Stephen Adamczak Sexually Abused Former Student Jeanette Simmonds When She Was a Student in 1983
(Minneapolis, MN) – A fourth civil lawsuit was filed today on behalf of Jeanette Simmonds in Hennepin County District Court naming the Children’s Theatre Company as a defendant. Simmonds was a student at Children’s Theatre in 1983 when former employee Stephen Adamczak sexually abused her. She has publicly identified herself to encourage other sexual abuse survivors to come forward and seek help and to shed light on the insular culture that allowed Adamczak, and others, to sexually abuse students.
In 1984, the year former director John Clark Donahue was arrested, the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension also investigated Adamczak. He was criminally charged for the sexual abuse of two minor girls and was acquitted.
This is the fourth lawsuit filed, on behalf of five sexual abuse survivors, since early December 2015 naming Children’s Theatre as a defendant. The lawsuits were made possible due to the Child Victims Act passed by the Minnesota legislature which allows survivors of sexual abuse to file claims against their abusers and the institutions that protected the abusers. Survivors of sexual abuse must bring a claim by the May 25, 2016 deadline.
A statement from Jeanette Simmonds is attached.
Copies of the complaint and Jeanette Simmonds’s statement are available on our website.