ND: Suit alleges sex abuse by former Fargo Shanley teacher

Published November 20 2009

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/260260/group/News/

A second North Dakota lawsuit was filed Thursday in Cass County District Court accusing a former Fargo Shanley High School teacher of sexual abuse.

The lawsuit filed by an anonymous victim, identified in the court record as John Doe 135, alleges that in about 1976, on a trip to a high school football game in Jamestown, N.D., the victim was sexually assaulted by Brother Raimond Rose while he was sleeping in a hotel.

The victim said the abuse came when he was either 16 or 17 years old, when Rose taught at Shanley.

It’s the eighth civil suit accusing Rose of sexual abuse, though he faces no criminal charges.

On grounds of negligence and fraud, the lawsuit also seeks damages against the Catholic Diocese of Fargo, Bishop Samuel Aquila, Shanley High School and the order to which Rose belonged, The Christian Brothers of the Midwest.

The lawsuit alleges that Rose’s employers and his Christian Brothers order should never have put him in contact with children because he was accused of sexually assaulting a minor as far back as 1966.

Christian Brothers has said Rose has been inactive in the ministry since 2002, though he lives near an all-boys Catholic school in Chicago.

UT: Former Seminary Principal Pleads Not Guilty to Sex Abuse of Student

Kirk Yuhnke, ReporterFOX 13 News
5:30 PM MST, November 10, 2009

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-seminary-principal-pleads-not-guilty-court,0,3713133.story

AMERICAN FORK, Utah - A former Lone Peak LDS Seminary principal accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl plead not guilty in a district courtroom Tuesday morning. Michael Pratt, 37, did not say anything to reporters on his way in and out of the courtroom. He is facing 15 charges including forcible sodomy, rape and sexual abuse. The charges are aggravated which means he could face a stiffer penalty because he was in a position of trust.

Pratt is accused of having sex with the 16 year old girl in various Utah County locations during the months of May and June. She, now 17, testified during the preliminary hearing in October that Pratt talked about moving away with her to get married. She said he would have her hide in his car at the seminary school before he drove the car to the various locations.

Julia Thomas, the deputy Utah County Attorney, said the law is stricter on those who hold a position of trust, "a child, a minor, has a different perspective on relationships and what the expectations are and the motivations are and what the hidden agendas might be."

The trial is set to begin on April 12th and last 8 days. Thomas said the victim's 2 hour testimony during the preliminary hearing was just the beginning of what jurors will hear during the trial, "what we heard at the preliminary hearing was a fraction of the evidence that is out there. The victim in the case testified, she didn't testify to everything that happened."

Pratt remains out of jail on a $30,000 bond. The court appointed defense attorney representing Pratt declined to comment following Tuesday's hearing.

FOX 13's Kirk Yuhnke reports.

MI: Archdiocese didn't publicize priest's abuse cases, group says

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

October 26, 2009

http://www.freep.com/article/20091026/NEWS06/91026059/1319/Archdiocese-didn-t-publicize-priest-s-abuse-cases--group-says-

The head of a group that fights child abuse by priests said today that Catholic officials in Detroit failed to publicize the abuse cases of a Catholic seminarian from Detroit who had previously abused children, but is now working as a priest in the Philippines.

And it said that a former member of a Detroit-based religious order continued to teach in classrooms despite allegations of abuse.

Barbara Blaine, president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said today that the Archdiocese of Detroit failed to make the public aware of the case of Joseph Skelton Jr., a Detroit native who once studied at a Catholic seminary in Plymouth. He pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy in his seminary room. He resigned from the seminary in 1988.

And this month, a settlement was reached involving allegations that Skelton was involved in the abuse of a 14-year-old boy in Washington, D.C., in 1984, according to attorneys involved in the case.

In a statement today, the Archdiocese of Detroit said that “Joseph Skelton is not a cleric of the Detroit archdiocese nor is he ministering in southeast Michigan. Studying for the priesthood at St. John Provincial Seminary in 1988, he was accused of sexual misconduct and dismissed from the school. In a public court proceeding, he was prosecuted and convicted for his activity. Not unlike any other institution of higher learning, the archdiocesan seminary does not track or hold responsibility for every student who ever attended classes but left before ordination … In summary, Joseph Skelton does not minister here nor would he be welcome or permitted to function as a priest in this archdiocese.”

Skelton now works as a missionary priest of the Diocese of Tagbilaran in the Province of Bohol, Philippines. According to his Web site, he “regularly travels across the Philippines leading Praise & Worship sessions.”

According to a letter provided by Blaine, the Archdiocese of Detroit did send a private letter in 2003 to a Catholic official in the Philippines, telling them about Skelton’s criminal past. But Blaine said such a private letter does nothing to notify parents, churches, and the public about Skelton’s actions.

Blaine also cited the case of Thomas Gardipee, who was once part of a Catholic religious order based in Detroit, the Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order. The archdiocese said he never served in metro Detroit.

Gardipee was banned from the order after a series of news reports about abuse in the Milwaukee Journal in 1992. Criminal charges were filed against him, but were dismissed in 1993, according to a statement from the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph. Gardipee later became a teacher in Hawaii.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com

MN: Cretin-Derham Hall principal takes heat for naming sex abuse victim

A group wants action against Cretin-Derham President Richard Engler for releasing the plaintiff's name in a suit over alleged sex abuse at Cretin High in the '70s.

By MARIA ELENA BACA, Star Tribune

Last update: May 23, 2009 - 7:32 AM

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/45879807.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUo8cyaiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

The director of the group Minnesota Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called Friday for disciplinary action against the principal of Cretin-Derham Hall High School for releasing the name of a former student who filed a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a teacher in the 1970s.

On Monday, Cretin-Derham President Richard Engler sent a letter to parents of current and prospective students and to members of the school's advisory council, alerting them to the lawsuit against the school. The suit also names the Christian Brothers of the Midwest.

"Talk is cheap," SNAP director Bob Schwiderski said at a news conference held in front of the offices of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. "It is a blatant attempt to quiet those that might also be on the verge of stepping out of the shadows of silence."

Engler said by phone Friday that the former student's name was revealed to him in a letter from the man's lawyer and that he included it in the name of full disclosure.

"I wanted to be perfectly transparent with our parents and our Presidential Advisory Council as to what was occurring," Engler said in a phone interview. "There was no ill intent at all. ... I was afraid it would be released in the media, and my parents would be alerted by the media and not by the school. I wanted to be perfectly honest with our parents."

Though Schwiderski demanded the archdiocese take action against Engler, spokesman Dennis McGrath noted that while the school operates under the auspices of the archdiocese, it has no institutional authority over the school's day-to-day affairs. Calls to the school's parents group and to leaders of the Presidential Advisory Council were not returned Friday.

Engler's letter did not include the name of the teacher accused of the abuse, Brother Anthony (Raimond) Rose, who has been accused in a separate suit of sexually abusing a student while a teacher at Minneapolis' DeLaSalle High School a few years earlier. Rose, 76, is now retired and living in Chicago.

The Star Tribune does not identify victims of sexual abuse. An e-mail sent to an address linked to the plaintiff's name did not go through.

Cretin High School was an all-boys academy run by the Christian Brothers of the Midwest when the abuse is alleged to have occurred. Cretin merged with the all-girls' Derham Hall High School in 1987.

On Friday afternoon, Schwiderski held the news conference in front of the archdiocese offices in St. Paul before he hand-delivered a letter calling on Archbishop John Nienstedt to "harshly and publicly punish" Engler.

McGrath addressed reporters on the office steps. "It's ludicrous to say we would discipline the principal of a school," he said. "They're hopping on this as an opportunity to embroil the archdiocese."

In front of TV cameras on the sidewalk in front of the archdiocese's offices, Schwiderski was joined by Dave Leinen, a survivor of abuse at the hands of a Benedictine brother at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. His partner, Carrie Doerr, stood at his side.

It took 40 years before Leinen could talk at all about his childhood abuse, he said. In 2008, he sought help to deal with it. It's a bit easier to talk now, after a year of intensive therapy and group support. But he said he can't imagine what it would have been like if he hadn't been able to choose his own pace.

"I am still and will always be recovering from this," said Leinen, who now lives in the Dallas area. "I can only imagine the terror [the plaintiff] is going through right now. Something as private and scary and frightening as that is, and now everybody knows about it, and he hasn't had an opportunity to explain his side of it. I can't imagine."

Schwiderski noted that other clergy abuse cases have been handled without revealing the name of the plaintiffs. He reiterated his fear that "outing" this John Doe will have a chilling effect on others.

Texas diocese to pay $775,000 for priest abuse

3 Catholic leaders accused of sexually assaulting minors have since died
updated 7:53 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 5, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29522721/

FORT WORTH, Texas - The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth on Wednesday reached a $775,000 settlement involving sexual abuse claims against three priests who have since died.

The five people involved in the claims said they were sexually abused by the Rev. James Reilly, who served at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Arlington from 1969 through 1987, when he retired. Reilly died in 1999.

Diocese spokesman Pat Svacina said he could not reveal any specifics, such as the victims' genders or dates of the alleged abuse.

One of the cases also involved two other priests, the Rev. James Hanlon and the Rev. Gerard Scholl, both of whom served or taught in Texas and New Mexico from the 1970s to the 1990s. Hanlon died in 1990 and Scholl died in 2002, according to records.

The Rev. Kevin Vann, bishop of the Fort Worth diocese, said he was deeply sorry for any sexual abuse the victims may have suffered by the three priests, and that he prays for their healing and reconciliation.

Vann said in a statement that he was "committed to ensuring that the diocese's policies are adhered to so we can prevent future tragedy such as that which has befallen the victims of abuse."

Among the diocese's recent settlements is a lawsuit filed by 11 men who said Reilly sexually abused them when they were altar boys. The men received at least $1 million apiece and payment for one year of counseling.

Reilly and Hanlon were two of six Fort Worth diocese priests accused of sexually abusing minors named in documents released in 2006. Those files had been sealed as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit that was settled in 2005.

CA: OC priest facing new sex abuse allegations

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/10/state/n215255S56.DTL

(02-10) 21:52 PST Santa Ana, CA (AP) --
An Orange County priest who was accused of molesting a boy more than 30 years ago is facing new civil allegations that he sexually abused a third-grader in the 1990s.

The Orange County Register reported Tuesday that Denis Lyons is a defendant in a lawsuit that claims he abused a boy at St. John the Baptist School four times between 1994 and 1995.

Prosecutors say Lyons was charged with molesting a teenage boy over a three years beginning in 1978.

Those charges were dropped in 2003 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California couldn't prosecute people for sex crimes after the statute of limitations has expired.

The Diocese of Orange says Lyons was removed from ministry in 2002.

IL: Ex-priest gets 25 years for sex abuse

He was convicted of taking a boy on religious retreats to have sex with him
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29147046/

CHICAGO - A former Roman Catholic priest convicted of taking a boy on religious retreats to have sex with him was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison.

Donald McGuire, of Oak Lawn, displayed no emotion as U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer imposed a 300-month sentence that likely means the 78-year-old former priest will die in prison.

Pallmeyer said McGuire used his stature, his international reputation that included being a spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa and the trust parents had in him that he would care for "the finest gifts God ever gave them: their children."

She said the boys' confidence, faith, innocence and sexual desire were destroyed.

"You robbed them of all these things," she said after a hearing that included statements from victims, including McGuire's godson.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Ruder told the judge that it was "a horrific and monstrous crime."

McGuire was convicted in October of charges of traveling outside the United States and across state lines to have sex with a teenager between 2000 and 2003. The Vatican ordered McGuire out of the priesthood last year.

In 2006, McGuire was convicted in Wisconsin of child molestation and sentenced to seven years in prison. He has appealed that conviction.

McGuire also has been indicted in Arizona on child molestation charges and faces lawsuits on new child molestation accusations.

Apologies to victims
Victims and their parents testified before the sentencing Wednesday that they felt guilty for not coming forward sooner with their allegations.

"I apologize to the other victims," said one man who told the judge he was abused by McGuire for six years beginning in the late 1970s. "I apologize that I didn't come forward."

Many of those who testified also asked McGuire to apologize to them, which Pallmeyer noted the former priest didn't do.

McGuire has maintained his innocence throughout the trial. At the hearing, he told the judge he would continue to pray for everyone connected to the trial and spoke of being near the end of his life.

"I see that horizon, it's heaven, where every tear will be wiped away," he said.

McGuire would have to serve most of his sentence before he is eligible for release.

NC: Teacher fired after abuse investigation

Wednesday, February 4 ( updated 9:42 am)
Staff Reports
http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/02/04/article/teacher_fired_after_abuse_investigation

KERNERSVILLE — The Diocese of Charlotte said it has fired a veteran teacher at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School after investigating claims of abuse by a former student.

The diocese did not identify the teacher. In September, when the diocese announced that it had suspended the teacher, the diocese said the teacher had worked at the school for 17 years.

The incident allegedly happened in 2001 at the teacher's home. Neither the diocese nor the school provided any more details about what happened. The diocese said the teacher had passed a background check and had completed required sexual abuse awareness training.

KY: School And Church Sued Over Alleged Abuse

Last Update: 1/23 5:25 pm
http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/School-And-Church-Sued-Over-Alleged-Abuse/2PMhzcsuG0ypAbPgWWGXog.cspx

A suit has been filed against officials with St. Joseph Elementary School in Crescent Springs and the Covington Diocese, accusing them of failing to stop abuse against a student.

The allegations in the suit are that a female student was bullied by other students last school year on school property and at school functions.

There are also allegations of a sexual assault.

A friend of the girl's family filed the suit in order to protect her identity.

Marianne Chevalier, the attorney for the friend says the girl's parents asked repeatedly to get the issues resolved and sued as a last resort.

Covington Bishop Roger Foyes and St. Joseph's principal Rebecca Brown are two of the eight people named in the suit.

A spokesperson for the Diocese told 9News once the suit is reviewed a statement will be released.

The suit is asking for $250,000. Chevalier says the family would use the money to to pay for educational and psychological services for the girl.

The girl no longer attends the school.

WA: Murders, sex abuse cases shook SK during year

By JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN
Port Orchard Independent Staff Writer
Dec 31 2008, 12:00 AM

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/poi/news/36862514.html

Crime is nothing new to South Kitsap, but mercifully homicides are relatively rare events. However, 2008 saw a decidedly rare homicide — one within the city of Port Orchard.

On April 30, Linda Malcom was found dead inside her home on Sidney Avenue, after the small building had been destroyed by an early-morning fire. Upon examining the 47-year-old’s body, the Kitsap County Coroner’s Office determined that the woman did not die from the fire, but instead was stabbed.

“It is our belief that this is the result of a criminal act, and we are pursuing the investigation at this point,” said Port Orchard Police Commander Geoff Marti at the time, explaining that officers would begin interviewing anyone that had seen or talked to Malcom in the days leading up to her death.

The house, which Malcom was reportedly preparing to move out of before she was killed, has since been torn down. So far, no suspects have been arrested for the crime.

In contrast, two high-profile molestation cases in South Kitsap this year lead to suspects being convicted and jailed, one for more than a quarter of a century.

Former South Colby pastor Robbin Leeroy Harper was described as a predatory monster who wore “kid gloves over an iron fist” when he was sentenced in April after pleading guilty to molesting several of his young female church members.

Harper, 61, ran The Church of South Colby for many years out of a gated compound where he lived on Arvick Road. He was arrested in October of last year after one woman said the pastor began molesting her when she was 12, telling her and other girls that he was doing the work of God and preparing them for marriage.

Harper later pleaded guilty to all five crimes he was charged with — the most serious of which being first-degree rape of a child — and was sentenced in April to 26.5 years in prison by Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jay Roof.

“You have clearly violated (these victims’) faith, their bodies and their innocence,” said Roof. “Each story is a piece of the puzzle that paints a disturbing and horrifying picture of deceit and dishonesty.”

The judge then sentenced Harper to three more years than what the defendant’s plea agreement outlined, adding a year’s suspended sentence for a misdemeanor assault count.

“That way if you are ever released, you will have another year in jail to serve,” he said.

The following month, a former South Kitsap High School teacher was arrested for engaging in sexual contact with one of her students.

Ryann C. Springer, then 25, who returned to teach in the school’s athletic medicine department after completing the program herself, was charged with sexual misconduct after her affair with a 17-year-old female student was reported to school officials by another student.

Springer faced a maximum of 12 months in jail, but at her sentencing in July, Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hall recommended she receive only half that time and commended her for “stepping forward and acknowledging her mistake.

Superior Court Judge Anna Laurie sentenced Springer to six months, which was reduced to four months after she received credit for time served.

Laurie allowed for Springer to serve her sentence outside of jail in either work release or home monitoring, however the judge did not agree to remove the order protecting the victim once she turned 18.

“It is clear that your judgment is suspect,” Laurie said, adding that while contact with the victim when she turns 18 may be “legally prudent, that does not make it morally prudent.”

Prosecutor Hall said that without being modified, the protection order would be in effect for three years from the date of the sentencing.


Port Orchard Independent Staff Writer Justine Frederiksen can be reached at jfrederiksen@portorchardindependent.com or (360) 876-4414.

IL: Abuse victim gets $1.2 mil.

Special Note: A priest admitted to sexually molested 5 boys and only got 5 years in jail. State welfare officials said evidence indicates he may have  abused 6 more! Now the church is issuing "settlements" to the families. They've paid out over $10 million to some of the affected children so far, with one more case pending. $82 million total has been paid out by archdioces to settle "sexual abuse allegations...."

CHURCH SCANDAL | Boy molested by priest at White Sox game, his brother got $2.5 million

December 18, 2008

BY MAURICE POSSLEY Special to the Sun-Times mauricepossley@gmail.com

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1337583,CST-NWS-abuse18.article

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a boy who was sexually abused by former priest Daniel McCormack, an attorney for the family said Wednesday.

Kenneth Cunniff said the settlement calls for $1.1 million to be paid to the boy, who is 16, and $100,000 to the boy's mother. In September, the archdiocese agreed to pay $2.5 million to the boy's younger brother, who also was abused by McCormack.

McCormack, 40, pleaded guilty last year to molesting five boys while pastor at Our Lady of the Westside School. He was sentenced to five years and is in prison in Downstate Jacksonville.

The $1.2 million settlement, approved Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, involves allegations that the boy was sexually abused by McCormack at the school in 2004 and at a White Sox game at U.S. Cellular Field in 2005. Most of the abuse of the five victims took place at the rectory.

"In over 20 years of dealing with the archdiocese in these types of cases, the archdiocese has always provided counseling to the victim, appropriate compensation to the victim for the actions of the sexual predator, and done everything within their power to rectify the terrible effects of the sexual abuse," Cunniff said.

The settlement was reached after two retired Cook County Circuit Court judges, Julia Nowicki and Michael Hogan, reviewed the case, heard from Cunniff and James Serritella, attorney for the archdiocese, and approved the final amount.

In a written statement, the archdiocese said it "continues to encourage the use of alternatives to litigation such as mediation to resolve claims of sexual misconduct in a just, fair and compassionate manner."

A report filed earlier this year by counselors for the two brothers said both suffer from "extreme sadness ... confusion, anger, shock, rage, mistrust of men."

Five lawsuits have been filed alleging sexual abuse by McCormack, and only one remains pending. That case, alleging a boy was abused from fourth through seventh grade, is awaiting Cardinal Francis George's deposition, according to the family's attorney, William F. Martin.

So far, the archdiocese has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle claims arising from McCormack's conduct.

Beyond the five boys McCormack admitted abusing, state child welfare officials found credible evidence of abuse of six other youths.

Overall, the archdiocese has paid out about $82 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse cases.

Maurice Possley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who recently left the Chicago Tribune. He worked for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1978 to 1984.