KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
09/30/2014

In 2011, Jon David Couzens got a frantic call from a longtime friend who told him that her daughter might be a victim of sexual abuse by a priest.

After the call, Angela Couzens told jurors in a Jackson County courtroom on Tuesday, her son went through an immediate transformation.

“He was curled up in a fetal position, unable to function,” she said, her voice wavering, and he stayed that way for about a month. “He was sobbing day and night whenever I saw him.”

Angela Couzens’ testimony came on the second day of a civil trial involving her son, who alleges that he suffered sexual abuse by Monsignor Thomas O’Brien three decades ago and that the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph was told repeatedly that O’Brien was a danger…