You’d think that a bill to give victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to file a lawsuit would be the sort of non-controversial legislation that politicians would rush to champion. Well, you’d be wrong.
A California bill to let a small group of sexual abuse victims bring forward lawsuits has faced intense opposition from the Catholic Church. Senate Bill 131 by State Senator Jim Beall, D-San Jose, passed the state Senate without a single vote to spare. It now awaits a decision by former Jesuit seminarian Gov. Jerry Brown.
Why would state lawmakers block an effort to aid sexual abuse victims? Money.
Organizations that harbored abusers are fearful that they will be held civilly liable for their role in covering up cases of childhood sexual abuse. Catholic dioceses in California have already paid out $1.2 billion in abuse settlements. Instead of facing a new round of lawsuits and more settlements, the church decided that it was better to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a lobbying campaign to block SB 131.
In August, the Orange County Register first reported on the elaborate, high-priced lobbying scheme to defeat the bill. According to the Sacramento Bee,
The newly created California Council of Nonprofit Organizations poured $258,000 into fighting the bill in the first six months of this year. The California Council, an umbrella organization of the California Catholic Conference, hired five lobbying firms, including heavyweight Lang Hansen O’Malley and Miller Governmental Relations.
These high-priced lobbyists did what they do best. They distorted the facts and spread misinformation about SB 131. One red herring raised by the hired guns: the bill is unfair because it does not revive cases against perpetrators or public entities. It only targets private institutions.
The argument is a distraction from the issue. Perpetrators are covered by criminal law. Public entities are held liable under a separate code section. And it’s irrelevant to whether the state should hold private institutions accountable, some of which, even today, remain in denial.
“Today, there is no institution in the nation that has less of a problem with the sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church,” claimed William A. Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, in a letter of opposition to SB 131. “In California, in particular, there has been so much progress that priestly sexual abuse has long since ceased to exist.”
Ceased to exist? Donohue doesn’t understand that the threat of sexual abuse is ongoing. It never ceases to exist because there are always more predators. Victims will always face an uphill battle to be taken seriously. For that very reason, big institutions must remain ever vigilant and adopt procedures that encourage an ongoing discussion about sexual abuse.
Eileen King, an expert on child abuse and the executive director of Child Justice, an outstanding nonprofit organization that advocates for abused, neglected and at-risk children, recently explained just how difficult it can be for victims to confront their accuser.
“The survivor may feel enormous shame, conflicts of affection and loyalty, or may feel pressure to ‘forgive and forget’ — especially when the perpetrator is a minister, priest, rabbi, or counselor who the survivor has held in awe and for whom he/she still feels strong ties of affection or obedience,” she told me.
But, of all the red herrings concocted by Sacramento lobbyists, my personal favorite: The bill helps the greedy trial lawyers. Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, the bill’s most vocal opponent, said, “It ought not to be just about reopening wounds and feeding trial attorneys.”
Advocates for survivors of sexual abuse take umbrage with Harkey’s argument. Joelle Casteix, Western Regional Director for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, pointed out that some of the worst sexual abuse happened in Orange County, Harkey’s backyard.
“Saying that SB 131 is ‘feeding trial attorneys’ is a slap in the face to the brave victims in Harkey’s own district who were able to use the 2003 civil window to expose men like Denis Lyons, Michael Pecharich and John Lenihan — men who had escaped exposure because of the concerted actions of church officials to silence victims.”
As for reopening wounds, Casteix said,
The only way that old wounds are opened is when abuse is kept secret and wrongdoers are allowed to continue in abuse and cover-up. Victims are re-traumatized when lawmakers with no knowledge of the subject spout hurtful and incorrect rhetoric about the victims’ rights movement in an attempt to keep more victims silent and disenfranchised.
Casteix raises another important point.
“If Governor Brown signs SB 131 into law, victims can move onto the next step: eliminating sovereign immunity for public institutions that cover up child sex abuse,” she said. “But if we lose SB 131, we will never have the momentum to tackle that huge feat.”
I’m betting a former “Catholic rebel” like Jerry Brown will stand up for the silent and disenfranchised.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Oakley made the allegation in opening statements in the trial of Robert Poandl, from the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners. Poandl has pleaded not guilty to a charge of knowingly transporting a minor in interstate commerce for sex. The charge was filed 21 years after the abuse allegedly occurred while the two visited a church in Spencer, W.Va.
“This is a case about trust,” Oakley told jurors.
He said Poandl violated the trust that the boy had in the priest and changed his life forever. The previously mild-mannered boy changed after that night in 1991, becoming involved with drugs and other problems, Oakley said.
But Poandl’s attorney said evidence will show the allegations are false and that the priest did not even make the trip with the boy.
“The accusation does not match reality,” attorney Stephen Wenke said.
The accuser made statements to law enforcement officials in 2009 and Wenke said many of them will be shown to be false.
The trial began after U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett rejected a defense motion to dismiss the case over a statute of limitations. The judge ruled the prosecution clearly alleged an offense involving sexual abuse of a child under age 18. Federal law permits prosecution of child sexual abuse at any time during the life of the accuser.
The Glenmary religious order is a society of priests and brothers who dedicate themselves to establishing a Catholic presence in rural areas and small towns.
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By Sam Levin
Published Mon., Sep. 16 2013 at 8:00 AM
In July, a local family filed a lawsuit agains the Archdiocese of St. Louis, alleging that Archbishop Robert Carlson attempted to cover up a priest’s sex abuse and tamper with evidence in the process. This suit, surrounding Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, was filed after Carlson was subpoenaed in the criminal investigation of Jiang (who is accused of repeatedly molesting a teenage girl in her home). As the case moves forward this month, victims’ rights groups are arguing that Carlson’s inadequate response reflects a long history of mishandling abuse allegations.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), an advocacy group based in St. Louis, has provided Daily RFT with newly released documents from 1984 relating to a case at the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, involving then bishop Carlson. The letters, the group argues, shed light on his decades of direct experience with these kinds of cases and repeated efforts to downplay abuse.
“It’s the antithesis of what a caring shepherd should do,” says David Clohessy, SNAP executive director.
The files are noteworthy because they offer a rare glimpse into a top church official’s direct statements and response on sex abuse allegations and they also highlight just how long Carlson has dealt with these kinds of controversies — a history which, Clohessy says, should better inform his efforts today.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis, however, is strongly pushing back against the criticisms of SNAP, offering Daily RFT a lengthy statement (full response on view below) defending Carlson’s record on these matters and arguing that he has been a national leader in this area and a “voice for transparency in clergy sex abuse cases.” Church officials say his work is still a model today and that he deserves credit, as an Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis official puts it, for taking steps in the 1980s to “break the culture of clerical secrecy in our Archdiocese.”
The documents relate to Father Thomas Adamson, a Minnesota priest who is accused of child sex abuse and who was allegedly transferred between numerous parishes where he worked with children even after reportedly confessing the abuse to Diocese officials. These documents — file on view below — were released as part of a recent legal battle.
In a July 9, 1984 memo, Carlson writes to the Archbishop about the case:
In the counseling process at St. Cloud, it has become evident that [redacted] was also sexually abused from 1972 to 1982. I asked Father Adamson about this and he admitted and, in fact, he had abused the boy during that period of time. I did not go into the sexual activity, but Father Adamson agreed that it probably would be first degree criminal sexual contact.
Carlson explains in the letter that he recommended specific criminal attorneys for Adamson (which he would have to pay for).
Carlson then writes (emphasis ours):
It is my recommendation, given the seriousness of our exposure, that theArchdiocese posture itself in such a way that any publicity will be minimized. I would recommend that in cooperating with Bishop Watters, that Father Adamson be sent to the Paracletes in Albuquerque or to the House of Affirmation. It is obvious to me in dealing with Father Adamson at this time that he has little remorse other than the fact that we found something else out and completely minimizes the entire situation.
Clohessy says that this is another instance of church officials trying to minimize bad press of an abuse scandal. “The first question should be, how do we find out whether he’s hurt other kids and how do we help them? And how do we stop him from doing it again?”
The documents more broadly reveal “how much church leaders knew about Adamson and how little they did to stop him,” Clohessy says.
Continue for more commentary from SNAP and for the full Archdiocese response.
In the Jiang case in St. Louis — in which Carlson is soon to be deposed — the archbishop is accused of attempting to take back money that the priest had given to the family in an effort to keep the parents quiet. This move, the family says in its lawsuit, is clearly a move to tamper with incriminating evidence. The Archdiocese, in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit, says that Carlson vehemently denies this allegation.
Given that Carlson has experience on the ground dealing with these kinds of cases, he should have known better in the St. Louis case, Clohessy argues.
“Literally thirty years ago, he was dealing, as these letters suggest, in a fairly hands-on, detailed way with one of the very first publicly exposed predator priests,” he says. “It points out just how long he has been concealing these crimes and how knowledgeable he is about the details of the statute of limitations.”
It is rare that victims do sue and bring to light these kinds of internal documents in this manner, Clohessy notes, adding that it’s shocking to see how problematic the church’s approach was decades ago. “You should’ve seen almost nothing but concern for the victim and yet even 30 years ago, you’ll see in these documents that the focus is always what do we do about the father?”
A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of St. Louis sends Daily RFT this lengthy rebuttal from SNAP, which we’ve printed here in full:
In the last two decades Archbishop Robert J. Carlson has become a voice for transparency in clergy sex abuse cases. The experiences he had with reporting clergy misconduct to church leadership in the Archdiocese of St. Paul – Minneapolis in the early 1980’s have influenced the way he handles these cases today as an archbishop. By the time clergy sex abuse unfolded on a national scale in 2002, then Bishop Carlson led the way in South Dakota where he worked with the state’s attorney and offered to open up the church’s files. Bishop Carlson also required local, state, and national background checks for priests who came in from other dioceses along with other diocesan workers.Fr. Kevin McDonough, Director of Safe Environment for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, previously stated, “As frequently as possible in public forums, I credit Archbishop Carlson for taking steps in the 1980’s to break the culture of clerical secrecy in our Archdiocese. The work of Bishop Carlson as early as the first half of the 1980’s in St. Paul-Minneapolis is still a model of responsible citizenship of honest, open cooperation with public officials and especially concern for the safety of children thirty years later.”
In June of 2002 the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) established the Dallas Charter, a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the requirements of the Dallas Charter are fulfilled by our Safe Environment Office and the Office of Child and Youth Protection. Since 2002, one-hundred thousand people have completed this program. Any adult who is employed by or volunteers in our parishes and institutions who works with minors is required to complete the “Protecting God’s Children” program, which teaches how to recognize questionable behavior, to implement practices for the safety of children, and to take necessary steps to address even the suspicion that a cleric or Church worker has done something inappropriate.
Today, under Archbishop Carlson’s leadership, the Archdiocese of St. Louis has cooperated fully with law enforcement and prosecutors involved in any abuse matters that have risen locally. The Archdiocese of St. Louis maintains a Child Safety Committee and an Archdiocesan Review Board in addition to the measures mentioned above. This Committee and Board include lay professionals from the community who review the child safety policies of the Archdiocese as well as each and every allegation of clergy sexual abuse. Any reports of abuse of a minor can be made to law enforcement officials, the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 800.392.3738, or Deacon Phil Hengen, Director of Child and Youth Protection for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, at 314.792.7704.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis did not respond to Daily RFT’s request for comment.
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In August 2012, Fr. Shawn Ratigan pleaded guilty to five counts of producing or attempting to produce child pornography. He received 10 years for each count and will serve his time in the Clay County Detention Center.
After the priest entered his guilty plea last year, the diocese filed a petition with the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he be laicized.
In a statement about the priest’s sentencing, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph said: “To victims of abuse, their families and the community at large, I renew my heartfelt apology and firm pledge to make our Catholic institutions second to none in the protection of children and the vulnerable.”
“Much has already been done to strengthen a culture of protection in the local church since the arrest” of Ratigan in May 2011, the bishop said in a statement Thursday.
He outlined several steps the diocese has taken to address clergy sexual abuse, among them his appointment of former Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Jenifer Valenti “to independently receive and investigate any and all suspicion of abuse, grooming behavior and boundary violations in our Catholic institutions.”
“Under her direction, every single reported suspicion of abuse is immediately forwarded to law enforcement. All reported suspicion of abuse against minors is additionally referred to the Missouri Children’s Division,” Finn said.
Among other actions, the diocese created an Office of Child and Youth Protection to implement and improve safe environment training programs and outreach services to victims; codified a new diocesan policy for response to abuse allegations, “with the mandate that all reports of abuse are referred to civil authorities”; developed new universal code of ethics for all diocesan personnel; and trained more than 1,000 diocesan leaders in mandatory reporting and “in recognizing child pornography, child obscenity, child erotica and grooming.”
Diocesan authorities’ failure to immediately report a computer technician’s discovery of child pornography on a computer used by Ratigan, then pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Butler, led to Finn being charged with misdemeanors for failing to report suspected child abuse to state authorities. The diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph faced similar charges.
The child pornography was first discovered in December 2010. Authorities were not notified until six months later, when a search of the priest’s family home turned up images of child pornography.
On Sept. 6, 2012, Finn was convicted of one count of failing to report suspected child abuse and acquitted on another count in a brief bench trial.
Jackson County Circuit Judge John M. Torrence issued the verdict and sentenced the bishop to two years’ probation. The charges carried a possible maximum sentence of one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Torrence dismissed the charges against the diocese after sentencing the bishop.
Finn is the highest ranking U.S. Catholic official to face criminal charges related to child sex abuse.
Several of the steps taken by the diocese to address abuse, including mandatory training of all staff and all clergy and putting in place reporting requirements, were among conditions Torrence set for Finn’s probation.
“I am hopeful that these many proactive steps in promoting a culture of protection, awareness, investigation and immediate action on suspicions of abuse will help rebuild broken trust and make our local church a model for the protection of children and the vulnerable,” the bishop said Thursday.
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Article 32 hearings are an anachronism at odds with modern jurisprudence and the military’s current priorities
By Eugene R. Fidell9:54 a.m. EDT, September 16, 2013
The latest high-profile military justice case to come out of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis merits nationwide attention. In a nutshell, it involves allegations of sexual assault of a female midshipman by several members of the Academy football team. Liquor seems to have played a pivotal role.
The case raises a host of issues, such as the facilitation of drinking by athletes at what amounts to an off-campus fraternity house. It is also disturbing that Naval Academy athletes seem over recent memory to have a real penchant for getting into trouble. It is tempting to argue that it is time to dial back not only liquor consumption but also athletics at what is, after all, supposed to be a training ground for officers and gentlemen.
The preliminary investigation recently conducted at the Washington Navy Yard pursuant to Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) has been a terrible spectacle in itself. The accuser was subjected to hour after hour of cross-examination by lawyers for the accuseds. The questioning was at times plainly abusive, delving into such matters as preferred techniques for oral sex. The Constitution gives criminal defendants, including military personnel, a right to confront the witnesses against them, but there is still an obligation on the part of the presiding officer to impose reasonable limits. That does not seem to have happened here.
This is particularly baffling given the current heightened interest in fostering an environment in which military personnel who are victims of sexual assault are not discouraged from coming forward with complaints. Indeed, if one were looking for a way to create a chilling effect on complainants coming forward, it would be hard to do better than conduct an Article 32 investigation like the one that just ended.
It would also be hard to find a clearer case of a conflict of interest than having the superintendent of the Naval Academy — an institution of higher learning that has long prided itself on its football prowess — decide whether criminal charges should be brought against members of the football team. (A lawsuit seeking the superintendent’s recusal from the process is pending in federal court. It should have been brought within the military justice system instead.)
Congress is considering changes in the UCMJ, particularly regarding the pre- and post-trial role of commanders who act as “convening authorities.” The debate has already highlighted several aspects of the statute that are anachronisms which can be jettisoned. These include the commander’s power to decide who shall be prosecuted for what, as well as the power to set aside convictions and reduce or disapprove sentences.
The Naval Academy case points to another. Congress first required a preliminary investigation in the 1920 Articles of War. At the time, that was considered reform legislation. It no longer is. Now there are military judges presiding over real courts, and lawyers play pivotal roles as prosecutors, defense counsel, and legal advisers to commanders. Additionally, there are appellate courts, including the all-civilian United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
Article 32 investigations have become trials nearly as fulsome and extensive as the actual general court-martial to which they are a prelude. This means that victims are likely to face not one, but two full-tilt cross-examinations. This is not what Congress intended, and it makes no sense given the other changes that have taken place in the nearly a century since the 1920 Articles of War were enacted. The benefits of subjecting complaining witnesses to what has become in effect a dry run — a trial-before-the-trial — do not come close to outweighing the costs, especially in light of the fact that all an Article 32 hearing produces is a recommendation to the commander, who may accept or reject it in his or her discretion.
It is time for Congress to repeal Article 32 and substitute a requirement for a bare bones preliminary hearing along the lines of those conducted in the federal district courts. The question such a hearing would address is a very simple one: is there “probable cause to believe an offense has been committed and the defendant committed it.”
The court-martial defense bar will object to this reform. Its members will argue that the Article 32 investigation is a valuable right of the accused because it provides guaranteed broad discovery of the prosecution’s case. Indeed, the Article 32 investigation is often pointed to as one of the respects in which the military justice system provides greater rights than the civilian criminal justice system. The objection should be carefully considered. My own view is that it reflects an outdated paternalistic view of the military justice system and fails to take account of the many improvements military justice has experienced since the UCMJ was enacted in 1950, not to mention 1920. It also fails to reflect the sea change in military justice that today takes increased account of the interests of crime victims.
The Naval Academy case is one of those shocking events that reveals systemic weakness and can galvanize public opinion. What happened at the Navy Yard should never happen again. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and many members of the House and Senate are anxious to do something serious about sexual assault. This time- and money-saving reform should be high on their to-do list.
Eugene R. Fidell teaches military justice at Yale Law School. His email is eugene.fidell@yale.edu.
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In the first major study of child abuse and neglect in 20 years, researchers with the National Academy of Sciences reported Thursday that the damaging consequences of abuse can not only reshape a child’s brain but also last a lifetime.
Untreated, the effects of child abuse and neglect, the researchers found, can profoundly influence victims’ physical and mental health, their ability to control emotions and impulses, their achievement in school, and the relationships they form as children and as adults.
The researchers recommended an “immediate, coordinated” national strategy to better understand, treat and prevent child abuse and neglect, noting that each year, abuse and neglect costs an estimated $80 billion in the direct costs of hospitalization, law enforcement and child welfare and the indirect costs of special education, juvenile and adult criminal justice, adult homelessness, and lost work productivity.
“Child abuse and neglect is a serious public health problem which requires immediate, urgent attention,” said Anne Petersen, a professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Michigan who chaired the research committee for the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies. “The consequences can last into adulthood, with significant costs to the individual, to families, and to society.”
The report, produced at the request of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that while rates of physical and sexual child abuse have declined in the past 20 years, rates of emotional and psychological abuse, the kind that can produce the most serious long-lasting effects, have increased. Rates of neglect have held fairly steady. Researchers said they do not know why.
“That’s why we make that a research priority in our recommendations,” said Lucy Berliner, a professor at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work and a committee member. “We need to understand better the reasons behind these trends.”
Berliner said the committee is proposing a coordinated strategy, because it found so much variation among states, in how abuse and neglect are defined and how local officials are trained to respond to it. “Some states had dramatic, 100 percent increases in cases of neglect,” she said. “And others had 100 percent decreases. That speaks to the complexity of the problem.”
Every year, child-protection agencies receive 3 million referrals for child abuse and neglect involving about 6 million children, the report found, though with unreported instances, the actual number is probably much higher, the researchers said. And, the report noted, about 80 percent of the children in investigated abuse and neglect cases are not removed from the home.
Child victims are equally likely to be male or female, the report found. The majority are younger than 5. About 80 percent of the perpetrators are parents, the vast majority biological parents. More than half of the perpetrators are female.
Angela Diaz, director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and another committee member, said the report found three risk factors that increased the likelihood of child abuse: parental depression, parental substance abuse and whether the parents had been abused or neglected as children.
The researchers did not find an association between rates of abuse and times of economic hardship such as the recent Great Recession.
“Researchers found relationships that were hard to make sense of: increases in child abuse in relationship to mortgage foreclosure but not to unemployment rates,” Berliner said. “It’s not all that straightforward. After welfare reform in the 1990s, there was a concern that as people lost their benefits, that would cause a spike in child-abuse referrals. Instead, that was a period of the greatest reduction in child-abuse referrals.”
While so much remains a mystery about the causes of abuse, and why some children respond to treatment and recover and others do not, the researchers said advances in brain science in the past 20 years show just how devastating and long-lasting the effects of abuse can be on the structure and the function of the brain.
Research has found that abuse and neglect can influence the amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates emotions, particularly fear and anxiety. Abuse also has been shown to change how the prefrontal cortex functions, the part of the brain responsible for thinking, planning, reasoning and decision making, which can lead to behavioral and academic problems.
But there is hope, researchers said.
“The effects seen on abused children’s brain and behavioral development are not static,” said committee member Mary Dozier, chairman of child development at the University of Delaware. “If we can intervene and change a child’s environment, we actually see plasticity in the brain. So, we see negative changes when a child is abused, but we also see positive brain changes when the abuse ends and they are more supported. Interventions can be very effective.”
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It’s not the money. It’s the secrets they STILL hold.
/in California /by SOL ReformJohn Hrabe
Investigative Journalist
A California bill to let a small group of sexual abuse victims bring forward lawsuits has faced intense opposition from the Catholic Church. Senate Bill 131 by State Senator Jim Beall, D-San Jose, passed the state Senate without a single vote to spare. It now awaits a decision by former Jesuit seminarian Gov. Jerry Brown.
Why would state lawmakers block an effort to aid sexual abuse victims? Money.
Organizations that harbored abusers are fearful that they will be held civilly liable for their role in covering up cases of childhood sexual abuse. Catholic dioceses in California have already paid out $1.2 billion in abuse settlements. Instead of facing a new round of lawsuits and more settlements, the church decided that it was better to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a lobbying campaign to block SB 131.
In August, the Orange County Register first reported on the elaborate, high-priced lobbying scheme to defeat the bill. According to the Sacramento Bee,
These high-priced lobbyists did what they do best. They distorted the facts and spread misinformation about SB 131. One red herring raised by the hired guns: the bill is unfair because it does not revive cases against perpetrators or public entities. It only targets private institutions.
The argument is a distraction from the issue. Perpetrators are covered by criminal law. Public entities are held liable under a separate code section. And it’s irrelevant to whether the state should hold private institutions accountable, some of which, even today, remain in denial.
“Today, there is no institution in the nation that has less of a problem with the sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church,” claimed William A. Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, in a letter of opposition to SB 131. “In California, in particular, there has been so much progress that priestly sexual abuse has long since ceased to exist.”
Ceased to exist? Donohue doesn’t understand that the threat of sexual abuse is ongoing. It never ceases to exist because there are always more predators. Victims will always face an uphill battle to be taken seriously. For that very reason, big institutions must remain ever vigilant and adopt procedures that encourage an ongoing discussion about sexual abuse.
Eileen King, an expert on child abuse and the executive director of Child Justice, an outstanding nonprofit organization that advocates for abused, neglected and at-risk children, recently explained just how difficult it can be for victims to confront their accuser.
“The survivor may feel enormous shame, conflicts of affection and loyalty, or may feel pressure to ‘forgive and forget’ — especially when the perpetrator is a minister, priest, rabbi, or counselor who the survivor has held in awe and for whom he/she still feels strong ties of affection or obedience,” she told me.
But, of all the red herrings concocted by Sacramento lobbyists, my personal favorite: The bill helps the greedy trial lawyers. Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, the bill’s most vocal opponent, said, “It ought not to be just about reopening wounds and feeding trial attorneys.”
Advocates for survivors of sexual abuse take umbrage with Harkey’s argument. Joelle Casteix, Western Regional Director for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, pointed out that some of the worst sexual abuse happened in Orange County, Harkey’s backyard.
“Saying that SB 131 is ‘feeding trial attorneys’ is a slap in the face to the brave victims in Harkey’s own district who were able to use the 2003 civil window to expose men like Denis Lyons, Michael Pecharich and John Lenihan — men who had escaped exposure because of the concerted actions of church officials to silence victims.”
As for reopening wounds, Casteix said,
Casteix raises another important point.
“If Governor Brown signs SB 131 into law, victims can move onto the next step: eliminating sovereign immunity for public institutions that cover up child sex abuse,” she said. “But if we lose SB 131, we will never have the momentum to tackle that huge feat.”
I’m betting a former “Catholic rebel” like Jerry Brown will stand up for the silent and disenfranchised.
When SOL doesn’t stand in the way, justice is possible
/in Ohio, West Virginia /by SOL ReformProsecutor says Ohio priest raped boy in W.Va.
CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio priest took a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia for sex more than two decades ago and raped him there, later praying with the boy for forgiveness, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Oakley made the allegation in opening statements in the trial of Robert Poandl, from the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners. Poandl has pleaded not guilty to a charge of knowingly transporting a minor in interstate commerce for sex. The charge was filed 21 years after the abuse allegedly occurred while the two visited a church in Spencer, W.Va.
“This is a case about trust,” Oakley told jurors.
He said Poandl violated the trust that the boy had in the priest and changed his life forever. The previously mild-mannered boy changed after that night in 1991, becoming involved with drugs and other problems, Oakley said.
“The accusation does not match reality,” attorney Stephen Wenke said.
The accuser made statements to law enforcement officials in 2009 and Wenke said many of them will be shown to be false.
The trial began after U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett rejected a defense motion to dismiss the case over a statute of limitations. The judge ruled the prosecution clearly alleged an offense involving sexual abuse of a child under age 18. Federal law permits prosecution of child sexual abuse at any time during the life of the accuser.
The Glenmary religious order is a society of priests and brothers who dedicate themselves to establishing a Catholic presence in rural areas and small towns.
I’m shocked! Bishop more concerned about pr than kids! (Archbishop Robert Carlson: Old Files Shed Light on Long History of Handling Sex Abuse Scandals)
/in Missouri /by SOL ReformI’m shocked! Bishop more concerned about pr than kids!
Archbishop Robert Carlson: Old Files Shed Light on Long History of Handling Sex Abuse Scandals
By Sam Levin
Published Mon., Sep. 16 2013 at 8:00 AM
In July, a local family filed a lawsuit agains the Archdiocese of St. Louis, alleging that Archbishop Robert Carlson attempted to cover up a priest’s sex abuse and tamper with evidence in the process. This suit, surrounding Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, was filed after Carlson was subpoenaed in the criminal investigation of Jiang (who is accused of repeatedly molesting a teenage girl in her home). As the case moves forward this month, victims’ rights groups are arguing that Carlson’s inadequate response reflects a long history of mishandling abuse allegations.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), an advocacy group based in St. Louis, has provided Daily RFT with newly released documents from 1984 relating to a case at the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, involving then bishop Carlson. The letters, the group argues, shed light on his decades of direct experience with these kinds of cases and repeated efforts to downplay abuse.
“It’s the antithesis of what a caring shepherd should do,” says David Clohessy, SNAP executive director.
See also: St. Louis Archdiocese Cancels Event to Pray for “Exoneration” of Priest Accused of Sex Abuse
The files are noteworthy because they offer a rare glimpse into a top church official’s direct statements and response on sex abuse allegations and they also highlight just how long Carlson has dealt with these kinds of controversies — a history which, Clohessy says, should better inform his efforts today.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis, however, is strongly pushing back against the criticisms of SNAP, offering Daily RFT a lengthy statement (full response on view below) defending Carlson’s record on these matters and arguing that he has been a national leader in this area and a “voice for transparency in clergy sex abuse cases.” Church officials say his work is still a model today and that he deserves credit, as an Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis official puts it, for taking steps in the 1980s to “break the culture of clerical secrecy in our Archdiocese.”
The documents relate to Father Thomas Adamson, a Minnesota priest who is accused of child sex abuse and who was allegedly transferred between numerous parishes where he worked with children even after reportedly confessing the abuse to Diocese officials. These documents — file on view below — were released as part of a recent legal battle.
In a July 9, 1984 memo, Carlson writes to the Archbishop about the case:
Carlson explains in the letter that he recommended specific criminal attorneys for Adamson (which he would have to pay for).
Carlson then writes (emphasis ours):
Clohessy says that this is another instance of church officials trying to minimize bad press of an abuse scandal. “The first question should be, how do we find out whether he’s hurt other kids and how do we help them? And how do we stop him from doing it again?”
The documents more broadly reveal “how much church leaders knew about Adamson and how little they did to stop him,” Clohessy says.
Continue for more commentary from SNAP and for the full Archdiocese response.
See also: Fr. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang: Archbishop Robert Carlson Subpoenaed in Priest Sex Abuse Case
In the Jiang case in St. Louis — in which Carlson is soon to be deposed — the archbishop is accused of attempting to take back money that the priest had given to the family in an effort to keep the parents quiet. This move, the family says in its lawsuit, is clearly a move to tamper with incriminating evidence. The Archdiocese, in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit, says that Carlson vehemently denies this allegation.
Given that Carlson has experience on the ground dealing with these kinds of cases, he should have known better in the St. Louis case, Clohessy argues.
“Literally thirty years ago, he was dealing, as these letters suggest, in a fairly hands-on, detailed way with one of the very first publicly exposed predator priests,” he says. “It points out just how long he has been concealing these crimes and how knowledgeable he is about the details of the statute of limitations.”
It is rare that victims do sue and bring to light these kinds of internal documents in this manner, Clohessy notes, adding that it’s shocking to see how problematic the church’s approach was decades ago. “You should’ve seen almost nothing but concern for the victim and yet even 30 years ago, you’ll see in these documents that the focus is always what do we do about the father?”
A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of St. Louis sends Daily RFT this lengthy rebuttal from SNAP, which we’ve printed here in full:
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis did not respond to Daily RFT’s request for comment.
Here are the full documents in question:
Bishop Carlson
Rare but sweet justice! (Former Kansas City pastor sentenced to 50 years in federal prison | National Catholic Reporter)
/in Kansas /by SOL ReformRare but sweet justice!
Former Kansas City pastor sentenced to 50 years in federal prison
After the priest entered his guilty plea last year, the diocese filed a petition with the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he be laicized.
In a statement about the priest’s sentencing, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph said: “To victims of abuse, their families and the community at large, I renew my heartfelt apology and firm pledge to make our Catholic institutions second to none in the protection of children and the vulnerable.”
“Much has already been done to strengthen a culture of protection in the local church since the arrest” of Ratigan in May 2011, the bishop said in a statement Thursday.
NCR‘s newest blog,The Francis Chronicles, reports on the ministry of the world’s parish priest. Visit the blogand sign up for email alerts so you won’t miss a thing.
He outlined several steps the diocese has taken to address clergy sexual abuse, among them his appointment of former Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Jenifer Valenti “to independently receive and investigate any and all suspicion of abuse, grooming behavior and boundary violations in our Catholic institutions.”
“Under her direction, every single reported suspicion of abuse is immediately forwarded to law enforcement. All reported suspicion of abuse against minors is additionally referred to the Missouri Children’s Division,” Finn said.
Among other actions, the diocese created an Office of Child and Youth Protection to implement and improve safe environment training programs and outreach services to victims; codified a new diocesan policy for response to abuse allegations, “with the mandate that all reports of abuse are referred to civil authorities”; developed new universal code of ethics for all diocesan personnel; and trained more than 1,000 diocesan leaders in mandatory reporting and “in recognizing child pornography, child obscenity, child erotica and grooming.”
Diocesan authorities’ failure to immediately report a computer technician’s discovery of child pornography on a computer used by Ratigan, then pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Butler, led to Finn being charged with misdemeanors for failing to report suspected child abuse to state authorities. The diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph faced similar charges.
The child pornography was first discovered in December 2010. Authorities were not notified until six months later, when a search of the priest’s family home turned up images of child pornography.
On Sept. 6, 2012, Finn was convicted of one count of failing to report suspected child abuse and acquitted on another count in a brief bench trial.
Jackson County Circuit Judge John M. Torrence issued the verdict and sentenced the bishop to two years’ probation. The charges carried a possible maximum sentence of one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Torrence dismissed the charges against the diocese after sentencing the bishop.
Finn is the highest ranking U.S. Catholic official to face criminal charges related to child sex abuse.
Several of the steps taken by the diocese to address abuse, including mandatory training of all staff and all clergy and putting in place reporting requirements, were among conditions Torrence set for Finn’s probation.
“I am hopeful that these many proactive steps in promoting a culture of protection, awareness, investigation and immediate action on suspicions of abuse will help rebuild broken trust and make our local church a model for the protection of children and the vulnerable,” the bishop said Thursday.
Congress needs to fix the law that let’s military hide scandal and hurt victims
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformCongress needs to fix the law that let’s military hide scandal and hurt victims:
The Naval Academy sex assault hearing should be the last of its kind
Article 32 hearings are an anachronism at odds with modern jurisprudence and the military’s current priorities
The latest high-profile military justice case to come out of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis merits nationwide attention. In a nutshell, it involves allegations of sexual assault of a female midshipman by several members of the Academy football team. Liquor seems to have played a pivotal role.
The case raises a host of issues, such as the facilitation of drinking by athletes at what amounts to an off-campus fraternity house. It is also disturbing that Naval Academy athletes seem over recent memory to have a real penchant for getting into trouble. It is tempting to argue that it is time to dial back not only liquor consumption but also athletics at what is, after all, supposed to be a training ground for officers and gentlemen.
The preliminary investigation recently conducted at the Washington Navy Yard pursuant to Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) has been a terrible spectacle in itself. The accuser was subjected to hour after hour of cross-examination by lawyers for the accuseds. The questioning was at times plainly abusive, delving into such matters as preferred techniques for oral sex. The Constitution gives criminal defendants, including military personnel, a right to confront the witnesses against them, but there is still an obligation on the part of the presiding officer to impose reasonable limits. That does not seem to have happened here.
This is particularly baffling given the current heightened interest in fostering an environment in which military personnel who are victims of sexual assault are not discouraged from coming forward with complaints. Indeed, if one were looking for a way to create a chilling effect on complainants coming forward, it would be hard to do better than conduct an Article 32 investigation like the one that just ended.
It would also be hard to find a clearer case of a conflict of interest than having the superintendent of the Naval Academy — an institution of higher learning that has long prided itself on its football prowess — decide whether criminal charges should be brought against members of the football team. (A lawsuit seeking the superintendent’s recusal from the process is pending in federal court. It should have been brought within the military justice system instead.)
Congress is considering changes in the UCMJ, particularly regarding the pre- and post-trial role of commanders who act as “convening authorities.” The debate has already highlighted several aspects of the statute that are anachronisms which can be jettisoned. These include the commander’s power to decide who shall be prosecuted for what, as well as the power to set aside convictions and reduce or disapprove sentences.
The Naval Academy case points to another. Congress first required a preliminary investigation in the 1920 Articles of War. At the time, that was considered reform legislation. It no longer is. Now there are military judges presiding over real courts, and lawyers play pivotal roles as prosecutors, defense counsel, and legal advisers to commanders. Additionally, there are appellate courts, including the all-civilian United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
Article 32 investigations have become trials nearly as fulsome and extensive as the actual general court-martial to which they are a prelude. This means that victims are likely to face not one, but two full-tilt cross-examinations. This is not what Congress intended, and it makes no sense given the other changes that have taken place in the nearly a century since the 1920 Articles of War were enacted. The benefits of subjecting complaining witnesses to what has become in effect a dry run — a trial-before-the-trial — do not come close to outweighing the costs, especially in light of the fact that all an Article 32 hearing produces is a recommendation to the commander, who may accept or reject it in his or her discretion.
It is time for Congress to repeal Article 32 and substitute a requirement for a bare bones preliminary hearing along the lines of those conducted in the federal district courts. The question such a hearing would address is a very simple one: is there “probable cause to believe an offense has been committed and the defendant committed it.”
The court-martial defense bar will object to this reform. Its members will argue that the Article 32 investigation is a valuable right of the accused because it provides guaranteed broad discovery of the prosecution’s case. Indeed, the Article 32 investigation is often pointed to as one of the respects in which the military justice system provides greater rights than the civilian criminal justice system. The objection should be carefully considered. My own view is that it reflects an outdated paternalistic view of the military justice system and fails to take account of the many improvements military justice has experienced since the UCMJ was enacted in 1950, not to mention 1920. It also fails to reflect the sea change in military justice that today takes increased account of the interests of crime victims.
The Naval Academy case is one of those shocking events that reveals systemic weakness and can galvanize public opinion. What happened at the Navy Yard should never happen again. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and many members of the House and Senate are anxious to do something serious about sexual assault. This time- and money-saving reform should be high on their to-do list.
Eugene R. Fidell teaches military justice at Yale Law School. His email is eugene.fidell@yale.edu.
Copyright © 2013, The Baltimore Sun
Why perps and institutions should be held responsible! (Washington Post – New report finds that effects of child abuse and neglect, if untreated, can last a lifetime)
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformNew report finds that effects of child abuse and neglect, if untreated, can last a lifetime
Untreated, the effects of child abuse and neglect, the researchers found, can profoundly influence victims’ physical and mental health, their ability to control emotions and impulses, their achievement in school, and the relationships they form as children and as adults.
The researchers recommended an “immediate, coordinated” national strategy to better understand, treat and prevent child abuse and neglect, noting that each year, abuse and neglect costs an estimated $80 billion in the direct costs of hospitalization, law enforcement and child welfare and the indirect costs of special education, juvenile and adult criminal justice, adult homelessness, and lost work productivity.
The report, produced at the request of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that while rates of physical and sexual child abuse have declined in the past 20 years, rates of emotional and psychological abuse, the kind that can produce the most serious long-lasting effects, have increased. Rates of neglect have held fairly steady. Researchers said they do not know why.
“That’s why we make that a research priority in our recommendations,” said Lucy Berliner, a professor at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work and a committee member. “We need to understand better the reasons behind these trends.”
Berliner said the committee is proposing a coordinated strategy, because it found so much variation among states, in how abuse and neglect are defined and how local officials are trained to respond to it. “Some states had dramatic, 100 percent increases in cases of neglect,” she said. “And others had 100 percent decreases. That speaks to the complexity of the problem.”
Every year, child-protection agencies receive 3 million referrals for child abuse and neglect involving about 6 million children, the report found, though with unreported instances, the actual number is probably much higher, the researchers said. And, the report noted, about 80 percent of the children in investigated abuse and neglect cases are not removed from the home.
Child victims are equally likely to be male or female, the report found. The majority are younger than 5. About 80 percent of the perpetrators are parents, the vast majority biological parents. More than half of the perpetrators are female.
Angela Diaz, director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and another committee member, said the report found three risk factors that increased the likelihood of child abuse: parental depression, parental substance abuse and whether the parents had been abused or neglected as children.
The researchers did not find an association between rates of abuse and times of economic hardship such as the recent Great Recession.
“Researchers found relationships that were hard to make sense of: increases in child abuse in relationship to mortgage foreclosure but not to unemployment rates,” Berliner said. “It’s not all that straightforward. After welfare reform in the 1990s, there was a concern that as people lost their benefits, that would cause a spike in child-abuse referrals. Instead, that was a period of the greatest reduction in child-abuse referrals.”
While so much remains a mystery about the causes of abuse, and why some children respond to treatment and recover and others do not, the researchers said advances in brain science in the past 20 years show just how devastating and long-lasting the effects of abuse can be on the structure and the function of the brain.
Research has found that abuse and neglect can influence the amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates emotions, particularly fear and anxiety. Abuse also has been shown to change how the prefrontal cortex functions, the part of the brain responsible for thinking, planning, reasoning and decision making, which can lead to behavioral and academic problems.
But there is hope, researchers said.
“The effects seen on abused children’s brain and behavioral development are not static,” said committee member Mary Dozier, chairman of child development at the University of Delaware. “If we can intervene and change a child’s environment, we actually see plasticity in the brain. So, we see negative changes when a child is abused, but we also see positive brain changes when the abuse ends and they are more supported. Interventions can be very effective.”