ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRLIA
The Tablet

Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide has joined Rome-based Australian Cardinal George Pell in being required to wait for Australian courts of law to determine their fates.

Magistrate Robert Stone in Newcastle Local Court, north of Sydney, reserved his decision on On 13 April, in Archbishop Wilson’s trial on a charge of concealing child sexual abuse by a fellow priest, Fr James Fletcher, when the Archbishop was an assistant priest in his home Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the 1970s.

The 67-year-old prelate, who has been Archbishop of Adelaide since 2001 and is a former President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, faces up to two years in jail if convicted.

This week, he told the court that medication had helped his memory since he was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease late last year.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Jarrad Brevi • Reporter

The trial of Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson, who’s accused of concealing child sex abuse, came to end on Friday after eight days in a Newcastle court.

Following final submissions, magistrate Robert Stone told the court he won’t be able to deliver a verdict until next month.

It’s a verdict that could have wide-reaching implications.

During final submissions by the prosecution, the Archbishop was accused of being a “consummate Catholic politician” and a man who was part of “an entrenched toxic culture of covering things up”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Kevin Cullen GLOBE STAFF APRIL 13, 2018

It’s hard to admit mistakes.

I’m lousy at it.

My wife is much better. Whenever we drive by St. Brigid’s in South Boston, where we were married, she just shakes her head and sighs, as if to say, “Big mistake.” …

After I wrote what could charitably be called a pair of uncharitable columns about the pope, denouncing and dismissing him after he smeared survivors of clerical abuse in Chile who had credibly accused his protege Bishop Juan Barros of complicity in the serial abuse committed by another priest, I got some interesting feedback.

Besides the predictable finger-wagging, garment-rending rhetoric from holy rollers who dismissed and denounced me as a self-loathing, lapsed Catholic who had no business criticizing the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church, much less its infallible leader, I got some really interesting, thoughtful responses from priests and nuns.

The nuns and priests said they understood my distress and especially the distress of those who had survived clerical sexual abuse. They said they were appalled by what the pope said. But they asked me to give the pope a chance. They believe that he is a good man who wants to move the church in the right direction.

They pointed out that the pope had dispatched the Vatican’s most dogged and reputable investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to investigate the situation in Chile. Scicluna and his colleague, the Rev. Jordan Bertomeu, interviewed dozens of people and recently handed the pope a 2,300-page dossier on their findings.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Times Union

Mark Singelais April 13, 2018

Siena men’s basketball coach Jimmy Patsos is out after five seasons.

Siena announced late Friday afternoon that it had come to an agreement where Patsos resigned and the school bought out the remaining three years of Patsos’ contract after the Saints went 8-24 this year, tying the most losses in program history. That failure on the court was compounded by controversy away from it, as Patsos is under investigation by a law firm hired by the school after a student manager complained that the coach had verbally abused him.

Patsos was signed through the 2020-21 season with a base salary that was $369,943 in 2015-16, according to the most recent Internal Revenue Service Form 990 filed by Siena.

“Siena’s founding Franciscan tradition calls upon us to honor the fundamental dignity of every person. Our core values demand compassion and help shape a community where all should feel welcomed, respected, and cherished. As we look forward to a new chapter in Siena men’s basketball, our shared commitment to upholding these ideals will continue to guide us,” said Br. Ed Coughlin, the college president.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
CBS Sports

by Matt Norlander
@MattNorlander

Jimmy Patsos resigned on Friday afternoon from his post as coach of the Siena Saints.

The resignation comes after news surfaced last week that Patsos was accused of verbally abusing a Siena team manager who lives with obsessive compulsive disorder. Last Friday, on April 6, Patsos held a press conference and defended himself, stating, “I never taunted, harassed or abused this young man. We did know that he had OCD. He was adamant that he wanted to be treated the same as anyone else.”

A formal complaint was logged against Patsos in February, according to the Times Union of Albany. The alleged harassment of the team manager was not the only issue regarding Patsos.

Via the Times Union:

Extensive reporting by the Times Union revealed that the probe was expanded to look into whether Patsos or his staff improperly withheld per diem payments from players and team aides, and a charge Patsos shoved redshirt junior guard Kadeem Smithen out of his chair during a team film session. …

Former Siena forward Jimmy Paige, who played for Siena from 2014-16, said abusive language from Patsos was among the reasons he transferred to Division II Virginia Union.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Rosa Flores, CNN

(CNN)After apologizing for “grave errors” in the handling of a Chilean sex abuse scandal, Pope Francis will be welcoming three survivors to the Vatican in two weeks, according to survivor Juan Carlos Cruz.

Cruz says the Vatican reached out to him last Saturday, inviting the three Chileans to be the Pope’s guests from April 26 to May 1.

The survivors will spend time with Francis as a group on April 28 and 29, Cruz said, plus hold individual meetings with the Pope. He says he wants to make the meetings not just about them but all the survivors of church sex abuse worldwide.

“It’s about the thousands of survivors who have gone through horrible things who have been disrespected, discredited. That culture has to change,” Cruz said. “It has to be about every survivor. I hope that this is a sign that this will not be the norm.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
CNY Homepage

By: NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press
Updated: Apr 13, 2018

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The three main protagonists in denouncing Chile’s sex abuse scandal will meet with Pope Francis on April 28-29 and will stay as his guests at the Vatican hotel where he lives, one of the men told The Associated Press.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Chile’s most famous predator priest, said he and his colleagues had agreed to Francis’ invitation to come to Rome so the pope could personally apologize for having discredited them during his recent trip to Chile.

In a telephone interview, Cruz said the three men would not allow the meeting to become a public relations coup for the Vatican. He said he would tell Francis of the “horror of abuse and the horror of the cover-up” that church leaders have committed over decades, and how they have discredited and defamed victims who went public.

Francis himself “was on that path, unfortunately” when he accused victims of “calumny” for having repeatedly denounced the behavior of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, Cruz said. But he said Francis appeared to have “opened his eyes to a reality … about thousands of lives who have been crucified” by priests who rape and fondle children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Stacey Barchenger, @sbarchenger

LAKEWOOD – The head of a controversial special education school here, already facing allegations of money laundering, has been charged with an additional, more severe corruption count, state officials said Friday.

The New Jersey attorney general says further investigation discovered Rabbi Osher Eisemann, the founder of the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence, wired $450,000 in public tuition funds from the school to “an entity in New York state owned by an associate.” That money was then used by the “associate” to pay off past-due New Jersey taxes, according to the attorney general.

In a new indictment filed Friday, Eisemann is charged with first-degree corruption of public resources, a crime that could carry a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years prison if he is convicted. The school’s fundraising foundation, Services for Hidden Intelligence, is also charged with the corruption count. Read the full indictment at the bottom of this story.

Eisemann, 61, was first charged in March 2017 for allegedly stealing $630,000 in public tuition money and faced five to 10 years in prison.

But the new indictment increases the sum Eisemann allegedly stole to $979,000. The attorney general says that includes:

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Jane Chambers
posted Friday, 13 Apr 2018

They called for zero tolerance of abusers

Victims of clergy sexual abuse welcomed Pope Francis’s letter in which he apologised for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile.

James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement on April 11 saying they appreciated the Pope’s letter and were “evaluating the possibilities” for meeting with the Pope.

“The damage committed by the hierarchy of the Chilean church, to which the Pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” the victims said.

“The purpose of all our actions has always been about recognition, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered, and will continue to be so, until zero tolerance against abuse and concealment in the church becomes a reality,” they said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IDAHO
Idaho Statesman

BY KATY MOELLER

The Rev. William Thomas Faucher, accused of child porn and drug crimes, was role playing with a fellow author in some of the chatroom conversations in which he’s alleged to have said he wanted to rape and kill children, his attorney said in court Friday.

“This gentleman Mr. Faucher is talking to lives in Brazil. He initially contacted Father Faucher because he wanted his help writing a book,” said Faucher’s attorney, Mark Manweiler, at a hearing Friday at the Ada County Courthouse. “They discussed all kinds of fantastic scenarios, like two murder novelists talking — only the issue is child abuse.”

Manweiler said there was one conversation in which the other party said he was going to send him some child pornography, and Faucher told him he didn’t want it. He said Faucher deleted many files he received without opening them.

The 72-year-old retired priest has been in the Ada County Jail the past four weeks — after his bond was raised to $1 million by Magistrate Judge James Cawthon — and it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting out anytime soon.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTH CAROLINA
The Mountaineer

Kyle Perrotti

A former episcopal priest who served in Waynesville for over two decades has been charged with several felonies stemming from alleged sexual abuse dating back to 1985.

The charges against Howard “Howdy” Willard White, Jr., 76, were filed after he was formally indicted by a Haywood County Grand jury.

The charges, which pertain to two alleged victims — one male and one female — are first-degree forcible sex offense, two counts of indecent liberties with a child, first-degree forcible

In addition, the indictments note that the female victim’s father allegedly aided and abetted White’s sexual abuse of his daughter.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

By Mark Silk

On Wednesday, Pope Francis issued a letter of apology to the bishops of Chile for his handling of the their country’s sex abuse crisis. It is an extraordinary document whose significance can hardly be exaggerated.

When Francis visited Chile in January, he was widely expected to calm the ongoing furor over Juan Barros Madrid. Instead, he intensified it.

Barros was a follower of Francisco Karadima, a charismatic priest whom the Vatican defrocked in 2011 for abusing teenagers during the 1980s and 1990s. Despite accusations by several of Karadima’s victims that Barros had been present for some of the abuse and failed to report it—and over the objections of Chile’s bishops—Francis went ahead and appointed him bishop of the southern Chilean city of Osorno in 2015. As the case festered, Barros twice offered, and Francis twice refused to accept, his resignation.

In January, he rubbed salt into the wound by celebrating Mass with Barros and calling the charges against him “calumny.” Although he retracted the comment after it provoked outrage, he insisted that he believed in Barros’ innocence. His apparent dismissal of credible evidence stunned even his staunchest supporters.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
New York Daily News

BY BOB STEWART
NANCY DILLON

She said Bill Cosby gave her three “small round blue pills” that left her slurring her words and strangely immobilized on a couch.

“These are your friends,” Cosby had said as he reached out his hand with the medication.

As she lay paralyzed and “very scared,” Andrea Constand felt the man once revered as “America’s Dad” grope her breasts, penetrate her “forcefully” with his fingers and masturbate himself with her hand, she told a jury Friday.

When she woke up around 4 or 5 o’clock the next morning, her bra was up around her neck and her pants unzipped.

She walked to the kitchen, feeling shocked and confused.

“There’s a muffin and a tea on the table,” Cosby allegedly told her before she drove herself home.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
The Guardian

Ed Pilkington

Bill Cosby’s main accuser at his retrial for sexual assault took the stand on Friday and said she was seeking justice in a 13-year legal battle with the TV celebrity.

Andrea Constand, 45, appeared in a courtroom in Cosby’s home county in Pennsylvania for the second time in 10 months, the first trial last June having ended in a hung jury. The Canadian massage therapist has been alleging publicly since she first went to police in 2005 that the comic drugged and molested her at his mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Constand was asked by a prosecutor, Kristen Feden, to state why she was present at the trial. Sitting just 15ft from the star of The Cosby Show, she replied: “For justice.”

How Constand’s testimony will play with the seven men and five women of the jury will hold the key to Cosby’s fate. He faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, all relating to the alleged 2004 encounter with Constand and each bearing a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. If found guilty, the 80-year-old TV star could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Constand recalled the events of January 2004 when she was invited to Cosby’s home having become his friend when she was managing the women’s basketball team at Temple University, where he was a trustee. The TV star offered her three blue pills, she said, which he called “your friends. They’ll help take the edge off.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
New York times

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JON HURDLE
APRIL 13, 2018

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby was supposed to be her mentor, Andrea Constand told a jury here Friday. But instead he became her attacker, she said, so unrelenting in his sexual pursuit — even after she had rejected his advances — that he drugged and molested her during a visit to his home in January 2004.

“I was kind of jolted awake and felt Mr. Cosby on the couch beside me, behind me, and my vagina was being penetrated quite forcefully, and I felt my breast being touched,” Ms. Constand said on the fifth day of Mr. Cosby’s sexual assault retrial. “I was limp, and I could not fight him off.”

Ms. Constand was more composed and less emotional in giving her account this time than she had been last summer, when she first testified about what she said had happened at Mr. Cosby’s house near Philadelphia.

That case ended in a mistrial when the jury became deadlocked. This time, Mr. Cosby’s defense team has taken a more aggressive stance toward Ms. Constand, describing her as a “con artist” who engaged in a consensual encounter and then concocted a story of assault so as to score a big payday.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Saginaw

The Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of Saginaw, today announced the appointment of the Honorable Michael J. Talbot of the Michigan State Appeals Court as a special independent delegate to assume full authority within the Diocese of Saginaw with regards to all matters involving the alleged sexual abuse of minors and sexual misconduct by clergy and diocesan representatives.

“It is my sincere hope that this step will bring renewed courage to victims — and their families — to come forward with a fuller expectation of fairness, justice, and healing,” Bishop Cistone said.

The announcement of a special independent delegate was shared with members of the media and diocesan employees during an 11 a.m. news conference at the diocesan Center of Ministry in Saginaw.

“It has become increasingly apparent to me that sexual abuse and misconduct issues have produced deep distress and serious doubt for the people of the Diocese of Saginaw, priests and parishioners alike, as well as the broader community,” Bishop Cistone said. “I believe we need what I will call a ‘fresh start’… a ‘reboot.’”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
MLive

By Michael Kransz mkransz@mlive.com

SAGINAW TWP, MI — The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw will name five additional priests with sexual abuse complaints later Friday, bringing the total to seven amid an ongoing criminal investigation.

Bishop Joseph R. Cistone confirmed at a press conference Friday, April 13, that the diocese will publish the names of those priests on its website. Cistone also announced that Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Michael J. Talbot will serve as the independent delegate for the investigation.

“It’s my sincere hope that this will bring renewed courage to victims and their families to come forward with a fuller expectation of fairness, justice and healing,” Cistone said. “I believe we need what I will call a ‘fresh start’ … ‘a reboot.'”

The announcement of Talbot as an independent delegate comes nearly a month after Cistone’s home, along with two diocese properties, were raided by police.

The search warrants, which saw the seizing of documents, records and computers, were executed after prosecutors allege diocese officials failed to fully cooperate in the ongoing investigation into sexual abuse within the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MICHIGAN
Midland Daily News

The Honorable Michael J. Talbot of the Michigan State Appeals Court will serve as a special independent delegate to assume full authority within the Diocese of Saginaw with regards to all matters involving the alleged sexual abuse of minors and sexual misconduct by clergy and diocesan representatives, it was announced Friday by The Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of Saginaw.

“It is my sincere hope that this step will bring renewed courage to victims — and their families — to come forward with a fuller expectation of fairness, justice, and healing,” Cistone said.

The announcement of a special independent delegate was shared with members of the media and diocesan employees during an 11 a.m. news conference at the diocesan Center of Ministry in Saginaw.

“It has become increasingly apparent to me that sexual abuse and misconduct issues have produced deep distress and serious doubt for the people of the Diocese of Saginaw, priests and parishioners alike, as well as the broader community,” Cistone said. “I believe we need what I will call a ‘fresh start’ … a ‘reboot.'”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MICHIGAN
ABC 12

SAGINAW (WJRT) (4/13/2018) – A Michigan Court of Appeals judge has been appointed to oversee all internal investigations into possible sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

Bishop Joseph Cistone, who oversees the diocese, announced the appointment Friday. He gave Judge Michael J. Talbot full authority to investigate all matters pertaining to allegations made against clergy.

“It is my sincere hope that this step will bring renewed courage to victims — and their families — to come forward with a fuller expectation of fairness, justice, and healing,” Cistone said.

The Rev. Robert DeLand was arrested on Feb. 25 and again earlier this month on charges of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, gross indecency between males, furnishing alcohol to a minor and manufacturing or distributing a controlled substance.

The 71-year-old priest at St. Agnes Parish in Freeland is accused of sexually assaulting three males — two in the rectory at St. Agnes and one at his condominium on Mallard Cove in Saginaw Township.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MICHIGAN
MLive

SAGINAW, MI — The Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of the Saginaw Catholic Diocese, is holding a press conference at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 13.

Cistone will share an announcement and be available for a brief time for questions, according to a press release.

The conference is being held at the Diocesan Center for Ministry, 5802 Weiss.

Some Saginaw Catholic Diocese parishioners have called for Cistone to step down after prosecutors say his diocese failed to cooperate in an ongoing sexual abuse investigation involving the Rev. Robert DeLand, former priest at St. Agnes.

DeLand is charged with multiple sex abuse crimes.

Cistone, who announced he was suffering from lung cancer in February, canceled several diocesan events including the Bishop’s Ball earlier this month, a major fundraiser for the diocese. He pointed to the ongoing criminal investigation as reason for the cancelation.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Yahoo!

CHRIS FRANCESCANI and BILL HUTCHINSON

In what could be a major blow to the prosecution’s sexual assault case against Bill Cosby, a former model and reality TV star admitted on the witness stand Thursday that she fabricated passages in a memoir — including a story of “rebuffing” the comedian’s advances.

Janice Dickinson took the witness stand in a Pennsylvania courtroom, testifying in Cosby’s retrial on three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

Called by the prosecution, the 63-year-old Dickinson recounted a 1982 incident in a Lake Tahoe, California, hotel room, in which she says she was drugged and raped by Cosby.

“Here was ‘America’s Dad’ on top of me — a happily married man with five children,” Dickinson testified in Montgomery County Court in Norristown. “And I remember thinking how wrong it was — how very, very wrong.”

She told the jury that she passed out during the assault, saying, “It was gross.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
The Hill

BY JULIA MANCHESTER

Classified advertising website Backpage.com pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges in Texas on Thursday, the state’s attorney general announced, while the company’s CEO pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in California.

“Taking down Backpage and obtaining a criminal conviction for the company and its CEO represents a significant victory in the fight against human trafficking in Texas and around the world,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement.

“I want to thank the Attorney General of California, the U.S. Department of Justice, federal law enforcement officials, Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, and the prosecutors and law enforcement in my office for their outstanding collaborative work on this investigation and prosecution,” he added.

Carl Ferrer, the CEO of the Dallas-based company, has reached a plea agreement and will not spend more than five years in prison, according to reports.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

By MARK SCOLFORO

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Sexual misconduct allegations have roiled the Pennsylvania Legislature this past year, including the revelation that two cases resulted in sizeable payouts.

A sitting state senator gave up plans to run for Congress in late February, following accusations of inappropriate behavior.

And an investigation is underway into claims a House member was abusive toward two women, including a fellow state representative.

Over the past 15 months, dozens of state lawmakers around the country have been accused of sexual misconduct in a mounting backlash against misbehavior by those in power.

The Associated Press filed records requests with every state legislative chamber to document complaints brought over the past decade.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SWEDEN
New York Times

By CHRISTINA ANDERSON

STOCKHOLM — The first woman to lead the body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature was forced out on Thursday, a stunning casualty in a sexual abuse and harassment scandal that has threatened to sully one of the world’s most acclaimed cultural honors.

Since 2015, Sara Danius, a literary scholar and the first woman to lead the body, had been the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which was created in 1786 and has awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901. She was ousted on Thursday from her role as permanent secretary — the de facto public face of the literature prize — as part of a feud that has bitterly divided the academy’s board.

“It has already affected the Nobel Prize quite severely, and that is a big problem,” an emotional Ms. Danius told reporters Thursday evening, accompanied by an ally, the author Sara Stridsberg, who has also threatened to quit.

The scandal has reached the highest levels of the government. “It’s up to the academy to restore faith and respect,” the prime minister, Stefan Lofven, told reporters on Thursday. “It’s a very important issue for Sweden, and therefore it is important that this institution works.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD and MARIA GRAZIA MURRU Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis’ apology to Chilean sex abuse victims and his request that the country’s bishops come to Rome to discuss reforms amounts to a “spiritual state of emergency” declaration for the Chilean Catholic church.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Francis’ letter to the Chilean hierarchy was an acknowledgment that he had made mistakes about abuse victims and that “yes, we believe you, you have your place in the church.”

In the letter Wednesday, Francis admitted he had made “grave errors” in evaluating the case of a bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse. He invited the victims to Rome so he could personally apologize.

Francis blamed a lack of “truthful and balanced information” for his missteps in judging the case of Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state has one of the worst laws in the nation when it comes to allowing child molestation victims to sue their abusers, according to a new report issued Thursday that comes amid continuing legislative debate over relaxing the rules.

Most states have taken some action to change their criminal or civil statutes of limitations for molestation since the clergy sex abuse scandal erupted in 2002 following an investigation by The Boston Globe, the report found.

New York, however, continues to have one of the shortest statutes of limitations for civil molestation suits in the country even though it has eliminated the criminal statute of limitations for some felony molestation crimes, said University of Pennsylvania professor Marci Hamilton, who conducted the analysis.

While 39 states and the District of Columbia have changed their rules, those like New York have more work to do, said Hamilton, who also is the CEO of CHILD USA, a group that researches child abuse and neglect policy.

“It is one of the worst states for access to justice for child sex abuse victims in the country,” according to the report.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Kevin O’Sullivan

Hundreds of babies buried in a mass grave in a former religious-run mother and babies’ home in Tuam, Co Galway can be identified because of major advances in DNA testing, a team of scientists have declared.

The University College Dublin-Trinity College team have challenged the findings of an expert group set up by Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, which cast doubts on hopes that DNA testing could identify remains.

The expert technical group (ETG) highlighted difficulties with the exhumation and identification of the remains held in an underground chamber and an adjoining, disused septic tank, because remains are “commingled”.

However, the UCD-TCD team, who are all experts in genomics, argued that the analysis “is viewed through the prism of a technology that is at least 20 years old”, traditionally used to build DNA banks for use in criminal cases.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SWEDEN
The Guardian

Staff and agencies in Stockholm

The head of the Swedish Academy that selects the winner of the Nobel prize for literature has resigned amid a growing crisis over the body’s handling of sexual harassment allegations made against a man with close links to the institution.

Sara Danius announced her decision on Thursday after a three-hour emergency meeting of academy members in central Stockholm.

Danius said she had lost the confidence of the academy, but would not comment on whether a vote was held to remove her.

“It is the academy’s wish that I leave my post as permanent secretary,” said Danius, a 56-year-old Swedish literature historian, and the first woman to hold the position. “I would have liked to have continued, but there are other things to do in life.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SWEDEN
NPR

SCOTT NEUMAN

The head of the Swedish Academy, the august body that awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, has stepped down after criticism of the institution’s handling of a sexual abuse scandal.

“It was the wish of the Academy that I should leave my role as Permanent Secretary,” Permanent Secretary Sara Danius, the first woman to head the Academy, told reporters. “I have made this decision with immediate effect.”

The controversy stems from allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of one of the Academy’s members, Katarina Frostenson.

As NPR’s Colin Dwyer reported earlier this week, “Those allegations first surfaced when the #MeToo movement hit Sweden last November, and the Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter reported that the man — whom the newspaper has identified only as ‘Cultural Profile’ — had allegedly sexually assaulted or harassed at least 18 women over the past two decades.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

Carla Coetzee

Pastor Neil Rischbieter, former from Johannesburg in Gauteng, has been found guilty of sexually abusing two young girls in New Zealand.

Rischbieter had committed the offences while one of the girls’ mother was dying of cancer.

Stuff.co.nz reports a court in Waitakere City, Auckland, found Rischbieter guilty on Wednesday and sentenced him to 26 months in jail.

Detective Jason Hamblyn of the New Zealand police says the pastor’s victims were between 12 and 19 years old and the abuse was perpetrated between 2009 and 2017.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
InDaily

A NSW magistrate has been told he should doubt the honesty of Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson as his trial for allegedly covering up child sex abuse by a fellow priest winds up

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison told the Newcastle Local Court today that Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing abuse, wanted to cover it up to protect the church’s reputation.

“Your honour should have doubts about his (Wilson’s) honesty,” Harrison told magistrate Robert Stone during his closing address.

Wilson is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease but claims medication has helped his memory.

The 67-year-old has told the court he can’t remember two altar boys telling him in 1976 they were abused by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region.

The defence argues Wilson is not guilty because the case is circumstantial and there’s no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the archbishop was told about the abuse, believed it was true or remembered being told about it.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Mark Russell
Australian Associated Press
APRIL 13, 2018

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has been accused of acting like a “cat on a hot tin roof” when trying to absolve himself of guilt over claims he covered up child sex abuse by a pedophile priest.

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison told Newcastle Local Court that Wilson was a “consummate Catholic politician” who had ducked and weaved when trying not to incriminate himself.

“The accused (Wilson) was part of an entrenched, toxic culture of covering things up,” Mr Harrison said during his closing address on Friday.

“Victims come second.”

The prosecutor said Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing abuse, had maintained a “cover-up attitude” since 1976 when he was an assistant priest in the NSW Hunter region.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service
Thursday, April 12, 2018

SANTIAGO, Chile — Victims of clergy sexual abuse welcomed Pope Francis’ letter in which he apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile.

James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement April 11 saying they appreciated the pope’s letter and were “evaluating the possibilities” for meeting with the pope.

“The damage committed by the hierarchy of the Chilean church, to which the pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” the victims said.

“The purpose of all our actions has always been about recognition, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered, and will continue to be so, until zero tolerance against abuse and concealment in the church becomes a reality,” they said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
U.S. News

SANTIAGO (REUTERS) – Chile’s Roman Catholic Church called on Thursday for a “drastic solution” that could include resignations, a day after Pope Francis acknowledged “grave mistakes” in handling a sexual abuse crisis and summoned its leaders to Rome.

At a meeting of Church leadership on Chile’s central coast, Santiago Silva, the president of the Episcopal Conference, said change was inevitable.

“It’s possible that the pope will ask some (bishops) to leave their diocese … there must be a drastic solution, strong and decisive, that is for certain,” Silva told local radio station Cooperativa.

In an extraordinary step, Pope Francis said in a letter on Wednesday that he had made mistakes in his assessment of the crisis. In January, he had dismissed as “slander” accusations that Chilean bishop Juan Barros had covered up sexual abuse of minors by his mentor Father Fernando Karadima.

Barros told Chilean media at the meeting of Church leadership that “the pope always seeks the best for everyone.” Barros was appointed bishop of Osorno, in southern Chile, by Pope Francis in 2015.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
National Catholic Reporter

by Maria Benevento

Victims of clerical sexual abuse and others who had called for the removal of Bishop Juan Barros, accused of covering up abuse, expressed appreciation for Pope Francis’ letter apologizing for his response to allegations in Chile. But they said concrete steps are necessary to improve the situation.

In the letter, sent to the bishops in Chile and released April 11, Francis apologized to those he offended; said he has made “grave mistakes” in the handling of the case, “especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information”; and called all of Chile’s bishops to come to a meeting in Rome.

“The harm committed by the Chilean hierarchy, to which the pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” James Hamilton, Juan Carlos Cruz and José Andrés Murillo, Barros’ three public accusers, said in a joint statement released in Spanish April 11.

“The direction of all of our actions has always pointed to acknowledgement, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered,” they continued, “and that’s what it will continue to be, until zero tolerance toward abuse and cover-up in the church becomes reality.”

The three men also confirmed that the Vatican had contacted them to invite them to a meeting with Francis in the coming weeks, and said they were exploring the possibility of attending.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

Father Louis Brouillard, around 1968, entered a Boy Scout’s tent multiple times to sexually abuse him and grabbed the boy’s private part during swimming, according to a lawsuit filed in local court by a man who now lives in Washington State.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as John Doe in order to protect his privacy, said in his lawsuit that on one occasion, he and another child saw Brouillard sexually abusing a child.

The abuse included Brouillard subjecting John Doe and other boys to his presence, walking around naked in his room at San Isidro Parish in Malojloj, the lawsuit states.

John Doe, represented by attorney Kevin Fowler, is now 59 years old. He and his family were parishioners at the Malojloj Parish when he was a child. He met Brouillard, who also was a scoutmaster, when he joined the Boy Scouts’ Troop 24.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

Sam Charles @samjcharles

A lawsuit was filed Thursday detailing alleged sexual abuse of a student at a southwest suburban Catholic high school by the school’s former principal and president, Father Richard McGrath.

The civil litigation comes as the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office weighs whether or not to bring criminal charges against McGrath for the alleged abuses.

The suit and possible criminal charges both stem from McGrath’s alleged abuse of Robert Krankvich, who attended Providence High School in New Lenox for two years in the mid 1990s.

“I’ve decided to come forward because I’ve been living in shame and in guilt for my entire adult life,” Krankvich said at a press conference Thursday. “I’ve battled addiction. I’ve battled suicide. [I’ve] tried hurting myself many times because I can’t deal with the pain and all of the shame and the guilt that comes forward every day when I think about this.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
WLS

[with video]

Sarah J. Schulte
Thursday, April 12, 2018

NEW LENOX, Ill. (WLS) — A former student at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox is suing the school, claiming he was sexually abused by the school’s former principal president.

“I realize I have to do this, I have to do this to give other people a voice, not just myself other victims,” said Bob Krankvich.

It took Krankvich over 20 years to gather the courage to publicly tell his story. The 36 year old says he was repeatedly sexually abused during his freshman and sophomore years at Providence Catholic High School by Father Richard McGrath. At the time, the Augustinian Catholic priest was the principal of the New Lenox school. McGrath eventually became president until he abruptly resigned a few months ago.

“He told me to remain silent and never come back to school and if I was to ever talk about it, he would get my family and myself arrested for doing the things I had done,” said Krankvich.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
WGN

BY PATRICK ELWOOD

NEW LENOX, Ill. — A former president of a Catholic high school in the south suburbs is being sued for sexually abusing a former student.

Father Richard McGrath priest abruptly retired from Providence Catholic High School in December after he refused to be interviewed by investigators after a student came forward to say she saw him on his cell phone looking at a naked teen boy.

McGrath refused to turn over the cell phone so the investigation was stymied and charges were never filed.

There is now an allegation from a former student who attended Providence in the mid 90s who said the priest sexually assaulted him several times during his time here.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

KANSAS
KSNT

[with video]

By: James Ryan

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – A lawsuit claiming sexual abuse by a former Topeka priest is moving forward.

Earlier this week, a judge in Wyandotte county refused to throw out the case.

The lawsuit claims a former priest at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Topeka sexually abused a young boy in the 1980s.

The 20-page lawsuit claims that a former priest here at St. Matthews, referred to only as Father MJ, sexually abused a young boy from the age of 9-12 in the early 80s.

Kansas City Attorney Rebecca Randles represents the boy, now a man, who filed the lawsuit.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Daily Southtown

Zak Koeske

The former president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, whom police investigated earlier this year for “potentially inappropriate material” on his cell phone, is now under investigation for allegations he sexually abused a male student in the mid-1990s, police said.

New Lenox Police Chief Bob Sterba said Thursday that the department began a criminal investigation into the sexual abuse claims against the Rev. Richard McGrath after the alleged victim came to them in early January.

He said McGrath, through his attorney, had declined to cooperate with authorities for their investigation. When reached for comment Thursday, McGrath’s attorney Patrick Reardon declined comment.

McGrath’s alleged victim, 36-year-old Robert Krankvich, of Crest Hill, spoke at a news conference Thursday to announce the filing of a lawsuit that accuses McGrath of abuse and names as defendants Providence Catholic and the Augustinian order that oversees the high school.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on the Bill Cosby sexual-assault retrial (all times local):

6 p.m.

The chief accuser at Bill Cosby’s sex assault retrial is set to testify.

Andrea Constand says the 80-year-old comedian drugged and molested her during an encounter at his home in 2004. He says their encounter was consensual.

The trial judge says Constand is due to take the stand Friday.

On Thursday, a woman who alleges Cosby had her drink two shots that knocked her out told the jury she didn’t realize until years later what he might have done to her.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
Crux

Nicole Winfield ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROME – Eight victims of the Catholic Church’s most notorious pedophile priest are pressing the Legion of Christ religious order to compensate them for the sexual abuse they suffered and the psychological harm they say resulted from the order’s prolonged campaign to discredit them.

The men sent a letter to the Legion’s leadership seeking public recognition of their status as victims of Father Marcial Maciel and the Mexico-based order, which was once one of the fastest-growing congregations in the Church but suffered a credibility crisis over Maciel’s crimes and cover-up.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, is the latest indication that clergy abuse victims are increasingly demanding recognition and apologies for the retaliation often inflicted on them by Church leaders after they report allegations of abuse.

Pope Francis just this week acknowledged making “grave errors” in discrediting abuse victims in Chile and begged their forgiveness.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ARIZONA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Tim Lennon, Volunteer President of SNAP’s Board of Directors (415-312-5820, tlennon@SNAPnetwork.org)

A priest from the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam currently working in Phoenix has been recalled to the island after a lawsuit accused him of sexual abuse. This is the first public allegation against Father Adrian Cristobal.

Pacific News Center

While we have no firsthand knowledge about the accusations against Father Cristobal, we do know that research has shown that false allegations of abuse are extremely rare.

Father Cristobal was the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Agana under Archbishop Anthony Apuron. When the archbishop was placed on leave in 2016 as a result of abuse allegations against him, the Vatican also replaced Father Cristobal as chancellor. The priest was then assigned to the San Dionisio in Umatac.

We urge anyone who has been victimized in the Phoenix Diocese or elsewhere to protect children by calling police, to get help by calling therapists, and to receive comfort by calling support groups like ours.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Statement by Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Regional Leader, 636-433-2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com

Deacon Rosendo F. Dacal of city, Pennsylvania has been accused of possessing child pornography.

CBS Pittsburgh

While we have no first hand information on the charges against Deacon Rosendo F. Dacal, viewing, possessing, distributing, and/or creating child pornography is a serious crime for good reason. Real children are being sexually abused in the images, and these innocent victims are likely to experience lifelong pain and suffering as a result. Moreover, it is not uncommon for those who possess child pornography to also sexually abuse children.

We beg anyone who has any information about this case or any similar case to share that information with law enforcement. We further urge Bishop David A. Zubik to make sure that all of his parishioners know that, if they have any pertinent knowledge, it is appropriate to report it immediately to the civil authorities.

We mourn for all the children who were exploited to create these images. We hope that they are receiving treatment from mental health professionals, and support from family, from friends and from groups like ours.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
PIX 11

APRIL 12, 2018, BY ALLISON KADEN

Bridie Farrell, once an aspiring Olympic speed skate, is now an advocate for childhood sexual abuse victims. Farrell said she was abused when she was 15 by a much older, prominent Olympic skater. Farrell, now 36, is one of many survivors who cannot seek legal justice in New York because the alleged abuse happened too long ago.

Farrell joined other childhood sexual abuse victims, advocates and lawmakers outside the Lower Manhattan office of Zurich Insurance Thursday. The group was angry that Zurich and other insurance companies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby New York State Senate lawmakers to vote no on the Child Victims Act.

The legislation would allow New Yorkers like Bridie Farrell a longer window to come forward.

“No one has ever said I’m lying. I mean, he was known for these things,” Farrell said. “He would pick me up from school, and you know skip school, and go skate and then he would bring me to his house.”

A February 2018 poll from Quinnipiac University showed 90 percent of New Yorkers support changing the law so victims have more time to seek justice.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Danae King
The Columbus Dispatch

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has stopped investigating allegations of inappropriate communication with a teenager against a local priest who killed himself in December.

The Rev. James Csaszar, 44, who was serving at the Church of the Resurrection in New Albany, was placed on leave in November by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus.

The priest killed himself Dec. 20 by jumping from a Chicago hotel balcony. In a nine-page, hand-written suicide note, Csaszar apologized to his loved ones and denied sexual contact with any child or adult.

The BCI investigation began after the Columbus Diocese reported to police that it had received allegations in October made by a teenage boy’s mother of an inappropriate relationship between Csaszar and her son. The mother provided the diocese with 227 pages of texts between her son and Csaszar, according to the investigative report.

The diocese also reported finding two unauthorized bank accounts in New Lexington, where Csaszar served as a priest from 2005 to 2016. Money appeared to have been moving in and out the accounts, with some going to a juvenile. A total of $50,000 was misappropriated, the diocese said. Authorities and the diocese did not say if the juvenile involved was the woman’s son.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Los Angeles Times

Model Janice Dickinson told a jury Thursday that Bill Cosby raped her in 1982 after giving her a pill he claimed would ease her menstrual cramps but instead left her immobilized and unable to stop an assault she called “gross.”

Dickinson, the fourth accuser to take the witness stand at Cosby’s sex assault retrial, told jurors she was “rendered motionless” by the pill as Cosby got on top of her in his Lake Tahoe hotel room. She said he smelled of cigars and espresso.

“I didn’t consent to this. Here was ‘America’s Dad,’ on top of me. A married man, father of five kids, on top of me,” Dickinson said. “I was thinking how wrong it was. How very wrong it was.”

Dickinson, 27 at the time, testified she felt vaginal pain and, after waking up the next morning, noticed semen between her legs. She said Cosby looked at her “like I was crazy” when she confronted him about what had happened.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
USA Today

Jayme Deerwester,Maria Puente and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY

The prosecution presented a string of Bill Cosby accusers on the witness stand Thursday in the fourth day of the comedian’s sexual-assault retrial in suburban Philadelphia. Among them was former model Janice Dickinson, who recounted her alleged rape by Cosby, and another former model, Lise-Lotte Lublin, who took the stand late Thursday.

The jury has already heard from Heidi Thomas, Chelan Lasha and Janice Baker-Kinney. They each shared their run-ins with Cosby from the 1980s, all involving the comedian giving them drugs that rendered them either unconscious or unable to move while the comedian molested or raped them.

Here are the latest developments from the courtroom:

Fifth Cosby accuser takes the stand

The fifth and final “other” accuser to testify at Cosby’s retrial said she trusted him because he was “America’s Dad.”

Lise-Lotte Lublin was a 23-year-old model and aspiring actress invited to Cosby’s Las Vegas hotel suite to practice acting improvisation. When he prodded her to drink two shots to relax, she complied.

She told the jury that Cosby had her sit between his knees and he started stroking her hair. She said she lost consciousness and doesn’t remember anything else about that night in 1989 until she woke up two days later. She believes she was sexually assaulted, she testified.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
Southern Maryland News Net

On Tuesday, March 27, 2018, deputies from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office were investigating a report of indecent exposure involving a white male driving a black Honda Civic.

The twelve victims, ages 15 to 17 were students of St. Charles High School and were on a school bus traveling in St. Mary’s County for a sports team event. One adult victim was also listed in court documents.

The girls said the white male, later identified as Glen Travis Strickler, 42, of Charlotte Hall, was driving alongside the bus with his penis in his hand, smiling and looking at the girls while masturbating.

A video recording was taken by one of the students with her cellphone, showed Strickler while he was masturbating.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
Raw Story

BRAD REED

Maryland pastor this week was arrested and charged with indecent exposure after he was caught on camera masturbating in front of a dozen teenage girls.

Southern Maryland News Net reports that 42-year-old Glen Travis Strickler was arrested after he was caught on video masturbating while driving his car alongside a high school bus and leering at the bus’s female passengers.

The students on the bus were shocked when they saw Strickler pleasuring himself while watching them, and one of them took out her phone to make a video that could be used as evidence against him.

The student not only succeeded in capturing Strickler’s face in the video, but she also made sure to get shots of his car’s license plate as well.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
CBC News

As a survivor of child pornography, a publication ban has kept her name a secret.

The woman, who The Current is calling Sarah, has been fighting for over a year to reveal her real name to the public, but according to the Criminal Code, her identity is not hers to share.

“I have a right to tell my story. I have a right to be named. This is my story,” she told The Current’s Anna Maria Tremonti.

“I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Herald-News

CHICAGO — An individual accusing former Providence Catholic High School President Richard J. McGrath of sexual abuse has filed suit in Cook County.

A reported sexual abuse survivor and his attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, will speak publicly for the first time about the alleged abuse at 1 p.m. Thursday in a press conference downtown Chicago, according to a news release from Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates.

The plaintiff was a student at Providence, located at 1800 W. Lincoln Hwy. in New Lenox, at the time of the reported abuse. The lawsuit also accuses McGrath of possession and destruction of child pornography and the Augustinian Order and the high school of maintaining a hazardous public nuisance.

“Defendants placed McGrath where he had access to and worked with children as an integral part of his work,” the suit stated. “Plaintiff developed great admiration, trust, reverence and respect for defendants and their agents, including McGrath.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Chicago News Conference Today

Sexual Abuse Survivor Sues Augustinian Order
For Maintaining Hazardous Public Nuisance

Lawsuit Implicates Prominent Augustinian Fr. Richard J. McGrath,
High-Ranking Official and Principal at Providence Catholic High School, for Sexual Abuse and Possession & Destruction of Child Pornography

Sexual Abuse Survivor to Appear Publicly to Call on the Augustinians to Come Clean and Release its List of Accused Offenders

Robert Krankvich v. The Augustinians
The Augustinians’ Hazardous History
Accused Augustinian Priests and Brothers
Father Richard J. McGrath Assignment History
Father Richard J. McGrath Assignment History Summary
Father Richard J. McGrath Photo
Providence Catholic High School Photo Board

What: At a news conference today in Chicago, a sexual abuse survivor and his attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman will:
• Speak publicly for the first time about sexual abuse by prominent Augustinian priest Fr. Richard J. McGrath, O.S.A. while Plaintiff was a student at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, Illinois;
• Announce the filing of a lawsuit alleging a serious ongoing hazard created by the Augustinians by keeping secret from the public the names and histories of all accused offenders;
• Disclose the identities of Augustinian priests and brothers accused publicly accused of child sexual abuse and demand a full disclosure of the identities and histories kept secret.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
News-Press

Michael Braun, MBRAUN@NEWS-PRESS.COM

A teacher at Evangelical Christian School is facing charges for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of her students.

A Lee County Sheriff’s Office release said detectives on Wednesday began investigating the alleged sexual relationship between Suzanne Lea Owen, 35, a high school teacher, and one of her male students.

Deputies responded to ECS at 8237 Beacon Blvd. in Fort Myers and met with Owen, of North Fort Myers.

Investigators found that she had had one sexual encounter with the male student one week prior, where the two decided to meet off-campus.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
Raw Story

BRAD REED

A teacher at an evangelical Christian high school in Florida has been arrested — and subsequently fired from her job — for allegedly having sex with a male teen student.

The News-Press reports that 35-year-old Suzanne Lea Owen, a teacher at the Evangelical Christian School in Fort Myers, Florida, allegedly had a single sexual encounter with one of her male students with whom she had been communicating via personal text messages for weeks.

After Lee County Sheriff’s deputies determined that Owen and the student had met off campus with the student to have sex, they arrested her and charged her with one felony count of custodial sexual battery.

Evangelical Christian School Headmaster John Hunte told sent out a letter to parents on Wednesday informing them that Owen had been fired from her position.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SCOTLAND
Daily Record

By Wilma Riley

A disgraced priest was yesterday jailed for nine years for the historic sexual abuse of three young boys and a trainee priest.

Eighty-two-year-old Father Francis Moore was told by judge Rita Rae that he had abused his position as a parish priest.

And one of his victims 49-year-old Paul Smyth urged other victims of historic abuse to come forward.

Moore, who was also known as Father Paul, was found guilty after trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Christian Post

By Leonardo Blair

As word continues to spread Wednesday about the resignation of Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor of the multi-campus Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, some members of the church maintain that he was a victim of the #MeToo bandwagon.

“It’s very destructive,” Jim Tofilon, a member of Willow Creek since 1991, told The Chicago Tribune of the #MeToo movement after Hybels announced his resignation Tuesday.

“It worked. It destroyed an old man’s life. Nothing good came out of it. I hope people making the accusations feel satisfied,” he added.

In announcing his resignation Tuesday, Hybels staunchly maintained his innocence, calling some of the allegations “misleading” and others “entirely false.” Allegations included a consensual affair with a married woman, who retracted her claims, as well as a pattern of behavior against Hybels that includes suggestive comments and extended hugs.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman and Jeff Coen
Chicago Tribune

They sought his repentance, not his resignation.

So when the Rev. Bill Hybels, founder of northwest suburban Willow Creek Community Church, announced Tuesday he would step down to avoid hindering the megachurch’s ministries, women who recently alleged inappropriate conduct expressed disappointment that he did not more fully acknowledge his wrongdoing.

“The goal for me was never connected to Bill resigning,” wrote Nancy Beach, the first female teaching pastor at the South Barrington church. She recounted more than one conversation or interaction she felt was inappropriate during moments alone with Hybels over the years.

“The goal is to usher in the truth, to reveal an abuse of power that spans over 30 years, with women who are scarred and in some cases, terrified to come forward,” she said in a blog entry published Wednesday.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MISSOURI
The Hill

BY REID WILSON

A woman with whom Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) admitted to having an affair has told state legislators the former Navy SEAL forced her into multiple sexual encounters in the year before he ran for public office, according to a report issued by legislative leaders.

The 24-page report, based on hundreds of pages of interview transcript also made public on Wednesday, details allegations the woman made against Greitens — allegations the legislators who heard testimony from multiple witnesses found credible.

Greitens is a Republican. The committee that compiled the report was made up of seven members, five of whom are Republicans.

Greitens, in response, on Wednesday seized on one element of the woman’s testimony — in which she said she had not seen a photograph she alleges Greitens took of her — to attempt to discredit the entire report.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
CentralJersey.com

Two individuals who allegedly forced a child into commercial sex acts at multiple hotels throughout Middlesex, Bergen and Essex counties appeared in court on April 10 with one of their alleged customers to face federal sex trafficking charges.

Richard Ortiz, 22, and Gabriella Colon, 18, both of the Bronx, New York, are charged by complaint with two counts of sex trafficking of a child and one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution, according to information provided by U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.

Aryeh Goodman, 35, of East Brunswick, is charged in a separate complaint with one count of sex trafficking of a child.

According to the complaints, Colon allegedly used her friendship with a 17-year-old girl from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to convince her to visit Colon in New York in January. Colon allegedly was prostituting herself to support herself and her boyfriend, Ortiz.

Shortly thereafter, Colon and Ortiz allegedly transported the victim to a hotel in New Jersey, where they allegedly took sexually explicit photographs her. Colon and Ortiz then allegedly posted those images and advertised the sexual services of the child on Backpage.com, according to officials.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Carly Baldwin, Patch Staff

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — An East Brunswick rabbi accused of patronizing a 17-year-old girl for sex appeared in court Tuesday, April 10, on a federal sex trafficking charge.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, of East Brunswick, is one of 30 men accused of patronizing the 17-year-old Lancaster, Pennsylvania girl, federal prosecutors charge. Goodman is already a registered sex offender for a prior conviction. In 2013, Goodman was accused of several incidents of a sexual nature with a 12-year-old boy, who Goodman met when he worked as a counselor at Camp Menachem, a Chabad summer camp in Lackawaxen Township, Pa. The incidents allegedly occurred almost 12 years prior to his arrest.

Goodman tried to make a name for himself among Central New Jersey’s Hasidic Jewish community: He operates a Jewish religious center out of his East Brunswick home, and is affiliated with another center on Lexington Avenue in the Township. He was the director of the East Brunswick Chabad. According to New Jersey Jewish News, Goodman grew up in Highland Park, the son of Rabbi Boruch and Sarah Goodman. The elder Goodman is the campus director at Chabad House at Rutgers University.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
MyCentralJersey

Suzanne Russell, @SRussellMyCJ

NEW BRUNSWICK – An East Brunswick rabbi accused of having sex with a 17-year-old girl from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is now being held in federal custody on charges of sex trafficking of a child and was scheduled to be arraigned in Newark before a federal judge, according to the Office of the U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey.

The status of Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, was announced Tuesday by a Middlesex County assistant prosecutor during a brief hearing before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Michael Toto.

Goodman and co-defendants Gabriella Colon, 18, and Richard Ortiz, 23, both of the Bronx, were taken into federal custody.

Colon and Ortiz are accused of allegedly forcing a child into commercial sex acts in multiple hotels throughout Middlesex, Bergen and Essex counties, according to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.

They have been charged with two counts of sex trafficking of a child and one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. Colon and Ortiz also were scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer in Newark federal court.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY/CHILE
America

Gerard O’Connell
April 11, 2018

In what has the appearance of the beginning of an earthquake in the Chilean church, Pope Francis has sent a strong letter to the Chilean bishops in which he speaks of his “pain and shame” on receiving the report on the abuse scandal in Chile from Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta. He had sent Archbishop Scicluna to listen to the victims of abuse last February.

In the three-page letter, he admits his own “serious mistakes” in dealing with this scandal and asks for forgiveness and goes on to take two dramatic steps: He summons the entire Chilean hierarchy to meet him in the Vatican and invites the three main accusers of Bishop Barros to meet him there too at a different time.

The pope admitted that he had badly misjudged the situation, or as he put it: “I fell into serious errors in the evaluation and perception of the situation, due especially to the lack of true and balanced information.”

He said, “From here on, I ask pardon of all those that I have offended, and I hope to do so personally in the coming weeks, in the meetings that I will have with representatives of the persons interviewed” by his envoys—Archbishop Scicluna and Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
TMZ

2:37 PM PT — The L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. released a statement, saying, “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau began an investigation into allegations of a sexual assault involving Mr. Kevin Spacey on December 11, 2017. The events were reported to have taken place in October of 1992 in West Hollywood involving a male adult.”

“The investigation was completed and presented to the District Attorney’s Office Entertainment Industry Sex Crimes Task Force on April 5, 2018, for review and filing consideration.”

Kevin Spacey is in the crosshairs of the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, but TMZ has learned that won’t be the case for long, because the case is going to be a reject.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA/MASSACHUSETTS

BY RACHEL DESANTIS
NANCY DILLON

Los Angeles County prosecutors are reviewing a sex crimes case against fired “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey, a source said Wednesday.

The case was brought to prosecutors Thursday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the alleged encounter is currently under review by the District Attorney’s Office Sex Crimes Task Force.

The events in question allegedly took place in October 1992 in West Hollywood, and involved an adult male, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department — thus placing it outside the statute of limitations, reports TMZ….

Former Boston news anchor Heather Unruh also told the Daily News that a criminal investigation had begun against Spacey after he allegedly grabbed her teenage son’s genitals at a Nantucket club in 2016.

“I want to see Kevin Spacey go to jail. I want to see Kevin Spacey have the hand of justice come down on him, not just for my son, but for the many others who have yet to speak their truth,” she said.

Unruh family lawyer Mitchell Garabedian told the Daily News on Wednesday that his client’s case is under review now by prosecutors in Massachusetts.

“My understanding is that the district attorney of Nantucket is currently investigating the matter,” Garabedian said. “My client is cooperating.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
Pagina 12

[The accusations against the Bishop of Osorno are not for abuse but for cover-up. On March 3, 2015, Juan Carlos Cruz sent a letter to the Pope telling him that Barros (who at the time of the abuses against him was a young pupil of Karadima) not only covered up the abuses as Barros ascended in his ecclesiastical career in the 1990s, but he witnessed them in the parish of an affluent neighborhood of Santiago where both grew up under the priest’s tutorship.]

Las acusaciones contra el obispo de Osorno no son por abuso sino por encubrimiento. El 3 de marzo de 2015, Juan Carlos Cruz le envió una carta al Papa en la que le cuenta que Barros (que en la época en que se producen los abusos contra él era un joven pupilo de Karadima) no sólo encubrió los abusos a medida que ascendió en su carrera eclesiástica en los años 90, sino que fue testigo de ellos en la parroquia de un barrio acomodado de Santiago, donde ambos crecieron bajo la tutoría del sacerdote.

“Más difícil y fuerte era cuando estábamos en la habitación de Karadima y Juan Barros, si no se estaba besando con Karadima, veía cuando algunos de nosotros, los menores, éramos tocados por él y nos hacía darle besos diciéndome: ‘Pon tu boca cerca de la mía y saca tu lengua’. Él sacaba la suya y nos besaba con su lengua”, escribió Cruz. “Juan Barros era testigo de todo esto y lo fue incontables veces, no solo conmigo sino con otros también”, aseguró en otro pasaje. Y denunció: “Juan Barros ha encubierto todo lo que le cuento”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Christopher Altieri

Those who misled the Pope ‘no doubt felt they were protecting the institution’, says Marie Collins

Pope Francis has made a general apology to the victims of sexual abuse and clerical cover-up in Chile and called on the bishops of the country to come and meet him in Rome to discuss the crisis in the Chilean Church.

While the Holy Father did not apologise specifically to the victims he accused of calumny while visiting their country — accusations he repeated to journalists several days later on the return trip to Rome — he did say: “I recognise, and so I ask that you faithfully convey, that I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation, owing especially to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

The Archbishop-Emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Cardinal Francisco Errázuriz, who was involved in several mishandled abuse cases, including that of the disgraced former celebrity priest, Fernando Karadima, is a member of the Pope’s “C9” Council of Cardinal Advisers. Correspondence between Cardinal Errázuriz and the current Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Riccardo Ezzati, stongly suggests the two men were determined to block the nomination of abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cruz is one of the survivors Pope Francis accused of calumny in connection with the case of Bishop Juan Barros, whom Cruz accuses of having witnessed, enabled and covered up Karadima’s abuse of him and many other young people.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SWEDEN
New York Times

By CHRISTINA ANDERSON

STOCKHOLM — A sexual abuse and harassment scandal roiling the committee that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature deepened on Wednesday, as the king of Sweden and the foundation that finances the prize warned that the scandal risked tarnishing one of the world’s most important cultural accolades.

A schism in the Swedish Academy, which has awarded the prize since 1901, erupted into the open last week, the culmination of a scandal that stretches back to November, when the newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that 18 women had accused Jean-Claude Arnault, a major cultural figure with close ties to the academy, of sexual assault and harassment.

Mr. Arnault is married to the poet Katarina Frostenson, a member of the academy, and together they run a private cultural club, called the Forum, that has received money from the academy.

The newspaper reported that Mr. Arnault had mistreated women at the club and at academy-owned properties in Stockholm and Paris over a 20-year period. It also reported that Mr. Arnault had leaked information about the prize committee’s confidential deliberations seven times since 1996.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

LOUISIANA
American Press

Lisa Addison

A man on trial for manslaughter took the stand Tuesday in state district court and told a jury about shooting a pastor nearly five years ago during a church service, saying the pastor raped his wife and was “treacherous.”

Woodrow Karey Jr., 58, told jurors he walked into Tabernacle of Praise Worship Center during a revival service on Sept. 27, 2013, and shot Ronald J. Harris, 51, twice with a shotgun.

The prosecution has said Harris was having an affair with Karey’s wife; the defense has said Karey’s wife was raped by Harris for years.

Before testimony began, there was a discussion between the judge, defense, and prosecution regarding information the defense wanted included at trial. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal said some things could be included while others could not. Judge Clayton Davis had earlier ruled against the evidence being included.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

CATRIN OWEN

Pastor Neil Rischbieter has been jailed for historical sexual abuse charges.

A pastor sexually abused a young girl while her mother was dying of cancer.

Auckland man Neil Rischbieter​ also abused another young girl. Both victims cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
ABC News

[with video]

By CHRIS FRANCESCANI BILL HUTCHINSON

A woman who accuses Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her lashed out at the comedian in a Pennsylvania court on Wednesday in an apparent attempt get him to acknowledge what she claims he allegedly did to her in a Las Vegas hotel room more than 30 years ago.

Chelan Lasha, one of six women scheduled to testify for the prosecution that Cosby drugged and assaulted them, told the court that Cosby allegedly molested her in 1986 when she was just a teenager.

In a dramatic moment that veered from the prosecution’s script, Lasha attempted to address the 80-year-old Cosby directly. Staring at him from the witness stand, she said, “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
NPR

Editor’s note: This post contains graphic descriptions that some may find disturbing.

Heidi Thomas — the first of several women expected to take the stand against Bill Cosby in his criminal retrial – described to the court on Tuesday how the comedian lured her to his Nevada ranch in 1984, drugged her and then forced her to perform oral sex.

Thomas’ testimony against the 80-year-old Cosby on charges that he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004 was meant to bolster the prosecution’s case that the defendant has a long history of such assaults. Besides Constand, at least four other women are expected to provide similar testimony.

On the trial’s opening day on Monday, prosecutors revealed that Cosby paid a $3.4 million civil settlement to Constand in 2006.

Thomas, a 24-year-old aspiring actor at the time, said Cosby enticed her to fly to Reno on the pretext of giving her career advice.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

By MICHAEL R. SISAK

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Women who say comedian Bill Cosby knocked them out with intoxicants and sexually assaulted them decades ago are finally getting a chance to confront him — and they aren’t holding back.

Janice Baker-Kinney will return to the witness stand on Thursday after punctuating her first two hours of testimony at Cosby’s sexual assault retrial in suburban Philadelphia with a firm declaration: “I was raped.”

One woman testifying on Wednesday pointedly called Cosby a “serial rapist,” while another choked back tears as she asked him, “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?”

The charged rhetoric irritated Cosby’s lawyers, who lost two bids for a mistrial, as prosecutors built a case that the man once revered as “America’s Dad” was one of Hollywood’s biggest predators long before he met Andrea Constand, the chief accuser in his retrial.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Washington Post

By Michael R. Sisak 

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Decades after they say Bill Cosby knocked them out with intoxicants and sexually assaulted them, three of his accusers confronted the 80-year-old comedian in court Wednesday, with one woman pointedly calling him a “serial rapist” and another asking him through her tears, “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?”

The women’s charged rhetoric prompted several mistrial requests from Cosby’s lawyers — which were denied — as prosecutors built their case that Cosby was one of Hollywood’s biggest predators long before he met Andrea Constand, the chief accuser in his sexual assault retrial.

Now well into middle age, the accusers spoke of entering Cosby’s orbit as starstruck young women seeking career help or, in the case of a casino bartender from Reno, Nevada, simply looking for a fun time. All of them testified they wound up unconscious from the pills or alcohol he gave them, unable to say no or resist as he had his way with them.

“I was raped,” declared the former bartender, Janice Baker-Kinney, who was 24 when she says Cosby gave her pills she suspected to be quaaludes and had sex with her in 1982.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
New York Times

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JON HURDLE

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Chelan Lasha was 17 in 1986 when she went to Bill Cosby’s suite at the Las Vegas Hilton, after, she said, he told her he could help with her modeling career.

She wet her hair to pose for modeling shots at Mr. Cosby’s request. Then he offered her what he said was an antihistamine to help her cold, and some almond liqueur. She took both, Ms. Lasha told a courtroom on Wednesday, because “I trusted him.”

Then, she said: “He laid me on the bed; I could not move any more after that. He kept pinching my breast and humping my leg. Waking up, I was naked.”

She said she heard him grunting, and with that, she imitated from the stand the sounds she said Mr. Cosby had made.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press

Wed 11 Apr 2018

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has declared under oath that two former altar boys never told him they had been sexually abused by a fellow priest.

Wilson, who has been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, gave evidence in his defence in Newcastle local court after magistrate Robert Stone rejected the clergyman’s bid to have the case thrown out.

The 67-year-old is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

Wilson told the court on Wednesday he had known one of the former altar boys, Peter Creigh, and his family when he was an assistant priest in the NSW Hunter region in the mid-1970s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

SAM RIGNEY

ADELAIDE Archbishop Philip Wilson says he doesn’t remember a conversation at the heart of his landmark hearing into allegations he concealed sexual assault allegations against another priest and doubts it ever took place because he wouldn’t have forgotten such “graphic” claims.

After his legal team on Wednesday failed for the fourth time to have the case against him thrown out, the Archbishop took the stand in Newcastle Local Court to give evidence for the first time since he became the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

Under questioning from his barrister, Stephen Odgers, SC, Archbishop Wilson unequivocally denied having any memory of a conversation in 1976 with Peter Creigh about Father James Fletcher subjecting Mr Creigh to acts of punishment and sexual abuse five years earlier.

When asked if he was able to say whether such a conversation took place, Archbishop Wilson said he thought it was doubtful.

“I think it is unlikely because the nature of the evidence was so graphic,” he told Magistrate Robert Stone.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Catholic News Agency

Newcastle, Australia, Apr 11, 2018 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During court proceedings in Australia this week, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide maintained his innocence, denying allegations that he concealed a serious sexual abuse offense allegedly disclosed to him in the 1970s.

The local court in Newcastle heard Wilson’s defense April 11. The archbishop confirmed under oath that he had no memory of being told of sexual abuses involving two altar boys and a fellow priest in the Hunter region of New South Wales.

“From the time this was first brought to my attention last year, I have completely denied the allegation,” said Wilson in March 2015. He took a leave of absence during the initial charges.

“I would again like to express my deep sorrow for the devastating impact of clerical sex abuse victims and their families, and I give assurance that despite the charge, I will continue to do what I can to protect the children in our care in the Archdiocese of Adelaide,” he continued.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
InDaily

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has revealed he had an “awkward” conversation with a pedophile priest about to face trial in NSW for repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy.

Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sexual abuse, told the Newcastle Local Court today he met James Fletcher in late 2004 in the Hunter region a day after a family told him their son had been abused by the priest.

Wilson, who’d worked in the same parish as Fletcher and lived with him briefly in the 1980s, said he visited the priest’s mother to offer her support given the anguish she was suffering after Fletcher was charged.

The archbishop, now 67, said he been there for about 20 minutes when Fletcher appeared unexpectedly. They then talked for a few minutes.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

The Archbishop of Adelaide has told a court he may have empathised with a victim’s father, who said he “wanted to kill” a paedophile priest.

Archbishop Philip Wilson is accused of covering up the child sexual abuse of Father Jim Fletcher in the New South Wales Hunter Valley in this 1970s.

At Newcastle Local Court today, prosecutors alleged Archbishop Wilson spoke with the father of one of Fletcher’s victims, who said: “If I had a gun, I would kill him.”

The court was told the Archbishop replied: “I wouldn’t blame you.”

That exchange is alleged to have taken place in 2004, a year before Fletcher was sentenced to 10 years in prison for child sexual offences. He died in jail.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MICHIGAN
NBC 25

by Amanda Chodnicki/Madeline Ciak

BAY CITY, Mich. –The local Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests chapter, or SNAP, will hold its first meeting since the sexual abuse investigation into the Saginaw Diocese next Wednesday, April 18 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Bay City.

The investigation follows the arrest of former priest Bob DeLand, who is facing sex crime charges in relation to three young men.

Survivors, advocates and loved ones of survivors are all welcome to attend.Madeline Ciak\\

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MICHIGAN
Michigan Radio

Father Robert DeLand was the priest entrusted with recruiting and guiding young men thinking of becoming Catholic priests. He was also the pastor of a parish in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw. Now, he stands accused of sexual assault and gross indecency based on the accusations of a 17-year-old high school student and a 21-year-old man.

Local law enforcement says his bishop, Joseph Cistone, and the diocese are not cooperating with the investigation. That led to police raiding the bishop’s home last month, as well as the offices and the cathedral rectory of the Diocese of Saginaw.

This is not the first time a priest sex abuse scandal has been connected with Bishop Joseph Cistone.

He was an auxiliary bishop in Philadelphia when that archdiocese, and its late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, came under immense scrutiny for an apparent effort to cover up sexual abuse committed by its priests. A grand jury report strongly condemned the archdiocese for its handling of sexual predator priests.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SCOTLAND
Irvine Times

DISGRACED priest was today jailed for nine years for the historic sexual abuse of three young boys and a trainee priest.

Eighty-two-year-old Father Francis Moore was told by judge Rita Rae that he had abused his position as a parish priest.

And one of his victims 49-year-old Paul Smyth urged other victims of historic abuse to come forward.

Moore, who was also known as Father Paul, was found guilty after trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

KANSAS
Topeka Capital-Journal

By Katie Moore
katie_reports

A man who as a child served as an altar boy at St. Matthew’s Parish in Topeka alleges a priest began sexually abusing him when he was 9 years old.

“Father M.J.,” whose full name wasn’t disclosed in a lawsuit filed in August 2017, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City are listed as defendants in a civil case.

A motion to dismiss the lawsuit was denied Tuesday in Wyandotte County District Court.

The alleged incidents occurred in the mid-1980s.

According to the court petition, the priest invited the boy to spend the night at the Topeka church’s rectory and watch a movie. The priest allegedly fondled the boy, performed oral sex and forcibly performed anal sex on the boy. Similar events occurred on multiple occasions in the rectory and at other locations, the lawsuit claims, with the abuse continuing for about three years.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
First Post

Vatican City: Pope Francis has admitted he made “grave errors” in judgment in Chile’s sex abuse scandal and invited the victims he had discredited to Rome to beg their forgiveness.

In an extraordinary public letter, Francis also summoned all of Chile’s bishops to the Vatican for an emergency meeting in the coming weeks to discuss repairing the damage from the scandal, which has badly tarnished his reputation and that of the Chilean church. The Vatican orders up such emergency visits only on rare occasions, such as when American bishops were summoned in 2002 after the clerical sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States (US) and in 2010 when Irish bishops received a comprehensive Vatican dressing down for their botched handling of abuse cases.

Francis blamed a lack of “truthful and balanced information” for his missteps in judging the case of Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Reverend Fernando Karadima. He strongly defended the bishop during his January visit to Chile despite accusations by victims that Barros had witnessed and ignored their abuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

BY BRETT SAMUELS – 04/11/18

President Trump on Wednesday signed a sex trafficking bill that reduces legal protections for websites that enable sex trafficking.

Joined by lawmakers and victims of sex trafficking, the president praised the legislation and told victims he was signing the bill “in your honor.”

“You have endured what no person on earth should have to endure,” he added.

The legislation, called the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), but also referred to as SESTA after the original Senate bill, cuts into the broad protections websites have from legal liability for content posted by their users.

The bill passed easily in both the House and Senate, but faced some opposition from lawmakers who worried that smaller internet companies would face frivolous lawsuits or lack the resources to police content they shouldn’t be held liable for.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

BY LYNDON HAVILAND, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 04/11/18

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Congress and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), in particular, want to make it easier to go after human traffickers who engage in illegal activities online using the “ruthless efficiency of the internet.” Sen. Portman is rightfully addressing the current crisis of online sex trafficking, and that’s an important move in the right direction. But until we address the root cause, the legislation signed into law Wednesday is simply a small step in protecting women and children.

Sen. Portman’s Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) aims to revoke immunity currently granted to online websites such as Backpage.com where human trafficking allegedly takes place. Backpage.com was seized last week by federal authorizes, but immunity for these sites is protected under the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Congress was urged to amend the CDA when a California court dismissed pimping charges against Backpage.com in a case just last year. Sen. Portman’s bill, now law, seeks to do just that to, in his words, “fix this injustice.”

It’s lunacy that our legal system allows the predators who operate these sites to hide behind this law as a shield from prosecution. We owe it to children to do everything we can to hold these criminals accountable and bring them to justice. And lawmakers were right to support this legislation, so that we can remove these prosecutorial impediments and take human traffickers off the streets.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Pope has said he made “serious mistakes” over a case of alleged child abuse by Catholic clergy in Chile.

In a letter to the South American country’s bishops, Francis said he felt “sadness and shame” over comments earlier this year in which he accused the victims of committing slander.

The letter, released by the Church in Chile, said the Pope would invite some of the victims to Rome.

A Chilean bishop, Juan Barros, is accused of hiding abuses by a priest.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Apr 11, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a letter addressed to Chile’s bishops, Pope Francis admitted to making “serious mistakes” in handling the nation’s massive sex abuse crisis and asked for forgiveness. The pope summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome to address the issue, and invited victims to meet with him as well.

Referring to a recent investigation of abuse cover-up in Chile carried out by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, Pope Francis said that after a “slow reading” of the report, “I can affirm that all the testimonies collected speak in a stark manner, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives and I confess that this has caused me pain and shame.”

Francis admitted to misjudging the severity of the affair, telling Chile’s bishops that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

Please find below CNA’s translation of the full text of Pope Francis’ April 8 letter:

Dear brothers in the episcopate: The reception last week of the final documents which complete the report delivered to me by my two special envoys to Chile on March 20, 2018, with a total of more than 2,300 pages, moves me to write this letter. I assure you of my prayers and I want to share with you the conviction that the present difficulties are also an occasion to re-establish trust in the Church, a trust broken by our errors and sins and in order to heal the wounds that do not cease to bleed in the whole of Chilean society.

Without faith and without prayer, fraternity is impossible. Thus, on this second Sunday of Easter, on the day of mercy, I offer you this reflection with the desire that each one of you accompany me on the inner journey that I have been traveling in recent weeks, so that it would be the Spirit who would guide us with his gift, and not our interests, or even worse, our wounded pride.

Sometimes when so many evils frighten the soul and throw us listlessly into the world buttoned up in our comfortable “winter palaces,” the love of God comes out to meet us and purifies our intentions in order to love as free, mature, and judicious men. When the media shames us, presenting a Church almost always in the darkness of the new moon, deprived of the Sun of justice, we have the temptation of doubting the Paschal victory of the Risen One. I believe that like Saint Thomas the Apostle we must not fear doubt but rather fear the pretension of wanting to see without trusting the testimony of those who heard from the lips of the Lord the most beautiful promise.

Today I want to speak to you not of assurances, but rather of the one thing that the Lord offers us to experience every day: the joy, the peace of forgiveness of our sins and the action of his grace.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh

The Diocese of Pittsburgh continues to work for the protection of children and young people and will not tolerate any behavior that puts them at risk. May we all dedicate ourselves to rooting out the evil of sexual abuse from our society.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

[with video]

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A deacon with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been arrested and is facing child pornography charges, accused of trying to contact a minor over the internet.

Investigators say the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force arrested 73-year-old Rosendo “Ross” Dacal at his home on Tuesday.

Dacal is facing charges of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility.

Bishop David Zubik, of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese, says Dacal has been put on administrative leave and suspended from active ministry following his arrest. He was assigned to All Saints Parish in Etna and was also a chaplin at the Allegheny County Jail since 2011.

“You know, it’s a tragedy, because you have a man who was married, children, grandchildren, an attorney since he’s been a deacon was assigned at the Allegheny County Jail, and has served there in the chalpin’s office,”, Bishop Zubik said. “So, when you take a look at all of that, you say, this is just amazing. It’s such a tragedy because I think it shows what a terrible addiction pornography really is.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

MEGAN GUZA | Wednesday, April 11, 2018

A deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is accused of having inappropriate contact with a police officer posing online as a minor, the diocese said Wednesday.

A North Strabane police officer conducting undercover work for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force charged Deacon Rosendo “Ross” Dacal, 73, with three felony counts, including unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of communications, court records show.

According to a criminal complaint, Officer Gary Scherer was monitoring a chat room in December and posing as a 14-year-old boy. The complaint said a man later identified as Dacal exchanged hundreds of messages with Scherer in the chatroom and via other social media between Dec. 20 and Monday.

“Many of these messages were sexually explicit and graphic in nature,” including ones in which Dacal solicited naked photographs, Scherer wrote in the complaint.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com

APR 11, 2018

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has suspended a deacon after he was arrested Tuesday on charges including unlawful contact with a minor after he allegedly sent and solicited obscene images from an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy.

Rosendo F. Dacal, 73, of McCandless, was arraigned late Tuesday, according to Magisterial District Court records in Washington County, where the police investigator is based.

Mr. Dacal was immediately suspended from his positions as a chaplain at the Allegheny County Jail and on staff at All Saints Catholic Parish in Etna, according to Bishop David Zubik. The jail, where he worked as a contractor, has revoked his security clearance, said spokeswoman Amie Downs.

“The charges against Deacon Dacal are disturbing,” Bishop Zubik said in a statement. “I have pledged to civil authorities the full cooperation of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in their investigation. We had no previous knowledge of his alleged activities.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Greg Garrison ggarrison@al.com

Acton Bowen horizontal.PNGActon Bowen, founder of Acton Bowen Outreach, spoke at AtlantaFest, an event organized by Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association in 2014.Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

Evangelist Scott Dawson, a Republican candidate for governor, said that he did not know he was listed on the board of advisers for an Etowah County evangelist who was arrested for child sexual abuse.

Dawson said he knows Acton Bowen, and used him as a speaker in 2014 at one of his evangelistic events, AtlantaFest.

“I never noticed anything that caused concern – but I was not on his board,” Dawson said in a text message to AL.com.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Reuters

(Reuters) – The U.S. Senate will hold a hearing next week into how the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and other sports organizations handled sexual misconduct allegations.

A Senate Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing on April 18, with a number of athletes expected to testify.

Several U.S. sports organizations have been criticized for not acting on complaints of abuse by former sports physician Larry Nassar and others.

“As part of the subcommittee’s ongoing investigation, we have invited athletes representing multiple sports to testify at our first hearing,” said Republican Senator Jerry Moran, who chairs the panel that will hold the hearing. “We appreciate the willingness of these athletes – who share in our determination to root out abuse in youth sport governing bodies – to share their stories.”

In recent months, several congressional committees have asked the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and 48 national governing bodies of various sports and Michigan State University for answers to questions about sexual abuse within organized sports.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

Elise Harris/CNA/EWTN News

VATICAN CITY — In a letter addressed to Chile’s bishops, Pope Francis admitted to making “serious mistakes” in handling the nation’s massive sex abuse crisis and asked for forgiveness.

The Holy Father summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome to address the issue, and invited victims to meet with him, as well.

Referring to a recent investigation of abuse cover-up in Chile carried out by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, Pope Francis said that after a “slow reading” of the report, “I can affirm that all the testimonies collected speak in a stark manner, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives and I confess that this has caused me pain and shame.”

Francis admitted to misjudging the severity of the affair, telling Chile’s bishops that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE/VATICAN CITY
Reuters

SANTIAGO/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis acknowledged on Wednesday that he had made “serious mistakes in judgment and perception” of the sexual abuse crisis in Chile, and would meet with victims and bishops in an attempt to heal wounds the scandal caused to the Catholic Church.

“I apologize to all those I have offended and I hope to be able to do it personally in the coming weeks, in the meetings I will have” with victims, he said in a letter to Chilean bishops that followed a visit to Chile by the Vatican’s top sexual abuse investigator.

Chile has been shaken by the case of Bishop Juan Barros, appointed by the pope in 2015 despite accusations that Barros had covered up sexual abuse of minors by his mentor Father Fernando Karadima.

Francis, who visited Chile in January, at first strongly defended Barros, saying he was the target of slander. Then the pope dispatched Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s top sexual crimes investigator, to Chile and New York to interview victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee

ROME — Pope Francis has admitted making “serious mistakes” in his handling of clergy sexual abuse cases in Chile, telling the country’s bishops in a lengthy letter that he feels “pain and shame” for the “crucified lives” of those who suffered abuse.

Check out our newest column, The Gospel of Sports.

But Francis has not revealed whether he will sack a Chilean prelate accused of covering up abuse, whom he has previously defended to the outrage of abuse survivors. Instead, Francis has asked the country’s bishops to come to Rome en masse for a meeting at some point soon.

In a letter released late April 11, Francis is reporting to the bishops about the mission of Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, whom the pope sent to Chile in February to interview abuse victims and look into the case of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid.

“I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and my perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information,” Francis says in the letter.

Revealing that Scicluna’s team took 64 testimonies from sexual abuse victims during its visit, the pope says the testimonies speak together “of many crucified lives, and I confess that it causes me pain and shame.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
RBN

[Pope apologizes but keeps Barros in his post.]

Esta tarde se conoció la carta enviada por el Papa Francisco a la conferencia episcopal de Chile, pero dejó un sabor amargo para quienes piden la salida de los obispos ligados a Fernando Karadima.

64 testimonios recibió Schicluna en sus reuniones tanto en Nueva York como en Santiago.

Schicluna aseguró que fueron varios asistentes quienes llegaron con madurez, respeto y amabilidad.

Francisco siente verguenza y dolor por quienes fueron “crucificados” en los abusos.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.