Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, is arguing the Hierarchy’s choices to protect priests first and children second should be viewed under the arc of understanding. “The arc of understanding sexual abuse of a minor progressed from being seen as a moral failing and sin that needed personal resolve and spiritual direction; to a psychological deficiency that required therapy and could be cured; to issues of addiction requiring more extensive therapy and restrictions on ministry; to recognition of the long-term effects of abuse and the need to hold the perpetrator accountable for this…
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MILWAUKEE — As more victims of clergy sex abuse came forward, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan oversaw a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood after writing to Vatican officials with increasing frustration and concern, warning them about the potential for scandal if they did not defrock problem priests, according to documents released Monday. Dolan’s correspondence with Vatican officials and priests accused of sexual abuse was included in about 6,000 pages of documents the Archdiocese of Milwaukee released Monday as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court with…
(St. Paul, MN) – Jeff Anderson, an attorney for hundreds of survivors of sexual abuse in the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy case said information in the thousands of documents released in the case today contain “revealing and rev…
Media Advisory June 30, 2013 St. Paul News Conference Monday, July 1 Historic release of secret church documents and depositions detailing Vatican’s role in abuse cases Cardinal Dolan’s involvement in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s activities leading up to bankruptcy revealed Attorneys say documents kept secret in Minnesota contain similar evidence of calculated denial and delay to avoid legal accountability and scandal What: At a news conference on Monday in St. Paul, prominent clergy abuse attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will: · &…
Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) – A man, who claims as a child, he was sexually abused by a priest, has filed suit against the Catholic Diocese of Duluth, under Minnesota’s new Child Victims Act. Michael DeRoche says he was abused by Father John Nicholson, who has since died.He was abused when he attended St. Rose in Proctor between the ages of 9 and 10. The lawsuit claims the Diocese knew, or should have known, that Nicholson was a danger to children and should have stepped in to protect his victims. In a written statement the Diocese said, “It deeply regrets any long-lasting and devastating effec…
News ReleaseJune 26, 2013 Lawsuit says former St. Rose parish priest in Proctor was child sex abuserArizona man seeks to have Court order the Diocese of Duluth to release the names of the 17 priests the Diocese knows were accused of sexually molesting minors New Minnesota Child Victims Act allows victim to file lawsuit for abuse committed when he was a child in Proctor (Duluth & Brainerd, MN) – Attorneys for a 55-year-old Arizona man filed a lawsuit in St. Louis County today claiming that beginning in the early 1960s officials of the Diocese of Duluth knew a parish priest assigned…
At a news conference on Wednesday in Duluth, prominent clergy abuse attorney Mike Finnegan will announce the first civil lawsuit to be filed in St. Louis County under a new Minnesota law signed by Governor Dayton last month eliminating the civil statute of limitations for children who were sexually abused and allowing a 3-year window for past victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits against their perpetrator and/or an institution that may have allowed the abuse. The lawsuit names the Diocese of Duluth as the defendant.
CROOKSTON, Minn. — A lawsuit filed by Saint Paul attorney Jeff Anderson in Crookston Monday morning charges The Diocese of Crookston, the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts and the Servants of the Paraclete group with a dozen counts of nuisance and negligence in their handling of former Priest James Porter. Porter admitted or was linked to the abuse of more than 100 young boys and girls, dating back to the 1950’s. This lawsuit involves the case of a unnamed Minnesota woman, now in her 50’s, who alleges that Porter, who died in 2005, molested her while he was a priest at St. Phillips parish…
During private encounters away from church, a Colorado Springs priest allegedly lavished attention on a 15-year-old altar boy – showering him with gifts and supplying him with booze, pot and cigarettes. But according to the Rev. Charles Robert Manning’s one-time assistant, all that attention came with a price. “He told me there were three things he wanted to do before he died: To kiss me, to see me naked and to have sex with me,” the former altar boy, now 18, told a jury Monday in recounting an alcohol-fueled day in the fall of 2011 in which he said Manning, 78, crossed all three wishes from…
In 1993, Father James Porter pled guilty to sexually abusing 28 children in parishes in southeastern Massachusetts in the 1960’s. Unfortunately, those heinous actions were the tip of the iceberg. With the assistance of church leaders from the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts to the Diocese of Crookston to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Fr. Porter abused children across the United States with impunity. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, the operating protocol with respect to Fr. Porter, a known child molester, was: Protect Porter. Fr. Porter’s 1973 letter to…
CROOKSTON, Minn. — A Minnesota woman filed suit Thursday in state district court in Crookston alleging negligence by the Catholic Diocese of Crookston by allowing the late James Porter to serve as a priest in Bemidji 44 years ago when she says he sexually assaulted her many times in her home and in the church. The lawsuit, citing damages to “Doe 4”of more than the statutory minimum of $50,000, also claims a Massachusetts diocese and a former New Mexico Catholic treatment center for priests, were negligent in allowing Porter to move to Minnesota. Porter was removed from the priesthood…
At a news conference on Monday in front of the Polk County courthouse in Crookston, followed by a press conference outside St. Philip’s School in Bemidji, clergy abuse attorneys Steve Anderson of Roseau and Jeff Anderson of St. Paul will announce the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit on behalf of a Bemidji woman now in her 50s, naming the Diocese of Crookston, the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts and the Servants of the Paraclete, as defendants.
(St. Paul, MN) – A Minnesota man will get a chance at justice due to the Child Victims Act, recently passed by the legislature allowing survivors of child sexual abuse to hold their abuser and any institution that allowed the abuse to happen, accountable in court. “The Child Victims Act passed into law now gives this survivor a chance for hope, healing, and an opportunity to help protect others” said attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents Plaintiff John Doe 150. Since filing the first civil lawsuit involving Fr. Stitts in the early 1990s, Anderson has represented numerous survivors of sexual abuse by Stitts.
Survivors of child molestation would have more time to file lawsuits against institutions that employed their abusers under a proposal making its way through the California Legislature. Currently, most victims can file lawsuits against religious or civic institutions that employed their abusers until they turn age 26. But a court ruling prevented such suits by people who turned 26 before 2003 and discovered between 2005 and 2011 that the molestation caused injury or trauma. The legislation by state Sen. James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose) would extend the statute of limitations for those victims. …