Reality show star Josh Duggar recently resigned from his position at the Family Research Council amid reports that he had previously molested five female children.
When we talk about child sexual abuse, our society talks some tough talk. Child molestation is widely regarded as one of the worst ills against the most vulnerable members of our society.
Engage in a hypothetical conversation with a parent around almost any dinner table in this country and most parents will tell you what they would do to a perpetrator if they discovered their own child was molested. As a result, our society calls for the most punitive sentences for grave offenders, and yet our collective societal talk doesn’t match the walk.
The media circus around Josh Duggar and his child molestation admissions seem to demonstrate clearly that we, as a culture, have a way of defusing the real issue.
To get to the crux of the matter, we need to discuss what this troubling issue is notabout.
These allegations and admissions are not about politics. If you feel compelled to check a known child molester’s political party affiliation prior to formulating an opinion, there is a problem with priorities. If you worry about how these allegations will affect your political party’s platform rather than the victims, you are part of the problem. These admissions of sexual abuse are not okay when admitted by Josh Duggar or Leah Dunham.
This is not about stated values. Values are not about words but actions. The sum total of an individual’s moral character is not determined by words proclaimed from a soapbox but from how that person acts when no one is watching.
This matter is about recognizing some truths.
1. Child molestation is not an innocent mistake. Youth is not a defense against heinous sexual crimes. This is not about a teenager who was truant from school or stole a pack of gum. This is about incestuous, repetitive molestation.
2. Child sexual abuse is most often committed by a person the victim knew.This is essential to discuss as child sexual abuse does not look like what we may imagine. It wears a familiar face. We talk about fearing the strange man in the car circling the neighborhood but statistics paint a different picture.
Sexual abuse happens in all races, cultures, religions, sexual orientation groups, social classes, and political parties. With approximately 1.8 million adolescents in the United States have been the victims of sexual assault, the problem of child sexual abuse is quite common. Abusers are most often relatives, parents, teachers, friends, neighbors, priests, rabbis, and sometimes preachy reality show stars.
3. There are real, forgotten victims here. Remember who the victims here are. This is not about a known pedophile persecuted by the liberal media. There are at least four known victims. The law and its brief statue of limitations did not protect these victims. Jim Bob Duggar, the father of several victims and the perpetrator, and his decision to delay communication with the authorities in all likelihood did not protect these survivors. Jim Bob Duggar alternatively decided to confide in family friend and Arkansas State Trooper, Jim Hutchens, who is now imprisoned for child pornography.
4. The majority of sexual offenders remain free of conviction. The fact that many perpetrators remain free from conviction means they will never be listed on aMegan’s Law registry. As a society, we create such a stigma around child sexual abuse. It effects the ability of survivors to heal and fails to protect other youth against the same type of sexual violence.
We even defend the assailant as having made a mistake. Republican leader Mike Huckabee, who previously condemned President Obama for allowing his daughters to listen to Beyonce’s music labeling it ‘mental poison’, has come forward in his unabashed support of Josh Duggar. Huckabee calls Duggar’s actions ‘forgivable’.
5. Treatment matters. In this case, it is reported that Josh Duggar was never criminally charged but he received no psychological treatment. The research on treatment is clear. Cognitive behavioral therapy among other modalities of treatment do have an impact. Counseling is necessary for both perpetrators and survivors. We need to do better by our survivors and in protecting potential future victims.
6. Hypocrisy is a boomerang. As much as this is not about politics, this matter is about hypocrisy. The last time I checked, followers don’t get to decide who is selectively forgiven for their sins or even to decide who is sinning as that task is reserved for the Almighty. Perhaps this principle was missed while Josh Duggar’s mom, Michelle Duggar, was busy condemning the morality of LBGT families, even associating lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered parents with predatory behaviors after covering up her own son’s child molestation.
Apparently a little more introspection is needed to replace the hurtful, pointless finger-pointing.
The problem with hypocrisy is that it is often discovered. Like a fresh, budding flower that finds its way to sunlight through the cement cracks, the truth has a way of finding the light.
7. Assumptions are dangerous. Defenders of Josh Duggar claim that he has changed. Being a father of four children, riding a high horse of righteous morality, standing on a soapbox selling political rhetoric, and admitting a truth that has remained hidden for over six years when you are cornered, is not sufficient evidence that you have changed. Very few people know what happens behind closed doors.
What we do know from statistics is that child molestation has incredibly high rates of recidivism. Professionally untreated, child molesters remain dangerous.
8. As a society, we have power. If we decide that we do not want to bring this reality-show spewing judgmental rhetoric into our homes, we can change the channel. We can boycott the show. We can empower survivors by petitioning for stricter laws and the elimination of sexual abuse statue of limitations. We can educate our children on how to protect themselves.
In just discussing the matter with our children, we begin to shed light on one of the darkest issues in our culture.
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 Reform2015-05-24 02:13:442015-05-24 02:13:44Ann Brasco, What we can all learn from Josh Duggar: 8 truths at the center of the child sexual abuse scandal, NJ.com
““The danger with surgery is you say: ‘Oh this is good, let me do more. It can be an addiction. Thirty percent of women were sexually abused when they were young. And a woman who has been sexually abused will have a tendency to go too far. When you’re young it can be this” – she mimes self-harm – “and when you’re older it can be plastic surgery. When I see a woman who’s made her face a mask I say: ‘I bet, I bet.’”
A quick pause for breath. “People don’t realise sexual abuse is an epidemic. And it has a lot to do with why women are distorting their faces with plastic surgery. It’s shocking to me that more than 30 people in the US have said Bill Cosby drugged them and raped them and there are still people who don’t believe it.” Cosby has denied the allegations. “It’s hard for people to understand why you could have been raped years ago and not said anything. People don’t understand the sense of guilt and shame. A lot has to do with how the media report it and how the police handle it. We have to change that and introduce real punishment for the perpetrators.”
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 Reform2015-05-23 21:22:462015-05-23 21:22:46Catherine Shoard, Jane Fonda: ‘Plastic surgery bought me a decade’ , The Guardian
View as PDFMore than 55,000 people have signed a petition calling for Cardinal George Pell to return to his native Australia and face a government commission on child sex abuse after allegations that he tried to bribe the victim of a pedophile priest.Addressed to Pope Francis, the Change.org petition calls for Pell — the Vatican’s financial chief and former archbishop of Sydney — to answer questions from Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.Appearing in person at the government inquiry is necessary in order to “see and listen to the pain of the victims first hand and explain his actions and decisions,” the petition says.Calls for the cardinal to testify in Australia follow allegations made earlier this week by the nephew of Gerald Ridsdale, an imprisoned abusive priest, who said Pell tried to silence him after he disclosed suffering sexual abuse.David Ridsdale told the commission on Wednesday that Pell tried to bribe him after hearing of the abuse over 20 years ago.
Some of those who have so far signed the online petition said members of their family had been abused by Gerald Ridsdale. “My father was one of his victims who lived a very tormented life, he passed away three years ago after years of drowning his thoughts with alcohol,” one person wrote.
Pell on Wednesday denied the bribery accusations and said he did not try to move Ridsdale between parishes in order to cover up the abuse.
“At no time did I attempt to bribe David Ridsdale or his family or offer any financial inducements for him to be silent. At the time of our discussion the police were already aware of allegations against Gerald Ridsdale and were investigating,” he said in a statement.
Pell said he was “horrified” by survivors’ accounts and described the acts of abuse as “profoundly evil and completely repugnant to me.”
The Australian cardinal, whom Francis brought to Rome to implement reform of the Vatican’s finances, said he would respond to any requests from investigators with further written statements.
Pell gave video testimony to the commission in August, during which he said the church should not be held responsible for the actions of clergy.
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 Reform2015-05-22 01:25:592015-05-24 01:30:12Rosie Scammell, Australians push for Vatican cardinal to testify on abuse, NCR, Religion News Service
May 2015: Rep. Jason Spencer (R-HD 180, Woodbine, Ga.)
Rep. Jason Spencer was born to a military family on Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. The family then moved to Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia in 1978 and a year later to Alapaha, Georgia. While growing up in South Georgia to a modest family, he learned the value of hard work where summer jobs included picking peppers and cropping tobacco.
Jason graduated from Berrien County High School in Nashville, Georgia in 1993. After high school graduation, he attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in Tifton and played tennis for ABAC in 1994 as a walk-on. During his time in Tifton, he secured a full athletic scholarship to play tennis at Alabama State University.
Later, he transferred to the University of Georgia (UGA) and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise & Sport Science in 1997. After graduating from UGA, Jason sought professional training to become a physician assistant (PA-C) and received his second Bachelors of Science degree from South University, Savannah in 2001 where he graduated magna cum laude.
He has practiced Emergency Medicine as a PA in various emergency departments around southeast Georgia and in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2005, he received his Masters from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Camden County became Rep. Spencer’s home in 2005 where he currently practices Family and Urgent Care Medicine as a PA in Kingsland, Georgia and in surrounding communities in southeast Georgia, like Waycross, Brunswick and Jesup.
Rep. Spencer was first elected to the Georgia General Assembly to represent the 180th House District in 2010 and was re-elected in 2012 and 2014. He currently sits on the following committees in the State House: Games, Fish & Parks, Juvenile Justices, Human Aging & Relations, Special Rules and Science & Technology.
During his time in the legislature, Rep. Spencer has passed legislation that relaxed live aboard boating restrictions for boaters, legalized home brew beer competitions in Georgia and, most notably, passed key legislation (The Georgia Healthcare Freedom Act, HB 943, 2014) which defended Georgia from some of the more onerous provisions of the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare) and he co-authored HB 990 (2014) which prevented Georgia from expanding Obamacare’s budget busting Medicaid expansion program. He has also been a staunch advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse. He introduced and passed reform legislation, the Hidden Predator Act (HB 17, 2015), which extends the civil statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases. The Hidden Predator Act allows survivors can gain access to justice and expose the identities of hidden pedophiles in the state of Georgia.
Rep. Jason Spencer is happily married to his wife Melaney. The couple has two daughters, Madeline and Vera and attends Agape Christian Fellowship in St. Marys, Georgia.
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 Reform2015-05-01 05:27:382015-05-01 05:32:34SOL Hero of the Month: Rep. Jason Spencer [May 2015]
The landmark child-endangerment conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn – the first Catholic Church official found guilty for his role supervising priests in the clergy sex-abuse scandal – was reinstated Monday by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court.
Writing for the 4-1 majority of the state’s high court, Justice Max Baer said Superior Court erred when it reversed Lynn’s conviction because he did not directly supervise children.
At issue was whether a 2007 amendment to the child-endangerment statute, which specifically included supervisory personnel as open to criminal culpability, expanded the original 1995 law or simply clarified it. If the amendments just expanded the law, Lynn would have been unconstitutionally convicted for acts that predated the amendments.
Baer wrote that precedent supports a broad interpretation: “That which is supervised is the child’s welfare. Under the facts presented at trial, [Lynn] was a person supervising the welfare of many children because, as a high-ranking official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he was specifically responsible for protecting children from sexually abusive priests.”
Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor dissented, endorsing a strict interpretation of the 1995 statute.
“The evidence viewed favorably to the commonwealth suggests that [Lynn] is indeed guilty of gross derelictions which caused widespread harm,” Saylor wrote. “The only question before the court, however, is whether the text of the endangerment statute, as it existed in the pre-amendment time frame, allowed the imposition of criminal culpability. . . . I would find that it did not.”
Former Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who retired after last November’s oral arguments before the court, did not participate in the decision. There is one vacancy on the court.
“It’s very disappointing,” said defense attorney Thomas A. Bergstrom, who defended the 64-year-old former secretary for clergy on behalf of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Bergstrom said it was too early to say what impact the ruling would have on Lynn’s immediate future.
On Jan. 2, 2014, days after Superior Court reversed his conviction, Lynn was freed from his three- to six-year prison term after about 15 months behind bars and allowed to live on house arrest in the rectory of St. William, a parish in Lawncrest in the Northeast.
Bergstrom said he hoped Lynn would be permitted to remain free on $250,000 bail pending further appeals.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, whose office appealed the Superior Court ruling, released a statement applauding the Supreme Court decision.
Williams thanked the “brave victims who testified in court and their families for supporting them. Today’s announcement sends the clear message that if anyone – priest, lay person, citizen, police officer, or elected official – knowingly puts children at risk of being sexually molested, they will be held accountable.”
The decision was also celebrated by advocates for clergy sex-abuse victims.
“It is a victory for parents, parishioners, churchgoers, wounded victims, and innocent kids each time corrupt church staffers are disciplined,” said David Clohessy, director of the St. Louis-based SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
Marci A. Hamilton, a Philadelphia-area lawyer who has sued the Catholic Church on behalf of victims of clergy sex-abuse, praised the District Attorney’s Office and called the Lynn case “the most significant criminal prosecution of any Catholic official for the endangerment of numerous children in an archdiocese.”
As the secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, Lynn was responsible for investigating sex-abuse complaints made against priests and recommending punishment to the archbishop.
In 2012, after a 13-week trial and 12 days of deliberations, a Common Pleas Court jury found that Lynn allowed the Rev. Edward V. Avery, who had a history of sexually abusing children, to live in a Northeast rectory, where he later assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy. Avery pleaded guilty in the 1999 attack and is serving five years in prison.
Bergstrom said the decision means that Lynn was found guilty of “endangering a child without even knowing the child existed. He didn’t learn about it until 2009.”
Bergstrom said he and Lynn have 14 days to decide whether to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider the appeal.
There are other possible avenues of appeal, Bergstrom said. He said they could petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal based on Lynn’s contention that the prosecution violated his constitutional right not to be tried for alleged crimes that predated the 2007 amendments to the child endangerment statute. Bergstrom said they could also raise before Superior Court issues that the court did not consider before reversing Lynn’s conviction in December 2013.
Full article here: http://mobile.philly.com/news/?wss=/philly/news&id=301466761
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 Reform2015-04-28 03:27:032015-04-28 03:27:03Joseph Slobodzian, PA high court reinstates Msgr. Lynn's child-endangerment conviction, The Inquirer
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 Reform2015-04-27 03:39:142015-04-27 03:39:14Editorial: Place No Limits On Child Sex Abuse Suits, PostStar
Ann Brasco, What we can all learn from Josh Duggar: 8 truths at the center of the child sexual abuse scandal, NJ.com
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformReality show star Josh Duggar recently resigned from his position at the Family Research Council amid reports that he had previously molested five female children.
When we talk about child sexual abuse, our society talks some tough talk. Child molestation is widely regarded as one of the worst ills against the most vulnerable members of our society.
Engage in a hypothetical conversation with a parent around almost any dinner table in this country and most parents will tell you what they would do to a perpetrator if they discovered their own child was molested. As a result, our society calls for the most punitive sentences for grave offenders, and yet our collective societal talk doesn’t match the walk.
The media circus around Josh Duggar and his child molestation admissions seem to demonstrate clearly that we, as a culture, have a way of defusing the real issue.
To get to the crux of the matter, we need to discuss what this troubling issue is notabout.
These allegations and admissions are not about politics. If you feel compelled to check a known child molester’s political party affiliation prior to formulating an opinion, there is a problem with priorities. If you worry about how these allegations will affect your political party’s platform rather than the victims, you are part of the problem. These admissions of sexual abuse are not okay when admitted by Josh Duggar or Leah Dunham.
This is not about stated values. Values are not about words but actions. The sum total of an individual’s moral character is not determined by words proclaimed from a soapbox but from how that person acts when no one is watching.
This matter is about recognizing some truths.
1. Child molestation is not an innocent mistake. Youth is not a defense against heinous sexual crimes. This is not about a teenager who was truant from school or stole a pack of gum. This is about incestuous, repetitive molestation.
2. Child sexual abuse is most often committed by a person the victim knew.This is essential to discuss as child sexual abuse does not look like what we may imagine. It wears a familiar face. We talk about fearing the strange man in the car circling the neighborhood but statistics paint a different picture.
Sexual abuse happens in all races, cultures, religions, sexual orientation groups, social classes, and political parties. With approximately 1.8 million adolescents in the United States have been the victims of sexual assault, the problem of child sexual abuse is quite common. Abusers are most often relatives, parents, teachers, friends, neighbors, priests, rabbis, and sometimes preachy reality show stars.
3. There are real, forgotten victims here. Remember who the victims here are. This is not about a known pedophile persecuted by the liberal media. There are at least four known victims. The law and its brief statue of limitations did not protect these victims. Jim Bob Duggar, the father of several victims and the perpetrator, and his decision to delay communication with the authorities in all likelihood did not protect these survivors. Jim Bob Duggar alternatively decided to confide in family friend and Arkansas State Trooper, Jim Hutchens, who is now imprisoned for child pornography.
4. The majority of sexual offenders remain free of conviction. The fact that many perpetrators remain free from conviction means they will never be listed on aMegan’s Law registry. As a society, we create such a stigma around child sexual abuse. It effects the ability of survivors to heal and fails to protect other youth against the same type of sexual violence.
We even defend the assailant as having made a mistake. Republican leader Mike Huckabee, who previously condemned President Obama for allowing his daughters to listen to Beyonce’s music labeling it ‘mental poison’, has come forward in his unabashed support of Josh Duggar. Huckabee calls Duggar’s actions ‘forgivable’.
5. Treatment matters. In this case, it is reported that Josh Duggar was never criminally charged but he received no psychological treatment. The research on treatment is clear. Cognitive behavioral therapy among other modalities of treatment do have an impact. Counseling is necessary for both perpetrators and survivors. We need to do better by our survivors and in protecting potential future victims.
6. Hypocrisy is a boomerang. As much as this is not about politics, this matter is about hypocrisy. The last time I checked, followers don’t get to decide who is selectively forgiven for their sins or even to decide who is sinning as that task is reserved for the Almighty. Perhaps this principle was missed while Josh Duggar’s mom, Michelle Duggar, was busy condemning the morality of LBGT families, even associating lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered parents with predatory behaviors after covering up her own son’s child molestation.
Apparently a little more introspection is needed to replace the hurtful, pointless finger-pointing.
The problem with hypocrisy is that it is often discovered. Like a fresh, budding flower that finds its way to sunlight through the cement cracks, the truth has a way of finding the light.
7. Assumptions are dangerous. Defenders of Josh Duggar claim that he has changed. Being a father of four children, riding a high horse of righteous morality, standing on a soapbox selling political rhetoric, and admitting a truth that has remained hidden for over six years when you are cornered, is not sufficient evidence that you have changed. Very few people know what happens behind closed doors.
What we do know from statistics is that child molestation has incredibly high rates of recidivism. Professionally untreated, child molesters remain dangerous.
8. As a society, we have power. If we decide that we do not want to bring this reality-show spewing judgmental rhetoric into our homes, we can change the channel. We can boycott the show. We can empower survivors by petitioning for stricter laws and the elimination of sexual abuse statue of limitations. We can educate our children on how to protect themselves.
In just discussing the matter with our children, we begin to shed light on one of the darkest issues in our culture.
What we can all learn from Josh Duggar_ 8 truths at the center of the child sexual abuse scandal _ NJ
Catherine Shoard, Jane Fonda: ‘Plastic surgery bought me a decade’ , The Guardian
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformView as PDF: Jane Fonda: ‘Plastic surgery bought me a decade’ | Film | The Guardian
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/21/jane-fonda-youth-plastic-surgery-sex-cannes?CMP=fb_gu
Rosie Scammell, Australians push for Vatican cardinal to testify on abuse, NCR, Religion News Service
/in Australia, International /by SOL ReformInterested in Oscar Romero? Check out this great article from our sister publication, Celebration.
Some of those who have so far signed the online petition said members of their family had been abused by Gerald Ridsdale. “My father was one of his victims who lived a very tormented life, he passed away three years ago after years of drowning his thoughts with alcohol,” one person wrote.
Pell on Wednesday denied the bribery accusations and said he did not try to move Ridsdale between parishes in order to cover up the abuse.
“At no time did I attempt to bribe David Ridsdale or his family or offer any financial inducements for him to be silent. At the time of our discussion the police were already aware of allegations against Gerald Ridsdale and were investigating,” he said in a statement.
Pell said he was “horrified” by survivors’ accounts and described the acts of abuse as “profoundly evil and completely repugnant to me.”
The Australian cardinal, whom Francis brought to Rome to implement reform of the Vatican’s finances, said he would respond to any requests from investigators with further written statements.
Pell gave video testimony to the commission in August, during which he said the church should not be held responsible for the actions of clergy.
http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/australians-push-vatican-cardinal-testify-abuse
SOL Hero of the Month: Rep. Jason Spencer [May 2015]
/in Georgia /by SOL ReformMay 2015: Rep. Jason Spencer (R-HD 180, Woodbine, Ga.)
Rep. Jason Spencer was born to a military family on Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. The family then moved to Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia in 1978 and a year later to Alapaha, Georgia. While growing up in South Georgia to a modest family, he learned the value of hard work where summer jobs included picking peppers and cropping tobacco.
Jason graduated from Berrien County High School in Nashville, Georgia in 1993. After high school graduation, he attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in Tifton and played tennis for ABAC in 1994 as a walk-on. During his time in Tifton, he secured a full athletic scholarship to play tennis at Alabama State University.
Later, he transferred to the University of Georgia (UGA) and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise & Sport Science in 1997. After graduating from UGA, Jason sought professional training to become a physician assistant (PA-C) and received his second Bachelors of Science degree from South University, Savannah in 2001 where he graduated magna cum laude.
He has practiced Emergency Medicine as a PA in various emergency departments around southeast Georgia and in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2005, he received his Masters from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Camden County became Rep. Spencer’s home in 2005 where he currently practices Family and Urgent Care Medicine as a PA in Kingsland, Georgia and in surrounding communities in southeast Georgia, like Waycross, Brunswick and Jesup.
Rep. Spencer was first elected to the Georgia General Assembly to represent the 180th House District in 2010 and was re-elected in 2012 and 2014. He currently sits on the following committees in the State House: Games, Fish & Parks, Juvenile Justices, Human Aging & Relations, Special Rules and Science & Technology.
During his time in the legislature, Rep. Spencer has passed legislation that relaxed live aboard boating restrictions for boaters, legalized home brew beer competitions in Georgia and, most notably, passed key legislation (The Georgia Healthcare Freedom Act, HB 943, 2014) which defended Georgia from some of the more onerous provisions of the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare) and he co-authored HB 990 (2014) which prevented Georgia from expanding Obamacare’s budget busting Medicaid expansion program. He has also been a staunch advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse. He introduced and passed reform legislation, the Hidden Predator Act (HB 17, 2015), which extends the civil statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases. The Hidden Predator Act allows survivors can gain access to justice and expose the identities of hidden pedophiles in the state of Georgia.
Rep. Jason Spencer is happily married to his wife Melaney. The couple has two daughters, Madeline and Vera and attends Agape Christian Fellowship in St. Marys, Georgia.
Website: www.spencer4ga.com
Legislative profile: http://www.house.ga.gov/Representatives/en-US/member.aspx?Member=789&Session=24
Joseph Slobodzian, PA high court reinstates Msgr. Lynn’s child-endangerment conviction, The Inquirer
/in Pennsylvania /by SOL ReformThe landmark child-endangerment conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn – the first Catholic Church official found guilty for his role supervising priests in the clergy sex-abuse scandal – was reinstated Monday by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court.
Writing for the 4-1 majority of the state’s high court, Justice Max Baer said Superior Court erred when it reversed Lynn’s conviction because he did not directly supervise children.
At issue was whether a 2007 amendment to the child-endangerment statute, which specifically included supervisory personnel as open to criminal culpability, expanded the original 1995 law or simply clarified it. If the amendments just expanded the law, Lynn would have been unconstitutionally convicted for acts that predated the amendments.
Baer wrote that precedent supports a broad interpretation: “That which is supervised is the child’s welfare. Under the facts presented at trial, [Lynn] was a person supervising the welfare of many children because, as a high-ranking official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he was specifically responsible for protecting children from sexually abusive priests.”
Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor dissented, endorsing a strict interpretation of the 1995 statute.
“The evidence viewed favorably to the commonwealth suggests that [Lynn] is indeed guilty of gross derelictions which caused widespread harm,” Saylor wrote. “The only question before the court, however, is whether the text of the endangerment statute, as it existed in the pre-amendment time frame, allowed the imposition of criminal culpability. . . . I would find that it did not.”
Former Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who retired after last November’s oral arguments before the court, did not participate in the decision. There is one vacancy on the court.
“It’s very disappointing,” said defense attorney Thomas A. Bergstrom, who defended the 64-year-old former secretary for clergy on behalf of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Bergstrom said it was too early to say what impact the ruling would have on Lynn’s immediate future.
On Jan. 2, 2014, days after Superior Court reversed his conviction, Lynn was freed from his three- to six-year prison term after about 15 months behind bars and allowed to live on house arrest in the rectory of St. William, a parish in Lawncrest in the Northeast.
Bergstrom said he hoped Lynn would be permitted to remain free on $250,000 bail pending further appeals.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, whose office appealed the Superior Court ruling, released a statement applauding the Supreme Court decision.
Williams thanked the “brave victims who testified in court and their families for supporting them. Today’s announcement sends the clear message that if anyone – priest, lay person, citizen, police officer, or elected official – knowingly puts children at risk of being sexually molested, they will be held accountable.”
The decision was also celebrated by advocates for clergy sex-abuse victims.
“It is a victory for parents, parishioners, churchgoers, wounded victims, and innocent kids each time corrupt church staffers are disciplined,” said David Clohessy, director of the St. Louis-based SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
Marci A. Hamilton, a Philadelphia-area lawyer who has sued the Catholic Church on behalf of victims of clergy sex-abuse, praised the District Attorney’s Office and called the Lynn case “the most significant criminal prosecution of any Catholic official for the endangerment of numerous children in an archdiocese.”
As the secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, Lynn was responsible for investigating sex-abuse complaints made against priests and recommending punishment to the archbishop.
In 2012, after a 13-week trial and 12 days of deliberations, a Common Pleas Court jury found that Lynn allowed the Rev. Edward V. Avery, who had a history of sexually abusing children, to live in a Northeast rectory, where he later assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy. Avery pleaded guilty in the 1999 attack and is serving five years in prison.
Bergstrom said the decision means that Lynn was found guilty of “endangering a child without even knowing the child existed. He didn’t learn about it until 2009.”
Bergstrom said he and Lynn have 14 days to decide whether to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider the appeal.
There are other possible avenues of appeal, Bergstrom said. He said they could petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal based on Lynn’s contention that the prosecution violated his constitutional right not to be tried for alleged crimes that predated the 2007 amendments to the child endangerment statute. Bergstrom said they could also raise before Superior Court issues that the court did not consider before reversing Lynn’s conviction in December 2013.
Full article here: http://mobile.philly.com/news/?wss=/philly/news&id=301466761
Editorial: Place No Limits On Child Sex Abuse Suits, PostStar
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformEDITORIAL_ Place no limits on child sex abuse suitse suits