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…
News & Events
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.
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There will be a slight delay durring the buffering of the video. The sound will not be broadcasted until the press conference begins. Currently only viewable in Internet Explorer.
At a news conference on Wednesday in St. Paul, prominent sexual abuse attorney Jeff Anderson will announce the filing of a lawsuit involving the National Boy Scouts of America Foundation d/b/a The Boys Scouts of America (BSA) filed under the new Minnesota Child Victims Act. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of former Boy Scout Doe 17…
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…
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 …
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. – A Benilde-St. Margaret’s School teacher has been fired after the school says he had “inappropriate communications” with students. School President Bob Tift named Jon Hickman in the email as a senior high engineering teacher and that he had been “dismissed” from his employment effective Tuesday. “Mr. Hickman has had inappropriate communications with BSM students,” wrote Tift. “We understand that Mr. Hickman has had interactions with BSM students through non teaching activities. Any such activities including senior photographs or artistic modeling are not connected …
Two additional lawsuits have been filed against former Eau Claire pediatrician David Van de Loo. The civil suits, filed in Eau Claire County, are the sixth and seventh against the 60-year-old Van de Loo, who also is facing criminal charges accusing him of inappropriate contact with 16 former male patients while employed as a pediatrician and sports medicine physician for Mayo Clinic Health System. Van de Loo has pleaded not guilty to 17 felony charges. A three-week trial is scheduled to begin in January. In the latest civil suits, Van de Loo is accused of sexually abusing two former…
Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s $50 million-plus cemetery trust say efforts to force a federal judge to set aside his recent decision in favor of the church and recuse himself from the case border on frivolous and amount to judge shopping, according to a new brief filed in the lawsuit. The brief, filed this week by attorneys for Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki, the trust’s sole trustee, says U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa has no financial interest in the cemeteries — contrary to claims by the archdiocese’s bankruptcy creditors — and the issue is moot because the case is …
Don’t know much about Gallup? Here’s a primer on the sex abuse and cover-up crisis in the Southwest diocese. – See more at: http://theworthyadversary.com/2179-a-gallup-primer#sthash.hLvwI3mR.dpuf Don’t know much about Gallup? Here’s a primer on the sex abuse and cover-up crisis in the Southwest diocese. The Diocese of Gallup “includes parishes in six counties in New Mexico, three counties in Arizona and seven Native American reservations.“At its peak, the Diocese of Gallup also included parishes in Flagstaff and central Arizona. Those parishes became a part of the Diocese of Phoenix in 1969….
GALLUP, N.M. — The Diocese of Gallup in New Mexico plans to petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in federal bankruptcy court because of mounting clergy sex abuse legal claims, according to Bishop James Wall.
In a statement read in parishes during Mass over the Labor Day weekend, Wall said the filing “is the most effective and thoughtful course to take in light of the claims from those who were abused.
“Under Chapter 11, the Diocese will have the opportunity to present a plan of reorganization that provides for a fair and equitable way to compensate all those who suffered sexual abuse…
GALLUP, N.M. — The Diocese of Gallup in New Mexico plans to petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in federal bankruptcy court because of mounting clergy sex abuse legal claims, according to Bishop James Wall.
In a statement read in parishes during Mass over the Labor Day weekend, Wall said the filing “is the most effective and thoughtful course to take in light of the claims from those who were abused.
“Under Chapter 11, the Diocese will have the opportunity to present a plan of reorganization that provides for a fair and equitable way to compensate all those who suffered sexual abuse…
GALLUP, N.M. — The Diocese of Gallup in New Mexico plans to petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in federal bankruptcy court because of mounting clergy sex abuse legal claims, according to Bishop James Wall. In a statement read in parishes during Mass over the Labor Day weekend, Wall said the filing “is the most effective and thoughtful course to take in light of the claims from those who were abused. “Under Chapter 11, the Diocese will have the opportunity to present a plan of reorganization that provides for a fair and equitable way to compensate all those who suffered sexual abuse…