes and other documents from a diocesan investigation into their handling of the case of diocesan priest Fr. Shawn Ratigan, who was arrested last year for possession of child pornography.They will also have to g…
Jerry Sandusky’s lawyers say they will appeal several issues in the wake of the former Penn State football coach’s conviction on 45 of 48 counts of child sex abuse Friday. But no matter how the appeals process plays out, Sandusky’s legal troubles are far from over, experts say.By the time Sandusky is transferred to a state penitentiary in the next months, a mountain of civil claims against him are sure to be underway, and he could face new criminal charges as well, according to Jeff Anderson and Benjamin Cardozo law school professor Marci Hamilton. Anderson and Hamilton jointly represent Travi…
Updated at 11:37 p.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse Friday night and faces spending the rest of his life in state prison. His attorney said he would appeal the verdict.Sandusky’s attorney, Joseph Amendola, asked Judge John Cleland to allow Sandusky to be released on house arrest, but Cleland summarily rejected the request, saying: “Bail is revoked. Mr. Sandusky is remanded to the custody of the sheriff.” Sandusky was immediately led out of the courthouse in handcuffs as a large crowd of onlookers cheered. Sentencing was set for late Septe…