CALIFORNIA
Sys-Con
BY PR NEWSWIRE
OCTOBER 22, 2015
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Attorneys representing child abuse victims of the Roman Catholic Church and the Los Angeles Unified School District reacted with outrage to an attempt by Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez to reduce the protections given to minor victims of sexual predators in California.
According to a breaking report by Norma Ribeiro on Univision, the Archbishop’s attorneys filed a petition on October 19th with the California Supreme Court asking them to “de-publish” the recent California Court of Appeals of decision in Sinai M. v. Los Angeles Unified School District, Case No. B253983, 2015 CalApp. LEXIS 814.
This highly publicized case condemned and overturned a trial court decision that allowed LAUSD to escape liability by blaming a thirteen-year-old girl for having sex with her 28-year-old math teacher. The LAUSD attorneys introduced the girl’s sexual history into the trial as part of their “blame the victim strategy.” They portrayed the thirteen-year-old victim as a willing partner in her own abuse.
The Court of Appeals stated, “The district’s position is as outrageous as it is wrong.”
Attorney John Manly, a leading advocate for child sex abuse victims, reacted angrily to the Archbishop’s petition, “I find it disturbing that the Los Angeles Archdiocese objects to the higher standard of protection for child sex abuse victims established by the court of appeals in the Sinai case. By seeking to de-publish this important decision, the Archbishop will make children throughout California more vulnerable to sexual abuse by priests, teachers, scoutmasters and other adults who are in a position to prey upon them.”
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