Abuse Tracker

NEW JERSEY
Home News Tribune

By MICHAEL DEAK • Staff Writer • July 31, 2008

NORTH PLAINFIELD —The former president of St. Joseph School's Home and School Association in North Plainfield has been indicted on a charge of theft following an investigation that revealed more than $2,500 in cash donations were stolen from four school-sponsored events, including an entertainment book fundraiser and a theater field trip.

Gretchen Lee, 37, of Malcolm Avenue, was indicted this week by a Somerset County grand jury.

The charge followed an investigation that began in late March, when Somerset County detectives met with the Diocese of Metuchen's finance director, who alerted authorities that Lee was a suspect in a continuing probe into incidents of theft from the Home and School Association, authorities said.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

July 31, 2008 02:44 PM
By Globe Staff

The state's highest court ruled today that a law enacted after the clergy sex abuse scandal to penalize people who endanger a child applies to more than just sex abuse cases.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in the case of Thomas Hendricks, who led Mashpee police on a chase down a rural road in 2004 while his 3-year-old daughter was in his car. Officers pursued Hendricks into the woods after he left his vehicle and found him, lying on his back, with the child on his chest.

Hendricks admitted to police that he should not have been driving like that with his daughter in the vehicle, the court said in its opinion.

ALABAMA
TransWorldNews

Atlanta, GA 7/31/2008

An Alabama preacher has been arrested on murder charges after police found his wife’s body in his home freezer. Small-time evangelist Anthony Hopkins was arrested Monday night at a revival in Jackson.

Authorities searched Hopkins’ home after a female relative contacted police claiming the 37-year-old had repeatedly raped her over a period of time. The body of Atletha Hopkins was found in the home freezer during the search. Witnesses say Hopkins had been telling everyone that his wife died in childbirth.

ROSELLE (IL)
Catholic Explorer

Published Jul 31, 2008

ROSELLE, IL -- Fr. John Regan has been put on paid leave as investigators look into allegations that the Catholic priest stole $112,000 that he allegedly used to support a gambling addiction.

Fr. John Regan is pastor at St. Walter Parish in Roselle, IL in the Diocese of Joliet. The Joliet Diocese priest has been pastor at St. Walter Parish since he was assigned in 2006. Prior to his current assignment, Fr. Regan had been the Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Joliet.

The Bishop of the Diocese of Joliet, Bishop Peter Sartain, informed parishioners of St. Walter that an investigation into bank records suggest that Fr. Regan embezzled the money. As of yet, no criminal charges have been made.

MOBILE (AL)
The Associated Press

By GARRY MITCHELL

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — A judge denied bond Thursday for a part-time evangelist charged with murder in the death of his wife, a mother of eight whose body was kept in a freezer for at least three years.

Arletha Hopkins, 36, apparently was killed in 2004, but the cause of death remains under investigation, Assistant District Attorney Ashley Rich said. ...

Hopkins was arrested Monday night while preaching at a revival at a rural church in Jackson, which is about 60 miles northeast of Mobile. Authorities said Hopkins preached while holding different jobs.

UNITED STATES
The Arizona Republic

by Ronald J. Hansen - Jul. 31, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
For weeks, Sen. John McCain's campaign has quietly resisted calls to dump one of his leading religious representatives who critics say is an inappropriate surrogate because of links to allegations of sexual impropriety.

At least three religious groups have asked the McCain campaign to remove Deal W. Hudson from its national Catholic-outreach group. The groups say Hudson, who quit President Bush's political team in 2004 amid similar calls, lacks the moral authority to represent the campaign on religious issues.

Hudson left a tenured professorship at Fordham University in New York after a 1994 incident in which he was accused of having sex with a freshman. He was never charged with a crime.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has challenged an American woman bishop to produce evidence to back up her claim that bishops beat their wives.

Other bishops also criticised the US Episcopal Church's Bishop Catherine Roskam after she said at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury that men beat women "because they can".

She said: "We have 700 men here. Do you think any of them beat their wives? Chances are they do. The most devout Christians beat their wives... many of our bishops come from places where it is culturally accepted to beat your wife."

ROSELLE (IL)
Beep

Elisabeth Mistretta | Daily Herald
Thursday, July 31, 2008
After only two years as pastor of St. Walter Catholic Church in Roselle, Rev. John Regan developed a strong following for his homilies, often using props to engage worshipers.

"I was impressed with him because he did give great sermons and commanded respect with his presence," said Linda Sharp, a member of St. Walter for 35 years.

Today, church members like Sharp are wondering if Regan still deserves their respect; he's on paid suspension after the Diocese of Joliet learned approximately $112,000 was misappropriated from church funds.

TEXAS
San Angelo Standard-Times

By Jayna Boyle
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

If convicted, a polygamist sect's doctor charged with failure to report child abuse may face restrictions on his ability to practice medicine in Texas, according to the state medical board.

Dr. Lloyd H. Barlow, 38, was arrested Monday in Schleicher County and charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse. Each count is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail.

Barlow could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

ALABAMA
Press-Register

Posted by ROBERT McCLENDON July 31, 2008 6:35 AM

Anthony Hopkins killed his wife in 2004 after she caught him sexually abusing one of their daughters, according to a court document used to obtain a warrant to search his house. The day after he is alleged to have killed her, he asked the daughter to help him hide her mother's body in a freezer, the document says.

The 2004 incident wasn't the first time the daughter had been abused by Hopkins, according to the document, which alleges that her father had been raping her since she was 11 years old, though it was never reported.

The body of her mother, Arletha Hopkins, apparently stayed in that freezer, under the same roof as the daughter, her seven siblings and their father, until police discovered the body there Monday night after searching the family's central Mobile house, Chief Phillip Garrett said Wednesday on a national cable television crime talk show.

Hopkins has been charged with murder, as well as several sexual abuse charges, including rape and sodomy. ...

It is known, however, that Hopkins acted as an evangelist, a roving preacher who never stayed in one place for very long, though he had lived the Rylands Street home, where the body was found, since 2004.

CANADA
Ottawa Sun

By TREVOR PRITCHARD, Sun Media

CORNWALL, Ont. — A former Roman Catholic bishop told a Cornwall, Ont., sexual abuse inquiry Wednesday that he knowingly recruited a priest who had left a New York state parish after an “affair with boys.”

Eugene LaRocque said he secured Rev. Carl Stone a position ministering at two facilities in the Cornwall area in 1981 on the condition he never be alone around children.

“I was trying to take every precaution, to give this man a chance,” said LaRocque, 81.

“I was also trying to be as prudent as possible so he wouldn’t do any harm to the people of our diocese.”

KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

By Melissa Gagliardi • mgagliardi@courier-journal.com • July 30, 2008

The woman who accused a Bullitt County youth pastor of sexually abusing a teen now admits the story was false.

Debra Kay Perez Johnson admitted in a settlement filed yesterday in Bullitt County Circuit Court that she made up the allegation that Clayton Pruett had sexually abused a teen at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, where he is a youth pastor.

Johnson, a former Bullitt County school board member, will pay Pruett an undisclosed amount of money, according to the settlement.

“It’s very gratifying that we have this document that shows what we have known all along,” Pruett said. “We can now show without a shadow of a doubt that I am innocent.”

KENTUCKY
WLKY

[with video]

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. -- A Bullitt County youth minister once accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl is speaking out about the former charges against him.

The charges against Clayton Pruett were dropped in January. He was also suing the alleged victim’s mother for the statements she made about him.

As part of a settlement to that suit, the mother admitted everything she said was a lie. She also agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in damages.

Pruett said life for him will never be the same, but he feels the statement from the accuser’s mother admitting what she said was a lie will help bring things back to normal.

KENTUCKY
WAVE

SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Charges of sexual abuse against a Bullitt County youth minister have been dropped. Seven months ago, a parent accused the Shepherdsville man of abusing her daughter while at church. WAVE 3's Scott Harvey obtained court documents which show that parent now admits to making up the whole story.

Not only did Debra Kay Perez Johnson admit to lying, she will also pay Clayton Pruett an undisclosed amount according to this settlement. Pruett told me Wednesday he's just glad it's over and knew the truth would come out. ...

Pruett told me the false accusations came after he repeatedly tried to discipline Johnson's daughter at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Shepherdsville.

"When I tried to uphold that obligation that the church wants me to, she responded in a very negative way. A very horrible way."

FLORIDA
The Tampa Tribune

By LISA A. DAVIS
The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 31, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - A Hillsborough County minister surrendered at Land O' Lakes Jail on Tuesday evening to face a charge of lewd or lascivious battery - eight months after facing similar charges in Tampa.

The Rev. Daniel A. Gomez, 38, is accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl at her Pasco County home in summer 2005, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Gomez went to the girl's home when her parents were not there and forced himself on her, kissing her and touching her in a sexual manner, a sheriff's office report states. Gomez reportedly took off his pants and removed the girl's pants, too, and attempted to have sex with her.

Hartford Courant

ROD DREHER

July 30, 2008

The eighth-grade thugs would pin younger boys to the ground in the locker room. The ringleader would put his fist into a plastic cone and try to shove it into his victims' rectums. His pack stood around and moaned to torment the weaker kids.

This went on almost daily, says one seventh-grader who saw it go down. "We're going to rape you," the bullies would say to the little guys. A Sheriff's Department investigation found that the gang of older boys had sexually terrorized seventh-grade boys at Sunnyvale Middle School near Dallas for most of a year. ...

Years later, when my own heart was broken by the systematic protection of sexual criminals by the Roman Catholic Church, I thrashed around, pinned by rage and panic over what pervert priests had done to children and what bishops who knew better allowed to go unpunished. I left my church to escape the pain like a wild animal chews off its leg to get out of a trap.

The anger that wrecked my faith didn't start with news stories of clerical sex abuse I read. It started the summer before eighth grade, on a hotel room floor. What happened in the Sunnyvale locker room won't stay there. Those brutalized boys will live with it the rest of their lives. So should the adults who failed them.

GALLUP (NM)
Las Cruces Sun-News

The Associated Press
Article Launched: 07/28/2008 11:21:18 AM MDT

GALLUP, N.M.—The city of Gallup has settled a lawsuit that had asked a judge to determine whether photographs of a former Roman Catholic bishop, who was injured in an apparent fall at his home, were public record.

Donald Pelotte, who stepped down earlier this year as bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, was taken to the hospital in July 2007 with heavy bruising across his chest, arms, knuckles, legs and feet. Physicians called police but the bishop told them he had fallen.

GALLUP (NM)
KVIA

Associated Press - July 29, 2008 10:45 PM ET

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) - Gallup's former Roman Catholic bishop admits it's hard to believe that injuries depicted in police photographs taken while he was in the hospital last year could have been caused by a fall at his home.

Donald Pelotte was taken to the hospital in July 2007 with heavy bruising across his chest, arms, knuckles, legs and feet. Physicians called police but the bishop told them he had fallen.

ITALY
anticlericale.net

In fondo si riporta il testo originale di una email inviata da Barb Dorris , attivista di SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, che significa Rete dei Sopravvissuti agli Abusi Sessuali da parte dei preti) riportante l’allarme dato da Bill Nash, una delle vittime di abusi sessuali da parte di Padre James Tully, che continua ad operare indisturbato nei locali di una parrocchia della diocesi di Vicenza.

[background]

This Italian Web site ran an Italian-language version of an announcement by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests that a sidewalk vigil would be held today in front of the chancery in Springfield, Mass., U.S.A. The goal is to call attention to information that the Rev. James Tully, a Catholic priest who has been accused of sexual abuse, lives at a place in Vincenza where youth events are held. The English version of the advisory is also posted.

GALLUP (NM)
KRQE

[video presentation]

GALLUP, N. M. (KRQE) - The investigator's powerful photos documented critical injuries Gallup Bishop Donald Pelotte suffered in his home last year. He said he fell down a flight of carpeted stairs, but police shot the photos in case his story changed. A year later, after a lawsuit filed to withhold the pictures, investigative reporter Larry Barker has found there may be a more savage explanation.

GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

[with photo of the bruised bishop]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — A picture tells a thousand stories, goes one version of an old saying.

Apparently some graphic police photographs — full of bruises, lacerations, and black eyes swollen shut — quickly changed the story that former Gallup Bishop Donald E. Pelotte has been telling since he was found severely injured in his Gallup home on July 23, 2007. Pelotte, along with a chorus of chancery officials who used to work under him, has been claiming that he merely fell down a flight of carpeted stairs.

That was until reporter Larry Barker, of Albuquerque television station KRQE, showed up on the doorstep of Pelotte’s Florida beachfront condominium, armed with an envelope of photographs that Gallup Police officers took of Pelotte in the emergency room last July. The photographs showed Pelotte covered head to toe with critical injuries that a forensic pathologist described as coming from a “savage beating” full of punches and kicks.

With his trademark soft voice, Pelotte admitted that the injuries depicted in the police photographs couldn’t have been caused by a fall.

“When you see those pictures there’s no way that I could have gotten that damage by falling down the stairs,” Pelotte told Barker. “But I don’t remember that.”

ST. PAUL (MN)
LawyersandSettlements.com

July 30, 2008. By Brenda Craig

St. Paul, MN: Attorney Jeff Anderson is a genuine firebrand. He has handled not hundreds, but thousands of cases on behalf of sexual abuse survivors across the US, and even outside the US over the last 25 years. “I have sued psychologists, psychiatrists, family members, movie stars, politicians, and every religious denomination you can think of including the Latter Day Saints, the Jehovah Witnesses and the Catholic Church," he says.

Passionate, articulate, appropriately enraged, Anderson is a one-of-a-kind
attorney. He is also one of the first lawyers in the US to take the Catholic Church to court and publicly expose the plague of sexual abuse that had been aided and abetted inside the Catholic Church for heaven knows how long.

It was 1983 when a family walked into Anderson’s office in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bewildered and confused, they began to tell him how a local Catholic priest, Father Thomas Adamson, had plied their son with alcohol, and then had sex with him.

“I learned this priest had a long history of sexual abuse, and the Catholic church had covered it up and concealed it, moving Adamson around from parish to parish for 20 years,” Anderson says.

UTAH
Deseret News

By Ben Winslow
Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:50 a.m. MDT

The future of the Fundamentalist LDS Church's real-estate holdings arm may hang on a lawsuit filed by a former child bride.

That's what attorneys for the court-controlled United Effort Plan Trust claim in new court papers filed in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court. In a renewed motion for summary judgment over a multi-million dollar personal injury lawsuit filed by Elissa Wall, lawyers for the UEP Trust fear that if a judge holds the trust liable — it may not survive.

"Not only would the Trust face significant exposure to the plaintiff in the present case, such a holding would encourage other parties injured by Warren Jeffs' misconduct to pursue claims against the Trust," lawyer Jeffrey L. Shields wrote.

WASHINGTON
The Seattle Times

SPOKANE, Wash. —
Another lawsuit has been filed against the Morning Star Boys' Ranch by a man who contends he was physically, sexually and psychologically abused during the two years he lived at the home for troubled boys.

Joseph S. Matherly, 57, contends he was sodomized by ranch employees in the mid-1960s.

Matherly lived at the ranch for 18 months, when he was 14 and 15 years old, according to the lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court last week.

That brings to 19 the number of people who allegedly suffered some form of abuse at the ranch and have made court filings since August 2005.

GERMANY
Earthtimes

Bamberg, Germany - A 63-year-old senior priest in Germany's Catholic archdiocese of Bamberg resigned Wednesday after four men said he had fondled them as boys when they were attending a Catholic boarding school. The priest headed the diocesan department for pastoral personnel and was on the cathedral council in the Bavarian archdiocese.

Michael Kleiner, deputy spokesman for Archbishop Ludwig Schick, said it was unclear as yet how grave the allegations were.

ROSELLE (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Russell Working | Chicago Tribune reporter
12:57 PM CDT, July 30, 2008
Church officials have placed a Roselle Roman Catholic priest on administrative leave after he allegedly misappropriated $112,000 church cash to fund a gambling habit, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Diocese of Joliet Bishop Peter Sartain told worshipers at St. Walter Parish's weekend masses that an audit of bank records turned up evidence that Rev. John Regan had taken the money, spokesman Doug Delaney said.

The allegations came to light when the church's bank reported irregularities to the diocese, Delaney said. Sartain expressed "his deep personal sorrow" in the case.

IRELAND
RTE News

Wednesday, 30 July 2008

An action taken against the Broadcasting Complaints Commission by RTE over a decision made against its coverage of the Ferns inquiry into sexual abuses has been settled.

A viewer complained about a background image using religious symbols including rosary beads and a priest's collar in a report on the findings of the Ferns inquiry on the Six One news in December 2005. ...

Under the terms of the settlement agreed today RTE is no longer required to broadcast the terms of the BCC's decision, while the status of the proceedings will be detailed in the Commission's annual report and on its website.

INDIANA
Palladium-Item

A staff member at New Creations Christian Boarding School has been terminated after allegedly sharing marijuana and alcohol with juvenile students, according to an incident report.

No arrests have been made in the investigation, Wayne County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Jeff Cappa said this week, because New Creations' administration chose to handle the investigation "in-house."

The Palladium-Item typically identifies only those arrested and charged with felony crimes.

The instructor left the school grounds, 6400 National Road E., on July 23 after a sheriff's deputy responded to a call from New Creations Pastor Tim Cummings. Cummings for a few months had been investigating "rumors" about the instructor's possession of marijuana and alcohol and students' use of it, a release states.

NORTH CAROLINA
The Daily Reflector

By Kathryn Kennedy
The Daily Reflector

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A former pastor once charged with secretly videotaping women and children is suing the church that fired him, according to documents filed at the Pitt County Courthouse.

Leon Harris, 56, filed a civil suit in superior court last week, claiming Rose Hill Free Will Baptist Church and the Central Convention of Free Will Baptists violated his contract when they fired him in 2005.

Harris entered an Alford Plea last July to four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in connection with the videotaping charges. As part of that plea, 48 counts of felony secret peeping were dropped. The Alford Plea means that while Harris did not admit guilt, he conceded prosecutors had enough evidence to likely convince a judge or jury to find him guilty.

ROSELLE (IL)
Daily Herald

The Diocese of Joliet announced a priest in the St. Walter Parish in Roselle has been suspended while police investigate $112,000 in missing funds from church bank accounts.

The Rev. John Regan, pastor of St. Walter Parish in Roselle, was placed on administrative leave with pay by Bishop Peter Sartain due to alleged misappropriation of parish funds, said diocese spokesman Doug Delaney.

Roselle police have not charged Regan yet, Delany said, but he added an investigation into the missing money is ongoing.

ALABAMA
WKRG

[with video]

By Kesshia Peyton Anchor/Reporter

Kesshia Peyton Anthony Hopkins was a traveling minister.

He preached at several churches in Southwest Alabama.

Monday night, he was arrested after giving a sermon at a church in Jackson.
Hopkins and seven of his children were there as part of a revival at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.

MOBILE (AL)
Press-Register

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
By ROBERT McCLENDON
Staff Reporter
While Anthony Hopkins was leading a revival in a small church on the outskirts of Jackson, Ala., Monday night, the body of a woman, presumed to be his wife, was stuffed in a freezer at his house in Mobile, waiting to be discovered by police.

Acting on a tip given by Hopkins' daughter, the eldest of eight children, police said they knew where to look and what they were likely to find when they searched the Rylands Street house.

Clarke County Sheriff's deputies found Hopkins at the church a short time later, still preaching and ministering to people in the crowd, according to the pastor of the congregation hosting the revival.

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
By STEPHANIE BARRY
sbarry@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Two brothers who say they were cut out of a 2004 settlement between the local Roman Catholic diocese and alleged clergy abuse victims met with Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell at his home Tuesday.

Standing outside McDonnell's Elliot Street living quarters, Paul M. Herrick, 53, and Peter J. Herrick, 51, said they were excluded from a $7.7 million settlement in 2004, despite being among the first of 46 alleged victims to come forward.

"I asked: 'How could you? How do you stiff people like us - me, especially because I started the whole thing," Paul Herrick said, although both brothers agreed McDonnell was compassionate and responsive during the meeting.

DOYLESTOWN (PA)
News of Delaware County

By Bradley Schlegel; Special To The News
DOYLESTOWN - A priest accused of sexually assaulting a minor more than 30 years ago has been relieved of his duties at a parish in Doylestown Borough, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.The Rev. Gerard J. Hoffman was recently removed at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish by Cardinal Justin Rigali, pending a formal investigation, the archdiocese announced Monday.

The accusation is the first against Hoffman, who has served as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish since 2002, according to a statement released by the archdiocese.

Hoffman has not lived at the parish rectory since last week, according to information from the archdiocese.

TEXAS
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 07/30/2008 12:05:18 AM MDT

A physician from a polygamous sect was released from the Schleicher County Jail on Tuesday after posting bail, but four other men have not yet been released.

The five men, all members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, appeared before Justice of the Peace James Doyle Tuesday on charges related to sexual assaults of minors.

The men turned themselves into authorities Monday, a week after being indicted.

Doyle ordered the men to avoid their victims, stay in Texas and notify law enforcement before leaving Schleicher County while they await trial. Lloyd H. Barlow, a physician charged with three misdemeanors, posted a $15,000 bail and was released after spending one night in jail.

TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
eramshaw@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – Five men from a West Texas polygamist sect were arraigned on Tuesday, the day after they surrendered on charges related to the sexual assault and "spiritual" marriage of underage girls.

As of Tuesday evening, four of the men – members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – remained in custody in Schleicher County. A fifth had posted bail and been released, a sect official said.

A sixth suspect, sect prophet Warren Jeffs, is in jail in Arizona, but could be extradited to Texas to face his sexual assault charge.

Sect leader Willie Jessop, who is speaking for the group in Mr. Jeffs' absence, said he couldn't confirm whether the other men

PENNSYLVANIA
Delco Times

By: Marlene DiGiacomo, mdigiacomo@delcotimes.com 07/29/2008

MEDIA COURTHOUSE - Christine Kuhn was 13 years old when she sought solace in the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield and Gerald Klever, who was then a minister, befriended her.

But instead of finding the "father figure" she so desired in Klever, he preyed upon her and manipulated her by sexually abusing her for years. And he once told her that someday, "you'll look back on all of this and laugh."

Kuhn, now 46, endured years of pain trying to convince others in the church to believe what Klever had done to her. And she went through a period of alcoholism. But her faith and strength in God saw her through.

"I didn't give up. I wouldn't give up," she said as her blue eyes flashed with determination.

MARYLAND
Gazette

by Patricia M. Murret | Staff Writer

A former Baptist minister and youth choir director in Gaithersburg pleaded guilty last week to child abuse of a female youth choir singer that occurred over four years in the 1990s.

Timothy Chun-Chock Mann, 47, of Hoover, Ala., a former minister at First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg, and recent choir director at an Alabama congregation, will be sentenced on Sept. 29 in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Under Maryland code, sexual child abuse is a felony offense that brings a possible 15-year prison sentence.

Third-degree sex offense charges were dropped as part of Mann’s plea agreement, said Seth Zucker, spokesman for the State’s Attorney’s Office. A copy of a pre-indictment memorandum filed with the court’s assignment office and obtained by The Gazette shows that Mann agreed to plead guilty ‘‘to the sole count of sexual child abuse and the State and Defense will ask the Court to cap any period of executed incarceration at 7 years.” Sentencing guidelines for Mann, who has no previous criminal record, suggest 4 to 9 years in prison, according to the memo.

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Mari A. Schaefer
Inquirer Staff Writer

Christine Kuhn would not give up. From the time she was 13, she told friends, church leaders, neighbors and therapists how her minister had sexually assaulted her.

"Like a dog with a bone, I was not going to let go," Kuhn said. She always hoped someone would listen and take action.

It took more than 30 years.

Yesterday, Gerald L. Klever, 76, of Tucson, Ariz., was sentenced in Delaware County Court to 10 years' probation, one year of house arrest, 1,000 hours of community service, and restitution of $25,000. In May, he had pleaded no contest to rape and guilty to sexual assault involving Kuhn and another woman, both now in their 40s.

DELAWARE
The News Journal

By ESTEBAN PARRA • The News Journal • July 30, 2008

An anonymous 61-year-old man Tuesday became the 14th person to file a sexual-abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.

The lawsuit, which was filed in New Castle County Superior Court, says the victim was sexually abused by the late Rev. Edward B. Carley at least 100 times when the boy was between 11 and 14.

Carley allegedly assaulted the victim, who is identified in the suit as as John Roe No. 1, while he rode in the priest's car on the way to and from funerals and on overnight trips to seminaries and churches, the suit says.

The assaults occurred from 1952 to 1962 when the victim was an altar boy at St. Ann's Church in Wilmington.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

(Staff) -- The man who helmed the local Roman Catholic diocese when a number of sexual abuse complaints were leveled against local priests is expected to appear at the Cornwall Public Inquiry today.

From 1975 until 2002, Eugene LaRocque, now 81, was the bishop of the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese.

In 1993, LaRocque agreed to an out-of-court settlement with David Silmser, who had alleged he was sexually abused when he was an altar boy in the 1960s and 1970s.

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
CBS 3

[with video]

By Justine Judge
Peter and Paul Herrick say they come from a family torn apart by the abuse inflicted upon them more than 40 years ago by Catholic priests.

They say they've never had the chance to share their side of the story until now.

Paul Herrick says, "These were horrendous crimes against young people."

When Peter Herrick and his 3 brothers were children, they were abused by several priests at Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenfield between 1967 and 1983.

MOBILE (AL)
My Fox Gulf Coast

MOBILE, Ala. -- 7/29/08: Mobile Police just released more details about a murder case, involving a woman’s body found in a freezer.

Investigators believe the victim was Arletha Hopkins, the wife of the suspect, Anthony Hopkins. A woman’s body was found last night in a chest-type freezer at the couple’s home on Ryland Street.

Police say the body was covered in a sheet. It appears to have been in the freezer for several years. Investigators say the discovery was finally made when one of the children accused Anthony Hopkins of sexual abuse. ...

Investigators say Anthony Hopkins is a preacher. At the time of his arrest, Hopkins was found at a church in Jackson, Alabama, where a revival was taking place. Hopkins is charged with murder and sodomy.

KENTUCKY
WHAS11

[with video]

(WHAS11) - Clayton Pruett got a little piece of his life back.

Clayton Pruett said, “It feels great it can show everybody what we’ve known all a long.”

A signed statement tonight says that sex abuse allegations against a Bullitt county youth pastor were all made up.

The mother of the accuser signed that statement today, clearing the name of Pastor Clayton Pruett.

TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

SAN ANTONIO — The five indicted followers of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs were arraigned Tuesday in Eldorado and ordered to avoid their alleged victims when they post bond.

Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36, Allan Eugene Keate, 56, Michael George Emack, 57, and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33, appeared at arraignment hearings to be read the charge of sexual assault of a child they each face and to hear their constitutional rights. They'll enter pleas at a later court hearing.

TEXAS
San Angelo Standard-Times

By Jayna Boyle
Originally published 05:30 p.m., July 29, 2008
Updated 05:30 p.m., July 29, 2008

Dr. Lloyd H. Barlow, the physician at the FLDS ranch near Eldorado, posted bond after being arrested Monday, a sect spokesman said today.

Barlow, charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse, was released on bond set at $5,000 at an arraignment Tuesday afternoon in the Schleicher County Jail in Eldorado.

Willie Jessop, a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spokesman, said late Tuesday afternoon that while Barlow has posted bond, the four other FLDS men arrested at the same time - each facing charges related to sexual assault of a child - have not posted bond. Their bonds were set at $100,000 each, according to a statement issued Monday by the Texas Attorney General.

ROSELLE (IL)
ABC 7

ROSELLE, Ill. (WLS) -- A northwest suburban priest is removed from his post for misappropriation of church funds.

It happened at the Saint Walter Parish in Roselle. A head bishop of the diocese in Joliet has placed Father John Regan on administrative leave

A local bank informed the diocese about irregular banking transactions. The church says it discovered a misappropriation of nearly $112,000. The money was allegedly used for gambling by Father Regan.

CANADA
Standard-Freeholder

By Trevor Pritchard

Former bishop Eugene LaRocque was “out of his depths” when sex abuse allegations against Rev. Gilles Deslauriers first surfaced in early 1986, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Monday.

Bernard Ménard was a priest with L’Arche – a faith community for disabled people – near Glen Roy from 1979 until 1986, and a family friend of Benoit Brisson, one of Deslauriers’ victims.

Deslauriers pleaded guilty in November 1986 to four counts of gross indecency involving young men, including Brisson.

Testifying largely in French, the 74-year-old Ménard told the inquiry that in January of that year, he received a call from Hubert and Lise Brisson, Benoit’s parents.

They wanted to talk about something “painful,” said Ménard, and asked him to come over to their home. Once there, Hubert and Lise revealed Deslauriers had sexually abused their son.

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 3:41 PM
By STEPHANIE BARRY
sbarry@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - Two brothers who said they were victims of abuse at the hands of a cabal of pedophile priests met with the Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell at the chancery today.

Paul M. Herrick, 53, and Peter J. Herrick Sr., 51, emerged this morning from an hour-long meeting at McDonnel's Elliot Street residence.

"He was there to listen, and he did. He heard us. ... He heard the pain in our voice," Peter Herrick, of Bangor, Maine, a father of two sons who works security for the federal agency that oversees airline travel.

ARIZONA
Deseret News

KINGMAN, Ariz. — A judge here has scheduled a hearing next month on motions in the criminal case against Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn has set an Aug. 22 hearing on a motion to remand the criminal charges back to the grand jury that indicted him. He will also schedule future hearings at that time.

Jeffs' defense team is seeking to have the grand jury reconsider the case, arguing that the grand jury was not impartial and that prosecutors presented misleading information to jury members.

DELAWARE
Delmarva

Associated Press • July 29, 2008

WILMINGTON — Attorneys for a man claiming he was molested by a Catholic priest previously identified as a pedophile have filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Wilmington.

The 61-year-old man, whose name was not released, alleges in the lawsuit filed today that he was repeatedly molested by the Rev. Edward Carley while he was an altar boy at St. Ann's church 50 years ago.

DELAWARE
WILM

By Ted Efaw
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The lawsuit was filed in New Castle County Superior Court against the Diocese of Wilmington and St. Ann’s Church.

The 61-year old victim, whose name wasn’t released, charges Carley with abusing him at least 100-times from 1958 to 62. The abuses began when he was 11 years old.

DELAWARE
WDEL

By Peter MacArthur

A 14th lawsuit is being filed against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and a former priest.

A 61 year old man referred to in the suit as John Roe #1 says he was sexually abused by Reverend Edward Carley between 1958 and 1962 when he was an altar boy.

Carley died in 1998. The suit claims he was independently wealthy and would lure young boys by giving them money and buying them gifts, toys and sports equipment.

DELAWARE COUNTY (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Mari A. Schaefer
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A former pastor who preyed on teenage girls in a church youth group was sentenced today in Delaware County.

In May, Gerald L. Klever, 76, pleaded no contest to rape and guilty to sexual assault involving two women now in their 40s. Klever, who lives in Tucson, Ariz., was sentenced to 10 years' probation, one year of house arrest, 1,000 hours of community service, and restitution of $25,000.

Both crimes happened in 1980, when he was a pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Delaware County.

ROCKFORD (IL)
TomRoeser.com

Rockford.

The Rockford, Illinois diocese will not send seminarians to St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein for training. Two upperclassmen propositioned a Rockford youth for homosexual favors. So much for the change that has been promised in archdiocesan public relations pronouncements.

Thus the Rockford diocese has decided it is finished with Mundelein. Thus you have the archdiocese of Chicago where layman Chancellor Jimmy Lago (believe it or not that’s his baptismal name, not to be confused with his brother Timmy, his baptismal name as well)…Jimmy the best precinct captain onetime Democratic Cook county chairman now under indictment Ed Vrdolyak ever had… has been put in charge of combating sexual abuse and the same-old, same-old is happening. Of course the supine Chicago “religious” press is asleep at the switch.

IRELAND
RTE News

Tuesday, 29 July 2008 17:37
RTÉ has begun High Court proceedings against the Broadcasting Complaints Commission over a decision made against the station in its coverage of the report of the Ferns inquiry into sexual abuse.

The court heard that the BCC upheld a complaint made by one viewer about a background image using religious symbols in a report on the findings of the Ferns inquiry.

The viewer had complained about what he claimed was a 'profane use of the sacramentals' referring to the appearance of rosary beads, a priest's collar and a bible or breviary as a background.

BOSTON (MA)
Christian News Wire

CANDIA, NH, July 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- In an open letter to Boston area Catholics sent to Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley, Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, Executive Director of the Confessing Movement in the United Church of Christ, apologized for the "division and confusion" caused by former Massachusetts UCC President Rev. Nancy Taylor and the UCC related Church of the Covenant who recently welcomed and hosted a schismatic "ordination" by the group "Womenpriests."

Rev. Runnion-Bareford wrote, "Please accept our deepest and sincere apology for the behavior of Rev. Nancy Taylor of Old South Church, UCC and the UCC related Church of the Covenant. They do not reflect the heart and mind of our United Church of Christ whose premise is 'that all may be one.' Those of us who truly value the unity of all Christians and treasure our ecumenical relationships with you as Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ are grieved.

"We are also fully aware that this event was not motivated by a sincere desire to honor the call of God and the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the ministry of committed Christian women. We know that 'Womenpriests' openly include candidates who are engaged in the practice of sexual license. It is significant that the participants would not take the vow of obedience or chastity. We are aware of the statements on their website proclaiming a false gospel of self and mutual affirmation, denying the fall of humanity and our need for repentance from sin and personal transformation through the atoning crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. www.womenpriests.org/body/body_ovr.asp

BOSTON (MA)
Catholic News Agency

Boston, Jul 28, 2008 / 06:13 pm (CNA).- Just over a week ago, the dissident group Womenpriests claimed to “ordain” three women as priests at a Boston-area Church of Christ location. The move was condemned by the Archdiocese of Boston and now the Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, a Church of Christ minister, is apologizing to the archdiocese for his fellow minister’s sanctioning of the event.

On Sunday, July 20, Roman Catholic Womenpriests held an alleged ordination ceremony of three women at the Church of the Covenant, which is affiliated with both the Presbyterian Church and the United Church of Christ (UCC).

The former president of the UCC in Massachusetts, Rev. Nancy Taylor attended the ceremony to show her support for the women and told the Boston Globe that she saw the women as being discriminated against by the Catholic Church. “Prejudice in liturgical clothing is still prejudice,” she said. ...

Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, Executive Director of the Confessing Movement in the United Church of Christ, responded to the situation by sending an open letter to Boston area Catholics via Cardinal Sean O'Malley. In his letter, he apologized for the "division and confusion" caused by Rev. Nancy Taylor and the Church of the Covenant—the church were the ceremony was held.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A man who was the victim of sexual abuse by a Church of England priest when he was a boy said it has scarred his life.

He spoke out after Collin Pritchard, of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, admitted seven sex offences against children, in Northamptonshire in the 1970s and 80s.

Pritchard was jailed for five years at Northampton Crown Court on Monday.

Following sentencing, the victim told

BBC Look East: "I have lost faith - he said he was a man of God."

The offences took place while 64-year-old Pritchard was parish priest at St Andrew's Church in Wellingborough.

MAINE
Portland Press Herald

THE REV. ROBERT M. HOATSON, Special to the Press Heralds

July 29, 2008

As a priest, survivor of clergy sexual abuse and advocate for hundreds of clergy sexual abuse victims, I take exception to Arnold Besier's Maine Voices column in the July 15 edition of this newspaper ("Diocese treated hard-working priest unfairly"). I will attempt to explain to Mr. Besier and readers why he is flat wrong.

I am working with the heroic and brave victim of the Rev. James Robichaud who had the courage to come forward, risk ridicule and contempt, and expose her abuser.

Instead of protecting the priest, Arnold Besier should be traveling to Massachusetts to award her a medal of valor, because children in the United States are safer now than they were in the days before she went public.

UNITED KINGDOM
Northampton Chronicle & Echo

Published Date: 29 July 2008
By Rob Middleton
A parish priest who sexually abused two young boys while at a Northamptonshire church has been jailed for five years.

The Rev Collin Pritchard, aged 64, was in charge of a church in Wellingborough, when he started repeatedly sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy more than 25 years ago.

Pritchard, who was educated in Northampton, pleaded guilty at the town's Crown Court yesterday to four indecent assaults of two boys and three acts of gross indecency, dating back to the early 1980s.

ARIZONA
The Arizona Daily Star

07/28/2008 04:24 PM
Stephanie Innes
The national Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests is angry at Sen. John McCain.

Members of the national group say they’ll be holding a media event in Phoenix on Tuesday, July 29, to demand that McCain fire Deal Hudson from his Catholics for McCain steering committee.

The SNAP protestations come shortly after a group called Catholics United, which leans left, also demanded that McCain dump Hudson. Catholics United says Hudson does not represent Catholic values.

The reason? A sex scandal…..

In 2004 the National Catholic Reporter revealed that Hudson had resigned his faculty post at Fordham University a decade earlier — in 1994 — after an 18-year-old student complained that he had sexual relations with her in his office after taking her to a party at a New York bar and getting her drunk.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

BY MIKE FAHER
The Tribune-Democrat

With an engineering study now complete, parishioners soon will have a chance to give their opinions on the planned merger of five Johnstown churches.

But even as that announcement was made Monday, a new controversy illustrated how sensitive and emotional the Cambria City consolidation will be.

Responding to the news that St. Columba is selling some of its stained-glass windows, some suspected that church leaders were forecasting that facility’s demise.

Diocesan officials insist that no decisions have been made on which of the five churches will serve as the neighborhood’s consolidated worship site.

NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

By JIM WALSH • Courier-Post Staff • July 29, 2008

A review of facilities at two Catholic churches, announced in May after parishioners protested a planned merger, is near completion, according to the Diocese of Camden.

A diocesan spokesman on Monday declined to indicate if any changes would result from the review. But members of St. Vincent Pallotti parish in Haddon Township said they're h