ST. PAUL (AP) — The former top deputy at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis suggested last fall that Archbishop John Nienstedt consider resigning in light of a clergy sex abuse scandal, according to a deposition released Wednesday.
The Rev. Peter Laird resigned as the archdiocese’s vicar general in October. According to Laird’s court deposition, he also suggested the resignation option to Nienstedt twice as the archdiocese struggled to respond to allegations that it mishandled clergy accused of abusing children.
“I think leaders have a responsibility to be accountable for decisions whenever they take place in an organization and, and to signal trust … and that the archdiocese doesn’t have anything to hide,” Laird said in his May 12 deposition.
Laird said Nienstedt did not respond to his recommendation, or to his other suggestions that the archdiocese allow an outside review of its priests’ files and create a archdiocese/community task force to review its work, the Star Tribune reported.
The archdiocese said it was not commenting on Laird’s deposition, saying it stood on its own. The archdiocese posted the deposition on its website.
It joins depositions by Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough that have been made public. They come in response to a lawsuit filed in 2013 on behalf of a man who claimed he was abused decades earlier.
Laird resigned Oct. 3, the day allegations emerged in a court hearing that church officials knew a priest had been in possession of child pornography but continued to assign him to parish duties that brought him into contact with children. An archdiocese spokesman said at the time that Laird’s resignation had nothing to do with the case.
Nienstedt has said he does not believe any priests or church leaders mishandled allegations of abuse.
Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have approved legislation that would extend the amount of time victims of childhood sexual abuse have to come forward.
SB926 by Sen. Jim Beall would give victims until age 40 to report alleged abuse they suffered as a child. The current statute of limitations is age 28.
Beall, a Democrat from San Jose, says the current law favors abusers who can simply “wait out the clock” to avoid being prosecuted. He says many child sexual assault victims suppress the memories and do not recall their abuse until years later.
The bill passed the Assembly on a 33-0 vote Tuesday and now heads to the Senate.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-05-27 21:26:522014-05-28 16:35:05SB 926, extending the California criminal SOLs, passed out of the Senate Floor with a unanimous vote and now moves to the Assembly.
One year ago this month, Minnesota opened its courtroom doors to alleged victims of child sex abuse that occurred decades ago — a step that has rocked the Catholic Church as never before.
More than 40 lawsuits have been filed since then under the new Minnesota Child Victim’s Act, implicating at least 30 Catholic priests in sex crimes against children.
The lawsuits claim the church has mishandled, or covered up, serious abuse charges in every diocese in the state. Five of the six Minnesota dioceses have since made public the names of long-secret priest offenders, revealing more than 100 names to date.
For those who have bottled up memories of clergy abuse for decades, too nervous or fearful to report it, the law has spurred some to step forward, said Christy, a St. Paul mother who sued her abuser last year.
“It’s like a weight lifted from my shoulders,” said Christy, who did not want her last name used.
Christy said she didn’t have a clue that her priest had been accused of molesting others before. Only after hearing news reports about the church’s pattern of moving offenders from church to church did she Google his name and discover she was not alone.
“That’s when I decided to sue,’’ she said.
The new law lifts the civil statute of limitations for child abuse cases, opening a three-year window for people to sue over older cases such as Christy’s.
For nearly 20 years, Minnesotans sexually abused as children had until age 24 to sue their abusers. Child advocates, however, argued that some victims took decades to come to terms with their trauma, and that the time limits for filing claims thus needed to change.
Minnesota is the fourth state to approve a temporary window for filing older lawsuits. Similar legislation is pending in three other states, said Marci Hamilton, a New York law professor and national advocate for such changes.
California witnessed more than 1,100 lawsuits during its one-year window, Hamilton said. About 170 lawsuits were filed in Delaware and about 75 in Hawaii during their two-year windows.
Minnesota, in many ways, has followed the trajectory of its predecessors. Clergy have been charged with offenses ranging from one-time molestation to repeated rape lasting years. The incidents happened from the 1970s to just a few years ago.
‘A pace never before seen’
“But in Minnesota, we’re moving at a pace, at a depth, at a breadth never before seen in other states,” said St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, the lead attorney who has filed clergy sex abuse lawsuits in the three other states too.
Instead of filing lawsuits on behalf of one victim against one clergy member, Anderson has filed “nuisance claims” in Minnesota. Lawyers argue the church’s pattern of handling abusive priests, often moving them from parish to parish, constitutes a public nuisance. That allows them to petition the court for a broad array of information on priests and practices across a diocese.
As a result, the Twin Cities archdiocese alone is producing 40,000 documents for the court. Top church officials were required to submit to questioning, including Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Archbishop Harry Flynn.
Add a whistleblower — former archdiocese canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger — and intense media scrutiny, and the past year has seen a storm of controversy that even the law’s sponsors did not predict.
Rep. Steve Simon, DFL- St. Louis Park, a key author of the Child Victim’s Act, said he never anticipated such a chain of events.
“I didn’t know that within a year, there would be so much attention to so many claims,” Simon said.
Church: Law is mistake
The archdiocese, which opposed opening the statute of limitations, still believes time limits “are an important part of ensuring that the civil justice system remains fair to all parties,” Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens said in a written statement.
“We accept and embrace responsibility when we have made mistakes, and will continue to work with courts, victims and attorneys to pursue justice for all parties during this three-year period,” Cozzens said.
Likewise, the Rev. Karen Bockelman, retired Lutheran chair of the Minnesota Religious Council — which lobbied against the bill — still believes the law is too broad and reaches too far back. It makes defense difficult, she said.
“Documents have been lost,” said Bockelman. “Memories have faded. People have died. The insurance company no longer exists.”
Looking forward, the Vatican is likely to become part of the equation. Anderson, who sued the Vatican in 2010 in a Wisconsin case, is likely to do the same here.
“Will the Vatican be sued?” he asked. “Yes. How soon? I can’t say.”
Beyond the civil cases, where punishment does not entail jail time, some abusers will face criminal charges, said Patrick Wall, an investigator at Anderson’s law firm. County attorneys can press charges up to three years after abuse is reported to them.
More activity in court
Last week, for example, the Dakota County attorney filed charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct against Francis Hoefgen, a former St. John’s Abbey monk now living in Columbia Heights, for allegedly abusing a boy from 1989 to 1992. His arrest followed the victim’s lawsuit filed last year.
Meanwhile, more schools, nonreligious organizations and individuals are likely to be summoned to court, said Anderson.
Donors pull back support
Three lawsuits have been filed against former drama teacher Lynn Seibel at Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school, said Anderson, as well as three against a former Bemidji public schoolteacher who committed suicide last year.
The Catholic Church, meanwhile, has faced financial repercussions, as some donors have balked at continuing their fiscal support.
The Twin Cities archdiocese released an audit of the chancery in February showing a $3.9 million deficit. But the report stated, “The financial condition of the archdiocese is solid,” even with the liability stemming from the recent wave of lawsuits.
Meanwhile, alleged victims of clergy sex abuse continue to step forward.
Christy, for example, said she was sexually molested by the Rev. Robert Thurner, now 88. Transferred to her church after admitting to abuse in his Hopkins parish, Thurner became a family friend, invited to dinner at her parents’ home, where the abuse occurred, she said.
Christy said the incident led to years of confusion and shame and feelings of helplessness. The new law changed that. Said Christy: “Now I feel like I’m in control for once.”
Simon calls the past year “an occasion to reflect on what went wrong” and to learn from it.
“It’s a painfully teachable moment,” the representative said. “And it’s about healing for a lot of people who for a long time were ignored or dismissed or worse. They are finally getting their justice.”
Samuel Waldman, one of the main alleged child porn purveyors named in ‘Operation Caireen,’ is only the latest in a series of scandals buffeting Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox community.
Among the 71 people charged in Wednesday’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement child porn ring bust, there are more than a handful of surprising offenders, including a Little League coach and a former Westchester police chief. But for those familiar with the Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox community’s repeated failure to report sexual abuse, seeing Rabbi Samuel Waldman arrested for the alleged possession of child pornography is no shocker.
It was Waldman’s own disturbing collection of child pornography, law enforcement officials say, that helped lead them to uncover dozens of other purveyors in “Operation Caireen.” His was one of two initial investigations—the other was of Brian Fanelli, a one-time Mount Pleasant police chief—that eventually led to Wednesday’s announcement of 71 arrests. On March 5, Waldman, 52, was charged with the transportation and distribution of child pornography. According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court, Waldman shared multiple child pornography files on publicly available peer-to-peer networks out of his home in the Kensington section of Brooklyn. These files, the complaint alleges, included a video of girls “between the ages of approximately four and eleven years of age” performing oral sex and being anally and vaginally penetrated by older men, and a clip of a naked prepubescent boy “being masturbated by another unknown person until the child ejaculates.”
At the time, Waldman was a teacher at the all-girls Beth Jacobs Teachers Seminary in Brooklyn. While the school declined to disclose any information about the ages of students to The Daily Beast, the National Center for Education Statistics says Beth Jacobs offers ninth- through 12th-grade education. Waldman was ordered not to engage in any employment with access to children; when asked if he was still teaching at the school, a woman who answered the phone at the school hung up.
In 2012, when an ultra-Orthodox family decided to sue Yeshiva Torah Temimah, the school where their son allegedly was molested by a teacher, they were pressured to drop their lawsuit. A prominent Brooklyn rabbi and Yaakov Applegrad, an administrator at the Flatbush seminary, “compared the parents to Nazis for attempting to ‘bankrupt’ the yeshiva,” The Jewish Week reported.
The teacher Applegrad was defending, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, allegedly sexually abused his students for more than three decades. In 2008, he was accused of molesting two first-graders but pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to three years’ probation. According to a New York magazine investigation, Kolko’s abuse went as far back as the 1970s.
Sexual abuse often goes unpunished in the ultra-Orthodox community because victims are shamed into silence or blatantly pressured, as in the Kolko case, never to reveal information to the secular world.
Unsurprisingly, Waldman received public support from the ultra-Orthodox community after his March 5 arrest.
In 2012, Rabbi David Zweibel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, a powerful ultra-Orthodox group, instructed members of the community not to report abuse to police until they consulted with their rabbis first. “We’re not going to compromise our essence and our integrity because we are nervous about a relationship that may be damaged with a government leader,” hesaid.
Even if the claims are pursued within the community, justice is imperfect , to say the least. According to a letter from Rabbi Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg posted on the blog FailedMessiah, Kolko was investigated on sexual abuse charges by a council of rabbis in 1985 and found innocent. “Because Kolko did not penetrate his victims, there was no actual abuse,” said the lead rabbi, according to witnesses to the ruling.
Unsurprisingly, Waldman received public support from the ultra-Orthodox community after his March 5 arrest. “I’m certain he’ll be acquitted of everything. He’s a nice, honorable, respectable person,” a neighbor told PIX 11. When told federal officials had traced child porn to the IP address on Waldman’s computer, the neighbor said: “I’m even surprised he has a computer.”
Whether Waldman will find the same level of support now that he is linked to an even bigger and more disturbing child pornography bust remains to be seen.
Last week, 66 speedskaters filed a proposal asking that Andy Gabel receive a lifetime ban from US Speedskating, and that he be removed from the United States Speedskating Hall of Fame, due to his admitted “inappropriate relationship” of his minor teammates. This petition asks for your signature as a sign of support as well.
Last year, Bridie Farrell accused Andy Gabel of molesting her when she was just 15 years old and Gabel was 33, on NPR radio. Within days, Gabel resigned from his positions within U.S. Speedskating and the International Skating Union, and publicly confessed to “inappropriate” relationships with young female athletes. Less than a week later, another skater-victim, Nikki Meyer, shared similar allegations; that Gabel forced her to have sex with him in 1991 when she was 15 years old. Additionally, since Farrell and Meyer have come forward, documents of another investigation for possible inappropriate sexual contact with another skater who was a minor surfaced.
US Speedskating conducted a year-long investigation into Andy Gabel’s conduct, but refuses to make the results public. At last year’s Speedskating Board of Directors meeting, an almost identical proposal was submitted, but was ignored.
Most Hall of Fames are designed to immortalize an athlete’s noble accomplishments, including contributions that honor the sport. The Speedskating Hall of Fame is no different; inductees are “judged on [their] record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship and character,” Individuals who have engaged in sexual relations minors, however, should be disqualified from any sport’s Hall of Fame, particularly when the inductee inflicted sexual damage on fellow athletes.
As a current member in good standing, an Olympian and a member of skating’s Hall of Famer, Andy Gabel has entre to young children in Speedskating.
A lifetime ban from the sport and removal from the Hall of Fame is the least an Olympic sport’s National Governing Body can do to preserve the safety of its athletes and to send a firm message to those that might abuse their power within sport.
Please take a stand against sexual abuse in club and Olympic sports, and sign this petition to remove Andrew Gabel from the U.S. Speedskating Hall of Fame and revoke his lifetime membership in the Olympic sport.
To: U.S. Olympic Speedskating Board of Directors, Women’s Sports Foundation Ted Morris, Executive Director, U.S. Speedskating On behalf of victims of sexual abuse and in support of the 66 speedskaters who have already submitted a proposal to the Board of Directors, we are asking you to remove Andy Gabel from the Speedskating Hall of Fame and revoke his lifetime membership in U.S. Speedskating. Sincerely, [Your name]
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-05-23 12:13:252014-05-23 12:13:25Remove Andy Gabel from the Speedskating Hall of Fame and Revoke his Lifetime Membership in U.S. Speedskating
Supporting the rights of children over those of institutions remains an uphill battle in the United States. The public understands that child abusers don’t retire, and they know that many institutions reflexively protect their reputations rather protect kids. Meanwhile, legislators lag way behind their constituents.
In California, legislators ran from the committee room to avoid recording a vote on the Child Victims Act, a bill which would have provided a modest window for adult survivors of child sex abuse to have their day in court. When the bill finally passed with the narrowest of margins, it was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. In New York state, a similar reform act has been repeatedly blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Slowly, however, the gap between legislators and the public on this issue is gaining attention. What is also clear is that all demographics – including Democrats, Republicans, Catholics and Non-Catholics want their representatives to reform the laws that stop child abusing victims getting justice. The National Center for Victims of Crime recently commissioned a poll of 600 voters in several key Republican senate districts on New York State to see if voters supported their legislator’s efforts to block reform. Yet, even in an electorate that favors Republicans, strong majorities in every demographic and every geographic region polled favored sex abuse victims’ efforts to expand their access to civil courts.
A 57% majority of voters surveyed thought it should be easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue their abuser or the organization where the abuse occurred, versus 9% that thought it should be harder to sue and 20% that favored the status quo.
By a margin of 60% to 38%, voters in Republican Senate districts prefer a system where victims can sue their abuser “at any time” rather than having “some time limit” after the abuse occurs.
Despite the church’s assertions that the legislation is ”anti-Catholic,” “singles out the church for liability,” and harms “good institutions, rather than the perpetrators of the abuse,” 67% support eliminating the civil statute of limitations, from this point forward, to allow future victims to sue their abuser or a legally-responsible organization at any time. That position was supported by 63% of Republican/Conservative Party voters and 70% of Catholics
In recent years, Florida, Maine, Alaska, Minnesota and Illinois have all eliminated the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse. California, Delaware, Hawaii and Minnesota have passed civil windows which allowed old cases to be filed. In all of those states, perpetrators have been exposed, children have been protected, victims received justice, and none of the major youth-serving organizations went out of business. Perhaps some strategically used public opinion polls could help pull a few more states into the “SOL reform caucus” and further promote justice and accountability for victims of childhood sexual abuse.
While opponents maintain that the “civil window” – which temporarily suspends the statute of limitations for sex abuse victims and allows them to file civil lawsuits no matter how long ago the abuse occurred – is the most objectionable provision of the Child Victims Act, 55% of voters surveyed support the civil window. Voters who support the civil window include 58% of Republicans and 60% of Catholics.
If the Church’s policy arguments against SOL reform are insufficient to secure a legislator’s opposition, the Bishops often suggest that, by voting against the Church’s interests, the legislator risks losing “the Catholic Vote.” Yet, by a 2:1 margin, voters say they would be more likely to a legislator who supported expanding statutes of limitation for child sex abuse victims.
The public makes clear that the rights of children and adult survivors of child abuse are a priority. It is time their elected representatives examine their consciences and step up.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-05-22 17:52:472014-05-22 17:52:47Voters support SOL reform; Legislators should follow., Mai Fernandez, Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
Ex-deputy suggested archbishop resign, Mankato Free Press
/in Minnesota /by SOL ReformST. PAUL (AP) — The former top deputy at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis suggested last fall that Archbishop John Nienstedt consider resigning in light of a clergy sex abuse scandal, according to a deposition released Wednesday.
The Rev. Peter Laird resigned as the archdiocese’s vicar general in October. According to Laird’s court deposition, he also suggested the resignation option to Nienstedt twice as the archdiocese struggled to respond to allegations that it mishandled clergy accused of abusing children.
“I think leaders have a responsibility to be accountable for decisions whenever they take place in an organization and, and to signal trust … and that the archdiocese doesn’t have anything to hide,” Laird said in his May 12 deposition.
Laird said Nienstedt did not respond to his recommendation, or to his other suggestions that the archdiocese allow an outside review of its priests’ files and create a archdiocese/community task force to review its work, the Star Tribune reported.
The archdiocese said it was not commenting on Laird’s deposition, saying it stood on its own. The archdiocese posted the deposition on its website.
It joins depositions by Nienstedt and former Vicar General Kevin McDonough that have been made public. They come in response to a lawsuit filed in 2013 on behalf of a man who claimed he was abused decades earlier.
Laird resigned Oct. 3, the day allegations emerged in a court hearing that church officials knew a priest had been in possession of child pornography but continued to assign him to parish duties that brought him into contact with children. An archdiocese spokesman said at the time that Laird’s resignation had nothing to do with the case.
Nienstedt has said he does not believe any priests or church leaders mishandled allegations of abuse.
Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com
http://m.mankatofreepress.com/MFP/db_288220/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=kMTlJpi3&full=true#display
SB 926, extending the California criminal SOLs, passed out of the Senate Floor with a unanimous vote and now moves to the Assembly.
/in 2014 Bill Progress, California /by SOL ReformSB 926, Crimes: statute of limitation: felony sex crimes passed out of the Senate Floor with a unanimous vote and now moves to the Assembly.
Contact your California representative
Bill extends time for sex abuse victims to report
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have approved legislation that would extend the amount of time victims of childhood sexual abuse have to come forward.
SB926 by Sen. Jim Beall would give victims until age 40 to report alleged abuse they suffered as a child. The current statute of limitations is age 28.
Beall, a Democrat from San Jose, says the current law favors abusers who can simply “wait out the clock” to avoid being prosecuted. He says many child sexual assault victims suppress the memories and do not recall their abuse until years later.
The bill passed the Assembly on a 33-0 vote Tuesday and now heads to the Senate.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Bill-extends-time-for-sex-abuse-victims-to-report-5508041.php
Minnesota Child Victim’s Act generates nearly 40 lawsuits, church reforms, Jean Hopfensperger, Star Tribune
/in Delay, Minnesota, MN Post Window, Resources /by SOL ReformOne year ago this month, Minnesota opened its courtroom doors to alleged victims of child sex abuse that occurred decades ago — a step that has rocked the Catholic Church as never before.
More than 40 lawsuits have been filed since then under the new Minnesota Child Victim’s Act, implicating at least 30 Catholic priests in sex crimes against children.
The lawsuits claim the church has mishandled, or covered up, serious abuse charges in every diocese in the state. Five of the six Minnesota dioceses have since made public the names of long-secret priest offenders, revealing more than 100 names to date.
For those who have bottled up memories of clergy abuse for decades, too nervous or fearful to report it, the law has spurred some to step forward, said Christy, a St. Paul mother who sued her abuser last year.
“It’s like a weight lifted from my shoulders,” said Christy, who did not want her last name used.
Christy said she didn’t have a clue that her priest had been accused of molesting others before. Only after hearing news reports about the church’s pattern of moving offenders from church to church did she Google his name and discover she was not alone.
“That’s when I decided to sue,’’ she said.
The new law lifts the civil statute of limitations for child abuse cases, opening a three-year window for people to sue over older cases such as Christy’s.
For nearly 20 years, Minnesotans sexually abused as children had until age 24 to sue their abusers. Child advocates, however, argued that some victims took decades to come to terms with their trauma, and that the time limits for filing claims thus needed to change.
Minnesota is the fourth state to approve a temporary window for filing older lawsuits. Similar legislation is pending in three other states, said Marci Hamilton, a New York law professor and national advocate for such changes.
California witnessed more than 1,100 lawsuits during its one-year window, Hamilton said. About 170 lawsuits were filed in Delaware and about 75 in Hawaii during their two-year windows.
Minnesota, in many ways, has followed the trajectory of its predecessors. Clergy have been charged with offenses ranging from one-time molestation to repeated rape lasting years. The incidents happened from the 1970s to just a few years ago.
‘A pace never before seen’
“But in Minnesota, we’re moving at a pace, at a depth, at a breadth never before seen in other states,” said St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, the lead attorney who has filed clergy sex abuse lawsuits in the three other states too.
Instead of filing lawsuits on behalf of one victim against one clergy member, Anderson has filed “nuisance claims” in Minnesota. Lawyers argue the church’s pattern of handling abusive priests, often moving them from parish to parish, constitutes a public nuisance. That allows them to petition the court for a broad array of information on priests and practices across a diocese.
As a result, the Twin Cities archdiocese alone is producing 40,000 documents for the court. Top church officials were required to submit to questioning, including Archbishop John Nienstedt and former Archbishop Harry Flynn.
Add a whistleblower — former archdiocese canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger — and intense media scrutiny, and the past year has seen a storm of controversy that even the law’s sponsors did not predict.
Rep. Steve Simon, DFL- St. Louis Park, a key author of the Child Victim’s Act, said he never anticipated such a chain of events.
“I didn’t know that within a year, there would be so much attention to so many claims,” Simon said.
Church: Law is mistake
The archdiocese, which opposed opening the statute of limitations, still believes time limits “are an important part of ensuring that the civil justice system remains fair to all parties,” Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens said in a written statement.
“We accept and embrace responsibility when we have made mistakes, and will continue to work with courts, victims and attorneys to pursue justice for all parties during this three-year period,” Cozzens said.
Likewise, the Rev. Karen Bockelman, retired Lutheran chair of the Minnesota Religious Council — which lobbied against the bill — still believes the law is too broad and reaches too far back. It makes defense difficult, she said.
“Documents have been lost,” said Bockelman. “Memories have faded. People have died. The insurance company no longer exists.”
Looking forward, the Vatican is likely to become part of the equation. Anderson, who sued the Vatican in 2010 in a Wisconsin case, is likely to do the same here.
“Will the Vatican be sued?” he asked. “Yes. How soon? I can’t say.”
Beyond the civil cases, where punishment does not entail jail time, some abusers will face criminal charges, said Patrick Wall, an investigator at Anderson’s law firm. County attorneys can press charges up to three years after abuse is reported to them.
More activity in court
Last week, for example, the Dakota County attorney filed charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct against Francis Hoefgen, a former St. John’s Abbey monk now living in Columbia Heights, for allegedly abusing a boy from 1989 to 1992. His arrest followed the victim’s lawsuit filed last year.
Meanwhile, more schools, nonreligious organizations and individuals are likely to be summoned to court, said Anderson.
Donors pull back support
Three lawsuits have been filed against former drama teacher Lynn Seibel at Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school, said Anderson, as well as three against a former Bemidji public schoolteacher who committed suicide last year.
The Catholic Church, meanwhile, has faced financial repercussions, as some donors have balked at continuing their fiscal support.
The Twin Cities archdiocese released an audit of the chancery in February showing a $3.9 million deficit. But the report stated, “The financial condition of the archdiocese is solid,” even with the liability stemming from the recent wave of lawsuits.
Meanwhile, alleged victims of clergy sex abuse continue to step forward.
Christy, for example, said she was sexually molested by the Rev. Robert Thurner, now 88. Transferred to her church after admitting to abuse in his Hopkins parish, Thurner became a family friend, invited to dinner at her parents’ home, where the abuse occurred, she said.
Christy said the incident led to years of confusion and shame and feelings of helplessness. The new law changed that. Said Christy: “Now I feel like I’m in control for once.”
Simon calls the past year “an occasion to reflect on what went wrong” and to learn from it.
“It’s a painfully teachable moment,” the representative said. “And it’s about healing for a lot of people who for a long time were ignored or dismissed or worse. They are finally getting their justice.”
Jean Hopfensperger • 612-673-4511
http://www.startribune.com/local/260547781.html
The Brooklyn Rabbi and His Child Porn Collection, Emily Shire, The Daily Beast
/in New York /by SOL ReformAmong the 71 people charged in Wednesday’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement child porn ring bust, there are more than a handful of surprising offenders, including a Little League coach and a former Westchester police chief. But for those familiar with the Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox community’s repeated failure to report sexual abuse, seeing Rabbi Samuel Waldman arrested for the alleged possession of child pornography is no shocker.
At the time, Waldman was a teacher at the all-girls Beth Jacobs Teachers Seminary in Brooklyn. While the school declined to disclose any information about the ages of students to The Daily Beast, the National Center for Education Statistics says Beth Jacobs offers ninth- through 12th-grade education. Waldman was ordered not to engage in any employment with access to children; when asked if he was still teaching at the school, a woman who answered the phone at the school hung up.
The Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox community has been plagued with sexual molestation charges in recent years, many of them stemming back decades. It has a history of harboring and protecting alleged molesters while shaming and intimidating those who attempt to come forward with allegations of abuse.
In 2012, when an ultra-Orthodox family decided to sue Yeshiva Torah Temimah, the school where their son allegedly was molested by a teacher, they were pressured to drop their lawsuit. A prominent Brooklyn rabbi and Yaakov Applegrad, an administrator at the Flatbush seminary, “compared the parents to Nazis for attempting to ‘bankrupt’ the yeshiva,” The Jewish Week reported.
The teacher Applegrad was defending, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, allegedly sexually abused his students for more than three decades. In 2008, he was accused of molesting two first-graders but pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to three years’ probation. According to a New York magazine investigation, Kolko’s abuse went as far back as the 1970s.
Sexual abuse often goes unpunished in the ultra-Orthodox community because victims are shamed into silence or blatantly pressured, as in the Kolko case, never to reveal information to the secular world.
In 2012, Rabbi David Zweibel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, a powerful ultra-Orthodox group, instructed members of the community not to report abuse to police until they consulted with their rabbis first. “We’re not going to compromise our essence and our integrity because we are nervous about a relationship that may be damaged with a government leader,” hesaid.
Even if the claims are pursued within the community, justice is imperfect , to say the least. According to a letter from Rabbi Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg posted on the blog FailedMessiah, Kolko was investigated on sexual abuse charges by a council of rabbis in 1985 and found innocent. “Because Kolko did not penetrate his victims, there was no actual abuse,” said the lead rabbi, according to witnesses to the ruling.
Unsurprisingly, Waldman received public support from the ultra-Orthodox community after his March 5 arrest. “I’m certain he’ll be acquitted of everything. He’s a nice, honorable, respectable person,” a neighbor told PIX 11. When told federal officials had traced child porn to the IP address on Waldman’s computer, the neighbor said: “I’m even surprised he has a computer.”
Whether Waldman will find the same level of support now that he is linked to an even bigger and more disturbing child pornography bust remains to be seen.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/21/brooklyn-rabbi-busted-again-for-child-porn.html
Remove Andy Gabel from the Speedskating Hall of Fame and Revoke his Lifetime Membership in U.S. Speedskating
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformRemove Andy Gabel from the Speedskating Hall of Fame and Revoke his Lifetime Membership in U.S. Speedskating
http://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-olympic-speedskating-board-of-directors-remove-andy-gabel-from-the-speedskating-hall-of-fame-and-revoke-his-lifetime-membership-in-u-s-speedskating?recruiter=65435466&utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition#supporters
Women’s Sports Foundation
Petition by
Women’s Sports Foundation
Last week, 66 speedskaters filed a proposal asking that Andy Gabel receive a lifetime ban from US Speedskating, and that he be removed from the United States Speedskating Hall of Fame, due to his admitted “inappropriate relationship” of his minor teammates. This petition asks for your signature as a sign of support as well.
Last year, Bridie Farrell accused Andy Gabel of molesting her when she was just 15 years old and Gabel was 33, on NPR radio. Within days, Gabel resigned from his positions within U.S. Speedskating and the International Skating Union, and publicly confessed to “inappropriate” relationships with young female athletes. Less than a week later, another skater-victim, Nikki Meyer, shared similar allegations; that Gabel forced her to have sex with him in 1991 when she was 15 years old. Additionally, since Farrell and Meyer have come forward, documents of another investigation for possible inappropriate sexual contact with another skater who was a minor surfaced.
US Speedskating conducted a year-long investigation into Andy Gabel’s conduct, but refuses to make the results public. At last year’s Speedskating Board of Directors meeting, an almost identical proposal was submitted, but was ignored.
Most Hall of Fames are designed to immortalize an athlete’s noble accomplishments, including contributions that honor the sport. The Speedskating Hall of Fame is no different; inductees are “judged on [their] record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship and character,” Individuals who have engaged in sexual relations minors, however, should be disqualified from any sport’s Hall of Fame, particularly when the inductee inflicted sexual damage on fellow athletes.
As a current member in good standing, an Olympian and a member of skating’s Hall of Famer, Andy Gabel has entre to young children in Speedskating.
A lifetime ban from the sport and removal from the Hall of Fame is the least an Olympic sport’s National Governing Body can do to preserve the safety of its athletes and to send a firm message to those that might abuse their power within sport.
Please take a stand against sexual abuse in club and Olympic sports, and sign this petition to remove Andrew Gabel from the U.S. Speedskating Hall of Fame and revoke his lifetime membership in the Olympic sport.
To:
U.S. Olympic Speedskating Board of Directors, Women’s Sports Foundation
Ted Morris, Executive Director, U.S. Speedskating
On behalf of victims of sexual abuse and in support of the 66 speedskaters who have already submitted a proposal to the Board of Directors, we are asking you to remove Andy Gabel from the Speedskating Hall of Fame and revoke his lifetime membership in U.S. Speedskating.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
http://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-olympic-speedskating-board-of-directors-remove-andy-gabel-from-the-speedskating-hall-of-fame-and-revoke-his-lifetime-membership-in-u-s-speedskating?recruiter=65435466&utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition#supporters
Voters support SOL reform; Legislators should follow., Mai Fernandez, Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
/in New Jersey, New York /by SOL ReformSupporting the rights of children over those of institutions remains an uphill battle in the United States. The public understands that child abusers don’t retire, and they know that many institutions reflexively protect their reputations rather protect kids. Meanwhile, legislators lag way behind their constituents.
In California, legislators ran from the committee room to avoid recording a vote on the Child Victims Act, a bill which would have provided a modest window for adult survivors of child sex abuse to have their day in court. When the bill finally passed with the narrowest of margins, it was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. In New York state, a similar reform act has been repeatedly blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Slowly, however, the gap between legislators and the public on this issue is gaining attention. What is also clear is that all demographics – including Democrats, Republicans, Catholics and Non-Catholics want their representatives to reform the laws that stop child abusing victims getting justice. The National Center for Victims of Crime recently commissioned a poll of 600 voters in several key Republican senate districts on New York State to see if voters supported their legislator’s efforts to block reform. Yet, even in an electorate that favors Republicans, strong majorities in every demographic and every geographic region polled favored sex abuse victims’ efforts to expand their access to civil courts.
A 57% majority of voters surveyed thought it should be easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue their abuser or the organization where the abuse occurred, versus 9% that thought it should be harder to sue and 20% that favored the status quo.
By a margin of 60% to 38%, voters in Republican Senate districts prefer a system where victims can sue their abuser “at any time” rather than having “some time limit” after the abuse occurs.
Despite the church’s assertions that the legislation is ”anti-Catholic,” “singles out the church for liability,” and harms “good institutions, rather than the perpetrators of the abuse,” 67% support eliminating the civil statute of limitations, from this point forward, to allow future victims to sue their abuser or a legally-responsible organization at any time. That position was supported by 63% of Republican/Conservative Party voters and 70% of Catholics
In recent years, Florida, Maine, Alaska, Minnesota and Illinois have all eliminated the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse. California, Delaware, Hawaii and Minnesota have passed civil windows which allowed old cases to be filed. In all of those states, perpetrators have been exposed, children have been protected, victims received justice, and none of the major youth-serving organizations went out of business. Perhaps some strategically used public opinion polls could help pull a few more states into the “SOL reform caucus” and further promote justice and accountability for victims of childhood sexual abuse.
While opponents maintain that the “civil window” – which temporarily suspends the statute of limitations for sex abuse victims and allows them to file civil lawsuits no matter how long ago the abuse occurred – is the most objectionable provision of the Child Victims Act, 55% of voters surveyed support the civil window. Voters who support the civil window include 58% of Republicans and 60% of Catholics.
If the Church’s policy arguments against SOL reform are insufficient to secure a legislator’s opposition, the Bishops often suggest that, by voting against the Church’s interests, the legislator risks losing “the Catholic Vote.” Yet, by a 2:1 margin, voters say they would be more likely to a legislator who supported expanding statutes of limitation for child sex abuse victims.
The public makes clear that the rights of children and adult survivors of child abuse are a priority. It is time their elected representatives examine their consciences and step up.
http://hamilton-griffin.com/guest-blog-mia-fernandez-voters-support-sol-reform-legislators-should-follow/