GALLUP (NM)
Child Protection News

Written on July 16, 2012 by Patrick Noaker

(Gallup, NM) A recent article in the Gallup Independent newspaper reminds us that we do not always have to know exactly what to do to protect kids as long as we do something. The article reports on the settlement of three clergy sexual abuse lawsuits. The cases involved a Roman Catholic priest named Fr. Charles (“Chuck”) Cichanowicz and his sexual abuse of a number of boys on the Navajo Nation reservation in New Mexico and Arizona in the early to mid-1980’s. Unfortunately, since the sexual abuse occurred on the Navajo Nation reservation, no one knew what to do. No one had ever brought a claim for sexual abuse against a non-Navajo Nation member in Navajo Nation Tribal Court and the applicable Navajo Nation law had never even been applied to a sex abuse case. However,…