Attorney Kevin Mulhearn has been battling for sexual abuse victims for years: The Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney overcame numerous legal obstacles to settle a landmark lawsuit filed by a dozen men who claimed Poly Prep covered up years of assaultsby the elite Brooklyn school’s longtime football coach, Phil Foglietta. Mulhearn has also represented men and women who claimed two other iconic New York schools, Horace Mann and Yeshiva University, also covered up years of sexual abuse by staff and faculty members.
In the following column, Mulhearn explains why New York lawmakers should pass the Child Victims Act. The bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) calls for the elimination of criminal and civil statutes of limitations for future child abuse victims; it would also open up a one-year window for victims of past crimes to pursue criminal and civil cases.
Last week, the Honorable Leslie Crocker Snyder (ret.), founder of the Manhattan DA’s Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau and co-author of New York State’s Rape Shield Law, issued her report on sexual abuse that occurred at the elite Horace Mann School in the Bronx in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. The report, titled “Making Schools Safe,” commissioned by the Horace Mann Action Coalition, concludes that at Horace Mann at least 64 students were sexually abused by as many as 22 faculty and staff. Judge Snyder’s report describes the scope and extent of the parade of sexual abuse at Horace Mann and makes pointed recommendations for how independent schools can protect our children. For anyone with children in New York schools, especially private schools, this thoughtful and insightful Report, despite (or maybe because of) its repugnant subject matter, should be required reading.
The squalid abuse facts themselves are horrendous in their own right but the most disturbing component of the report is the craven response of various school officials and trustees to sex abuse complaints made by abused students. The report describes a prolonged, multi-decade Horace Mann cover-up, highlighted by the loss or destruction of voluminous sex abuse records and the deliberate indifference of a former headmaster who himself engaged in the sexual abuse of young boys. Like with the Catholic Church, Horace Mann officials confronted with direct allegations of sex abuse by soul-shattered victims were too often far more concerned with protecting the reputations of both institution and sex predator employees than the children entrusted to their care.
The report also states that when Horace Mann’s acts and omissions were finally publicly revealed in 2012 (after Amos Kamil’s groundbreaking New York Times Magazine story), Horace Mann’s insurers concluded that all of the victims’ claims were “fully defensible due to New York’s statute of limitations.” The insurers’ position reflects accurately the status quo in New York State. This is the harsh reality: New York state and federal courts have worked overtime to ensure that schools that actively cover up the sexual abuse of students by teachers, coaches, and administrators, thus guaranteeing that more unsuspecting and innocent children will be sexually assaulted, will face no legal accountability once the schools’ own misconduct is exposed.
Statutes of limitation derive from a public policy to make persons secure in their reasonable expectation that the slate has been wiped clean of ancient obligations. But they are designed to foster, not hinder, litigants’ search for the truth. Statutes of limitation are not designed to protect an institution which actively conceals its own misconduct from legal culpability, but that is exactly how they are being used by schools and their partners in crime, enabling courts.
New York state and federal courts have concluded time and time again that because the abuse victims knew the identity of their abuser, and that their abuser was employed by the school, the victims—traumatized, sexually assaulted children—would have discovered the school’s own facilitation of their abuse had they conducted a diligent post-abuse inquiry. This case-ending conclusion has been reached even when survivors allege that they did report their abuse to school officials, but were met with lies, threats of reprisal and challenges to their credibility. This exalted legal standard, which has been embraced by the courts of this state like a long-lost child, is a perversion of justice and an insult to logic, decency and common sense.
The real reason why these courts adhere to such a draconian and counterintuitive legal standard, which transmogrifies “justice” into “injustice” with the stroke of a pen, is an unstated but paramount policy. The courts are worried that Pandora’s Box will open if these “old” sex abuse cases gain traction. They are worried that they will be faced with a flood of litigation against complicit schools; accordingly, they hold their collective noses and continue to embrace legal fiction mounted atop legal fantasy. Again and again.
After one reads Judge Snyder’s Report on Horace Mann, or the pleadings in the Poly Prep or Yeshiva University High School for Boys cases, however, the milquetoast foundation of this obstructive judicial policy crumbles in the face of the sordid, almost hard-to-imagine, facts. Schools and school officials that engage in such reprehensible conduct—that let children get raped by known sexual predator employees—deserve no protection, no financial relief, regardless of when their concealed bad acts finally get exposed (i.e., regardless of how long they succeed in their sex abuse cover-ups). The simplest solution, as proposed by Judge Snyder, is the enactment into law of the Child Victims Act, the latest version of a bill proposed by Queens Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, which would substantially reform and broaden New York’s statute of limitations for sex abuse cases.
Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse are no longer victims. After all, it takes enormous strength and courage for them to confront their abusers and their abusers’ enablers and demand some measure of accountability. But unless this bill passes, courts are likely to continue to deny survivors legal redress and will thus continue to reward schools for conducting successful and prolonged sex abuse cover-ups. This status quo, while absurd, grossly unfair, and violent to all principles of equity, is for now deeply entrenched in New York law.
Time will tell whether “truth and justice” is a guiding principle or an empty slogan in New York State. In this arena, where nothing less than the safety and well-being of our children is at stake, there is no more room for pussy-footing. The time for statute of limitations reform is now.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-06-09 02:07:272015-06-09 02:07:27Michael O'Keeffe, Mulhearn: Horace Mann report reflects need for SOL reform, Daily News
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said Wednesday that there was nothing that could have prepared them for the trauma of learning years ago that their oldest son, Josh, had “improperly touched some of our daughters.”
“He said he was just curious about girls and he had gone in and just basically touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping; they didn’t even know he had done it,” Jim Bob Duggar told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, in the family’s first interview since the allegations were reported last month.
The parents confirmed publicly for the first time that their firstborn son — who had previously apologized for unspecified “wrongdoing” as a teenager — had molested multiple young girls.
The Duggars, whose family stars in TLC’s popular reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” spoke about the multiple incidents of molestation that occurred in their Arkansas home. According to Jim Bob and Michelle, the victims included four of their daughters, along with a family babysitter.
[Josh Duggar’s sister comes to his defense following molestation reports]
Two of those daughters — Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard — chose to self-identify as their older brother’s victims in a joint interview with Kelly, a brief portion of which was broadcast Wednesday.
“We are victims, they can’t do this to us,” Dillard, now 24, said through tears, explaining her reaction to the widely reported allegations.
“The system that was set up to protect kids, both those who make stupid mistakes or have problems like this in their life and the ones that are affected by those choices — it’s greatly failed,” said Seewald, 22.
The Washington Post generally does not name victims of sexual assault; however, the two sisters have now spoken about the matter publicly.
The sisters’ full interview will air Friday night at 9; Fox News has distributed additional quotes from that interview that have not yet been broadcast.
[A timeline of the molestation allegations against Josh Duggar]
In one quote distributed to reporters, Jessa Seewald said charges that her brother is a pedophile or child molester are “so overboard and a lie.”
On May 21, Josh Duggar, now 27, apologized for teenage “wrongdoing” after a tabloid report alleged that he had molested several young girls. Duggar also resigned from his high-profile job with the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council in Washington.
Duggar had five sisters when the incidents occurred, his parents said.
“This was like touching somebody over their clothes. There were a couple instances where he touched them under their clothes,” Jim Bob Duggar said.
“This was not rape or anything like that,” Duggar said.
[Hank Stuever: In Fox interview, the Duggars cast themselves as martyrs — and place their faith once more in TV]
“It was so important for us as parents to talk to our girls” and make sure “nothing else had happened,” Michelle Duggar said. The parents told Kelly that their children were unaware that Josh had touched them, until they spoke to their children about the incidents.
“We watched him like all the time, I took him to work with me. We just poured our life into him,” Jim Bob said. He added: “Nothing ever happened like that again in the girls’ bedrooms after that.”
Jim Bob Duggar talks with Megyn Kelly in Tontitown, Ark. (Fox News Channel via Getty Images)
“The ray of hope was that Josh had came and told us and that his heart was still soft. Because we wouldn’t have known about any of these things if he hadn’t had came and told us,” Jim Bob Duggar said.
In all, Jim Bob Duggar said, Josh confessed to his parents three times about improper touching in the home. “It was after that third time he came to us is where we really felt like, ‘You know what? ‘We have done everything we can as parents to handle this in-house. We need to get help,’” he said.
The parents then sent Josh to receive Christian-based counseling from a mentor in Little Rock, they said. Michelle also told Kelly that “all of our children received professional counseling, including Josh.” Jim Bob Duggar said the counseling came from “accredited professional counselor.”
Kelly also asked the Duggars about their troubled son’s first interview with law enforcement. Josh gave a full account of his actions to the officer, Jim Bob Duggar said Wednesday. The conversation between Jim Bob, his son, a witness and an Arkansas state trooper did not directly result in any further law enforcement action against Josh Duggar. Instead, the teenager received a “stern” talking-to from the officer.
That officer was Joseph Hutchens, now serving a decades-long prison sentence for child pornography. “We had no idea what that officer was going through,” Jim Bob said.
After seeking counseling and speaking with the police, the parents believed that Josh was “not at all” a threat to their daughters, they told Kelly.
The allegations were detailed in a police report first obtained by In Touch Weekly. The report stemmed from a 2006 investigation into an anonymous tip alleging that Josh Duggar molested multiple girls in 2002 and 2003.
Kelly asked the Duggars about the release of that report, which redacted the names of the victims. Because it detailed the actions of juveniles, the family, along with Kelly, have said that it was released “illegally.”
“They didn’t want this out,” Jim Bob said of his daughters. “Every victim should have the right to tell their own story, not a tabloid.”
[How do evangelicals view the Duggars? It’s complicated.]
At one point, Kelly asked Michelle Duggar about a robocall she made that, Kelly said,”suggested transgender people might want to go into the bathrooms of girls, locker rooms of girls, and that they may be child molesters.”
“I think that protecting young girls and not allowing young men and men in general to go into a girls’ locker room is just common sense,” Duggar said.
“But this is different, because you injected child molestation into it,” Kelly said.
At that point, Jim Bob Duggar told Kelly that his wife “actually said pedophile in that [robocall]. And actually a pedophile is an adult that preys on children. Joshua was actually 14 and just turned 15 when he did what he did.
“I think the legal definition is 16 and up for an adult preying on a child. He was a child preying on a child.”
[Listen to Michelle Duggar’s anti-anti-discrimination robocall]
Kelly asked whether the Duggars could understand the reactions of critics to the molestation allegations.
“I can understand that,” Michelle Duggar said. “I can understand that, but I know that every one of us have done things wrong. That’s why Jesus came.”
“I feel like this is more about — there is an agenda and there are people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander,” she said.
The family also addressed the future of its show, which completed its most recent season just days before Josh Duggar apologized. TLC pulled all episodes of the program from the air and online a day after the apology, and more than 20 advertisers have said they’re no longer interested in promoting their products during the show. But the network has not indicated its long-term plans for the show or possible spin-offs.
“I don’t know if the rest of our family should be punished” for the actions of one member, Jim Bob Duggar said, adding that the family will “be fine whether they film us or not.”
Josh Duggar has not commented publicly since his statement two weeks ago, when he said he had “acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends.”
He added: “I sought forgiveness from those I had wronged and asked Christ to forgive me and come into my life. I would do anything to go back to those teen years and take different actions.”
A one-hour special featuring more Duggar interviews will air on Fox News Friday at 9 p.m.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-06-09 01:57:512015-06-09 01:57:51Abby Ohlheiser, Josh Duggar molested four of his sisters and a babysitter, parents tell Fox News, The Washington Post
Larry Patrick remembers J. Dennis Hastert well. He remembers wrestling on his 1976 championship team here in this rural community of 17,000, west of Chicago. He remembers the summers, when Hastert would pile his wrestlers into a bus, and drive it himself so the Yorkville High School team could afford to attend camp.
“They would really make these trips inexpensive,” Patrick said. “Just Denny driving the bus with about 10 boys.” Patrick – like many others here – vehemently denied that Hastert had any inappropriate relationships. Carl Kick, who wrestled in 1979, said the same: Hastert never behaved inappropriately.
Story Continued Below
But the news that Hastert — the long-serving former House speaker and home-town hero — was under indictment for allegedly concealing his agreement to pay $3.5 million in hush money to a would-be accuser hit his friends and neighbors hard. And news reports now appear to confirm their worst fears: that the funds went to a man leveling accusations of sexual abuse during Hastert’s days as a teacher and coach.
Robert Corwin, Hastert’s longtime friend and a local judo instructor, was surprised Hastert was in trouble at all. He and Hastert took kids on a “super activity every summer.” They went to the Grand Canyon twice, and the Bahamas seven times. In the Bahamas, they stayed in a “very primitive” cabin, so they pair didn’t have to worry about the teenagers getting into any trouble. Most of the kids had never been farther than Yorkville or slightly larger Illinois cities like Springfield or Champaign, Corwin said.
“As far as I know, none of the kids [Denny coached] ever got in trouble,” said Corwin, whose judo studio is next to the train tracks running through this town. “Denny was like a mentor to them in high school. If a kid started to go astray, Denny would have a talk with that kid and straighten him out.”
When he heard of the indictment, he said the allegations of wrongdoing by Hastert “surprised” him.
“I had no idea,” Corwin said.
Yorkville and Washington have always represented the two poles in Hastert’s life.
WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 24: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) leaves the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct after testifying about the House page scandal October 24, 2006 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Rep Tom Reynolds (R-NY) has said the he warned Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) about inappropriate contact between former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) and teenage House pages in the spring. Hastert says he does not recall having a conversation with Reynolds about Foley. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
In Yorkville — a once sleepy former pioneer village that only recently tripled in size, thanks partly to an expanding Wrigley plant making Skittles — Hastert was the teacher and champion wrestling coach, who led a Boy Scout troop and an Explorer Post group for nearly two decades. Moving seamlessly into politics, he became Yorkville’s man in Springfield and later in Washington.
In the nation’s capital, Hastert was known as the man who rose to the speakership rapidly and unexpectedly – and then held onto it for longer than anyone else in the Republican Party’s history. At the peak of his power, he was flanked by Capitol Police, and had a phalanx of aides always by his side. On 9/11, he was the man whisked from the Capitol to Andrews Air Force Base to an awaiting helicopter, which took him to an undisclosed location to shield him from a potential terrorist attack. When Hastert was ushered out of power, he vowed to leave Washington to come back to Yorkville and wind down from his time in D.C.
But Washington and Yorkville were joined in shock this week, as news of the indictment spread. Hastert, now 73 will likely be arraigned next week in federal court Chicago on felony charges that could land him in jail for as many as 10 years. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas M. Durkin, a Chicago native appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, has been assigned to the case.
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert speaks to lawmakers on the Illinois House of Representatives floor at the state Capitol in Springfield on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Hastert was being honored by Illinois lawmakers for his many years of legislative service. On Saturday March 8, 2008, voters in 14th Congressional District will vote in a special election to fill the seat of the retiring Hastert. Running to fill the seat are businessmen Democrat Bill Foster and Republican Jim Oberweis. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
The celebrity status Hastert once enjoyed in both Yorkville and Washington is quickly falling away. Nearby Wheaton College accepted Hastert’s resignation from the board of advisers of the eponymous J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy. The Yorkville school district that employed Hastert for 16 years said they had “no knowledge” of Hastert’s “alleged misconduct.”
“If requested to do so, the district plans to cooperate fully with the U.S. Attorney’s investigation into this matter,” school officials said in a release.
Meanwhile, the Washington-based law firm and lobbying group of Dickstein Shapiro, where Hastert worked for many years, accepted his resignation, as well.
The current House speaker, John Boehner (R-Ohio), recalled Hastert fondly but didn’t comment on the allegations: “The Denny I served with worked hard on behalf of his constituents and the country. I’m shocked and saddened to learn of these reports.”
Hastert was nowhere to be seen Friday. Local Chicago television trucks lined the narrow Creek Road in Plano, Illinois — just a few miles from Yorkville — with cameras trained on Hastert’s green house. Hastert’s neighborhood was the picture of serenity, reflecting nothing of the public storm enveloping this town and Hastert’s legacy.
Paddle boards were strewn around a pond in front of Hastert’s home. Across from Hastert’s house is a quiet field. The only upheaval of the day came when county officials tried to move reporters from the side of the road for a lawn mowing.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was paying a former student to keep quiet about allegations of sexual abuse from the time when Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in Illinois, two sources with knowledge of the federal government investigation told CNN on Friday afternoon.
Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois between 1965 and 1981 before entering politics. Federal prosecutors indicted Hastert on Thursday for lying to the FBI about $3.5 million he agreed to pay to an undisclosed person to “cover up past misconduct.”
A federal law enforcement official confirmed to CNN early Friday evening that the former student was a male and a minor when the alleged abuse took place. Federal law enforcement officials also said that investigators decided not to pursue a possible extortion case in the matter.
The high school where Hastert worked released a statement earlier Friday denying any knowledge of past misdeeds.
“Yorkville Community Unit School District #115 has no knowledge of Mr. Hastert’s alleged misconduct, nor has any individual contacted the District to report any such misconduct,” according to the statement.
It also suggested prosecutors have not contacted the school about Hastert’s misconduct.
A friend of Hastert, who has known him since the 1970s, said he spoke with the former speaker Friday morning.
“He perceives himself as the one being wronged” the friend said. “He’s done an incredibly good job for the people, he’s done that and done as well as he could.”
The friend, however, wouldn’t comment on the accusations.
House Speaker John Boehner released a statement early Friday evening, saying “the Denny I served with worked hard on behalf of his constituents and the country.”
But, Boehner said, “I’m shocked and saddened to learn of these reports.”
Initial bail was set at $4,500, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said Friday, adding that that was only preliminary and routine in most cases. She said that his first appearance in court, for his arraignment, is expected next week.
But much remains unclear in the seven-page indictment federal officials lodged against the former Republican House speaker. Here are some other remaining questions:
1. Who, exactly, is “Individual A”?
The indictment describes “Individual A” as the subject of Hastert’s “prior misconduct,” but offers very few clues. The best seems to be “Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville and has known Hastert most of Individual A’s life.” The “Individual A” met with Hastert “multiple times” in 2010 and “discussed past misconduct against Individual A that had occurred years earlier.” It was during those meetings, and later talks, that Hastert allegedly agreed to pay $3.5 million.
2. When did the alleged abuse happen?
The indictment reveals only that “Individual A” met with Hastert sometime around 2010 and at one point “discussed past misconduct … that had occurred years earlier.” There’s no indication of how long ago that was, but it may have been years or even decades, as Individual A “has been a resident of Yorkville, Ill. and has known Hastert most of their life,” per the indictment.
On Friday, his former colleagues expressed shock at the indictment, saying there was no whiff of scandal from Hastert during his time in Congress.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Rick Santorum, who served in the House with Hastert, on CNN’s “New Day.” “It certainly seems very much out of character.”
Former Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Davis, who served in Congress from 1995 to 2008 with Hastert, said Friday he was stunned by the revelations and said Hastert had been elevated to his leadership post precisely “because he was above reproach.”
“In my knowledge, he was a remarkably ethical leader … that’s why he was put there,” Davis said.
3. Why did it take so long to come out?
The indictment lists relevant facts as including Hastert’s time working as a teacher and coach in Yorkville for 16 years. But Hastert was not apparoached by “Individual A” until 2010. From 2010 until 2014, Hastert first negotiated with and then made secret payments to the unknown subject.
But charges were not filed against Hastert until Thursday, a half century after the first relevant date listed in the indictment.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-06-08 01:22:512015-06-08 01:22:51Alexandra Jaffe, Tom LoBianco and Pamela Brown, Hastert's hush money was to cover up sexual misconduct with former student, sources say, CNN
Prosecutors on Friday charged a Roman Catholic Archdiocese over its handling of clergy abuse claims, saying church leaders failed to protect children from unspeakable harm and “turned a blind eye” to repeated reports of inappropriate behaviour by a priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys.
The archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a corporation is charged with six gross misdemeanour counts. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said there’s not yet enough evidence to charge any individuals.
The charges stem from the archdiocese’s handling of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys and faces prosecution involving a third boy in Wisconsin.
Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to “numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct” by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015. The criminal complaint says many people — including parishioners, fellow priests and parish staff — reported issues with Wehmeyer, and many of those claims were discounted.
“It is not only Curtis Wehmeyer who is criminally responsible for the harm caused, but it is the archdiocese as well,” Choi said. He said church leaders had the power to remove Wehmeyer from ministry, but “time and time again turned a blind eye in the name of protecting priests at the expense of protecting children.”
Andrew Cozzens, an auxiliary bishop at the archdiocese, released a statement saying the archdiocese is co-operating with prosecutors. “We all share the same goal: To provide safe environments for all children in our churches and in our communities,” he said.
Choi said policies church leaders held out to be best practices in monitoring and supervising wayward priests were a “sham,” and the complaint outlines numerous instances in which the criteria imposed on Wehmeyer were neither followed nor enforced. Among them, Wehmeyer didn’t receive a required background check until eight years after he was ordained.
Each count against the archdiocese carries a maximum fine of $3,000. In addition to the criminal charges, prosecutors filed a civil petition that asks a court to order the archdiocese to stop the alleged behaviour.
The archdiocese has been under fire since a former church official went public in 2013 with concerns about how local church leaders handled abuse cases. Choi said authorities began this investigation nearly two years ago.
After he was ordained in 2001, the archdiocese received reports that Wehmeyer was often in the boys’ bathroom at St. Joseph’s, that he received a citation for loitering at a park known for male sexual encounters and that he had approached two young looking men for sex at a bookstore in 2004, according to the complaint.
The Rev. Kevin McDonough, the former vicar general, sent Wehmeyer to treatment but limited what parishioners were told, the complaint says. McDonough did not return a message seeking comment from the AP.
In September 2010, one priest told Bishop Lee Piche that Wehmeyer took two boys camping and was found in bed with one of them. The complaint says Piche told authorities he couldn’t remember the report from the priest.
Piche’s assistant said he was not available for comment.
The archdiocese didn’t report Wehmeyer to authorities until June 2012.
The archdiocese announced a settlement last fall in a lawsuit that claimed it created a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about another abusive priest. The settlement includes measures to keep children safe and undisclosed financial terms.
Criminal charges against a diocese are rare. In 2011, a grand jury indicted Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri on a misdemeanour of failing to report suspected child abuse. Finn was convicted in 2012, and he resigned this April; charges against the diocese were dropped.
The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, settled a case in 2002 just before the state attorney general was about to present the charges to a grand jury. Bishops there, as well as in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cincinnati, Ohio, struck deals in 2002 and 2003 with prosecutors to avoid charges related to their response to abuse cases.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is home to about 825,000 Catholics and encompasses nearly 190 parishes in 12 counties.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-06-08 00:55:512015-06-08 00:55:51Amy Forliti, St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese hit with criminal charges over handling of clergy abuse claim, Comox Valley Echo
The United Nations chief condemned “appalling allegations” of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in Central African Republic while meeting with worried countries that included two of the world body’s top funders.
Also on Friday, the ambassador for the United States, by far the U.N.’s top contributing country, welcomed a new external review into how the allegations were handled.
Confidential documents have shown that the U.N.’s top human rights officials did not follow up for more than half a year on allegations collected by their own staffers, while French authorities pressed for more information. France opened a formal judicial inquiry just last month.
Ban Ki-moon met Friday with Australia, Japan, Norway and Guatemala, who did not comment shortly afterward. Japan is the U.N.’s second-largest funder, contributing 10 percent of the world body’s regular budget. Australia also falls in the top dozen contributors.
The United States, which did not attend, pays 22 percent of the U.N.’s regular budget. U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power in a statement Friday said the external review into the child sexual abuse allegations is a chance “to learn what went wrong at every point in this process.” The foreign minister of Canada, another top contributor, issued a statement Thursday expressing outrage over the allegations.
Few details have been announced about the external review, which will address both the specific allegations and wider issues related to how the U.N. responds to such sensitive claims. Ban’s spokesman has said a summary of the findings will be made public.
A person familiar with Friday’s meeting said key details like who would lead the review and how long it would take still had not been decided. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, said many more countries than the four member states that attended have concerns.
Ban’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told The Associated Press that Ban told the diplomats that “our central concern must be to protect the rights and well-being of victims of these abuses and to ensure that the perpetrators are held to account.”
Michael O’Keeffe, Mulhearn: Horace Mann report reflects need for SOL reform, Daily News
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformAttorney Kevin Mulhearn has been battling for sexual abuse victims for years: The Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney overcame numerous legal obstacles to settle a landmark lawsuit filed by a dozen men who claimed Poly Prep covered up years of assaults by the elite Brooklyn school’s longtime football coach, Phil Foglietta. Mulhearn has also represented men and women who claimed two other iconic New York schools, Horace Mann and Yeshiva University, also covered up years of sexual abuse by staff and faculty members.
In the following column, Mulhearn explains why New York lawmakers should pass the Child Victims Act. The bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) calls for the elimination of criminal and civil statutes of limitations for future child abuse victims; it would also open up a one-year window for victims of past crimes to pursue criminal and civil cases.
Last week, the Honorable Leslie Crocker Snyder (ret.), founder of the Manhattan DA’s Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau and co-author of New York State’s Rape Shield Law, issued her report on sexual abuse that occurred at the elite Horace Mann School in the Bronx in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. The report, titled “Making Schools Safe,” commissioned by the Horace Mann Action Coalition, concludes that at Horace Mann at least 64 students were sexually abused by as many as 22 faculty and staff. Judge Snyder’s report describes the scope and extent of the parade of sexual abuse at Horace Mann and makes pointed recommendations for how independent schools can protect our children. For anyone with children in New York schools, especially private schools, this thoughtful and insightful Report, despite (or maybe because of) its repugnant subject matter, should be required reading.
The squalid abuse facts themselves are horrendous in their own right but the most disturbing component of the report is the craven response of various school officials and trustees to sex abuse complaints made by abused students. The report describes a prolonged, multi-decade Horace Mann cover-up, highlighted by the loss or destruction of voluminous sex abuse records and the deliberate indifference of a former headmaster who himself engaged in the sexual abuse of young boys. Like with the Catholic Church, Horace Mann officials confronted with direct allegations of sex abuse by soul-shattered victims were too often far more concerned with protecting the reputations of both institution and sex predator employees than the children entrusted to their care.
The report also states that when Horace Mann’s acts and omissions were finally publicly revealed in 2012 (after Amos Kamil’s groundbreaking New York Times Magazine story), Horace Mann’s insurers concluded that all of the victims’ claims were “fully defensible due to New York’s statute of limitations.” The insurers’ position reflects accurately the status quo in New York State. This is the harsh reality: New York state and federal courts have worked overtime to ensure that schools that actively cover up the sexual abuse of students by teachers, coaches, and administrators, thus guaranteeing that more unsuspecting and innocent children will be sexually assaulted, will face no legal accountability once the schools’ own misconduct is exposed.
Statutes of limitation derive from a public policy to make persons secure in their reasonable expectation that the slate has been wiped clean of ancient obligations. But they are designed to foster, not hinder, litigants’ search for the truth. Statutes of limitation are not designed to protect an institution which actively conceals its own misconduct from legal culpability, but that is exactly how they are being used by schools and their partners in crime, enabling courts.
New York state and federal courts have concluded time and time again that because the abuse victims knew the identity of their abuser, and that their abuser was employed by the school, the victims—traumatized, sexually assaulted children—would have discovered the school’s own facilitation of their abuse had they conducted a diligent post-abuse inquiry. This case-ending conclusion has been reached even when survivors allege that they did report their abuse to school officials, but were met with lies, threats of reprisal and challenges to their credibility. This exalted legal standard, which has been embraced by the courts of this state like a long-lost child, is a perversion of justice and an insult to logic, decency and common sense.
The real reason why these courts adhere to such a draconian and counterintuitive legal standard, which transmogrifies “justice” into “injustice” with the stroke of a pen, is an unstated but paramount policy. The courts are worried that Pandora’s Box will open if these “old” sex abuse cases gain traction. They are worried that they will be faced with a flood of litigation against complicit schools; accordingly, they hold their collective noses and continue to embrace legal fiction mounted atop legal fantasy. Again and again.
After one reads Judge Snyder’s Report on Horace Mann, or the pleadings in the Poly Prep or Yeshiva University High School for Boys cases, however, the milquetoast foundation of this obstructive judicial policy crumbles in the face of the sordid, almost hard-to-imagine, facts. Schools and school officials that engage in such reprehensible conduct—that let children get raped by known sexual predator employees—deserve no protection, no financial relief, regardless of when their concealed bad acts finally get exposed (i.e., regardless of how long they succeed in their sex abuse cover-ups). The simplest solution, as proposed by Judge Snyder, is the enactment into law of the Child Victims Act, the latest version of a bill proposed by Queens Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, which would substantially reform and broaden New York’s statute of limitations for sex abuse cases.
Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse are no longer victims. After all, it takes enormous strength and courage for them to confront their abusers and their abusers’ enablers and demand some measure of accountability. But unless this bill passes, courts are likely to continue to deny survivors legal redress and will thus continue to reward schools for conducting successful and prolonged sex abuse cover-ups. This status quo, while absurd, grossly unfair, and violent to all principles of equity, is for now deeply entrenched in New York law.
Time will tell whether “truth and justice” is a guiding principle or an empty slogan in New York State. In this arena, where nothing less than the safety and well-being of our children is at stake, there is no more room for pussy-footing. The time for statute of limitations reform is now.
Mulhearn_ Horace Mann report reflects need for SOL reform – NY Daily News
Abby Ohlheiser, Josh Duggar molested four of his sisters and a babysitter, parents tell Fox News, The Washington Post
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformJim Bob and Michelle Duggar said Wednesday that there was nothing that could have prepared them for the trauma of learning years ago that their oldest son, Josh, had “improperly touched some of our daughters.”
“He said he was just curious about girls and he had gone in and just basically touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping; they didn’t even know he had done it,” Jim Bob Duggar told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, in the family’s first interview since the allegations were reported last month.
The parents confirmed publicly for the first time that their firstborn son — who had previously apologized for unspecified “wrongdoing” as a teenager — had molested multiple young girls.
The Duggars, whose family stars in TLC’s popular reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” spoke about the multiple incidents of molestation that occurred in their Arkansas home. According to Jim Bob and Michelle, the victims included four of their daughters, along with a family babysitter.
[Josh Duggar’s sister comes to his defense following molestation reports]
Two of those daughters — Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard — chose to self-identify as their older brother’s victims in a joint interview with Kelly, a brief portion of which was broadcast Wednesday.
“We are victims, they can’t do this to us,” Dillard, now 24, said through tears, explaining her reaction to the widely reported allegations.
“The system that was set up to protect kids, both those who make stupid mistakes or have problems like this in their life and the ones that are affected by those choices — it’s greatly failed,” said Seewald, 22.
The Washington Post generally does not name victims of sexual assault; however, the two sisters have now spoken about the matter publicly.
The sisters’ full interview will air Friday night at 9; Fox News has distributed additional quotes from that interview that have not yet been broadcast.
[A timeline of the molestation allegations against Josh Duggar]
In one quote distributed to reporters, Jessa Seewald said charges that her brother is a pedophile or child molester are “so overboard and a lie.”
On May 21, Josh Duggar, now 27, apologized for teenage “wrongdoing” after a tabloid report alleged that he had molested several young girls. Duggar also resigned from his high-profile job with the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council in Washington.
Duggar had five sisters when the incidents occurred, his parents said.
“This was like touching somebody over their clothes. There were a couple instances where he touched them under their clothes,” Jim Bob Duggar said.
“This was not rape or anything like that,” Duggar said.
[Hank Stuever: In Fox interview, the Duggars cast themselves as martyrs — and place their faith once more in TV]
“It was so important for us as parents to talk to our girls” and make sure “nothing else had happened,” Michelle Duggar said. The parents told Kelly that their children were unaware that Josh had touched them, until they spoke to their children about the incidents.
“We watched him like all the time, I took him to work with me. We just poured our life into him,” Jim Bob said. He added: “Nothing ever happened like that again in the girls’ bedrooms after that.”
Jim Bob Duggar talks with Megyn Kelly in Tontitown, Ark. (Fox News Channel via Getty Images)
“The ray of hope was that Josh had came and told us and that his heart was still soft. Because we wouldn’t have known about any of these things if he hadn’t had came and told us,” Jim Bob Duggar said.
In all, Jim Bob Duggar said, Josh confessed to his parents three times about improper touching in the home. “It was after that third time he came to us is where we really felt like, ‘You know what? ‘We have done everything we can as parents to handle this in-house. We need to get help,’” he said.
The parents then sent Josh to receive Christian-based counseling from a mentor in Little Rock, they said. Michelle also told Kelly that “all of our children received professional counseling, including Josh.” Jim Bob Duggar said the counseling came from “accredited professional counselor.”
Kelly also asked the Duggars about their troubled son’s first interview with law enforcement. Josh gave a full account of his actions to the officer, Jim Bob Duggar said Wednesday. The conversation between Jim Bob, his son, a witness and an Arkansas state trooper did not directly result in any further law enforcement action against Josh Duggar. Instead, the teenager received a “stern” talking-to from the officer.
That officer was Joseph Hutchens, now serving a decades-long prison sentence for child pornography. “We had no idea what that officer was going through,” Jim Bob said.
After seeking counseling and speaking with the police, the parents believed that Josh was “not at all” a threat to their daughters, they told Kelly.
The allegations were detailed in a police report first obtained by In Touch Weekly. The report stemmed from a 2006 investigation into an anonymous tip alleging that Josh Duggar molested multiple girls in 2002 and 2003.
Kelly asked the Duggars about the release of that report, which redacted the names of the victims. Because it detailed the actions of juveniles, the family, along with Kelly, have said that it was released “illegally.”
“They didn’t want this out,” Jim Bob said of his daughters. “Every victim should have the right to tell their own story, not a tabloid.”
[How do evangelicals view the Duggars? It’s complicated.]
At one point, Kelly asked Michelle Duggar about a robocall she made that, Kelly said,”suggested transgender people might want to go into the bathrooms of girls, locker rooms of girls, and that they may be child molesters.”
“I think that protecting young girls and not allowing young men and men in general to go into a girls’ locker room is just common sense,” Duggar said.
“But this is different, because you injected child molestation into it,” Kelly said.
At that point, Jim Bob Duggar told Kelly that his wife “actually said pedophile in that [robocall]. And actually a pedophile is an adult that preys on children. Joshua was actually 14 and just turned 15 when he did what he did.
“I think the legal definition is 16 and up for an adult preying on a child. He was a child preying on a child.”
[Listen to Michelle Duggar’s anti-anti-discrimination robocall]
Kelly asked whether the Duggars could understand the reactions of critics to the molestation allegations.
“I can understand that,” Michelle Duggar said. “I can understand that, but I know that every one of us have done things wrong. That’s why Jesus came.”
“I feel like this is more about — there is an agenda and there are people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander,” she said.
The family also addressed the future of its show, which completed its most recent season just days before Josh Duggar apologized. TLC pulled all episodes of the program from the air and online a day after the apology, and more than 20 advertisers have said they’re no longer interested in promoting their products during the show. But the network has not indicated its long-term plans for the show or possible spin-offs.
“I don’t know if the rest of our family should be punished” for the actions of one member, Jim Bob Duggar said, adding that the family will “be fine whether they film us or not.”
Josh Duggar has not commented publicly since his statement two weeks ago, when he said he had “acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends.”
He added: “I sought forgiveness from those I had wronged and asked Christ to forgive me and come into my life. I would do anything to go back to those teen years and take different actions.”
A one-hour special featuring more Duggar interviews will air on Fox News Friday at 9 p.m.
Josh Duggar molested four of his sisters and a babysitter, parents tell Fox News – The Washington Post
Jake Shermann, Hillary Flynn, Hastert hometown rocked by scandal, Politico
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformLarry Patrick remembers J. Dennis Hastert well. He remembers wrestling on his 1976 championship team here in this rural community of 17,000, west of Chicago. He remembers the summers, when Hastert would pile his wrestlers into a bus, and drive it himself so the Yorkville High School team could afford to attend camp.
“They would really make these trips inexpensive,” Patrick said. “Just Denny driving the bus with about 10 boys.” Patrick – like many others here – vehemently denied that Hastert had any inappropriate relationships. Carl Kick, who wrestled in 1979, said the same: Hastert never behaved inappropriately.
Story Continued Below
But the news that Hastert — the long-serving former House speaker and home-town hero — was under indictment for allegedly concealing his agreement to pay $3.5 million in hush money to a would-be accuser hit his friends and neighbors hard. And news reports now appear to confirm their worst fears: that the funds went to a man leveling accusations of sexual abuse during Hastert’s days as a teacher and coach.
Robert Corwin, Hastert’s longtime friend and a local judo instructor, was surprised Hastert was in trouble at all. He and Hastert took kids on a “super activity every summer.” They went to the Grand Canyon twice, and the Bahamas seven times. In the Bahamas, they stayed in a “very primitive” cabin, so they pair didn’t have to worry about the teenagers getting into any trouble. Most of the kids had never been farther than Yorkville or slightly larger Illinois cities like Springfield or Champaign, Corwin said.
“As far as I know, none of the kids [Denny coached] ever got in trouble,” said Corwin, whose judo studio is next to the train tracks running through this town. “Denny was like a mentor to them in high school. If a kid started to go astray, Denny would have a talk with that kid and straighten him out.”
When he heard of the indictment, he said the allegations of wrongdoing by Hastert “surprised” him.
“I had no idea,” Corwin said.
Yorkville and Washington have always represented the two poles in Hastert’s life.
WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 24: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) leaves the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct after testifying about the House page scandal October 24, 2006 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Rep Tom Reynolds (R-NY) has said the he warned Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) about inappropriate contact between former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) and teenage House pages in the spring. Hastert says he does not recall having a conversation with Reynolds about Foley. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
In Yorkville — a once sleepy former pioneer village that only recently tripled in size, thanks partly to an expanding Wrigley plant making Skittles — Hastert was the teacher and champion wrestling coach, who led a Boy Scout troop and an Explorer Post group for nearly two decades. Moving seamlessly into politics, he became Yorkville’s man in Springfield and later in Washington.
In the nation’s capital, Hastert was known as the man who rose to the speakership rapidly and unexpectedly – and then held onto it for longer than anyone else in the Republican Party’s history. At the peak of his power, he was flanked by Capitol Police, and had a phalanx of aides always by his side. On 9/11, he was the man whisked from the Capitol to Andrews Air Force Base to an awaiting helicopter, which took him to an undisclosed location to shield him from a potential terrorist attack. When Hastert was ushered out of power, he vowed to leave Washington to come back to Yorkville and wind down from his time in D.C.
But Washington and Yorkville were joined in shock this week, as news of the indictment spread. Hastert, now 73 will likely be arraigned next week in federal court Chicago on felony charges that could land him in jail for as many as 10 years. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas M. Durkin, a Chicago native appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, has been assigned to the case.
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert speaks to lawmakers on the Illinois House of Representatives floor at the state Capitol in Springfield on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Hastert was being honored by Illinois lawmakers for his many years of legislative service. On Saturday March 8, 2008, voters in 14th Congressional District will vote in a special election to fill the seat of the retiring Hastert. Running to fill the seat are businessmen Democrat Bill Foster and Republican Jim Oberweis. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
The celebrity status Hastert once enjoyed in both Yorkville and Washington is quickly falling away. Nearby Wheaton College accepted Hastert’s resignation from the board of advisers of the eponymous J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy. The Yorkville school district that employed Hastert for 16 years said they had “no knowledge” of Hastert’s “alleged misconduct.”
“If requested to do so, the district plans to cooperate fully with the U.S. Attorney’s investigation into this matter,” school officials said in a release.
Meanwhile, the Washington-based law firm and lobbying group of Dickstein Shapiro, where Hastert worked for many years, accepted his resignation, as well.
The current House speaker, John Boehner (R-Ohio), recalled Hastert fondly but didn’t comment on the allegations: “The Denny I served with worked hard on behalf of his constituents and the country. I’m shocked and saddened to learn of these reports.”
Hastert was nowhere to be seen Friday. Local Chicago television trucks lined the narrow Creek Road in Plano, Illinois — just a few miles from Yorkville — with cameras trained on Hastert’s green house. Hastert’s neighborhood was the picture of serenity, reflecting nothing of the public storm enveloping this town and Hastert’s legacy.
Paddle boards were strewn around a pond in front of Hastert’s home. Across from Hastert’s house is a quiet field. The only upheaval of the day came when county officials tried to move reporters from the side of the road for a lawn mowing.
Hastert hometown rocked by scandal – Jake Sherman and Hillary Flynn – POLITICO
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/hastert-hometown-rocked-by-scandal-118439.html#ixzz3cQhNis2d
Alexandra Jaffe, Tom LoBianco and Pamela Brown, Hastert’s hush money was to cover up sexual misconduct with former student, sources say, CNN
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformFormer Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was paying a former student to keep quiet about allegations of sexual abuse from the time when Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in Illinois, two sources with knowledge of the federal government investigation told CNN on Friday afternoon.
Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois between 1965 and 1981 before entering politics. Federal prosecutors indicted Hastert on Thursday for lying to the FBI about $3.5 million he agreed to pay to an undisclosed person to “cover up past misconduct.”
A federal law enforcement official confirmed to CNN early Friday evening that the former student was a male and a minor when the alleged abuse took place. Federal law enforcement officials also said that investigators decided not to pursue a possible extortion case in the matter.
The high school where Hastert worked released a statement earlier Friday denying any knowledge of past misdeeds.
“Yorkville Community Unit School District #115 has no knowledge of Mr. Hastert’s alleged misconduct, nor has any individual contacted the District to report any such misconduct,” according to the statement.
It also suggested prosecutors have not contacted the school about Hastert’s misconduct.
A friend of Hastert, who has known him since the 1970s, said he spoke with the former speaker Friday morning.
“He perceives himself as the one being wronged” the friend said. “He’s done an incredibly good job for the people, he’s done that and done as well as he could.”
The friend, however, wouldn’t comment on the accusations.
House Speaker John Boehner released a statement early Friday evening, saying “the Denny I served with worked hard on behalf of his constituents and the country.”
But, Boehner said, “I’m shocked and saddened to learn of these reports.”
Initial bail was set at $4,500, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said Friday, adding that that was only preliminary and routine in most cases. She said that his first appearance in court, for his arraignment, is expected next week.
But much remains unclear in the seven-page indictment federal officials lodged against the former Republican House speaker. Here are some other remaining questions:
1. Who, exactly, is “Individual A”?
The indictment describes “Individual A” as the subject of Hastert’s “prior misconduct,” but offers very few clues. The best seems to be “Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville and has known Hastert most of Individual A’s life.” The “Individual A” met with Hastert “multiple times” in 2010 and “discussed past misconduct against Individual A that had occurred years earlier.” It was during those meetings, and later talks, that Hastert allegedly agreed to pay $3.5 million.
2. When did the alleged abuse happen?
The indictment reveals only that “Individual A” met with Hastert sometime around 2010 and at one point “discussed past misconduct … that had occurred years earlier.” There’s no indication of how long ago that was, but it may have been years or even decades, as Individual A “has been a resident of Yorkville, Ill. and has known Hastert most of their life,” per the indictment.
On Friday, his former colleagues expressed shock at the indictment, saying there was no whiff of scandal from Hastert during his time in Congress.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Rick Santorum, who served in the House with Hastert, on CNN’s “New Day.” “It certainly seems very much out of character.”
Former Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Davis, who served in Congress from 1995 to 2008 with Hastert, said Friday he was stunned by the revelations and said Hastert had been elevated to his leadership post precisely “because he was above reproach.”
“In my knowledge, he was a remarkably ethical leader … that’s why he was put there,” Davis said.
3. Why did it take so long to come out?
The indictment lists relevant facts as including Hastert’s time working as a teacher and coach in Yorkville for 16 years. But Hastert was not apparoached by “Individual A” until 2010. From 2010 until 2014, Hastert first negotiated with and then made secret payments to the unknown subject.
But charges were not filed against Hastert until Thursday, a half century after the first relevant date listed in the indictment.
Sources_ Dennis Hastert cover-up for sexual misconduct – CNNPolitics
Amy Forliti, St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese hit with criminal charges over handling of clergy abuse claim, Comox Valley Echo
/in Minnesota /by SOL ReformProsecutors on Friday charged a Roman Catholic Archdiocese over its handling of clergy abuse claims, saying church leaders failed to protect children from unspeakable harm and “turned a blind eye” to repeated reports of inappropriate behaviour by a priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys.
The archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a corporation is charged with six gross misdemeanour counts. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said there’s not yet enough evidence to charge any individuals.
The charges stem from the archdiocese’s handling of Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest at Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys and faces prosecution involving a third boy in Wisconsin.
Prosecutors say church leaders failed to respond to “numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct” by Wehmeyer from the time he entered seminary until he was removed from the priesthood in 2015. The criminal complaint says many people — including parishioners, fellow priests and parish staff — reported issues with Wehmeyer, and many of those claims were discounted.
“It is not only Curtis Wehmeyer who is criminally responsible for the harm caused, but it is the archdiocese as well,” Choi said. He said church leaders had the power to remove Wehmeyer from ministry, but “time and time again turned a blind eye in the name of protecting priests at the expense of protecting children.”
Andrew Cozzens, an auxiliary bishop at the archdiocese, released a statement saying the archdiocese is co-operating with prosecutors. “We all share the same goal: To provide safe environments for all children in our churches and in our communities,” he said.
Choi said policies church leaders held out to be best practices in monitoring and supervising wayward priests were a “sham,” and the complaint outlines numerous instances in which the criteria imposed on Wehmeyer were neither followed nor enforced. Among them, Wehmeyer didn’t receive a required background check until eight years after he was ordained.
Each count against the archdiocese carries a maximum fine of $3,000. In addition to the criminal charges, prosecutors filed a civil petition that asks a court to order the archdiocese to stop the alleged behaviour.
The archdiocese has been under fire since a former church official went public in 2013 with concerns about how local church leaders handled abuse cases. Choi said authorities began this investigation nearly two years ago.
After he was ordained in 2001, the archdiocese received reports that Wehmeyer was often in the boys’ bathroom at St. Joseph’s, that he received a citation for loitering at a park known for male sexual encounters and that he had approached two young looking men for sex at a bookstore in 2004, according to the complaint.
The Rev. Kevin McDonough, the former vicar general, sent Wehmeyer to treatment but limited what parishioners were told, the complaint says. McDonough did not return a message seeking comment from the AP.
In September 2010, one priest told Bishop Lee Piche that Wehmeyer took two boys camping and was found in bed with one of them. The complaint says Piche told authorities he couldn’t remember the report from the priest.
Piche’s assistant said he was not available for comment.
The archdiocese didn’t report Wehmeyer to authorities until June 2012.
The archdiocese announced a settlement last fall in a lawsuit that claimed it created a public nuisance by failing to warn parishioners about another abusive priest. The settlement includes measures to keep children safe and undisclosed financial terms.
Criminal charges against a diocese are rare. In 2011, a grand jury indicted Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri on a misdemeanour of failing to report suspected child abuse. Finn was convicted in 2012, and he resigned this April; charges against the diocese were dropped.
The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, settled a case in 2002 just before the state attorney general was about to present the charges to a grand jury. Bishops there, as well as in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cincinnati, Ohio, struck deals in 2002 and 2003 with prosecutors to avoid charges related to their response to abuse cases.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is home to about 825,000 Catholics and encompasses nearly 190 parishes in 12 counties.
St. Paul – Minneapolis
Cara Anna, UN chief condemns ‘appalling’ child sex abuse allegations, Associated Press
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformThe United Nations chief condemned “appalling allegations” of child sexual abuse by French soldiers in Central African Republic while meeting with worried countries that included two of the world body’s top funders.
Also on Friday, the ambassador for the United States, by far the U.N.’s top contributing country, welcomed a new external review into how the allegations were handled.
Confidential documents have shown that the U.N.’s top human rights officials did not follow up for more than half a year on allegations collected by their own staffers, while French authorities pressed for more information. France opened a formal judicial inquiry just last month.
Ban Ki-moon met Friday with Australia, Japan, Norway and Guatemala, who did not comment shortly afterward. Japan is the U.N.’s second-largest funder, contributing 10 percent of the world body’s regular budget. Australia also falls in the top dozen contributors.
The United States, which did not attend, pays 22 percent of the U.N.’s regular budget. U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power in a statement Friday said the external review into the child sexual abuse allegations is a chance “to learn what went wrong at every point in this process.” The foreign minister of Canada, another top contributor, issued a statement Thursday expressing outrage over the allegations.
Few details have been announced about the external review, which will address both the specific allegations and wider issues related to how the U.N. responds to such sensitive claims. Ban’s spokesman has said a summary of the findings will be made public.
A person familiar with Friday’s meeting said key details like who would lead the review and how long it would take still had not been decided. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, said many more countries than the four member states that attended have concerns.
Ban’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told The Associated Press that Ban told the diplomats that “our central concern must be to protect the rights and well-being of victims of these abuses and to ensure that the perpetrators are held to account.”
UN chief condemns ‘appalling’ child sex abuse allegations – NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather