SPRINGFIELD (MO)
KY3-TV
November 3, 2018
By Taylor Frost
Springfield couple, Gail and Jon Herbert, decided to come forward and reveal their identities after filing a lawsuit in August against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and Troy Casteel, director of family ministries, for years of sexual and emotional abuse. They hope to help someone else through their pain.
“I’m angry and I fight to not feel shame … but I refuse to feel shame,” Gail Herbert said.
Gail Herbert says the couple went to Casteel for marriage counseling beginning in 2013. He then used the information in those therapy sessions as weapons. The lawsuit says she “was sexually abused on property.”
“Whenever it was happening I was feeling confused, I was feeling guilty,” Gail Herbert said. “I didn’t understand how I could do the things that I was doing.”
The lawsuit filed in August claims top diocese officials knew this abuse was happening.
During the interview, Bishop Edward Rice, came and listened to part of the interview and appeared to record it on his phone. When approached by David Clohessy, St. Louis Director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Rice chose not to comment and walked away. Clohessy says he hopes Rice and other church leaders will step up to report any wrongdoing.
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