MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
Missouri prosecutors apparently now have a chance to pursue charges against some child molesters even in cases that are decades old. We hope they’ll take advantage of this opportunity.
We urge Missouri prosecutors to look long and hard at the successful prosecution (which ended yesterday) of a serial predator priest in Cooper County for crimes he committed in the 1980s.
All too often, law enforcement officials quickly tell victims “You’re too late. The statute of limitations has run.” That’s not necessarily the case. Time and time again, over the last 25 years, we in SNAP have seen that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” We’ve seen that if they are determined and creative, police and prosecutors can charge and convict older sex offenders.
That’s what the Cooper County prosecutor has done. Parents and child sex abuse victims across Missouri owe him a debt of gratitude.
We are not lawyers, but our understanding is that Fr. Jerry Howard is behind bars now for two basic reasons. First, Abele argued that Missouri’s statute of limitations stopped “ticking” when Fr. Howard left the state. And second, Abele argued that because lawmakers have repeatedly changed the statute of limitations, Fr. Howard’s crimes in the 1980s could still be prosecuted.
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