HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Jerry Sandusky lost a bid for a new trial Wednesday when a judge rejected his argument that his lawyers were not given enough time to prepare for the three-week proceeding that ended with a 45-count guilty verdict. Judge John Cleland’s 27-page order said lawyers for the former Penn State assistant football coach conceded that their post-trial review turned up no material that would have changed their trial strategy. “I do not think it can be said that either of the defendant’s trial counsel failed to test the prosecution’s case in a meaningful manner,” Cleland wrote. “…
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MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota judge on Tuesday ordered the handover of confidential national Boy Scout records on sexual abuse from 1999 to 2008 in a move attorneys said could add to the body of evidence showing that the organization failed to take adequate steps to protect young people from molesters in its ranks. Ramsey County District Judge Elena Ostby issued the order in a lawsuit involving former suburban Minneapolis scoutmaster Peter Stibal II, who is serving a 21-year prison sentence for molesting four scouts in his troop. The lawsuit was filed by one of his victims. That victim’s…
(St. Paul) In a civil lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and convicted sex offender and former Scoutmaster, Peter Stibal, Ramsey County District Judge Elena L. Ostby has ordered the release of previously secret records relating to sexual abuse within the BSA from the years 1999 to 2008. The records, referred to by the BSA as the “Perversion Files”, are an internal system maintained for over 80 years to track adult leaders who sexually abuse boy scouts. The pe…
PHILADELPHIA — A jury convicted a priest and teacher today in a pivotal church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a church official to prison for child endangerment. The verdict upholds the stunning account from a troubled 24-year-old policeman’s son that he was sexually abused as a boy by two priests and his sixth-grade teacher. One priest took a plea deal before trial, while the jury convicted the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and former teacher Bernard Shero of all but one count. The 2009 complaint describing the abuse led to the landmark conviction last year of Monsig…
LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has said the names of church leaders who made key decisions on how to deal with cases of sexual abuse by priests will not be blacked out in some 30,000 soon-to-be-released pages of confidential personnel files. The names of any bishops, vicars for clergy and supervisory parish priests will be included in all the documents and they will be turned over to lawyers for abuse victims soon, archdiocese attorney Michael Hennigan said Wednesday. Vicars for clergy are responsible for priestly discipline and often made significant decis…
During the first month of 2013, the issue of sexual violence and abuse has loomed large in the media and public consciousness. From reports into Jimmy Savile “grooming a nation” to the rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in India, there has scarcely been a day when the issue has not featured in public debate; and rightly so.For the girls I have interviewed over the past seven years who have been subjected to sexual, physical and emotional abuse within their relationships, peer groups and street gangs, such concern is long overdue. Take 17-year-old “Becky”. She had been sexually exploited…
A former California state senator has called for an independent investigation into what she says is “alleged rampant sex abuse” of Latino students in the LAUSD. Former California Democratic State Senator Martha Escutia, an attorney and child sex abuse survivors advocate, has called for the investigation in the wake of what she said was a “pattern of alleged sexual abuse” perpetrated against students by teachers and other employees at LAUSD schools. “There’s a pattern of all these sexual abuse scandals popping up everywhere in poor, minority neighborhoods,” she said at a press confere…
JACKSON, Miss. — A woman who was sexually abused as a child is on a 50-state mission to urge lawmakers to make education about child sex abuse part of schools’ curriculum.For 2½ years beginning at age 6, a neighbor raped Erin Merryn, now 27, of Schaumburg, Ill. A teenage cousin started molesting her when she was 11. Now, she’s the force behind “Erin’s Law” legislation, which her home state enacted earlier this month.”I never had to run out of a burning building and I knew how to say no to drugs when I was approached in high school, but when two men were molesting and raping me I didn’t know wh…
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A retired Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys for decades was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday.Earlier this month, Father Neil Doherty pleaded no contest in a deal that reduced the sex abuse charges from capital felonies to second-degree felonies. He will also have to register as a sex offender.The plea comes after several more alleged victims came forward and were planning to testify in the case. Doherty, who maintains his innocence, is now 69, appears frail and struggles with health problems. His attorney, David Bogenschutz said he …
Orange County prosecutors say a dropped molestation investigation is being reopened so officials can re-examine the actions of a former Los Angeles elementary school teacher who has been charged with molesting a dozen students.Spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that the allegations of four youths against Robert Pimentel will be forwarded to Los Angeles prosecutors.Pimentel, a former teacher at George de la Torre Jr. Elementary School, was arrested Wednesday on charges of molesting 12 students following a 10-month police investigation.Kang Schroeder says the 2…