MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
October 9, 2013
Editor’s note: This story originally aired on Minnesota Public Radio February 8, 1996. It is being republished as part of a report on the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ handling of child sexual abuse.
Dale Scheffler sat quietly in the atrium of the Hennepin County Government Center, his back to reporters, head down. His wife Ellen stood by him and her parents comforted Scheffler before he stepped before reporters and directed his remarks at Archbishop Harry Flynn.
“Archbishop, I come here today to ask you to please remove him. How can you go on living and knowing that they are doing this — please — I’m asking you to remove these people,” the 28-year-old said, “to remove all these priests that are doing this to these kids that are getting hurt.”
A Hennepin County jury is expected to decide soon if the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis should pay punitive damages to Scheffler, who says he was molested by Rev. Robert Kapoun at the age of 13, back in the 1980s.
The jury has already awarded $550,000 in compensatory damages in Scheffler’s civil suit against the priest.
The archdiocese released a letter in midafternoon writen by Archbishop Flynn saying, effective this spring, 57-year-old Kapoun is resigning as priest of a Prior Lake parish. There is no acknowledgelement in Flynn’s letter the resignation is a response to Dale Scheffler’s plea. In fact, the archdiocese supports Kapoun’s claim he did not molest Scheffler.
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