By Phillip Zonkel
The Press-Telegram
August 21, 2011
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_18730472
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| Esther Miller hands out fliers to passer-bys of a Buddhist Temple on the West side of Long Beach about a priest who was accused pf sexual abuse at a previous temple. (Tracey Roman) |
LONG BEACH - An organization dedicated to exposing priests who reportedly sexually abused their parishioners distributed leaflets at a Theravada Buddhist temple Sunday because one of the monks allegedly sexually assaulted two girls and fathered a child with one of them at a Buddhist temple in Chicago in 2000.
Members and supporters of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, handed out fliers detailing the allegations against Camnong Boa-Ubol, a Buddhist monk at the Vipassana Foundation, while he was a monk at Wat Dhammaram temple in Chicago in 2000.
The allegations of sexual abuse by Boa-Ubol became public last year, when a woman from the Chicago area filed a lawsuit against Boa-Ubol, Wat Dhammaram and P. Boonshoo Sriburin, the temple's head monk, alleging negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and gender violence, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.
The woman alleges in the lawsuit that Boa-Ubol began sexually assaulting her in Wat Dhammaram when she was 14 and continued for nearly a year until she became pregnant. A recent DNA test concluded with a near 100 percent probability that Boa-Ubol was the father of her 11-year-old daughter, the Tribune reported.
In their response to the lawsuit, Wat Dhammaram and Sriburin acknowledged the woman "probably became pregnant as a result of an act of sexual intercourse with defendant Boa-Ubol" and the DNA testing "was reported as showing that defendant
Boa-Ubol was probably the father," the Tribune reported.
In the other alleged incident, Boa-Ubol had turned off the lights during a tutoring session with a 12-year-old girl, lifted her shirt and kissed and fondled her breasts while pressing against her, the Tribune reported.
The girl's family immediately reported the alleged abuse to monks at Wat Dhammaram. Shortly after, Sriburin wrote a letter to the family, saying the temple's monastic community had resolved the matter and that Boa-Ubol would return to Thailand.
But within months of the November 2000 letter, Boa-Ubol was back in the U.S., at another temple and continued to interact with children.
Sriburin said in an interview that the head monks at Wat Dhammaram chose not to inform the California temple about Boa-Ubol's alleged sexual abuse. He said that under the structure of Theravada Buddhist temples in the U.S, Boa-Ubol was free to continue practicing, the Tribune reported.
At the Vipassana Foundation on Long Beach's Westside, Esther Miller, 52 of Huntington Beach and the director of the Orange County Chapter of SNAP said she wasn't surprised by the temple's reaction.
"It's a different religion, but it's the same story," she said.
Pramuan Simsriwatna, the temple's head monk, said he wasn't aware of the allegations against Boa-Ubol and no one from the Chicago temple had contacted him about them.
He said he was going to contact the temple Sunday night and ask about the allegations.
He said he had asked Boa-Ubol about the allegations and Boa-Ubol said they were not true.
"He (Boa-Ubol) was sent back to Thailand, but now he's back in California," said SNAP's Outreach Director Barbara Dorris.
"We're concerned that child molesters - as far as research, history and experience has taught us - never stop," she said. "We fear for the safety of those children in that congregation.
"We believe the temple should remove him," Dorris said. "He shouldn't be in a position where he has trust and authority over children. We feel they (the temple) should warn people that this man has this record."
Contact: phillip.zonkel@presstelegram.com
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