GREEN BAY (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin
TO: David L. Lasee, District Attorney, Brown County
FROM: Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
Re: Jury verdict against the Green Bay diocese for fraud in child sex abuse
Mr. Lasee,
We are writing to you as victim/survivors of childhood rape, sexual assault and abuse by clergy in Wisconsin and members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Founded in 1989, SNAP is the nation’s oldest and largest self-help organization for survivors of sexual violence by clergy and other religious figures, with over 10,000 members.
Yesterday, a jury in Outagamie County found that the diocese of Green Bay committed fraud by intentionally concealing and then placing in employment with children a known child sex predator, Fr. John Patrick Feeney. Feeney, who was prosecuted and imprisoned in 2004 is one of at least 50 clerics that Green Bay church officials have received credible and actionable reports of child sex abuse or misconduct on over the past decades. At least 16 of these offenders are members of the Norbertine religious order which is headquartered in the Green Bay diocese under the joint authority and supervision of the Green Bay bishop. This figure is derived from a national study conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004 and is, unfortunately, the last and only known data available. The study, while commissioned by the US bishops, did not release any other information besides diocesan self-reported numbers of offenders. Since that time, it is likely that the number of offenders and offenses known to the diocese has increased.
Most of these offenders have never been reported to law enforcement. Although the diocese has repeatedly claimed that it has turned over a list of accused clerics to your office, your predecessor has indicated that this is not the case (see the attached 2008 email response to SNAP from former DA John Zakowski). A number is not much use to the public or to parents who are trying to protect themselves from those who have harmed children, especially individuals who have been placed in positions of occupational and professional trust.
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