UNITED STATES
USA Today
The Associated Press
A Vatican evaluation of American seminaries planned three years ago in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis is expected to move forward under new Pope Benedict XVI and will likely tackle the polarizing issue of whether gays should become priests.
The appraisal will focus on conditions in the seminaries, including how instructors present church teaching on sexuality and celibacy, to look for anything that contributed to the scandal.
Church officials conducting the review will inevitably take up complaints that gays are enrolling in large numbers in the seminaries and their sexual activity is tolerated at the schools, experts on Catholicism said. Some Catholics contend an atmosphere of sexual permissiveness — for straight and gay seminarians — was a factor in the crisis, which has led to more than 11,000 abuse claims in the last five decades.
Dean Hoge, a Catholic University sociologist who has spent 30 years studying the priesthood, said seminary rectors are anxious about the review — called an "apostolic visitation."
"Having the boss show up makes anyone nervous," Hoge said.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Houston Chronicle
Associated Press
FORT WORTH — The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram have asked a judge to unseal records of sexual abuse allegations against priests who worked in the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese.
Tarrant County District Judge Len Wade ordered the diocese to surrender the records last year in a lawsuit that accused Bishop Joseph Delaney of employing known predators.
But the judge kept the records secret and ordered the plaintiffs to do the same. The newspapers say the records should be unsealed because they concern public health and safety.
"We're not aware of any authority for putting these documents under seal and believe that the public not only has a right to see these documents but also would be interested in their contents," said David Starr, deputy general counsel for Belo Corp., which owns The News.
The diocese recently agreed to settle the lawsuit, without admitting wrongdoing, by paying two accusers of the Rev. Thomas Teczar a total of $4.15 million.
Delaney employed Teczar from the late 1980s to the early 1990s after a Massachusetts diocese barred him from ministry because of misconduct with boys.
INDIANA
Fort Wayne News Sentinel
By Ryan Lengerich
rlengerich@news-sentinel.com
After 20 years leading the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Bishop John D’Arcy cherishes his time inside Fort Wayne’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
“Sometimes when everybody has gone home at 6 or 7 o’clock, I go over there because it is so beautiful,” the 72-year-old bishop said. “I pray that the souls of the faithful and priesthood and the diocese will be good and pure and as spiritual as the cathedral is beautiful.” ...
The Rev. James Shafer, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Fort Wayne, remembers when D’Arcy’s leadership began. Priests, he said, were being removed and little reason was given.
“There was an unsettledness among us about what was going on,” Shafer said. “All you saw was somebody leaving and you didn’t know what was going on, and to his credit he kept it confidential.”
That confidentiality would manifest itself in 2003, when allegations nationwide that priests had sexually abused children rocked the Catholic Church. D’Arcy gained national attention for his efforts to alert church officials to sexual abuse while serving in Boston in the 1970s and early ’80s.
After his move, he said a Washington lawyer had helped him probe files, and his tight initial scrutiny into his new diocese’s priests was intentional.
“When the crises broke we had addressed it already, we had removed people,” he said. “I felt an obligation to communicate with people.”
STAMFORD (CT)
The Jewish Ledger
By Judie Jacobson
STAMFORD —- Rabbi Mark Dratch, who has served for the past eight years as spiritual leader of Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, will leave that post in June to head up The Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse-Free Environment (JSafe), a new non-profit educational institution that aims to address the issue of domestic and sexual abuse within the Jewish community.
Headquartered in New York, JSafe's mission is to create an environment in which every institution and organization across the entire spectrum of the Jewish community conducts itself responsibly and effectively in addressing the wrongs of domestic violence, child abuse and professional improprieties, whenever and by whomever they are perpetrated.
"The purpose is create a systemic change in the Jewish community n to hold everyone and every institution and organization responsible in these areas. To make sure they have the proper training, the proper policies and can never sweep a problem under the rug," explains Dratch, who is a member of the Jewish Advisory Board of Faith Trust Institute, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Religion and Abuse, and as chair of the Task Force on Rabbinic Improprieties for the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA).
JERUSALEM
The Jewish Press
Posted 4/28/2005
By Editorial Board
Jerusalem Bet Din Reaffirms
Last week the Jerusalem Bet Din of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate reaffirmed its initial decision in Rabbi Mordecai Tendler`s case against the Vaad Hakavod of the Rabbinical Council of America. The Bet Din, in unmistakably clear language emphasized that it is prohibited for an investigative committee such as the Vaad Hakavod to take any action which can cause or bring about the dismissal of a rabbi in the Jewish community and that any such action must be taken through an independent bet din.
The Jerusalem Bet Din reemphasized that an investigative committee such as the Vaad Hakavod could not in any way damage or effect any services provided by, or any status or position of, Rabbi Mordecai Tendler. The Jerusalem Bet Din explained that its decision was in the nature of a preliminary injunction intended to preserve the status quo until such time as a competent bet din dealt with the merits. (The text of the Bet Din`s second decision is reproduced after this editorial.)
Notably, the Bet Din`s second decision came in response to a request by the Vaad Hakavod to vacate or modify the earlier ruling. Not surprisingly, not only did the Bet Din refuse to modify its decision in any way, but it repeated and emphasized with unmistakable clarity the import of its earlier words. It did add, in an apparent attempt to remind the RCA rabbis of their antecedents, that they were the students of the Rav, zt"l, one of the greatest Torah leaders of the previous generation and that the Rav, zt"l, maintained a respectful relationship with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and its rabbinic courts. ...
As many of our readers may know, the Awareness Center is a website that regularly publishes allegations of abuse made against rabbis, cantors, etc. We underscore allegations because, while some of the listed persons have been convicted, the overwhelming number of those persons listed have merely had allegations made against them by unidentified accusers. More important, this website makes no pretense of having investigated or vetted the accuracy of the complaints or the integrity of the accusers.
AUSTRALIA
news.com.au
By Simon Kearney and Kate Legge
April 30, 2005
FORMER governor-general Peter Hollingworth is costing taxpayers more than $1600 a day to maintain since he resigned as Australia's vice-regal representative.
New figures provided by John Howard show Dr Hollingworth's office and travel expenses after his resignation on May 28, 2003, and up to December 31 last year, total $648,675.
His pension over the same period cost taxpayers $296,605, bringing the daily cost of supporting the ex-governor-general to $1621.
The figures show Dr Hollingworth spent $240,898 on fitting out his luxury office on the 21st floor of 101 Collins Street in Melbourne. ...
Dr Hollingworth was appointed governor-general by Mr Howard in June 2001, but resigned just short of two years into his term amid continuing controversy over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against Anglican clergy while he was archbishop of Brisbane.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian
Saturday, April 30, 2005
STEVE WOODWARD
More than 90 new people, all of whose identities are shielded from public exposure, have come forward with claims against the bankrupt Archdiocese of Portland. Details of the claims are confidential, although most are presumed to have been possible victims of clergy sexual abuse.
The claimants join 83 known others who have filed sex-abuse claims as of Friday, the deadline for all claims in the church's Chapter 11 reorganization case.
The new claimants seek nearly $71 million, bringing the total dollar amount of claims to more than half a billion dollars.
That total may rise significantly, because only 26 of the new claimants listed dollar amounts with their claims.
All of the sex-abuse claims now will go to mediation, with the first group beginning Aug. 8.
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
By Luaine Lee
Scripps Howard News Service
Showtime couldn’t have come up with a better time to air its controversial film “Our Fathers.”
With the death of Pope John Paul II and the choosing of his replacement, Pope Benedict XVI, in the news, the church has been more visible than ever.
The show, which deals with the Catholic Church’s cover-up of the sexual abuses in Boston, premieres May 21 on Comcast Channel 4. This film, based on David France’s bestseller, “Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal,” takes a penetrating look at the actions of the church’s hierarchy.
“One of the things we learned in Boston was that there’s a corporate problem and that the corporate CEOs were responsible for the problem,” France says.
These ecclesiastical leaders have not taken the responsibility of seeing to it that the malefactors were punished for their deeds, France says.
MICHIGAN
Jackson Citizen-Patriot
Saturday, April 30, 2005
By Jon Malavolti
Staff Writer
After surviving several violent relationships, Melissa is recovering and putting her life back together.
The Jackson woman, who asked that her last name not be printed, joined more than 50 other community members Friday evening for the eighth annual Take Back the Night march and rally. ...
The event, sponsored by the AWARE shelter, featured speaker and author Jim Parker, who was sexually abused as a child by a priest in Lansing.
"Most people are kind of unaware of the lifetime effects of sexual abuse," Parker said.
He didn't fully come to terms with his abuse until he was an adult and his mother died. Then he decided to tell his story in a book, "Raped in the House of God, The Murder of My Soul and Its Lifetime Effects."
OAKLAND (CA)
Oakland Tribune
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
An Arizona man had a right to seek punitive damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland for failing to protect him from molestation by an Antioch priest about 25 years ago, a state appeals court ruled Friday.
Bob and Tom Thatcher were altar boys at Antioch's St. Ignatius when the Rev. Robert Ponciroli molested them at ages 10 and 8. An Alameda County Superior Court jury awarded Bob Thatcher $875,000 in punitive damages April 13 in his lawsuit against the diocese, as well as $875,000 in compensatory damages; Tom Thatcher sought no punitive damages but won $180,000 in compensatory damages.
But the diocese months ago had appealed a judge's ruling clearing the way for Bob Thatcher to seek punitive damages. The diocese claimed letting him do so would violate the state and federal constitutions' ex post facto clauses, prohibiting retroactive application of a law to criminalize conduct that was legal when originally performed.
The California Court of Appeal on Tuesday concluded there's no violation of the ex post facto doctrine. Punitive damages, while a form of punishment, are civil and not criminal in nature, the court concluded.
HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle
By PAIGE HEWITT and HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
A federal judge is considering whether to dismiss a case that accuses the new pope of conspiring with local Catholic officials to cover up the alleged sexual abuse of three boys.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal halted the case this week until she decides whether to grant a motion by Catholic officials to dismiss it.
The lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs known only as John Does I, II and III, who say they were molested as boys by a seminary student about 10 years ago.
Pope Benedict XVI, who was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he was added to the lawsuit this year, wrote a May 18, 2001, letter calling for adherence to a 1962 guideline for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
The lawsuit calls the guidelines "a virtual 'green light' for all bishops to actually facilitate, albeit secretly, the sexual exploitation of minors, and even brute animals, by clergy."
OREGON
The Register-Guard
By Jeff Wright
The Register-Guard
Former members of New Hope Christian Center in Veneta filed a lawsuit Thursday asserting they are entitled to nearly $1.5 million - the value of the property and furnishings of the church from which they say they were evicted last summer.
The former members also allege that district and international officials with the Pentecostal Church of God knew, or should have known, that former New Hope associate pastor Charles Fenwick Jr. previously had engaged in "sexually inappropriate conduct" with minor females while serving a church in California.
The suit was filed in Lane County Circuit Court on Thursday during a settlement hearing before Judge Karsten Rasmussen. The hearing has been continued to an unspecified date sometime this summer.
The mediation session and new filing are the latest wrinkles involving Fenwick, who was sentenced last August to five years in prison, the maximum term, for sexually abusing a female parishioner, beginning when she was 14.
The female, now 20 years old, filed a $10 million lawsuit in October alleging that New Hope and a second church, the Lighthouse Temple in Eugene, were negligent in hiring and retaining Fenwick as an associate pastor. Fenwick worked at New Hope in 1998 and 1999 and at the Lighthouse Temple in 2000.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times
By Todd Ruger
The trial on a Davenport man’s civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a former Catholic Diocese of Davenport priest will start Monday after last-minute settlement talks failed, the plaintiff’s attorney announced Friday afternoon.
Davenport attorney Craig Levien called area news media representatives to the Scott County Courthouse for a “statement given in open court” regarding the lawsuit and then had a video camera trained on the witness stand in a courtroom.
But Levien, who previously has said during court hearings that his client’s settlement offer asked James Janssen to admit to decades-old claims of sexual abuse, entered the courtroom alone and said, “The talks have been unsuccessful.
“The trial is scheduled and will commence Monday morning,” he added, referring to the lawsuit filed by James Wells.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
Friday, Apr. 29 2005
Dozens of people convicted of exposing their genitals to children could be
freed from prison or have their sentences reduced, based on a Missouri Supreme
Court decision this week clearing a former St. Louis elementary school
counselor and onetime Roman Catholic priest of such charges.
The court, in a 4-3 decision Tuesday, said there was not enough evidence to
convict James Beine of sexual misconduct involving a child by indecent
exposure. The court also said that the Missouri law was "patently
unconstitutional" because it is over-broad and could criminalize simply using a
public restroom.
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said Friday that he would ask the state
Supreme Court to reconsider. Nixon has 15 days from the ruling to seek a
rehearing.
If that fails, those imprisoned on a sexual misconduct charge could ask the
courts to be released, Nixon said.
Stephen Easton, an associate professor at the University of Missouri Law
School, said the question then would be whether courts applied the ruling
retroactively. Judges could decide that it applies only to open cases, he said.
They also could say the decision clears everyone convicted of the crime - or
something in between.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By Traci Shurley
Special to the Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH _ Attorneys for the Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News asked a state district judge Friday to unseal records in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth that involved allegations of sexual abuse by a priest.
The motion says state District Judge Len Wade failed to follow a Texas Rule of Civil Procedure when he placed a protective order on diocesan records having to do with ``clerics, other than Thomas H. Teczar, against whom allegations have been made involving the sexual misconduct of minors.''
Early this month, the diocese announced that it would pay a total of more than $4 million to two men to settle a 2003 lawsuit. The men accused Teczar, a former priest in the diocese, of raping and groping them in the early 1990s in Ranger
In October 2004, Wade sealed some records submitted by the diocese during the pretrial preparations for the suit. Wade ordered that the records be returned to the diocese within 45 days of the conclusion of the suit.
His order covered the diocese's files on priests other than Teczar.
TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News
08:48 PM CDT on Friday, April 29, 2005
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram asked a judge Friday to unseal records of sexual abuse allegations against priests who worked in the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese.
Last year, Tarrant County District Judge Len Wade ordered the diocese to surrender the records in a lawsuit that accused Bishop Joseph Delaney of employing known predators.
But the judge kept the records secret and ordered the plaintiffs to do the same. The newspapers say the records should be released because they concern matters affecting public health and safety.
"We're not aware of any authority for putting these documents under seal and believe that the public not only has a right to see these documents but also would be interested in their contents," said David Starr, deputy general counsel for Belo Corp., which owns The News.
The diocese recently agreed to settle the abuse lawsuit, without admitting wrongdoing, by paying two accusers of the Rev. Thomas Teczar a total of $4.15 million. Bishop Delaney employed the priest from the late 1980s to early 1990s, after a Massachusetts diocese barred Father Teczar from ministry because of misconduct with boys.
Documents sought by the newspapers regard other priests, whom public court files don't name.
In a letter to parishioners last year, Bishop Delaney said eight clerics who worked in the diocese after its 1969 founding have been accused of "improper sexual behavior with a minor." He did not name the priests.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Debra Douglas
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
29 April 2005
A former Co Londonderry headmaster who abused three young boys was today sentenced to four years in prison.
Jude Lynch (44), of Earmount Road in Park, admitted 33 sex offences against three boys age 13, 14 and 15, including indecent assault and gross indecency.
Sentencing the former principal, Judge David Smyth QC said: "As a headmaster you were in a position to understand the extent of the wrong you were doing."
Describing Lynch's victims as vulnerable he said: "They were under the age of consent and you as a headmaster knew that."
Judge Smyth described Lynch as the architect of the incidents and said he used his organisational ability and talents to book hotels to impress these "vulnerable children".
CALIFORNIA
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer/Appellate Courts
Alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse by members of the clergy, entitled to sue under a law reviving time-barred claims, may seek punitive damages, the Court of Appeal for this district ruled yesterday.
Ruling as part of a coordination proceeding involving about 1,000 plaintiffs, Div. Eight rejected the argument that allowing punitive damages for claims brought after the original statute of limitations period has expired violates the ex post facto clauses of the state and federal constitutions.
The specific case ruled on yesterday was that of Bob Thatcher, who two weeks ago was awarded $875,000 in compensatory damages and an equal sum in punitive damages for molestation he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest in the Bay Area city of Antioch in 1980 and 1981.
Jurors found that the Diocese of Oakland failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the abuse. While such claims must normally be brought no later than the plaintiff’s 26th birthday, Code of Civil Procedure Sec. 340.1 gave victims above that age one year, beginning Jan. 1, 2003, to bring suit.
TUCSON (AZ)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
April 29, 2005
In July 2004, attorney Ivan Abrams of Tucson, Ariz., filed a federal lawsuit on behalf a former seminarian and alleged abuse victim, 45-year-old Philip A. Hower. The suit, which is still pending, was filed under provisions of the RICO statute, used primarily to fight organized crime.
In the lawsuit, Hower alleges that he was blocked from being ordained a priest because he had blown the whistle on sexual misconduct of priests with whom he resided while preparing for his ordination.
Also according to the lawsuit: In 1987, Hower alleges that Father Richard E. Troutman, then-pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish in Yuma and currently pastor and vicar at St. Odilia's parish in Tucson, asked Hower to perform a sexual act on him (Troutman) in the hospital where Troutman was being treated for alcohol abuse. Hower had been visiting Troutman in a pastoral capacity and was shocked by Troutman's scandalous request.
Hower also alleges that, in 1988, he was sexually assaulted by Father Steven Stencil, the then-vocations director for the Diocese of Tucson. (Stencil was suspended from the priesthood in 2001 after an unrelated allegation of sexual misconduct was lodged against him by a 17-year-old male student.)
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor
Monitor editorial
April 29. 2005 8:00AM
If Dorothy Rabinowitz is right, everything you think you know about sexual abuse by Catholic priests is suspect.
Who is Dorothy Rabinowitz? Well, she's no amateur. She is a distinguished member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, having won, among other awards, the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Her winning entries included columns about Violet, Cheryl and Gerald Amirault, the Malden, Mass., day care center operators convicted in the 1980s of raping and molesting children in their care.
Rabinowitz called the case against the Amiraults "a sham built on accusations coaxed from children drilled in stories about a bad clown and a magic room." It was too convenient by half, she suggested, that the acts the Amiraults supposedly had committed were "identical to those of most of the other renowned prosecutions of child care workers" at the time.
Readers of a two-part commentary written by Rabinowitz this week will notice a similar theme. This time her focus is the prosecution of Roman Catholic priests, a group that she allows includes "true predators." That said, she is certain the clergy sex abuse scandals, "their nonstop press coverage, and the irresistible pressure on the Church to show proof of cleansing resulted in a system that rewarded false claims along with the true."
NORTHERN IRELAND
U.TV
A paedophile priest who plied a young boy scout with alcohol, before sexually abusing him, has been jailed for 18 months suspended for two years.
Father Daniel Curran, admitted indencently assaulting the boy on two occasions between June 1986 and June 1989.
The priest, who is 65 and lives with his elderly parents in Newcastle, has already served a seven-year jail sentence for indecently assaulting nine other boys in the 1990s.
Downpatrick Crown Court, sitting in Enniskillen, heard the boy was aged between eleven and 13 at the time of the offence.
ROME
Vermont Guardian
ROME — The honeymoon may already be over for Pope Benedict XVI. The sources of the problem are a long-ignored 12-page letter about abuse forwarded to the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1997, and his subsequent decision to keep the investigations secret.
In the letter, Father Juan Vaca charged that Father Marcial Maciel, founder of a conservative evangelical order, the Legionaries of Christ, sexually abused him and other teenagers. According to Britain’s Observer, Vaca claims that the new pope ignored his charges because Maciel was a close friend of Pope John Paul II.
In 1997, Ratzinger was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body with the power to excommunicate priests guilty of sexual abuse. Bishop John McCann of New York forwarded him the details of charges made by Vaca, who had outlined them in an open letter to Maciel.
Ratzinger took no immediate action, but eventually issued an order that investigations into child sex abuse be carried out in secret. A confidential letter, obtained by The Observer, was sent to every Catholic bishop in May 2001. In it, Ratzinger asserted the church’s right to hold inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood.
Lawyers representing abuse victims claim the goal was to prevent the allegations from becoming public knowledge or being investigated by the police. They accuse Ratzinger of “obstruction of justice.”
ADRIAN (OH)
Toledo Blade
By ROBIN ERB
blade staff writer
ADRIAN - A California woman who has accused the choir director of Adrian College of raping her when she was a student at a California Catholic high school met briefly yesterday with the college's president.
But Joelle Casteix, who said she wanted to share information with school officials about Thomas Hodgman, the choir director, said she walked out of the meeting in tears.
"I wasn't expecting the questioning of my story. I wasn't prepared for them to call it a consensual relationship even though I was a minor. … I was berated, belittled, and revictimized," she said.
Claudia Vercellotti, head of the Toledo chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, accompanied Ms. Casteix to the meeting with President Stanley Caine and Phil Baither, a college attorney.
Calls to Mr. Caine were not returned yesterday. But Mr. Baither said Ms. Casteix shared information that the college will pursue. He confirmed Ms. Casteix left the meeting, but said he did not consider it a "confrontational" discussion.
MAINE
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
April 28, 2005 -- Investigatory files pertaining to never-prosecuted allegations of Roman Catholic priest sex abuse must be released by Maine Attorney General G. Steven Rowe because the privacy interests of the 18 dead priests and their families don't outweigh the public's right to know about how the department conducted the investigation, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled April 22 in a sharply divided opinion.
Newspaper publisher Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. -- owner of the Portland Press Herald, the Kennebec (Augusta) Journal and the Waterville Morning Sentinel newspapers -- requested the records, pertaining to 18 dead Roman Catholic priests, from Rowe's office in June 2002. Rowe refused to release the files, citing an exemption to state open records law for documents whose release would be an "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."
The newspapers sued, and Superior Court Justice Kirk Studstrup ruled in their favor in 2003, declining to even require redaction of alleged victim and witnesses names. Rowe appealed.
A 4-3 majority of the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the trial court's ruling that the records must be released, but permitted victim and witness names to be redacted.
IOWA
WHO
West Des Moines, April 28th - A former Dowling High School student is accusing his former priest of sexual abuse. Tonight, Dowling is responding to the allegations.
John Chambers alleges that he was sexually abused while attending the school in the 1960's. Dowling is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. But the school's president did respond to the case, saying the school has a strict set of procedures to ensure sex abuse does not happen at the school.
That abuse allegedly happened 37 years ago. So how can Chambers file a lawsuit over something that happened more than 3 decades ago? It's because of a statute known as a "repressed memory clause." It basically says that a person has four years to file a lawsuit from the time they realize they were harmed. Attorney Mark Pennington says there is a problem with trying repressed memory cases. Often, so much time has gone by that the accusations are hard to prove.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By MARY ZAHN
mzahn@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 28, 2005
Eighty-four Milwaukee diocesan Catholic priests - or about one in five - supported a statement critical of a policy approved by Archbishop Timothy Dolan that would have required priests to consent to unannounced searches of their homes and other restrictions if church officials suspect or know they have been involved in inappropriate behavior.
The statement was read to Dolan on Thursday at a meeting of the Council of Priests, an advisory group to the Archbishop. In addition to the 26 priests and two bishops who are members of the council, an estimated 40 other priests attended the meeting, according to Father Curt Frederick, vicar for clergy.
"It was tough for me to hear these things," Dolan said after the meeting Thursday. "I think I learned something about myself. I have to examine my own style. The candor of the priests moved me."
The statement written by the Milwaukee Archdiocese Priest Alliance was approved by more than 65% of its 129 members, according to Father Kenneth Mich, a spokesman for the group. The alliance was formed in 2003 as a support network and independent voice for clergy.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By DENIS PAISTE
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — Superior Court Judge Arthur Brennan yesterday stood by his sentencing of suspended priest Gordon MacRae, whose trial and imprisonment were the subject of a two-part essay in the Wall Street Journal this week.
"I did my best to be fair and impartial in the case, and the jury made its decision, and I carefully considered the arguments of both sides at sentencing and made the decision to sentence Gordon MacRae to a substantial sentence based on the arguments I heard and the considerations of sentencing in New Hampshire," Brennan said yesterday in a telephone interview from Sullivan County Superior Court.
MacRae received the maximum New Hampshire prison sentence in November 1994 of 33½ to 67 years for sexual assault on a male between 13 and 16 years old.
The sentencing followed a three-day hearing in which five victims described how MacRae befriended them as teenagers and then sexually molested them. Only one alleged victim testified during the jury trial.
Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz's articles Wednesday and yesterday focused not only on the question of MacRae's guilt or innocence, but also on the system that allows anonymous accusers to receive financial settlements for allegations of sexual abuse against priests.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
News-Leader
Associated Press
St. Louis — Federal and St. Louis prosecutors are weighing additional sexual-misconduct charges against a defrocked priest who could soon be freed from prison. James Beine's attorney questioned the scrutiny, calling his client "a sacrificial lamb" in addressing sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
A Missouri Senate panel also took the first step Thursday in shoring up a statute the state's highest court narrowly deemed unconstitutionally broad two days earlier in scrapping the conviction of Beine, a former elementary school counselor also known as Mar James.
A U.S. appeals court threw out Beine's federal conviction of possessing child pornography and a sentence of nearly five years, ruling that investigators illegally seized evidence.
COSTA RICA
swissinfo
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - A Costa Rican Catholic priest, who attracted hordes of followers as the host of a popular televised prayer session, was jailed for 30 years on Thursday for sexually abusing minors.
In a case that triggered hysteria and anger among some of his fans, Enrique Delgado was found guilty of abusing three teenagers at his home on various occasions in 2002 and ordered to pay them the equivalent of $17,000 in compensation.
The 50-year-old priest, whose prayer show was one of the most-watched TV programs in the country, has always denied the charges and said his accusers were trying to persecute the Church.
The Catholic Church worldwide has been hit by an endless stream of child abuse allegations over the past few years.
HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Voice
By BINNIE FISHER
Friday, April 29, 2005
Three Houston-area men are using a letter written by Pope Benedict XVI while he was a cardinal as the basis for a lawsuit against the Catholic Church.
In a report by KPRC-TV, Channel 2 on Tuesday, the attorney for the plaintiffs told a federal judge during a hearing that the pope in 2001 sought to cover up cases involving the sexual abuse of children by pedophile priests.
The plaintiffs, who claim they are victims of the church’s sex scandal, say that a letter written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as instructions to bishops from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, is proof that he conspired to keep claims of sex abuse secret.
The men are suing the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza.
Their attorney, Daniel Shea, argued Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal that Pope Benedict XVI was among those who sought to cover up the child sex abuse scandal in the church.
“We believe, actually, that the current pope, when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, was actively involved in that conspiracy,” Shea argued.
DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
April 29, 2005
Two new lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Dubuque, bringing to 12 the number of cases pending in federal and state courts in Iowa alleging sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Fayette County, John Doe III, a resident of Polk County, alleges he was sexually abused by the Rev. William A. Goltz at Sacred Heart parish in Oelwein beginning in 1954. Goltz also was named in a February lawsuit alleging sexual abuse while he was a priest at the parish.
Jane Doe II, a resident of Dubuque County, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Delaware County alleging she was sexually abused by the Rev. Patrick McElliott in 1964 at St. Patrick parish in Colesburg. This is the third lawsuit filed by women naming McElliott, who died in 1987.
Monsignor James Barta, vicar general of the archdiocese, said Thursday that he could not comment on the lawsuits because he had not yet seen them.
The lawsuits against the archdiocese have named six priests: Goltz, McElliott, Albert Carman, William Roach, William Schwartz and John Schmitz. Archbishop Jerome Hanus has refused to name priests against whom there are founded allegations of abuse.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua Telegraph
Published: Friday, Apr. 29, 2005
MANCHESTER (AP) – The Diocese of Manchester has settled four new sexual abuse complaints against three of its priests dating as far back as the 1950s.
Concord lawyer Chuck Douglas recently settled the claims on behalf of two women and two men. He wouldn’t say how much his clients were paid, but said the total was in the six-figure range.
KEENE (NH)
Concord Monitor
By DANIEL BARRICK
Monitor staff
April 29. 2005 8:00AM
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Wall Street Journal said yesterday that Gordon MacRae, a New Hampshire priest convicted of child sexual assault a decade ago, is the victim of "a corruption of the justice system."
MacRae was convicted in 1994 of raping a 15-year-old boy at a Keene church. He later pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three other boys. He is serving a 33½- to 67-year sentence at the state prison.
In two articles that appeared on the newspaper's editorial page Wednesday and yesterday, Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the Journal's editorial board, contends that MacRae was wrongly convicted of the rape and bullied into signing false confessions. In an interview yesterday, Rabinowitz depicted MacRae as the victim of false accusations, overzealous law enforcement and church officials who put fear of bad press ahead of the welfare of their priests. Above all, Rabinowitz said, cases like MacRae's are driven by lawyers looking to make money.
"People have to come to understand that there is a large scam going on with personal injury attorneys, and what began as a serious effort has now expanded to become a huge money-making proposition,"Rabinowitz said. "These things have a life of their own. In a climate where there was a great wish to cleanse and punish priests, people were swept up; a judge was swept up."
NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
A priest who admitted sexually abusing a young boy scout has been given an 18 month suspended sentence.
Father Daniel Curran pleaded guilty at Downpatrick Crown Court to indecently assaulting the boy on two occasions between 14 June 1986 and 15 June 1989.
At the time, Curran was a priest at Saint Paul's parish in Belfast and chaplain to a scout troop.
Curran has already served seven years in jail for abusing nine other boys in the 1990s.
Passing the sentence, which was suspended for two years, the judge said Curran had already been given a "severe punishment" at the time.
TEXAS
New York Daily News
By DAVID J. KRAJICEK
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
On the last day of her life, Irene Garza went to confession.
The lovely 25-year-old drove her father's Ford 12 blocks from her family's home in McAllen, Tex., to their Catholic church, Sacred Heart.
The date was April 16, 1960, the day before Easter Sunday.
Garza enjoyed a modest celebrity among the parishioners, and many people noticed her at the busy church that afternoon.
She had been the first Latina head drum majorette at McAllen High School. She was prom and homecoming queen while studying at Pan American College in nearby Edinburg, and in 1958 she won the title of Miss South Texas.
Her parents, who owned a dry-cleaning business, were admired for raising a proper, devout daughter. She was active in the parish Legion of Mary, and after college she took a job teaching school on the poor, Hispanic side of town.
Garza had made plans with a girlfriend to see a movie that night, and she may have been impatient while waiting in the long confessional line. At some point, she left the church and went to the adjacent rectory, where she made a confession to a young priest, the Rev. John Feit. At 27, he had recently been ordained and was at Sacred Heart for a year of pastoral training.
Feit later said Garza left the rectory at 7:15 p.m.
But she did not return home that night. Her parents called police, and officers found her car still at Sacred Heart.
Five days later her corpse was found in an irrigation canal off the Rio Grande.
The body was clothed except for shoes and underwear. Her blouse had been unbuttoned. She had two black eyes and bruises to her face and genitals. She had been raped.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
KansasCity.com
JIM SUHR
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - Federal and St. Louis prosecutors are weighing additional sexual-misconduct charges against a defrocked priest who could soon be freed from prison. His attorney questioned the scrutiny, calling his client "a sacrificial lamb" in addressing sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
A Missouri Senate panel also took the first step Thursday in shoring up a statute the state's highest court narrowly deemed unconstitutionally broad two days earlier in scrapping the conviction of Beine, a former elementary school counselor also known as Mar James.
A U.S. appeals court already had thrown out Beine's federal conviction of possessing child pornography and the resulting prison sentence of nearly five years, ruling that investigators illegally seized key evidence.
It was unclear how soon Beine, 63, might be freed from the Farmington Correctional Center, where he has been serving a 12-year sentence on the St. Louis convictions in 2003. Generally, the state has 15 days from the opinion to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider, with the inmate remaining jailed until the state's intention is known.
The New York Times
By JACQUES STEINBERG; COMPILED BY ERIK PIEPENBURG
Published: April 4, 2005, Monday
The death of Pope John Paul II has prompted an adjustment in Showtime's promotional efforts for a forthcoming made-for-cable movie called ''Our Fathers.'' The movie, a dramatization of the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese featuring Ted Danson (as a lawyer for several victims) and Christopher Plummer, right (as Cardinal Bernard F. Law), is scheduled to have its premiere on the premium cable channel on May 21. While that date apparently still stands, Showtime decided over the weekend to postpone a screening it had planned in Boston, at Faneuil Hall, on April 12.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— On more than one occasion, Department of Correction employees at the state prison in Walpole recommended to Joseph L. Druce that he fire John H. LaChance, the lawyer appointed to represent him on a murder charge in the prison slaying of defrocked pedophile priest John J. Geoghan, Mr. Druce told a judge yesterday.
Testifying at a Worcester Superior Court hearing on a defense motion to dismiss the murder indictment, Mr. Druce said the comments were accompanied by suggestions that Mr. LaChance wasn’t doing enough for him and contributed to a rift that developed between him and his lawyer.
Mr. Druce is awaiting trial in the Aug. 23, 2003, strangulation and beating death of the 68-year-old Mr. Geoghan in the former priest’s cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. At the time of the killing in the protective custody unit at the maximum-security prison on the Lancaster-Shirley line, Mr. Druce was serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of a man he believed was gay. Mr. Geoghan, a central figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese, had been imprisoned for fondling a young boy.
Mr. Druce, 38, allegedly told investigators he killed Mr. Geoghan “to save the children.” Mr. LaChance has said he intends to raise an insanity defense on Mr. Druce’s behalf.
In October 2003, Mr. Druce was transferred from Souza-Baranowski to the Departmental Disciplinary Unit at the state prison in Walpole. From 1999 until April 2003, when he was sent to Souza-Baranowski, Mr. Druce was confined at the disciplinary unit in Walpole for sending a hoax letter bomb to a federal judge Mr. Druce believed had not acted quickly enough on one of his appeals.
The motion to dismiss is based on a claim that state Department of Correction officials have interfered with Mr. Druce’s right to a fair trial through what Mr. LaChance has described as “a pattern of misconduct and coercion.” Mr. Druce alleges that prison officials have placed unreasonable restrictions on his communications with his legal team, taken legal materials from his cell and failed to return them and threatened to cause problems for him and his loved ones if he did not plead guilty and seek a transfer to an out-of-state prison.
At one point during yesterday’s proceedings, Judge Timothy S. Hillman prohibited Assistant District Attorney Lawrence J. Murphy from questioning Mr. Druce about whether he had any assistance from correction officers on the day of the slaying.
“Isn’t it fair to say you had no help from any guards on Aug. 23, 2003?” the prosecutor asked. Mr. LaChance objected and Judge Hillman sustained the objection.
Mr. Murphy then asked if any guard helped him gain access to Mr. Geoghan’s cell the day the defrocked priest was slain. Again, Mr. LaChance objected and again, Judge Hillman sustained the objection.
The hearing is scheduled to resume Wednesday afternoon.
IOWA
TheIowaChannel.com
Diocesan response to media inquiries.
We are aware that a lawsuit has been filed against the Diocese of Des Moines and a priest by a man alleging sexual abuse when he was a minor.
The man who filed this suit made a number of complaints and accusations against Father Leonard Kenkel. The man claims he was sexually abused nearly 40 years ago.
The Allegation Review Committee for the Diocese of Des Moines reviewed these complaints and allegations. The Allegation Review Committee is a group of expert volunteers that was created pursuant to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People adopted in 2002 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Allegation Review Committee (whose members include a police detective who does sexual abuse investigations, an attorney with experience prosecuting child abuse cases, a psychologist who has conducted research on child abuse and a judge who has handled juvenile and criminal cases involving child abuse and neglect) reviewed several complaints of past abuse over the last few years. On three occasions in the past, the Allegation Review Committee found evidence of abuse and recommended removing priests from the ministry. Bishop Joseph Charron followed these recommendations.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Monitor staff
April 28. 2005 8:00AM
The Diocese of Manchester has settled new sexual abuse complaints against three of its priests for allegations dating back to the 1950s and 1970s. Two of the three priests - Monsignor John Boyd and the Rev. Gerard Beaudet - have not been previously accused. The third, the Rev. Romeo Valliere, has.
Concord lawyer Chuck Douglas settled the claims on behalf of four people, two women and two men. He declined to be specific about how much the diocese paid the four, saying only that the total "ranged up to and over six figures." In the two and a half years since the clergy sexual abuse scandal broke, Douglas has represented about 30 alleged victims. He said this recent round of negotiations was a bit different.
First, the diocese has hired a former federal agent experienced in child sexual abuse to investigate the complaints against priests. Diocesan staff had handled those investigations in the past. Secondly, the diocese told Douglas this time that it has much less money to pay out now than it did in 2002, when it settled claims from 78 alleged victims for nearly $6 million.
"They are very clear that they cannot pay the numbers they were paying," Douglas said. "They said they just can't do it, and I confirmed that (they can't) through other sources."
MANCHESTER (NH)
Foster's Daily Democrat
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The Diocese of Manchester has settled four new sexual abuse complaints against three of its priests dating back to the 1950s and 1970s.
Concord lawyer Chuck Douglas recently settled the claims on behalf of two women and two men. He wouldn’t say how much his clients were paid, but said the total was in the six-figure range.
Two of the priests involved, Monsignor John Boyd and the Rev. Gerard Beaudet, are dead. The third, the Reverend Romeo Valliere, retired in 2001.
Boyd was accused of abusing one of the women in the 1950s when he oversaw what is now Holy Trinity School in Laconia. Beaudet was accused of abusing the other woman and one of the men when he served as pastor of Saint Albert’s parish in West Stewartson in the 1970s.
Asbury Park Press
By EILEEN P. FLYNN
Pope Benedict XVI continues to make news. When he held his first meeting with members of the media Saturday, he spoke for about 15 minutes, making general comments about the good the media can do in providing information. The pope also reminded the media that they should observe the ethical requirements of their profession.
I was disappointed that the pope did not invite questions. If I had been there and been able to ask questions, I would have asked him about sexual abuse by priests.
Although in the past year or two, members of the Catholic hierarchy have tried to assure American Catholics that the sex abuse crisis is "history," until significant aspects of that crisis are resolved it will continue to undermine the credibility of the Church.
When the College of Cardinals elected Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the office of supreme pontiff, they chose a person who has a mixed record in addressing the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests. Pope Benedict XVI needs to apologize for the wrong things he said and the poor policies he implemented before his pontificate will be able to move forward.
The biggest problem facing the new pope is that he is on record as having said in November 2002 that he thought that the media in the United States were spearheading a campaign against the Catholic Church.
DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
April 28, 2005
A Des Moines man has sued the Diocese of Des Moines and the Rev. Leonard Kenkel, alleging that he was sexually abused by the priest when he was a student at Dowling Catholic High School.
John S. Chambers, who has been a member of St. Augustin's Parish, alleges that during the 1967-68 school year, Kenkel kneaded and fondled his buttocks during sophomore biology class.
Chambers also alleges that the priest exposed himself while talking about "receiving the body of Christ."
Kenkel now serves St. Edward's Parish in Afton and Holy Spirit Parish in Creston, according to the Des Moines Diocese's Web site.
Anne Marie Cox, communications director of the diocese, acknowledged the lawsuit in a statement that said the diocese's Allegation Review Committee had reviewed Chambers' complaint, but did not find sufficient evidence to confirm abuse.
"The diocese will vigorously defend any claim that has been determined to lack any basis in fact," said Cox's statement.
POTTSVILLE (PA)
Times-Leader
Associated Press
POTTSVILLE, Pa. - A Roman Catholic priest admitted he owned hundreds of child pornography photos, magazines, videotapes and DVDs and embezzled more than $23,000 from the church.
The Rev. Ronald J. Yarrosh, 57, formerly an assistant pastor at St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of theft, receiving stolen property, criminal use of a communication facility and three counts of sexual abuse of children.
A plea agreement calls for Yarrosh to serve a three- to 23-month county prison sentence followed by 10 years' probation.
County President Judge William Baldwin deferred sentencing so Yarrosh could be evaluated to determine whether he's a sexual predator, which would require him to register with state police under Megan's Law. Baldwin said the state would have 90 days to complete the evaluation.
Yarrosh was freed on unsecured bail. He and his lawyer, Emmanuel H. Dimitriou, declined to comment.
MICHIGAN
MLive.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Author Jim Parker will be the speaker for the "Take Back the Night" march and rally from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Parker recently wrote "Raped in the House of God, The Murder of My Soul and Its Lifetime Effects." In the book, he alleges he was raped by a Catholic priest in Lansing when he was a 12-year-old altar boy.
He is now the southern Arizona leader of SNAP -- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests -- and is an ardent advocate for survivors of clergy abuse.
The march will begin at Bucky Harris Park at the corner of N. Jackson Street and W. Michigan Avenue and proceed to the Jackson Symphony Orchestra offices for Parker's talk.
The event is sponsored by Jackson's AWARE Shelter to mark Sexual Assault Awareness Month. For more information, call AWARE at 783-2861.
COLUMBUS (OH)
Ohio News Network
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Roman Catholic officials are fighting a legislative proposal that would allow lawsuits over decades-old allegations of child abuse.
Victims' groups are trying to counter the Roman Catholic lobbying, which has included two bishops meeting privately with the House speaker. The Senate approved the bill last month.
The provision will not promote healing for victims and could endanger the rights of the accused to defend themselves, Columbus Bishop Frederick Campbell said Wednesday. Campbell and Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair met with House Speaker Jon Husted last week.
"I don't think it promotes any form of justice," Campbell said. "The whole idea of the statute of limitations is to permit a right of defense, and after years and years and years the right of defense just evaporates."
TUCSON (AZ)
The News Tribune
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 27th, 2005 12:43 PM (PDT)
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson has filed an amended bankruptcy organization plan, seeking to cap its payout for sex-abuse claims at $20 million. A plaintiffs' lawyer said the amount wasn't enough and vowed to challenge the proposal.
Initial payments to alleged abuse victims would range from $100,000 to $600,000, depending on the severity of the abuse, according to the amended plan filed Monday.
The bankruptcy court has logged 103 abuse claims against the diocese, which in September became the second in the country to file for Chapter 11 reorganization protection in the face of litigation stemming from alleged sexual abuse by priests.
Critics said the cap falls short of compensating victims whose claims are substantiated.
TUCSON (AZ)
KVOA
New details are in from the Diocese of Tucson on how it proposes to pay the victims of the sexual abuse scandal.
Church lawyers filed the plan shortly before midnight Monday.
The document is important because, for the first time, the Diocese of Tucson is discussing dollar amounts.
The Diocese proposes to limit its payout to alleged sex abuse victims to $20 million.
Alleged victims would collect between $100,000 and $600,000 each. The exact amount would be based on criteria including their age, emotional injury and how long the abuse lasted.
HOUSTON (TX)
TheBostonChannel.com
UPDATED: 2:35 pm EDT April 27, 2005
HOUSTON -- Three Houston-area men used a letter written by Pope Benedict XVI while he was a cardinal as the basis for a lawsuit against the Catholic
The men claim that they are victims of the church's sex scandal and that a letter written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is proof that he conspired to keep claims of sex abuse secret.
In a Houston federal courtroom, the men's attorneys told Judge Lee Rosenthal Tuesday that the now-pope tried to cover up sex crimes against children in the Catholic Church.
"We believe, actually, that the current pope, when he was head of the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, actually was actively involved in that conspiracy," plaintiffs' attorney Daniel Shea said.
DES MOINES (IA)
TheIowaChannel.com
POSTED: 6:17 pm CDT April 27, 2005
UPDATED: 6:43 pm CDT April 27, 2005
DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines man has filed a lawsuit against a priest in the Des Moines Catholic Diocese. John Chambers claims he was abused nearly 40 years ago while he was a student at Dowling High School, NewsChannel 8 reported.
Chambers' lawsuit said he was sexually abused by Leonard Kenkel.
The Catholic Diocese said in a statement that Chambers' allegations have already been reviewed. The Allegation Review Committee interviewed both Chambers and Kenkel, NewsChannel 8 reported.
"After conducting its investigation, the Committeee found there was not sufficient evidence for finding of sexual abuse. The Allegation Review Committee did not recommend Father Kenkel be removed from ministry," according a statement from the Diocese.
The Diocese said in the statement that it recommended Kenkel remain as a priest, but suggested that he meet with a counselor to help him better understand appropriate boundaries for physical contact.
MANCHESTER (NH)
The Union Leader
By DENIS PAISTE
Union Leader Staff
MANCHESTER — Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator Dorothy Rabinowitz appeared to take up the cause of imprisoned, suspended New Hampshire priest Gordon MacRae in the first of a two-part series in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.
In an article that accused the Catholic Church of rewarding false claims of abuse against its priests, as well as legitimate grievances, Rabinowitz painted an unflattering portrait of several of MacRae's accusers.
Yesterday, Keene Police Detective James McLaughlin, who helped put MacRae behind bars, and Diocese of Manchester Chancellor Rev. Ed Arsenault each noted that MacRae was convicted by a jury.
"I have a problem with second-guessing a jury who take their duty seriously, who hear from witnesses, assign credibility to those witnesses, hear information firsthand — not through transcripts, not through sources that have agendas — and then deliberate as a group and look at the strengths and weaknesses of a case," McLaughlin said in a telephone interview.
"They had no reservations about his guilt," he said of MacRae's 1994 conviction in Cheshire County Superior Court. McLaughlin, who would later establish a reputation for stopping Internet sexual predators, noted MacRae's conviction was based on witness testimony.
IOWA
WHO
A Polk county man says he was sexually abused by his priest back in 1967. Now 37 years later he says the Des Moines diocese should be held accountable and he's filing suit.
John Chambers says he was sexually abused on multiple occasions by his priest, Father Leonard Kenkel, a man who also happened to be his science teacher at Dowling High School. The accused is still a priest in the Des Moines diocese, and both the catholic church and his congregation have come to his defense.
John Chambers, who claims to have been one of Kenkels former students at Dowling High School says that during the 1967-68 school year, Kenkel engaged in repeated harmful, and illegal conduct.
Chambers says Father Kenkel fondled his buttocks. Chambers claims Kenkel also showed him his penis, according to Chamber's attorney, it scarred him for life. The Des Moines diocese is also named in the suit.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
A Schuylkill County Catholic priest who was charged with having hundreds of child pornography photos, books, magazines, videotapes and DVDs at his home and a rental storage unit and with embezzling church money, pleaded guilty Wednesday in county court to three counts of sexual abuse of children, criminal use of a communication facility, theft and receiving stolen property.
But a judge delayed sentencing pending an evaluation of the Rev. Ronald J. Yarrosh.
Yarrosh, 57, was an assistant pastor at St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven and on the advisory board of the parish grade school when charged in April 2004.
Police searching Yarrosh's bedroom, library-sitting room and office at the rectory April 23 found a "voluminous" amount of pornography that included books and magazines with pictures of prepubescent children in various stages of dress, performing sex acts and in erotic poses, an affidavit says.
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
Wednesday, Apr. 27 2005
The Missouri Supreme Court's decision overturning the conviction of an
elementary school counselor and former Roman Catholic priest on sexual
misconduct charges triggered quick responses by state and federal officials
Wednesday.
The 4-3 decision in favor of James Beine, also known as Mar James, cleared him
of charges he exposed himself to three Patrick Henry Elementary students during
the 2000-2001 school year and declared unconstitutional the statute prohibiting
sexual misconduct involving a child by indecent exposure.
The decision means Beine could be freed from the Farmington Correctional
Facility in St. Francois County where he is incarcerated. A federal appeals
court in December 2003 overturned Beine's separate conviction and 57-month
prison sentence on a federal child pornography charge.
On Wednesday, however, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Massey said that
federal prosecutors in Illinois would re-examine a charge of receiving child
pornography that prosecutors dropped in 2003 after Beine was convicted on the
federal charge in St. Louis.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
ssutner@telegram.com
WORCESTER— A retired priest who is facing 32 counts of sexual abuse of boys in Bellingham in the 1970s and 1980s was being treated at an undisclosed area hospital yesterday, according to jail officials.
The Rev. Paul M. Desilets, 81, is seriously ill, suffering from diabetes and the effects of childhood polio.
Contrary to reports circulating at the Worcester courthouse, the retired priest did not have a heart attack, said Mathew Beaudet, a spokesman for the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston.
“He is basically in a vegetative state,” Mr. Beaudet said.
PORT CARBON (PA)
The Express-Times
Thursday, April 28, 2005
By FRANK ANDRUSCAVAGE
The Pottsville Republican
PORT CARBON -- A Roman Catholic priest who formerly served in Easton pleaded guilty Wednesday to theft and sexual abuse of children.
Ronald J. Yarrosh, stationed in Schuylkill Haven until his arrest, appeared before Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin on charges of theft, receiving stolen property, criminal use of a communication facility and 101 counts of sexual abuse of children.
Although each of the charges carried a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine, Yarrosh will serve only between three and 23 months in prison under a plea agreement reached with the county district attorney's office. The three- to 23-month sentence is for the theft charge and includes $250 in fines and $23,629 in restitution to the parish where Yarrosh was stationed.
The charge of receiving stolen property merged with the theft charge, Baldwin said. Assistant District Attorney Karen Byrnes-Noon said the commonwealth agreed to lessen the 101 sexual abuse counts to three counts for the sake of record-keeping in the clerk of courts office.
She said three counts will include one for all the pornographic tapes recovered, the second for pornographic books and the third for pornographic photographs. Baldwin ordered Yarrosh to serve five years probation consecutive to the theft charge on the first count, and then five years concurrent probation on each of the two additional charges.
NEW JERSEY
Echoes-Sentinel
RITA ANNAN-BRADY 04/27/2005
LONG HILL TWP The name of the Rev. Gerald Ruane is one that is well known, not only locally but also on a national and international scale.
The former Catholic priest, once director of the Sacred Heart Institute of Healing on Roseland Avenue in Caldwell, and a former professor at Caldwell College, was a renowned member of the charismatic healing movement for decades. He has written numerous books and produced audiotapes, videos and speeches on the practice of spiritual healing.
But, according to the Archdiocese of Newark, Ruane has been out of the ministry since 2002 following an allegation of sexual misconduct 25 years ago that the Archdiocesan Review Board found to be credible.
So when it was learned that the former priest concelebrated Mass at the Shrine of St. Joseph in the Stirling section of Long Hill Township on Holy Thursday, March 24 this year, Michael Iatesta, the alleged victim of Ruane, was moved to speak out.
Through his pastoral counselor, the Rev. Robert Hoatson, Iatesta complained to the Newark Archdiocese about Ruane’s role in performing the Mass.
HOUSTON (TX)
News Channel 10
UPDATED: 2:35 pm EDT April 27, 2005
HOUSTON -- Three Houston-area men used a letter written by Pope Benedict XVI while he was a cardinal as the basis for a lawsuit against the Catholic Church.
The men claim that they are victims of the church's sex scandal and that a letter written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is proof that he conspired to keep claims of sex abuse secret.
In a Houston federal courtroom, the men's attorneys told Judge Lee Rosenthal Tuesday that the now-pope tried to cover up sex crimes against children in the Catholic Church.
"We believe, actually, that the current pope, when he was head of the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, actually was actively involved in that conspiracy," plaintiffs' attorney Daniel Shea said.
The plaintiffs said when they were 11, 12 and 13 years old, they were molested at St. Francis de Sales in southwest Houston in 1995.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
A Schuylkill County Catholic priest who was charged with having hundreds of child pornography photos, books, magazines, videotapes and DVDs at his home and a rental storage unit and with embezzling church money, pleaded guilty Wednesday in county court to three counts of sexual abuse of children, criminal use of a communication facility, theft and receiving stolen property.
But a judge delayed sentencing pending an evaluation of the Rev. Ronald J. Yarrosh.
Yarrosh, 57, was an assistant pastor at St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven and on the advisory board of the parish grade school when charged in April 2004.
Police searching Yarrosh's bedroom, library-sitting room and office at the rectory April 23 found a "voluminous" amount of pornography that included books and magazines with pictures of prepubescent children in various stages of dress, performing sex acts and in erotic poses, an affidavit says.
CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Scene Weekly
BY CHRIS MAAG
feedback@clevescene.com
The victims rose, one after another, for eight full hours, telling stories of their childhoods, when the most trusted people in their lives raped them.
Sodomized them.
Groped them.
Lied to them.
Under the intricate gold leaf of the hearing room, beneath the oversized portraits of dead statesmen and the bank of senators peering down from a high bench, people who had never before talked in public took the microphone and described the abuse they had suffered at the hands of Catholic priests. Their families stood behind them and cried.
As the tears fell, something amazing happened up on that bench. The senators listened. Ohio law currently bars people over the age of 20 from suing someone who abused them when they were children. Senate Bill 17 raises the age to 38. It also creates a "look-back" period: For one year after the law's passage, anyone victimized after 1970 would be allowed to sue.
Most of the senators entered the room that March morning either neutral or opposed to the bill. This, after all, is the Ohio Senate, where the Republican majority has done its best to stop injured people from suing.
But as testimony wore into the evening, the audience watched as senators grew still, leaned forward, pushed tears from their eyes, and changed their minds. "It was the most amazing thing I've seen in my legislative experience," says Senator Marc Dann (D-Liberty Township). "Usually these hearings are pretty perfunctory, and the decisions are made beforehand in a back room. But this time, you could tell it was real."
SPOKANE (WA)
KXLY
It is the most comprehensive snap-shot released publicly of the sex abuse scandal that has driven the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington into bankruptcy.
On Tuesday the Spokane Diocese released a detailed list of the 140 claims of priest sex abuse. The earliest claim stems from abuse dating back to 1932. The most recent claim reportedly happened in 1989. Fourteen priests are named, 6 clergy unnamed. Nineteen claims were resolved for 1.5-million dollars before bankruptcy. Fifty-seven more were in litigation with plaintiffs asking for more then 60-million dollars. Still another 64 victims have claimed abuse, but were not fighting the church in court.
If you'd like to read these documents yourself, check the links section.
TUCSON (AZ)
phillyburbs.com
The Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson has filed an amended bankruptcy organization plan, seeking to cap its payout for sex-abuse claims at $20 million. A plaintiffs' lawyer said the amount wasn't enough and vowed to challenge the proposal.
Initial payments to alleged abuse victims would range from $100,000 to $600,000, depending on the severity of the abuse, according to the amended plan filed Monday.
The bankruptcy court has logged 103 abuse claims against the diocese, which in September became the second in the country to file for Chapter 11 reorganization protection in the face of litigation stemming from alleged sexual abuse by priests.
Critics said the cap falls short of compensating victims whose claims are substantiated.
"It's nowhere near going to pay the victims what they deserve," said Kim E. Williamson, an attorney representing 25 alleged sex-abuse victims.
MISSOURI
KSDK
By Cordell Whitlock
(KSDK) - A second conviction against a former priest and school counselor has been overturned. Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled James Beine was wrongfully convicted on sex charges.
In 2003, Beine was sentenced to twelve years in prison for exposing himself to three boys in a restroom at a St. Louis elementary school.
Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict Beine, and that the statute under which he was charged was unconstitutional.
The justices said the law was too broad and could punish anyone for using a public restroom.
In December of 2003, an appeals court overturned a child pornography conviction involving Beine. They ruled the evidence was seized illegally in that case.
WORCESTER (MA)
The Standard-Times
By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press writer
WORCESTER -- The convicted murderer accused in the jailhouse killing of John Geoghan said yesterday that he was beaten by prison guards after he was pulled from the former priest's cell.
Joseph Druce, who is already serving a life sentence for another murder, is asking a judge to dismiss the charges that he killed Geoghan, a convicted pedophile, in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.
He testified during a hearing in Worcester Superior Court that he has been abused and harassed by officials at the maximum-security prison in Shirley and barred from meeting privately with his lawyers there and at MCI-Cedar Junction, the prison where Druce was transferred in October 2003.
Druce said guards handcuffed and shackled him after he was taken from Geoghan's cell following the Aug. 23, 2003, killing. "They walked me out and around the corner," he said, "and that's when my head was pummeled."
He said the beating resulted in a cracked or broken rib.
SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Express-News
Tom Bower
Express-News Staff Writer
A 52-year-old Catholic priest on probation for indecent exposure was indicted Tuesday on four counts of possession of child pornography.
Pornographic images were discovered by a cable service technician at the priest's Leon Valley home, according to a 2004 affidavit.
Father Jerzy Sieczynski, former associate pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church, is accused of having photo images of boys engaged in sexual conduct on his laptop computer, First Assistant District Attorney Michael Bernard said Tuesday.
"There were hundreds of (images), but we only charged him with possession of four of them," Bernard said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Sieczynski remained in Bexar County Jail in lieu of $15,000 bail.
SAN ANTONIO (TX)
KSAT
POSTED: 9:33 pm CDT April 26, 2005
UPDATED: 9:41 pm CDT April 26, 2005
SAN ANTONIO -- A San Antonio priest on probation for indecent exposure is back in jail, charged with four counts of possession of child pornography.
The Rev. Jerzy Sieczynski appeared before a magistrate Tuesday afternoon and bond was set at $15,000. He's being held at the Bexar County Jail.
"It is an abuse of children in many aspects; from those that produce it and take photographs and whatnot to those who use it for sexual gratification," said Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed.
The indictment comes two years after Sieczynski was placed on probation for exposing himself to an undercover police officer at a local park.
Sieczynski pleaded no contest to the charge and was removed from St. Matthews Catholic Church, where he was an associate pastor. He was also prohibited from public ministry in the San Antonio Archdiocese.
JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star
HEATHER J. CARLSON
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the sexual misconduct conviction of a former priest and elementary school counselor accused of exposing himself in front of three boys in a school bathroom.
In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled Missouri's sexual misconduct statute was unconstitutional and too broad.
James Beine, a counselor in St. Louis schools for more than a decade, was dismissed from the priesthood in 1977 over allegations of sexual abuse. He allegedly exposed himself to two male students while using a urinal in the spring of 2001. A third boy lodged a similar complaint.
BROCKTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | April 27, 2005
An 80-year-old suspended priest was arraigned yesterday, accused of raping a boy twice on the same day 14 years ago at a church in Plymouth, officials said.
On April 1, a Plymouth County grand jury indicted the Rev. Anthony J. Laurano, the former pastor of St. Mary's Parish, on two counts of child rape. The indictment charges that Laurano raped the 8-year-old boy the week before his first Holy Communion.
Laurano, who lives in Hull, pleaded not guilty to the charges in Plymouth Superior Court in Brockton and was released on his own recognizance yesterday morning, said Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokeswoman for Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz. Superior Court Judge Suzanne DelVecchio also ordered Laurano to have no contact with children under age 18 and to stay away from the victim until the trial.
ROCKFORD (IL)
Rockford Register Star
The issue getting the most court time in a sexual assault lawsuit against the Rockford Catholic Diocese is how much information can be made public.
A Kane County court ruled last week that sworn testimony gathered by lawyers as they prepare for trial shall not be shared beyond the attorneys, their staffs and their clients.
The order refers to statements made in pretrial depositions regarding the suit, which was filed by two young women who say they were assaulted by priest Mark Campobello in 1999 and 2000 when he served a Kane County church and school. The two women, now young adults, are suing the diocese and Campobello, asking for more than $50,000 each for emotional and psychological damage.
Still to be decided, at the next court hearing June 16, is whether the diocese has to release files on more than 30 other priests who have been accused of sexual misbehavior in the past 50 years.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
'OUR FATHERS' IN TOWN Actor Christopher Plummer, who plays Cardinal Bernard Law in the Showtime movie ''Our Fathers" about the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis, will be in Boston on Tuesday. Plummer will be joined by author David France for a screening of the film at Parris in the Faneuil Hall Marketplace. The film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with local abuse survivors and their advocates, including Olan Horne and Bernie McDaid from the Survivors of Joe Birmingham, William Gately from Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, and Jim Post from Voice of the Faithful. The film will air May 21 on Showtime.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
Tuesday, Apr. 26 2005
St. Louis' top prosecutor said Tuesday she will try to build a new case against
James Beine after the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the conviction of the
former school counselor who had been accused of exposing himself to three
students at the city elementary school where he worked.
"I'm disappointed and frustrated by it," said Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce.
"In my opinion, Mr. Beine has had a long career of abusing children. In my
opinion, he's dangerous."
Joyce said her office has received at least 36 complaints alleging sexual abuse
by Beine, a former Roman Catholic priest, but that the statute of limitations
has expired for "virtually all." She said she would decide today whether there
is anything more she could prosecute.
It was the second major legal victory in about four months for Beine, most
recently of Highland, whose federal conviction on a charge of possessing child
pornography was reversed by an appeals court in December.
Three students at Patrick Henry Elementary School, just north of downtown, said
Beine exposed his genitals during the 2000-2001 school year as he urinated in a
bathroom. He was indicted in 2002 and convicted by a jury in 2003 of four
counts of sexual misconduct involving a child by indecent exposure. He was
sentenced to 12 years in prison.
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— The inmate accused of murdering defrocked pedophile priest John J. Geoghan told a judge yesterday that he was beaten by correction officers and denied immediate medical attention after being removed from the victim’s cell on the day of the killing.
Joseph L. Druce, charged with murder in the Aug. 23, 2003, strangulation and beating death of the 68-year-old Mr. Geoghan at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, recounted his removal from the defrocked priest’s cell during a Worcester Superior Court hearing on a defense motion to dismiss the charge against him.
Mr. Druce testified that he did not put up any resistance after being handcuffed and shackled by guards and led around a corner from Mr. Geoghan’s cell to a “blind spot,” outside the range of prison surveillance cameras. “That’s when I had my head just pummeled,” Mr. Druce said. He testified he was taken to the prison’s health services unit, where he said he was denied pain medication until after he spoke to state police investigators.
Mr. Druce allegedly told police he killed Mr. Geoghan, who was serving time for molesting a 10-year-old boy, “to save the children.” At the time of the killing, Mr. Druce was serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of a man he believed was gay.
Still pending is a motion to suppress Mr. Druce’s statement to investigators in the Geoghan slaying. His lawyer, John H. LaChance, maintains that Mr. Druce was “in pain, suffering from a major mental illness and in a manic state” at the time of the police interrogation.
The motion to dismiss — the subject of yesterday’s hearing — is based on a claim that prison officials have interfered with Mr. Druce’s right to a fair trial through “a pattern of misconduct and coercion.” Mr. Druce’s claims include allegations that unreasonable restrictions have been placed on his communications with his lawyer and that legal materials have been removed from his cell and not returned. He has also alleged that he was subjected to harassment for rejecting the advice of a prison official that he plead guilty to the murder of Mr. Geoghan and seek a transfer to an out-of-state prison, “get out of Dodge,” as he put it.
Mr. Druce told Judge Timothy S. Hillman yesterday that he was denied face-to-face meetings with Mr. LaChance during his stay at the Souza -Baranowski Correctional Center, which is located on the Lancaster-Shirley line. He said he was reluctant to discuss defense strategy with Mr. LaChance via telephone in the prison’s “no-contact” visiting area for fear that the attorney-client conversations were being monitored.
The hearing was scheduled to resume today.
HOUSTON (TX)
Click 2 Houston
POSTED: 5:46 pm CDT April 26, 2005
UPDATED: 6:13 pm CDT April 26, 2005
HOUSTON -- Three Houston-area men used a letter written by Pope Benedict XVI while he was a cardinal as the basis for a lawsuit against the Catholic Church, Local 2 reported in an exclusive story Tuesday.
The men claim that they are victims of the church's sex scandal and that a letter written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is proof that he conspired to keep claims of sex abuse secret.
In a Houston federal courtroom, the men's attorneys told Judge Lee Rosenthal Tuesday that the now-pope tried to cover up sex crimes against children in the Catholic Church.
"We believe, actually, that the current pope, when he was head of the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, actually was actively involved in that conspiracy," plaintiffs' attorney Daniel Shea said.
The plaintiffs said when they were 11, 12 and 13 years old, they were molested at St. Francis de Sales in southwest Houston in 1995.
WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - Updated: 04:08 PM EST
WORCESTER, Mass. - The convicted murderer accused in the jailhouse killing of John Geoghan said Tuesday that he was beaten by prison guards after he was pulled from the former priest's cell.
Joseph Druce, who is already serving a life sentence for another murder, is asking a judge to dismiss the charges that he killed Geoghan, a convicted pedophile, in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.
He testified during a hearing in Worcester Superior Court that he has been abused and harassed by officials at the maximum-security prison in Shirley and barred from meeting privately with his lawyers.
Druce said guards handcuffed and shackled him after he was taken from Geoghan's cell following the Aug. 23, 2003 killing. ``They walked me out and around the corner,'' he said, ``and that's when my head was pummeled.''
He said the beating resulted in a cracked or broken rib.
JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
KansasCity.com
HEATHER J. CARLSON
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The state Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the sexual misconduct charges of a former priest and elementary school counselor, ruling the state law under which he was charged was unconstitutionally broad.
On a 4-3 decision, the court ruled there is insufficient evidence that James Beine, a counselor at St. Louis' Patrick Henry Elementary School in 2000 and 2001, committed sexual misconduct when he urinated in a school bathroom in front of three male students.
Beine had worked as a counselor in the city schools for more than a decade before resigning at the time of his arrest. He was dismissed from the priesthood in 1977 over allegations of sexual abuse.
To commit sexual misconduct by indecent exposure, state law requires that the exposure be done "in a manner that would cause a reasonable adult to believe that the conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm to a child less than 14 years old."
BROCKTON (MA)
Brockton Enterprise
enterprise wire and staff report
BROCKTON — A suspended priest was to be arraigned today in a Brockton court on charges he raped a boy in Plymouth in 1991, authorities said.
The Rev. Anthony J. Laurano, 80, was indicted earlier this month on two counts of child rape, according to Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokeswoman for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz.
Laurano, who retired from St. Mary's Church in Plymouth in 1995 and has been living in Hull, was placed on administrative leave in 2002 after abuse allegations surfaced.
Middleton wouldn't provide any additional information about the allegations. Laurano's attorney, Santina Gerber, didn't immediately return a phone call.
Laurano has been free pending his arraignment today in Plymouth Superior Court in Brockton.
According to Enterprise files, Laurano was ordained a priest in May 1950 and was assigned to St. Mary's parish in north Plymouth at that time. He left the Plymouth parish in February 1956 to serve at St. Catherine of Genoa Church in Somerville. His assignments between the Somerville parish and his return to St. Mary's in Plymouth at a later date could not be immediately determined.
BROCKTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - Updated: 04:06 PM EST
BROCKTON, Mass. - An 80-year-old Roman Catholic priest pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges he raped a boy 14 years ago at a parish in Plymouth.
The Rev. Anthony Laurano, of Hull, was arraigned in Brockton Superior Court on two counts of rape of a child and released on his own recognizance.
The charges stem from a 1991 incident when Laurano was pastor of St. Mary's Church in Plymouth, prosecutors said. The alleged victim was an 8-year-old boy who was allegedly raped by Laurano twice during the week before his first communion.
Laurano was suspended from the priesthood two years ago when the allegations surfaced.
As condition of his release he was ordered to have no contact with children and is due back in court next month.
NEW YORK
Capital News 9
4/25/2005 10:16 PM
By: Capital News 9 web staff
He's known for his crusade for alleged victims of clergy sex abuse. But one man who doesn't like what attorney John Aretakis stands for went a little bit too far.
Daniel Borden, 48, turned himself in to North Greenbush police Monday night after admitting to leaving a rather threatening message on Aretakis' answering machine.
Borden, a former supervisor in North Greenbush, is being charged with second-degree aggravated harassment. He got into an argument Sunday in Troy with Aretakis at an anti-Bishop Hubbard rally.
NORTH GREENBUSH (NY)
Troy Record
By: Robert Cristo, The Record 04/26/2005
NORTH GREENBUSH - Former town Supervisor Daniel Borden was arrested Monday for allegedly threatening attorney John Aretakis, who represents numerous alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.
Borden, of Troy, was expected to turn himself in to North Greenbush Police Monday night on aggravated harassment charges for making statements to Aretakis that police characterized as "threatening."
Aretakis is a North Greenbush resident.
The often outspoken attorney says he was awakened by the phone around 3:25 a.m. Monday and heard the threatening message left on his answering machine.
North Greenbush Police confirmed the voice on the message was Borden's.
"He threatened my life. ... When someone calls you in the middle of the night, it shows that they don't care about anything, so I'm pretty concerned and frightened for me, my wife and kids," said Aretakis.
Borden, who was the North Greenbush town supervisor in the late 1980s, was allegedly caught on tape saying he would settle his dispute with Aretakis "in a different manner" when television cameras were not around.
Borden allegedly blasts Aretakis on tape for making nasty comments to him outside a church-related event on Sunday, but Aretakis claims Borden was actually arguing with someone else and that he never spoke with him.
"I'm sick and tired of you bashing the (expletive) out the Catholic church. ... If you ever say to me what you said, John, you are going to be spending some time in (a) medical facility," Borden was heard saying on the answering machine provided by Aretakis.
SPRINGFIELD (MO)
News-Leader
By Linda Leicht
News-Leader
Lawyers for Methodist conference ask whether plaintiff's mental health was hurt by his behavior.
For the second time in a week, attorneys for the West Missouri Conference of the Methodist Church raised questions about marital infidelity in the case of a woman who is suing the church over an alleged rape by a local pastor.
Sid Norris testified Friday afternoon about the mental health of his wife, Teresa Norris, since the alleged rape seven years ago. He was asked under cross examination if his own infidelity could have affected his wife's mental health. No mention of an affair had been raised during direct examination.
The husband admitted that he had a brief affair with another woman in 2002, which he says was, in part, due to his wife's inability to be intimate following the alleged attack by the Rev. David Finestead.
WORCESTER (MA)
MetroWest Daily News
By Sara Withee / Daily News Staff
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
WORCESTER -- The Rev. Paul Desilets made his long-awaited court appearance via video conference yesterday as Worcester District Attorney John Conte announced his office is working on a plea deal that likely will include time behind bars.
"We're going to be asking for jail time," Conte told reporters outside the Worcester Superior courtroom where the ailing 81-year-old Catholic priest was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail.
After three years of fighting extradition in Canada, the retired priest returned to the United States Friday to face charges he allegedly abused 18 former altar boys at the now-closed Our Lady of Assumption parish in Bellingham during the 1970s and '80s.
Desilets had been scheduled to attend his arraignment in person, but Conte and Worcester County sheriff officials said court officials kept him at the Worcester House of Correction due to safety concerns.
Joseph Druce, the inmate charged with killing defrocked priest John Geoghan at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in 2003, was in court yesterday for motion hearings.
WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Herald
By Thomas Caywood
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - Updated: 03:12 AM EST
Worcester District Attorney John Conte said yesterday his office will try to negotiate a plea agreement with an elderly priest extradited from Canada after a three-year court battle.
``Most of the victims are in agreement with what we are about to do,'' the DA said, later adding, ``They feel there is a certain amount of closure in bringing Rev. Desilets back.''
Conte wouldn't elaborate on the kind of deal he's contemplating other than to say he will seek jail time for the Rev. Paul Desilets, who was arraigned yesterday via closed-circuit television from the Worcester County House of Correction.
Desilets pleaded innocent through his lawyer to nearly three dozen counts of molesting 18 altar boys at a Bellingham church in the 1970s and early 1980s. The 82-year-old retired Catholic clergyman looked frail and bewildered on the courtroom television screen with his mouth agape and his eyes wandering.
The elderly priest was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail. One of his lawyers told the judge Desilets couldn't make bail.
The statute of limitation on his alleged crimes didn't run out as was the case with other accused priests because Desilets left the country to retire in his native Canada. He fought extradition for three years in the Canadian courts before unexpectedly giving up and agreeing to return last week.
BELLINGHAM (MA)
Woonsocket Call
JOSEPH B. NADEAU, Staff Writer 04/26/2005
BELLINGHAM -- A retired priest who served at Assumption Parish in the mid-1970s and ’80s pleaded innocent Monday to charges of sexually assaulting former altar boys of the church and began talks with Worcester County District Attorney John J. Conte’s office on a possible plea settlement of the case.
The Rev. Paul M. Desilets, 81, was arraigned in Worcester County Superior Court on 32 indictments handed up by a Worcester County grand jury in April 2002 and pleaded innocent to all the charges, according to Conte. His next appearance in the court will be on May 13 for a pretrial conference.
Desilets was arrested by Canadian authorities on the charges in October 2002 while living with the Clerics of St. Viator religious order in Quebec.
The charges cover 18 of the 22 victims who came forward with allegations against Desilets during an investigation conducted in 2002 by Bellingham police detectives Richard Perry and Christopher Ferreira, and Conte’s investigator, state trooper Thomas Ryan.
The former Assumption associate pastor remained in Canada until last Friday, when he gave up a lengthy series of appeals to Canadian courts.
CANADA
Edmonton Sun
WINNIPEG -- A disgraced Ontario pastor pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually assaulting the 17-year-old son of a Winnipeg colleague while visiting the man's home last year. Rev. Andrew Paulsen, 56, received a two-year suspended sentence under a joint recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers. He must abstain from alcohol and not have unsupervised contact with children under 14.
Paulsen stepped down from his church duties in Cambridge, Ont., when news of his arrest surfaced in the community last fall.
A subdued Paulsen read from a handwritten letter and apologized for his actions, which he blamed on chronic alcohol abuse for which he's now receiving professional help.
Paulsen came to Winnipeg in February 2004 for a business trip and was picked up at the airport by the victim's father, who is a Lutheran pastor.