Lawyer Posts Abusive Priests' Phone Numbers

By Andrew Herrmann
Chicago Sun-Times
August 15, 2008

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/1109339,CST-NWS-abuse15.article

An attorney who represented victims of pedophile priests in a settlement with the Archdiocese of Chicago posted on his Web site Thursday the addresses and, in some cases, phone numbers of some of the alleged offenders. [See the Anderson list.]

"I have no problem people calling them and asking them if they're still abusing kids," said attorney Jeff Anderson, who posted the names of nine men cited in the $12.7 million settlement.

Pedophiles have high recidivism rates, "and they live in somebody's neighborhood," said Anderson, who posted the names on his site, andersonadvocates.com.

"I can't put them behind bars, but I can alert people that they live in their communities," said Anderson, of St. Paul, Minn., who compiled the list off documents and research related to the case.

"This is something the archdiocese should have done. This is what needs to be done," said Anderson, whose firm claims to have represented more than 3,000 victims of sexual abuse.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Colleen Dolan said Anderson "told our lawyers that he intended to post them," adding that "what he chooses to post is totally up to him." The archdiocese's Web site -- archchicago.org -- names 62 priests no longer in ministry because of substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, she said. [See the original 3/20/06 list; see also the list as downloaded on 9/15/08. As of that date, the archdiocese's URL for the list was http://www.archchicago.org/c_s_abuse/report_032006/list.pdf], but note that the file name still dates the file 3/20/06, although the file has been revised since that date, and it is the revised file that is posted by the archdiocese.

Some men on Anderson's list, such as Norbert Maday and Daniel McCormack, are incarcerated. Calls to the numbers of others listed went unanswered Thursday.

However, Donald Ryniecki, the former principal of St. Joseph the Worker Church school in Wheeling, who was never criminally charged but was named in the settlement, told WBBM-AM (780) he had no comment on his Downstate Hebron address and number being made public. "The less said ... end of comment," he said.

At a press conference this week, victim Bob Brancato, 39, said he was raped at ages 12 and 13 by Ryniecki and the Rev. James R. Steel. Brancato said the abuse "will never be over for me" and that he is prone to flashbacks in the supermarket when he sees a brand of soap he used to use to clean himself after being abused.