In Wake of Landmark Fraud Decision, Victims Urging Brown County DA to Launch Investigation of Green Bay Diocese

SNAP Wisconsin
May 22, 2012

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In wake of landmark fraud decision, victims urging Brown County DA to launch investigation of Green Bay diocese

Group wants law enforcement to examine the "scope and nature" and the "pattern and practice" of concealing child molesters and systematic destruction of thousands of pages of evidence

WHEN
Tuesday, May 22, 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Brown County DA's Office, 300 East Walnut Street

WHAT
After discussing the landmark decision by an Appleton jury on Monday that the diocese of Green Bay is guilty of fraud in concealing the sex abuse history of former priest John Patrick Feeney, victim/survivors of childhood sexual assault by Wisconsin clergy who are leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com) will attempt to hand deliver a letter to the Brown County DA asking him to investigate the full "scope and depth" of the concealment of at least 50 other clergy known or suspected by the diocese of Green Bay to have sexually assaulted minors over the past decades. The number is the latest available data derived from a self-report submitted for a national study commissioned by the US Bishops by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and published in 2004. 16 of these offenders are members of the Norbertine religious order which is headquartered and works in ministries for the Green Bay diocese.

Although the diocese has maintained that it has furnished the DA with the names of all known offenders, survivors will release an email from previous Brown County DA John Zakowski which shows that as of that date no such information has been provided to the DA's office. And, in 2007, according to depositions taken for the current fraud case, senior diocesan church officials have admitted to the systematic destruction of what appears to be nearly all evidence of criminal behavior by clergy and fraudulent concealment of those crimes by church officials.

On Wednesday, the jury in Appleton will reconvene to hear new testimony to consider if punitive damages will be assessed against the diocese.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Visit us at SNAPnetwork.org and SNAPwisconsin.com