A woman who says she was sexually abused by a former priest in northern Minnesota when she was 14 has reached a $750,000 settlement that requires the Diocese of Crookston to warn parishioners about the abuse and take steps to protect kids in the future. Megan Peterson, now 21, of Thief River Falls, appeared at a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul to announce the settlement. She chose to come forward “to let people know they are not alone.” “I’m here today to speak my truth, and to protect kids,” she said. Peterson says she was a teenager with aspirations of becoming a nun when she was rape…
News & Events
Prominent Victims’ Attorney Jeff Anderson Reacts to Release of Graves’ Report The report made public today by the law firm hired by Bishop Finn is both misleading and self-serving. We stood with and sued the Diocese and the Bishop for the failure to act when they had sufficient information to remove Ratigan and didn’t. We stand by the allegations of the Complaint that Diocese officials had sufficient information in 2006 to both act and react; and if Bishop Finn had acted in accord with the law and protocol for child protection, some children may not have been har…
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph failed to follow its own
procedures and polices when reporting allegations of child sex abuse
against the Rev. Shawn F. Ratigan, an independent investigation found.Conducted
by former United States Attorney Todd Graves and his team, the 141-page
review concluded Msgr. Robert Murphy, vicar general of the diocese,
waited too long to advise the Independent Review Board of allegations
against Rev. Ratigan, which allowed him to continue to abuse children
and defy child protective boundaries set forth by Bishop Robert Finn.Those
allegations inclu…
For months after finding troubling images on a computer, the Catholic
diocese tried on its own to deal with Father Shawn Ratigan.As a
result, a report released Thursday said, the Diocese of Kansas City-St.
Joseph went off track, bungling its own investigation and failing to
even follow its own policies.An investigation by a former federal
prosecutor found that “individuals in positions of authority reacted to
events in ways that could have jeopardized the safety of children in
diocesan parishes, schools and families.
Clergy
Abuse Attorney Jeff Anderson: Graves report just words–it is the actions that
matter
Prominent Victims’ Attorney Jeff
Anderson Reacts to Release of Graves’ Report
The report made public today by
the law firm hired by Bishop Finn is both misleading and self-serving. We stood with and sued the Diocese and the
Bishop for the failure to act when they had sufficient information to remove
Ratigan and didn’t. We stand by the allegations
of the Complaint that Diocese officials had sufficient information in 2006 to
both act and react…
For more than a quarter of a century, Angel Santiago has suffered from a recurring nightmare. “Father [Joseph] Fitzharris chasing me in my dreams,” the 44-year-old Bensenville man said. On Monday, Santiago joined his attorneys to announce that a settlement has been reached with the Archdiocese of Chicago for sexual abuse Santiago suffered as a boy at the hands of his family’s priest, Fitzharris. Attorneys with the case declined to specify the monetary amount of the settlement. The archdiocese confirmed the settlement. “The settlements announced [Monday] confirm that this process works, and…
BOSTON — Cardinal Sean O’Malley on Thursday released a long-awaited list of priests accused of child sex abuse in Boston in the last 60 years, but he opted not to include certain priests, including ones who died without being publicly charged. In a letter, O’Malley said 248 of Boston’s priests and two deacons have been accused of child sex abuse since 1950. But he said he decided against releasing 91 of the names, including the deceased priests who weren’t publicly accused; those working in Boston under religious orders or other…
New lawsuit: Chicago teen was abused by Father McCormack after Archdiocese was aware of police investigation Further, abuse continued after Archdiocese refused to follow its own review board’s recommendation to remove McCormack from ministry in October 2005
Jeff Anderson’s office might look like a museum, with its stained glass windows and vintage pulpit chairs. But the firm’s harried staff hardly resembles the hushed figures of the typical arts organization. Here, nobody pauses to admire the antiquities. They only stop to shout as Anderson speeds through. “Nice article in The Philadelphia Inquirer this morning,” bellows John Wodele, a publicist on contract with Jeff Anderson & Associates. Little surprise there. Anderson, the world’s pre-eminent counsel for survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, is a lightning rod for media coverage…
An attorney for a man who claims he was sexually abused by an Oregon priest in the 1960s said Monday that the Vatican failed to produce all court-ordered documents in the case, and that papers it did turn over show how the Vatican exercises firm control over the placement and removal of offending priests. Both claims were quickly disputed by a church lawyer who said the Vatican gave Minnesota-based attorney Jeffrey Anderson all its documents pertaining to the late Rev. Andrew Ronan.
The Vatican, reeling from unprecedented criticism over its handling of sexual abuse cases in Ireland, took a pre-emptive strike Wednesday and published some internal files about a priest accused of molesting youngsters in Ireland and the U.S. The files published on the website of Vatican Radio represent a small, selective part of the documentation the Holy See must turn over to U.S. lawyers representing a man who says he was abused by the late Rev. Andrew Ronan. The man, known in court papers as John V. Doe, is seeking to hold the Vatican liable for the abuse.
Statement of Jeff Anderson on Vatican release of partial discovery in John V. Doe v. Holy See “Unfortunately my office…
The Crusader
By Christy DeSmith
Jeff Anderson on law school, legal tactics and his ultimate goal—deposing Pope Benedict XVI
Statement by Jim Keenan of Savage, MN.Today, I’m asking a judge to publicly release the names of 46 Minnesota Catholic priests whohave been accused of sexually victimizing children.My motivation can be summed up in two words: kids’ safety.Sitting in two diocesan headquarters, and in the Ramsey County Courthouse, are the names ofthese accused predator priests. As best we can tell, none of them are locked up. Most are likelyliving with or near unsuspecting families. Some may still be molesting kids. And this afternoon,one of them may be tutoring a young girl who’s struggling in school, or taking…
Attorneys file motion seeking release of names of priests accused of sexual abuse Names of 46 priests in Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis and Winona Diocese are contained in Ramsey County court documents. Attorneys for a Savage, Minnesota, man who was sexually abused as a child by a Minnesota priest are asking a Ramsey County judge to unseal court records that contain the names of 46 priests accused of molesting children in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul and the Dioce…