Civil Lawsuit Names Priest for Child Sexual AbuseDiocese of Rockville Centre Sued for Hiding Sexual Offenders and Creating a Dangerous Public Nuisance
Identities and Locations of Credibly Accused Sexually Abusive Clerics SoughtAlleged Perpetrator Still Allowed to Minister in New York
What: At a press conference Wednesday, January 21, 2015 on Long Island, attorneys Jeff Anderson and J. Michael Reck of Jeff Anderson & Associates will:
Announce the filing of a complaint on behalf of a 20 year-old woman naming the Diocese of Rockville Centre, St. Francis Assisi Parish and Father Gregory Yacyshyn as defendants. Yacyshyn is alleged to have abused the woman when she was a young child and parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi in Greenlawn, New York. He remains in ministry at St. Jude in Mastic Beach, NY.
Discuss the public nuisance claim alleged in the lawsuit for the Diocese’s failure to implement proper child protection safety measures and for their continued refusal to release the identities and internal church documents on known offenders in spite of previous Grand Jury investigations.
Encourage other sexual abuse survivors to come forward and demand the diocese remove Father Yacyshyn and release the identities and names of known clerical offenders.
Photos and written statement from the survivor will be provided.
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INDIANAPOLIS – Keith Morris, a victim of a sexual assault as a child, found himself unable to seek justice for the crime committed against him.
After 24 years of processing the incident, he finally came forward and shared what he had experienced, but nothing could be done because the statute of limitations of rape is five years in Indiana.
Sen. Michael Crider, R-Greenfield, presented Senate Bill 94 to the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee on Tuesday that would extend the statute of limitations by five years, so long as the state discovers DNA evidence sufficient to charge the offender, or if a person confesses to the offense after the first five years. The bill passed unanimously.
Jenny Ewing was raped in 2005, and did not tell anyone about the attack. Her attacker came forward last year, but was not charged with rape because the confession happened outside of the five-year statute of limitations.
Crider said that after hearing of this case, he has been on a mission to change the law so that rapists such as Ewing’s attacker may see justice.
Ewing testified in support of the bill via Skype – the first time in Indiana’s history a committee heard testimony by using an electronic device. She now lives in Oregon and could not make the trip to support the bill in person.
Ewing said the memories of the assault never go away for a victim, no matter if it is five years, 10 years, or 50 years. She also said that it is always better to report an attack right away, no matter how painful it may be.
“I made the mistake when I was raped in 2005 by not reporting,” Ewing said. “I continue to tell people that they should always report.”
Morris said that all of Indiana’s surrounding states have either no statute of limitations for rape cases or a much longer one.
As of last year, Indiana ranked 15th in the nation for rape rates – an average of 25.5 out of every 1,000 Hoosiers.
At the age of 15, Joy Ryder became a victim of sexual assault to someone she knew. It took her 25 years to come forward, and she said most victims take one to two decades to come forward. Ryder flew in from Texas to attend the hearing and testify.
“I believe that we should have no statute of limitations in Indiana,” Ryder said. “We have one of the worst statute of limitations in the country.”
Ryder began a nonprofit organization to aid sexually abused men and women and said she has talked to countless victims who believe that the statute of limitations law re-victimizes them.
Near the end of her testimony, Ryder said that the bill just isn’t good enough, and said she believes the state should knock out the statute of limitations altogether.
“I am hopeful that these young ladies that are victimized will have some opportunity for justice which currently does not exist if the facts come forward outside the statute of limitations,” Crider said. “I am hopeful that in some cases this will provide closure and what they feel like is justice for them.”
Crider’s initial wanted to call for an end to the statute of limitations altogether in Indiana. But he said adding five years is the only extension he thought he could approved.
“I felt like this was a more median proposal we could get passed, and obviously that is the case since we passed unanimously,” Crider said.
The bill now moves to the Senate for further consideration.
Chris Arnold is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
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A bill that would create the New York Child Victims Act faces uncertainty in the current state legislative session.
After its champion, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Queens Democrat, introduced the bill in the 2006-07 legislative sessions, it has seen many iterations and challenges.
The bill would eliminate the statute of limitations on civil and criminal cases of sex crimes against children in New York and provide a one-year window after the law took effect for victims to retroactively bring cases of alleged abuse no matter how long ago they occurred.
Markey is hopeful the Assembly will pass it early in the session, said her spokesman, Mike Armstrong. “Her commitment to the bill and its urgency is unwavering,” he said.
While it has passed in the Assembly four times, the measure has failed to gain traction in the Republican-controlled state Senate, where it has been consistently blocked from coming to the floor for a vote.
Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, sponsored the bill in the Senate.
“Perhaps it hasn’t been a priority in other years,” Hoylman said. But he noted, “There are institutional forces that opposed the legislation.”
Citing cases at a New York City private school and elsewhere, Hoylman said, “I’m hopeful that revelations about the sexual abuse at the Horace Mann School and the institutional abuse across the country will help galvanize public support.” This year, Armstrong said, there have been talks with Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and Markey is confident supporters have the votes.
The office of Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos did not respond to requests for comment.
Sen. Jeffrey Klein, head of the Independent Democratic Conference, reversed his stance and now supports the bill. He said he is hopeful that it will pass in the Senate this year.
The Bronx Democrat opposed previous versions of the bill but said the “issues evolved” and he supports the bill in its current form after speaking with victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Klein said adding the elimination of the statute of limitations on civil and criminal cases for abusers was vital.
“If we’re really going to send the message that this type of crime won’t be tolerated,” then it must target both civil and criminal cases, Klein said.
This session, the Republican majority in the Senate no longer needs its allegiance with Klein’sIDC, giving it no say on which bills come to the floor for a vote.
Markey’s spokesman said Klein’s support is good, but it is too little, too late.
“He’s the one that stood in the way last year,” Armstrong said. “When Klein had a moment of real power, he did not support it.”
Armstrong said momentum has been building. “There’s new enthusiasm and the assemblywoman feels strongly that this is the year.”
The bill faces forceful opposition from the Catholic Church and other religious institutions. One of the main criticisms is the one-year window, which retroactively allows prosecution and civil lawsuits for damages in child sexual abuse cases in which the statute of limitations may have expired.
“We continue to oppose that bill,” said Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference. “We don’t think it serves justice.”
Many religious groups say the bill targets them, particularly with the inclusion of the one-year window. And because of a legal requirement that a notice of claim be filed against public agencies within 90 days, those public institutions would be exempt from the one-year window.
Poust said the Catholic Conference wants to see justice for victims, but litigation over decades-old child sexual abuse allegations serve no purpose. Memories fade over time, witnesses and alleged abusers die and evidence is lost, he said.
“It’s certainly impossible to get to the truth,” Poust said. “It has to be done within a reasonable amount of time.”
Tina Weber, a Philadelphia attorney from Warren County who has represented adults in New York state who were sexually assaulted as children by priests, said the bill is common sense.
“The victims are the ones that have to continue to suffer,” she said. “The limitation under the current statute is completely insufficient.”
Weber said the one-year window is necessary because it takes time for victims of childhood sexual abuse to be prepared, emotionally and mentally, to come forward as adults.
“To be able to step forward before the age of 25 is almost impossible,” she said. “You would think things get better, but they don’t, they get worse.”
Weber said that institutions such as the Catholic Church should have to answer for possible past abuse.
Going forward, Poust said the Catholic Conference supports eliminating the statute of limitations, but not the retroactive possibility for civil suits and criminal prosecution.
“We’re hopeful that the Legislature will continue to see reason,” he said.
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ATLANTIC COUNTY —A Brigantine police officer was indicted this afternoon for the sexual assault of a 16-year-old female victim, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain announced.
Today, Thursday, January 8, 2015, an Atlantic County Grand Jury indicted Brigantine Police Officer Ralph M. Pereira, 44, of the 5000 block of Ontario Avenue, Brigantine, NJ, on ten (10) criminal counts, in connection with the sexual assault of a child in 2012 and 2013:
1) 2 counts of Sexual Assault—a 2nd degree crime,
2) 3 counts of Official Misconduct—a 2nd degree crime,
3) 3 counts of 2nd degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child,
4) 1 count of 3rd degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child, and
5) 1 count of Criminal Sexual Contact—a 4th degree crime,
An investigation by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, with the assistance of by the Brigantine Police Department, resulted in Pereira’s arrest without incident in Brigantine on May 19, 2014.
The state alleges that Pereira provided the juvenile victim alcohol, committed acts of sexual penetration, and photographed or filmed the victim in a prohibited sexual act, while he held a position of authority and disciplinary power over the victim by virtue of his employment as a public servant.
Pereira was lodged in the Atlantic County Justice Facility in lieu of $100,000 cash bail, set by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Donna M. Taylor. Pereira was later released on bail.
A crime of the 2nd degree carries a potential sentence of 5 to 10 years of incarceration in New Jersey State prison. A 3rd degree crime carries a potential penalty of 3 to five years of imprisonment. A 4th degree crime carries a potential prison sentence not to exceed 18 months.
First Assistant Prosecutor Diane Ruberton represents the State in the matter.
This charge is merely an accusation and not proof of guilt. In all criminal cases, a charged defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Anyone with information involving serious crimes is asked to call the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-909-7800 or go to the Prosecutor’s Office Web site at http://www.acpo.org/tips.html and provide information by filling out the form anonymously on the Submit a Tip page. People can also call Crime Stoppers at 609-652-1234 or 1-800-658-8477 (TIPS) or visit the Crime Stoppers Website at http://www.crimestoppersatlantic.com/. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards for information leading to the arrest and indictment of those who commit crimes in Atlantic County.
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Before the clergy abuse scandal erupted in the 1980s — costing Catholic dioceses more than $2.3 billion to date — most states required plaintiffs to bring childhood abuse claims within a few years of turning 18. In recent years, though, about one-third of the states have extended or eliminated civil statutes of limitations for childhood abuse, said to Marci A. Hamilton, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.
Many states, for instance, enacted “discovery” rules under which the statute of limitations clock doesn’t start ticking until a plaintiff realizes he or she was harmed by childhood abuse. Connecticut and Massachusetts have retroactively allowed plaintiffs up to age 48 and 53, respectively, to file claims, Ms. Hamilton noted.
Window laws, retroactively waiving statutes of limitations for periods of one to three years, have been enacted in five U.S. jurisdictions: California, Delaware, Guam, Hawaii and Minnesota. Hawaii, which created a two-year window in 2012, renewed it for two more years last year.
The laws are needed to redress unfair treatment of abuse victims shut out of court by antiquated time limits, argues Ms. Hamilton, who supports statute of limitations reforms.
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Top executives did not report suspected Scout abuse cases, files show
By Jason Felch, Los Angeles Times
In 1987, a Scoutmaster at a camp in northeast Georgia was accused of fondling a boy in a sleeping bag.
The local Boy Scouts executive, Wayne Brock, followed Scouting procedures and documented the allegation before forwarding it to the group’s Texas headquarters, where it was added to confidential files on leaders suspected of molesting children.
The Scoutmaster was expelled and left town in a matter of days. The police were never told, interviews and records show.
DATABASE: Search the “perversion” files
Today, Brock is the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America.
As he and his recent predecessors rose through the ranks of Scouting, they handled at least 120 cases of suspected sexual abuse dating from the mid-1970s, according to a Times analysis of confidential Boy Scout files.
As district executives, it was their job to gather evidence and witness statements, determine whether to recommend a leader’s expulsion and report their findings to headquarters, which made the final decision.
VIDEO: Victims speak out
In the process, the officials had a front-row seat on cases in which Scouting’s abuse-prevention policies failed.
Although the officials may have followed Scout policy and violated no laws, the files in several cases indicate that they did not inform authorities — or their communities — of suspected child molesters who were expelled from the organization.
The Boy Scouts would not make Brock or the former chief executives available for interviews. Brock did not return calls to his home and cellphone.
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In a statement, a spokesman said it was impossible to comment on specific, decades-old files. Instead, the spokesman highlighted the executives’ contributions to abuse-prevention policies, including the requirement in 2010 that any suspicion of abuse be reported to police.
Faced in recent months with the public release of hundreds of files by court order, Scouting officials have acknowledged that “in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”
Brock was a regional executive in the Appalachian foothills of Georgia when allegations surfaced that Scoutmaster Peter A. Gross had fondled a boy.
The alleged molestation was witnessed by another Scout, who confronted Gross “in the act,” boys in the troop later told a parent, according to an account in the Boy Scout file on the case.
Gross gathered the boys together and “told them not to tell anybody and that he was having a dream of a pretty lady and that was why he was ‘playing with the Scout’ in bed with him,” the account says.
A few days later, Gross told a Scouting official a different story: The Scout had fallen from his bunk during a “terrible thunderstorm,” according to the file. “I had him sleep with me to calm him. Nothing else happened!”
In a recent interview, Gross said that story sounded far-fetched and insisted he never told it. He denied fondling the boy and said he can’t explain why the troop accused him.
Brock forwarded the allegations to Scouting headquarters. The file contains no indication that Brock or other Scouting officials notified law enforcement. The Rabun County sheriff’s office said they had no record of being told, and Gross and a local Scouting official said they were never contacted by authorities.
On April 8, 1988, headquarters notified Brock of Gross’ expulsion. Four days later, a change in Georgia law went into effect requiring employees of youth organizations to report suspected abuse to law enforcement.
Because Brock learned of the alleged abuse before the new law took effect, it isn’t clear whether he was required to report it to authorities.
J. Tom Morgan, a former district attorney of DeKalb County and coauthor of the law, said it was unlikely to be applied retroactively, even by a few days.
Melissa Carter, director of Emory University’s Barton Child Law and Policy Center, disagreed: “If he had reasonable cause to believe a child had been abused, that is knowledge that persists over time,” she said. “That was no different on April 8 than on April 13.”
Carter and Morgan agreed on one thing: Brock should have reported the allegations to police.
Days after being accused, Gross said, he moved to Florida for a few years. Today, he is a truck driver living 20 miles from where the alleged incident took place.
Few know about the allegations, and Gross, who has no criminal record, said he hopes it stays that way.
“I was fortunate that it didn’t go any further,” Gross said. “I was thankful for that.”
::
Brock’s predecessor, Robert Mazzuca, spent two decades as a regional Scout executive in California and Pennsylvania. He sent an average of one case a year to headquarters detailing allegations of child molestation.
One of Mazzuca’s cases involved David Cooley, an assistant Scoutmaster in a Pittsburgh suburb who was expelled in 1997 after police discovered he had made videos of himself having sex with boys. Cooley pleaded guilty to molesting three boys and was sentenced to up to 54 years in prison.
Mazzuca and his superiors learned only later, after Cooley’s arrest, that he had been convicted in 1987 of molesting a South Carolina boy and served three years in prison. Scouting did not require criminal background checks for volunteers at the time.
Mazzuca told reporters at the time that screening of volunteers was the responsibility of the local nonprofits or church groups that sponsored the troop, not the Boy Scouts.
A decade later, when Mazzuca was chief executive, the organization began requiring all volunteers to have criminal background checks. Mazzuca retired in September.
His predecessor, Roy L. Williams, handled at least 13 abuse allegations while serving as a Scout executive over three decades in Arkansas, Kansas and Rhode Island, records show.
In 1990, Boy Scouts headquarters asked Williams to obtain a written statement from an alleged abuse victim in Rhode Island. The former Scout, by then an adult, said he and his younger brother had been raped in the 1970s by a longtime Scout leader, Father Edmond Micarelli.
Williams sent the statement to headquarters, leading to the priest’s expulsion from Scouting. There is no indication in the file that he reported the alleged rapes to police or looked into whether Micarelli, who had been active in Scouting as recently as 1988, had other victims in the Boy Scouts.
In 2002, the Diocese of Providence paid $13.5 million to 36 victims who sued Micarelli and 10 other priests, alleging sex abuse dating to the 1970s. Micarelli, who is retired in Florida and has no criminal record, could not be reached for comment.
While Williams was chief executive from 2000 to 2007, the Boy Scouts encouraged volunteers and parents to take abuse prevention training.
Jere Ratcliffe served as Scouting’s chief executive from 1993 to 2000, a period when the organization began hosting an abuse prevention symposium and publishing information about sexual abuse in the Scout handbook. Earlier in his career, Ratcliffe handled more than 65 cases of alleged abuse as a regional executive in South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama and Chicago.
In most of the cases, Scouting officials learned about alleged abuse from law enforcement or newspaper reports. But in several cases where Scouts received reports directly from victims or their parents, there is no sign the allegations were reported to law enforcement.
In one, the failure to report abuse may have allowed a suspected serial child molester to abuse again.
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In 1982, Ratcliffe learned that Birmingham, Ala., Scoutmaster Ricky C. Partain had allegedly made sexual advances toward an 11-year-old boy he had taken to a wrestling match, the Boy Scout files show.
The boy had shared a bed with Partain at the house of an acquaintance, who heard the boy shouting, “No, no, coach — you can’t make me do it!” the file says.
Ratcliffe could not find Partain’s name on a registry of local Scout leaders and apparently let the matter go, according to the file.
Two years later, when a new complaint emerged, Ratcliffe learned that Partain had been working in a local troop all along. Parents of one Scout alleged that Partain had fondled the boy twice while teaching him to swim.
In September 1984, Ratcliffe sent a confidential report on Partain to Scouting headquarters, the files shows. There is no indication he informed police.
In 1989, records show Partain was convicted of molesting an 11-year-old girl and today is registered as a sex offender in Alabama.
jason.felch@latimes.com
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In-statute NY survivor comes forward and sues Rockville Centre
/in New York /by SOL Reform
Media Advisory
January 20, 2015
Civil Lawsuit Names Priest for Child Sexual Abuse Diocese of Rockville Centre Sued for Hiding Sexual Offenders and Creating a Dangerous Public Nuisance
Identities and Locations of Credibly Accused Sexually Abusive Clerics Sought Alleged Perpetrator Still Allowed to Minister in New York
What: At a press conference Wednesday, January 21, 2015 on Long Island, attorneys Jeff Anderson and J. Michael Reck of Jeff Anderson & Associates will:
WHEN: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at 1:30PM EST
WHERE: Long Island Marriott
101 James Doolittle Blvd.
Long Island University Room
Uniondale, NY 11553
Notes: Copies of the complaint will be available at www.andersonadvocates.com.
Contact:
Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.227.9990
Mike Reck: Cell: 714.742.6593 Office: 646.649.4960
Save/Print 1-page flyer: Media Advisory | Press Conference 1-21-14 | Civil Lawsuit Names Priest for Child Sexual Abuse Diocese of Rockville Centre Sued for Hiding Sexual Offenders and Creating a Dangerous Public Nuisance
Chris Arnold, Bill to extend statute of limitations on rape moves to full Senate, TheStatehouseFile.com
/in 2015 Legislative Session, Indiana /by SOL ReformSource: http://thestatehousefile.com/bill-extend-statute-limitations-rape-moves-full-senate/19549/
PDF: thestatehousefile.com-Bill to extend statute of limitations on rape moves to full Senate
INDIANAPOLIS – Keith Morris, a victim of a sexual assault as a child, found himself unable to seek justice for the crime committed against him.
After 24 years of processing the incident, he finally came forward and shared what he had experienced, but nothing could be done because the statute of limitations of rape is five years in Indiana.
Sen. Michael Crider, R-Greenfield, presented Senate Bill 94 to the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee on Tuesday that would extend the statute of limitations by five years, so long as the state discovers DNA evidence sufficient to charge the offender, or if a person confesses to the offense after the first five years. The bill passed unanimously.
Jenny Ewing was raped in 2005, and did not tell anyone about the attack. Her attacker came forward last year, but was not charged with rape because the confession happened outside of the five-year statute of limitations.
Crider said that after hearing of this case, he has been on a mission to change the law so that rapists such as Ewing’s attacker may see justice.
Ewing testified in support of the bill via Skype – the first time in Indiana’s history a committee heard testimony by using an electronic device. She now lives in Oregon and could not make the trip to support the bill in person.
Ewing said the memories of the assault never go away for a victim, no matter if it is five years, 10 years, or 50 years. She also said that it is always better to report an attack right away, no matter how painful it may be.
“I made the mistake when I was raped in 2005 by not reporting,” Ewing said. “I continue to tell people that they should always report.”
Morris said that all of Indiana’s surrounding states have either no statute of limitations for rape cases or a much longer one.
As of last year, Indiana ranked 15th in the nation for rape rates – an average of 25.5 out of every 1,000 Hoosiers.
At the age of 15, Joy Ryder became a victim of sexual assault to someone she knew. It took her 25 years to come forward, and she said most victims take one to two decades to come forward. Ryder flew in from Texas to attend the hearing and testify.
“I believe that we should have no statute of limitations in Indiana,” Ryder said. “We have one of the worst statute of limitations in the country.”
Ryder began a nonprofit organization to aid sexually abused men and women and said she has talked to countless victims who believe that the statute of limitations law re-victimizes them.
Near the end of her testimony, Ryder said that the bill just isn’t good enough, and said she believes the state should knock out the statute of limitations altogether.
“I am hopeful that these young ladies that are victimized will have some opportunity for justice which currently does not exist if the facts come forward outside the statute of limitations,” Crider said. “I am hopeful that in some cases this will provide closure and what they feel like is justice for them.”
Crider’s initial wanted to call for an end to the statute of limitations altogether in Indiana. But he said adding five years is the only extension he thought he could approved.
“I felt like this was a more median proposal we could get passed, and obviously that is the case since we passed unanimously,” Crider said.
The bill now moves to the Senate for further consideration.
Chris Arnold is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Dartunorro Clark, Child victims bill lacks backing, Times Union
/in 2015 Legislative Session, New York, NY Child Victims Act /by SOL Reformhttp://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Child-victims-bill-lacks-backing-6008625.php
Albany
A bill that would create the New York Child Victims Act faces uncertainty in the current state legislative session.
After its champion, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Queens Democrat, introduced the bill in the 2006-07 legislative sessions, it has seen many iterations and challenges.
The bill would eliminate the statute of limitations on civil and criminal cases of sex crimes against children in New York and provide a one-year window after the law took effect for victims to retroactively bring cases of alleged abuse no matter how long ago they occurred.
Markey is hopeful the Assembly will pass it early in the session, said her spokesman, Mike Armstrong. “Her commitment to the bill and its urgency is unwavering,” he said.
While it has passed in the Assembly four times, the measure has failed to gain traction in the Republican-controlled state Senate, where it has been consistently blocked from coming to the floor for a vote.
Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, sponsored the bill in the Senate.
“Perhaps it hasn’t been a priority in other years,” Hoylman said. But he noted, “There are institutional forces that opposed the legislation.”
Citing cases at a New York City private school and elsewhere, Hoylman said, “I’m hopeful that revelations about the sexual abuse at the Horace Mann School and the institutional abuse across the country will help galvanize public support.” This year, Armstrong said, there have been talks with Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and Markey is confident supporters have the votes.
The office of Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos did not respond to requests for comment.
Sen. Jeffrey Klein, head of the Independent Democratic Conference, reversed his stance and now supports the bill. He said he is hopeful that it will pass in the Senate this year.
The Bronx Democrat opposed previous versions of the bill but said the “issues evolved” and he supports the bill in its current form after speaking with victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Klein said adding the elimination of the statute of limitations on civil and criminal cases for abusers was vital.
“If we’re really going to send the message that this type of crime won’t be tolerated,” then it must target both civil and criminal cases, Klein said.
This session, the Republican majority in the Senate no longer needs its allegiance with Klein’sIDC, giving it no say on which bills come to the floor for a vote.
Markey’s spokesman said Klein’s support is good, but it is too little, too late.
“He’s the one that stood in the way last year,” Armstrong said. “When Klein had a moment of real power, he did not support it.”
Armstrong said momentum has been building. “There’s new enthusiasm and the assemblywoman feels strongly that this is the year.”
The bill faces forceful opposition from the Catholic Church and other religious institutions. One of the main criticisms is the one-year window, which retroactively allows prosecution and civil lawsuits for damages in child sexual abuse cases in which the statute of limitations may have expired.
“We continue to oppose that bill,” said Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference. “We don’t think it serves justice.”
Many religious groups say the bill targets them, particularly with the inclusion of the one-year window. And because of a legal requirement that a notice of claim be filed against public agencies within 90 days, those public institutions would be exempt from the one-year window.
Poust said the Catholic Conference wants to see justice for victims, but litigation over decades-old child sexual abuse allegations serve no purpose. Memories fade over time, witnesses and alleged abusers die and evidence is lost, he said.
“It’s certainly impossible to get to the truth,” Poust said. “It has to be done within a reasonable amount of time.”
Tina Weber, a Philadelphia attorney from Warren County who has represented adults in New York state who were sexually assaulted as children by priests, said the bill is common sense.
“The victims are the ones that have to continue to suffer,” she said. “The limitation under the current statute is completely insufficient.”
Weber said the one-year window is necessary because it takes time for victims of childhood sexual abuse to be prepared, emotionally and mentally, to come forward as adults.
“To be able to step forward before the age of 25 is almost impossible,” she said. “You would think things get better, but they don’t, they get worse.”
Weber said that institutions such as the Catholic Church should have to answer for possible past abuse.
Going forward, Poust said the Catholic Conference supports eliminating the statute of limitations, but not the retroactive possibility for civil suits and criminal prosecution.
“We’re hopeful that the Legislature will continue to see reason,” he said.
Galloway Township News: Brigantine Police Officer Indicted; Ten Criminal Counts in Connection with Sexual Assault of Child
/in Connecticut /by SOL ReformToday, Thursday, January 8, 2015, an Atlantic County Grand Jury indicted Brigantine Police Officer Ralph M. Pereira, 44, of the 5000 block of Ontario Avenue, Brigantine, NJ, on ten (10) criminal counts, in connection with the sexual assault of a child in 2012 and 2013:
1) 2 counts of Sexual Assault—a 2nd degree crime,
2) 3 counts of Official Misconduct—a 2nd degree crime,
3) 3 counts of 2nd degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child,
4) 1 count of 3rd degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child, and
5) 1 count of Criminal Sexual Contact—a 4th degree crime,
An investigation by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, with the assistance of by the Brigantine Police Department, resulted in Pereira’s arrest without incident in Brigantine on May 19, 2014.
The state alleges that Pereira provided the juvenile victim alcohol, committed acts of sexual penetration, and photographed or filmed the victim in a prohibited sexual act, while he held a position of authority and disciplinary power over the victim by virtue of his employment as a public servant.
Pereira was lodged in the Atlantic County Justice Facility in lieu of $100,000 cash bail, set by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Donna M. Taylor. Pereira was later released on bail.
A crime of the 2nd degree carries a potential sentence of 5 to 10 years of incarceration in New Jersey State prison. A 3rd degree crime carries a potential penalty of 3 to five years of imprisonment. A 4th degree crime carries a potential prison sentence not to exceed 18 months.
First Assistant Prosecutor Diane Ruberton represents the State in the matter.
This charge is merely an accusation and not proof of guilt. In all criminal cases, a charged defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Originally posted at: http://www.
Douglas McLeod, Minnesota law extends sexual abuse filing window, puts pressure on archdiocese, Business Insurance
/in Minnesota /by SOL ReformSource: Douglas McLeod, Minnesota law extends sexual abuse filing window, puts pressure on archdiocese, Business Insurance, http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20150104/NEWS06/301049979
Jason Felch, Top executives did not report suspected Scout abuse cases, files show, LA Times
/in California, Child Sex Abuse Cover-up, Georgia /by SOL ReformTop_executives_did_not_report_suspected_Scout_abuse_cases
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-scouts-leaders-2-20121231-story.html#page=1
Top executives did not report suspected Scout abuse cases, files show
By Jason Felch, Los Angeles Times
In 1987, a Scoutmaster at a camp in northeast Georgia was accused of fondling a boy in a sleeping bag.
The local Boy Scouts executive, Wayne Brock, followed Scouting procedures and documented the allegation before forwarding it to the group’s Texas headquarters, where it was added to confidential files on leaders suspected of molesting children.
The Scoutmaster was expelled and left town in a matter of days. The police were never told, interviews and records show.
DATABASE: Search the “perversion” files
Today, Brock is the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America.
As he and his recent predecessors rose through the ranks of Scouting, they handled at least 120 cases of suspected sexual abuse dating from the mid-1970s, according to a Times analysis of confidential Boy Scout files.
As district executives, it was their job to gather evidence and witness statements, determine whether to recommend a leader’s expulsion and report their findings to headquarters, which made the final decision.
VIDEO: Victims speak out
In the process, the officials had a front-row seat on cases in which Scouting’s abuse-prevention policies failed.
Although the officials may have followed Scout policy and violated no laws, the files in several cases indicate that they did not inform authorities — or their communities — of suspected child molesters who were expelled from the organization.
The Boy Scouts would not make Brock or the former chief executives available for interviews. Brock did not return calls to his home and cellphone.
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In a statement, a spokesman said it was impossible to comment on specific, decades-old files. Instead, the spokesman highlighted the executives’ contributions to abuse-prevention policies, including the requirement in 2010 that any suspicion of abuse be reported to police.
Faced in recent months with the public release of hundreds of files by court order, Scouting officials have acknowledged that “in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”
Brock was a regional executive in the Appalachian foothills of Georgia when allegations surfaced that Scoutmaster Peter A. Gross had fondled a boy.
The alleged molestation was witnessed by another Scout, who confronted Gross “in the act,” boys in the troop later told a parent, according to an account in the Boy Scout file on the case.
Gross gathered the boys together and “told them not to tell anybody and that he was having a dream of a pretty lady and that was why he was ‘playing with the Scout’ in bed with him,” the account says.
A few days later, Gross told a Scouting official a different story: The Scout had fallen from his bunk during a “terrible thunderstorm,” according to the file. “I had him sleep with me to calm him. Nothing else happened!”
In a recent interview, Gross said that story sounded far-fetched and insisted he never told it. He denied fondling the boy and said he can’t explain why the troop accused him.
Brock forwarded the allegations to Scouting headquarters. The file contains no indication that Brock or other Scouting officials notified law enforcement. The Rabun County sheriff’s office said they had no record of being told, and Gross and a local Scouting official said they were never contacted by authorities.
On April 8, 1988, headquarters notified Brock of Gross’ expulsion. Four days later, a change in Georgia law went into effect requiring employees of youth organizations to report suspected abuse to law enforcement.
Because Brock learned of the alleged abuse before the new law took effect, it isn’t clear whether he was required to report it to authorities.
J. Tom Morgan, a former district attorney of DeKalb County and coauthor of the law, said it was unlikely to be applied retroactively, even by a few days.
Melissa Carter, director of Emory University’s Barton Child Law and Policy Center, disagreed: “If he had reasonable cause to believe a child had been abused, that is knowledge that persists over time,” she said. “That was no different on April 8 than on April 13.”
Carter and Morgan agreed on one thing: Brock should have reported the allegations to police.
Days after being accused, Gross said, he moved to Florida for a few years. Today, he is a truck driver living 20 miles from where the alleged incident took place.
Few know about the allegations, and Gross, who has no criminal record, said he hopes it stays that way.
“I was fortunate that it didn’t go any further,” Gross said. “I was thankful for that.”
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Brock’s predecessor, Robert Mazzuca, spent two decades as a regional Scout executive in California and Pennsylvania. He sent an average of one case a year to headquarters detailing allegations of child molestation.
One of Mazzuca’s cases involved David Cooley, an assistant Scoutmaster in a Pittsburgh suburb who was expelled in 1997 after police discovered he had made videos of himself having sex with boys. Cooley pleaded guilty to molesting three boys and was sentenced to up to 54 years in prison.
Mazzuca and his superiors learned only later, after Cooley’s arrest, that he had been convicted in 1987 of molesting a South Carolina boy and served three years in prison. Scouting did not require criminal background checks for volunteers at the time.
Mazzuca told reporters at the time that screening of volunteers was the responsibility of the local nonprofits or church groups that sponsored the troop, not the Boy Scouts.
A decade later, when Mazzuca was chief executive, the organization began requiring all volunteers to have criminal background checks. Mazzuca retired in September.
His predecessor, Roy L. Williams, handled at least 13 abuse allegations while serving as a Scout executive over three decades in Arkansas, Kansas and Rhode Island, records show.
In 1990, Boy Scouts headquarters asked Williams to obtain a written statement from an alleged abuse victim in Rhode Island. The former Scout, by then an adult, said he and his younger brother had been raped in the 1970s by a longtime Scout leader, Father Edmond Micarelli.
Williams sent the statement to headquarters, leading to the priest’s expulsion from Scouting. There is no indication in the file that he reported the alleged rapes to police or looked into whether Micarelli, who had been active in Scouting as recently as 1988, had other victims in the Boy Scouts.
In 2002, the Diocese of Providence paid $13.5 million to 36 victims who sued Micarelli and 10 other priests, alleging sex abuse dating to the 1970s. Micarelli, who is retired in Florida and has no criminal record, could not be reached for comment.
While Williams was chief executive from 2000 to 2007, the Boy Scouts encouraged volunteers and parents to take abuse prevention training.
Jere Ratcliffe served as Scouting’s chief executive from 1993 to 2000, a period when the organization began hosting an abuse prevention symposium and publishing information about sexual abuse in the Scout handbook. Earlier in his career, Ratcliffe handled more than 65 cases of alleged abuse as a regional executive in South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama and Chicago.
In most of the cases, Scouting officials learned about alleged abuse from law enforcement or newspaper reports. But in several cases where Scouts received reports directly from victims or their parents, there is no sign the allegations were reported to law enforcement.
In one, the failure to report abuse may have allowed a suspected serial child molester to abuse again.
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In 1982, Ratcliffe learned that Birmingham, Ala., Scoutmaster Ricky C. Partain had allegedly made sexual advances toward an 11-year-old boy he had taken to a wrestling match, the Boy Scout files show.
The boy had shared a bed with Partain at the house of an acquaintance, who heard the boy shouting, “No, no, coach — you can’t make me do it!” the file says.
Ratcliffe could not find Partain’s name on a registry of local Scout leaders and apparently let the matter go, according to the file.
Two years later, when a new complaint emerged, Ratcliffe learned that Partain had been working in a local troop all along. Parents of one Scout alleged that Partain had fondled the boy twice while teaching him to swim.
In September 1984, Ratcliffe sent a confidential report on Partain to Scouting headquarters, the files shows. There is no indication he informed police.
In 1989, records show Partain was convicted of molesting an 11-year-old girl and today is registered as a sex offender in Alabama.
jason.felch@latimes.com