WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, April 22, 2014
For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com
Court hearing today to be streamed live
It can be watched on-line, starting at 10 a.m.
Case is “virtually unprecedented,” group says
Mormons persuaded judge to give predator a lawyer
And half of his attorney fees are to be paid by abuse victims
National support group blasts that arrangement as “an outrage”
It’s begging those who “saw, suspected or suffered Mormon crimes” to “speak up”
An appeals court hearing today in Charleston involving a controversial child sex abuse and cover up case will be live-streamed on line at http://www.courtswv.gov/supreme-court/webcast.html.
It involves a twice-convicted, now-imprisoned Mormon child molester, Christopher Michael Jensen, who was convicted of assaulting youngsters in both Utah and West Virginia. A dozen children and their parents are suing Mormon officials for allegedly enabling and concealing Jensen’s abuses.
A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is criticizing Mormon church officials, accusing them of “callous, self-serving hardball legal tactics.”
“Mormon officials are trying to scare other victims into staying silent,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “And they’re rubbing even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of these brave but suffering families who have been so severely hurt and betrayed.”
“It’s an outrage that the Mormon church hierarchy has persuaded a judge to make these courageous families pay half the fees for two private lawyers in this case, including one who is defending a proven criminal,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “We in SNAP have never seen anything like this.”
The group hopes others who may have been assaulted by Jensen will speak up.
“We also beg anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Jensen or other Mormons to step forward and get help,” said Dorris. “That’s the best way to expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.”
The case was brought in Berkeley County Circuit Court.
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