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	Navy Officer Settles Church Sex Abuse Lawsuit By Randall Chase The News Journal September 25, 2008 http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080924/NEWS/80924028 DOVER - A Navy doctor awarded $41 million in damages by a federal jury after alleging he was raped by a Catholic priest has settled a separate state lawsuit against church officials. Attorneys for Cmdr. Kenneth Whitwell said today that he has settled a lawsuit against Archmere Academy in Claymont and the Delaware, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin branches of the Norbertine religious order. The settlement involves an undisclosed sum and apologies to Whitwell and members of the Archmere community for the abuse that Whitwell, now 40, suffered at the hands of the Rev. Edward J. Smith. A similar settlement was reached with the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington in January, with the diocese agreeing to pay Whitwell $450,000. Defense attorneys in the state lawsuit unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of a Delaware law enacted last year that allowed victims previously barred by the statute of limitations a two-year window in which to seek damages for past abuse. "It has been a long and difficult journey, but settlement is an important step in the healing process for myself and my family," Whitwell said in a statement released by his attorneys. "My goals in these court cases have always been simple ones — to tell the truth about past injustices and ensure that young children are protected from sexual predators in the future." Whitwell, who is assigned to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla., said he was particularly proud of the fact that Superior Court Judge Robert Young upheld the 2007 law "and kept the courthouse doors open to all my fellow survivors." "After Judge Young upheld the constitutionality of the landmark Child Victim's Act of 2007, the writing was on the wall," said Thomas Neuberger, one of Whitwell's attorneys. According to Neuberger, the settlement includes Archmere's expression of "deep remorse" for the abuse Whitwell suffered, and an acknowledgment by Archmere and the Norbertines that Smith never should have been assigned to that academy or an institution with children. Mark Reardon, an attorney for Archmere, confirmed the settlement but referred questions to academy officials, who had no immediate comment. William Kelleher, an attorney representing the Delaware and Pennsylvania Norbertines, also had no immediate comment. Michael Onufrak, a lawyer representing the Wisconsin order, did not immediately return a telephone message. Whitwell alleged in his lawsuit that Smith sexually abused him more than 200 times in the 1980s, when Smith was the campus minister and a religion and English teacher at Archmere, a Catholic high school in Claymont run by the Norbertines. The lawsuit also claimed that Smith was transferred to Archmere two years after he was removed from his position as principal at St. John Neumann high school in Philadelphia after being caught sexually abusing male students there in 1980. Whitwell won a default judgment against Smith in federal court in Wilmington last year after Smith failed to respond to claims that he molested Whitwell during ski trips to Vermont. A jury subsequently awarded him $6 million in compensatory damages and $35 million in punitive damages.
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