ST. LOUIS (MI)
The Associated Press
August 22, 2018
By Jim Salter
Victims of clergy sexual abuse are calling for a wide-scale investigation of sex crime allegations against Catholic priests in Missouri, and whether the church participated in a cover-up.
One victim, a woman whose son killed himself after being abused as a teenager, and an attorney for abuse victims spoke Wednesday outside the St. Louis office of Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. They urged a statewide investigation similar to one in Pennsylvania that uncovered more than 1,000 cases of abuse.
David Clohessy, 61, of St. Louis is a longtime victims’ rights advocate who was abused as a child. He said more than 170 priests in Missouri have been accused in recent decades, but few have been convicted. He blamed prosecutors who aren’t “assertive or creative enough in exposing and pursuing these wrongdoers.”
Hawley’s office has said it can help local prosecutors, but it doesn’t have jurisdiction to launch its own investigation.
But St. Louis attorney Nicole Gorovsky, who represents sexual abuse survivors in civil cases, said Hawley, a Republican, could take steps such as a civil lawsuit or coordinating with federal and local prosecutors.
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