GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent
October 21, 2017
[Note: See also BishopAccountability.org’s database entry on Schornack, with links to complaints, newsletters, and other sources.]
Flagstaff, Ariz. – The story of plaintiff Jane L.S. Doe’s clergy sex abuse lawsuit in Coconino County Superior Court should be a cautionary tale for all sex abuse victims.
Particularly for any abuse survivor who is given promises that his or her identity and personal information will be kept confidential by attorneys and the court system.
In the case of Jane L.S. Doe v. the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and St. Michael Indian School, Doe’s real name, identifying information and confidential details about her abuse have been published all throughout the public court file for months courtesy of the attorneys for the Sisters and Catholic school and her own attorney is now scrambling to seal all those documents.
The breach of Doe’s identity and confidential information came to light recently after a Gallup Independent reporter drove to Flagstaff to inspect the court file. Doe’s exposed information includes her name, date of birth, current address, previous employer, tribal census number, her parents’ names, her mother’s occupation and census number, and current and former spouses’ names.
The file also includes pages from Doe’s St. Michael’s school records, including transcripts of her high school grades, as well as a copy of Doe’s confidential proof of claim that was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court during the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 reorganization. Although personal names were redacted on the claim form, which details her sexual abuse, the same names can be found elsewhere in the file.
Information laid bare
Doe is a middle-aged Navajo woman who was sent as a child to St. Michael Indian School in St. Michaels, Arizona, where she was sexually molested by the late Brother Mark Schornack, OFM, a Franciscan brother who drove a school bus and threw roller skating parties for St. Michael students. Doe is not an “alleged victim” and Schornack was not an “alleged abuser.” As an abuse claimant in the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case, her claim was deemed credible by court officials. Schornack has been publicly identified by the Gallup Diocese as a credibly accused child sex abuser.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.