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Priest Molested St. Richard Student. Did Catholic Church, District Attorney Act?

By Sarah Fowler
Mississippi Clarion Ledger
January 31, 2019

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/01/31/catholic-church-sex-abuse-mississippi-priest-st-richard-school-robert-shuler-smith/2700835002/

A man has filed suit in Hinds County, alleging he was sexually abused by a priest as a child. According to the suit, the abuse occurred in St. Richard Catholic Church in Jackson. (Photo: Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger)

A Ridgeland man who says he was sexually abused by a priest in 2004 as a 9-year-old has filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Jackson and a local Catholic school.

The allegation was reported to the diocese in 2014, and the diocese launched an internal investigation in addition to notifying the Hinds County District Attorney's office. District Attorney Robert Schuler Smith said this week that his office did not investigate because they were waiting on information from the diocese.

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 28 in Hinds County, only identifies the 24-year-old plaintiff as "John Doe" and the alleged abuser as "Defendant Father John Doe."

The accused priest was never identified by the boy, the church or law enforcement.

The lawsuit names the diocese, St. Richard Catholic Church, St. Richard Catholic School, Father Mike O'Brien, Bishop Joseph Latino, former St. Richard principal Jules Michel, Bishop Joseph Kopacz, Monsignor Elvin Sunds, an unidentified priest (Father John Doe) and 10 other unidentified individuals (John Doe I-X).

O'Brien was the pastor of St. Richard and Michel the school principal at the time of the alleged abuse; Latino was Jackson's bishop.

Kopacz is the current bishop of the diocese. Sunds was a priest at St. Richard and later served as vicar general for the diocese.

Lawsuit: Priest made boy strip to confess sins

As of Wednesday morning, the diocese had not been served, according to its spokesperson. However, the diocese provided documentation regarding its actions at the time it was made aware of the allegation.

John Hawkins, attorney for the young man, said, "The allegations in the complaint are very serious, and we intend to prosecute the action to the fullest extent of the law."

Hawkins said his client is "allowed under the law" to be identified as "John Doe" in the suit so he could "seek justice on behalf of himself and others without subjecting himself to more pain and suffering that would come with him being publicly identified."

According to the lawsuit, in 2004, the boy was made to strip naked and confess his sins to a priest at St. Richard Catholic Church in Jackson.

The lawsuit alleges that in December 2004, the child attended reconciliation, also known as confession, at St. Richard Church, along with all other St. Richard Catholic schoolchildren in grades three through six.

Priests from other parishes were brought to the church to help that day, "given the number of children involved."

"Father John Doe," a Mississippi priest operating under the Jackson diocese, was one of those priests, the lawsuit says.

The boy "waited his turn and was directed by one of his teachers to a room behind the altar where the door was closed and where he found himself alone with Defendant Father Doe.

"Father Doe made (the child) undress completely and stand before him nude for a period of time while Father Doe examined (him), made references to his body and forced (him) to recite his alleged 'sins' or wrongdoing while being observed by Father Doe. He told (the child) he had picked him for this and that he was not to speak of what happened," according to the lawsuit.

That day, the child told a teacher what happened, the lawsuit says, and the teacher responded, "Don't lie like that."

Diocese hired private investigator for claim

In 2006, the diocese settled with 19 of 20 victims who said they were abused by priests. In a statement issued by Latino at the time, the abuse of the 19 occurred between the "early 1960s and early 1980s." Apologizing on behalf of the church, Latino said, "we are mortified that the crime of sexual abuse took place in our church and are determined it will not happen again."

In 2014, when he was 19, the plaintiff "suffered an emotional episode" and told his parents what happened, the lawsuit states. A month later, in May 2014, the plaintiff's mother spoke with Kopacz and Sunds.

Jackson Diocese spokeswoman Maureen Smith said since the allegation was not part of an active case, the diocese followed the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a policy enacted by the Catholic Church in 2002. The diocese hired a private investigator and contacted the Hinds County District Attorney's office. The mother was provided contact information for the investigator, Smith said. The investigator was not named in the lawsuit.

On Thursday, Smith said the diocese also sent the allegation to the Mississippi Department of Human Services for investigation in May 2014. When contacted Thursday for confirmation and comment, DHS referred calls to the Department of Child Protection Services. A spokesperson with CPS said they couldn't comment.

On May 22, 2014, an attorney for the diocese sent a letter to Schuler Smith that contained graphic details not mentioned in the lawsuit and, at the request of his parents, only identified the boy as "John Doe."

According to the letter, the boy "claims that after hearing his confession, the visiting priest told the boy to come to the sacristy, and the priest pulled down the boy's pants and raped him."

The boy, the letter said, did not know the priest but described him as "Irish, old, fat and bald."

"We will continue our investigation and will attempt to identify the alleged perpetrator," the letter from the diocese's attorney stated.

Church officials said this week it is not the practice for priests to take children in a closed room at St. Richard during reconciliation.

DA: We couldn't investigate without priest's identity

Schuler Smith said Wednesday his office did not investigate the incident after receiving the letter. Instead, he said, the DA's office waited on the diocese to conduct its own investigation and identify the priest. Schuler Smith said he does not remember if he contacted the diocese after receiving the letter but said it would have been unlikely because "without an identity we can't do anything."

"The letter appears to be their attorney fulfilling the ethical obligation to report an alleged event...but (as far as) the identity of the perpetrator and the identity of the victim, they did not go further," Schuler Smith said. "In fact, at the end of the letter it says they will continue to investigate and when they finished, would identify the perpetrator.

"We certainly appreciated them notifying us, but we certainly could not move forward without the identity. We didn't have anything to investigate."

He added, "We get letters all the time. We have to rely on people who are ready to come forward. It appears that they were not ready, the entire matter.

"Pursuant to the letter, we have to wait until they've revealed the identity of the alleged perpetrator, which they have not done."

Schuler Smith was not aware of the recent lawsuit until being contacted by the Clarion Ledger. He said his office would now investigate the allegation.

"We will pursue this," he said. "I'm going to have to investigate this lawsuit and find out, have they identified the perpetrator, have they identified the victim?"

Schuler Smith said his office would have to know the name of the plaintiff but would keep his identity confidential.

Maureen Smith said the diocese did not know what, if anything, came from sending the letter to the DA.

"We are not law enforcement so when we hand it over to law enforcement that's us saying we have done everything we can do," Smith said.

The diocese would not reveal the contents of the investigator's report, she said, but the priest was never identified.

"If we could not find anything to substantiate a claim, we would not have done anything as a church," Smith said.

Mother: Investigator said church removed him from case

According to the suit, the boy's mother "was assured this matter would be fully investigated, that a report would be made to the Jackson Police Department regarding the reported abuse and that a private investigator would be hired to undertake an investigation beyond what the church would do internally or what the police department would do."

However, the lawsuit says, "these promises were not kept." It further says the boy's mother contacted the private investigator assigned by the diocese and was told "the church had taken him off the case and the matter was closed."

Smith said the diocese did not contact the police department but relied on the DA's office to do so.

The lawsuit says the plaintiff, as a result of the abuse and the lack of followup, "suffered emotional trauma, anguish" and "commenced upon a self-destructive course." He currently "suffers from chronic psychological injuries," according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff is asking for financial damages to be decided by a jury and for the diocese to "publicly release the names of priests accused of violating the rights of children for the protection of children, for the sake of transparency and to prevent irreparable harm."

The diocese has previously stated it will release this spring the names of priests who were removed from the ministry after allegations of abuse.

 

 

 

 

 




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