Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is stunned that the crimes of Jerry Sanduskyweren’t enough to prompt closer scrutiny of staff working youth at sports and academic camps held at East Stroudsburg and Clarion universities immediately after Sandusky’s child sexual assault allegations came to light in 2011.
DePasquale’s auditors discovered both State System of Higher Education schools failed to have proof that all employees and volunteers who had direct contact with children at the summer camps held on university property had obtained criminal background checks and child abuse clearances during audit periods that were as recent as 2013 or 2014.
“For college officials and camp organizers, there should be no higher priority than ensuring the safety and security of children attending summer camps,” DePasquale said. “As a parent, I am sure I’m not the only one who expects that universities hosting summer camps will obtain the appropriate background checks on workers associated with the camps.”
The release of the performance audits, which also touched on other aspects of university operations, comes just before a Thursday presentation to the system’s board about a pilot program launched two years ago to address the issue of child sexual victimization on college campuses.
The program, called “Circles of Safety for Higher Education,” was funded by Sue Paterno. This first-of-a-kind program offers training to prevent child sexual assaults, which began being offered on system campuses last April.
A spokeswoman for DePasquale said the timing of the release of the East Stroudsburg and Clarion performance audits prior to that presentation is coincidental.
Auditors found at East Stroudsburg none of a sample of 18 employees who came into contact with minors at university-sponsored campus had received a child abuse clearance or federal criminal background check. Three did not receive a state criminal background check.
The audit, which covered July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013 with additional field work in 2014, also found that East Stroudsburg did not require outside groups to require their staff to obtain background checks and child abuse clearances until February 2014.
At Clarion, the audit, covering the time period between July 2011 through June 2013, found the university was missing 164 of 366 required background checks for student employees, outside temporary workers, temporary part-time instructors, and volunteers at university-sponsored camps; 53 of 87 background checks for regular, continuously-hired employees; and 3 of 26 background checks for workers at privately-sponsored camps.
In both instances, however, the auditors noted they found no evidence of crimes that would have prevented any of the individuals who staffed the camps from being eligible to be employed.
Further, the audits say both schools have taken steps to strengthen their policies dealing with background check requirements and comply with recent changes to thestate’s Child Protective Services Law that took effect on Dec. 31.
A spokeswoman for East Stroudsburg University noted that the school was and is in compliance with state child protection laws in effect at the time.
In its response to the auditors’ findings, university management said it did require criminal background checks as well as screen sex offender registries. It also is in the process of reviewing and updating its policies in this area and will continue to be proactive to provide a safe environment.
“The university takes great care to provide a safe environment for our students, employees and guests,” said spokeswoman Brenda Friday.
Clarion spokesman David Love offered a similar comment about that university’s efforts to ensure the safety of all who step foot on its campus. He pointed out that the auditor general recognized that in the audit by pointing out the university management has agreed to implement the auditors’ recommendations and is taking steps to ensure its compliance with the recent changes in the child protection law.
Recent audits released for other State System universities – namely, Cheyney,California and Edinboro – as well as the University of Pittsburgh also found indications that those schools also did not adequately ensure staff who worked at youth camps had the necessary background clearances.
Full article: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/04/audits_raise_concern_about_chi.html
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 Reform2015-04-10 04:20:102015-04-10 04:20:10Jan Murphy, Audits raise concern about child protection at youth camps on university campuses, Penn Live
Nationally, April is recognized as child abuse prevention month.
Organizations and individuals from around the state met at the capitol to recognize the month and raise awareness.
The pinwheel represents the bright, happy future that every child deserves. Individuals, businesses, schools, etc. may purchase pinwheels to plant in their yard or display in a vase to show their support of the prevention of child abuse.
To purchase pinwheels and learn more about the many events Prevent Child Abuse Utah has happening throughout April visitpcautah.org.
Events throughout Child Abuse Prevention Month include:
·April 10 South Clearfield Elementary Pinwheel Assembly at 9am, 990 East 700 South, Clearfield
·April 10 National Wear Blue Day
·April 23 Pinwheel Luncheon at Texas Roadhouse from 11am to 2pm, 685 S Ring Road, Layton. Join us for our second annual Pinwheel Luncheon. Lunch is $10 and includes: Homemade bread & butter, salad with choice of dressing, pulled pork sandwich, homemade baked beans and a non-alcoholic beverage. All proceeds go to support the programs at Prevent Child Abuse Utah.
·April 30 Partners in Prevention Breakfast recognizing the 2015 Child Advocates of the Year at the Eccles Conference Center, 2415 Washington Blvd. Ogden, from 8 am to 9:30 am. Each year nominations are taken statewide to recognize outstanding individuals throughout our state. Please join us as we recognize several of these amazing people at this breakfast awards ceremony.
The trial for former Catawba College soccer coach Ralph Wager, charged in 2012 and accused of molesting two boys more than 30 years ago, is expected to begin today with jury selections.
The trial, which is scheduled for two weeks, will be presided over by Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour and will likely include a lengthy jury selection process due to the media attention the case has received. A change of venue had been requested, but denied.
Wager is charged with six counts of felony indecent liberties with a child, three counts of felony first-degree sex offense involving a child and three counts of felony crimes against nature.
The accusations against Wager came to light in 2012 after a victim, who was about 9 years old at the time of the alleged incidents, contacted Rowan County Sheriff’s officials. The victim told authorities he’d been molested by the former coach on a number of occasions, including in 1987 and again in 1989. He searched Wager’s name online and discovered he was working with children in a Charlotte youth soccer league, which prompted him to come forward.
The first victim’s mother made college officials aware of the allegations in the 1980s.
After the victim came forward and investigators began looking into the accusations, another victim was identified through an investigation by Catawba College.
The second victim told investigators he was molested between June and July 1990 when he was 13 years old.
In July 2012, New York investigators were notified about a possible victim who accused Wage of abuse in the 1960s. Wager was a soccer and swim coach and taught at Webster Thomas High School in Webster, N.Y., from 1967 until 1983. The school is located near Rochester. New York officials have said the statute of limitations has expired in their case. However, in North Carolina there are no statute of limitations regarding felony offenses.
The Rowan victims say the abuse occurred at Wager’s on-campus house, his office and at one of the victim’s houses.
In July 1990 it was reported that Wager left the college for health reasons, which has since been confirmed to be untrue. It was revealed during a June 2013 hearing that he resigned four months after the college asked him to leave.
Wager has been under electronic house arrest since he posted bond in August 2012.
Full article: http://www.salisburypost.com/2015/04/06/former-catawba-coach-ralph-wagers-molestation-trial-to-begin/
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 Reform2015-04-08 13:14:262015-04-08 13:15:03Shavonne Walker, Former Catawba coach Ralph Wager’s molestation trial to begin, Salisbury Post
The General Assembly session that began with a call for bipartisanship is poised to end with a partisan showdown on the budget.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan wants lawmakers to approve the tax relief he says he was elected to deliver, but the Democratic-controlled legislature wants him to spend more on public schools and state employee pay.
With just seven days until legislature adjourns for the year April 13, the public stalemate is no closer to resolution than it was weeks ago.
As Maryland lawmakers enter the final week of the General Assembly session, several key topics remain undecided.
“The money’s there, the question is what Hogan’s going to do with it,” House Speaker Michael E. Busch said.
The budget is among hundreds of bills to be voted on in both chambers before the 90-day session ends, but it is the only bill the General Assembly is constitutionally required to approve.
Legislators carved out more than $200 million that they want Hogan to direct to specific priorities, including K-12 education and restoring a 2 percent pay raise for the state workforce.
But Hogan is not required to spend the cash. And last week he released a budget document suggesting he had no plans to do so unless the Assembly moves forward on his proposals for several tax cuts and charter school reform.
“Governor Hogan’s top priority for the last week of session is the same that it has been since day one: provide tax relief to Maryland citizens and advance education initiatives, including a bill that strengthens our public charter school law,” Hogan’s spokeswoman Shareese Churchill said.
The standoff on key priorities brings a different tone to the final week of lawmaking, as Annapolis works through its first legislative session with divided government in eight years. While former governor Martin O’Malley had his share of budget battles with the Democrats who control the legislature, this year’s divide reflects a philosophical difference.
Governor Larry Hogan gives his first State of the State speech in the House of Delegates chamber.
The Assembly has delayed action on or revamped several of Hogan’s key initiatives — a new law on charter schools, tax cuts that would average $69 for retired veterans and $72 for small businesses, and a new program that would create as much as $5 million in tax breaks for businesses that donate to private schools.
The Maryland Senate on Friday considered a rewritten version of Hogan’s charter schools bill that would grant some flexibility to the alternative schools, but give far less freedom to charters than the governor requested. The House of Delegates has not taken a vote on any version of the bill.
Debates still loom on a series of other headline-grabbing topics.
Is it time to consider lengthening the term of the annual Maryland House and Senate session in Annapolis? Maybe 90 days is not enough time to handle the complex issues and budget decisions. On the other hand, it may just waste more tax payer money.
“Even though it’s only a week,” Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings said, “it’s almost an eternity in terms of getting bills done.”
Lawmakers have moved further than ever before toward enacting a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. A Hogan priority to repeal a stormwater fee that critics deride as the “rain tax” has passed the Senate and is pending in the House.
An online-hotel-booking sales tax that would impact companies such as Expedia could possibly send millions in uncollected taxes into state coffers.
The Senate approved a bill to make it easier to get a divorce, but it awaits House action. Neither chamber has acted on whether to extend the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against their attackers.
The legislature has already ended debate on a controversial bill to make Maryland a right-to-die state, choosing to resume discussion next year on whether doctors could prescribe a lethal dose of medication to certain terminally ill patients.
And in a year when police brutality issues consumed debate in Baltimore and across the country, lawmakers in Annapolis said no to bills designed to make it easier to discipline officers.
“My priority is getting the structural budget under control,” said Jennings. “Let’s fix that first, and then we’ll talk about tax relief next year.”
Hogan’s spokeswoman declined to say to what extent the governor was willing to negotiate to grant Democrats the K-12 funding they want.
Instead, Churchill said Hogan “remains committed to working with the legislature to reach a budget resolution that delivers fiscal responsibility and addresses the biggest concerns of Maryland’s citizens.”
House and Senate negotiators began meeting last week to iron out differences between the budget bills each chamber passed late last month, but Senate Budget & Tax Committee Chairman Ed Kasemeyer, a Democrat, said the differences were minuscule compared to the rift with the governor.
“The main thing we need to find out is what priorities the governor will fund,” he said.
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 Reform2015-04-08 13:08:542015-04-08 13:08:54Erin Cox, Assembly's final week: Partisan rift on budget looms, The Baltimore Sun
A newly revealed letter indicating Roman Catholic Church officials knew about allegations that a priest was abusing children in 1956 opens the door to additional lawsuits against the Diocese of Portland by victims who previously were shut out by the state’s statute of limitations, a lawyer said Tuesday.
The 2005 letter, revealed in a lawsuit, indicates the late Bishop Daniel Feeney knew about abuse allegations against the Rev. James Vallely earlier than church officials previously acknowledged, which could lead to fraudulent concealment lawsuits, Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian said.
“The production of this document opens a whole new window for clergy sexual abuse victims to file lawsuits, obtain validation, and try to heal,” Garabedian said.
Bishop Robert P. Deeley declined to discuss specifics of the allegations but acknowledged church officials who failed to act to stop abuse made mistakes.
“We do not want to forget. Remembering keeps us vigilant in our effort to reform. We cannot change the past, but we can do everything possible to see that history does not repeat itself,” he said in a statement.
Garabedian, who brought a lawsuit against the Rev. John Geoghan that sparked the church abuse scandal in Boston, said the Maine lawsuit that produced the letter was settled for the “low six figures.” He said he is representing five of Vallely’s victims from the 1960s and 1970s who are now eligible to sue.
The handwritten letter was penned by the Rev. Richard Rice in July 2005, several weeks after the Diocese of Portland announced it had validated sexual abuse allegations against nine dead priests including Vallely.
In the letter, Rice recounted abuse allegations made by another priest to Rev. Marc Caron, who was co-chancellor of the diocese in 2005. The Rev. Dick Harvey, who died earlier that year, had reportedly told Rice that five boys in a Bangor parish confided to him that they were sexually abused by Vallely; Harvey said he informed Feeney of the allegations and that Vallely was transferred to a Portland parish “within a very brief time.”
Rice did not return a message left seeking comment at a parish where works.
Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey-based nonprofit that helps clergy sexual abuse victims, said it’s troubling that the letter came to light 10 years after it was mailed.
“The church has not learned any lesson at all. The church is still keeping secrets,” said Hoatson, who says his organization has helped about 3,000 clergy sex abuse victims from around the world.
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 Reform2015-04-08 13:03:072015-04-08 13:03:07David Sharp, Letter Could Open Door to More Church Sex Abuse Lawsuits, ABC News
Jan Murphy, Audits raise concern about child protection at youth camps on university campuses, Penn Live
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformAuditor General Eugene DePasquale is stunned that the crimes of Jerry Sanduskyweren’t enough to prompt closer scrutiny of staff working youth at sports and academic camps held at East Stroudsburg and Clarion universities immediately after Sandusky’s child sexual assault allegations came to light in 2011.
DePasquale’s auditors discovered both State System of Higher Education schools failed to have proof that all employees and volunteers who had direct contact with children at the summer camps held on university property had obtained criminal background checks and child abuse clearances during audit periods that were as recent as 2013 or 2014.
“For college officials and camp organizers, there should be no higher priority than ensuring the safety and security of children attending summer camps,” DePasquale said. “As a parent, I am sure I’m not the only one who expects that universities hosting summer camps will obtain the appropriate background checks on workers associated with the camps.”
The release of the performance audits, which also touched on other aspects of university operations, comes just before a Thursday presentation to the system’s board about a pilot program launched two years ago to address the issue of child sexual victimization on college campuses.
The program, called “Circles of Safety for Higher Education,” was funded by Sue Paterno. This first-of-a-kind program offers training to prevent child sexual assaults, which began being offered on system campuses last April.
A spokeswoman for DePasquale said the timing of the release of the East Stroudsburg and Clarion performance audits prior to that presentation is coincidental.
Auditors found at East Stroudsburg none of a sample of 18 employees who came into contact with minors at university-sponsored campus had received a child abuse clearance or federal criminal background check. Three did not receive a state criminal background check.
The audit, which covered July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013 with additional field work in 2014, also found that East Stroudsburg did not require outside groups to require their staff to obtain background checks and child abuse clearances until February 2014.
At Clarion, the audit, covering the time period between July 2011 through June 2013, found the university was missing 164 of 366 required background checks for student employees, outside temporary workers, temporary part-time instructors, and volunteers at university-sponsored camps; 53 of 87 background checks for regular, continuously-hired employees; and 3 of 26 background checks for workers at privately-sponsored camps.
In both instances, however, the auditors noted they found no evidence of crimes that would have prevented any of the individuals who staffed the camps from being eligible to be employed.
Further, the audits say both schools have taken steps to strengthen their policies dealing with background check requirements and comply with recent changes to thestate’s Child Protective Services Law that took effect on Dec. 31.
A spokeswoman for East Stroudsburg University noted that the school was and is in compliance with state child protection laws in effect at the time.
In its response to the auditors’ findings, university management said it did require criminal background checks as well as screen sex offender registries. It also is in the process of reviewing and updating its policies in this area and will continue to be proactive to provide a safe environment.
“The university takes great care to provide a safe environment for our students, employees and guests,” said spokeswoman Brenda Friday.
Clarion spokesman David Love offered a similar comment about that university’s efforts to ensure the safety of all who step foot on its campus. He pointed out that the auditor general recognized that in the audit by pointing out the university management has agreed to implement the auditors’ recommendations and is taking steps to ensure its compliance with the recent changes in the child protection law.
Recent audits released for other State System universities – namely, Cheyney, California and Edinboro – as well as the University of Pittsburgh also found indications that those schools also did not adequately ensure staff who worked at youth camps had the necessary background clearances.
Full article: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/04/audits_raise_concern_about_chi.html
Joe Mandak, Feds add 2 more victims to priest’s sexual tourism case, Philly.com
/in Pennsylvania /by SOL ReformFeds add 2 more victims to priest’s sexual tourism case
Utahns raise awareness about Child Abuse Prevention Month, Good4Utah
/in Utah /by SOL ReformNationally, April is recognized as child abuse prevention month.
Organizations and individuals from around the state met at the capitol to recognize the month and raise awareness.
The pinwheel represents the bright, happy future that every child deserves. Individuals, businesses, schools, etc. may purchase pinwheels to plant in their yard or display in a vase to show their support of the prevention of child abuse.
To purchase pinwheels and learn more about the many events Prevent Child Abuse Utah has happening throughout April visitpcautah.org.
Events throughout Child Abuse Prevention Month include:
·April 10 South Clearfield Elementary Pinwheel Assembly at 9am, 990 East 700 South, Clearfield
·April 10 National Wear Blue Day
·April 23 Pinwheel Luncheon at Texas Roadhouse from 11am to 2pm, 685 S Ring Road, Layton. Join us for our second annual Pinwheel Luncheon. Lunch is $10 and includes: Homemade bread & butter, salad with choice of dressing, pulled pork sandwich, homemade baked beans and a non-alcoholic beverage. All proceeds go to support the programs at Prevent Child Abuse Utah.
·April 30 Partners in Prevention Breakfast recognizing the 2015 Child Advocates of the Year at the Eccles Conference Center, 2415 Washington Blvd. Ogden, from 8 am to 9:30 am. Each year nominations are taken statewide to recognize outstanding individuals throughout our state. Please join us as we recognize several of these amazing people at this breakfast awards ceremony.
Shavonne Walker, Former Catawba coach Ralph Wager’s molestation trial to begin, Salisbury Post
/in Connecticut, New York /by SOL ReformThe trial for former Catawba College soccer coach Ralph Wager, charged in 2012 and accused of molesting two boys more than 30 years ago, is expected to begin today with jury selections.
The trial, which is scheduled for two weeks, will be presided over by Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour and will likely include a lengthy jury selection process due to the media attention the case has received. A change of venue had been requested, but denied.
Wager is charged with six counts of felony indecent liberties with a child, three counts of felony first-degree sex offense involving a child and three counts of felony crimes against nature.
The accusations against Wager came to light in 2012 after a victim, who was about 9 years old at the time of the alleged incidents, contacted Rowan County Sheriff’s officials. The victim told authorities he’d been molested by the former coach on a number of occasions, including in 1987 and again in 1989. He searched Wager’s name online and discovered he was working with children in a Charlotte youth soccer league, which prompted him to come forward.
The first victim’s mother made college officials aware of the allegations in the 1980s.
After the victim came forward and investigators began looking into the accusations, another victim was identified through an investigation by Catawba College.
The second victim told investigators he was molested between June and July 1990 when he was 13 years old.
In July 2012, New York investigators were notified about a possible victim who accused Wage of abuse in the 1960s. Wager was a soccer and swim coach and taught at Webster Thomas High School in Webster, N.Y., from 1967 until 1983. The school is located near Rochester. New York officials have said the statute of limitations has expired in their case. However, in North Carolina there are no statute of limitations regarding felony offenses.
The Rowan victims say the abuse occurred at Wager’s on-campus house, his office and at one of the victim’s houses.
In July 1990 it was reported that Wager left the college for health reasons, which has since been confirmed to be untrue. It was revealed during a June 2013 hearing that he resigned four months after the college asked him to leave.
Wager has been under electronic house arrest since he posted bond in August 2012.
Full article: http://www.salisburypost.com/2015/04/06/former-catawba-coach-ralph-wagers-molestation-trial-to-begin/
Erin Cox, Assembly’s final week: Partisan rift on budget looms, The Baltimore Sun
/in Maryland /by SOL ReformThe General Assembly session that began with a call for bipartisanship is poised to end with a partisan showdown on the budget.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan wants lawmakers to approve the tax relief he says he was elected to deliver, but the Democratic-controlled legislature wants him to spend more on public schools and state employee pay.
With just seven days until legislature adjourns for the year April 13, the public stalemate is no closer to resolution than it was weeks ago.
As Maryland lawmakers enter the final week of the General Assembly session, several key topics remain undecided.
“The money’s there, the question is what Hogan’s going to do with it,” House Speaker Michael E. Busch said.
The budget is among hundreds of bills to be voted on in both chambers before the 90-day session ends, but it is the only bill the General Assembly is constitutionally required to approve.
Legislators carved out more than $200 million that they want Hogan to direct to specific priorities, including K-12 education and restoring a 2 percent pay raise for the state workforce.
But Hogan is not required to spend the cash. And last week he released a budget document suggesting he had no plans to do so unless the Assembly moves forward on his proposals for several tax cuts and charter school reform.
“Governor Hogan’s top priority for the last week of session is the same that it has been since day one: provide tax relief to Maryland citizens and advance education initiatives, including a bill that strengthens our public charter school law,” Hogan’s spokeswoman Shareese Churchill said.
The standoff on key priorities brings a different tone to the final week of lawmaking, as Annapolis works through its first legislative session with divided government in eight years. While former governor Martin O’Malley had his share of budget battles with the Democrats who control the legislature, this year’s divide reflects a philosophical difference.
Governor Larry Hogan gives his first State of the State speech in the House of Delegates chamber.
The Assembly has delayed action on or revamped several of Hogan’s key initiatives — a new law on charter schools, tax cuts that would average $69 for retired veterans and $72 for small businesses, and a new program that would create as much as $5 million in tax breaks for businesses that donate to private schools.
The Maryland Senate on Friday considered a rewritten version of Hogan’s charter schools bill that would grant some flexibility to the alternative schools, but give far less freedom to charters than the governor requested. The House of Delegates has not taken a vote on any version of the bill.
Debates still loom on a series of other headline-grabbing topics.
Is it time to consider lengthening the term of the annual Maryland House and Senate session in Annapolis? Maybe 90 days is not enough time to handle the complex issues and budget decisions. On the other hand, it may just waste more tax payer money.
“Even though it’s only a week,” Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings said, “it’s almost an eternity in terms of getting bills done.”
Lawmakers have moved further than ever before toward enacting a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. A Hogan priority to repeal a stormwater fee that critics deride as the “rain tax” has passed the Senate and is pending in the House.
An online-hotel-booking sales tax that would impact companies such as Expedia could possibly send millions in uncollected taxes into state coffers.
The Senate approved a bill to make it easier to get a divorce, but it awaits House action. Neither chamber has acted on whether to extend the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against their attackers.
The legislature has already ended debate on a controversial bill to make Maryland a right-to-die state, choosing to resume discussion next year on whether doctors could prescribe a lethal dose of medication to certain terminally ill patients.
And in a year when police brutality issues consumed debate in Baltimore and across the country, lawmakers in Annapolis said no to bills designed to make it easier to discipline officers.
Though many issues remain outstanding, key leaders of both parties and in both chambers expect the debate over the budget to remain the most controversial issue.Assembly’s final week_ Partisan rift on budget looms – Baltimore Sun
“My priority is getting the structural budget under control,” said Jennings. “Let’s fix that first, and then we’ll talk about tax relief next year.”
Hogan’s spokeswoman declined to say to what extent the governor was willing to negotiate to grant Democrats the K-12 funding they want.
Instead, Churchill said Hogan “remains committed to working with the legislature to reach a budget resolution that delivers fiscal responsibility and addresses the biggest concerns of Maryland’s citizens.”
House and Senate negotiators began meeting last week to iron out differences between the budget bills each chamber passed late last month, but Senate Budget & Tax Committee Chairman Ed Kasemeyer, a Democrat, said the differences were minuscule compared to the rift with the governor.
“The main thing we need to find out is what priorities the governor will fund,” he said.
David Sharp, Letter Could Open Door to More Church Sex Abuse Lawsuits, ABC News
/in Maine /by SOL ReformA newly revealed letter indicating Roman Catholic Church officials knew about allegations that a priest was abusing children in 1956 opens the door to additional lawsuits against the Diocese of Portland by victims who previously were shut out by the state’s statute of limitations, a lawyer said Tuesday.
The 2005 letter, revealed in a lawsuit, indicates the late Bishop Daniel Feeney knew about abuse allegations against the Rev. James Vallely earlier than church officials previously acknowledged, which could lead to fraudulent concealment lawsuits, Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian said.
“The production of this document opens a whole new window for clergy sexual abuse victims to file lawsuits, obtain validation, and try to heal,” Garabedian said.
Bishop Robert P. Deeley declined to discuss specifics of the allegations but acknowledged church officials who failed to act to stop abuse made mistakes.
“We do not want to forget. Remembering keeps us vigilant in our effort to reform. We cannot change the past, but we can do everything possible to see that history does not repeat itself,” he said in a statement.
Garabedian, who brought a lawsuit against the Rev. John Geoghan that sparked the church abuse scandal in Boston, said the Maine lawsuit that produced the letter was settled for the “low six figures.” He said he is representing five of Vallely’s victims from the 1960s and 1970s who are now eligible to sue.
The handwritten letter was penned by the Rev. Richard Rice in July 2005, several weeks after the Diocese of Portland announced it had validated sexual abuse allegations against nine dead priests including Vallely.
Vallely died in 1997 in Florida.
In the letter, Rice recounted abuse allegations made by another priest to Rev. Marc Caron, who was co-chancellor of the diocese in 2005. The Rev. Dick Harvey, who died earlier that year, had reportedly told Rice that five boys in a Bangor parish confided to him that they were sexually abused by Vallely; Harvey said he informed Feeney of the allegations and that Vallely was transferred to a Portland parish “within a very brief time.”
Rice did not return a message left seeking comment at a parish where works.
Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery Inc., a New Jersey-based nonprofit that helps clergy sexual abuse victims, said it’s troubling that the letter came to light 10 years after it was mailed.
“The church has not learned any lesson at all. The church is still keeping secrets,” said Hoatson, who says his organization has helped about 3,000 clergy sex abuse victims from around the world.
Letter Could Open Door to More Church Sex Abuse Lawsuits – ABC News