News & Events

Sep 20, 2013: Police: Pennsylvania priest caught with pantless 15-year-old on college campus

(CNN) — A Catholic priest in Pennsylvania has been charged with molesting a teenage boy after police said he was found in a car on a college campus with a 15-year-old who was wearing no pants, according to a police criminal complaint filed Friday in Lackawanna County. The Rev. W. Jeffrey Paulish was charged with one felony count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and one felony count of unlawful contact with a minor after Dunmore police say they found him and the boy on Thursday in a car on the Worthington Scranton campus of Penn State University, according to the complaint. Paulish,…

Sep 19, 2013: Duluth youth coach convicted of sexual assault

DULUTH, Minn.- A former Duluth youth basketball coach has been convicted of sexually assaulting two preteen sisters. A jury in St. Louis County found Wendell Greene guilty of having sexual contact with the girls, ages 8 and 10 at the time of the assaults. The 37-year-old former Marine and Minnesota Air National Guard member was convicted of three of four counts of criminal sexual conduct Wednesday. The Duluth News Tribune says Greene coached for a variety of basketball programs, including middle school girls in Duluth and Hermantown. In a separate case Greene has been charged with having s…

Sep 18, 2013: ABC27: Pa. bills would lift statute in child sex abuse cases

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Two Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to unveil legislation that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases. Sen. Rob Teplitz (D-Dauphin) will introduce Senate Bill 1103 while Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) will introduce companion legislation, House Bill 238. Both measures would establish a two-year window during which the civil statute of limitations would be suspended to allow past victims of child sex abuse to access the justice system and expose guilty perpetrators, according to Rozzi. “It is not right that sexual predators are permitte…

Sep 16, 2013: Minnesota women take Catholic diocese to court over abuse

ST. PAUL — Two women who say a Catholic priest abused them as girls in Willmar said Monday that they are suing to prevent others from living through what they have endured most of their lives. “I just felt so dirty all of those years,” Lori Stoltz said as she and Kim Schmit went public with allegations that the Rev. David Roney sexually abused them in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he was a priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Willmar. “It was the church that was hiding him,” said Jan Hazen, Schmit’s mother. “It is a seed that grows and grows…” Schmit said of the problems abuse c…

Sep 16, 2013: Media Advisory: Two Women Will Speak Publicly About Sexual Abuse at St. Mary’s Church in Willmarby Father David A. Roney

At a news conference on Monday in St. Paul, MN prominent clergy abuse attorney Jeff Anderson will announce the filing of two sexual abuse lawsuits on behalf of three women naming the Diocese of New Ulm as defendants. The lawsuit claims the Diocese of New Ulm was negligent in allowing Father David A. Roney unlimited access to children despite recei…

Sep 14, 2013: Sandusky’s Bid for New Trial Goes to Court

Jerry Sandusky’s challenge to his child molestation conviction is going before a state appeals court Tuesday. The former Penn State assistant football coach is seeking to overturn a sentence that could keep him behind bars for life. He’s also asking for a new trial. Pennsylvania’s Superior Court will decide whether prosecutors made an improper reference to the fact that Sandusky did not testify, whether jury instructions were mishandled and whether the defense should have been given more time before trial to digest a large volume of investigative material. Oral arguments will be held in Wil…

Sep 13, 2013: Milwaukee Archdiocese, insurers may be near settlement on abuse claims

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and its insurance companies may be poised to reach a settlement that could fast track a resolution of its nearly 3-year-old bankruptcy, but lawyers for sex abuse victims with claims against the church are objecting, saying any settlement talks must include victim-survivors. The archdiocese has asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa to stay its lawsuit against Stonewall Insurance Co. and others carriers for 60 days so the parties can enter mediation, a move that would presumably also put on hold Randa’s pending decision on whether the insurers are liable for se…

Sep 11, 2013: Rochester man sues Boy Scouts of America for alleged abuse by scoutmaster

 A Rochester man is suing the Boy Scouts of America, alleging that a former scoutmaster sexually abused him from the age of 11 to 16. In a lawsuit filed in Olmsted County District Court, Scott Hart, 48, contends that Scoutmaster Richard Hokanson molested him at least 200 times over a six-year period beginning in 1975. Hokanson pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the early 1980s and was forced to go through psychiatric treatment. Hart said he’s been through a lot over the last three decades. “A lot of therapy, a lot of counseling, a lot of psychiatry, a lot of anti depressants…

Sep 11, 2013: Awareness of Modern Methods of Communication is Key to Child Protection

Last week a Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School teacher was fired for engaging in inappropriate communications with his students.  Although the details of the teacher’s firing are not entirely clear, the incident brings to light a topic of significant concern in the area of modern child protection –technology is changing the mode of communication and the boundaries between adults in positions of authority and mentorship, and the children they interact with on a daily basis. 

Sep 09, 2013: The Worth Adversary: Diocese of Gallup to declare bankruptcy

The Diocese of Gallup, which owns parishes and employs priests in both New Mexico and Arizona, has said that it will declare bankruptcy to avoid embarrassing civil child sex abuse and cover-up trials. Published in The Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, Sept. 3, 2013 (the paper does not publish stories online): Diocese of Gallup to file bankruptcy Mounting clergy sex abuse legal claims spark Chapter 11 reorganization By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola Independent correspondent GALLUP — Catholics across western New Mexico and northern Arizona received bombshell news while attending Mass over the Lab…

Sep 08, 2013: ABC News: New Files May Detail Sex Abuse Within Boy Scouts of America

 Confidential files turned over for a lawsuit set to go to trial in Minnesota may shed new light on the problem of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts of America.    The documents were produced in litigation brought against the Boy Scouts and a former scoutmaster, Peter Stibal II, who is serving 21 years in prison for molesting four Scouts. Attorneys for one former Scout won a court order for the nationwide internal files, commonly known as “ineligible volunteer” or “perversion files.” They cover the years 1999-2008, much more recent than similar files forced into the open …