News & Events

Nationally prominent clergy abuse law firm Jeff Anderson &
Associates, announced today the filing of a civil lawsuit on behalf of Los
Angeles man who says he was sexually abused in between 1973 and 1978 by two
different priests when he was a catechism student and altar boy at St. Anthony’s
Catholic Church in Kailua, Oahu Hawaii.

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has been ordered into arbitration to determine if it violated the terms of a 2008 settlement with alleged priest abuse victims.Victims of abuse say it’s an important victory for them. They say it will make kids safer in the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. A Jackson County judge has ordered the Diocese into arbitration to determine whether church leaders violated a 2008 settlement with a group of people who say they were abused by priests.Robert Bates is one of 47 plaintiffs who sued the Diocese in Kansas City. Bates …

A Wisconsin man is suing the elite Breck School and William Jacobs, alleging he was sexually abused by Jacobs over a three year period, starting when he was 12 years old.Jacobs, a former Minneapolis Park Police chief and former Breck teacher, was given a maximum 18-year prison sentence earlier this year for the abuse of a 15-year-old boy over a period of three years, also beginning when that victim was 12.Prosecutors say there are other victims dating back to when Jacobs was a chemistry teacher at Breck School, but the cases are too old to press charges.

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An alleged sex assault involving a former Honolulu priest and a Damien Memorial School student has surfaced, nearly 30 years later.A new state law allows adults who claim they were molested as children to take legal action even after the statute of limitations has lapsed.The lawsuit that was filed yesterday claims the then 13-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by a former Damien chaplain. And it’s not the first time the former priest has been accused of a sex crime.

A jury finds the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay liable in a civil trial accusing it of fraud.

Todd and Troy Merryfield filed the civil suit against the Diocese after
evidence of other victims came out during John Patrick Feeney’s criminal
trial. An Outagamie County Judge awarded Todd Merryfield $225,000 and
Troy $475,000 in court on Monday.

The case was centered around former priest John Patric Feeney who was
convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting the brothers in the 1970s.

Both sides issued passionate pleas to the jury.

Two brothers abused by a former priest with the Green Bay Diocese testified in their civil trial Wednesday. Todd and Troy Merryfield are suing the diocese for fraud. They claim the diocese knew, before they were abused, that former priest John Feeney had a history of inappropriate sexual contact with children. There was plenty of emotion shown by both brothers on the stand Wednesday as they told the jury about what happened to them at the hands of John Feeney in 1978 and how it has changed their lives still to this day. “He lifted up my pajama shirt, started rubbing m…

With testimony underway, attorneys for the Merryfields laid the foundation for their case. “We’ll show the diocese knew he had impulse control and the diocese knew he was reckless in not caring whether or not he was a molester,” said Jeff Anderson, attorney for Todd Merryfield. A claim the diocese denies. “These claims are false, untrue and we will show you why,” said Pat Brennan, attorney for the Green Bay Diocese.

APPLETON — A former Fox Valley priest spent nearly eight years in prison for the 1978 sexual assaults of two young parishioners, but his victims say justice hasn’t been fully served.A civil lawsuit that slowly built in Outagamie County’s court system for more than four years heads to trial today as brothers Todd and Troy Merryfield, formerly of Freedom, seek unspecified damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay based on their childhood assaults.Over the course of the next two weeks, a jury will determine whether the diocese is civilly responsible based on allegations it knew about s…

At least 32 Roman Catholic priests have fled the country to avoid prosecution since 1985 and only five have returned to face trial, reports the Chicago Tribune.Most of the priests that left were wanted for such serious accusations as alleged sexual abuse or assault charges, yet the courts have proven ineffective at extraditing the clerics in a timely matter. At times the process of extradition has taken so long that prosecutions have dropped the case entirely. (Read The Full Story In The Chicago Tribute)One glaring example is the case of Rev. Raju Policetti, a priest who fled to India in 2002 …

ALBANY — The parents and a younger sister of two victims of alleged sexual abuse by a Greene County priest railed against the church Tuesday afternoon. Standing on a sidewalk a few hundred feet from the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese offices on North Main Avenue, the family detailed the painful fallout from what they say was decades of abuse.With their arms around each other’s shoulders, Ivan Morales Sr. and his wife, Carol Morales, spoke about their sons, Ivan Jr. and Martin, and how they say Rev. Jeremiah Nunan slowly lured each of them into a web of abuse that lasted for years.The Morales’ 2…