MINNESOTA
Fox 9
by Fox 9 staff
ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
A woman who says she was sexually abused by former St. Thomas professor and priest Michael Keating spoke publicly for the first time Monday. The law firm handling the case also released once-secret files on Keating, who has denied any wrongdoing.
Marie Mielke had previously been identified as Jane Doe 20 in legal documents. Monday, the 29-year-old mother of two said that hiding something that isn’t your fault is exhausting. As a young teen, she says a man on his way to becoming a priest befriended her family and ultimately took advantage of her.
“It was not my fault and it was never my fault,” Mielke said. “The shame that I carried was not mine to carry — it was his.”
She says Father Michael Keating sexually touched her many times from the time she was 12 to 15. St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson says new documents from a clergy sex abuse settlement help Mielke prove her case.
“This file reflects the way the archdiocese and top officials chose to handle Marie’s report,” Anderson said.
The file shows a clergy review board didn’t find sufficient evidence when Mielke brought the case to them in her 20s, but it did order monitoring in 2007 for Keating that three years later the archdiocese realized wasn’t happening at all. Anderson also says the documents show Keating had a history of physical contact with young women — a history he feels was ignored.
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