MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
The Catholic Spirit
January 8, 2019
By Joe Ruff
A desire to help sexual abuse survivors fuels the work of a Minneapolis-based attorney representing two men who have accused former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of sexual abuse.
The men Patrick Noaker of Noaker Law Firm is representing found his firm through referrals from other attorneys, he said. One of the men is a former altar boy whose credible abuse accusation resulted in Archbishop McCarrick’s removal from public ministry last year; the other is James Grein of Virginia, who testified Dec. 27 to Church officials in New York.
A former public defender who has practiced law for 28 years and dealt with the gamut of criminal cases, including the death penalty, Noaker said victims of sexual abuse who are not heard and who don’t get help can suffer from depression, turn to alcohol or drugs to numb the pain, or themselves become perpetrators of sexual abuse or other crimes.
“The whole system is checkered with people who have been abused as kids,” Noaker said. “They try to numb the pain. Then things spiral on them.”
Noaker said he wanted to catch people at the “top of the cliff” to help them seek justice and encourage them to get therapy and counseling, rather than at the “bottom of the cliff” facing criminal charges of their own. So he joined the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates of St. Paul about 18 years ago, and he formed his own firm about six years ago. Both firms specialize in representing survivors of sexual abuse and assault.
“If you get help to them early, everyone is better off,” Noaker said. “The person is better off, and there are no other victims.”
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