ST. LOUIS–(MO)–Archbishop Robert Carlson is named in a civil suit, accusing him of attempted tampering with physical evidence in the case of a priest accused of sexual misconduct. The suit alleges Carlson telephoned the mother of a Lincoln county teenaged girl — a girl under the age of seventeen — who had reportedly been molested by Father Joseph Jiang. The suit claims Carlson asked the mother to give to him a check for $20,000 Jiang had reportedly placed on the family’s car. “This suggests the Archbishop was possibly attempting to coverup the crime of trying to buy off the parents,” said…
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At the height of the clergy sex-abuse scandal in 2002, Catholic leaders stayed silent as California lawmakers passed a landmark bill that gave hundreds of accusers extra time to file civil lawsuits. The consequences were costly. California dioceses paid $1.2 billion in settlements and released thousands of confidential documents that showed their leaders, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, had made plans to shield admitted molesters from law enforcement. Now, state legislators are considering a bill that would give some alleged victims more time to sue. But this time, the chu…
The University of Connecticut disclosed Monday that allegations of sexual abuse of minor children by a music professor went unreported for years until the appointment of a new dean, who notifed police and touched off a criminal investigation going back decades and involving a famous children’s camp and a Virginia junior high school. The professor, Robert Miller, 66, of Mansfield, was suspended with pay in June and is the subject of a criminal investigation in Connecticut over sexual contact with four boys, ages 10 and 13, in 1992 at his home in Mansfield. Police also are investigating a long-…
MILWAUKEE — At least one more priest’s personnel file will be made public as the Archdiocese of Milwaukee wraps up its investigations of sexual abuse claims filed in federal bankruptcy court, the archdiocese’s spokesman said. The archdiocese released personnel files for 42 priests on July 1 as part of a deal with sexual abuse victims suing it for fraud. Some victims have criticized the church for not releasing more records. Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said this week that another priest’s file has been given to the archdiocese’s attorneys, who will work with victims’ attorneys to…
Five more former Yeshiva University High students have stepped forward to say they were molested by staffers at the prestigious Jewish institution — just days after 19 other alumni filed a bombshell $380 million lawsuit that claims the school had covered up decades of sexual and physical abuse. Attorney J. Michael Reck said he has been unable to reach a suitable settlement with Yeshiva University officials and that he is preparing to file a lawsuit on behalf of the five men. “Institutions like Yeshiva University failed to put the safety of children ahead of their reputations,” Reck said….
FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) — A former Shattuck-St. Mary’s teacher pleaded guilty Friday to sexually abusing six students at the Faribault boarding school more than a decade ago. Rice County District Judge Christine Long accepted the plea from Lynn Seibel on Friday, Minnesota Public Radio reported (http://bit.ly/1aA3lOb ). “This is something I am not proud about,” Seibel said. “I apologize to my family and everyone involved. I’m very, very sorry.” The 71-year-old entered the plea more than a year after police opened an investigation into his alleged sexual contact with students. Seibel was charge…
Six more people have come forward with accusations against Yeshiva University, days after 19 former high school students filed a $380 million suit charging that Y.U. covered up decades of physical and sexual abuse. Mike Reck, an attorney representing the six, said his clients are disappointed they have been unable to reach a settlement with Y.U. and are poised to file lawsuits. If the impasse continues, “the survivors have no choice but to avail themselves of the court system,” said Reck, an attorney with the New York office of Jeff Anderson and Associates, a Minnesota firm that spec…
The archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis discovered in 1966 that a Minnesota priest was engaging in sexual contact with boys, but the priest was still assigned to four more parishes over the next 25 years, according to information made public Wednesday by St. Paul attorney Jeffrey Anderson. The accused priest, John Brown, 92, who retired in 1991, said in an interview at his assisted-living apartment in Maplewood that he “very, very vaguely” recalls fondling some boys in a locker room. He was asked if he was sorry. “I have to be sorry,” he said. “Wouldn’t anybody be sorry?” Anderson held …
The courage of survivors such as David Pususta always inspires and amazes us. David came forward today to not only reveal publicly for the first time that he is a child sexual abuse survivor, but he also discussed his abuse and identified his abuser, who was never publicly named previously. David also filed court documents in Ramsey County District Court seeking to force the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to unseal and make public its secret list of 33 Archdiocesan priests credibly accused of child sex abuse…
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Campaigners have called on Pope Francis, who was elected in March, to make tackling the issue of sexually abusive priests an urgent priority of his papacy. The UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child released its demands for information from the Holy See on Tuesday. The committee said that “in the light of the recognition by the Holy See of sexual violence against children committed by members of the clergy, brothers and nuns in numerous countries around the world, and given the scale of the abuses”, the Vatican should provide detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse c…
At a news conference on Wednesday in St. Paul, prominent clergy abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will announce the filing of a pleading requesting a Ramsey County District
Judge to unseal a list of 33 credibly accused priests from court files. Introduce a Minnesota child sexual abuse survivor who will for the first
time reveal his identity and discuss his abuse, identifying his abuser
who has never been publicly named. Reveal confidential Archdiocesan communications pertaining to this
victim’s alleged perpetrator and complaints made by the victim’s parents
in 1966 about the priest examining their children’s sexual organs, and
how the Archdiocese failed to remove him from ministry, thus exposing
other children and communities to potential harm.
The Vatican has fast-tracked Pope John Paul II for sainthood, even though a significant portion of the clerical sex abuse scandal happened on his watch. This is concerning, but not surprising, given the Church’s history of protecting priests instead of children and patting itself on the back while willfully failing to take meaningful action regarding abusive priests or abuse survivors. According to an Associated Press (AP) story, Pope Francis signed a decree on Friday declaring John Paul for sainthood, culminating a “fast-track” process that informally began at John Paul’s 2005 funeral ,…
BOSTON, Philadelphia, Los Angeles. The archdioceses change but the overarching story line doesn’t, and last week Milwaukee had a turn in the spotlight, with the release of roughly 6,000 pages of records detailing decades of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests there, a sweeping, searing encyclopedia of crime and insufficient punishment. But the words I keep marveling at aren’t from that wretched trove. They’re from an open letter that Jerome Listecki, the archbishop of Milwaukee, wrote to Catholics just before the documents came out. “Prepare to be shocked,” he said. What a q…