UConn professor placed on leave as police investigate sex abuse allegations
Robert Miller, 66, is accused of molesting five boys in Virginia in 1992. The head of UConn’s Music Department for four years, Miller is also accused of having sex with university students during his three decades at the school.
HARTFORD, Conn. — A University of Connecticut music professor who was placed on paid leave last month is under investigation by police amid allegations of sexual misconduct and decades-old molestation involving children, including several boys who attended a camp for sick children.
UConn officials said Monday morning they were cooperating with the investigations. They also announced the creation of a special Board of Trustees committee to review the university’s responses to the allegations against Robert Miller, 66, of Mansfield.
University employees were notified several times between 2006 and 2011 of allegations that Miller had sexual contact with children, but it wasn’t until February of this year that school administrators were told of the claims, according to UConn officials and the state attorney general’s office. And it wasn’t until June 21 that Miller was placed on paid administrative leave.
It was also revealed Monday that the attorney general’s office is seeking bids from a law firm to advise and represent UConn’s Board of Trustees and that UConn has hired a private investigator.
Miller was barred from the Storrs campus after being placed on leave. He hasn’t been charged with any crime. He did not return several phone messages left at his home by The Associated Press.
Last month, a faculty member told a university official that a student alleged that Miller had sex with UConn students, visited freshmen dorms and provided drugs to students, according to the state attorney general’s office. It’s not clear when those alleged actions took place. Miller has worked at UConn for three decades and was head of the Music Department from 1999 to 2003.
Miller also has been under investigation by Connecticut state police and authorities in Fairfax County, Va., following allegations that he molested five boys, who ranged in age from 10 to 13 years old, more than two decades ago, according to a state police search warrant affidavit for Miller’s home that was obtained by the AP.
State police say four of the boys claimed they were molested at Miller’s home in 1992. The boys at the time were attending the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, a camp that actor Paul Newman opened in 1988 for sick children. The alleged abuse happened when Miller, who was a counselor there from 1989 to 1992, took the children away from the camp on unsanctioned trips, authorities said.
State police said Fairfax County police are investigating allegations that Miller molested a 13-year-old boy while he was a teacher at the former Whittier Intermediate School near Falls Church in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Officer Eddy Azcarate, a spokesman for Fairfax County police, confirmed that his agency is investigating allegations involving the intermediate school student.
All the allegations involve inappropriate touching. State police say the accusers at the camp allege that they stayed overnight at Miller’s house several times and he often would make them take off their clothes, saying he had to check them for ticks and bruises. All the boys suffered from hemophilia, a bleeding disorder in which the blood doesn’t clot normally, state police said.
Connecticut state police said they can’t charge Miller in the child molestation investigation because the statute of limitations for the allegations has expired, but it hasn’t expired for the Virginia allegations. State police are helping Fairfax County authorities with their investigation. UConn officials also are investigating the allegations involving university students.
State police executed a search warrant at Miller’s home on June 20 to take photos of the interior and exterior to try to corroborate a description of the house by one of the Connecticut accusers, who is a potential witness in the Virginia case, the search warrant affidavit said. The same day, UConn seized Miller’s work computer, officials said.
UConn President Susan Herbst said in a statement that university officials acted quickly after they first learned of the investigations of Miller earlier this year.
“Allegations involving crimes against children are both profoundly disturbing and heartbreaking,” Herbst said. “Any accusation of sexual misconduct by faculty, staff, or students is among the gravest issues that any institution must face. It is clear that serious accusations have been made, questions that demand answers have been raised, and we will do all we can to find the truth and protect the vulnerable.”
University officials released a timeline of events involving Miller saying that the School of Fine Arts received an email and letter in December 2011 claiming that Miller was a pedophile. State police say the accuser in Virginia sent the email and letter. UConn employees also were told several times between 2006 and 2011 about allegations involving Miller and children, the attorney general’s office said.
But it wasn’t until Feb. 13, 2013, that an unnamed employee of the School of Fine Arts brought the letter to the attention of the new dean of the school. The next day, UConn officials told campus police and an assistant state attorney general based at UConn.
Officials didn’t have the information they needed to place Miller on leave until they received the state police search warrant affidavit last month, UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said.
UConn police formally opened an investigation on Feb. 18 and contacted a state prosecutor the next day, officials said.
On June 27, senior university administrators met and agreed to recommend to Herbst that the school should conduct internal and personnel investigations into Miller, officials said. The investigations will center on when school employees learned of the allegations and how they responded to them.
Senior staff met with Herbst on June 28, and she directed officials to begin the investigations, seek an outside investigator to assist in the probes and seek an outside law firm to review the university’s actions and coordinate the investigations.
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp released a statement that didn’t mention Miller by name but said it was aware of the investigation of a former staff member who was affiliated with the camp from 1989 to 1992, the same years Miller worked there. It declined further comment.
State police say the parents of the boys who attended the camp and allege they were molested by Miller found out about the accusations and told camp officials, who then fired Miller. A mother of one of the boys told state police that she and the other boys’ parents told camp officials about the allegations but didn’t tell police at the time.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/uconn-professor-robert-miller-investigation-article-1.1399038#ixzz2ZDMXWbl3
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Catholic Church lobbies to avert sex abuse lawsuits
SB 131 would give some victims of sexual abuse more time to file suit against employers. But church officials argue the bill opens it up to suits that are too old to fight.
By Ashley PowersJuly 15, 2013, 7:36 p.m.
At the height of the clergy sex-abuse scandal in 2002, Catholic leaders stayed silent as California lawmakers passed a landmark bill that gave hundreds of accusers extra time to file civil lawsuits. The consequences were costly.
California dioceses paid $1.2 billion in settlements and released thousands of confidential documents that showed their leaders, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, had made plans to shield admitted molesters from law enforcement.
Now, state legislators are considering a bill that would give some alleged victims more time to sue. But this time, the church is waging a pitched battle in Sacramento to quash it.
A group affiliated with the church has hired five lobbying firms and spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting SB 131. Opponents argue that the bill unfairly opens the church, the Boy Scouts, and other private and nonprofit employers to lawsuits over decades-old allegations that are tough to fight in court. Two bishops have visited the Capitol to argue their case to the bill’s chief author.
In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the campaign extends to the very top. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez warned parishioners last month in the church newspaper that the proposal “puts the social services and educational work of the Church at risk” and urged them to press their lawmakers to scuttle it.
The church, Gomez said, “faces deep challenges from the government” and cited the proposal as an example without explaining what it would do. “Let’s pray for our religious freedom … and let’s exercise that freedom by contacting our legislators about SB 131,” he wrote.
The current battle has roots in 2002, when lawmakers were searching for a way to respond to the unfolding clergy scandal. At the time, California’s civil statute of limitations — or the time limit for plaintiffs to file lawsuits — was relatively strict for child sex-abuse claims.
Plaintiffs could sue alleged abusers or their employers until age 26. After that, they could sue within three years of finding links between past molestation and present psychological problems, but they could no longer sue employers who may have failed to protect them from known molesters.
The 2002 bill extended the three-year discovery rule to employers and lifted the statute of limitations on lawsuits against them for all of 2003, allowing a slew of claims related to decades-old abuse. Church leaders didn’t mount a campaign against the bill. They didn’t testify at hearings. They didn’t write a single letter in opposition. The legislation zipped through both chambers of the Legislature — not one lawmaker voted against it.
“At the time it didn’t seem like too unfair of a response to the sexual abuse of children,” said Edward Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, the church’s political arm. “I don’t think anybody anticipated the exposure that would be there.”
In 2007, the L.A. Archdiocese alone settled with more than 500 plaintiffs for $660 million. Church officials were also forced to make public a trove of confidential papers in January of this year. In an acknowledgment that the documents had sullied the church’s reputation, archdiocese attorneys tried this year to get upcoming sex-abuse trials moved to another part of the state, saying the media firestorm had tainted the Southern California jury pool.
Since the California law took effect, lawmakers in other states have introduced similar bills, arguing that civil lawsuits are a key way for abuse victims to seek justice. But only three states — Delaware, Hawaii and Minnesota — have passed such laws, said Marci Hamilton, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York and an expert on child sex-abuse statues of limitation.
That’s partly because of the Catholic Church’s opposition efforts, she said, which have included hiring lobbyists and dispatching bishops to try to sway legislators. “The 2002 bill caught the church off-guard,” said Hamilton, who supports lengthening the time child sex-abuse victims have to sue. “Now the Catholic bishops are bringing their A-game to California.”
Their target is a bill introduced by Sen. James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose). Its key provision would again lift the statute of limitations for one year, but only for a group who were 26 or older and missed the previous deadline because they more recently discovered abuse-related psychological problems.
Advocates say loosening time limits is crucial in sex-abuse cases because it often takes decades for victims to admit that they were molested and seek legal recourse. Supporters of SB 131 include the National Center for Victims of Crime and the California Police Chiefs Assn.
“There are victims out there who deserve justice and accountability,” said Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Casteix sued the Diocese of Orange during the 2003 window, alleging abuse at the hands of a lay choir director at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
Casteix not only won a $1.6-million settlement, but she also received documents that showed administrators knew about — and ignored — the abuse. “It gave me my dignity back,” she said.
Opponents argue that it’s hard to mount a defense against decades-old accusations because key witnesses are often dead or infirm and evidence may have vanished. They also say that legislation that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations encourages people to make false claims in hopes of walking away with a settlement check.
Because Beall’s bill doesn’t apply to schools and other public agencies, church lobbyists also say they’re being scapegoated. The California State Alliance of YMCAs and the California Assn. of Private School Organizations, whose members include Catholic dioceses, oppose the bill as well.
“We’re not going to open up a window again. We have done that once,” Dolejsi said. “Are you going to open another window five years from now? When does it end?”
A group linked to the church, the California Council of Nonprofit Organizations, spent $75,000 in the first three months of the year to oppose SB 131, according to papers filed with the secretary of state. The ties between the group and the church, including Dolejsi’s affiliation with both, were first reported by the Orange County Register.
Beall said two high-ranking church officials told him that the bill could financially hobble schools and parishes: Auxiliary Bishop Gerald E. Wilkerson of the L.A. Archdiocese and Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento, who are president and vice president of the California Catholic Conference. Other bishops have urged their flocks to help defeat the bill.
In Southern California, at least one parish, St. Timothy in West Los Angeles, rounded up letters signed by parishioners to send to Sacramento. An archdiocese spokeswoman did not respond to questions about whether other churches did the same.
It’s unclear what effect the campaign has had, though a posting on the California Catholic Conference’s website said that it persuaded some lawmakers to either vote against the bill or abstain from weighing in.
The bill recently squeaked through the Senate and passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee. It goes to the lower house’s Appropriations Committee next. Because of the church’s lobbying efforts, Beall said, he was concerned about its survival.
“If people don’t like a bill, they kill it in appropriations,” he said.
Times staff writer Anthony York in Sacramento contributed to this report.
View article at LA Times page: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-church-bill-20130715,0,5709596.story
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CAMDEN — A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a parish priest in Hammonton more than 30 years ago has won a round in her lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden.
A federal judge in Camden rebuffed a request by the diocese to dismiss the suit, filed in May 2012 by Lisa Syvertson Shanahan of North Carolina.
An attorney for the diocese argued Shanahan waited too long to sue over alleged abuse in 1980 and 1981 by the Rev. Thomas Harkins at St. Anthony of Padua in Hammonton. But U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman said Shanahan could pursue her suit under the state’s Child Sex Abuse Act, which can delay for decades the normal two-year statute of limitations.
Adam Horowitz, an attorney for Shanahan, called the ruling “a victory for all child sex abuse victims in New Jersey.
“We now get to gather evidence to prove our case,” he said, noting attorneys will exchange documents and take sworn testimony from Harkins, Shanahan and others.
“We are particularly interested in getting copies of the Diocese of Camden’s personnel records on Father Harkins,” Horowitz said.
William J. DeSantis, a lawyer for the diocese, could not be reached for comment.
Shanahan claims Harkins abused her when she was a fifth-grade student attending Confirmation classes with the priest. Her lawsuit contends the priest assaulted her 10 to 15 times in his office and bedroom.
The lawsuit contends the abuse ended when Harkins was transferred from the parish. Shanahan said she learned only in recent years the move came in response to another complaint of improper conduct by Harkins. Her suit also says Shanahan didn’t realize she had grounds to sue until October 2009, when she became aware of legal action by other alleged victims.
Under the Child Sex Abuse Act, the clock starts ticking on the two-year statute of limitations “at the time of reasonable discovery of the injury and its causal relationship to the act of sexual abuse.” The law allows alleged victims to sue so-called “passive abusers” — people or organizations that fail to stop a perpetrator.
DeSantis argued the diocese did not fall under the state law’s provisions, which essentially say a passive abuser must play a role equivalent to a child’s parents and must be part of the victim’s “household.” Instead, the diocese asserted it had “intermittent and superficial contact” with Shanahan as a child.
But Hillman said the diocese provided only “minimal evidence” to support its view, while Shanahan’s attorneys made a more convincing argument. Among other points, the judge noted, Shanahan’s lawyers said Harkins “took a special interest in (the girl) and gave (her) honors, gifts and took (her) to outings off church grounds.”
They also alleged Harkins groomed the girl for abuse by visiting her home to practice church readings and have dinner with her family.
Hillman said the diocese could submit additional arguments if new evidence emerges.
Horowitz said he believes the judge’s June 27 ruling will stand, but called on state legislators to extend the statute of limitations.
“The notion that child abuse victims must file suit within two years or else their claim is forever barred is archaic, unfair and should not be rigidly enforced,” he said. “That is particularly true here, where the victim did not know or have reason to know that the diocese was negligent in its supervision of Father Harkins.”
Harkins is not named in the suit. He was defrocked about 10 years ago and now works as a security guard at Philadelphia International Airport.
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Child Victims Act: Justice for victims, protection for children
By Julie Lassa
The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
One of the most important roles of government is to protect people who are vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment, and there are none more vulnerable than children who are sexually abused by adults. Unfortunately, the tragic truth is that very few perpetrators of child sexual abuse are ever brought to justice. One of the factors that perpetrators can hide behind is our state’s civil statute of limitations that puts an arbitrary deadline on when people abused as children can have their day in court.
Statutes of limitations are a particular problem when it comes to childhood sexual abuse. Most sexually abused children are molested by family members or authority figures, and the pressure is strong not to disrupt their own home, school or church. As adults, it may take victims years to come to grips with their experience and build the courage they need to identify their abuser and begin civil or criminal action. By the time they’re ready to do so, the statutes of limitations may have expired; it may be too late for justice to be done.
These arbitrary deadlines do more than just rob child sexual abuse victims of their day in court. They endanger every child in our community, because they decrease the likelihood that people who prey sexually on children will be identified and stopped. And we know that pedophiles, if given the opportunity, will continue to seek out new victims. Research has shown that these child molesters will have 80 to 100 victims or more during a lifetime and will continue to victimize children well into their 60s and beyond.
How big is the problem? In Wisconsin, one in five kids will be sexually abused by age 18. We also know that 90 percent of child sexual abuse is never reported to law enforcement authorities; 30 percent of victims never tell anyone. As a result, the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect estimates that only about 3 percent of child molesters are ever caught. That raises the specter of hundreds of pedophiles walking the streets of Wisconsin towns, safe in the knowledge that they are protected by the law from ever being held accountable for their crimes.
That is why I will once again be introducing the Child Victims Act. It removes the civil statute of limitations entirely, so pedophiles would no longer be protected by a legal “home free” date from facing their victims in court. It would also provide a two year window in which a person who is currently arbitrarily barred from bringing a suit would be allowed to bring their charges forward. The bill is supported by law enforcement and numerous child abuse and sexual assault prevention groups.
There have been objections raised to the Child Victims Act by people who worry that creating a window for retroactive suits will encourage false claims, or that the accused will have difficulty defending themselves against charges for an act that may have occurred 20 or 30 years ago. But the experience of other states that have similar laws has been that the number of false claims amounts to just a handful and that, even after many years, there is evidence in many cases that supports the victim’s claims.
In California, where a similar time window for retroactive suits was enacted, 300 previously unknown child sex abusers were identified as a result. The Child Victims Act will enable victims of sexual abuse to have their day in court and hold more offenders accountable for their actions, preventing them from preying on other innocent children. For the sake of these defenseless victims, we should pass this legislation now.
— Lassa, D-Stevens Point, represents Wisconsin’s 24th Senate District.
UConn music prof abuses sick boys. Sounds like Sandusky mo
/in Connecticut /by SOL ReformUConn professor placed on leave as police investigate sex abuse allegations
Robert Miller, 66, is accused of molesting five boys in Virginia in 1992. The head of UConn’s Music Department for four years, Miller is also accused of having sex with university students during his three decades at the school.
HARTFORD, Conn. — A University of Connecticut music professor who was placed on paid leave last month is under investigation by police amid allegations of sexual misconduct and decades-old molestation involving children, including several boys who attended a camp for sick children.
UConn officials said Monday morning they were cooperating with the investigations. They also announced the creation of a special Board of Trustees committee to review the university’s responses to the allegations against Robert Miller, 66, of Mansfield.
University employees were notified several times between 2006 and 2011 of allegations that Miller had sexual contact with children, but it wasn’t until February of this year that school administrators were told of the claims, according to UConn officials and the state attorney general’s office. And it wasn’t until June 21 that Miller was placed on paid administrative leave.
It was also revealed Monday that the attorney general’s office is seeking bids from a law firm to advise and represent UConn’s Board of Trustees and that UConn has hired a private investigator.
Miller was barred from the Storrs campus after being placed on leave. He hasn’t been charged with any crime. He did not return several phone messages left at his home by The Associated Press.
Last month, a faculty member told a university official that a student alleged that Miller had sex with UConn students, visited freshmen dorms and provided drugs to students, according to the state attorney general’s office. It’s not clear when those alleged actions took place. Miller has worked at UConn for three decades and was head of the Music Department from 1999 to 2003.
Miller also has been under investigation by Connecticut state police and authorities in Fairfax County, Va., following allegations that he molested five boys, who ranged in age from 10 to 13 years old, more than two decades ago, according to a state police search warrant affidavit for Miller’s home that was obtained by the AP.
State police say four of the boys claimed they were molested at Miller’s home in 1992. The boys at the time were attending the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, a camp that actor Paul Newman opened in 1988 for sick children. The alleged abuse happened when Miller, who was a counselor there from 1989 to 1992, took the children away from the camp on unsanctioned trips, authorities said.
State police said Fairfax County police are investigating allegations that Miller molested a 13-year-old boy while he was a teacher at the former Whittier Intermediate School near Falls Church in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Officer Eddy Azcarate, a spokesman for Fairfax County police, confirmed that his agency is investigating allegations involving the intermediate school student.
All the allegations involve inappropriate touching. State police say the accusers at the camp allege that they stayed overnight at Miller’s house several times and he often would make them take off their clothes, saying he had to check them for ticks and bruises. All the boys suffered from hemophilia, a bleeding disorder in which the blood doesn’t clot normally, state police said.
Connecticut state police said they can’t charge Miller in the child molestation investigation because the statute of limitations for the allegations has expired, but it hasn’t expired for the Virginia allegations. State police are helping Fairfax County authorities with their investigation. UConn officials also are investigating the allegations involving university students.
State police executed a search warrant at Miller’s home on June 20 to take photos of the interior and exterior to try to corroborate a description of the house by one of the Connecticut accusers, who is a potential witness in the Virginia case, the search warrant affidavit said. The same day, UConn seized Miller’s work computer, officials said.
UConn President Susan Herbst said in a statement that university officials acted quickly after they first learned of the investigations of Miller earlier this year.
“Allegations involving crimes against children are both profoundly disturbing and heartbreaking,” Herbst said. “Any accusation of sexual misconduct by faculty, staff, or students is among the gravest issues that any institution must face. It is clear that serious accusations have been made, questions that demand answers have been raised, and we will do all we can to find the truth and protect the vulnerable.”
University officials released a timeline of events involving Miller saying that the School of Fine Arts received an email and letter in December 2011 claiming that Miller was a pedophile. State police say the accuser in Virginia sent the email and letter. UConn employees also were told several times between 2006 and 2011 about allegations involving Miller and children, the attorney general’s office said.
But it wasn’t until Feb. 13, 2013, that an unnamed employee of the School of Fine Arts brought the letter to the attention of the new dean of the school. The next day, UConn officials told campus police and an assistant state attorney general based at UConn.
Officials didn’t have the information they needed to place Miller on leave until they received the state police search warrant affidavit last month, UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said.
UConn police formally opened an investigation on Feb. 18 and contacted a state prosecutor the next day, officials said.
On June 27, senior university administrators met and agreed to recommend to Herbst that the school should conduct internal and personnel investigations into Miller, officials said. The investigations will center on when school employees learned of the allegations and how they responded to them.
Senior staff met with Herbst on June 28, and she directed officials to begin the investigations, seek an outside investigator to assist in the probes and seek an outside law firm to review the university’s actions and coordinate the investigations.
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp released a statement that didn’t mention Miller by name but said it was aware of the investigation of a former staff member who was affiliated with the camp from 1989 to 1992, the same years Miller worked there. It declined further comment.
State police say the parents of the boys who attended the camp and allege they were molested by Miller found out about the accusations and told camp officials, who then fired Miller. A mother of one of the boys told state police that she and the other boys’ parents told camp officials about the allegations but didn’t tell police at the time.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/uconn-professor-robert-miller-investigation-article-1.1399038#ixzz2ZDMXWbl3
The RCC bishops are the public enemies of justice for victims.
/in California /by SOL ReformCatholic Church lobbies to avert sex abuse lawsuits
SB 131 would give some victims of sexual abuse more time to file suit against employers. But church officials argue the bill opens it up to suits that are too old to fight.
At the height of the clergy sex-abuse scandal in 2002, Catholic leaders stayed silent as California lawmakers passed a landmark bill that gave hundreds of accusers extra time to file civil lawsuits. The consequences were costly.
California dioceses paid $1.2 billion in settlements and released thousands of confidential documents that showed their leaders, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, had made plans to shield admitted molesters from law enforcement.
Now, state legislators are considering a bill that would give some alleged victims more time to sue. But this time, the church is waging a pitched battle in Sacramento to quash it.
A group affiliated with the church has hired five lobbying firms and spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting SB 131. Opponents argue that the bill unfairly opens the church, the Boy Scouts, and other private and nonprofit employers to lawsuits over decades-old allegations that are tough to fight in court. Two bishops have visited the Capitol to argue their case to the bill’s chief author.
In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the campaign extends to the very top. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez warned parishioners last month in the church newspaper that the proposal “puts the social services and educational work of the Church at risk” and urged them to press their lawmakers to scuttle it.
The church, Gomez said, “faces deep challenges from the government” and cited the proposal as an example without explaining what it would do. “Let’s pray for our religious freedom … and let’s exercise that freedom by contacting our legislators about SB 131,” he wrote.
The current battle has roots in 2002, when lawmakers were searching for a way to respond to the unfolding clergy scandal. At the time, California’s civil statute of limitations — or the time limit for plaintiffs to file lawsuits — was relatively strict for child sex-abuse claims.
Plaintiffs could sue alleged abusers or their employers until age 26. After that, they could sue within three years of finding links between past molestation and present psychological problems, but they could no longer sue employers who may have failed to protect them from known molesters.
The 2002 bill extended the three-year discovery rule to employers and lifted the statute of limitations on lawsuits against them for all of 2003, allowing a slew of claims related to decades-old abuse. Church leaders didn’t mount a campaign against the bill. They didn’t testify at hearings. They didn’t write a single letter in opposition. The legislation zipped through both chambers of the Legislature — not one lawmaker voted against it.
“At the time it didn’t seem like too unfair of a response to the sexual abuse of children,” said Edward Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, the church’s political arm. “I don’t think anybody anticipated the exposure that would be there.”
In 2007, the L.A. Archdiocese alone settled with more than 500 plaintiffs for $660 million. Church officials were also forced to make public a trove of confidential papers in January of this year. In an acknowledgment that the documents had sullied the church’s reputation, archdiocese attorneys tried this year to get upcoming sex-abuse trials moved to another part of the state, saying the media firestorm had tainted the Southern California jury pool.
Since the California law took effect, lawmakers in other states have introduced similar bills, arguing that civil lawsuits are a key way for abuse victims to seek justice. But only three states — Delaware, Hawaii and Minnesota — have passed such laws, said Marci Hamilton, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York and an expert on child sex-abuse statues of limitation.
That’s partly because of the Catholic Church’s opposition efforts, she said, which have included hiring lobbyists and dispatching bishops to try to sway legislators. “The 2002 bill caught the church off-guard,” said Hamilton, who supports lengthening the time child sex-abuse victims have to sue. “Now the Catholic bishops are bringing their A-game to California.”
Their target is a bill introduced by Sen. James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose). Its key provision would again lift the statute of limitations for one year, but only for a group who were 26 or older and missed the previous deadline because they more recently discovered abuse-related psychological problems.
Advocates say loosening time limits is crucial in sex-abuse cases because it often takes decades for victims to admit that they were molested and seek legal recourse. Supporters of SB 131 include the National Center for Victims of Crime and the California Police Chiefs Assn.
“There are victims out there who deserve justice and accountability,” said Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Casteix sued the Diocese of Orange during the 2003 window, alleging abuse at the hands of a lay choir director at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
Casteix not only won a $1.6-million settlement, but she also received documents that showed administrators knew about — and ignored — the abuse. “It gave me my dignity back,” she said.
Opponents argue that it’s hard to mount a defense against decades-old accusations because key witnesses are often dead or infirm and evidence may have vanished. They also say that legislation that temporarily suspends the statute of limitations encourages people to make false claims in hopes of walking away with a settlement check.
Because Beall’s bill doesn’t apply to schools and other public agencies, church lobbyists also say they’re being scapegoated. The California State Alliance of YMCAs and the California Assn. of Private School Organizations, whose members include Catholic dioceses, oppose the bill as well.
“We’re not going to open up a window again. We have done that once,” Dolejsi said. “Are you going to open another window five years from now? When does it end?”
A group linked to the church, the California Council of Nonprofit Organizations, spent $75,000 in the first three months of the year to oppose SB 131, according to papers filed with the secretary of state. The ties between the group and the church, including Dolejsi’s affiliation with both, were first reported by the Orange County Register.
Beall said two high-ranking church officials told him that the bill could financially hobble schools and parishes: Auxiliary Bishop Gerald E. Wilkerson of the L.A. Archdiocese and Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento, who are president and vice president of the California Catholic Conference. Other bishops have urged their flocks to help defeat the bill.
In Southern California, at least one parish, St. Timothy in West Los Angeles, rounded up letters signed by parishioners to send to Sacramento. An archdiocese spokeswoman did not respond to questions about whether other churches did the same.
It’s unclear what effect the campaign has had, though a posting on the California Catholic Conference’s website said that it persuaded some lawmakers to either vote against the bill or abstain from weighing in.
The bill recently squeaked through the Senate and passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee. It goes to the lower house’s Appropriations Committee next. Because of the church’s lobbying efforts, Beall said, he was concerned about its survival.
“If people don’t like a bill, they kill it in appropriations,” he said.
ashley.powers@latimes.com
Times staff writer Anthony York in Sacramento contributed to this report.
View article at LA Times page: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-church-bill-20130715,0,5709596.story
Proposal to lift statute of limitations for sex abuse victims in WI
/in Wisconsin /by SOL ReformFrom Fox 6 News By Mike Lowe
Thanks Wisconsin SNAP
A great fighter for survivors and SOL reform!
/in Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania /by SOL ReformView article as PDF: http://sol-reform.com/JFS_ND_Article_2013.pdf
Good SOL decision in NJ!
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformCAMDEN — A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a parish priest in Hammonton more than 30 years ago has won a round in her lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden.
A federal judge in Camden rebuffed a request by the diocese to dismiss the suit, filed in May 2012 by Lisa Syvertson Shanahan of North Carolina.
An attorney for the diocese argued Shanahan waited too long to sue over alleged abuse in 1980 and 1981 by the Rev. Thomas Harkins at St. Anthony of Padua in Hammonton. But U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman said Shanahan could pursue her suit under the state’s Child Sex Abuse Act, which can delay for decades the normal two-year statute of limitations.
Adam Horowitz, an attorney for Shanahan, called the ruling “a victory for all child sex abuse victims in New Jersey.
“We now get to gather evidence to prove our case,” he said, noting attorneys will exchange documents and take sworn testimony from Harkins, Shanahan and others.
“We are particularly interested in getting copies of the Diocese of Camden’s personnel records on Father Harkins,” Horowitz said.
William J. DeSantis, a lawyer for the diocese, could not be reached for comment.
Shanahan claims Harkins abused her when she was a fifth-grade student attending Confirmation classes with the priest. Her lawsuit contends the priest assaulted her 10 to 15 times in his office and bedroom.
The lawsuit contends the abuse ended when Harkins was transferred from the parish. Shanahan said she learned only in recent years the move came in response to another complaint of improper conduct by Harkins. Her suit also says Shanahan didn’t realize she had grounds to sue until October 2009, when she became aware of legal action by other alleged victims.
Under the Child Sex Abuse Act, the clock starts ticking on the two-year statute of limitations “at the time of reasonable discovery of the injury and its causal relationship to the act of sexual abuse.” The law allows alleged victims to sue so-called “passive abusers” — people or organizations that fail to stop a perpetrator.
DeSantis argued the diocese did not fall under the state law’s provisions, which essentially say a passive abuser must play a role equivalent to a child’s parents and must be part of the victim’s “household.” Instead, the diocese asserted it had “intermittent and superficial contact” with Shanahan as a child.
But Hillman said the diocese provided only “minimal evidence” to support its view, while Shanahan’s attorneys made a more convincing argument. Among other points, the judge noted, Shanahan’s lawyers said Harkins “took a special interest in (the girl) and gave (her) honors, gifts and took (her) to outings off church grounds.”
They also alleged Harkins groomed the girl for abuse by visiting her home to practice church readings and have dinner with her family.
Hillman said the diocese could submit additional arguments if new evidence emerges.
Horowitz said he believes the judge’s June 27 ruling will stand, but called on state legislators to extend the statute of limitations.
“The notion that child abuse victims must file suit within two years or else their claim is forever barred is archaic, unfair and should not be rigidly enforced,” he said. “That is particularly true here, where the victim did not know or have reason to know that the diocese was negligent in its supervision of Father Harkins.”
Harkins is not named in the suit. He was defrocked about 10 years ago and now works as a security guard at Philadelphia International Airport.
Original Source: http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20130706/NEWS01/307050034/Suit-accusing-priest-survives-challenge-by-Diocese-Camden?nclick_check=1
Written by Jim Walsh Gannett New Jersey
View/Download as PDF: http://sol-reform.com/New_Jersey/Suit_accusing_priest_survives_challenge_by_Diocese_of_Camden.pdf
Hear hear!! Wisconsin Child Victims Act: Justice for victims, protection for children
/in Wisconsin /by SOL ReformChild Victims Act: Justice for victims, protection for children
By Julie Lassa
The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
One of the most important roles of government is to protect people who are vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment, and there are none more vulnerable than children who are sexually abused by adults. Unfortunately, the tragic truth is that very few perpetrators of child sexual abuse are ever brought to justice. One of the factors that perpetrators can hide behind is our state’s civil statute of limitations that puts an arbitrary deadline on when people abused as children can have their day in court.
Statutes of limitations are a particular problem when it comes to childhood sexual abuse. Most sexually abused children are molested by family members or authority figures, and the pressure is strong not to disrupt their own home, school or church. As adults, it may take victims years to come to grips with their experience and build the courage they need to identify their abuser and begin civil or criminal action. By the time they’re ready to do so, the statutes of limitations may have expired; it may be too late for justice to be done.
These arbitrary deadlines do more than just rob child sexual abuse victims of their day in court. They endanger every child in our community, because they decrease the likelihood that people who prey sexually on children will be identified and stopped. And we know that pedophiles, if given the opportunity, will continue to seek out new victims. Research has shown that these child molesters will have 80 to 100 victims or more during a lifetime and will continue to victimize children well into their 60s and beyond.
How big is the problem? In Wisconsin, one in five kids will be sexually abused by age 18. We also know that 90 percent of child sexual abuse is never reported to law enforcement authorities; 30 percent of victims never tell anyone. As a result, the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect estimates that only about 3 percent of child molesters are ever caught. That raises the specter of hundreds of pedophiles walking the streets of Wisconsin towns, safe in the knowledge that they are protected by the law from ever being held accountable for their crimes.
That is why I will once again be introducing the Child Victims Act. It removes the civil statute of limitations entirely, so pedophiles would no longer be protected by a legal “home free” date from facing their victims in court. It would also provide a two year window in which a person who is currently arbitrarily barred from bringing a suit would be allowed to bring their charges forward. The bill is supported by law enforcement and numerous child abuse and sexual assault prevention groups.
There have been objections raised to the Child Victims Act by people who worry that creating a window for retroactive suits will encourage false claims, or that the accused will have difficulty defending themselves against charges for an act that may have occurred 20 or 30 years ago. But the experience of other states that have similar laws has been that the number of false claims amounts to just a handful and that, even after many years, there is evidence in many cases that supports the victim’s claims.
In California, where a similar time window for retroactive suits was enacted, 300 previously unknown child sex abusers were identified as a result. The Child Victims Act will enable victims of sexual abuse to have their day in court and hold more offenders accountable for their actions, preventing them from preying on other innocent children. For the sake of these defenseless victims, we should pass this legislation now.
— Lassa, D-Stevens Point, represents Wisconsin’s 24th Senate District.
View/Download as PDF: http://sol-reform.com/Wisconsin/july2013/WisOpinion.pdf