ABUSE TRACKER

WASHINGTON (DC)
JTA

By Ron Kampeas
October 15, 2014

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Rabbi Barry Freundel was known to the Washington Jewish community as a champion of moral rectitude. But on Tuesday, the spiritual leader of Kesher Israel congregation for the past 25 years, was charged with the most intimate of transgressions: voyeurism.

Freundel, 62, was taken away Tuesday in handcuffs, after uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department searched his home in the Georgetown section of Washington. A local NBC affiliate reported that the rabbi had installed a clock radio with a hidden camera, called the “Dream Machine,” in the women’s showers of the congregation’s mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath.

The arrest marks a startling turn in the career of a rabbi known as a national leader in establishing precepts for conversion and as a strict moralist, who just last month railed against the corrosive effect of pornography on marriages. His synagogue, Kesher Israel, is one of the most prominent in Washington; Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and New Republic Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier are members, and former Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is a former congregant.

The synagogue board in a statement said it had reported Freundel to authorities. “Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials,” the statement, posted on the congregation’s website, said. “Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.”

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)
Haaretz

The Rabbinical Council of America suspended Barry Freundel, the Washington D.C. rabbi arrested this week on a voyeurism charge.

The RCA board met in an emergency meeting Wednesday and suspended Freundel, effective immediately, extending the ban to his activities with the Beth-Din of America, meaning that Freundel’s functions as one of the leading conversion rabbis in the United States were also suspended.

In a letter to member rabbis of the Orthodox body, the president, Rabbi Leonard Matanky, said the charges Freundel faces are “deeply troubling” and confirmed what had until now been attributed to anonymous sources — that the alleged peeping took place in the mikvah adjacent to Kesher Israel, Freundel’s Georgetown shul.

Freundel is “facing charges that are deeply troubling,” Matanky said, adding that the alleged peeping is a “terrible, awful violation of privacy and of the sanctity of the mikvah.”

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 Daily Beast

Steven I. Weiss

Barry Freundel was busted for allegedly spying on female congregants. Last year, he booked a trip with a woman who’s not his wife, which is prohibited under Orthodox law.
One of the most powerful Orthodox rabbis in America was arrested Tuesday for allegedly spying on nude women in his synagogue, but possibly sinful behavior by Barry Freundel may be more damanging.

Documents reviewed by The Jewish Channel and The Daily Beast reveal that Freundel was booked on a cross-country trip with a woman who was not his wife this year, which is prohibited under Orthodox laws of yichud. It’s not clear when they met or what the exact nature of their relationship was.

Freundel’s work responsibilities until last year included setting standards for Orthodox conversion in the United States and overseeing thirteen rabbinical courts around the country, Until last year, Freundel served as the chairman of the Conversion Committee for the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest body of Orthodox rabbis in the United States. In his position, he oversaw 13 rabbinical courts and set standards for Orthodox conversion. In both positions, Freundel has been in a position to decide what activities make one eligible and ineligible to be an Orthodox Jew. Freundel is also rabbi of the prominent Kesher Israel synagogue in Washington. Not only is the congregation full of prominent Jews like Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew but it’s also one of America’s most modern, letting women read from the Torah and hold positions of leadership.

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)
Toronto Sun

A prominent Washington rabbi who police allege installed a video camera in a ritual bathing area pleaded not guilty to a voyeurism charge on Wednesday, according to court documents.

Rabbi Barry Freundel, 62, was arrested by police on Tuesday at his home in the U.S. capital’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood, a few blocks from his modern Orthodox synagogue, Kesher Israel Congregation.

Freundel pleaded not guilty in District of Columbia Superior Court to voyeurism, a misdemeanor.

Judge William Nooter ordered Freundel to stay away from all individuals he had helped convert to Judaism and participated with in the Jewish ritual bathing process known as mikvah, according to court documents online.

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 Jewish Daily Forward

By Ron Kampeas
Published October 15, 2014

WASHINGTON — (JTA) — Rabbi Barry Freundel was known to the Washington Jewish community as a champion of moral rectitude. But on Tuesday, the spiritual leader of Kesher Israel congregation for the past 25 years, was charged with the most intimate of transgressions: voyeurism.

Freundel, 62, was taken away Tuesday in handcuffs, after uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department searched his home in the Georgetown section of Washington. A local NBC affiliate reported that the rabbi had installed a clock radio with a hidden camera, called the “Dream Machine,” in the women’s showers of the congregation’s mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath.

The arrest marks a startling turn in the career of a rabbi known as a national leader in establishing precepts for conversion and as a strict moralist, who just last month railed against the corrosive effect of pornography on marriages. His synagogue, Kesher Israel, is one of the most prominent in Washington; Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and New Republic Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier are members, and former Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is a former congregant.

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
Newcastle Herald

By MICHELLE HARRIS Oct. 15, 2014

THE former commander of the Child Protection Enforcement Agency has told an inquiry he was unaware that Catholic Church officials routinely withheld the names of victims when they reported sex abuse to police, as he never checked on the Church’s reporting practices.

John Heslop also told the Police Integrity Commission on Wednesday he could not recall a draft agreement between NSW Police and the Church that set out abuse reporting protocols, although the agency’s chief of staff received advice while Mr Heslop was commander that warned the draft’s terms breached criminal laws and the Catholic Church was seeking ‘‘preferential treatment’’.

Documents show Police later explicitly told the Church it would not sign the agreement as it did not comply with obligations under the Crimes Act to report information about serious indictable offences.

But another draft of the memorandum (MOU) was produced the following year.

The Police Integrity Commission is considering whether the MOU effectively operated and whether any police misconduct was involved in the arrangements, as well as the participation of officers in the Church’s Professional Standards Reference Group between 1998 and 2005.

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
Crux

By Nicole Winfield
Associated Press October 16, 2014

VATICAN CITY — It’s one of the great mysteries of the meeting on family life taking place behind closed doors at the Vatican this week: Just where did the authors of a draft report come up with such ground-breaking language that gays had gifts to offer the church, and that even same-sex partnerships had merit?

Officially speaking, the draft report was a synthesis of the interventions from more than 200 bishops, a starting point for small working groups to propose amendments, elaborations, additions, and subtractions to the drafting committee preparing a final report that will be released on Saturday.

But conservative cardinals have said their views were not reflected in the draft. They blasted the report as “unacceptable” and said it was in sore need of an overhaul.

US Cardinal Timothy Dolan said his fellow American, hardline Cardinal Raymond Burke, reflected the view of “a good number of people in saying, boy, this document is a rough draft, does it ever need major revisions.”

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
Yahoo! News

Ein Geistlicher des ultrakonservativen katholischen Ordens Legionäre Christi ist in Chile des Kindesmissbrauchs schuldig gesprochen worden. Der 68-jährige John O’Reilly, der 1984 aus Irland nach Chile kam und 2008 die chilenische Staatsbürgerschaft erhielt, habe ein jetzt neunjähriges Mädchen seit es fünf Jahre alt war wiederholt missbraucht, befand die Richterin María Teresa Barrientos am Mittwoch in Santiago de Chile. Das Strafmaß soll am 11. November verkündet werden, die Staatsanwaltschaft plädierte auf zehn Jahre Gefängnis.

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.

OSTERREICH
kathweb

[Rejected motion for bias in lawsuit against Admonter Fathers]

Graz, 15.10.2014 (KAP) In eine weitere Runde geht eine Zivilrechtsklage gegen Admonter Patres, bei welcher der Anwalt des Klägers einen Befangenheitsantrag gegen den Richter am Landesgericht Leoben gestellt hatte. Dem Antrag wurde vom Senat nicht stattgegeben, entschied das Gericht am Mittwoch, woraufhin nach Ankündigung des Klägeranwalts nun das Oberlandesgericht Graz eine Entscheidung treffen soll. Schon bei Bekanntgabe des Antrags hatte das Stift in einer Stellungnahme die “unbegründete” erneute Verzögerung der Neuverhandlung bedauert.

Bereits im Vorjahr war ein Befangenheitsantrag gegen den Verhandlungsrichter aufgrund eines angeblichen familiären Naheverhältnisses zu Stift Admont beim Senat des Landesgerichts Leoben abgelehnt worden. Beim jetzigen Klagsweg geht es nach Darstellung des Klägers darum, dass der Richter eine Rechtsmeinung geäußert habe, noch bevor er selbst vernommen wurde. Stiftssprecher P. Winfried Schwab zufolge habe der Richter jedoch vielmehr die Rechtsauffassung des Oberlandesgerichts in Wien zitiert und dies auch wiederholt betont.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelisch

[Hamburg Bishop Kirsten Fehr said the final report of a group consisting of lawyers and social scientists on sexual abuse in the church revealed a situation that is “disgraceful and shocking.” According to the group, the church from 1993 to 2012 had a total of 16 disciplinary proceedings against 14 pastors. These involved sexual acts on children, adolescents and adults in the context of pastoral care. The acts are barred from prosecution in many cases.]

Die Hamburger Bischöfin Kirsten Fehrs bezeichnete den Abschlussbericht der aus Rechtsanwälten und Sozialwissenschaftlern bestehenden Kommission bei der Veröffentlichung am Dienstag als “beschämend und erschütternd”.

Demnach führte die nordelbische Kirche von 1993 bis 2012 insgesamt 16 Disziplinarverfahren gegen 14 Pastoren. Ihnen wurden sexuelle Handlungen – von der Belästigung bis zum Missbrauch – an Kindern, Jugendlichen oder Erwachsenen im Rahmen der Seelsorge vorgeworfen. Die Taten geschahen zwischen 1973 bis 2011 und sind in vielen Fällen strafrechtlich verjährt.

Fehrs dankte den Opfern für ihre Offenheit, ohne die die Kirche nicht hätte verstehen können, was vorgefallen sei. “Wir als Institution Kirche sind schuldig geworden. Wir als Kirche tragen Verantwortung für Ihre Verletzungen.”

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 Jessica Kidd

A senior police officer who sat on a panel set up by the Catholic Church to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse was not obligated to report the information she received, an inquiry has heard.

The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) was investigating the conduct of Inspector Elizabeth Cullen while she was a member of the church’s Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) to determine if it amounted to police misconduct.

The inquiry was also examining whether the information sharing arrangement between the Catholic Church and New South Wales Police, in the form of blind reports, breached mandatory reporting laws set out in the Crimes Act.

Inspector Elizabeth Cullen (then a senior sergeant) was appointed to the PSRG from 1998 until 2005.

The PSRG was set up by the church in 1997 to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, working within the church’s Professional Standards Office (PSO).

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
Sky News

A former NSW child protection squad commander has defended the system of blind reporting of sex abuse cases by the Catholic Church to police, saying it has kept open the lines of communication.

But Kim McGee only considered information about sex abuse from a key church- and police-sanctioned body as intelligence reports, and not reports of crimes.

‘In some regard it kept conversations open between the church and police,’ Ms McGee told the Police Integrity Commission in response to a question about blind reporting.

‘It opened up a lot of things that were very problematic with the law in this area.’

The retired policewoman, who was at the Child Protection Enforcement Agency (CPEA) in 2003, said the blind reports provided valuable intelligence.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Three who lost their abuse cases get a break
New settlement with 30 victims will be shared with them
SNAP: “This is an unprecedented and extremely generous move”
More than 90 victims of KC pedophile priests have now come forward, group says
Advocate praises them for “breaking new ground” & “showing incredible kindness”
And victims prod KC Catholic officials to do more about two now-ousted local priests
One is Missouri’s most prolific child molesting cleric; the other lives near several schools

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will

–disclose an unusual, perhaps “first-ever” arrangement in which 30 clergy sex abuse victims are agreeing to share part of their new $9.95 million settlement with three other victims whose cases were tossed out of court on legal technicalities,
–praise the 90+ KC area men and women who, over the past 20 years, have settled abuse and cover up suits against KC church officials and
— urge KC Catholic officials to warn the public about two credibly accuse serial predator priests who are still living in the KC area (one near several schools).

They will also urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes to come forward and report to police.

WHEN
Thursday, Oct. 16 at 2:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the KC Catholic Diocese headquarters, 20 W. 9th St. (corner of Baltimore Ave.) in downtown Kansas City, MO

WHO
Four members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a St. Louis man who is the organization’s long time director and was molested by a Missouri priest

WHY
In what may be an unprecedented move, 30 clergy sex abuse victims will share part of their new $9.95 million dollar settlement with three other victims who aren’t formally part of the deal. Their cases were rejected by judges largely based on what SNAP calls “a bizarre legal technicality” – because the alleged crimes took place on private property, not church property.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BishopAccountability.org]

“The bad news is that Bishop Robert Finn and other Catholic officials successfully exploit this loophole,” said Mike Hunter, SNAP’s KC director. “The good news is that, despite Bishop Finn’s callous and selfish behavior, these three victims are not being left out in the cold, because their brothers and sisters who just settled are recognizing and generously remedying this injustice.”

SNAP leaders say they can’t recall a similar situation anywhere in the country.

“Usually, we’re isolated and abused as kids by Catholic predators, and often, in litigation, we’re isolated and betrayed again by church officials, each of our cases winning or losing in individual hearings before individual judges,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP. “It’s heart-warming and inspiring to see these 30 KC victims overcoming this isolation and showing such compassion to their brothers who would otherwise walk away with no justice or compensation at all.”

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 Nicole Chettle

A man abused by a Sunshine Coast youth pastor as a child is still extremely angry at the church’s handling of his complaint more than five years after his abuser was jailed, an inquiry has heard.

Perpetrator Jonathan Baldwin befriended his victim, referred to in the commission as ALA, at a Queensland church that cannot be named for legal reasons in 2004.

The abuse allegedly occurred over a two-year period beginning when ALA was 13, the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.

The inquiry heard the boy’s family was baffled by the “deafening silence” of the church when in 2009 Baldwin was jailed for eight years, with a non-parole period of four years, on charges including “maintaining”, the indecent treatment of a child under 16 and sodomy.

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
Sydney Morning Herald

[with video]

October 16, 2014

Rory Callinan
Investigative journalist

A Catholic priest who was allowed to continue preaching in Papua New Guinea despite being named in child abuse compensation settlements has been deported to Australia and is likely to face being extradited from Queensland to Victoria.

Earlier this month, Fairfax Media revealed how Father Roger Mount was still being allowed to minister at a remote parish in PNG despite being named in the Catholic church documents as an alleged child abuser of boys in homes in Victoria and NSW.

Following more revelations that Mount had been living in the country illegally without a visa for the past three years, the PNG Government on Wednesday deported him to Cairns.

The 72-year-old Catholic priest had been alleged to have abused children when he was working as Brother Gabriel with the Catholic St John of God Order at a home for intellectually disabled boys at Kendall Grange in Morisset, about 65km north of Sydney, and at boys homes in Victoria run by the same order.

Legal documents obtained by Fairfax reveal at least two boys from the homes had successfully sought apologies and compensation payments after they reported the abuse to the St John of God Order in the 1990s and the 2000s.

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
Sydney Morning Herald

October 16, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

COURTS

The former head of the NSW Police Force’s child protection command has admitted she knew the Catholic Church’s practice of “blind reporting” child sex abuse to police was against the law but she accepted it because “it kept the conversation going”.

Kim McGee made the comments during a emotional day of evidence before the NSW Police Integrity Commission on Thursday.

The police regulator is examining allegations police were complicit in the covering up of allegations of child sex abuse by the Catholic Church.

The former chief of the force’s Child Protection Enforcement Agency broke down as she spoke of the difficulties she faced in trying to get victims of child sexual abuse to come forward.

“We worked so hard to encourage them to report the crimes,” Ms McGee said, crying.

“Particularly women in Aboriginal communities.”

But the retired officer defended her acceptance of the practice of blind reporting, where the Catholic Church would report the details of an alleged sex abuse offence, but not the name of the alleged victim.

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.

WALES
Barry and District News

by Dominic Jones

CHANGES to the way the Jehovah’s Witness Church deal with child abuse allegations are being sought by victims of Barry sex predator Mark Sewell.

Two of the women who suffered at the hands of the Barry church elder are also taking legal action against the church, saying that they were failed by a culture of secrecy that “protected” Sewell.

In July, Mark Sewell, 53, was jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of one count of rape and seven accounts of sexual assault at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.

The offences stretched back more than 20 years, during a time when Sewell, of Porthkerry Road, Barry was a trusted and respected church elder.

One of his victims, his niece Karen Morgan, is spearheading a campaign against practices within the church that she says allowed sexual predator Sewell to run rampant.

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
Washington Post

By Abby Ohlheiser October 15

In Ohio’s Grace Cathedral, the Rev. Ernest Angley says he can heal the sick in the name of Jesus. The televangelist is famous for it.

But a stunning series of reports from the Akron Beacon Journal has thrown a spotlight on what many former members of the Cuyahoga Falls church say is a terminal illness plaguing Angley’s empire.

That illness, they say, is Angley himself.

Even for those who don’t know Angley’s church, the allegations are shocking. The 93-year-old televangelist has torn apart families, pressured congregants to get abortions and vasectomies, and turned a blind eye to sexual abuse within his congregation, according to former church members who spoke to Akron Beacon Journal reporter Bob Dyer. There are also allegations of abuse at the hands of Angley.

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.

KENTUCKY
New York Daily News

BY RACHELLE BLIDNER

A Kentucky Sunday school teacher confessed to sexually abusing one of his 16-year-old students after he was arrested Monday night, police said.

Rex Allen Murphy, a 30-year-old teacher at Polly Ann Church of God in Eubank, Ky., was charged Monday night with sexual assault, sodomy and the use of a minor in a sexual performance, police chief Colin Hatfield said.

Murphy allegedly touched the male victim inappropriately at church and at Murphy’s home, with at least 10 incidents of sexual abuse over the course of six months, police said.

Murphy also allegedly threatened the teen with black magic, The Commonwealth Journal reported.

“What the suspect told the victim is that if he touched his skin or shook his hand, he could tell the victim’s sins from the past,” Hatfield told the Daily News. “If the victim ever told anybody like his parents what was going on between the two, he would notify his parents of his past sins.”

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
Sydney Morning Herald

October 16, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

The Pentecostal movement needs a child sexual abuse telephone hotline because it’s too hard for church leaders to report crimes to the state executive body, a royal commission has heard.

Retired senior pastor Chris Peterson told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse that reporting abuse to the movement’s umbrella body, Australian Christian Churches, was “too difficult a course”.

He said the senior pastors of the 1000 Australian churches affiliated with the movement needed an easier way to report abuse.

“We [should] create some sort of hotline or facility where a senior pastor has an immediate connection on matters of such importance,” he said.

Mr Peterson was the senior pastor at a Queensland church where a teenage boy had been sexually molested by a youth pastor.

The church had a child abuse policy, written by two volunteers with no child protection background, that implied abusers should try to avoid detection and said Satan was to blame for accusations, the commission heard.

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
Perth Now

BY ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP OCTOBER 16, 2014

A retired church leader says the Pentecostal movement needs a hotline to report abuse allegations.
THE Pentecostal movement needs a hotline for senior pastors to report child sex abuse allegations to the executive, a retired church leader says.

CHRIS Peterson was senior pastor of a small church in Queensland when Jonathan Baldwin, a former youth pastor, was jailed for eight years for indecent treatment of a child under 16 and one count of sodomy.

At a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing on Thursday, Pastor Peterson said he accepted some responsibility for not passing the information up the line to the state and national executive of the Australian Christian Churches (ACC).

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 CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

Andres Gutierrez

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Victims of sexual abuse by members of the Kansas City Diocese are one step closer to receiving a settlement.

The lawyers and victims held their last hearing in the case Wednesday morning on the second floor of Jackson County courthouse in Independence.

On Tuesday, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph agreed to pay $9.95 million to settle 30 lawsuits that alleged sexual abuse by priests.

This comes after former altar boy Jon David Conzens filed a lawsuit in 2011, accusing Monsignor Thomas O’Brien of molesting him 30 years ago.

Conzens was pleased with the settlement, but the plaintiff’s attorney Rebecca Randles said the decision is bittersweet.

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
Press TV (Iran)

[with video]

A Chilean court has found an Irish-born Catholic priest guilty of sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in the capital Santiago.

John O’Reilly, who migrated to Chile from Ireland in 1985, was found guiltily of sexually abusing a pre-teen girl between 2007 and 2009 at the Colegio Cumbres private Catholic school.

“The tribunal has established beyond all reasonable doubt that… O’Reilly resolved to carry out actions of a sexual nature via body contact with a school student,” said Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos on Wednesday.

The priest, who has denied the charges, is to face sentencing next month. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of 10 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.

UNITED STATES
The Monitor

JOSE DE LEON III | STAFF WRITER

Posted on Oct 15, 2014

U.S. Marshals are attempting to find a former Catholic priest who disappeared after he was accused of molesting a six-year-old Brooklyn girl last June.

The suspect, Augusto Rafael Cortez, who was priest in Long Island, was already on probation after being charged in June 2008 with second-degree sexual assault. He eventually pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of forcible touching, according to Long Island-based website Newsday, which did not require him to register as a sex offender.

“We found out he has friends and family down here,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Juan Lara, the agency’s local spokesman. “He was probably here in the Valley or he made it back into the interior of Mexico.”

Reportedly, the six-year-old girl contracted a sexually transmitted disease from Cortez. He is wanted by the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force-Long Island Division and charged with first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor.

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

Oct 16, 2014 By Kenny Smith

Parishioners at a Cambuslang church have vowed to support their priest who has been suspended from his duties after police launched an investigation into historic sexual abuse allegations.

Father Paul Morton has been the Parish Priest at St Bride’s Church for 14 years.

We reported last week there was concern amongst his flock when he was unable to take Mass on October 5, with the Bishop of Motherwell stepping in his place.

It was later revealed Fr Morton (54) has stepped aside from his duties at the church, as a result of an investigation by Police Scotland.

Police Scotland said this week the investigation was still at an early stage.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Church said: “As a result of an ongoing police inquiry, Fr Paul Morton, parish priest of St Bride’s, Cambuslang, has been asked to take administrative leave from parish ministry for an unspecified period of time.

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
WA Today

A Catholic priest will spend at least 11 months behind bars after being convicted of abusing a West Australian teenager more than 30 years ago.

Glenn Humphreys, 61, was found guilty of abusing a teenager between 1983 and 1986 when he was 15 to 17.

A District Court jury found Humphreys guilty of four counts of unlawful and indecent assault, but acquitted him of carnal knowledge against the order of nature.

During sentencing submissions on Wednesday, defence lawyer Seamus Rafferty argued there was an “immature context” to the offending rather than any form of grooming.

Mr Rafferty said his client was struggling with his sexuality at the time and there was an “adolescent quality” to the hugging and touching that made the case “exceptional”

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 CAROLINA
GoUpstate

By Daniel J. Gross
daniel.gross@shj.com
Published: Wednesday, October 15, 2014

An Upstate conservative radio host has been charged with criminal sexual conduct.

Josh Kimbrell, host of Common Cents on Christian Talk 660, is accused of inappropriately fondling his 3-year-old son, according to a warrant from the Greenville Police Department.

He was charged Tuesday and taken to the Greenville County jail. The warrant states that the incident took place Sept. 24.

Kimbrell, of 531 Caledon Court in Greenville, recently served as the emcee to a roundtable discussion with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz at the Spartanburg Community College Downtown Campus.

“He hasn’t even been before a judge yet. We’re going to let things play out as far as the courts are concerned,” said Gary Miller, operations manager for Christian Talk.

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 CAROLINA
WYFF

Christian Talk radio host accused of sex crime against 3-year-old

GREENVILLE, S.C. —An Upstate man who is the host of a conservative radio show on a Christian talk channel has been charged with a sex crime against a 3-year-old boy, according to arrest warrants.

Josh Kimbrell, who is the host of Common Cents on Christian Talk 660AM/92.9FM, is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor under 11.

According to the arrest warrant, Kimbrell, under the guise of a game, fondled the child and committed other sexually acts against the boy.

Greenville police said that Kimbrell was arrested Tuesday. He is being held without bond.

Kimbrell’s Common Cents show airs weekdays at 5 p.m. He was born and raised in the Upstate and attended North Greenville University, according to his website. It says he is also chair of the Palmetto Conservative Alliance.

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
The Journal

AN IRISH-BORN priest was found guilty in Chile today of sexually abusing a young girl for years from the time she was a toddler.

John O’Reilly, 68, was accused of repeatedly molesting the girl, who is now nine, between 2007 and 2010 when he was a spiritual advisor at an elite school in eastern Santiago.

“A majority of the court’s members take as established, beyond a reasonable doubt, the following facts… that O’Reilly decided to engage in acts of a sexual nature through physical contact with a student at the school,” Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos said in her ruling.

O’Reilly was also accused of molesting the girl’s older sister but the court acquitted him unanimously of that charge, considering there was insufficient evidence.

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.

ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Allison Kaplan Sommer Oct. 15, 2014

Sadly, it’s a sign of our times that no one is exactly stunned by clergy sex scandals anymore. It is arguable whether sexual impropriety by spiritual leaders happens more now than in the past – or if simply more of the cases now come to light. Either way, it seems that hardly a month goes by when we don’t hear something about a priest, minister, imam or rabbi of accused of some form of bad behavior involving sex. In the Jewish community, as elsewhere, the spectrum of offenses range from the revelations of embezzlement of synagogue funds to hush up affairs to yeshiva rabbis convicted of sexually assaulting their students.

Each time it happens, it rocks a community to its core, and creates waves that affect adherents of that religion far beyond the immediate area. The scandals also provide fuel for those who may have an issue with the religion in question or the form in which it is practiced.

But the underlying lesson is usually the same: once again, we learn that every human being, no matter how exalted or respected, is tragically flawed and capable of terrible things. The fact that someone is learned in holy teaching and stands in front of congregations in ritual garments, preaching to them about distinguishing between good and evil doesn’t make anyone immune from giving in to base or unethical urges.

That said, the unfolding news of why Rabbi Barry Freundel, rabbi of the Kesher Israel synagogue in Washington, D.C. in handcuffs and charged with voyeurism, has succeeded in shocking even those who thought they couldn’t be surprised anymore. The details of his arrest as reported by a local television station:

“D.C. police say Rabbi Freundel used cameras set up in a changing area just outside the mikvah to peep on women. According to a police report, Freundel was seen installing a camera hidden in a clock radio above a shower at the mikvah.

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 Jewish Week

Rabbi Barry Freundel, the longtime spiritual leader at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., was arrested and charged with voyeurism after the synagogue board alerted the authorities.

Freundel, 62, was taken away Tuesday in handcuffs after uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department searched his home in the Georgetown section of Washington, Washingtonian magazine reported.

Reportedly the rabbi is accused of surreptitiously filming women showering in the synagogue’s mikveh. However, the police declined to confirm this detail.

A statement from the board of directors emailed to congregants said it had suspended Freundel without pay.

“Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials,” said the statement. “Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.”

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)
Failed Messiah

[with copy of the police report]

Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, one of the top Modern Orthodox rabbis in the world, is Jformer US Senator Joseph Lieberman’s and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s rabbi, was arrested yesterday ona voyeurism charge. Here’s the police incident report.

Note that Freundel claimed the purpose of the clock radio that was also a hidden camera and recorder was to provide “ventilation” for the shower area of the women’s mikvah.

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)
Washington City Paper

Posted by Perry Stein on Oct. 15, 2014

District police removed a black Sony Dream Machine radio clock and camera as evidence on Sunday from Kesher Israel in Georgetown—the modern orthodox synagogue whose rabbi was arrested Tuesday on voyeurism charges.

Police arrested Rabbi Barry Freundel at his nearby Georgetown home Tuesday and he is expected to appear in D.C. Superior Court this afternoon.

According to the police incident report, a 35-year-old woman reported seeing Freundel plug in the electronic device in the showers in the mikveh—a bath used in orthodox Jewish rituals. Freundel said, according to the report, that he was using the device for ventilation in the shower area. Women often use mikvehs for spiritual cleansing and purity after child birth and menstruation. mikvehs are also used by men and people converting to Judaism. During this spiritual cleansing, all clothing must be removed.

If the allegations are true, it could mean the rabbi was spying on people in his congregation while they were partaking in a religious ritual.

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)
CBS News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A prominent Georgetown rabbi was arrested Tuesday after being accused of setting up a camera inside the women’s shower rooms at his synagogue, police say.

Dr. Barry Freundel, 62, was arrested Tuesday morning at his home. Freundel is the rabbi at Kesher Israel Congregation.

CBS affiliate WUSA reports that a 35-year-old woman reported the incident. According to police reports, when the woman confronted Dr. Freundel, he told her he was fixing the shower ventilation system in the mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath.

According to a statement on their website, Kesher Israel has suspended Freundel without pay and is cooperating with law enforcement.

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)
Washington Post

Rabbi charged with voyeurism hid camera in clock-radio in ritual bath, police report says

By Peter Hermann and Michelle Boorstein October 15

A prominent modern Orthodox rabbi at a Georgetown synagogue who was arrested Tuesday on a charge of voyeurism had a camera inside a clock-radio in the showers of a ritual bath, according to a D.C. police report made public on Wednesday.

A woman saw the 62-year-old rabbi, Barry Freundel of Kesher Israel Congregation, plugging the radio in, the report says, and police were notified. The synagogue’s board said in a statement that they informed authorities of the alleged impropriety.

It is not immediately clear whether anyone was filmed or photographed. Police were called to the synagogue on N Street Northwest on Sept. 28. Police arrested Freundel on Tuesday after a search of his home on O Street Northwest, also in Georgetown.

Freundel was charged with one count of voyeurism and is expected to make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court Wednesday afternoon. More information about the case will most likely be available then when police affidavits are unsealed. If images were not distributed, the charge is a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail; if images were showed to others, the charge can be a felony carrying a prison term of up to five 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.

CHILE
RTE News

An Irish priest has been found guilty of sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in the Chilean capital, Santiago.

The court found that John O’Reilly, who moved to Chile from Ireland in 1985, had abused the girl at the private Colegio Cumbres in the affluent area of Las Condes between 2007 and 2009.

“The tribunal has established beyond all reasonable doubt that … O’Reilly resolved to carry out actions of a sexual nature via body contact with a school student,” said Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos.

O’Reilly, who denied the charges, will be sentenced next month.

Prosecutors have requested that he be sent to prison for ten 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.

CHILE
ABC News

AP

An Irish-born priest was found guilty on Wednesday of sexually abusing a minor while he was chaplain at a school in Chile’s capital.

A court in Santiago said that the Rev. John O’Reilly committed the abuse while he was the spiritual guide at the Cumbres school located in the affluent neighborhood of Las Condes.

The families of two sisters had accused the priest of molesting the pre-teen girls between 2007 and 2012. The court absolved him in one of the cases. His sentence will be announced on Nov. 11.

“The court has established … beyond all reasonable doubt the following facts: that O’Reilly decided to carry out actions of a sexual nature through body contact with a school student,” Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos, said adding that the priest committed the abuse several times in 2010 and 2012 during school hours.

O’Reilly, who arrived to Chile in the mid-1980s and was granted Chilean citizenship in 2008, is a member of the Legion of Christ. The once-respected conservative order fell into scandal after it revealed that its founder had fathered a child and had sexually abused seminarians.

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.

KENTUCKY
WKYT

[with video]

PULASKI COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) – Police say the victim in this case is a 16-year- old who told them Rex Murphy intimidated him with tales of witchcraft.

“The victim stated that the suspect told him on numerous occasions that by brushing his skin or shaking his hand…he could tell his sins by the power he has. He comes from family of warlocks,” said Eubank Police Chief Colin Hatfield.

Police say Murphy, a Sunday School teacher at Polly Ann Church of God, also abused the 16-year-old. He’s charged with sodomy and sexual abuse.

“The accusations were very graphic,” said Hatfield.

Police say Murphy told them he was both the church’s youth pastor and Sunday School teacher. The Polly Ann Church of God pastor said he was only a Sunday School teacher. The pastor says the situation is being dealt with internally but because of confidentiality little else could be said. Police say Murphy threatened the victim if he told his parents.

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.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Judicial Observatory (OJD) of the think tank Funglode on Wednesday said the country has legal options to seek the extradition of former Vatican envoy Josef Wesolowski, charged with sexually abusing minors in Dominican Republic, EFE reports.

The Polish-born defrocked bishop, 66, is accused of abusing minors during his stay in the country, from January 2008 to August 2013, and of possession of child pornography in Italy.

Justice minister Francisco Domínguez in September said Wesolowski’s trial could begin later this year or the beginning of 2015, but in the Vatican.

The analysis by OJD criminal justice researchers Junior Santana and Héctor Peña notes that the Dominican State can exercise its criminal jurisdiction as stipulated in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

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
Catholic Register

BY DEBORAH GYAPONG, CANADIAN CATHOLIC NEWS
October 15, 2014

OTTAWA – A lawyer representing the Catholic entities involved in Indian residential schools has vehemently rejected criticism from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) head who has accused the Catholic Church of withholding documents.

Pierre Baribeau says commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair has unfairly targeted the Catholic entities.

“We have a feeling that we have been discriminated against by the TRC, compared to the way they have treated the other churches,” said Baribeau. “That’s a strong feeling, and it’s very unfortunate.”

Baribeau was reacting to a speech in Winnipeg Sept. 29 by Sinclair, who said the road to reconciliation after 150 years will be a long one and the Catholic Church isn’t helping, as reported in the Prairie Messenger. Sinclair said the “government of Canada and the Catholics have not provided documents” needed for the commission to complete its work. He also said the churches were being unco-operative, and the Catholic Church in particular fears more abuse stories will emerge against living clergy.

Sinclair chairs the commission that began with a five-year mandate that has been extended by a year. It is looking into the abuses that occurred over the years in Indian residential schools in which government policy was to assimilate Canada’s First Nations’ youth with the rest of Canadian society. From 1820 to the 1970s, the federal government removed aboriginal children from their homes and placed them in Church-run boarding schools in what became known as an effort “to kill the Indian in the child.” The children were not allowed to speak their language or practise their culture and many suffered 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.

CHILE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

An Irish born priest, who had been working in Chile, has been found guilty of sexually abusing a child. We are grateful for the bravery of the victims for coming forward. We hope the perpetrator is put behind bars for a long time.

Fr. John O’Reilly is a member of the notorious Legion of Christ and has been convicted of abusing a girl while he was a chaplain at Cumbres School in Santiago. There are at least two allegations against O’Reilly.

We urge church officials to immediately alert parishioners and the community about O’Reilly’s conviction and beg anyone else who suffered, witnessed or suspects abuse to call law enforcement immediately.

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.

MINNESOTA
West Central Tribune

[with poll]

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and sexual abuse victims took a major step toward healing Monday with the announcement of a historic lawsuit settlement and agreement on future child protection.

At an emotional news conference Monday, church officials and sexual abuse survivors along with their lawyers shared a public platform to make this significant announcement.

This announcement is a positive one for all involved, but especially so for the sexual abuse survivors of the church in Minnesota.

“We’ve come forward together today because we’ve forged a new way,” said plaintiff’s attorney Jeff Anderson.

Church officials apologized Monday saying they were sorry the abuse happen and that it should not have happen.

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
Irish Independent

An Irish-born Chilean priest was found guilty on Wednesday of sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in the capital, Santiago.

The court found that John O’Reilly, who moved to Chile from Ireland in 1985, had abused the pre-teen girl behind closed doors at the private Colegio Cumbres in the affluent neighborhood of Las Condes between 2007 and 2009.

“The tribunal has established beyond all reasonable doubt that … O’Reilly resolved to carry out actions of a sexual nature via body contact with a school student,” said Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos.

O’Reilly, who denied the charges, will be sentenced next month. Prosecutors have requested that he be sent to prison for 10 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.

NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Kathleen Hopkins, @Khopkinsapp October 15, 2014

TOMS RIVER – Jurors deliberating molestation charges against a popular Brick priest just reviewed a videotape of the clergyman acknowledging that he touched a 5-year-old girl, her 13-year-old brother and the children’s mother.

On the videotape, about one hour and 15 minutes long, Marukudiyil Velan, better known to parishioners at Church of the Visitation in Brick as “Father Chris,’’ readily admits he touched the mother’s breast on the date in question, July 13, 2012, and that he had done so in the past in the process of hugging her.

Regarding the children, Velan, 66, said he was resisting their inappropriate moves when he touched them.

He denied, however, touching the boy inappropriately on a previous occasion in April 2012, when the pair were in his car en route to McDonald’s.

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
Business Insider

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – An Irish-born Chilean priest was found guilty on Wednesday of sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in the capital, Santiago.

The court found that John O’Reilly, who moved to Chile from Ireland in 1985, had abused the pre-teen girl behind closed doors at the private Colegio Cumbres in the affluent neighborhood of Las Condes between 2007 and 2009.

“The tribunal has established beyond all reasonable doubt that … O’Reilly resolved to carry out actions of a sexual nature via body contact with a school student,” said Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos.

O’Reilly, who denied the charges, will be sentenced next month. Prosecutors have requested that he be sent to prison for 10 years.

The school where the abuse took place is part of the network of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order whose founder was revealed to be a fraud and pedophile who had fathered several 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.

CHILE
Diario U Chile

La fiscalía pide 10 años de cárcel para el sacerdote Legionario de Cristo mientras que su defensa reclama que se le condena a muerte por su avanzada edad.

El Tercer Tribunal Oral en lo Penal determinó que el sacerdote John O’Reilly, perteneciente a los Legionarios de Cristo, sí procedió a abusar sexualmente contra una de las ex alumnas del Colegio Cumbres, entre los años 2007 y 2009.

La justicia determinó que el sacerdote se aprovechaba de su condición de guía espiritual para sustraer constantemente de la sala de clases a J.P.H.M y abusar de ella.

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
La Tercera

El Tercer Tribunal Oral en lo Penal afirmó que el sacerdote John O’Reilly sí procedió a abusar sexualmente contra una ex alumna del Colegio Cumbres.

La jueza afirmó que el tribunal de forma mayoritaria decidió que el religioso es culpable de los hechos que se le acusan.

Por otro lado, fue absuelto de forma unánime de la acusación del abuso sexual contra la hermana mayor de la víctima, ya que no se pudo acreditar el delito con las pruebas presentadas durante el juicio oral.

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
New Zealand Herald

Thursday Oct 16, 2014

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) A court in Chile has ruled that an Irish-born priest is guilty of sexually abusing an underage minor.

The court said Wednesday that the Rev. John O’Reilly committed the abuse while he was chaplain and spiritual guide at the Cumbres school in Santiago.

The families of two sisters accused the priest of molesting the girls between 2007 and 2011. The court absolved him in one of the cases.

O’Reilly is a member of the Legion of Christ. The once-respected conservative order fell into scandal after it revealed that its founder had fathered a child and had sexually abused seminarians.

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

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor October 15, 2014

ROME – True old-timers in the Vatican press corps still love to reminisce about how much fun it was covering the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of the world’s Catholic bishops from 1962 to 1965 that launched the Church on a course of modernization and reform.

It was a gripping story, filled with colorful characters. There were the great lions of the reform camp, such as Cardinal Leo Suenens of Belgium and Giacomo Lercaro of Italy, facing off against the old guard, personified by Italian Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, whose episcopal motto Semper Idem, “Always the Same,” was an entire ideological program in miniature.

Underneath the drama was the sense that something momentous was happening — a Church that had seemed frozen in place was suddenly on the move. Whether it was doing so in a wise or haphazard fashion is a matter of debate to this day, but no one denied that the plates were shifting.

Over the past two weeks, that kind of drama has been back on the Vatican beat.

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
Claims Journal

By MICHAEL CATALINI | October 15, 2014

A man who’s suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, alleging a priest sexually molested him more than 30 years ago, wants the state to change the statute of limitations in such cases.

Stephen Marlowe, of Hoboken, and members of a sexual assault victims advocacy group on Tuesday called for passage of a state Senate measure aimed at rolling back the state’s two-year statute of limitations in civil lawsuits involving sex assault.

“People are very forgiving, but you need to show acts of contrition, that you’re sorry and that you’re not attacking victims,” Marlowe, who’s 48, said before a news conference on the steps of the statehouse.

His lawsuit, which was filed last month in state Superior Court, seeks a ruling against the defendants and unspecified punitive damages.

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-Democrat

By Kathy Mellott
kmellott@tribdem.com | Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2014

A Central City priest is charged with sex crimes involving children in Honduras, and attorneys expect a surge in allegations of kids in poorer countries suffering sexual exploitation.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian said global child abuse is gaining more attention from law enforcement.

“We’re just now seeing what’s going on in the Third World,” Garabedian said. “The sexually abused victims in Third-World countries are just now coming forward.”

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. was arraigned Tuesday in Federal Court in Johnstown, accused of engaging in illicit conduct in foreign places and possessing material depicting sexual exploitation of a minor.

Garabedian is representing alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of former Bishop McCort Catholic High School teacher Brother Stephen Baker.

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
Catholics4Change

OCTOBER 15, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

I recently founded a political action committee (PAC) called Protect PA Kids. Kathy and other dedicated professionals joined the board and generously donate their time to working for candidates who work hard to keep our commonweath’s children safe. Why a PAC? Lobbyists for financially-driven issues drown out the voices of grandparents, parents, law enforcement officials and advocates. As a PAC, we can leverage our collective resources on their behalf. We support candidates who are working hard to protect children and hold those who aren’t accountable. Please considering joining this PAC. Information is available at www.ProtectPaKids.com. The PAC is non-partisan and not connected to any organization, candidate or ballot measure.

While we focus on issues ranging from teen driving laws to educator background checks, we’ve prioritized child sex abuse Statute of Limitations (SOL) reform. Child predators could be living in your community because of the current SOL. Bill blockers in the state house may say the current ages of 30 for civil and 50 for criminal are adequate. But we know that recourse doesn’t apply to all victims whose abuse happened prior to 2002 and 2007, when those laws were enacted. Our state representatives and senators should not be concerned about whether a particular bill will lead to the financial duress of institutions, will cause insurers liability, give victims false hope or allow lawyers to profit. They should act on behalf of voters and children.

Delaware, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts and other states have enacted SOL reforms. With institutional cover-ups making headlines, including those involving Penn State and our Church, isn’t it time for Pennsylvania to do the same?

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.

TEXAS
Ecumenical News

Henri Rose Cimatu
Wednesday, October 15 2014

A Houston family has filed a lawsuit the Second Baptist Church for its role in the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl.

The lawsuit claims that the megachurch’s youth pastor Chad Foster used his position to abuse teenagers, CultureMap Houston reported.

Second Baptist Church is led by senior pastor Ed Young and has some 65,000 members across five campuses with an annual budget of $53 million.

The church is accused of giving Foster the opportunity to interact with public school students without giving him proper training when dealing with minors.

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)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

A prominent Orthodox Rabbi from Washington DC has been arrested after allegedly video tapping women bathing in a ritual bathhouse. We applaud the brave woman who alerted officials to her suspicions.

Prior to his arrest, Rabbi Barry Freundel has been the rabbi at Kesher Israel in Georgetown since the late 1980s. He allegedly was filming women as they bathed at the synagogue’s mikvah, which is a traditional bathhouse. We are disappointed that a trusted official allegedly abused his position of authority to violate the privacy of maybe countless women.

We hope officials at Kesher Israel reach out to anyone who may have been violated. And we urge law enforcement officials to vigorously investigate and pursue the allegations and we urge synagogue officials to contact former synagogue members and staff who may have information about these allegations.

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
NJ.com

By Rob Spahr | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 15, 2014

TOMS RIVER – The fate of a Brick priest on trial for molestation charges could come down to a video tape.

A jury in the trial of Marukudiyil Velan, of the Church of the Visitaion in Brick, asked Ocean County Superior Court Judge James Blaney on Tuesday to watch a videotape again on which, prosecutors claim, the priest admits to improperly touching a mother and her two children in 2012, the Asbury Park Press reported.

However, Velan’s defense attorney argues that maintains detectives badgered, cursed at and manipulated Velan until he confessed, the newspaper reported.

Velan, 66, better known as “Father Chris” in the Brick parish, has been a adjunct priest at the Church of the Visitation in Brick since 2001. A garden at the church is named after him.

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
Crux

By Jacob Lupfer
Religion News Service October 15, 2014

Pope Francis has engineered a lively debate at the Synod of Bishops about gays and lesbians, divorced and remarried Catholics, and couples who live together before getting married. Yet through these discussions about Catholic life runs a theme that is as old as the Reformation: the role of individual conscience.

The conflict between conscience and authority is the pre-eminent battle underlying the synod’s debates. Even the dramatic turn from language such as “living in sin” and “intrinsically disordered” is a tacit nod to conscience over authority.

If there is a common thread among issues as diverse as contraception, divorce, premarital sex, and homosexuality, it may be the limits of the Church’s authority over Catholics’ behavior and consciences.

Protestant denominations vary in how much they have abandoned traditional teaching on these matters. Evangelicals have mostly accommodated birth control and divorce, but not premarital or gay sex. Mainline Protestants rarely enforce what weak prohibitions on premarital sex remain, and are more rapidly accepting gays and lesbians in the life and ministry of their churches.

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)
Kesher Israel

This is a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community. At this challenging time, we draw strength from our faith, our tradition, and our fellow congregants.

Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials.

Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.

After today’s arrest of Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, the Board of Directors suspended him without pay. As always, Kesher Israel will remain open as a place of learning, prayer, and community, including throughout the remainder of the Sukkot holiday.

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)
New York Times

By MICHAEL PAULSON
OCT. 14, 2014

An Orthodox rabbi who presides over a prominent Washington congregation was arrested on Tuesday and charged with voyeurism.

Although the police in the District of Columbia confirmed the arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel, they declined to provide details or a copy of an arrest report for the misdemeanor charge. Rabbi Freundel is accused of placing a hidden camera in a changing area used by women, as well as some men, to disrobe before they enter a ritual bath called a mikvah, according to a person familiar with the allegation who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The congregation’s mikvah is in a building next to the synagogue, Kesher Israel. The congregation’s board of directors said it had notified law enforcement authorities of its concern about Rabbi Freundel’s behavior, and had suspended him without pay. It called the allegation “a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community.”

“Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials,” the board said in a statement posted to the congregation’s website.

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)
Washington Post

By Peter Hermann and Michelle Boorstein October 14

A prominent modern Orthodox rabbi at a Georgetown synagogue was arrested by D.C. police on Tuesday morning and charged with voyeurism, according to a department spokeswoman.

Barry Freundel, 62, of the Kesher Israel Congregation, was being held in police custody Tuesday and was likely to have an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday. Within hours, the synagogue’s board of directors suspended him without pay.

D.C. police confirmed that his arrest came during a search of his home on O Street NW, about five blocks from the synagogue in the 2800 block of N Street NW that he has led since 1989.

The police spokeswoman, Gwendolyn Crump, confirmed the arrest but declined to provide details of the allegation. Freundel’s home phone was not answered Tuesday afternoon. His arrest was first reported by Washingtonian magazine.

Law enforcement authorities said the case involves a hidden camera but gave conflicting accounts of where the alleged voyeurism took place. Both the synagogue bathroom and the mikvah, where ritual bathing takes place, were mentioned.

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)
Fox 5

[with video]

By Maureen Umeh, FOX 5 Reporter & Anchor
By Paul Wagner, FOX 5 Reporter

WASHINGTON –
D.C. police have arrested and charged a prominent Georgetown rabbi with voyeurism.

Barry Freundel was arrested at his Georgetown home Tuesday morning and has been the rabbi of the Kesher Israel Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue, on N Street in Northwest D.C. since 1989.

Freundel is accused of setting up a hidden camera inside his Northwest D.C. synagogue and recording women as they showered.

The alleged crime happened in an area of the synagogue known as a mikvah. It is a ritual bath where congregants go to get spiritually cleansed.

D.C. police say Rabbi Freundel used cameras set up in a changing area just outside the mikvah to peep on women.

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)
WJLA

[with video]

By Jay Korff October 14, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP/WJLA) – D.C. police have charged a rabbi at a Georgetown synagogue with voyeurism.

Police said 62-year-old Barry Freundel was arrested Tuesday at his home. Freundel is the rabbi at Kesher Israel Congregation.

A police report indicated that a camera and recorder hidden in a clock radio were found in the women’s shower in the mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath, at the synagogue.

According to the congregation’s website, Freundel has been the rabbi at Kesher Israel for 25 years. The site said Freundel is an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University. He also teaches at Towson University.

A message left at Freundel’s phone number was not immediately returned, but some of his neighbors – who witnessed his arrest -were careful not to judge.

“I hope we all remember that he is a brilliant man and a great leader. My prayers go out to his family and his congregation,” neighbor Sharon Lockwood told ABC7 News.

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)
Haaretz (Israel)

Prominent Washington rabbi Barry Freundel was arrested and charged with voyeurism on Tuesday morning, The Washington Post reported.

A reporter with Washington D.C.’s local Fox television station reported on Twitter that Freundel was arrested for “electronic voyeurism” and “had cameras in ladies rooms.”

Another news website, the Washingtonian, cited eyewitnesses as saying that Freundel was led away in handcuffs while police searched his house, at 30th and O streets, Northwest. They were later observed removing computers and other items from the house.

Police confirmed that the arrest took place during a search of his home, about five blocks from the synagogue, according to the Post.Freundel is the rabbi of Kesher Israel congregation in Washington DC, vice-President of the Vaad of Washington and head of the conversion committee of the Rabbinical Council of America.

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 Jewish Press

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Published: October 15th, 2014

If the charges brought against a Washington, D.C. rabbi are true, the stain against him and the shadow cast by the accused wrongdoing will be long and hard to remove.

The rabbi of the Modern Orthodox Kesher Israel, also known as the “N” Street shul, has been charged with installing an electronic camera in the mikveh building and using or intending to use the camera to see the women as they prepare to immerse themselves monthly in the ritual bath as is commanded in the Torah. The mikveh is also used on certain occasions by men.

Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel was suspended without pay by Kesher Israel’s board of directors after he was arrested and charged with voyeurism, allegedly using cameras to spy on women in the mikveh.

A police report obtained by the Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate alleges that Freundel was installing a camera hidden in a clock radio above a shower at the mikveh. The rabbi allegedly told the person who caught him that he was fixing the shower’s ventilation system.

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
WBAL

[with video]

BALTIMORE —A rabbi at a prominent Washington, D.C., synagogue who teaches at Towson University was arrested and accused of secretly recording women in showers.

Police arrested Barry Freundel at his home in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning. He’s charged with voyeurism.

A witness told WBAL-TV’s sister station in Washington, D.C., WRC-TV, that Freundel installed a hidden camera inside the women’s showers at Georgetown’s Kesher Israel Orthodox Synagogue. The showers are used for ritual cleansing.

Freundel, 62, is also an associate professor who teaches in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at Towson University.

The synagogue released a statement, saying, “This is a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community. At this challenging time, we draw strength from our faith, our tradition, and our fellow congregants. Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials. Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so. After today’s arrest of Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, the Board of Directors suspended him without pay. As always, Kesher Israel will remain open as a place of learning, prayer, and community, including throughout the remainder of the Sukkot holiday. This is a very difficult time for all of us. We respectfully request that our community be granted privacy. Any further questions should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

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)
New York Daily News

BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN

A prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi was busted Tuesday after cops discovered he had allegedly been filming women showering at his modern Orthodox synagogue in Georgetown.

Police swarmed Rabbi Barry Freundel’s O Street home Tuesday morning and spent hours investigating, removing hard drives and computers, witnesses told WTTG-TV. The 62-year-old has served as rabbi at Kesher Israel, some five blocks from his home, since 1987.

Freundel is charged with voyeurism and is expected to appear in court Wednesday.

Kesher Israel has a mikvah, a ritual bath women in Orthodox Judaism are expected to use each month, the Jewish Daily Forward reported. The facility’s mikvah has three changing rooms and the bath, used by men and women at different times, the outlet reported.

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
Commonweal

Francis Oakley

Human beings chart their collective past, like their individual ones, via anniversaries, and this year has been particularly rife with important memorializations. June saw the seventieth anniversary of D-day in 1944, a date that increasingly tests the limits of living memory. In August we observed the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War. Go further back, and you enter a remoteness where anniversaries more typically engage the historian than the man on the street. Well, I’m a historian; and it is a sixth-hundredth anniversary to which, somewhat forlornly, I wish to draw attention. Forlornly, because I am guessing that we are unlikely to hear much about it, and least of all from church-connected sources. Yet the anniversary marks a truly great ecclesiastical event—one on which the fate of the universal church was directly dependent. November 16, 1414, saw the opening at Constance of a general council of the Latin Church. Both for what it was and what it did, the council was an event of great and historic significance.

In size alone—and it was far better attended than the later, iconic Council of Trent—Constance was perhaps the most imposing of all medieval representative assemblies, ecclesiastical or secular. A citizen of Constance who was charged with helping find quarters for the flood of visitors listed, in addition to popes John XXIII (the first John XXIII, the one who had convoked the council) and Martin V, some five patriarchs, 33 cardinals, 47 archbishops, 249 bishops and suffragan bishops, 247 abbots and priors, 217 doctors of theology, 361 doctors of both laws, 5,300 “simple priests and scholars,” 3,000 and more merchants, shopkeepers, craftsmen, musicians, and players—and over 700 “harlots in brothels.” The council, moreover, attracted not only the papal but also the imperial chancery, as well as the official representatives of a host of European countries; one historian has called it the nearest medieval equivalent to the United Nations.

And what did the council do? Quite a lot, in fact, not least of all the passage of a series of reforming measures, one of which—the decree Frequens (1417)—mandated the automatic assembly of frequent general councils, thereby making them a regular and continuing part of church governance. Had the popes not chosen to ignore that decree, the abuses of the late-medieval church might well have been remedied and the great “rupture” of Protestant Reformation avoided. But the council’s most important achievement was its success in bringing about what years of negotiation, diplomatic pressure, and even military action had failed to achieve—namely, the ending of the Great Schism of the West, which, after a disputed papal election and nearly forty years of debilitating deadlock, had seen Latin Christendom divided first into two and then into three rival “obediences,” each presided over by its own claimant to the papal throne.

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.

MINNESOTA
City Pages

By Jesse Marx Tue., Oct. 14 2014

Jeff Anderson hurries down the historic hallways of the Landmark Center in St. Paul dressed in a blue-pin-striped shirt with a white collar and pauses to hug two men. Both Jim Keenan and Al Michaud have been working with the attorney for years — both victims of clerical sexual abuse.

“This is a good day,” Anderson whispers and steps aside, revealing an odd sight: two priests.

Handshakes go round and one by one the men step into a room packed with reporters and cameras and survivors and pols — many of the people who’ve had a stake in cleaning up the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the last couple years. Jennifer Haselberger, the former canon lawyer and whistle blower, stands in the back, smiling nervously.

They’ve come to hear Anderson announce the details of a sweeping settlement. His three-decade-long battle, though far from over, has come down to this: a 17-point “child protection protocol” that’s intended to revive confidence in local parishes and remove the veil of secrecy and silence that has plagued generations of sexual abuse survivors.

For instance, the plan forces the archdiocese to report allegations to law enforcement immediately and stay out of the investigation until it’s completed. Meanwhile, the suspected priest will be pulled from active ministry and his personnel files open to scrutiny.

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.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: October 14, 2014

The historic settlement of a clergy abuse lawsuit Monday now moves to a sticky second phase as attorneys try to negotiate financial settlements for dozens of other church lawsuits either filed or pending court action.

Under the “new era of cooperation,” the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and victims’ attorneys will work to forge out-of-court settlements for the lawsuits filed since Minnesota relaxed its statute of limitations on older abuse cases last year. That includes three cases scheduled for trial in January.

“We agreed to a noneconomic portion of a global settlement; now we will try to achieve an economic portion of a global settlement,” said Charles Rogers, a Minneapolis attorney recently retained by the archdiocese to negotiate with victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson.

Anderson said his office has filed 16 lawsuits to date on behalf of alleged victims of clergy sex abuse. Dozens more are pending. And the Minnesota Child Victim’s Act, which opened the doors to lawsuits from decades-old abuse, doesn’t expire until May 2016. Those cases also will need to be negotiated.

Neither side predicts that a global economic settlement will be easy. But it makes more sense to assist victims than to pour money into lawyers fees and litigation, 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.

MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

Kate Raddatz

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – After a historic settlement in clergy sex abuse lawsuits in Minnesota, now the question becomes how the Catholic Church will pay for it.

The exact amount of the settlement has been kept confidential, but experts say it could cost the Archdiocese tens of millions of dollars.

On Monday, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis along with the Diocese of Winona said they were considering all options to pay for the settlement, including bankruptcy.

Experts say if their insurance doesn’t step up to cover the payment of this settlement, it could be very likely they will file for bankruptcy.

But as for whether or not a bankruptcy claim would then cause Catholic school or churches to shut down, it is unlikely.

As the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, along with the Diocese of Winona, review their finances to see if they have the assets to pay for their lawsuits, bankruptcy remains on the table.

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

The Catholic Church drafted a Memorandum of Understanding to share information with the NSW Police Force in 2004 despite being told a year earlier that the agreement breached child abuse mandatory reporting laws, an inquiry has heard.

The Police Integrity Commission had previously heard the MOU was designed to open up lines of communication between the church’s Professional Standards Office and the Child Protection Enforcement Agency, to facilitate the sharing of information relating to allegations of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

But a 2003 letter from Commander Kim McKay from the Child Protection Squad to Michael McDonald, who was the head of the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, advised that the unsigned MOU breached section 316 of the Crimes Act.

In the letter, Ms McKay said “the draft MOU has not been approved by the NSW Police Service, and the arrangements proposed by the MOU are not currently in place”.

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.

MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

Esme Murphy

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — In her first in-depth television interview, the whistleblower in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis abuse scandal says Archbishop John Nienstedt must step down.

Jennifer Haselberger, Nienstedt’s former top legal adviser, said Monday’s announcement of new policies to protect children is a significant victory, but believes new leadership is needed to implement them.

So, Haselberger said not only Nienstedt should go, but all the top leadership of the Twin Cities archdiocese should leave as well.

Last year, Haselberger resigned from the archdiocese and went public with her concerns that the church covered up and mishandled abuse allegations. She insists she is not on a mission to destroy the archdiocese, but to help save it.

Her efforts, along with a change in state law allowing old abuse claims to be heard in court, are widely credited for the reforms announced this week.

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 CITY (MO)
MSN News

Reuters

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has agreed to pay $9.95 million to settle all outstanding sexual abuse claims against its priests in a bid to close a long-running scandal.

The settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by priests 20 or more years ago, the diocese said in a statement.

“The diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past,” it said.

A large part of the settlement will be covered by insurers, with the diocese paying the rest, the statement 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Steven Morris and agency
The Guardian, Wednesday 15 October 2014

A senior Church of England bishop will face no further police action over allegations of historical sexual offences against a girl and a woman, it has been revealed.

Michael Perham, the bishop of Gloucester, was interviewed under caution by detectives from the Metropolitan police’s sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command.

But Scotland Yard has told Perham that he will face no further action. The Church of England is continuing to assess whether there are any “ongoing safeguarding issues”.

Perham, who is due to retire on his 67th birthday next month, said: “It was right that the allegations should be fully investigated and I am grateful that the police have completed the investigation and concluded there are no grounds for further action to be taken. My family and I are very grateful for all the support and affirmation we have received at this time.”

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 West Australian

AAP

BY EOIN BLACKWELL
October 15, 2014

The former head of the NSW child protection squad says he was unaware of a special arrangement between the police and Catholic Church to “blind report” incidents of sexual abuse until this week.

John Heslop, former commander of the Child Protection Enforcement Agency (CPEA), told the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) he didn’t know of the arrangement until the inquiry started on Monday.

The commission has heard the church and police had an arrangement of blind reporting, whereby information about abuse allegations would be given by the church to police without key details about the victim, since 1998.

“Are you saying you don’t recall it either way,” asked counsel assisting Kristina Stern.

“Yes,” Mr Heslop 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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

MEGAN BAILEY DIAMOND VALLEY OCTOBER 15, 2014

A PASTOR from Bundoora’s Encompass Church has expressed remorse to the victims of paedophile teacher Kenneth Sandilands during hearings into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

In 2000, Kenneth Sandilands, now 69, pleaded guilty and was jailed for two years for 13 counts of indecently assaulting eight students in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Pastor John Spinella, from Encompass Church (formerly Northside Christian Church), was at Northside Christian College and was on the church board during Sandilands’ time.

Mr Spinella yesterday told the commission hearing the organisation had “bungled” its handling of the matter, in particular the Reverend Denis Smith, who had the power to fire Sandilands.

Mr Spinella said the school now had a mandatory reporting policy for suspected 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.

OHIO
WKYC

[with video]

Chris Tye, WKYC 1

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — For sixty years, Ernest Angley has preached to the world from his headquarters in Cuyahoga Falls.

But for the last two months, Akron Beacon Journal columnist Bob Dyer has been talking to dozens of former members of Angley’s congregation who say what went on in here needs to stop. He wrote:

“Angley’s church is a dangerous cult where pregnant women are encouraged to have abortions, childless men are encouraged to have vasectomies and Angley — who preaches vehemently against the “sin” of homosexuality — is himself a gay man who personally examines the genitals of the male parishioners before and after their surgeries. They also say he turns a blind eye to sexual abuse by other members of his church.”

WKYC asked for a comment from the church and received the following: “Reverend Angley is not interested in responding to the article. It is a bunch of lies. It is not hindering us. We are being blessed in each service with crowds.”

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
Sydney Morning Herald

October 15, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

The father of a sexual abuse victim has accused his church of abandoning his family and attempting to “minimise losses” if his son sought compensation, a royal commission has heard.
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the man, given the pseudonym ALD, said Australian Christian Churches tried to protect its assets rather than the victim.

“The church instead worked to minimise potential losses in case the victim should seek compensation,” he said. “Insurance was checked, consideration given to possibly shifting assets to other entities.”

The royal commission heard ALD’s son, given the pseudonym ALA, was sexually abused for two years from the age of 13 by a youth pastor at a Queensland church.

The abuse, which started in 2004, occurred on and off church premises.

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
Cleveland Leader

Published by Julie Kent on October 15, 2014

Televanelist Ernest Angley of Gracey Cathedral in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, has been accused by former members of his church of demanding that they have vasectomies or abortions, and further claim that the church leader would turn a blind eye to sexual abuse in the church.

During the Akron Beacon Journal’s six-part series covering the various allegations that have been made against Angley, 93, 20 former members of his congregation came forward and spoke with reporters. Members said that he not only encouraged vasectomies and abortions, but also personally examined “the genitals of the male parishioners before and after their surgeries.”

One former member said, “none of us have kids because he makes all the men get fixed”, and another former parishioner, Becky Roadman, said, “You’re not allowed to have babies there.” Others noted that Angley frequently counseled women to have abortions, and that he told at least one woman to think of her fetus as “a tumor.” One woman says that she knows of another woman, who will not come forward at this time, who was forced in to four abortions.

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
Sydney Morning Herald

October 15, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

A Pentecostal pastor may have overlooked suspicions about his paedophile son-in-law because of their family relationship, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told church members raised concerns about a relationship between youth pastor Jonathan Baldwin and a teenage boy.

The then senior pastor of the Queensland church, Ian Lehmann, told the commission he may have downplayed the claims because Baldwin was dating his daughter.

“He was in a relationship with my daughter and that would have blindsided me to a degree, because I would never have allowed my daughter to have a relationship with somebody if I thought he was engaging in alternate sexual activity,” he said.

The commission has heard Baldwin started abusing the then 13-year-old boy in 2004 and the molestation continued until 2006, after Baldwin married Mr Lehmann’s 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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle

A former Pentecostal pastor at a Sunshine Coast church cannot accept that a former youth leader who married his daughter is a paedophile, an inquiry has heard.

Jonathan Baldwin was jailed for a maximum of eight years in 2009 for molesting a 13-year-old boy for two years at the Queensland church.

The church, which could not be named for legal reasons, was attended by about 200 people.

Baldwin had a non-parole period of four years and was no longer in jail.

His father-in-law and former boss, Ian Lehmann, told the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday that Baldwin made an error in judgment but was not a paedophile.

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
Perth Now

BY ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP OCTOBER 15, 2014

A SENIOR Pentecostal pastor whose son-in-law ran his church’s youth program had no idea he was sexually abusing a 13-year old boy, an inquiry has been told.

IAN Lehmann, who led a small Queensland church where Jonathan Baldwin took sexual advantage of the boy between 2004 and 2006, says he still struggles to accept his son-in-law’s guilt.

Baldwin, who had charge of a 200-strong youth congregation, was jailed in 2009 for eight years, with a non-parole period of four years, for indecent treatment of a child under 16 and for one count of sodomy. He is no longer in jail.

Pastor Lehmann on Wednesday told a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing he found “pedophilia and homosexuality” repulsive, but when he sits down to have a meal with Baldwin “I don’t think I am doing this with a pedophile”.

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 CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph has settled 30 claims of sexual abuse for $10 million, according to a news release.

The settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by diocesan priests twenty or more years ago.

The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past. The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse.

A large portion of this settlement will be covered by insurers with the balance being paid by the Diocese.

In 2008, the Diocese settled 46 pending cases for $10 million. Jack Smith, the diocese’s director of communications, said these settlements will take away some missions the church wanted to do.

In a statement to 41 Action News, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said those who sued the diocese were heroes.

Dozens of brave Kansas City men and women who were sexually assaulted as a child by priests have settled their abuse and cover up case against the KC Missouri diocese and its convicted bishop, Robert Finn.

Finn and his aides and their expensive lawyers pulled out all the stops to try and deny Jon David Couzens his day in court. They did the same with these other victims. Time after time, Finn failed. So at the 11th hour, to protect their reputations and careers, Kansas City Catholic officials settled this case and the others as well.

While we are relieved these courageous survivors, especially Jon David, won’t have to endure even more mean-spirited legal attacks by Finn and his expensive lawyers, more cover ups by more Catholic officials would have emerged had these cases gone to trial and we’re sad that this won’t happen.

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 CITY (MO)
KMBZ

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A settlement has been announced this evening for victims of predator priests in Kansas City.

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese says they’ve reached an agreement to settle all 30 outstanding sexual abuse claims for a total amount of $9.95 million.

The cases, filed between 2010 and earlier this year, allege abuse by diocesan priests twenty or more years ago.

“The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past. The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse,” according to a statement.

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
Gazette

Bishop of Gloucester to face no further police action over historic sex abuse allegations
by Stuart Rust

The Bishop of Gloucester, Right Rev Michael Perham, is to face no further police action over an allegation of historic sex abuse against a woman and a girl.

The Metropolitan Police said simply that they had completed their inquiries into the allegations and would not be taking any further action.

“We can confirm enquiries are now completed and there is to be no further action by the police,” said the Met statement.

The 66-year-old Bishop, a father of three, has issued a statement welcoming the announcement and expressing his relief.

However, he will not be able to return to work immediately because of an ongoing inquiry by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Committee.

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 CITY (MO)
KMBC

By Jeffrey Field

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph said Tuesday it has agreed to settle all outstanding sexual abuse claims against priests.

The $9.95 million settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year. The abuse alleged in those claims dated back 20 years or more.

A large portion of the settlement will be covered by insurers. The rest will be paid for by the church.

David Clohessy of Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement about the settlement, saying the church did not want to risk a trial and worried jurors would find the accusers credible.

“(Bishop Robert) Finn and his aides and their expensive lawyers pulled out all the stops to try and deny Jon David Couzens his day in court. They did the same with these other victims. Time after time, Finn failed. So at the eleventh hour, to protect their reputations and careers, Kansas City Catholic officials settled this case and the others as well,” the statement 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.

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

Posted: Oct 14, 2014

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph said they have settled all outstanding sexual abuse claims for a total amount of $9.95 million.

The settlement resolves 30 pending claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by diocesan priests twenty or more years ago.

They explained where the money came from in a release:

“The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past. The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse.”

“A large portion of this settlement will be covered by insurers with the balance being paid by the Diocese.”

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released a response saying they are glad the sexual abuse survivors won’t have to endure going through trial, but they believe more cover-ups would have come out if the cases had gone to trial.

“While we are relieved these courageous survivors, especially Jon David, won’t have to endure even more mean-spirited legal attacks by Finn and his expensive lawyers, more cover ups by more Catholic officials would have emerged had these cases gone to trial and we’re sad that this won’t happen.”

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 Joanna Menagh

A Catholic priest has been sentenced to 22 months’ jail for sexually abusing a teenage boy while was working in Perth 30 years ago.

Father Glenn Humphreys, 61, was found guilty by a District Court jury of four charges of molesting the 15-year-old boy in the 1980s.

The court heard the boy had gone with his mother, a devout Catholic, to the Church where Humphreys was an assistant priest.

Some of the offences took place in the Church’s presbytery, and another at Quinns Rocks where the two had gone on holidays.

The court was told the victim would visit Humphreys in his quarters and they would smoke cigarettes and listen to Barbara Streisand songs.

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 CITY (MO)
Fox 2

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph says it has agreed a $9.95 million agreement to settle all outstanding claims alleging sexual abuse by priests decades ago.

Diocese spokesman Jack Smith said in a statement Tuesday that the agreement settles 30 claims filed between 2010 and earlier this year.

Smith says a large portion of the settlement will be covered by insurers with the balance paid by the diocese. He does not provide a breakdown of payments.

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 West Australian

ELLE FARCIC The West Australian
October 15, 2014

A Catholic priest who unlawfully and indecently assaulted a teenager in Perth 30 years ago has been sentenced to 22 months in jail.

Glenn Humphreys was found guilty of four counts of unlawful and indecent assault but acquitted of carnal knowledge against the order of nature in August.

The 61-year-old admitted having an “inappropriate” sexual relationship with the boy, who is now aged 45, but told the court their actions were consensual.

District Court Judge Philip Eaton said given his age, Humphreys would have known his behaviour was “grossly inappropriate”.

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 Examiner

By Karl Zinke
karl.zinke@examiner.net
Posted Oct. 15, 2014

Independence, Mo.
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has agreed to settle 30 sexual abuse lawsuits for nearly $10 million, the diocese announced Tuesday night.

The agreement for a total of $9.95 million resolves all 30 outstanding claims – including some involving priests in Independence – filed from 2010 to early 2014 alleging abuse by priests from the diocese from 20 or more years ago.

“The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past,” the diocese wrote in a press release. “The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse.”

The diocese said most of the settlement would be covered by insurance with the remaining amount paid by the diocese itself. The settlement ended the civil lawsuit trial brought by Jon Couzens against Monsignor Thomas O’Brien for alleged abuse in the late 1970s and early ’80s. That trial has been in court in Independence for more than a week

David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese’s timing in settling the lawsuits in a press release.

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 CITY (MO)
Fars News Agency (Iran)

TEHRAN (FNA)- The American Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, St. Joseph, has agreed to pay $9.95 million to settle all its sex scandals in a bid to close a long-running file, media reports said.
The settlement resolves 30 pending cases filed between 2010 and earlier this year alleging abuse by priests 20 or more years ago, the diocese said in a statement, Reuters reported.

A large part of the settlement will be covered by insurers, with the diocese paying the rest, the statement said.

The Kansas City diocese in 2008 settled a lawsuit for $10 million brought by 47 plaintiffs who claimed they were repeatedly sexually abused by priests when they were children.

In 2012, one of its priests pled guilty to producing child pornography, and the diocese’s current leader, Bishop Robert Finn, was convicted of failing to report him to police.

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
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

The “gay” issue announced by Vatican Pied Pipers as “earthquake, gray areas, do-over, gradualism, stuns Catholic world, stirs controversy” in the Synod of Bishops is Vatican Circus for idiot Catholics at its most ludicrous. The Washington Post belongs to the Vatican Mammon Beast aka Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team and look at how its title (like John Allen of Crux always cleverly does) deceive Catholics: “Vatican stuns Catholic world with greater openness toward gays and lesbians”. This title is so ludicrous and loaded with pathological lies that it can build a higher Tower of Babylon!

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.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

POSTED: 10/14/2014

“I pray that the darkness of the past be overcome by the light of this new day.”

— The Rev. Charles Lachowitzer, vicar general of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

That new day should begin to pave the way for healing after Monday’s joint announcement of a legal settlement by archdiocesan officials and the lawyer for sex-abuse plaintiffs.

With it comes the hard work of restoring trust.

The church has been a central part of St. Paul’s identity from our city’s first days. After building the Chapel of St. Paul in 1841, “so delighted were the residents of Pig’s Eye with their first community institution that they rechristened the river settlement in its honor,” wrote Mary Lethert Wingerd in “Claiming the City,” the 2001 book that serves as a biography of the city.

This week, Pioneer Press columnist Ruben Rosario called the scene in a historic courtroom at Landmark Center an unprecedented public reconciliation.

A news conference brought together former adversaries — plaintiffs’ attorney Jeff Anderson and church leaders — with victims. They stood side by side in announcing a legal settlement and a 17-point child-protection agreement.

Through the current suit, the Pioneer Press’ Emily Gurnon recounts, Anderson leveraged the disclosure of more than 50,000 pages of clergy personnel documents from the church, as well as sworn testimony from Archbishop John Nienstedt, former Archbishop Harry Flynn, former Vicars General Kevin McDonough and Peter Laird, and Robert Carlson, formerly with the Twin Cities archdiocese and now archbishop of St.

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.

MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

10/14/20140

Jennifer Haselberger

Unusually for me, I have agreed to interviews with WCCO TV and radio this afternoon. This has forced me to spend more time ruminating on the provisions of the Doe 1 settlement, and what it means in terms of resolving the crisis in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. I want to state at the outset that I really would like to see this crisis come to an end. I have no interest in becoming entrenched in a position of binary opposition to the Archbishop or the Archdiocese. At the same time, I must admit that I felt much more hopeful about the settlement and its impact prior to the press conference yesterday afternoon. I continue to believe that the provisions of the settlement will have a tremendous impact, but I see that impact as being limited to two key areas: support for victims and investigations of alleged criminal conduct. The rest of the provisions are, by and large, little more than a restatement of previous promises, and I don’t think we should be patting the Archdiocese on the back for agreeing not to have priests in ministry who have abused minors.

In order for me to believe that we are truly entering ‘a new era’, I think that four things still need to occur. What follows is my attempt to outline these four things, as well as to explain my reasons for believing they are necessary. I hope to also have the opportunity to discuss these items with WCCO this afternoon.

Item #1: Leadership Change in the Archdiocese

The first and most critical ‘action item’ if you will, is leadership change in the Archdiocese. Obviously, this has to begin with Archbishop Nienstedt. Whether he chooses to resign or some process is begun to determine his fitness for ministry is not for me to say. What I think is clear is that he lacks many of the characteristics to be any sort of a leader, much less a good leader. This is not just a comment on his handling of allegations of sexual abuse. Many besides me have raised issues about his style of management, his ability to relate to people, and his administration in general. Yet, in calling for a change in leadership, I do not mean to stop there. Bishop Piche should be granted medical retirement. Bishop Cozzens, if his episcopal ministry is to be salvaged, should be transferred to another Archdiocese where he can serve as an auxiliary under a bishop capable of mentoring him in authentic and effective pastoral leadership. The rest of the upper levels of Archdiocesan staff also have to go. I observed yesterday’s press conference from the back of the room, and so my view was different than those of you who saw it unfold through the lens of a camera. From my vantage point what was obvious was that while the faces in front of the camera were by and large new, the faces of those beyond camera range were all too familiar. There will not be any true change in the Archdiocese until all the faces are new. If someone was in a directive position in the years leading up to or during 2013, and stood by while the Archdiocese was assuring the public that there were no accused priests in active ministry, that it was complying with the Charter, and that there had been only one credible accusation since 2005, he or she needs to go. Perhaps that will happen as part of a reorganization plan arising from a Chapter 11 filing, but previous Archdiocesan reorgs have rarely led to the right departures. I think we will only see this change when there is a change at the very top.

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

Kathleen Hopkins, @Khopkinsapp
October 14, 2014

TOMS RIVER – Jurors weighing the fate of a popular Brick priest on trial on molestation charges on Wednesday will get a second look at what the prosecution says is among the strongest evidence against him – a videotape of what he said to detectives.

An assistant prosecutor reminded the jury on Tuesday that Marukudiyil Velan, better known to parishioners at Church of the Visitation in Brick as “Father Chris,” admitted on the videotape that he improperly touched a mother and her two children in 2012.

Velan’s defense attorney, however, maintains the detectives badgered, cursed at and manipulated Velan until he told them what they wanted to hear.

Brick priest trial: Sex assault or tall tale?

After deliberating late into the afternoon on Tuesday, the jurors sent a note to Superior Court Judge James M. Blaney saying they wanted to view the videotape again. Blaney sent the panel home without reaching a verdict, saying they would have a chance to see the videotape in the morning.

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
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils

Paris Arrow

Updated October 14, 2014

Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team movie script akin to a Hollywood production for the Synod of Bishops is going on as planned and their foremost Vatican Pied Piper John Allen is the main journalist who’s presenting the bishops in center stage and the lay speakers who were handpicked by the Opus Dei Beast PR. Watch John Allen’s brainwashing title. Today it’s “Married couples are stealing the show at Synod of Bishops” – which deceives idiot Catholics – to feel-good about the lay couple’s 5 minutes fame as in a television show and to not see the truth that the laity are being given bread crumbs of attention by the homosexual misogynists bishops oligarchy boys club.

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
Catholics4Change

OCTOBER 14, 2014 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Here is the information you need to calculate if you can currently proceed with either a civil or criminal child sex abuse case in PA. It’s completely confusing, but the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape does a great job of explaining the law.

Civil SOL

Criminal SOL

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
Detroit News

Oralandar Brand-Williams; The Detroit News October 14, 2014

Detroit – — A woman who authorities say conspired with a Catholic priest to embezzle money from a church charity was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

Dorreca Brewer, 34, of Jackson said nothing as she was sentenced by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Morrow.

Her lawyer, Southfield attorney Randall Upshaw, had asked that Brewer be ordered to give back only $2,000 of the money Upshaw says she is responsible for taking.

But Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Woodyard asked Morrow to order Brewer to also pay back $3,000 given to needy applicants which was split with her co-defendant, the Rev. Timothy Kane.

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
NBC 10

A Pennsylvania priest has pleaded not guilty to charges he possessed child pornography and traveled to Honduras for sex with poor street children during missionary trips.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio entered the plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto in Johnstown.

The 69-year-old remains jailed, though Pesto gave lawyers 10 days to return with information about the priest’s finances, at which point Pesto says he may reconsider releasing the priest pending trial.

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
Island Packet

The Associated Press
October 14, 2014

JOHNSTOWN, PA. — A Pennsylvania priest has pleaded not guilty to charges he possessed child pornography and traveled to Honduras for sex with poor street children during missionary trips.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio entered the plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto in Johnstown.

The 69-year-old remains jailed, though Pesto gave lawyers 10 days to return with information about the priest’s finances, at which point Pesto says he may reconsider releasing the priest pending trial.

Defense attorney Steven Passarello tells the judge the priest will agree to freeze two investment accounts worth $900,000 and surrender his passport to address concerns he may flee prosecution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines says investigators found another account from which Maurizio withdrew $127,000.

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.