MINNESOTA
St. Clouid Times
David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com April 28, 2016
Two lawsuits filed Thursday in Stearns County accuse former St. John’s Prep headmaster Rev. Timothy Backous of sexually abusing two children, one in the early 1980s and another in 1990.
The lawsuits don’t describe specifics of the abuse, other than to say one victim was 12 or 13 at the time and was a member of the Boys Choir and the other victim was 16 or 17 and was a Prep School student.
Backous has been accused previously of sexually abusing a boy during a 1990 European tour by the choir. St. John’s Abbey in 1991 looked into the allegations and found them to be unsubstantiated. The parents of the boy who accused Backous of sexual misconduct renewed the allegations in June 2014, and the Abbey retained an independent, third-party investigator to review the claim.
The claims again were determined to be unsubstantiated.
The abbey issued a statement Thursday that said the allegations against Backous are “without merit and false” and that the abbey will “fully and aggressively defend against the false claims.
Jeff Anderson, who is suing the abbey and Backous, said the abbey’s investigations have been far less than thorough. The abbey indicated that it had interviewed eight of the nine chaperones who were on the choir tour.
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