Major Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, an Iraq War veteran, and former Attorney General of the state of Delaware, will be laid to rest tomorrow. Sadly, he lost his battle with brain cancer at just forty-six years old. Yet, in his relatively short life, Beau Biden did more for child protection in this nation than arguably any other state-level politician of his era, and what’s more, as much as most advocates for reform can hope to accomplish in a life twice as long.
Biden was elected as Delaware’s Attorney General in 2006. During his eight year tenure, Delaware became the poster-child for state level commitment to effectuating child protection policies across the board. Despite the recent wave of nationwide progress brought on by such high-profile cases as that of Jerry Sandusky, even now in 2015,Delaware remains an apex state as to access to justice for survivors of child sexual abuse. And it remains so because of the policies and reforms that Biden worked tirelessly to put in place in Delaware as early as 2007, his first year as the state’s AG.
In 2007, Delaware not only eliminated its civil SOL prospectively, it also enacted the first retroactive “civil window” of its kind as to C.S.A. survivors in the United States, allowing for revival of previously expired C.S.A.-related tort claims to be filed and brought into court. While retroactive revival of an expired criminal cause of action violates due process and the Ex Post Facto clauses of the Constitution, as any revived prosecution would represent an unconstitutional change in substantive rights and duties; revival of civil tort claims via legislative enactment is constitutional in most states, as it is considered merely a procedural change. Given that throughout the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, child sexual abuse was treated no more seriously than simple assault—such as a bar fight—and subject to standard criminal assault/battery and civil personal injury SOLs of often only one or two years from the act, it is important to recognize that for for many survivors of historical abuse, extension and revival of civil claims is the only recourse available. Under AG Beau Biden, Delaware was the first state to truly combine an understanding of the serial nature of child sexual abuse with the many factors which delay and impair the ability of survivors to report (including the bystander effect), and come to the proper and necessary legislative judgments to protect children—now and in the future.
As is emblematic of any true advocate for change, Biden was not afraid to admit he had learned from mistakes, nor did he shirk from the responsibility to put the cause and those survivors helped by it above his own ambitions. As groundbreaking as the Delaware “window” was, it was not perfect, and needed to be expanded to include liability for abusive and grossly negligent medical and healthcare professionals.
This legislative oversight and need for correction was highlighted by the case of Dr. Earl Bradley, one of the worst known child abusers in our nation’s history, whom AG Biden both indicted criminally and instituted civil racketeering-related claims against in 2009. Bradley was convicted of abusing over 100 children in 2011. During the prosecution, Biden utilized the full power of the state to seize Bradley’s records as well as freeze his assets, allowing for additional charges to be filed in 2011. More, Biden decided not to run for the available U.S. Senate seat from Delaware in 2010—a seat his father once held–in order to stay on as AG and see Bradley convicted himself. Biden stated it was simply more important. Bradley is now serving 14 life sentences plus an additional 164 years in prison, and his case serves as a bell-weather moment in our nation’s understanding of the so-called bystander effect.
Numerous complaints were filed against Bradley in the decade before his arrest; various colleagues, as well as the institution that employed him, were aware of these complaints, yet nothing was done. The knowledge that not only his colleagues, but also, police, DAs, and disciplinary officials—many of them mandatory reporters—failed to follow up on these complaints, allowing for the abuse of dozens more children due to their silence, was simply too much for AG Biden to bear. Thus, along with his dogged pursuit of Bradley,expansion of monitoring of sex offenders statewide, and formation of a Task Force to discuss needed legislative change, he also began a partnership between the state of Delaware and the Darkness to Light Foundation’s “Stewards of Children” program, in order to address the rampant bystander effect problem impeding the progress of true child protection. In Biden’s own words:
“’Stewards of Children’ training sessions teach adults how to spot the signs of child abuse and the importance of immediately reporting the abuse to authorities. So far, nearly 14,000 Delawareans have received this training, and we will be training thousands more. Getting more adults to go through the ‘Stewards of Children’ training is the single biggest step we can take to protect more kids from abuse in Delaware. ‘Stewards of Children’ does not pull any punches; it may make you uncomfortable. But you will better understand, after receiving this training, how often child abuse occurs in our communities and how critically important it is to report child sexual abuse.”
Beau Biden realized that it is our job as adults to work together across all sectors of society to protect children—they cannot do it for themselves, nor should our justice system expect them to. This kind of integrated approach—combining public and private entities to effectuate true access to justice—is now at the forefront of the child protection effort nationwide. Beau Biden was a true pioneer, and a hero to America’s children. He will be sorely missed, and I know myself, Prof. Marci Hamilton and all of us at SOL-Reform.com hope we can continue the fight. May he rest in peace, and may his legacy of child protection flourish.
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 Reform2015-06-07 02:49:292015-06-07 02:49:29Guest Blog: Jordan Walsh, The Children of America have Lost A True Hero: RIP Maj. Beau Biden, Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
MSNBC reports here about an analysis by an expert in child abuse statute of limitations that the statute of limitations had NOT expired on allegations of child sexual abuse in the Jim Bob Duggar home when the Springdale police took a belated look at the case in 2006. A hotline tip that resulted in a review of allegations roughly three years old produced a Springdale police investigation that concluded without police action because of conclusion that the statute of limitations had expired on any potential crimes against children.
Marci A. Hamilton is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law who maintains a site on statutes of limitation for child sex abuse, and wrote a book, Justice Denied, on the topic. She points out that though the civil statute for child sexual abuse in Arkansas has a three year limit, the criminal statute had a much longer time frame. As she reads Arkansas law, “If it is reported when [the victim] is a minor, then they have seven years from the date of the abuse,” Hamilton says. By her reading, that means the clock ran out on the Duggar allegations in 2013. “When it expires,” Hamilton says of the statute of limitations, “it’s over.”
It’s certainly over now. And the multiple layers of confidentiality that apply in child abuse, juvenile and unprosecuted criminal cases have now made a public review (and accountability) in this case just about impossible, particularly since Judge Stacey Zimmerman has ordered official police records destroyed.
The MSNBC expert makes the larger point that the statutes have been extended in Arkansas and elsewhere with the growing realization that the impact on victims is long-lasting and sometimes impossible for them to report until much later. But the result has been a hodgepodge of laws from state to state. (I must concede that the Duggars and their defenders, including Sen. Bart Hester, have invoked legal hodgepodge as an argument against local civil rights ordinances to protect gay people. They’ve also said the ordinances are dangerous because LGBT people are a threat to children.)
ALSO: We now know Fox News’ Megyn Kelly has no intention of being hard on the Duggars in her exclusive interview with them to be broadcast Wednesday night. She talked about the coming program on Fox with Fox’s Howie Kurtz. She seems focused on the release of the Springdale police report and the resulting identification of Josh Duggar. She says that never should have happened. I think she’s wrong in saying the report shouldn’t have been released. The report WAS public information and was properly released, with redactions that removed Josh Duggar’s name and those of children allegedly molested. The general knowledge among a wide group of people — thanks in part to the Duggars’ taking the matter to their church, family and others — meant that many people existed who could put the pieces of that episode together with the report. It’s been discussed over the years since on social media more than once.
There’s ample room for sympathy for identification of an accused juvenile offender. But there’s also room for questions (Kurtz at least noted this) about a failure of reporting abuse to proper authorities; of using questionable church “treatment” for the matter; of police and state agency response to child sexual molestation, and, yes, of course of the Duggars’ high-profile political role in alleging a propensity for child abuse among LGBT people.
Those don’t interest Kelly much, based on this account of the interview. She’d rather talk about Bill Clinton. Yes. Bill Clinton. See, some “liberal types” have shown the Duggars with a bunch of Republican politicians. What about Bill, once accused of rape? Kelly is outraged. I think her show will follow the usual Fox script — victimization of Christians and Republicans. Sex abuse victims?
“I’ve been pretty disgusted by how some liberal media types are using what’s obviously a family tragedy to score political points,” Howard Kurtz agreed, but also admitted that “sometimes people on the right feast on, when a liberal icon falls into trouble.”
“Nothing is off limits,” Kelly said of the Wednesday night interview. But, she added, “I don’t plan on getting into the specific details about what was done, because my understanding is the victims don’t want to discuss that either.”
In other words, nothing is likely to be off limits except questions unsympathetic to the Duggars.
I applaud Charles M. Blow for using two high-profile cases to highlight the alarming prevalence and circumstances surrounding childhood sexual abuse.
I also agree with him that it should not be “a political issue.” Sadly, however, it is: A majority of our states have been unable or unwilling to reform their statutes of limitation to provide most child sex abuse victims meaningful access to justice in the courts of law.
Reformation efforts in dozens of states have been repeatedly blocked by legislators influenced by predominantly religious special interest groups (Catholic and Latter-day Saints bishops and Jewish rabbis, among them) and occasionally secular groups (for example, some state American Civil Liberties Union affiliates have opposed reform for the criminal statutes of limitation). The four states most stuck in the political quagmire that disables victims’ access to justice are Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi and New York. This is political pandering, plain and simple.
We need to stop playing politics with child sex abuse victims and eliminate the impediments to prosecution and civil lawsuits for this horrific crime.
MARCI HAMILTON
Washington’s Crossing, Pa.
The writer is a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
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 Reform2015-06-07 02:42:092015-06-07 02:42:09Max Brantley, Expert questions whether statute of limitations had expired in Duggar case; Fox reveals tack of interview, Arkansas Times
A Montana woman says the FBI interviewed her last month about her allegations that her brother was sexually abused while in high school by Dennis Hastert, the wrestling coach who would become speaker of the House.
Hastert was charged last week in a federal indictment that alleges he agreed to pay $3.5 million to someone from Yorkville, the Illinois town where he taught and coached high school wrestling, so the person would stay quiet about “prior misconduct.”
Jolene Burdge of Billings, Montana, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the FBI interviewed her in mid-May about Hastert. She said her brother told her before he died in 1995 that his first homosexual contact was with Hastert and that the relationship lasted through all of his high school years.
Burdge would not disclose her brother’s name to AP but said he graduated from Yorkville High School in 1971 and that Hastert was his teacher and wrestling coach. Hastert was a teacher and coach in Yorkville from 1965 to 1981, according to the indictment.
In an interview aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Burdge identified her brother as Stephen Reinboldt, and said Hastert had been a father figure to him at high school. But she also said she believed that relationship had caused irreparable harm.
“He damaged Steve, I think, more than any of us will ever know,” she told the morning show.
The AP could not independently verify her allegations.
A person familiar with the allegations in the indictment has told the AP that the payments mentioned in the indictment were intended to conceal claims that the Illinois Republican sexually molested someone decades ago. The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Hastert has not been charged with sexual abuse. But Burdge’s story indicates there could be more victims beyond the “Individual A” named in the indictment.
Hastert did not respond to a message left on his cellphone early Friday. Emails and phone messages sent to his son, Ethan Hastert, were also not answered.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment on Burdge’s allegations.
Reinboldt died in Los Angeles in 1995 at the age of 42. Burdge told ABC that he died of AIDS.
An obituary published in The (Aurora) Beacon News said Reinboldt had “a unique and fascinating mind” and was drawn to the arts, especially film, drama and music.
He was a manager of the wrestling team that Hastert coached, the AP found. He was also manager of the football team, student council president and a member of the pep club, letterman’s club, the French club and the yearbook staff.
He graduated in 1971 and later moved to the Los Angeles area, where he worked for Columbia Pictures in sales and distribution. He also worked for several software companies.
“He wanted to be in TV and film and all that,” his brother, Daniel Reinboldt, told the AP on Thursday. “He went to New York and L.A., back and forth trying to get into the movie business.”
On Thursday, Daniel Reinboldt, who still lives in Yorkville, refused to talk to the AP about whether his brother was abused by Hastert. Another sister, Carol Reinboldt, of Lakewood, Colorado, did not respond to messages from the AP.
Burdge said her brother told her about his past with Hastert in 1979, after she graduated high school, but never brought his story out into the open because he feared “nobody would believe him.”
The relationship with Hastert affected him “in a big way,” Burdge said.
“He never had a life,” she said. “He spent his life trying to run away from it and trying to dull the pain.”
The federal indictment, announced May 28, accuses Hastert of evading bank regulations in withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars and lying to the FBI about the reason for the withdrawals. The document says Hastert agreed to pay a total of $3.5 million to someone identified only as “Individual A” to “compensate for and conceal (Hastert’s) prior misconduct” against that person. But it does not go into any detail about the alleged misconduct.
The former congressman, who has a home in the Chicago suburb of Plano, hasn’t been seen in public since the indictment was announced. He resigned from the Washington lobbying firm where he worked.
Burdge considered telling her brother’s story in 2006, as a scandal involving Rep. Mark Foley unfolded. Foley, a Florida Republican, was discovered sending inappropriate emails and sexually explicit instant messages to former House pages while Hastert was speaker. Burdge spoke briefly with news outlets, including the AP, but she ultimately decided against coming forward with a statement at that time. Hastert stepped down in 2007.
She said in the last six months, she had started to put her brother’s story “on the shelf” trying to move past it. Then the FBI visited her home.
Today, she says she is hopeful that any other victims come forward.
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 Reform2015-06-06 02:33:352015-06-06 02:33:35MARY CLARE JALONICK, Sister: Brother had sexual relationship with Hastert, AOL
The Ramsey County Attorney announced criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Friday, in response to the way sexual abuse allegations were handled within the church.
John Choi, county attorney, and St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith held a press conference Friday to announce six gross misdemeanors against the church and condemn the way the Archdiocese handled former priest Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who is currently behind bars for abusing children. A civil petition has been filed, as well.
Wehmeyer pleaded guilty in November of 2012 to several counts of criminal sexual conduct with minors and 17 felony counts of possession of child pornography. He was also charged with criminal sexual conduct with a third victim in Wisconsin. He’s currently serving a five-year sentence.
“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 the charges are the result of a 20-month investigation, including dozens of witnesses and hundreds of thousands of documents. Choi said the charges are not against one individual at this point, but noted the investigation is on-going.
“The facts that we have gathered cannot be ignored. They cannot be dismissed and are frankly, appalling, especially when viewed in their totality,” Choi said. “More importantly, our community cannot allow them to be repeated.”
Choi said several times, the charges are in response to the Archdiocese’s role in “failing to protect children,” adding there were multiple opportunities for leaders to remove Wehmeyer but they chose not to.
He said “time and time again, they turned a blind eye” to what was happening.
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 Reform2015-06-06 01:46:012015-06-06 01:46:01Archdiocese charged for 'failing to protect children', Kare
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said Friday the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is being criminally charged for its “role in failing to protect children and contribution to the unspeakable harm” done to three victims of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer.
Former priest Curtis Wehmeyer Minnesota Department of Corrections
• Sept. 23, 2013: Archdiocese knew of priest’s sexual misbehavior, yet kept him in ministry
The charges place responsibility for the abuse of those children not just on Wehmeyer “but the archdiocese as well,” Choi told reporters as he announced the charges.
Choi said the charges qualify as gross misdemeanors, and could lead to fines against the archdiocese. The Ramsey County Attorney has also filed a civil petition against the archdiocese.
Church officials time and time again turned a blind eye in the name of protecting priests at the expense of protecting children, he added.
Choi said the investigation remains ongoing and “robust” and that new facts that support the allegations in the charges today have been uncovered.
“The facts we have gathered cannot be ignored, they cannot be dismissed, and are frankly appalling, especially when viewed in their entirety,” Choi said.
St. Paul Police Chief Tom Smith asked anyone else with information about clergy misconduct to come forward as well.
“This case is not about religion. It’s about allegations of misconduct and crimes that were committed,” Smith said. “These types of allegations are always disturbing, especially when it involves people in positions of authority and trust.”
The charges mark a milestone in a 20 month investigation by St. Paul police and Ramsey County prosecutors of the handling of clergy sex abuse by officials archdiocese.
It began in October 2013 when St. Paul police opened an investigation of the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse Wehmeyer, who was arrested in 2012 and pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two sons of a parish employee and possessing child pornography. He was formally removed from the priesthood in March 2015 and is serving a five-year prison sentence.
The police review of the case was prompted by an MPR News report that showed several church officials did not immediately report the allegations to police.
Three months later, in January 2014, Choi held a news conference to announce that no charges would be filed against any church officials for their handling of the Wehmeyer case.
Within hours, MPR News obtained documents that provided further evidence of Archbishop John Nienstedt’s knowledge of the Wehmeyer allegations. Those documents led Choi and police to reopen the case.
Over the past year, the investigation expanded to include thousands of documents from lawsuits, news reports and other sources that detailed how church officials responded to allegations of clergy sex abuse.
Throughout that time, Choi has said little about the investigation and has faced criticism from victims and Ramsey County residents who said he wasn’t being aggressive enough in holding church officials accountable to the law.
This is a breaking news story. More reporting to come.
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 Reform2015-06-05 21:00:562015-06-05 21:00:56Breaking in Minnesota
Activists seeking justice for victims of sexual abuse at Horace Mann School renewed their efforts with the release of a new report last week.
The document outlined cases of 64 students who were allegedly abused between 1962 and 1998.
Organizers said the goal of their 127-page report, called “Making School Safe,” was to present a case study of the Horace Mann abuse so others can learn from the experience.
The group hired a retired judge, Leslie Crocker Snyder, to investigate the abuse. While Horace Mann, which did not participate in the investigation, is believed to have settled with about 30 abuse survivors, the report mentions dozens of previusly undocumented cases.
Peter Brooks, one of the leading organizers, said four new cases came to light within about the past month.
“In my career as a prosecutor in sex crimes and as a judge, I have seen some truly horrible things,” said Ms. Snyder. “But this is in a different category. This is about a large number of young boys traumatized by a school with an ugly motivation… to protect its image.”
Many victims settled with the school because their experiences did not come to light until 2012 — long after the state statute of limitations for prosecuting child sex abuse had passed.
It was not immediately clear what action, if any, the more than 30 alleged victims mentioned in the report who did not settle with the school might take.
Following the report’s May 26 release, Horace Mann issued a statement saying, “We will closely read the [Horace Mann Action Coalition’s] report and make any appropriate adjustments in our child safety policies that it has to offer.”
However, Ms. Snyder, who previously founded and led the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau said the school’s attitude toward her work was “highly offensive.” She said during the course of her two-year-long investigation, administrators forwarded her requests to interview school officials and faculty to lawyers, and that she ended up with “absolutely no access to the school.”
Full article: http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Report-says-abuse-was-widespread,57122
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 Reform2015-06-05 02:19:252015-06-05 02:19:25Nic Cavell, Report says abuse was widespread, The Riverdale Press
Guest Blog: Jordan Walsh, The Children of America have Lost A True Hero: RIP Maj. Beau Biden, Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformMajor Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, an Iraq War veteran, and former Attorney General of the state of Delaware, will be laid to rest tomorrow. Sadly, he lost his battle with brain cancer at just forty-six years old. Yet, in his relatively short life, Beau Biden did more for child protection in this nation than arguably any other state-level politician of his era, and what’s more, as much as most advocates for reform can hope to accomplish in a life twice as long.
Biden was elected as Delaware’s Attorney General in 2006. During his eight year tenure, Delaware became the poster-child for state level commitment to effectuating child protection policies across the board. Despite the recent wave of nationwide progress brought on by such high-profile cases as that of Jerry Sandusky, even now in 2015,Delaware remains an apex state as to access to justice for survivors of child sexual abuse. And it remains so because of the policies and reforms that Biden worked tirelessly to put in place in Delaware as early as 2007, his first year as the state’s AG.
Although Delaware was an early-adopter of the movement to eliminate criminal statutes of limitations [“SOLs”] as relates to prosecutions for child sexual abuse in 1992 (a trend which now includes over half of the several states having eliminated barriers to prosecution for at least top-count C.S.A.-related crimes), Biden’s tenure as AG saw Delaware enact the nation’s most child-friendly reforms to civil statutes of limitation—those governing a survivor’s right to sue their abuser and contributing negligent and/or fraudulent third parties for damages.
In 2007, Delaware not only eliminated its civil SOL prospectively, it also enacted the first retroactive “civil window” of its kind as to C.S.A. survivors in the United States, allowing for revival of previously expired C.S.A.-related tort claims to be filed and brought into court. While retroactive revival of an expired criminal cause of action violates due process and the Ex Post Facto clauses of the Constitution, as any revived prosecution would represent an unconstitutional change in substantive rights and duties; revival of civil tort claims via legislative enactment is constitutional in most states, as it is considered merely a procedural change. Given that throughout the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, child sexual abuse was treated no more seriously than simple assault—such as a bar fight—and subject to standard criminal assault/battery and civil personal injury SOLs of often only one or two years from the act, it is important to recognize that for for many survivors of historical abuse, extension and revival of civil claims is the only recourse available. Under AG Beau Biden, Delaware was the first state to truly combine an understanding of the serial nature of child sexual abuse with the many factors which delay and impair the ability of survivors to report (including the bystander effect), and come to the proper and necessary legislative judgments to protect children—now and in the future.
As is emblematic of any true advocate for change, Biden was not afraid to admit he had learned from mistakes, nor did he shirk from the responsibility to put the cause and those survivors helped by it above his own ambitions. As groundbreaking as the Delaware “window” was, it was not perfect, and needed to be expanded to include liability for abusive and grossly negligent medical and healthcare professionals.
This legislative oversight and need for correction was highlighted by the case of Dr. Earl Bradley, one of the worst known child abusers in our nation’s history, whom AG Biden both indicted criminally and instituted civil racketeering-related claims against in 2009. Bradley was convicted of abusing over 100 children in 2011. During the prosecution, Biden utilized the full power of the state to seize Bradley’s records as well as freeze his assets, allowing for additional charges to be filed in 2011. More, Biden decided not to run for the available U.S. Senate seat from Delaware in 2010—a seat his father once held–in order to stay on as AG and see Bradley convicted himself. Biden stated it was simply more important. Bradley is now serving 14 life sentences plus an additional 164 years in prison, and his case serves as a bell-weather moment in our nation’s understanding of the so-called bystander effect.
Numerous complaints were filed against Bradley in the decade before his arrest; various colleagues, as well as the institution that employed him, were aware of these complaints, yet nothing was done. The knowledge that not only his colleagues, but also, police, DAs, and disciplinary officials—many of them mandatory reporters—failed to follow up on these complaints, allowing for the abuse of dozens more children due to their silence, was simply too much for AG Biden to bear. Thus, along with his dogged pursuit of Bradley,expansion of monitoring of sex offenders statewide, and formation of a Task Force to discuss needed legislative change, he also began a partnership between the state of Delaware and the Darkness to Light Foundation’s “Stewards of Children” program, in order to address the rampant bystander effect problem impeding the progress of true child protection. In Biden’s own words:
“’Stewards of Children’ training sessions teach adults how to spot the signs of child abuse and the importance of immediately reporting the abuse to authorities. So far, nearly 14,000 Delawareans have received this training, and we will be training thousands more. Getting more adults to go through the ‘Stewards of Children’ training is the single biggest step we can take to protect more kids from abuse in Delaware. ‘Stewards of Children’ does not pull any punches; it may make you uncomfortable. But you will better understand, after receiving this training, how often child abuse occurs in our communities and how critically important it is to report child sexual abuse.”
Beau Biden realized that it is our job as adults to work together across all sectors of society to protect children—they cannot do it for themselves, nor should our justice system expect them to. This kind of integrated approach—combining public and private entities to effectuate true access to justice—is now at the forefront of the child protection effort nationwide. Beau Biden was a true pioneer, and a hero to America’s children. He will be sorely missed, and I know myself, Prof. Marci Hamilton and all of us at SOL-Reform.com hope we can continue the fight. May he rest in peace, and may his legacy of child protection flourish.
Guest Blog_ Jordan Walsh, The Children of America have Lost A True Hero_ RIP Maj. Beau Biden
Max Brantley, Expert questions whether statute of limitations had expired in Duggar case; Fox reveals tack of interview, Arkansas Times
/in Arkansas /by SOL ReformMSNBC reports here about an analysis by an expert in child abuse statute of limitations that the statute of limitations had NOT expired on allegations of child sexual abuse in the Jim Bob Duggar home when the Springdale police took a belated look at the case in 2006. A hotline tip that resulted in a review of allegations roughly three years old produced a Springdale police investigation that concluded without police action because of conclusion that the statute of limitations had expired on any potential crimes against children.
Marci A. Hamilton is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law who maintains a site on statutes of limitation for child sex abuse, and wrote a book, Justice Denied, on the topic. She points out that though the civil statute for child sexual abuse in Arkansas has a three year limit, the criminal statute had a much longer time frame. As she reads Arkansas law, “If it is reported when [the victim] is a minor, then they have seven years from the date of the abuse,” Hamilton says. By her reading, that means the clock ran out on the Duggar allegations in 2013. “When it expires,” Hamilton says of the statute of limitations, “it’s over.”
It’s certainly over now. And the multiple layers of confidentiality that apply in child abuse, juvenile and unprosecuted criminal cases have now made a public review (and accountability) in this case just about impossible, particularly since Judge Stacey Zimmerman has ordered official police records destroyed.
The MSNBC expert makes the larger point that the statutes have been extended in Arkansas and elsewhere with the growing realization that the impact on victims is long-lasting and sometimes impossible for them to report until much later. But the result has been a hodgepodge of laws from state to state. (I must concede that the Duggars and their defenders, including Sen. Bart Hester, have invoked legal hodgepodge as an argument against local civil rights ordinances to protect gay people. They’ve also said the ordinances are dangerous because LGBT people are a threat to children.)
ALSO: We now know Fox News’ Megyn Kelly has no intention of being hard on the Duggars in her exclusive interview with them to be broadcast Wednesday night. She talked about the coming program on Fox with Fox’s Howie Kurtz. She seems focused on the release of the Springdale police report and the resulting identification of Josh Duggar. She says that never should have happened. I think she’s wrong in saying the report shouldn’t have been released. The report WAS public information and was properly released, with redactions that removed Josh Duggar’s name and those of children allegedly molested. The general knowledge among a wide group of people — thanks in part to the Duggars’ taking the matter to their church, family and others — meant that many people existed who could put the pieces of that episode together with the report. It’s been discussed over the years since on social media more than once.
There’s ample room for sympathy for identification of an accused juvenile offender. But there’s also room for questions (Kurtz at least noted this) about a failure of reporting abuse to proper authorities; of using questionable church “treatment” for the matter; of police and state agency response to child sexual molestation, and, yes, of course of the Duggars’ high-profile political role in alleging a propensity for child abuse among LGBT people.
Those don’t interest Kelly much, based on this account of the interview. She’d rather talk about Bill Clinton. Yes. Bill Clinton. See, some “liberal types” have shown the Duggars with a bunch of Republican politicians. What about Bill, once accused of rape? Kelly is outraged. I think her show will follow the usual Fox script — victimization of Christians and Republicans. Sex abuse victims?
“I’ve been pretty disgusted by how some liberal media types are using what’s obviously a family tragedy to score political points,” Howard Kurtz agreed, but also admitted that “sometimes people on the right feast on, when a liberal icon falls into trouble.”
“Nothing is off limits,” Kelly said of the Wednesday night interview. But, she added, “I don’t plan on getting into the specific details about what was done, because my understanding is the victims don’t want to discuss that either.”
In other words, nothing is likely to be off limits except questions unsympathetic to the Duggars.
Expert questions whether statute of limitations had expired in Duggar case; Fox reveals tack of interview _ Arkansas Blog _ Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art
Marci Hamilton, NY Times Letter to the Editor
To the Editor:
I applaud Charles M. Blow for using two high-profile cases to highlight the alarming prevalence and circumstances surrounding childhood sexual abuse.
I also agree with him that it should not be “a political issue.” Sadly, however, it is: A majority of our states have been unable or unwilling to reform their statutes of limitation to provide most child sex abuse victims meaningful access to justice in the courts of law.
Reformation efforts in dozens of states have been repeatedly blocked by legislators influenced by predominantly religious special interest groups (Catholic and Latter-day Saints bishops and Jewish rabbis, among them) and occasionally secular groups (for example, some state American Civil Liberties Union affiliates have opposed reform for the criminal statutes of limitation). The four states most stuck in the political quagmire that disables victims’ access to justice are Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi and New York. This is political pandering, plain and simple.
We need to stop playing politics with child sex abuse victims and eliminate the impediments to prosecution and civil lawsuits for this horrific crime.
MARCI HAMILTON
Washington’s Crossing, Pa.
The writer is a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
MARY CLARE JALONICK, Sister: Brother had sexual relationship with Hastert, AOL
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformA Montana woman says the FBI interviewed her last month about her allegations that her brother was sexually abused while in high school by Dennis Hastert, the wrestling coach who would become speaker of the House.
Hastert was charged last week in a federal indictment that alleges he agreed to pay $3.5 million to someone from Yorkville, the Illinois town where he taught and coached high school wrestling, so the person would stay quiet about “prior misconduct.”
Jolene Burdge of Billings, Montana, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the FBI interviewed her in mid-May about Hastert. She said her brother told her before he died in 1995 that his first homosexual contact was with Hastert and that the relationship lasted through all of his high school years.
Burdge would not disclose her brother’s name to AP but said he graduated from Yorkville High School in 1971 and that Hastert was his teacher and wrestling coach. Hastert was a teacher and coach in Yorkville from 1965 to 1981, according to the indictment.
In an interview aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Burdge identified her brother as Stephen Reinboldt, and said Hastert had been a father figure to him at high school. But she also said she believed that relationship had caused irreparable harm.
“He damaged Steve, I think, more than any of us will ever know,” she told the morning show.
The AP could not independently verify her allegations.
A person familiar with the allegations in the indictment has told the AP that the payments mentioned in the indictment were intended to conceal claims that the Illinois Republican sexually molested someone decades ago. The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Hastert has not been charged with sexual abuse. But Burdge’s story indicates there could be more victims beyond the “Individual A” named in the indictment.
Hastert did not respond to a message left on his cellphone early Friday. Emails and phone messages sent to his son, Ethan Hastert, were also not answered.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment on Burdge’s allegations.
Reinboldt died in Los Angeles in 1995 at the age of 42. Burdge told ABC that he died of AIDS.
An obituary published in The (Aurora) Beacon News said Reinboldt had “a unique and fascinating mind” and was drawn to the arts, especially film, drama and music.
He was a manager of the wrestling team that Hastert coached, the AP found. He was also manager of the football team, student council president and a member of the pep club, letterman’s club, the French club and the yearbook staff.
He graduated in 1971 and later moved to the Los Angeles area, where he worked for Columbia Pictures in sales and distribution. He also worked for several software companies.
“He wanted to be in TV and film and all that,” his brother, Daniel Reinboldt, told the AP on Thursday. “He went to New York and L.A., back and forth trying to get into the movie business.”
On Thursday, Daniel Reinboldt, who still lives in Yorkville, refused to talk to the AP about whether his brother was abused by Hastert. Another sister, Carol Reinboldt, of Lakewood, Colorado, did not respond to messages from the AP.
Burdge said her brother told her about his past with Hastert in 1979, after she graduated high school, but never brought his story out into the open because he feared “nobody would believe him.”
The relationship with Hastert affected him “in a big way,” Burdge said.
“He never had a life,” she said. “He spent his life trying to run away from it and trying to dull the pain.”
The federal indictment, announced May 28, accuses Hastert of evading bank regulations in withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars and lying to the FBI about the reason for the withdrawals. The document says Hastert agreed to pay a total of $3.5 million to someone identified only as “Individual A” to “compensate for and conceal (Hastert’s) prior misconduct” against that person. But it does not go into any detail about the alleged misconduct.
The former congressman, who has a home in the Chicago suburb of Plano, hasn’t been seen in public since the indictment was announced. He resigned from the Washington lobbying firm where he worked.
Burdge considered telling her brother’s story in 2006, as a scandal involving Rep. Mark Foley unfolded. Foley, a Florida Republican, was discovered sending inappropriate emails and sexually explicit instant messages to former House pages while Hastert was speaker. Burdge spoke briefly with news outlets, including the AP, but she ultimately decided against coming forward with a statement at that time. Hastert stepped down in 2007.
She said in the last six months, she had started to put her brother’s story “on the shelf” trying to move past it. Then the FBI visited her home.
Today, she says she is hopeful that any other victims come forward.
“We can help each other,” Burdge said.
Sister_ Brother had sexual relationship with Hastert – AOL
Archdiocese charged for ‘failing to protect children’, Kare
/in Minnesota /by SOL ReformArchdiocese charged for ‘failing to protect children’
Breaking in Minnesota
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformUpdated 12:23 p.m. | Posted 12:10 p.m.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said Friday the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is being criminally charged for its “role in failing to protect children and contribution to the unspeakable harm” done to three victims of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer.
Former priest Curtis Wehmeyer Minnesota Department of Corrections
• Sept. 23, 2013: Archdiocese knew of priest’s sexual misbehavior, yet kept him in ministry
The charges place responsibility for the abuse of those children not just on Wehmeyer “but the archdiocese as well,” Choi told reporters as he announced the charges.
Choi said the charges qualify as gross misdemeanors, and could lead to fines against the archdiocese. The Ramsey County Attorney has also filed a civil petition against the archdiocese.
Church officials time and time again turned a blind eye in the name of protecting priests at the expense of protecting children, he added.
Choi said the investigation remains ongoing and “robust” and that new facts that support the allegations in the charges today have been uncovered.
“The facts we have gathered cannot be ignored, they cannot be dismissed, and are frankly appalling, especially when viewed in their entirety,” Choi said.
St. Paul Police Chief Tom Smith asked anyone else with information about clergy misconduct to come forward as well.
“This case is not about religion. It’s about allegations of misconduct and crimes that were committed,” Smith said. “These types of allegations are always disturbing, especially when it involves people in positions of authority and trust.”
The charges mark a milestone in a 20 month investigation by St. Paul police and Ramsey County prosecutors of the handling of clergy sex abuse by officials archdiocese.
It began in October 2013 when St. Paul police opened an investigation of the handling of allegations of child sexual abuse Wehmeyer, who was arrested in 2012 and pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two sons of a parish employee and possessing child pornography. He was formally removed from the priesthood in March 2015 and is serving a five-year prison sentence.
The police review of the case was prompted by an MPR News report that showed several church officials did not immediately report the allegations to police.
Three months later, in January 2014, Choi held a news conference to announce that no charges would be filed against any church officials for their handling of the Wehmeyer case.
Within hours, MPR News obtained documents that provided further evidence of Archbishop John Nienstedt’s knowledge of the Wehmeyer allegations. Those documents led Choi and police to reopen the case.
Over the past year, the investigation expanded to include thousands of documents from lawsuits, news reports and other sources that detailed how church officials responded to allegations of clergy sex abuse.
Throughout that time, Choi has said little about the investigation and has faced criticism from victims and Ramsey County residents who said he wasn’t being aggressive enough in holding church officials accountable to the law.
This is a breaking news story. More reporting to come.
Nic Cavell, Report says abuse was widespread, The Riverdale Press
/in New York /by SOL ReformActivists seeking justice for victims of sexual abuse at Horace Mann School renewed their efforts with the release of a new report last week.
The document outlined cases of 64 students who were allegedly abused between 1962 and 1998.
Organizers said the goal of their 127-page report, called “Making School Safe,” was to present a case study of the Horace Mann abuse so others can learn from the experience.
The group hired a retired judge, Leslie Crocker Snyder, to investigate the abuse. While Horace Mann, which did not participate in the investigation, is believed to have settled with about 30 abuse survivors, the report mentions dozens of previusly undocumented cases.
Peter Brooks, one of the leading organizers, said four new cases came to light within about the past month.
“In my career as a prosecutor in sex crimes and as a judge, I have seen some truly horrible things,” said Ms. Snyder. “But this is in a different category. This is about a large number of young boys traumatized by a school with an ugly motivation… to protect its image.”
Many victims settled with the school because their experiences did not come to light until 2012 — long after the state statute of limitations for prosecuting child sex abuse had passed.
It was not immediately clear what action, if any, the more than 30 alleged victims mentioned in the report who did not settle with the school might take.
Following the report’s May 26 release, Horace Mann issued a statement saying, “We will closely read the [Horace Mann Action Coalition’s] report and make any appropriate adjustments in our child safety policies that it has to offer.”
However, Ms. Snyder, who previously founded and led the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau said the school’s attitude toward her work was “highly offensive.” She said during the course of her two-year-long investigation, administrators forwarded her requests to interview school officials and faculty to lawyers, and that she ended up with “absolutely no access to the school.”
Full article: http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Report-says-abuse-was-widespread,57122