The parents of a minor girl filed a lawsuit today alleging that a priest in the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese accused of possessing child pornography took nude photographs of their daughter. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court of the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, claims that the Rev. Shawn F. Ratigan took photographs and visual images of a child under her clothing, revealing her underwear, and while the child was nude.
News & Events
A 21 year-old Blaine man who says he was sexually abused at the age of 15 by
his youth group leader at a Spring Lake Park church is suing its religious
leaders.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Hennepin County District Court on the man’s
behalf by attorneys with Jeff Anderson & Associates, names defendants
Emmanuel Christian Center of the Assemblies of God in Spring Lake Park, its
former youth group leader, Paul Alan Brandon, and the Minnesota District Council
of the Assemblies of God.
The lawsuit claims the plaintiff, referred to in the complaint as John Doe
169, was sexuall…
Sexual abuse victim files lawsuit against Spring Lake Park Church Attorney: “In all aspects of this case church officials failed…
A defrocked priest accused of possessing thousands of pornographic images of children was served with a book of evidence today and sent forward for trial before a judge and jury.Oliver O’Grady (aged 65), formerly of Charlemont Street, in Dublin 2, but who is now residing at an address in Ranelagh Village, in Dublin, had been arrested on December 10 last and charged with possessing child pornography.
The Vatican’s long overdue guidelines for fighting sexual abuse of children
are, unfortunately, just that — flimsy guidelines for a global problem that
requires an unequivocal mandate for church officials to work with secular
authorities in prosecuting rogue priests.
Instead, the Vatican has
issued nonbinding guidance that punts the scandal back to the authority of
local bishops, who still will not face firm oversight or punishment for
cover-ups that recycled hundreds of abusive priests.
Statements of Jeff Anderson and Marci Hamilton Jeff Anderson: “The news that Amnesty International’s 2011 Annual Report on Human Rights…
CHICAGO— The Archdiocese
of Chicago says it’s “surprised” by a lawyer’s claim that the Archdiocese is
withholding files on priests accused of sexually abusing children.
Attorney Jeff Anderson filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Vatican on behalf of a
woman whose son was molested by a former Chicago priest. Anderson says the
Archdiocese promised as part of a 2008 settlement with 16 abuse victims to
release documents on priests who’d been credibly accused of abuse. But he contends that hasn’t happened and he believes it’s because Vatican won’t
allow it. In a statement released …
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – John Doe number 172 was 13 years old and an
altar boy at Resurrection of Our Lord in Northeast Philadelphia when his
attorneys say the abuse began at the hands of Father Robert Brennan.
“He would take the kids, build their trust, groom the parents,” said Jeff
Anderson, Doe’s attorney, “have them sit on his lap, use their bodies for his
own sexual purpose.”
Anderson and his team of attorneys say Father Brennan abused John Doe over
the course of a year and a half between 1993 and 1994. But according to the 2005
grand jury report, Brennan abused many more childr…
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – John Doe number 172 was 13 years old and an
altar boy at Resurrection of Our Lord in Northeast Philadelphia when his
attorneys say the abuse began at the hands of Father Robert Brennan.
“He would take the kids, build their trust, groom the parents,” said Jeff
Anderson, Doe’s attorney, “have them sit on his lap, use their bodies for his
own sexual purpose.”
Anderson and his team of attorneys say Father Brennan abused John Doe over
the course of a year and a half between 1993 and 1994. But according to the 2005
grand jury report, Brennan abused many more childr…
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Earlier this month, St. John’s Abbey in
Collegeville mailed letters to thousands of St. John’s Prep School alumni saying
over a period of more than 40 years, 17 monks had “credible allegations of
sexual abuse brought against them.”
Four of the monks have died, 10 remain at the Abbey with restrictions imposed
on their activities.
But three of the monks accused of sexually abusing children and young adults
live here in the Twin Cities.
A federal judge in Oregon ruled Thursday that the
Vatican must respond to certain requests for information from a man who says he
was molested by a priest in the 1960s.
The man known in court documents as John V. Doe filed suit eight years ago.
He seeks to hold the Vatican liable for the abuse he said he suffered from the
Rev. Andrew Ronan, who died in 1992.
U.S. Federal District Court order is first ever compelling Vatican to produce documents in clergy abuse cover-up case Judge:Clergy abuse victim entitled to “jurisdictional discovery” in John V. Doe v. Holy See (St. Paul, Minnesota USA)
The Vatican has been served with court papers related to allegations in a
sexual abuse case. St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said this week he was
notified that the papers were successfully filed through official diplomatic
channels.
The lawsuit was filed nearly a year ago in federal court on behalf of Terry
Kohut, now of Chicago. It claims Pope Benedict and two other top Vatican
officials knew about allegations of sexual abuse at St. John’s School for the
Deaf outside Milwaukee, and called off internal punishment of the accused
priest, the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy.
The Vatican has been served with court papers stemming
from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against a now-deceased priest at a
Wisconsin school for the deaf.Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the man
making the allegations, said he had been notified the papers were filed through
official diplomatic channels.”Every time we make a step forward, as long
as that takes, we are going in the right direction,” Anderson said. “And the
direction we’re headed is a measure of accountability. We really believe that we
need to put some heat on the Vatican to bring some light.”
U.S. Department of State confirms service through diplomatic channels Vatican sent original federal court’s service back saying it was “undesired…