OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch
By Danae King
The Columbus Dispatch
Fifteen years after an investigation exposed widespread child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, critics say little has changed.
The Columbus Diocese, however, says it put measures in place to prevent abuse and believes they’ve made a difference.
Though the investigation done by the Spotlight investigative reporting team at The Boston Globe and published in 2002 surely raised awareness about clergy sexual abuse, it didn’t seem to reverberate in Columbus as it did in other dioceses, even others in Ohio.
In Cincinnati, attorney Konrad Kircher heard from about 100 victims in the three years after the investigation and estimates that he’s talked to 300 overall in the past 15 years.
“Everything blew up,” said Kircher, now partner at Rittgers and Rittgers in Lebanon in southwestern Ohio. “The Spotlight articles … caused ripples throughout the nation.”
Kircher was among attorneys in the state who took on the cases, as well as one in Toledo and another in Cleveland. He said there wasn’t another attorney at the time taking cases in Columbus, which could be why there weren’t as many cases filed here.
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