NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com
Sept. 4, 2019
By Ramon Antonio Vargas
A man who last year opened up about being sexually molested in the 1970s by a Boy Scout leader, then again by a New Orleans child abuse detective he was relying upon for protection, sued the city for damages on Wednesday, claiming he tried reporting the abusive cop to other police officers years later but was turned away.
Richard Windmann’s suit in Orleans Parish Civil District Court also details how Stanley Burkhardt, the former detective who has since been convicted of child molestation and pornography-related crimes, allegedly used a teenage Windmann as “bait” when building cases against other suspected pedophiles.
The city may argue that Windmann’s suit was filed too late and that a statute of limitations prevents him from being able to seek damages. He testified about some of his claims against Burkhardt in a federal courtroom in North Carolina several years ago, meaning he can’t now claim he only recently remembered the abuse.
However, the 11-page suit argues that the failure of Burkhardt’s fellow officers to report him to federal investigators amounted to a cover-up and prevented the statute of limitations from taking effect. One of those officers had been married to Burkhardt at one point.
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