CofA5 2009: Hope

Preview: Molestation MO passed from generation to generation in seminary

2010-01-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

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Story in Construction:
Rememeber this story? Father Robert Van Handel perpetrated "medical exams" of teenage boys at St. Anthony's Seminary in Santa Barbara in the 1970s. Young seminary student Robert Van Handel was on the receiving end of a very similar exam in about 1962. Molestatio MO's passed from one generation of priests to another at the Santa Barbara boys high school, that blessedly closed June 1987... Here is story of Van Handel's crime:

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

The Franciscan grabbed the freshman by the testicles and instructed the boy to cough as if it were a hernia exam. Just another day of Seminary Life.
.Franciscan friars with no medical training tested boys for "undescended testacles" at St. Anthony's high school seminary in the 1960s and '70s, as revealed in a new lawsuit filed in Santa Barbara last month and reported here in Part 4 of the Santa Barbara Story November 2009 here at City of Angels. Soon after the testicle exam, an assault by a group of unruly Franciscan friars fills out the plaintiff's first year of high school, apparently just another part of life at the seminary. The legal documents in pedophile priest rape episodes again speak for themselves. Here are more direct quotes from: First Amended Complaint for Damages and Relief, Case Number 1338070 filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court November 3, 2009. Assault During a Physical Exam in the School Infirmary, from First Amended Complaint Case #1338070: "Although initially thrilled to be so far away from his abusive home, the situation for Plaintiff at St. Anthony’s degenerated quickly. Specifically, within a month or two of school starting Plaintiff was called to the infirmary. Upon arriving Plaintiff observed notorious perpetrator Father Robert Van Handel sitting near an infirmary bed, along with another Franciscan he did not recognize. Van Handel then informed Plaintiff he was there 'for a check-up.'"Unbeknownst to Plaintiff, this was a fraudulent misrepresentation as the Franciscans have never had any agents qualified to conduct medical exams, much less any such agents assigned to St. Anthony’s [seminary in Santa Barbara]. To the contrary, when a serious medical problem arose with a student, the Franciscans either called Paul Munch MD, or took the ill student to the hospital....

Shared by a friend

2009-12-21T05:03:00.000-08:00

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WILD GEESE
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination

Non publicized post...

2009-12-20T05:19:00.000-08:00

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By no means am I saying the core of religion is untrue ... mm.

I had this URGE to get on the computer this morning to write this and instead everything froze, had to reboot down to the internet modem. Now am composing inside the blog, which I hardly ever do, then turned on KJLH radio here in L.A. to hear black soulful Gospel music and things ironed out.

See I think we all know there's some kind of spiritual connection in the world, between humans, something we all have inside us. It seems to be repeated in other living things. We see patterns everywhere in the universe, there is definitely something going on.

Sperm hurricanes and galaxies are all shaped the same.

And Prayer

Prayer does something.

But as soon as humans try to put words and earthly applications and meanings on these things, they lose their meaning.

When pastors put structures around God they invariably turn into charlatans. And the Catholic Church has been putting structures around God for almost two thousand years, adjusting the body for political needs of the times.

*

We all know there's something up there, but all you have to do is pray, you don't need the priests and altars, in fact, isn't that what Jesus preached on the Mount? Just turn your head to the heavens and say, "Our Father who art in Heaven ..."

This century, me, I'm daydreaming about life on other planets, and as I age, I know some of these mysteries will soon be answered... meanwhile yeah, KJLH 102.3 FM Los Angeles on Sundays.

And I still read proverbs and psalms. If I ever have more children in my life, I'm going to teach them Proverbs and Psalms . . .

adios, feliz navidad para hoy

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Because I'm listening right now to KJLH, I've heard now these two phrases repeated in songs:

I need you, you need me, we're all a part of God's family.

You're the God of a second chance.

We fall down, but we get up.

*********

According to Pew's research released today Sunday December 20, 2009:

There are more lapsed Catholics in America than there are affiliated Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Orthodox Christians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Presbyterians combined.

So don't be scared...

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I have written here several times, I'm not writing this totally on my own, there is definite spiritual ... nudging that goes on. Like the last public post, yet another rant about the Illinois Supreme Court ruling and how people whose cases are from more than 40 years ago are SOL by the SOL.

That story was ready to post for three days, but there was like a magnetic field, a steel emanating force, keeping me from posting the story. I just knew, I'll post it the 15th. From the 11th, I knew I'd post it on the 15th.

I posted it, then looked at Abuse Tracker, and there was a story about a case in Illinois that settled for $1.4 million, able to pay out because the case was less than 40 years old and Jeff Anderson is even quoted saying, thanks to the Illinois state court decision, this case was able to be "dismissed."

Anderson was quoted in the story calling the case "dismissed" when it was actually settled.

Hope the reporter got it wrong.

BUT Point is, the timing, like Someone Else knew it would be better timing to wait until the 15th to post it. On the 15th I woke up and the magnetic field was totally gone, I sat up pert and energetic and posted the story...

Knowing, now that it's happened so many times writing this blog for three years, that I'm not totally writing this on my own.

When I tell my story, I always say, that God saw me getting sexualized by a priest when I was five years old, and He knew I was going to have trouble as a result. I've had these angels with me since that time. It's how I lived through all the chaos, several attempted murders on Me, I lived through. Pretended to be dead when the nine Indians raped me up in Mount Shasta until they left. Lived through it all...

(I am writing the life story Perils of a Pedophile Priest Survivor's Life at City of Angels 2)

Let donations fall off organically. These bishops need prosecution

2009-12-19T06:07:00.000-08:00

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Here is a sample from a post I just put up at City of Angels 2 :

Okay there’s this buzz in the “survivor community” to stop giving money to the Catholic Church because of its pedophile priests. I assume this means you would still go to the Church every Sunday and stay for their after service Donuts and Coffee. You will be putting your body heat in their air conditioned building, drinking their wine, eating their Eucharist wafers.

It’s deceiving to go to a Church and not give it money. It's false, misleading. It’s like … how do I explain this.

A few years back, after going on antidepressants, mandatory as we were in a homeless shelter, I remember the way the drug made me feel. It did indeed control my mood. It was like a steel grip, a vice, was at the top of my brain and then steel-like tentacles reached out from the vice and just held my brain in this grip.

I bring all this up now because as I observe people stuck in that religion so bad that they don't want to give it another dime, but they'll still file in its doors at least once a week, I think of that vice like grip the antidepressant drug had on me.

A Steel Vice-Like Grip

It looks a lot like a zip file, when you download several documents at once into your Word folders, then go to open them, the icon will look like this vice like grip, with steel-looking tentacles wrapped around and protecting the openings to what's inside the documents.

The steel grip of Catholicism is like a zip file in their brains. Turn the icon in your computer sideways, put it on top of your head, that's what it feels like to be on anti-deperessants when you really don't need them, and it’s much the same as the grip the Church has on people who think the best way to protest against child sex abuse in the church is to stop donating to the church.

You're still walking in the church doors, you're still giving them power in numbers by your presence, you're still listening to their mind altering even hypnotizing, often untrue, sermons they preach, and then there’s that mesmerizing group prayer they do, everyone repeating the same words in a droning monotone.

Yeah, maybe Ray and Jim and Bill and Dave are all correct.

It is brainwashing, only it's a year 1300 state of the art form of brainwashing.

IT'S Dishonest to Go to a Church and then not put money in its baskets.

You're eating their Eucharist, breathing their air conditioned air

AND

Asking the bishops to resign, or asking the pope to fire the bishops, doesn't really accomplish much either.

Those out of work bishops will not stand in any welfare office lines, they will still never drive east of La Cienega or the equivalent in whatever city they're in. Worse yet, some Catholic person with a lot of money who doesn't like the poor will instead provide for the out of work bishop with a home, a stipend, a couple of servants, a car. On a beach probably in some perfect climate.

The bishops belong in prison.

The church needs to feel the full brunt of people not coming in its doors anymore. It’s an organization so full of dishonesty and filth going back probably more than a thousand years, if that's where you think you're going to find God, my hat is off to you, my friend. Good luck.

FEEDBACK:

Email to me just now said hurting them in the pocketbooks is the only thing they feel.

True, but I say, if you stop donating, it's the local church that suffers.

Why not just find a church where you trust the pastors.

But the emailer did make a good point: He could eat a few of their donuts, and it's like getting money back after his family had donated to the local archdiocese for all those decades, like getting money back from Bernie Madoff ...

I think I'm lucky I stopped going to Catholic Church at age 13.

DELETED PARAGRAPHS:

I got on the pills because Lizzie and I were living at Hope Again’s shelter for homeless women at the time. Nowadays, if you are in a shelter like that, they insist you go get on medication, I mean, I didn't need medication. I was depressed because we’d been living in our car for six months, and well, my dad was murdered in 1997 and the woman also embezzled his money, so I lost my inheritance to a murderer and was living on the street 6 years later. Yeah I was a little depressed.

My Catholic friends tell me that withholding donations is the best activism about pedophile priests you will get from Catholics, they'll never leave their churches. Some call it brainwashing, I don't think that's the right word for it.

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Can't seem to do a hiatus this year...

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Just arrived by email this minute:

An Irishman goes into the confessional box after years of being away from the Church.

There's a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates.

Then the priest comes in. "Father, forgive me, for it's been a very long time since I've been to confession, but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be."

The priest replies: "Get out. You're on my side."

MORE FROM EMAIL TODAY:

From Irish Central:

Bishops battling each other in Irish Catholic Church abuse scandal

The Wolfhound: Let's avoid 'Mass' lunacy on Christmas

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Oops, meant to say:

"The bishops who let children be raped belong in prison."

One last slap in the face by Church as holidays begin. Online action group forms. City of Angels on Hiatus until Jan 15, 2010

2009-12-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

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By Kay Ebeling

Once more the Catholic Church talks out of one side of its mouth to look good in the news on the other side of its face. In a December 8th story about its treatment of African American plaintiffs, the Chicago Archdiocese says it is "righting the wrongs" of its pedophile priests "no matter how long ago the abuse occurred." Well, my claim goes back to 1953, and I contacted the Chicago archdiocese for help in 2005. I'm still here, unsettled, at the end of 2009. So while trying to please the black Catholics, the bishops are lying about how they treat older claimants.

Plus, City of Angels has reported how hard the Church works to influence high courts in California. I doubt the bishops' lawyers were lobbying and filing briefs in favor of their crime victims last October when the Supreme Court for the state of Illinois ruled against child sex abuse claims for plaintiffs over age forty. So we get one last slap in the face by the Church for the holidays.

Meanwhile, there's a new Online Message Group forming now. Since the pedophile epidemic in the Church is proven to be a global problem, with Ireland and Australia exploding in 2009 and the Pope "dismayed," activists need to interact more globally, instantaneously, and seamlessly to find a solution. If anyone wants to connect up, talk, and start projects, City of Angels started a Yahoo group where we can hold online, but private, conversations.

New Yahoo Group for online messaging and taking action: Click here to join: Molested by Priests Online Group at Yahoo

This new group could break barriers like its working title name: City of Angels SONAR: (Support Online for Networking and Resources). (Gotta work on that name.) SONAR is a place to share survival techniques, make friends, compare notes, and find ways to take effective action in the near future.

Lots of action. 2010 will be the year of PROJECTS here at City of Angels.

But when the indoor trees and lights go up and that music starts to play, my head just won't go to the topic of pedophile priests,* a subject matter that begs for breaks, respite, even reprieve. There is a lot to be said for rest and recuperation. I love how December has become an entire Sabbath month so to speak, here in caffeinated America. City of Angels has big plans, projects for the future. We will be back January 15, 2010, ready to take things to a higher level.

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The Chicago Archdiocese Slaps Victims One Last Time before the holidays

The Chicago Archdiocese and Cardinal George sent out the year 2009 talking out of both sides of their heads again. As usual the Church thinks it can tell one group of people one thing and another group another thing and get away with it.

Here is what the Final Call reported:

According to officials from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, every effort is being made to resolve cases of sexual abuse involving priests in order to right the wrongs of the past, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

Well Kay Ebeling is living proof that that's not true, as my case dates back to 1953-55 and as far as I know, Illinois lawyers for the Catholic Church petitioned long and hard to get that state high Court to rule in its favor. The Supreme Court of the State of Illiois passed a ruling last October that pretty much cut off anyone older than age 40 from filing a claim against the Church.

We've seen how many law firms file briefs in the California state high court to influence decisions in favor of the Church in this state.

That’s why I read that quote in The Final Cut and went, what the -- because as my long time readers know, my case would have been settled in Illinois, if they hadn't gone to great lengths to beef up their laws against adult victims of child sex abuse by corporate entities, i.e., the Catholic Church.

So I'm living proof that the Chicago Archdiocese is not righting the wrongs “no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.”

You know what, before the Internet that kind of fraud was a lot easier to pull off.

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2010 at City of Angels
will be the year of
Crimen Solicitationes

We should take out billboards, we should send it to newspaper editors. The Public does not yet realize that sex crimes were aided and abetted from the Pope down and THIS POPE BENEDICT ARNOLD RATZINGER helped write the policy.

Crimen Crimen Crimen Crimen Crimen!

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2010 will be the year of

PROJECTS

(I think that Projects will be the word at the top of the blog, for the year 2010, like Epimeno in 2008, but haven't decided yet.)

See you in mid-January. We will start the year with the Santa Barbara Story parts 6 and 7 AND a special feature about Arthur Baselice and his plans for justice for adult victims of pedophile priests in Pennsylvania in 2010.

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Any Victims from Boys Town, Nebraska?

One Midwestern survivor asked City of Angels, "If you could, ask if there are any survivors from Boys Town of Father Peter Dunne or Dr. Ott Thank you for your time."

If there are any other victims from Boys Town in Nebraska of those two perps or any others, contact Kay Ebeling at cityofangelslady@yahoo.com and I'll put you in touch with the victim in the Midwest who is searching.

We will write more about Boys Town in Nebraska next year.

From Wikipedia:

Boys Town is a village in Douglas County, Nebraska, United States. The village of Boys Town is headquarters of the Boys Town organization, also known as "Father Flanagan's Boys' Home" founded by Father Edward J. Flanagan.

Boys Town Nebraska was dedicated to the care, treatment, and education of at-risk children

See ya next year.

(Hopefully with funding, so we don't have to keep saying:)

We now pass the PayPal cosmic hat.

Click one of the Donate Donuts on the left and send me all your money.

Stick 'em up. Merry Christmas

Remember, Pagans started the tradition of bringing a tree in the house to put lights on it. It counters the SAD syndrome from winter darkness. As do Jingle Bells.

Enjoy

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My New Religion

At least NASA is looking for planets in other galaxies that look like they support life as we know it on Earth. That's my hope for the future, my religion, looking at the physical Universe as what it genuinely is.

Expect to see more about the years I worked at NASA in Houston, as I continue to write City of Angels 2. NASA is also actually a part of all the stories going up at City of Angels 1-30 in the next 20 years, so stay tuned.

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My Spiritual Slumber, Spiritual Dreams

Thanks to the Catholic bishops, for religion, I'm looking to NASA.

The sites of City of Angels 3 2007 and City of Angels 4 2008 sites got filled up with all the Christian Gospel music, specifically black Gospel music, as I went through this spiritual "thing" for a few years.

Glaringly absent anymore from this blog are references to Christianity and anything that stems from the Catholic Church. It finally hit me recently, I don't really believe what Christians say, I only believe maybe half of what they say.

The Gospel music, it’s great, except when the guys start screaming, and they always start screaming towards the end of the song. Black gospel music, as cool as it is, does not reach me as much as plain old R&B Soul sounds.

Over the last years, I even was going to the Bible Studies that have sprung up all over L.A. But that soon deteriorated into me disagreeing in my head with everything they said. I’d come home disgruntled, so then I'd quit going.

I started reading the Bible online instead. For most of 2009, I just read Proverbs and Psalms - and they are really reassuring and comforting…

Except for the violent parts.

Alwyas in the Bible, just as you're reading something reverant, they switch up and call for the annihilation of whole tribes, or whole villages, or armies. I have to skip those parts. “Oh lord, smite mine enemies,” um, no, that Bible is not talking to me.

Then There’s Cardinal Roger Mahony and Head U.S. Bishop Francis George

But most revealing have been the two times I’ve had face time with Cardinal Roger Mahony. I left perplexed after meeting him, he is so empty.

I called Roger Mahony the Cardboard Cardinal, but that didn't quite describe him.

Then throughout the year 2009 listening to Francis George, praised even here, the last years, me dreaming that since George is the new CEO of the Bishops, he would now turn things around.

Then I had this sort of

Reverse spiritual awakening

Realizing hey, these bishops who I have grown to disbelieve in total are descendants of the same guys who perpetrated this whole myth from the beginning, actually from about the Year 300 or so, when they started taking Jesus' message and morphing it to suit their purposes.

As great a guy as Jesus was, the New Testament is really part of the Catholic Church's perpetrated story. Undoubtedly Jesus was a very prayerful and spiritual man who walked the Earth, studied in the “East,” where he learned to fast and pray. And he had a big following, lived from The Year One to around The Year 33. But everything we really know about Jesus is really word of mouth.

Word of these bishops’ mouths.

THESE GUYS!

The same guys who perpetrated the story that priests were celibate, while feeding the priests children to rape to take care of their sexual needs.

These are the same guys who started the whole Jesus story as we know it.

So I’ve ended 2009 thinking Christianity is all lies, stories designed to keep people under control, not enlighten us.

That does not keep me from praying.

But it explains why the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals all seem to be made of cardboard.

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Back to that face time with Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Both times I was in His Presence were in the past two years. During that time, I was living in this state of regenerated belief in Christianity, fed by neighborhood Bible studies and singing in the choir at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

Remember that?

I was so prayerful in those days.

And I faced the Cardinal expecting him to reflect back that same prayerful spirit.

AND THERE WAS NOTHING THERE

BOTH TIMES

Just like there is no reflection of that spirit back when you watch Frances George on a Chicago News Team TV report. I'm beginning to see: If there is anybody who is truly disconnected to the Christian spirit, it’s these guys who perpetuated the stories about it.

Bishops are really just corporate CEO’s.

Capitalist men in dresses, not holy men.

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How Does NASA tie into all of this?

I'm beginning to see the way things tie up in your life, how everything you've done in your life leads you to where you are in your life at the moment.

I’ve wondered so long how the time I was at NASA, 1978 to 1983, ties in with all the rest of this stuff. I mean there’s the sexual compulsion to go after men connected to the sky after being sexualized by a priest at age five, I’ve told that joke about a hundred and eighty times now, it’s not really that funny.

I'm arriving at what could be a spiritually barren time, accepting that Christianity is all probably a lie.

But this time for me is not barren, it's bursting out overflowing full. Because I have an understanding of what's really going on in Space, in the sky, in the Heavens, if you will, after those years I was a Public Information Specialist in the News room at LBJ Space Center in Houston.

The way NASA now ties in with my story of pedophile priests is not in the compulsion I had to have sex with astronauts.

NASA’s role now is the resolution of my spirituality.

You get a reverance for the miracle of life on Earth and potential life in other parts of the Real Universe from studying Space as science, the physical reality of planets and stars, treating all of creation the way, well-

Treating Space the way Jesus would.

A Religion of Reality.

But as for the bishops, the World Court needs to fire all the guys who stand on altars preaching in dresses, then hold a massive eBay auction of all that garish art, those golden objects they've piled up in The Vatican while millions of people around the Earth starve.

These guys and their lies are the cause of some of Earth’s biggest problems.

So I'm putting my focus on discoveries that will come out of NASA in the next few years.

And look, in the sky, it’s Santa Claus.

No it’s not it’s a premier opening night spotlight from the Kodak theater up the street.

See you all in early 2010.

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What Good Does Firing Bishops Do?

Dear Ireland, Australia, and all Catholics worldwide, I hate to constantly be the bitch here, but think about it.

They Should be Prosecuted. If they're fired they'll end up living on a seacoast in a villa that some guilty Catholic donates to them. Getting Fired isn't punishment enough.

PROSECUTE Prosecute prosecute

happy new year

__________

* Re holiday lights and my head, that's not completely true. Truth is my daughter practically screamed at me last week, "Once this tree goes up, I don't want to hear one more word about this stuff, you know what stuff I mean." My daughter, who was so much a part of this story, because when she turned age five, I started remembering what happened to me at age five, unfortunately, she's also gone on a wild ride since then with me.

So, we're just having our holiday, both of us working overtime on our jobs, will be back in 2010...

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Read about my new religion at NASA: The Keppler Mission .

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Wrote the story above and then got this in my email: Archdiocese of Chicago settled with accuser for nearly $1.4 million

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One last time for 2009:

Don't Forget the PayPal High Five Campaign

After each post we pass that hat, using PayPal Donate Buttons on the left. That's how this works. (Hopefully next year we won't have to ask for cash here anymore...)

New Online Action Group forms as City of Angels takes holiday hiatus. Returning early 2010 ready to take it to a higher level

2009-12-12T17:27:00.001-08:00

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Post in Construction for publication Week of December 15:

City of Angels has formed an Online Group where Adult Victims of Pedophile Priests and their loved ones can post messages and start reaching out to each other online.

This new group could break barriers like its working title name: City of Angels SONAR: (Support Online for Networking and Resources). A place to share survival techniques, make friends, compare notes, and find ways to take effective action in the near future.

Lots of action. 2010 will be the year of PROJECTS here at City of Angels.

New Yahoo Group for online messaging and taking action: Click here to join: Molested by Priests Online Group at Yahoo

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One of those posts I don't promote

2009-12-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

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I was raped around age five by a priest, and my life was unhinged ever since, in the same ways one reads in legal documents from lawsuits filed by clergy sex crime victims the last two decades. My life was textook, so many of the residual effects, never able to hold a job, substance abuse, sexual ... problems.

I have such weird karma though, I also am in this small minority of people who Did Not get settlements from the Church and I have been perplexed trying to figure that out. Especially since just last decade I got screwed out of money I thought I was going to inherit, this involuntary poverty I've ended up with also leaves me perplexed.

But then I can hardly wait to get out of the shower before I am back here pounding on the keys. Maybe the whole perfect storm that is my life left me with no other choice but to write this all down, report it, document it.

Whatever, I have hot running water and food that comes from Meals on Wheels no matter what, so as long as terrorists don't use a ray-bomb to destroy all electronic communication, this may just be the best role in the world for me, right here in East Hollywood, where Matt Drudge lived the years he was starting the Drudge Report, where probly the only other white people in these blocks are other writers too...

I'm okay, just too busy working on reality TV job to be able to do posts, and it's getting close to Christmas so my head is getting distracted...

I'm writing almost every day the East Hollywood story at City of Angels 2, if anyone is looking for something to read.

2009-12-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

Slammed at work, reality TV production is going like gangbusters, mostly because we are all working double time so we can have time off for Christmas, but it means I don't have any minutes free to even finish stories that are almost ready to post.

Expect more soon, meanwhile, gotta make a living...

Pedophile Epidemic is about as bad as Rain on a Bake Sale, to hear the Vatican respond to it

2009-12-08T05:49:00.000-08:00

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By Kay Ebeling

The Vatican response to the Dublin Archdiocese Murphy Report is "shame, shock and dismay," according to news outlets around the world today, using the same news release. What? Those are words you use for something mundane, a small incident. Dismay? Oh, it rained on our bake sale. "Shocked" is what you say when someone swears in public. "Ashamed?" You have food in your front tooth. All three words refer to what Catholics used to call "venial" rather than "mortal" sins.

What's needed is for real news to be made, like action as a result of all the evidence we now have that pedophilia and child abuse is an international problem in the Catholic Church: in Dublin, Connecticut, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas, Australia.

A World Court trial in The Hague might finally resolve this issue.

The response from the Vatican should be "ENOUGH!" Stop all activity on anything else and get to the root of this problem. Make it the Highest Priority, even more important than keeping gays from forming families, more important than inflicting their religion on American medical policy.

As one of the very damaged adult victims of a pedophile priest, I am so tired of watching the Vatican, and apologists for the Church, and local bishops and priests - AND victims' advocates - getting up in front of reporters to throw words at this problem. How many times can you say "ashamed shocked and dismayed" for the media? Worse yet, reporters then copy and paste all these press statements and call it news.

Meanwhile, even if it takes The Law to force them, the Church needs to open the doors, open the files, clean out the crime, admit the sins, and pay a penance in a penal institution. Catholic priests have to get out of their dresses, roll up their sleeves, and dig down to the roots of the Church to get out this disease, maybe drop out of the free lunch that is the Church and become real parents.

Start out by letting the public know about Crimen Solicitationes. Who started that Vatican policy for handling sex predator priests, how Crimen was applied, and who will spend time in prison because of it.

Everyone, please stop making statements to the news and start doing something that in the end makes genuine news. But don't stand up there saying, "dismayed, shocked, ashamed" when the subject is thousands of children raped worldwide.

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Here is how the BBC reported it today:

The Vatican is ashamed by the findings of the Murphy report into clerical abuse in the Dublin diocese, the Pope's representative in Ireland has said.

Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza expressed his shock at how Church and state authorities handled allegations of child abuse against 46 priests.

"We feel ashamed about what happened, I must express again my shock, my dismay," said Archbishop Leanza.

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Here is a string of them from Abuse Tracker by Kathy Shaw, see what I mean? Just more officials standing up and throwing out words. I want to see action.

December 8, 2009
Vatican 'ashamed' at handling of abuse claims
IRELAND
The Irish Times
The papal nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, has said there was no intention on the part of...

Vatican 'ashamed' of Irish abuse report
IRELAND
BBC News
The Vatican is ashamed by the findings of the Murphy report into clerical abuse in the Dublin

Vatican 'ashamed' of abuse report
IRELAND
Louth Leader
Published Date: 08 December 2009 The Pope's Ambassador to Ireland has said the Vatican is ashamed by the devastating findings

Papal Nuncio: Pope will respond to Murphy report
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
The papal nuncio to Ireland says a response on the findings of the Murphy report on clerical sex abuse can be expected from the Pope.

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As reported in the last story linked above, next week the Pope himself will respond to the Murphy Report from Dublin. He will likely stand up and say he is "ashamed, shocked, dismayed," wave his hand with that pointed toothed grin he has, and go on to the next topic.

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(And then here I go making my own statement in the press with this post...)

Placa accuser says, if Canon Trial can clear priest of molestation charges, clearly New York needs new laws

2009-12-07T11:49:00.001-08:00

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By Kay Ebeling

Richard Tollner was driving home from a meeting with a client Friday night when he found out from a reporter that the priest he accused of pedophile sex crimes had been “cleared” by a canonical trial.

“A Newsday reporter called me Friday night and asked what do you think of the results of the trial,” Tollner told City of Angels this morning. “I said what do you mean trial. She says, the canonical trial. I said, I wouldn't know. I’ve been calling the archdiocese the last two years, all they say is ‘We have nothing to report,” Tollner said.

“It’s occurrences like this, Placa being cleared, that create the need for a Child Victims’ Act in New York,” Tollner added. The current statute of limitations for Placa's charged crimes ran out in 1982. “The Church made it look like there’s only one person who’s come forward about Placa and that's not the case, there’s three known victims.”

Richard Tollner testified at that canonical trial that “cleared” Alan Placa and, before last week, had been waiting over two years to hear the results. “I used to call every month asking what are you going to do about Placa.”

At those Canonical hearings in the Albany archdiocese business offices, Tollner had to use Church provided legal counsel for the hearings: “The church provided me with a what they call a Promoter of Justice. Then he was always on vacation when I called him with questions,” Tollner said.

“We were basically supposed to just use the church people, I could use an attorney for counsel but not in the hearing.”

That “canonical penal trial” ordered by Vatican ended up clearing the charges and Alan Placa is now going to be reinstated as a priest.

"They had testimony, they just didn't listen."

“The hearings were right here in Albany, in the church offices, just in a conference room. It was a very simple thing, it was basically three judges, they were priests from upstate New York and a guy from Philadelphia

“We hit them right between the eyes with exactly what they needed, and they never heard us," Tollner said. "I'm surprised," with the results.

“We had five witnesses who were fellow seminarians, family members, and other victims

“Other victims

“Plural."

PLURAL

Sometimes they just submitted written testimony but they still submitted witness testimony to the trial.

“I was there five or six times, spent about two hundred hours on research and preparation, because this was super hard testimony," Tollner said.

News reports from last week state: "Placa was placed under investigation by the Church after he was identified as 'Priest F' in a grand jury investigation in New York's Suffolk County. The grand jury heard testimony from three alleged victims, two students and an altar boy, who said that a "Priest F" had molested them in the 1970s,” the paragraphs that are picked up and repeated in most the news articles about Placa’s cleared charges state:

City of Angels knows of at least two other victims of Placa who could be witnesses but refuse to come forward and testify.

When the Newsday reporter called Tollner, “Boy was she surprised because I was like, you've gotta be kidding me,” Tollner said. “Because I thought they’d do something. I was expecting them to do something, I didn't know if they would laicize him, but that's what they wanted them to do.

Tollner says he testified before at least five times in the canonical hearings two years ago along with several other witnesses.

Still, “A lot of people I talked to are not surprised that Placa was cleared,” Tollner said, “because Placa was also an attorney for the church, he was handling their sex abuse cases.

“If people find out that the attorney who handled their cases and talking people out of going to the police, which Placa did, he talked victims out of filing charges. When they find out he was sexually abusing kids himself, you’d think that would go to his character, as an attorney.”

I asked Tollner, What are you going to do, if the Child Victims Act passes, and he said, “I’ll be very happy for the other victims.”

****************

How Mainstream News Covers the Story:

New York Daily News
Msgr. Alan Placa, longtime friend of Rudy Giuliani, not guilty of molesting ...
New York Daily News - Rachel Monahan - ‎Dec 6, 2009‎
Msgr. Alan Placa, a close friend of Rudy Giuliani, is cleared of allegations that he molested a teenager in 1975. ...

Bishop confronted over clearing priest of abuse charge Newsday (subscription)

Church clears Giuliani friend in abuse case The Associated Press

all 195 news articles »

ABC News

Sex Abuse Victims' Groups Outraged By Vatican Decision to Clear Accused Priest
ABC News - Avni Patel - ‎1 hour ago‎
The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced on Friday that the Catholic Church had found Monsignor Alan Placa not guilty of molesting teenage boys, ...

Former vice-chancellor of LI diocese cleared of sex abuse claim
Commonweal - Paul Moses - ‎14 hours ago‎
... ago against a former vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Monsignor Alan Placa, over an incident that allegedly occurred 34 years ago. ...

Placa's diocesan career
Newsday (subscription) - ‎Dec 4, 2009‎
Monsignor Alan PlacaAge: 65Education: BA degree from Manhattan College; Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham University; JD from Hofstra University School of Law. ...

*************************

Alan Placa may be cleared by a Canonical Trial but here's his record in Bishop Accountability:

Source:
Newsday 4.17.02;
NY Times 4.19.02;
Newsday 5.14.02;
Newsday 6.03.02;
Newsday 6.07.02;
Newsday 6.14.02;
Suffolk Co. Grand Jury Report 1.17.03;
NY Times 2.01.03;
Telegram & Gazette 2.17.03;
Newsday 2.11.03;
NY Times 2.20.03;
Compasso et al v. Volmer et al, 4.14.03;
Newsday 4.15.03;
NY Times 12.04.03;
Worcester Telegram & Gazette 7.22.07

Assignments:
ABC News 10.23.07 (add'l article);
EDGE Boston 10.24.07 (add'l article);
Albany Times Union 11.07.07 (add'l article);
Inside Catholic 11.26.07 (add'l article);
Statement by Diocese of Rockville Centre 12.4.09 (add'l article);
BA.org Assignment Record and Other Info

******************

City of Angels interviewed Richard Tollner for a 2007 story:

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Giuliani hired the pedophile priest who crafted Church defense of pedophile priests, while a New York pedophile priest predator himself
*****
By Kay Ebeling
How did a predator pedophile priest end up as legal counsel at a center for pedophile priests, crafting Catholic legal strategies for pedophile priests at the same time as he was committing sex crimes against minors himself? Today that same Monsignor Alan Placa is close advisor to Rudy Giuliani who is running for President of the United States.

AND HERE:

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Giuliani as president would mean advisors like Alan Placa, the pedophile priest/attorney who created Church policy for pedophile priests
*****
By Kay Ebeling
A New York grand jury ends its report on Alan Placa, pedophile priest, with these words: “Ironically, Priest F would later become instrumental in development of Diocesan policy in response to allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.” Irony? More like criminal conspiracy. Below are more quotes from Suffolk County about Placa, who today whispers in Rudy Giuliani’s ear, plus an interview with Richard Tollner, one of Placa’s more vocal accusers. ...

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Blog produced by Kay Ebeling, Hollywood, California

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Sorry to rush this post out, folks, gotta get back to my job on Scream Queens Season Two oh, and also, am working Donald Trump's new show. Imagine what City of Angels could do with a budget where I could drop one of my other jobs, travel to do these stories in person with video, and do City of Angels full time...

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Pedophilia is a Privacy Right, and other Appeals arguments of the Catholic Church, as Franciscan Friars fight release of documents

2009-12-03T06:35:00.001-08:00

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By Kay Ebeling

Part 5: The Franciscans of Santa Barbara are filing mounds of briefs with the Courts of California, fighting release of documents regarding pedophile priests among the friars. The Church is now working to obstruct release of files that would reveal its own crimes, because, as they say in their appeal briefs, the cases settled “without any finding of fact on the plaintiffs’ allegations by the court.” In other words, the cases never went to trial, so the Church never has to release the documents.

Since the sex abuse cases against the Franciscans settled in 2006 before going to trial, documents that would have been evidence in a trial do not now have to be released, even though release of those documents was part of the settlement, church attorneys argue in their appeal. I know, it doesn't make sense, but it doesn't have to. The Church has endless funds, so it can file appeals endlessly, on any twist of logic, even the definition of a word.

We've seen this abuse of the legal system in Connecticut, Oregon, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and we'll likely see it in Delaware, even though plaintiffs in Wilmington settled their lawsuits this fall, in a pre-trial decision that includes … release of perpetrator priest personnel files. Don’t hold your breath.

Now the Franciscans and their lawyers are pursuing every legal avenue possible to prevent documents from being released to the public about Franciscan Friars’ sexual felonies. Documents the Franciscans promised to release in May 2006, when pedophile priest civil cases settled in Santa Barbara, have yet to be seen by anyone other than the Franciscan Friars and a reviewing judge. Now the religious order is appealing an April 2009 L.A. Superior Court Order.

So let’s take a break from the graphic details of those two lawsuits in Santa Barbara in Parts 1-4 of this story to look at this appeal, although there are about three more posts left to write based on the two new cases.

Attorneys for the six Franciscan Brothers who were proved to be pedophiles in 2006 but never convicted are now pursuing every avenue possible in the courts to prevent release of parts of their personnel files, thus holding up release of all documents that Santa Barbara plaintiffs thought they would get in May 2006.

The Church Appeals release of documents, surprise, surprise

If this story sounds familiar it’s because last April we covered those hearings and rulings that, “The files were to be publicly released (Order #JA0270-374) following interlocutory rulings on the issues of privacy and jurisdiction.” That quote is from one of the defendant’s own appeal brief. Even with a Court order, even though the Church knows all the arguments have all been made, Church Attorneys just keep going and going with appeals and appeals. Attorneys for the Catholic Church always have the resources to keep going and going. Plaintiff attorneys aren’t even being paid anymore for their work.

******************

From Opening Brief of Appellant Franciscan Friars of California Inc. filed October 9, 2009

“Applicants seek relief from the order releasing their private and privileged records to the public,” begins one of the Church attorney briefs.

An attorney for the plaintiffs in Santa Barbara explained to me, “The next thing we do is file our responses, then they file replies, then oral argument in the Supreme Court of California, probably sometime in spring or summer.”

More from the perpetrators’ appeal:

“All of these appellants have a direct right to appeal given the res judicata impact of the court’s ruling on their protected interests.”

***************
“Appellants who were not parties to the litigation…” ? who do they mean? Who are they protecting?
*********************

More from Opening Brief of Appellant Franciscan Friars of California Inc. filed October 9, 2009:

“Plaintiffs in these consolidated cases filed, and later settled, civil lawsuits against the Franciscan Friars of California, St. Anthony’s Seminary high school, and the Santa Barbara Boys’ Choir, alleging that they had been sexually abused while attending these institutions.

Appellants are:

Samuel Charles Cabot
David Johnson
Robert Van Handel
Vario Cimmarusti
Gus Krumm
Gary Pacheco

Franciscans or former Franciscans

The cases settled May 25, 2006 “without any finding of fact on the plaintiffs’ allegations by the court.”

(Court designated Judge Lichtman of Los Angeles the hearing officer. He spent three years reviewing documents, then issued his orders to release. )

“None of the appellants were served with this application.”

(In other words since it was the Franciscans who were sued, and these six guys are ex-Franciscan priests who were perpetrators and caused the lawsuits, the priests themselves aren’t really parties to the lawsuits, so they weren’t part of the settlement, so they can refuse to go along with the settlement agreement to release records. )

******************
See how they twist things around. This circular logic is what you can expect to see on practically every appeal brief I’ve seen that was written by a church attorney:

FAVORITE CIRCULAR LOGIC:

The cases are settled, so there is no more case. The cases were settled without going to court, so there really is no admission of guilt or responsibility. The Church has just been giving away gazillions of dollars in pretrial settlements out of the goodness of its heart.

The church attorneys claim that during litigation before 2006, Judge Lichtman reviewed the files and “privacy objections by individual clergy members who were the subject of the personnel and confidential files were overruled given the compelling state interest in settlement.”

NO

That's not the reason privacy objections were overruled, it was because of the compelling state interest in protecting children. Not "the state interest in a settlement," the state interest to protect children.

See how they turn things around?

*****************************

“On November 7, 2005, the cases were released from the stay and all documents had been deposited in the document depository. The document depository was only accessible by the parties to the case. Depositions taken in the case were also the subject of a protective order.”

********************
THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT:

Here’s where you see the Church’s strategy:

The Church agrees to release documents that “would have been subject to discovery obligations in the litigation of the actions.”

“No third party privacy rights could be claimed by the Franciscans on documents deemed to affect ‘public safety issues relating to childhood sexual abuse’ or knowledge on the part of defendants of suspected childhood sexual abuse or the ‘cover up’ thereof.”

“Third party objections including those asserted by any defendant who is also an ALLEGED PERPETRATOR, are not bound by this contractual standard.” (Their emphasis)

“As such the Agreement between the parties to allow the hearing officer to consider ‘public interests’ does not apply to any objection raised by individual applicants.”

**************************
I think what the Church Attorneys are doing here is once again taking advantage of the overlapping entities of the Catholic Church

It’s set up perfectly to run a crime operation.
The perpetrators were Franciscan Friars, but they aren’t anymore and the party of the lawsuit was the Franciscans, so rulings on the lawsuit don't apply to the perpetrators.

The L.A. Archdiocese did this buck passing endlessly during the Clergy Cases that finally settled in 2007. It was the religious order, no it was the hospital, no it was the nuns, no it was the bishop.

Nobody takes responsibility, and they have endless legal resources to pass the buck and pass thebuck.

Welcome to the world of Catholic Church abuse of the justice system.

******************

(NOTE: Several of these six perpetrators are living and working in communities around the country now. We have their last known addresses, but since this litigation, most of these perpetrators have … just disappeared into the landscape.)

More from the Perpetrators’ Brief, appealing release of documents for six Franciscan Friars who are also known pedophiles:

“Both the Franciscans and these appellants advised the hearing officer (that) their vows of poverty and vows of obedience left them no choice but to participate in psychotherapy if ordered to by their superiors.

“Their treaters had requested Franciscans’ input and oversight and ongoing consultation regarding the progress of these Friars.”

(April 2, 2009, appellants’ privilege objections were overruled and the documents ordered to be publicly released. The April 2, 2009, order overruled these appellants’ objections based on privacy.)

The defense appeal says:

“The psychotherapist-patient and physician-patient privilege objections were overruled.” because the information in the files is not “in rendering psychotherapy or treatment” The individuals knew the information was being released to the Franciscans.

The perpetrator priests appealed release of documents last May: “Expressly for the technical purpose of being added as parties to the litigation for purpose of appeal.”

*****************
(NEW TWIST: The perpetrators got their names out of the litigation during the lawsuits, now they want to add their names to the lawsuits, so they can appeal the decision.)

The Church is appealing the April 2009 order:
“In an abundance of caution, specifically to be added as parties to the proceeding in order to eliminate a technical and procedural issue on appeal.
**********

Actually, two of these perps were parties in the original lawsuits.
So for the other four perpetrators who are doing this appeal, this is a back-door attempt to become parties to the lawsuits now.
**********************

Appellants filed their notice of appeal on May 26, 2009.

THE CHURCH CLAIMS:

Any person having an interest recognized by law may appeal.

Here is the privacy issues and interests of the “appellants.”

“They are all named as ‘alleged perpetrators’ in the plaintiffs’ complaints.

“They filed various objections to the release of their personnel filesduring the course of the litigation.”

“And again after the litigation was settled.”

(TURNED DOWN ALWAYS. ALWAYS KEEP APPEALING)

They appeared at court ordered hearings relating to their objections.

***********
Pedophilia is a Privacy Right:

The Franciscan Friars pedophiles are appealing release of their files because of: “Their constitutional rights to privacy and enforcement of various privileges relating to highly personal and private records.”

(I.E., they think their pedophilia is private.)

“Privacy and privilege describe rights which require resolution of fact by trial.”

(I.E., these cases settled pre-trial, nothing has been proved.)

The writings in personnel files are a property right.

(Honest, they are bringing that argument out again.)

Church claims a “procedural interest” a “Question of Jurisdiction to decide these constitutional and other rights”

The Court Orders “Automatically deprived” the appellants of their “Substantive and procedural interests in their constitutional rights to privacy.”

********************
ENOUGH
That's all from the Church appeals brief.
***************************

We're talking about the crime of pedophilia taking place at a high school seminary in Santa Barbara where serial perpetrators molested dozens of children, not just the students. Some of the plaintiffs in the 2006 Franciscan cases were employed at the seminary as well.

And the Church has all the money and power it needs, so they'll probably just keep appealing and appealing, and we'll never see these documents until we're too old to be able to see them.

Such is justice in the United States today. Whoever has the most money wins.

The documents being released in Connecticut this week were sealed when those lawsuits settled, and it took The New York Times and three other newspapers to sue for their release, fighting the Church all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Considering that in Southern California you've got maybe two law firms, trying to get documents released. Lawyers for the plaintiffs already got paid all they're ever going to get paid in these cases, while the Church digs into its bottomless briefcase and keeps hiring more attorneys. Church appeals will go on for years.

So I don't believe we'll ever see any papers that the L.A. archdiocese and the Franciscan friars of Santa Barbara want to keep secret.

Unless somebody inside the Church leaks. And City of Angels is here for anyone who wants to leak secret documents.

************************

The Way the Catholic Church has responded to its sex crimes has caused me to begin to lose my belief in everything the Catholic Church has delivered

Including the story of Christ.

The Catholic Church criminal activity will cause people to become totally turned off to Christianity, to Christ in total, as after all, it started in the Catholic Church. Is anyone who is really a Christian in the Vatican paying attention?

I posted this on November 29, 2009, edited a bit here:

Nothing out of the church the last two decades concerning our pedophile priest claims makes sense

The Church often responds by offering to send the victims to Therapy. The bishops are the ones who are sick perverts who didn't recognize sodomy of a six year old is wrong, not us, the crime victims.

Why is the Catholic Church so reverent and faithful towards psychology as the solution to this problem? Isn't that a little bit secular?

It makes a Christian victim truly question the truth about everything that has ever come out of the church, including the story of Christ.

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Blog Produced by Kay Ebeling, Hollywood, California
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2009-12-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

ABOVE, Beverly Hills store Nativity Scene From KTLA TV Channel Five, News L.A. BELOW: Video from Ireland:

The Franciscan grabbed the freshman by the testicles and instructed the boy to cough as if it were a hernia exam. Just another day of Seminary Life.

2009-12-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

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Franciscan friars with no medical training tested boys for "undescended testacles" at St. Anthony's high school seminary in the 1960s and '70s, as revealed in a new lawsuit filed in Santa Barbara last month and reported here in Part 4 of the Santa Barbara Story November 2009 here at City of Angels. Soon after the testicle exam, an assault by a group of unruly Franciscan friars fills out the plaintiff's first year of high school, apparently just another part of life at the seminary.

The legal documents in pedophile priest rape episodes again speak for themselves. Here are more direct quotes from: First Amended Complaint for Damages and Relief, Case Number 1338070 filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court November 3, 2009.

Assault During a Physical Exam in the School Infirmary, from First Amended Complaint Case #1338070: "Although initially thrilled to be so far away from his abusive home, the situation for Plaintiff at St. Anthony’s degenerated quickly. Specifically, within a month or two of school starting Plaintiff was called to the infirmary. Upon arriving Plaintiff observed notorious perpetrator Father Robert Van Handel sitting near an infirmary bed, along with another Franciscan he did not recognize. Van Handel then informed Plaintiff he was there 'for a check-up.'

"Unbeknownst to Plaintiff, this was a fraudulent misrepresentation as the Franciscans have never had any agents qualified to conduct medical exams, much less any such agents assigned to St. Anthony’s [seminary in Santa Barbara]. To the contrary, when a serious medical problem arose with a student, the Franciscans either called Paul Munch MD, or took the ill student to the hospital.

"Unfortunately Plaintiff had no knowledge of this fraud as the Franciscans had never notified law enforcement, parents or the community that physical exams of students by men with no medical training had been approved by the Franciscans almost two decades earlier, and had been utilized to abuse numerous students since then. Plaintiff also had been raised to trust priests and follow their every instruction."

Because these stories seem unbelievable, I asked Tim Hale, the Santa Barbara attorney who authored the briefs, how he came up with the details in these cases, as reported here November 23, 2009 Hale said: "Everything alleged in the amended complaints is supported by admissible evidence assembled from investigation and discovery conducted during the last eleven years of litigation involving the Franciscans." Hale works for Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale law firm in Santa Barbara.

****************
The second Franciscan told Plaintiff where to stand and to drop his pants, Plaintiff complied without question. The man then approached Plaintiff, grabbed his (Plaintiff’s) testicles, and instructed Plaintiff to turn his head to cough as if he was conducting some sort of hernia exam.
**********************

More direct quotes from Santa Barbara Case #1338070:

Consequently, Plaintiff believed Van Handel’s fraudulent misrepresentation, and when the second Franciscan told Plaintiff where to stand and to drop his pants, Plaintiff complied without question. The man then approached Plaintiff, grabbed his (Plaintiff’s) testicles, and instructed Plaintiff to turn his head to cough as if he was conducting some sort of hernia exam. This ploy was utilized repeatedly during sexual assaults by Father Cimmarrusti, the abuser of at least twenty-three (23) St. Anthony’s students in the 1960s.

The Franciscan then told Plaintiff he had to perform another purported test, and without any further explanation instructed Plaintiff to bend over the infirmary bed. When Plaintiff again complied without question, the Franciscan proceeded to digitally penetrate the shocked boy rectally.

When the supposed exam was finished Plaintiff felt embarrassed and ashamed, and confused as to why he felt this way. However, he still gave no thought to questioning the Franciscan as, in Plaintiff’s mind at that time, Catholic priests were incapable of any wrongful conduct and were beyond reproach.

**************
The Assault by Dave Johnson
********************

First Amended Complaint Case #1338070 Continued:

Also during his first semester at St. Anthony’s Plaintiff was subjected to another sexual assault by two Franciscans, then religious brother and future priest, Dave Johnson and one other Franciscan who Plaintiff was unable to identify other than by his garb. However, there was no "check-up" charade this time. Instead it was a physically violent and terrifying assault involving Johnson’s forcible rape of Plaintiff with a foreign object.

Plaintiff was walking down the hall one evening after dinner having just finished kitchen duty. Another student told him he needed to go to Johnson’s office, and Plaintiff did so without question, knocking on the closed office door. Johnson told him to come in and immediately instructed Plaintiff to take all his clothes off and get down on his knees.

Shocked at the instruction and sensing something was horribly wrong, Plaintiff panicked and began crying. Johnson then angrily said something to the effect of "I told you to take your clothes/pants off," walked behind Plaintiff and violently tackled or pushed Plaintiff into the ground, simultaneously grabbing Plaintiff’s hair and shoving Plaintiff’s face into the carpet.

**************
Utterly panicked and terrified, Plaintiff continued crying, struggled, to no avail.
***********************

SB Case #1338070 continued:

The door then opened and two more people entered, an adult dressed in Franciscan garb, and a student. However, he did not get a good look at them as Johnson was straddling his upper back. Plaintiff heard the door being closed immediately after they entered, heard Johnson say "grab his pants," and then felt hands pulling his pants off. To Plaintiff’s horror, he then heard Johnson say "and the underwear."

Utterly panicked and terrified Plaintiff continued crying, struggled to no avail, and began pleading with Johnson "please don’t do this, what did I do?" Now naked from the waist down, and feeling as if someone was lying on him at a 45 degree angle holding him on the ground so that his bare buttocks were exposed, Plaintiff heard Johnson yelling at him, saying "now it is my turn."

Plaintiff then began to feel something that felt like a big wooden stick first being poked and prodded between his buttocks, and then being pushed against his anus. Plaintiff now recalls at this point going into another state of mind, dissociating himself from the violent sexual assault. He prayed to God not to let this happen, while hearing himself crying and sobbing, and still pleading with Johnson to stop. As the assault continued Plaintiff stopped struggling and submitted, having learned from past experiences that this was sometimes the best way of ending an assault.

Plaintiff may have blacked out and recalls regaining a semblance of consciousness or awareness of the sound of Johnson and at least one other person in the room laughing. He felt people get off of his now limp body, and then either stood or was pulled up and pulled his pants up. He recalls seeing the student standing in the corner with a coat rack that may have been the foreign object used by Johnson during the assault. He also saw the second man standing over him, and recognizing the man was wearing the brown robes worn by Franciscans.

Johnson then told Plaintiff to keep his mouth shut about the assault or he would make matters worse. Plaintiff fled the room.

*******************
The Assault by Gus Krumm
***************************

Case #1338070 continued:

Unfortunately, as the school year came to a close yet another notorious perpetrator and faculty member, then religious brother and future priest Gus Krumm, inflicted another violent sexual assault on Plaintiff. Specifically, one night as Plaintiff walked down a seminary hallway he passed by Krumm’s office and heard what sounded like grunts or groans coming from inside.

As the front office door was open, Plaintiff entered and asked if everything was ok. Krumm emerged from his bedroom shortly thereafter; Krumm appeared to be sweating and smelled bad, and looked disheveled wearing only Corduroy shorts and a gray t-shirt. Krumm angrily asked what Plaintiff was doing in his office, and Plaintiff explained he had heard strange noises and thought someone needed help.

This enraged Krumm who proceeded to grab Plaintiff, spin him around, and drive Plaintiff forcefully into the office wall. Krumm then pinned Plaintiff from behind to the point the boy could not move, pushing Plaintiff’s face against the wall.

Krumm then began thrusting his groin against Plaintiff’s buttocks, placed his mouth next to Plaintiff’s ear, and reached around and grabbed the terrified and immobilized boy’s genitals, squeezing them tightly to the point Plaintiff was in so much pain he began to cry. Eventually Krumm said something to the effect of "you didn’t see anything here, you didn’t hear anything, and you’re not wanted. And you’re probably not coming back." Plaintiff was so terrified and in such pain he agreed immediately. Krumm then released Plaintiff’s genitals and shoved the still crying boy out of the office.

********************
‘You didn't see anything here, you didn't hear anything here, and you're not wanted.’
*******************************

First Amended Complaint Case #1338070 Continued:

10.1 The sexual abuse and exploitation of Plaintiff and the circumstances under which it occurred caused Plaintiff to develop various psychological coping mechanisms which reasonably made him incapable of ascertaining the resulting damages from that conduct. Within three years of filing his lawsuit, Plaintiff discovered or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse.

When Plaintiff first arrived at St. Anthony’s he felt tremendously relieved to be away from his abusive home-life. Catholic schools and parishes had long been his sanctuary, and St. Anthony’s felt particularly safe as it was located far away from his stepfather in another state. As a result, his initial sense of relief was overwhelming, almost to the point of euphoria.

The Perpetrators, acting as managing agents of the Defendants, utilized the trust and reverence inherent in their status as a Franciscans to isolate and abuse Plaintiff.

Plaintiff was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family that idolized priests, was taught by Defendants to trust, revere and obey priests as God’s representatives on earth, and had long viewed priests as the caretakers of his sanctuary from an abusive home-life. The Perpetrators exploited Plaintiff’s hope of having been rescued from his abusive home-life and also utilized Plaintiff’s trust and resulting vulnerability and deference to priests to manipulate Plaintiff, who was approximately fourteen (14) and fifteen (15) years of age during the period of abuse.

One of the manipulations resulted in Plaintiff’s abuse in the infirmary during the purported physical exam. When Plaintiff was instructed to go to the infirmary he did as he was told. Once there, Father Van Handel fraudulently informed Plaintiff before the assault that Plaintiff was there for a "check-up" to be performed by the Perpetrator. The Perpetrator then fraudulently informed Plaintiff he had to conduct a "test" on Plaintiff.

********************
This check-up, what on its face appeared to be a legitimate medical purpose, performed by a perpetrator.
***********************************

This use of what on its face appeared to be a legitimate medical purpose, while in the school infirmary, coupled with Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s trusted status as Franciscans, inhibited Plaintiff’s awareness of the wrongfulness of this conduct until recently. Van Handel and the Perpetrator thus exploited Plaintiff’s having been raised in the Catholic church, as well as Plaintiff’s desperate need to feel he was finally safe, and fraudulently induced Plaintiff to believe he had been called to the infirmary for a legitimate medical purpose.

Consequently, while sensing something was wrong Plaintiff could not comprehend why he felt ashamed and embarrassed after the supposed exams, and was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct until recently, within the last three years. Specifically, it was not until after he began recovering his memories of the abuse by Johnson and Krumm that he first sought out and read other accounts of St. Anthony’s students who were sexually abused.

It was during this time that he first learned that many students had been abused during fraudulent physical examinations conducted by Franciscan perpetrators. Only after reading these accounts did he begin to suspect Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s statements were fraudulent, and had been utilized by the two Franciscans to make him vulnerable to the abuse by the Perpetrator. Until then, Van Handel’s and the Perpetrator’s fraud, coupled with Plaintiff’s inherent trust in the words of the priests and his desperate need to believe he was finally somewhere safe, resulted in psychological blocking mechanisms that prevented Plaintiff from facing and realizing the Perpetrator’s conduct in the infirmary was wrongful and had caused him injury.

**************
In the lawsuit here is the story of going to O’Brien in Phoenix to report these crimes in Santa Barbara, reported in City of Angels in The Phoenix Connection here
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[For Plaintiff] Countless days of extreme introversion and walking around in silence, emotionally shut down and unable to face the reality of his life, would follow. It was not until July of 2006 that Plaintiff began to recover the repressed St. Anthony’s memories sometime after an unexpected encounter with Johnson, or at least a man who looked like Johnson. In the weeks that followed that encounter Plaintiff suffered through numerous inexplicable sleepless nights.

Finally, after one particularly fitful night of disturbing dreams, Plaintiff awoke to the shocking realization he had begun recovering memories of the abuse by Johnson and Krumm. And it was not until sometime after he began recovering these memories that Plaintiff first realized the abuse had caused him injury. He also began for the first time to understand his own feelings surrounding the abuse, how the abuse has affected him, and how it continues to affect him.

Plaintiff’s repression also rendered him unable to recognize the wrongfulness of Johnson’s and Krumm’s conduct, and further resulted in Plaintiff internalizing feelings of shame, self-blame, and self-loathing. Blocking out and dissociating from those feelings rendered Plaintiff unable to perceive the injuries he suffered from the abusive conduct and its effect on his life.

11. As a direct result of the wrongful conduct alleged herein, Plaintiff has suffered, and continues to suffer great pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life; has suffered and continue to suffer spiritually; was prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing Plaintiff’s daily activities and obtaining the full enjoyment of life; has sustained and continue to sustain loss of earnings and earning capacity; and/or has incurred and will continue to incur expenses for medical and psychological treatment, therapy, and counseling.

*****************
Defendants continue to conspire
*********************

12. Plaintiff incorporates all paragraphs of this First Amended Complaint as if fully set forth herein.

13. Defendants continue to conspire and engage in efforts to:

1) conceal from the general public the sexual assaults committed by, the identities of, and the pedophilic/ephebophilic tendencies of, the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic agents;

2) attack the credibility of the victims of the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic agents;

3) protect the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic current and former agents from criminal prosecution and registration as sex offenders for their sexual assaults against children; and

4) exploit and abuse the protection for religious freedom provided by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for the purpose of escaping their obligation to report childhood sexual abuse under California Penal Code section 11166, all in violation of law.

14. The negligence and/or deception and concealment by Defendants was and is injurious to the health of, indecent or offensive to the senses of, and an obstruction to the free use of property by, the general public, including but not limited to residents of the County of Santa Barbara and all other members of the general public who live in communities where

****************
Defendants’ conduct has caused further injury to the public and severely impaired the safety of children
**************************

Defendants conducted, and continue to conduct, their work and/or ministry, and was and is indecent and offensive to the senses, so as to interfere with the general public’s comfortable enjoyment of life in that children cannot be left unsupervised in any location where Defendants’ agents are present as the general public cannot trust Defendants to prohibit their pedophilic agents from supervising, caring for, or having any contact with children, nor to warn parents of the presence of the pedophilic agents of Defendants, nor to identify their pedophilic agents, nor to identify and/or report to law enforcement their agents accused of childhood sexual abuse, thus creating an impairment of the safety of children in the neighborhoods where Defendants conducted, and continue to conduct, their work and/or ministries.

Defendants’ conduct has caused further injury to the public and severely impaired the safety of children where Defendants have protected and concealed the Perpetrators and Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic agents from criminal prosecution and registration as sex offenders for their sexual assaults, where the Perpetrators and/or Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic agents subsequently have left Defendants’ employ, and where Defendants have disavowed any responsibility for the Perpetrators and/or Defendants’ other pedophilic/ephebophilic former agents despite the fact Defendants facilitated these former agents’ avoiding criminal prosecution and having to register as sex offenders. As a result of Defendants’ conduct, when Defendants’ former agents have sought employment placing them in positions of trust with children, Defendants are the only ones aware of the risk posed by these former agents, and potential employers, childcare custodians, and parents have no means of identifying the risk to their children posed by such men. Today’s children continue to be put at risk and abused under these circumstances by Defendants’ former agents, at least as recently as 2007.

15. The negligence and/or deception and concealment by Defendants was specially injurious to Plaintiff’s health as he and his family were unaware of the danger posed to children left unsupervised with agents of Defendants, and as a result of this deception, Plaintiff was placed in the custody and control of the Perpetrators, agents of Defendants, who subsequently sexually assaulted Plaintiff.

16. The continuing public nuisance created by Defendants was, and continues to be, the proximate cause of the injuries and damages to the general public alleged in paragraph 14, and of Plaintiff’s special injuries and damages as alleged in paragraph 15.

17. In doing the aforementioned acts, Defendants acted negligently and/or intentionally, maliciously and with conscious disregard for Plaintiff’s rights.

18. As a result of the above-described conduct, Plaintiff has suffered, and continues to suffer special injury in that they suffer great pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life; has suffered and continues to suffer spiritually; was prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing Plaintiff’s daily activities and obtaining the full enjoyment of life; has sustained and will continue to sustain loss of earnings and earning capacity; and/or has incurred and will continue to incur expenses for medical and psychological treatment, therapy, and counseling.

The Current Santa Barbara Series:

Part 1 is here

Part 2 is here

Part 3 is here

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Don't Forget the PayPal High Five Campaign. Support City of Angels by sending us $5 or more every now and then using the Donate buttons on the left. After each post we pass the hat through PayPal, that's how it works...

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-Blog produced by Kay Ebeling

Storm the Vatican April 2010. Also, Money for therapy comes from plaintiffs not Church, and Santa Barbara Story Part 3

2009-12-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

.
By Kay Ebeling

Medical Exams of freshmen by Friars for "undescended testicles"

Part 3 of the Santa Barbara Story, is below. Also we are running reruns from last week for clarification. Some readers balked and misunderstood about the therapy funds available for victims announced here a few days ago. It is Not money that comes from the Church, the funds come from plaintiffs in the Santa Barbara 2006 settlements. They donated and created a trust fund for other victims who need therapy. Also, the Ash Wednesday 2010 Day of Silence announced a few days ago here is to raise funds for people in Canada who are going to Rome to "storm the Vatican" in April 2010. Both stories are rerun below for clarification, but first, from Santa Barbara.

The author of City of Angels is slammed at work, had planned to write an evocative drama based on these Santa Barbara court documents, but I have to work overtime all this week on my "real" job. So instead here at City of Angels we are copy and pasting from the legal documents, exactly as filed: I am not making this stuff up. The following, except for occasional offset comments by CityofA, all the way to the line of asterisks (***) is direct quotes from: First Amended Complaint for Damages and Relief, Case Number 1338070 filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court November 3, 2009.

As to Gus Krumm, long before the Franciscans assigned him to St. Anthony’s Seminary he and another notorious Franciscan perpetrator, Father Philip Wolfe, contracted the sexually transmitted disease known as "crabs" while doing field work as novices (training to become Franciscans). The source of the crabs were adolescent boys Wolfe and Krumm encountered who, according to Krumm, were willing to do anything for money.

And according to Krumm, Wolfe contracted not only crabs but other sexually transmitted diseases from these adolescent boys, prompting Wolfe’s and Krumm’s novice master (also a Franciscan) to lecture both men angrily and repeatedly with regards to the sexual promiscuity with these boys that resulted in Wolfe and Krumm contracting crabs.

At Right,
Gus Krumm, looking like a hot dude

Complaint Document Continued:

Thus, long before the Franciscans hired Krumm and Wolfe and assigned them to work at St. Anthony’s, the Franciscans knew both Perpetrators had been sexually involved with adolescent boys. Despite this knowledge the Franciscans assigned both Perpetrators to work with adolescent boys, including Craig (Plaintiff), doing nothing to stop the contact or to warn Craig.

************
Medical Exams: The Friar Tucks Up Your Scrotum
Part of the Freshman Experience at St. Anthony's Seminary, Santa Barbara
************

Case #1338070 Complaint, cont'd:

Finally, with regards to physical examinations of students, during either the 1964-65 or 1965-66 school year, the Franciscans not only authorized such examinations but authorized them by Father Mario Cimmarrusti –a man with no medical training who was one of the most prolific Franciscan perpetrators in the history of this scandal.

Cimmarrusti had expressed "concern" during a faculty meeting that some students appeared not to be developing normally, and had undescended testicles.

No Franciscan questioned how Cimmarrusti gained such knowledge.

Cimmarrusti then told the faculty, including Fr. Xavier Harris, that other signs a student was not developing normally included undeveloped sexual organs, lack of pubic hair, softness or femininity, or no changes to a student’s voice. He then proposed a program to the faculty wherein he would perform an initial assessment of freshmen students to determine if they were exhibiting any of these so called signs.

Despite the fact Cimmarrusti had no medical training, the fact the rector (who had worked at other high schools prior to St. Anthony’s) had never heard of such a program, and the fact St. Anthony’s applicants were required to submit proof of a complete physical exam by an actual physician, the St. Anthony’s Franciscan faculty, including rector Father Xavier Harris, approved this program.

At Left, Krumm and Cimmarrusti, from Google Images, from Santa Barbara News-Press

Complaint Document continued:

Even worse, they approved the program without any understanding as to how Cimmarrusti would perform these so-called "assessments." The Franciscans’ uninformed consent in this regard was especially egregious given that the initial assessment proposed by Cimmarrusti included factors which by necessity required assessing each student’s testicles and pubic hair.

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Asseessing each freshman boy's teticles and pubic hair! By a friar with no medical training, just a later proved proclivity for little boys, See Maria Cimmarrusti in the database under C at bishopaccountability
*****************

Thus, Cimmarrusti’s Franciscan-sanctioned sexual assaults of new seminarians commenced, and by at least 1966 the Franciscans began receiving reports that Cimmarrusti was sexually abusing students during these supposed examinations.

A number of future Franciscan perpetrators – including Robert Van Handel, Dave Johnson and Gus Krumm – were St. Anthony’s students while Cimmarrusti was committing his Franciscan-sanctioned assaults. At least one of them – Van Handel – continued Cimmarrusti’s tradition and was present at the start of a similar assault against Craig fifteen years after the Franciscans first approved Cimmarrusti’s supposed program.

*****************

Only changes we made in document quotes above were to break it into smaller paragraphs for graphic purposes and adding first names, when the doc references names that had been given earlier.

THIS STORY IS NOT OVER

Part 4 will be posted by the end of this week.

Part 2 is here
Part 1 is here

Background:

PROOF: Santa Barbara was Dumping Ground for problem priests. PROOF: Franciscan sex crime ploys continue in 2009
.By Kay EbelingPart One: The bishop of San Diego used the words "dumping ground" in 1950 when he complained to Rome that too many problem priests were ending up in Banning, Beaumont and other towns in the developing region. By the 1960s the Franciscans had moved 26 priests from San Diego to Santa Barbara, where

AND

Monday, November 23, 2009

New sex crime ploy of Franciscans: Only take pedophilia reports in Confession then claim religious privilege: Plus a Phoenix-Santa Barbara connection
.By Kay Ebeling

Part 2: A parishioner walks into Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Orange County saying he wants to talk about a predator priest. He tells the Franciscan Father Michael Harvey he wants to discuss Gus Krumm. The parishioner barely gets the name Krumm out of his mouth when ...

2 Reruns,
as they need clarification as

Some people think the therapy announced below is being paid for by the Church. No this money comes out of the 2006 Santa Barbara plantiffs' settlements and wise investment. Last Friday this was buried in the middle of all the Irish stories being released:

Money is available for pedophile priest crime victims who need therapy, through Therapy Trust for Victims in Santa Barbara.

Ray Higgins called from Santa Barbara to say, "We have right now enough money in Therapy Trust for Victims' fund for nine or ten more persons to get therapy, so we're getting the word out nationally."

Priest sex crime victims in Santa Barbara pooled funds after receiving settlements in 2006 and created a trust to help other pedophile priest sex crime victims get therapy. Currently because of sound money management, the fund has money available for about nine more people to get an estimated two years of therapy. Contact Ray Higgins at: Therapy Trust for Victims of Clergy Sex Abuse therapytrust@cox.net for an application.

Therapy Trust for Victims still has money because it wrote financial sanity into its founding papers. Higgins told me, "The terms of the trust say we can only invest in FDIC insured accounts, not bonds or stocks or any risk investments."

*******************

The following is from the Trust, in their own words:

There are hundreds of victims of molestation by Roman Catholic clergy that have not been able to receive any therapy from the Church and have not received a monetary settlement. A vast majority of these are in dire need of therapy but are unable to afford it. Most have been so severely affected by what happened to them that they suffer from many ailments such as low self esteem, anxiety, paranoia, relationship problems, etc.

Many were never able to put their lives together enough to finish their education and therefore are limited to low paying jobs and long periods of unemployment. Some are unable to hold down a job and have been on welfare or unemployment for so long that they are no longer considered employable.

The purpose of this trust is to provide victims the help they need so that they can lead normal lives again. Although there are many needs, the trust feels that the most pressing need and the one that has the most potential for accomplishing that purpose is to pay for therapy for as many as possible.

Recognizing that there are many other needs, we feel that the limited funds available can be put to the best use by paying for therapy for as many as possible.

Our goal is to make the application and approval process as non intrusive as possible while at the same time assuring that the funds are used to the best advantage by those who receive them. Many have approached their respective dioceses in an attempt to obtain help, only to be re-victimized.

Some dioceses have stated that they have changed their policy and will provide therapy for victims who ask for it but most of those who have been re-victimized are afraid to approach their diocese because they had such a painful experience in the past.
AND ANOTHER RERUN:

Ash Wednesday Day of Silence is For:

Survivors of violence in Catholic institutions are uniting across borders to converge on Rome and the Vatican this April 2010.

To break the silence imposed on them, and the crimes of the church. Project starts with an International Day of Silence on Ash Wednesday February 17, 2010.

Remember this date:

Ash Wednesday,
February 17, 2010

Some Canadians are organizing an international project to stop religious terrorism and bring to justice the killers of children, and the project includes a Day of Silence Ash Wednesday February 17, 2010.

"The only reason I'm still alive is because I know people care about what happened to me, and will stand beside me when I face the ones who tortured me," says Bingo, survivor of Catholic Indian Residential Schools, Vancouver, Canada

Report from Canada: Survivors of violence in Catholic institutions are uniting across borders to converge on Rome and the Vatican this April 2010 to break the silence imposed on them, and the crimes of the church.

You can be of direct moral and practical help to these courageous men and women by taking a vow of silence on February 17, 2010 in order to stand in solidarity with them and all those who are silenced by churches and governments - and offer them material support.

The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD), a network of survivors of Christian Indian Residential Schools in Canada, and their allies in Italy, Ireland and the United States, are asking people of conscience everywhere to remain silent on that day and acquire pledges for their effort.

The funds raised from these sponsors will be used to pay the travel costs of survivors of Catholic Indian residential schools who will confront the Pope and Vatican officials in Rome during April of 2010.The FRD is asking seven things of the Vatican:

1. Repatriate for a proper burial the remains of all children who died in Catholic boarding schools, churches, orphanages and other institutions.

2. Surrender those responsible for these deaths and open the Vatican archives for inspection.

3. Revoke papal laws which condone and legitimate conquest, rape and murder, including the Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Catera (1493).

4. Revoke the Vatican policy - established by the present Pope - of concealing evidence of violence against children in Catholic churches and of silencing the perpetrator and the victim.

5. Return all lands taken from indigenous people by the church.

6. Pay back to the victims all the wealth made for the church off the labor of children and others in Catholic institutions.

7. Appear before an international war crimes Tribunal to answer charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

A public vigil in memory of the children who died at the hands of the church, held outside the Vatican on October 11, has forced senior church officials to agree to meet with FRD representatives in April to discuss these demands.

Thus, your support during this crucial period leading up to April is especially needed.

Ash Wednesday is traditionally a time for repentance and transformation. Help us make this year the time when the church will actually repent from its crimes, be held accountable for mass murder, and stop violating the innocent.

Contact Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, at the address below.

contact Hidden From History by postal mail:

Kevin Annett

The Elders Council of the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared

c/o 260 Kennedy St.

Nanaimo, B.C. Canada V9R 2H8

You may also undergo the silence and then pledge your own donation to us. Make this day an important teaching moment for your friends and neighbours!Please contact us directly for how you can be of help, at 250-753-3345.

In memory of more than 50,000 children who died in Canadian Indian Residential Schools

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Read the original story: full story about the Hidden From History proect:

***************************

I'm off to work on Scream Queens Season Two, no it does not mean there will be a Saw VII. The Reality Show Scream Queens was a big success last year, even I liked it, a bigger success than the movie they were casting with the show... So they are casting "another horror film from DreamWorks" with this season of Scream Queens. You didn't hear it here first...
-ke
********************

Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign. After each post we pass the hat using Donate buttons on the left. That's how this works
-ke

Ash Wednesday 2010: an International Day of Silence

2009-11-29T06:54:00.000-08:00

.
Remember this date:

Ash Wednesday,
February 17, 2010

"The only reason I'm still alive is because I know people care about what happened to me, and will stand beside me when I face the ones who tortured me," says Bingo, survivor of Catholic Indian Residential Schools, Vancouver, Canada

Report from Canada: Survivors of violence in Catholic institutions are uniting across borders to converge on Rome and the Vatican this April 2010 to break the silence imposed on them, and the crimes of the church.

You can be of direct moral and practical help to these courageous men and women by taking a vow of silence on February 17, 2010 in order to stand in solidarity with them and all those who are silenced by churches and governments - and offer them material support.

The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD), a network of survivors of Christian Indian Residential Schools in Canada, and their allies in Italy, Ireland and the United States, are asking people of conscience everywhere to remain silent on that day and acquire pledges for their effort.

The funds raised from these sponsors will be used to pay the travel costs of survivors of Catholic Indian residential schools who will confront the Pope and Vatican officials in Rome during April of 2010.The FRD is asking seven things of the Vatican:

1. Repatriate for a proper burial the remains of all children who died in Catholic boarding schools, churches, orphanages and other institutions.

2. Surrender those responsible for these deaths and open the Vatican archives for inspection.

3. Revoke papal laws which condone and legitimate conquest, rape and murder, including the Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Catera (1493).

4. Revoke the Vatican policy - established by the present Pope - of concealing evidence of violence against children in Catholic churches and of silencing the perpetrator and the victim.

5. Return all lands taken from indigenous people by the church.

6. Pay back to the victims all the wealth made for the church off the labor of children and others in Catholic institutions.

7. Appear before an international war crimes Tribunal to answer charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

A public vigil in memory of the children who died at the hands of the church, held outside the Vatican on October 11, has forced senior church officials to agree to meet with FRD representatives in April to discuss these demands.

Thus, your support during this crucial period leading up to April is especially needed.Ash Wednesday is traditionally a time for repentance and transformation. Help us make this year the time when the church will actually repent from its crimes, be held accountable for mass murder, and stop violating the innocent.

We ask that you endorse the February 17 Day of Silence for the Silenced by agreeing to take a vow of silence on that day and seeking sponsors to pledge financial support for your efforts. To get a Pledge Form, to make a donation, contact The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, at the address below, or through the pay pal account on our website: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ .In lieu of being sponsored, you may also undergo the silence and then pledge your own donation to us. Make this day an important teaching moment for your friends and neighbours!

Or contact Hidden From History by postal mail:

Kevin Annett

The Elders Council of the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared

c/o 260 Kennedy St.

Nanaimo, B.C. Canada V9R 2H8

In memory of more than 50,000 children who died in Canadian Indian Residential Schools

Wonder how much the news will report about sex crimes in the Dublin Archdiocese next month

2009-11-29T06:22:00.000-08:00

.
It's already gone from today's US news. Not a lot of Americans likely saw the flurry of reports from Ireland around the same time as the US Thanksgiving holiday. By Sunday, the only media covering the story were in Ireland, the headlines in American media on the subject are now two days old. The Irish justice department finally released its report on the Dublin Archdiocese, and news from Ireland filled with passionate editorials and anecdotes of sex crimes against children by priests and coverup of the crimes by Church hierarchy covering decades.

Not really even News anymore, it's the same story we've seen over and over in every archdiocese in the United States. So now we know these crimes happened internationally, what is anyone going to do about it?

The Church has to face up to its crimes. For decades, pedophiles saw priests get away with serial sex crimes against children, and now perverts around the world have become empowered. It's time for the priests and bishops to get out of those dresses, roll up their sleeves, and do some real work to change and clean up their Church. How will they stop the serial felony sex crimes against children from happening again, at epidemic levels among the priests again a few decades from now, if the Church is still preoccupied with holding together their image and hiding the scandal?

Wonder how much the story of the Irish report will continue to be in the news next week. Or this time will justice finally wake up and see that the Catholic Church by its secretive nature creates an environment that allows these crimes to take place and the crimes will continue if there is no oversight. The Church has to be Forced to open its files and secret caverns so law enforcement can weed out the roots and cause of this international organized crime.

Thousands of adult victims of pedophile priests walk the Earth today, with our variety of problems. In the USA we now have an epidemic of sex crimes against children and the criminals are becoming more aggressive.

The Church sometimes responds by offering to send the victims to Therapy. The bishops are the ones who are sick perverts who didn't recognize sodomy of a six year old is wrong, not us, the crime victims. Why is the Catholic Church so reverent and faithful towards psychology as the cure for the problem? It makes a victim truly question the truth about everything that has ever come out of the church, including the story of Christ.

Nothing from the last two decades out of the church makes sense, yet, you wait. Two weeks from now there will not be one story about the Dublin Archdiocese in the papers, they've already stopped covering it in the United States. Even though everyone in the world is weighing in about it now, every non profit is posting their "response" with a number to call them for interviews, you wait, in two weeks, the media will be reacting to another news story, and the Ireland Report will evoke a big yawn.

Plus with this story about the Ireland report breaking on Thanksgiving weekend, how many US news readers even know it happened?

-Kay Ebeling

Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
IRELAND The Department of Justice
Report by Commission of Investigation into the handling by Church and State authorities of allegations and suspicions of child abuse against clerics of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.
Cover Part 1 (PDF - 161KB)
Signature Page (PDF - 111KB)
Part 1 Beginning (PDF - 39KB)
Part 1 (PDF - 161KB)
Cover Part 2 (PDF - 167KB)
Part 2 (PDF - 2.04MB)
Cover Appendices (PDF - 163KB)
Appendices (PDF - 965KB)

And the news:

Sexual abuse by priests hidden for decades, says report
IRELAND Radio France Internationale
Ireland's Catholic Church authorities are bracing for strong criticism following a report that...

Priest Bailed As Abuse Report Published
NORTHERN IRELAND 4NI
A Co Antrim priest - who has already ceased his ministry over allegations of child-sex abuse - has been arrested and then bailed by the Metropolitan Police in London. Fr Paul Symonds, a curate in the parish of Kirkinriola, Ballymena...

How the story of abuse emerged
IRELAND The Irish Times
How the story of abuse in Catholic Church institutions emerged
Ireland Timeline
1987 – Insurance taken out by dioceses around the country to cover them against allegations of clerical child sex abuse.
1987 – The Irish state publishes its first set of guidelines on child abuse.

Commission finds Church covered up child sex abuse
IRELAND The Irish Times
PATSY MCGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
The Commission of Investigation into Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese has concluded that there is “no doubt” that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the archdiocese and other Church authorities.

'Don't ask, don't tell' approach used
IRELAND The Irish Times
ELAINE EDWARDS
The pre-occupations of the Dublin Archdiocese in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the “maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection

Irish church obsessively hid child abuse: report
IRELAND Reuters
By Andras GergelyDUBLIN (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Dublin obsessively covered up widespread sexual abuse of children by priests until the mid-1990s in a misuse of the Church's central role ...

Church 'had immunity to hide abuse'
IRELAND The Press Association
The Catholic hierarchy in Ireland was granted immunity to cover up child sex abuse among paedophile priests in Dublin, a damning report has revealed.

Dublin report criticises abuse cover-up
IRELAND BBC News
A damning report into clerical child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese

Clerical sex abuse report published
IRELAND Irish Health
[Posted: Thu 26/11/2009 by Joanne McCarthy]
The Church had an ‘obsessive concern with secrecy and the avoidance of scandal’,

'A collar will protect no criminal'
IRELAND The Irish Times
MARY MINIHAN
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has warned that "a collar will protect no criminal".

FACTBOX: Roman Catholic Church sex scandals
Reuters
(Reuters) - Ireland published a report on Thursday saying
All this in one news outlet:
28/11/2009: Taoiseach shocked at abuse cover-up28/11/2009: Cowen: Murphy report is 'truly shocking and disturbing'28/11/2009: Gardaí 'should be prosecuted' for not helping abuse victims28/11/2009: Senior Church figures refuse to resign27/11/2009: Pressure mounts on senior clerics to resign27/11/2009: Gardaí to probe mishandling of abuse complaints27/11/2009: Garda Commissioner order probe after clerical abuse report27/11/2009: Bishop: 'Don't ask, don't tell' culture has gone27/11/2009: Kenny calls for resignation of Church leaders27/11/2009: Brian D'Arcy: Senior Church figures should step down27/11/2009: Children's Minister: Govt will consider more abuse inquiries27/11/2009: Bishop: Better to fund services than further abuse inquiries27/11/2009: Most Murphy-report priests still alive27/11/2009: Rape Crisis Centre: 300% spike in calls since Murphy report26/11/2009: Brady 'deeply sorry and ashamed'26/11/2009: Cardinal asks for abuse victims' forgiveness26/11/2009: President 'dismayed' by Church cover-up of abuse26/11/2009: Abuse survivors want senior clergy and gardaí prosecuted26/11/2009: Abuse 'is and always was' a crime: Archbishop Martin26/11/2009: Garda failed to investigate priest's child-porn photography26/11/2009: One in Four calls for prosecutions to follow sex-abuse report26/11/2009: 'Don't ask, don't tell' attitude at work in Archdiocese, report finds26/11/2009: Garda Commissioner 'deeply sorry' for abuse-cases failings26/11/2009: Gardaí gave paedophile priests impunity26/11/2009: Litany of abuse eroding trust of faithful26/11/2009: Govt: Paedophile priests won't escape justice26/11/2009: Amnesty: Govt must set date for children’s rights referendum26/11/2009: Ahern: A collar will protect no criminal26/11/2009: Report: Church had immunity to conceal sex abuse26/11/2009: Clerical abuse report 'will be published in full'26/11/2009: Rape Crisis Centre busy taking calls prior to report26/11/2009: Report: Archbishops didn't pass on abuse claims to gardaí

Money for therapy: victims of pedophile priests can apply to Santa Barbara trust

2009-11-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

.
Money is available for pedophile priest crime victims who need therapy, through Therapy Trust for Victims in Santa Barbara.

Ray Higgins called from Santa Barbara to say, "We have right now enough money in Therapy Trust for Victims' fund for nine or ten more persons to get therapy, so we're getting the word out nationally."

Priest sex crime victims in Santa Barbara pooled funds after receiving settlements in 2006 and created a trust to help other pedophile priest sex crime victims get therapy. Currently because of sound money management, the fund has money available for about nine more people to get an estimated two years of therapy. Contact Ray Higgins at: Therapy Trust for Victims of Clergy Sex Abuse therapytrust@cox.net for an application.

Higgins sat on the Board of Inquiry that produced the 1993 Report that first opened the doors to the depth and breadth of pedophilia inbred in Catholic systems.

Therapy Trust for Victims still has money because it wrote financial sanity into its founding papers. Higgins told me, "The terms of the trust say we can only invest in FDIC insured accounts, not bonds or stocks or any risk investments."

*******************
The following is from the Trust, in their own words:

There are hundreds of victims of molestation by Roman Catholic clergy that have not been able to receive any therapy from the Church and have not received a monetary settlement. A vast majority of these are in dire need of therapy but are unable to afford it. Most have been so severely affected by what happened to them that they suffer from many ailments such as low self esteem, anxiety, paranoia, relationship problems, etc.

Many were never able to put their lives together enough to finish their education and therefore are limited to low paying jobs and long periods of unemployment. Some are unable to hold down a job and have been on welfare or unemployment for so long that they are no longer considered employable.

The purpose of this trust is to provide victims the help they need so that they can lead normal lives again. Although there are many needs, the trust feels that the most pressing need and the one that has the most potential for accomplishing that purpose is to pay for therapy for as many as possible. Recognizing that there are many other needs, we feel that the limited funds available can be put to the best use by paying for therapy for as many as possible.

Our goal is to make the application and approval process as non intrusive as possible while at the same time assuring that the funds are used to the best advantage by those who receive them. Many have approached their respective dioceses in an attempt to obtain help, only to be re-victimized.

Some dioceses have stated that they have changed their policy and will provide therapy for victims who ask for it but most of those who have been re-victimized are afraid to approach their diocese because they had such a painful experience in the past.
**************
Watch for Part 3 of the Santa Barbara series soon after Thanksgiving weekend ...
**************

Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign. After each post we pass the hat using Donate buttons on the left. That's how this works

-ke

2009-11-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

Waiting for Turkey to Cook, found these:

Gus Krumm, still listed as Addiction Specialist:

Gus Robert Krumm
Sacramento, California
Registration / Certification Number:RI-K0509301006
Initial Registration / Certification Date: Sep 30, 2005
Current Status:Active
Renewal Date :Sep 30, 2011
(Per Breining Institute Under G for Gus )

Gus Krumm In Orange County
"Catholics have also heard erroneous teaching from the priests at Sts. Simon & Jude, from the pulpit and in the bulletin... I personally witnessed Fr. Gus Krumm, O.F.M. throw an unconsecrated, large host on the floor during one of his homilies for shock value and to prove a point. I saw another priest put a bag of garbage on the altar during his homily for shock value and to prove a point. The Nicene Creed was frequently omitted, and when I asked Fr. Gus Krumm why this happened, he told me that if you eat corn flakes for breakfast every day, it gets old and stale real fast."
From Roman Catholic Blog

&&&&&

Gus Krumm in Portland, Oregon
"Even Franciscan Father Gus Krumm felt it when he arrived. 'The people welcomed me with open arms three years ago,' he says. 'Since then, I've really felt fortunate to be here. It's a parish of faith and love. Sister Hail says the parish is well served by Father Krumm and the other Franciscan priests and brothers here. 'Father Gus is wonderful and outgoing,' she says. 'He does right by his people. And Father Chuck - such a spiritual man; wonderful homilies.'" From Catholic Sentinel

&&&&&

City of Angels did a damn good job covering St. Anthony's in September 2008, although I had to go back and read it a year later, all over again, to remember what I said...:

Monday, September 22, 2008
When 24 pedophile priests from one town rape 60 children, it is a Public Nuisance. SOL Breakthrough suit filed against Franciscans in Santa Barbara
By Kay Ebeling
Since 1964, the Franciscan Friars of Santa Barbara have produced 24 pedophiles, resulting in 60* settled lawsuits, likely hundreds more victims. “This is a city of a hundred thousand people, and the Franciscans still have perpetrators hidden here,” said Tim Hale, who with his partners, obtained $28 million in the late 1990s, for victims of serial (Click headline "When 24..." to read the rest)

*Note: The number of victims from Santa Barbara molested by Franciscans is now 62.

**************

Oh and another note, after seeing the performance of WikiLeaks yesterday, remember , City of Angels is here all the time for anyone inside the Church who wants to leak documents, without the paragraphs redacted.

Money available for pedophile priest crime victims who need therapy, through Therapy Trust for Victims in Santa Barbara.

Ray Higgins called from Santa Barbara. "We've got now enough for nine or ten more people can get therapy."

Victims in Santa Barbara pooled funds after receiving settlements in 2006 and currently have money available for nine people to get about two years of therapy. Contact Ray Higgins at: Therapy Trust for Victims of Clergy Sex Abuse therapytrust@cox.net for an application.

Higgins sat on the Board of Inquiry that produced the 1993 Report that first opened the doors to the depth and bredth of pedophilia inbred in Catholic systems.

Therapy Trust for Victims still has money because it wrote financial sanity into its founding papers. Higgins told me, "The terms of the trust say we can only invest in FDIC insured accounts, not bonds or stocks or any risk investments."

More in an upcoming post about the Trust.

**************
Watch for Part 3 of the Santa Barbara series soon after Thanksgiving...
**************

Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign. After each post we pass the hat using Donate buttons on the left. That's how this works

-ke

New sex crime ploy of Franciscans: Only take pedophilia reports in Confession then claim religious privilege: Plus a Phoenix-Santa Barbara connection

2009-11-23T14:53:00.001-08:00

.
By Kay Ebeling

( UPDATE November 25: Happy Thanksgiving, readers. I give my brain a break and stay off topic on holidays, watch for new posts, more ground breaking new revelations, after the weekend. I'm going to start eating all this great stuff my daughter is cooking up... - happy thanksgiving - ke )

Part 2: A parishioner walks into Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in Orange County saying he wants to talk about a predator priest. He tells the Franciscan Father Michael Harvey he wants to discuss Gus Krumm. The parishioner barely gets the name Krumm out of his mouth when Father Harvey ushers him into the Confessional to continue the conversation. Harvey’s response "was immediate and premeditated," reads the opening paragraphs of First Amended Complaints in Cases 1337577 and 1338070 filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court, Oct. 5 and Nov. 3, 2009.

"Before the parishioner could say anything further about Krumm, Harvey insisted that any discussion regarding Krumm be in the context of the confessional, thus rendering the communication penitential," read 1st Amended Complaints in the two civil lawsuits.

When I first read these briefs, even I could not believe the crimes alleged in the lawsuits, they are so shocking. So I asked Tim Hale, the Santa Barbara attorney who authored the briefs, how he came up with the details in these cases. "Everything alleged in the amended complaints is supported by admissible evidence assembled from investigation and discovery conducted during the last eleven years of litigation involving the Franciscans," emailed Tim Hale of Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale Santa Barbara in reply.

In Part 2 today, we are running direct quotes from both complaints about 1st Amendment manipulation by the Franciscans, ever exploiting America's belief if religious freedom. Part 3 of this story is so sordid, even a little repulsive, that City of Angels will wait until after the "Thanksgiving" holiday in the USA to publish it.

What will be in Part 3? Well, to those of you who heard rumors about man-boy group sex forced on high school boys at St. Anthony's Seminary in Santa Barbara, and about the cases of crabs, the rumors are shown to be true, detailed to some extent in documents for Cases: 1337577 and 1338070, in Santa Barbara Superior Court, Anacapa Division.

So we'll let our readers digest their turkey dinner and produce extra anti-stress hormones, before we post the details from these Santa Barbara lawsuits that involve medical exams of private parts conducted by Franciscan brothers who have no medical training.

Yes, the rumors that the friars liked to play doctor with teenage studetns at St. Anthony's are also apparently true, but we are not even going to go there until after Thanksgiving.

******************
The rest of this post is direct quotes, from Complaints in Cases #1337577 and #1338070 filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court, Anacapa Division, in recent weeks.

Me, I gotta get back to work on Scream Queens Season 2, will be working all through the Thanksgiving holiday, and for that I give thanks.

*****************
DIRECT QUOTES FROM CASES #1337577 and 1338070, Santa Barbara Superior Court, Anacapa Division:

9.1 Even worse, the Franciscans now are exploiting the religious freedoms protection provided by the First Amendment in order to avoid their obligations as mandatory reporters under Penal Code section 11166.

In July of 2009 a former parishioner at the Franciscan parish in Orange County, St. Simon and Jude, reported the Franciscans’ latest child-endangering ploy. That parishioner met with Franciscan Father Michael Harvey at his parish in 2008.

When the parishioner stated he wished to discuss notorious Franciscan perpetrator Father Gus Krumm, Father Harvey’s response was immediate and premeditated: before the parishioner could say anything further about Krumm, Harvey insisted that any discussion regarding Krumm be in the context of the confessional, thus rendering the communication penitential.

*************
Under California Penal Code section 11166(c)(1), clergy do not have to notify law enforcement of childhood sexual abuse if they learned about it in a penitential communication.
*************

Direct quotes from Complaints continue:

Under Penal Code section 11166(c)(1), clergy can avoid their obligations to notify law enforcement of reports of childhood sexual abuse if their knowledge or suspicion is acquired in the context of a penitential communication.

Thus, by insisting the parishioner make any disclosure regarding Krumm as a penitential communication, Father Harvey insured he would have no reporting obligation under section 11166 in the event of a report of childhood sexual abuse.

The legislature could not have intended section 11166(c) to be used as a shield by entities that protect perpetrators of childhood sexual abuse, but that is exactly what Father Harvey and the Franciscans have accomplished by insisting that any reports of misconduct by Franciscans be made in the context of penitential communications.

In so doing the Franciscans have turned the Constitution on its head, using First Amendment protections to shield Franciscan perpetrators from law enforcement and to make the world a much more dangerous place for children.

**********
The Franciscans have turned the Constitution on its head
**********

Direct Quotes from the Complaint briefs

As a result of such efforts by the Franciscans to protect their predatory members, very few of these men have been prosecuted, convicted, and forced to register as sex offenders. Thus, the Franciscans have successfully concealed the identities of an unknown number of Franciscan perpetrators.

As evidenced by their efforts to escape their reporting obligations, by the recent victims in the Ladenburger case, and by the continuing pattern of deceit evidenced by the Franciscans’ conduct towards a female plaintiff, the clergy-abuse crisis has not been abated by the 2006 Franciscan litigation.

To the contrary, it is business as usual at Franciscan corporate headquarters. For this reason, the legal system cannot sit back and wait for current or former Franciscan perpetrators such as Ladenburger to reveal themselves through new victims.

The ongoing lies, deceit, and concealment by the Franciscans mandate proactive efforts to save today’s children from new abuse like that suffered by Ladenburger’s recent victims.

***********
Ongoing lies, deceit, and concealment
***********

Direct Quotes from the Complaint Briefs:

The public needs to know where Br. Sam Cabot is currently working, particularly when he is less than half a mile away from an elementary school. They need to know about the abuse committed by Br. Matteo, and where he is currently assigned or in residence. They need to know about Fr. Mel Bucher’s history of abuse, particularly where he is allowed to conduct or have access to retreats for adolescents.

And they need to know about every other current or former Franciscan who, like Ladenburger until he was caught sexually abusing more children in 2007, have been accused of childhood sexual abuse but have not yet been identified.

It is an abomination that of the twenty-seven (27) Franciscan perpetrators who have lived in Santa Barbara since 1936, only two have been criminally prosecuted in Santa Barbara County. The sad reality is the criminal courts’ hands have been tied by the Franciscans’ successful efforts to conceal Franciscan criminal acts until the applicable statutes of limitation have expired.

************
Out of 27 perpetrators, only 2 have been prosecuted
************

Direct quotes from Complaints continue:

As a result, absent immediate action by the civil courts, today’s children will continue to be victimized by Franciscan perpetrators throughout the Western United States at the numerous locations where the Franciscans of the Province of St. Barbara conduct their business.

Pursuant to the compelling state interest in preventing acts of future childhood sexual abuse, the Franciscans must be ordered to disclose immediately the identities, histories of abuse, and last known locations of all current and former Franciscans accused of childhood sexual abuse while they were members of the order. They also must be ordered not to insist that reports of misconduct by Franciscans be made only in the context of a penitential communication.

*****
THEN IN ADDITION

The Phoenix Connection

IN CASE #1337577

A victim trusts David O'Brien who later becomes Bishop of Phoenix

(Direct quote from First Amended Complaint #1337577:)

When Plaintiff returned home to Phoenix once school ended. he reported the abuse (at St. Anthony's SB) to the pastor at his home parish, Father Thomas O’Brien, a priest who would go on to become the Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix.

Plaintiff described the assault by Brother Dave Johnson and another assault by Franciscan Brother Gus Krumm. Plaintiff also showed O’Brien photographs of Krumm and Johnson from his yearbook.

O’Brien in turn asked to hold on to the yearbook until they met again, telling plaintiff to return 2 or 3 days later.

Unfortunately Plaintiff had placed his faith and hope in a man who ultimately would be proven to be a complete ethical and moral failure both as a priest and as a human being.

**********
Give me the pictures, sonny, and I'll talk to you in a couple days. Little did the boy know
**********

Direct quotes from 1st Amended Complaint in Case #1337577 SB continue:

O’Brien would later admit – in exchange for immunity from prosecution for his actions – that beginning at least as early as 1979 and throughout his 22-year career as a bishop he repeatedly placed children at risk to be sexually abused by transferring known perpetrator priests to new parishes without any warning to the parish or the community.

Further evidence of O’Brien’s moral depravity came within weeks of this agreement on June 16, 2003, when O’Brien was arrested and later convicted of felony hit and run after the vehicle he was driving struck and killed a six-foot tall, 235 lb. man. Despite the size of the victim and the fact the impact had caved in O’Brien’s windshield, O’Brien claimed he thought someone had thrown a rock at his car, or that he had struck an animal.

The grand jury investigation that led to O’Brien’s admissions in exchange for immunity revealed that in 1979 O’Brien had received reports of the abuse of a ten year-old boy by another priest, and that instead of reporting the priest to law enforcement or warning parents, O’Brien transferred him to another parish where he continued to abuse children.

********
More on the Santa Barbara Cases after thanksgiving, me I'm going to find a bar...
***************

POST SCRIPTS:

On November 16, 2009, Cardinal Francis George told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Baltimore.

"There are others who would keep the bishops permanently imprisoned in the clerical sexual abuse scandal of recent years. The proper response to a crisis of governance, however, is not no governance but effective governance. (Huh? What does that mean? )

George went on:

"The clerical ranks have been purged of priests and bishops known to have abused children, (Whatever the sins of those abusers, they) "cannot be allowed to discredit the truth of Catholic teaching."

THEN
On November 18, 2009
Lee Podles, author and Bishop Accountability board member, wrote:

"The bishops say they have changed, but the bishops also assured us there was no problem to begin with. I do not believe any fact that a bishop asserts until I have verified it."

& Another
POST SCRIPT

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. A retired priest pleaded not guilty Nov. 5, 2009, to charges that he molested a young boy at a Costa Mesa church more than 17 years ago.

Denis Lyons, 75, of Seal Beach, who is free on $100,000 bail, was arrested last October at his Leisure World home and accused of molesting the boy when he was a second and third grade student at St. John the Baptist Catholic School between 1992 and 1995.

Lyons, who was removed from ministry in 2002, was a priest at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church during those years.

He faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted of four felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, plus a sentencing enhancement that he committed substantial sexual conduct.

(On video of DA it says Lyons masturbated the boy twice in the rectory and twice in the sacristy of that church in Costa Mesa.)

**************
POST SCRIPT 3
Balanced Justice:

60-year sentence for man who molested boys

November 13, 2009 (WAUKEGAN, Ill.) (WLS) -- A suburban man accused of running a sex club for boys out of his home has learned how much he will pay for his crimes. A judge sentenced Michael Rebecca to 60 years in prison Friday. Rebecca admitted to more than 200 incidents with boys between the ages of 11 and 16. He was convicted on 20 counts of sexual assault back in September. The incidents took place at Rebecca's Vernon Hills home. Prior to Friday's sentencing, Rebecca and the judge heard from one of the victims.

The Lake County judge called Michael Rebecca a parent's worst nightmare, a predator who started with the son of a close friend of his, and then used that boy to lure more victims.

MEANWHILE:

Ex Chicago area priest Fred Lenczycki only got 5 years for abusing boys over a 30 year period, served 2-1/2. Lenczycki was then held briefly briefly as sexually dangerous and currently lives in River Forest, Illinois.

******************

EXTRA!! EXTRA!!

Money available for pedophile priest crime victims who need therapy, through Therapy Trust for Victims in Santa Barbara.

Ray Higgins called from Santa Barbara. "We've got now enough for nine or ten more people can get therapy."

Victims in Santa Barbara pooled funds after receiving settlements in 2006 and currently have money available for nine people to get about two years of therapy. Contact Ray Higgins at: Therapy Trust for Victims of Clergy Sex Abuse therapytrust@cox.net for an application.

Higgins sat on the Board of Inquiry that produced the 1993 Report that first opened the doors to the depth and bredth of pedophilia inbred in Catholic systems.

Therapy Trust for Victims still has money because it wrote financial sanity into its founding papers. Higgins told me, "The terms of the trust say we can only invest in FDIC insured accounts, not bonds or stocks or any risk investments."

More in an upcoming post about the Trust.

**************
Watch for Part 3 of the Santa Barbara series soon after Thanksgiving...
**************

Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign. After each post we pass the hat using Donate buttons on the left. That's how this works

-ke

PROOF: Santa Barbara was Dumping Ground for problem priests. PROOF: Franciscan sex crime ploys continue in 2009

2009-11-20T09:10:00.000-08:00

.
By Kay Ebeling

Part One: The bishop of San Diego used the words "dumping ground" in 1950 when he complained to Rome that too many problem priests were ending up in Banning, Beaumont and other towns in the developing region. By the 1960s the Franciscans had moved 26 priests from San Diego to Santa Barbara, where they then raped more than 60 children. The letter to Rev. James T. Booth in Rome April 26, 1950, is Exhibit A attached to two new lawsuits filed Nov. 3, 2009, in Santa Barbara Superior Court.

Franciscan pedophiles removed from the priesthood in past years, are now showing up as therapists and teachers - Working with Teenagers, Living near Children - in towns around the Northwestern United States, because the Francicans continue to hide the crimes of their pedophile priests, other evidence in the Complaints shows.

There are so many new charges, so much new evidence, new stories about old pedophile priests and old stories about new ones in the pages of these two new lawsuits filed November 3 in Santa Barbara that City of Angels has to break our reporting into several different parts.

The letter from the Bishop of San Diego reads:

"During the thirteen years since this Diocese was erected, to my own personal knowledge, the Saint Barbara Province of the Franciscan Fathers has used this Diocese as a dumping ground for their moral, mental and physical problems. It became necessary for me some time ago to demand the withdrawal of one misfit after another. (From Exhibit A, attached as evidence to two new lawsuits filed November 3, 2009 in Santa Barbara Superior Court.)

The Complaint then says the Bishop was frustrated with the Franciscans and began applying to religious bodies in Rome to evict the problem Franciscan Friars from parishes in the Diocese of San Diego.

"It would appear the Bishop eventually succeeded," read the Complaints, "and sometime in the 1950s the Franciscans made Santa Barbara their new dumping ground for Franciscan perpetrators.”

Watch this weekend for parts 2, 3, 4, and whatever it takes to tell this story.

The legal briefs read like literature, so here are paragraphs, City of Angels copy-and-pasted from Paragraphs of two First Complaints, written by Tim Hale of the Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale lawfirm in Santa Barbara.

“Franciscan perpetrators have been sexually assaulting children in Santa Barbara since at least 1936. During this time at least forty-four (44) pedophilic and/or ephebophilic Roman Catholic priests or religious brothers have been assigned to work at and were living at and/or visiting various locations around Santa Barbara County.”

Beginning in the late 1950s the Franciscans began sending the first of at least twenty-six (26) Franciscan perpetrators to Santa Barbara following their expulsion from the San Diego Diocese. Those perpetrators are identified below in the decades they first appeared and continued to reside in or visit Santa Barbara based on information known to date:

26 Pedophile Priests Transferred From San Diego to Santa Barbara:

1 - Fr. Owen Da Silva (1930s)
2 - Brother Berard Connolly (1940s, 1980s - 1990s)
3 - Fr. Martin McKeon (1950s - 1960s)
4 - Fr. Edward Henriques (1960s)
5 - Fr. Mario Cimmarrusti (1960s - 1970s)
6 - Fr. Mel Bucher (1960s)
7 - Fr. Forrest McDonald (1960s - 1970s)
8 - Br. Kevin Dunne (1960s - 1970s)
9 - Br. Sam Cabot (1960s-1980s)
10 - Fr. Edmund Austin (1970s)
11 - Fr. Gus Krumm (1970s - 1980s)
12 - Fr. Paul Conn (1970s - 1980s)
13 - Fr. Dave Johnson (1970s - 1980s)
14 - Fr. Joseph Prochnow (1970s - 1980s)
15 - Br. Matteo Guerrero (1970s, 1990s - 2000s)
16 - Fr. Robert Van Handel (1970s -1990s)
17 - Fr. David Carriere (1970s - 2000s)
18 - Fr. Steve Kain (1980s)
19 - Fr. Philip Wolfe (1980s)
20 - Pre-novitiate candidate Ed Byrom (1980s)
21 - Pre-novitiate candidate Tom Thing (1980s)
22 - Fr. Chris Berbena (1980s)
23 - Fr. Remy Rudin (1980s - 1990s)
24 - Br. Gerald Chumik (2000s)
25 - Pedro Vasquez (2000s)
26 - Fr. Claude Riffel (1941-44, 1975-76)"

***************************

First Complaints Read Like Literature

(Both First Complaints contain the paragraphs below, which as a Blogger, I love, as I don't have to do anything but cut and paste, they are written so well.)

By the 1960s if not sooner these corrupt seeds planted by the Franciscans began bearing poisonous fruit as Franciscan perpetrators abused Santa Barbara children at a horrifying rate.

At least eighty-five (85) children have been sexually abused in Santa Barbara by Roman Catholic priests or religious brothers since 1936. Sixty-two (62) of those children were abused by Franciscan priests or religious brothers since 1960.

The confirmed number of victims and Franciscan perpetrators grows each year.

The consequences of the Franciscans’ continuing corporate practices with regards to Franciscan perpetrators have been disastrous both for local children, and for a society that continues to bear the financial burden of the psychological fallout for abuse survivors.

*****************
If the Church does not handle the pedophile priest problem, U.S. taxpayers end up paying for damages.
*******************************

NOV 3 COMPLAINT QUOTES CONT'D:

Abuse survivors often engage in addictive, self-destructive, and, unfortunately, sometimes criminal behavior as they deal with the psychological scars caused by childhood sexual abuse.

These behaviors in turn result in things such as divorce proceedings on court calendars, substance abuse, arrests, and incarcerations, all of which are paid for by the common taxpayer rather than by the truly culpable but tax-exempt organizations that protected the perpetrators.

The evidence of the Franciscans’ culpability in this regard is overwhelming.

Time and again the Franciscans have had the opportunity to end the cycle of abuse by reporting perpetrators to law enforcement, and by warning the general public when a Franciscan has been accused of sexually assaulting a child. Since at least 1964 the Franciscans have been concealing these crimes and shielding their criminal members from discovery.

Sadly, even with the global settlement of the 2003-2006 litigation, the Franciscans have not changed their ways. The following are examples only of some of the most recent known Franciscan conduct placing today’s children at risk. These examples illustrate the Franciscans’ conduct remains a present day threat to children wherever the Franciscans conduct their business:

*******************
Franciscan 'Did Not Think It Appropriate' to Tell Parishioners New Priest is Admitted Pedophile
************************

In July of 2003, the Franciscans assigned an admitted perpetrator – Father Gus Krumm – to a Sacramento parish next door to a school without any warning to the community. One Franciscan priest readily admitted he was aware of Father Krumm’s prior abuses but did not think it was appropriate to share such information with parishioners.

Despite the fact the Franciscans claimed Father Krumm was forbidden contact with young children, he did in fact have direct contact with young children while at this assignment.

*******************
In Arizona, didn't notify parishioiners new priest was a pedophile. 'Probably should have.'
******************************

In January 2004 it was revealed that the Franciscans had assigned perpetrator Brother Kevin Dunne to a Franciscan-run parish in Phoenix, St. Mary’s Basilica. The Franciscans warned neither the parishioners nor the community of the risk Dunne posed, and the Phoenix community had no means of identifying Dunne as a perpetrator as – thanks to the Franciscans never having reported Dunne’s crimes to law enforcement – he had never been prosecuted and is not a registered sex offender.

Thus, the fact Dunne had raped at least one St. Anthony’s student, and the fact the Franciscans had settled a claim made by that student, was known only to the Franciscans. The parish manager stated the Franciscans had never advised him of Dunne’s criminal conduct, and that "they probably should have."

*******************
Dallas Morning News Forces Franciscans to Admit Priest a Pedophile
******************************

In July 2004 the Franciscans admitted – albeit only after a reporter from the Dallas Morning News made the facts public – that yet another predator had been calling the Old Mission Santa Barbara home for over two years. Specifically, in the early to mid-1970's Franciscan Brother Gerald Chumik assaulted at least one victim in Canada. Canadian authorities attempted to prosecute Brother Chumik in the 1990s, but Chumik fled to the United States.

The Franciscans successfully and secretly harbored Brother Chumik, a fugitive from justice, behind the walls of the Mission for over two years. The Franciscans provided no warning to the public, much less to neighboring schools, of the threat Brother Chumik posed until the Dallas Morning News published the truth about Chumik.

**************
Continuing to hide pedophiles at Old Santa Barbara Mission
**************************

In July 2005, the Franciscan Vicar Provincial, Brother Tom West, admitted Mission resident, Franciscan Pedro Vasquez, had been accused of sexually assaulting a person West described as a "young man."

The Franciscans had allowed Vasquez to live at the Mission for three years without any warning to the community, and admitted to this fact in July of 2005 only when they knew its publication was inevitable.

*************
2001: Father Kain Abuses Again, Gets Moved to San Francisco
***********************

In 2005, the former rector of St. Anthony’s, Father Xavier Harris, testified that while he was assigned at St. Williams in Los Altos in 2001, a well-known Franciscan perpetrator, Father Steve Kain, assisted there as well.

Father Harris did not warn any of the parishioners of Father Kain’s propensities, nor, to his knowledge, did any other Franciscans warn any parishioners about Father Kain.

With no shortage of victims who were unaware of the risk he posed, Father Kain abused again. Father Harris testified that Father Kain was then forced to stop assisting at St. Williams due to the abuse allegations, and was transferred to St. Boniface in San Francisco.

Once again, Father Harris testified he had no knowledge of any warnings to parishioners at St. Boniface regarding Father Kain’s propensities.

************
No One Knows Where Father Mateo Guererro Goes
**********************

In late 2006 a victim spoke with Father Virgil Cordano at the Mission and informed Cordano he had been raped in 1976 by a Franciscan religious brother, Brother Mateo Guererro.

Cordano did not act surprised at this information, admitted there had been other complaints against Mateo, and admitted that Mateo had been transferred as a result. To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Mateo who have not come forward, no steps to notify the communities in which Mateo has been assigned over the course of his career as a Franciscan, and no steps to warn the current community where Mateo is assigned.

***************
Perpetrator Punishment: Become Manager of Retreat Center for School-Aged Children. Pedophile priest still at San Luis Rey in 2008.
***********************

From approximately 1994 to at least 2008 the Franciscans assigned another admitted perpetrator – Fr. Mel Bucher – to Old Mission San Luis Rey. Fr. Bucher sexually assaulted at least one adolescent boy in Oregon in the early 1970s. Despite this admission, the Franciscans allowed Fr. Bucher to manage the Mission San Luis Rey retreat center.

The retreat center conducts retreats for, among others, high school-aged children, including overnight retreats for students from, among other locations, Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.

At least one current Franciscan and former Mater Dei faculty member has stated he would not discuss the allegations of abuse by Fr. Bucher with Mater Dei faculty or administrators because he does not "see any purpose being served in that."

The Franciscans have never warned the families of these students of Fr. Bucher’s history of abuse.

*****************
Now Oregon Seems to Be New Dumping Ground for Predator Pedophile Priests in the Franciscans.
******************************

In February 2009, Father Claude Riffel was accused of sexually assaulting a boy at another Franciscan seminary, St. Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale, Oregon, in the early 1960s. Riffel was dean of discipline for the school when he would call the teenager out of class on the pretext of assigning work and then abuse him.

To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, and no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Riffel who have not come forward. The Franciscans also have taken no steps to notify the communities in which Riffel has been assigned during his career as a Franciscan, including but not limited to the Santa Barbara community where from approximately 1941-44, and again from 1975-76, Riffel was assigned to St. Anthony’s and worked with boys the same age as those he is accused of abusing at the seminary in Oregon.

*****************
Pedophilia among the priests keeps going on and on, because the Church has changed nothing within, where the problem germinated and festered for decades.
**************************

In June 2009 Franciscan Father Alexander Manville was accused of the sexual abuse of an approximately eight-year-old boy in 1992-93. To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, and no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Manville who have not come forward.

The Franciscans also have taken no steps to notify the communities in which Manville has been assigned over the course of his career as a Franciscan, including but not limited to the Santa Barbara community where for approximately thirteen years, from 1960-73, Manville served on the faculty at Bishop Diego High School.

(Quotes from First Complaints filed November 3, 2009, in Santa Barbara Superior Court, continued:)

Such action and inaction by the Franciscans has and will continue to produce disastrous results, as evidenced by the case of Fr. Louis Ladenburger. Ladenburger left the priesthood and the Franciscan order in 1996. However, early in his career as a Franciscan Ladenburger was treated for what former St. Anthony’s rector and Franciscan Provincial Minister, Mel Jurisich, has described only as "inappropriate professional behavior and relationships."

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New Euphemism for pedophile priests' crimes: "Inappropriate Professional Behavior and Relationships."
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Such vague terms are standard procedure for the Franciscans when describing acts of childhood sexual abuse by their priests and religious brothers.

After sending Ladenburger for treatment for his criminal conduct twice in the 1980s, the Franciscans allowed him to continue to work as a priest, including working at high schools. After another psychological review in 1993 the Franciscans were sufficiently concerned to restrict Ladenburger’s ministry.

However, at no time did the Franciscans report Ladenburger’s criminal acts to law enforcement. At no time did the Franciscans warn any families or communities where Ladenburger had worked or was working as a priest.

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Ladenburger accused in 1980s, arrested in 2007. How many more kids was he able to rape in those 27 years?
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As a result, when he left the priesthood nearly twenty-years after the Franciscans first learned of and began to conceal the risk he posed to children, Ladenburger had never been convicted of a sex crime, was not a registered sex offender, and only the Franciscans were aware of his pedophilic propensities. An unknown number of children have been sexually assaulted by Ladenburger as a result.

In May of 2007 Ladenburger was arrested for sexually assaulting several children in Idaho.

When first contacted shortly after Ladenburger’s arrest the Franciscans denied having any record of past abuses by Ladenburger. After this initial denial, Fr. Jurisich finally admitted to Ladenburger’s sordid history, and the Franciscans’ knowledge since the 1980s of the risk he posed to children. Ladenburger has since pleaded guilty to lewd conduct with two boarding school students, and on March 24, 2008, was sentenced to five years in prison.

The sentencing judge, the Honorable John Luster, found Ladenburger’s conduct so severe that he rejected a joint request by the prosecution and the defense of a suspended sentence. Ladenburger has admitted he is a sex addict.

These latest victims are further evidence of the continuing threat to all children posed by the Franciscans’ refusal to warn the public of their current and former members who have been accused of sexual abuse.

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The Story Is Not Over
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(More Quotes Copy and Pasted Directly from First Complaints filed Nov. 3 in Santa Barbara Superior Court:)

Four months after the Franciscans first denied then admitted they knew about the threat posed by Ladenburger, they were at it again. One would hope that after decades of Franciscan sexual abuse and cover-ups, at some point – perhaps, for instance, now that the number of confirmed Santa Barbara victims of Franciscan childhood sexual abuse has risen to sixty-three (63) – the Franciscan hierarchy would finally reconsider the corporation’s horribly flawed strategy of lying about and refusing to identify Franciscan priests and brothers accused of sexual abuse.

One would hope that after seeing today’s children continuing to be victimized as a result of this failed corporate strategy they would finally recognize that for the sake of both past and future victims, it was time to tell the truth.

Tragically, the Franciscans’ ongoing efforts to protect their pedophilic members, and to protect the corporation’s financial interests, establish a continuing pattern of conduct causing new harm to today’s children, new trauma to adult survivors of Franciscan childhood sexual abuse, and causing the continuing financial burden to a society paying for the resulting psychological fallout.

The Franciscans have learned nothing from the sad events involving Ladenburger, much less from their sordid history. Instead, they continue to re-victimize survivors of Franciscan sexual abuse, to create new victims, and to increase the resulting financial burden on society, by continuing to lie, conceal and cover-up the identities of Franciscans who pose a risk to children.

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Part Two Coming In a Matter of Moments, Hours, or Days, depending on how much work I have to do for the reality TV shows I work for - ke
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stay tooned

Exploiting 1st Amendment, Franciscans force parishioners to report pedophilia in Confessional, to keep it secret, as recently as 2008

2009-11-18T18:48:00.000-08:00

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UPDATE: Thursday afternoon: Still swamped at work, will get this story out as soon as possible, stay tooned...

(Wednesday: Sorry for one post after another but I can't sit on this information overnight, it is too alarming, more from complaint filed Nov. 3 in Santa Barbara:)

The Franciscans now are exploiting the Religious Freedoms Protection of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in order to avoid their obligations as mandatory reporters under Penal Code section 11166.

"A parishioner met with Franciscan Father Michael Harvey at his parish in 2008. When the parishioner stated he wished to discuss notorious Franciscan perpetrator Father Gus Krumm, Father Harvey’s response was immediate and premeditated:

Before the parishioner could say anything further about Krumm, Harvey insisted that any discussion regarding Krumm be in the context of the confessional, thus rendering the communication penitential.

(From the words of a former parishioner at the Franciscan parish in Orange County, California, St. Simon and Jude, July 2009.)

So Franciscans Can Avoid Ever Testifying By Making All Talk of Pedophile Priests Part of the Sacrament of Confession, So Religious, Private, Secret

Under Penal Code section 11166(c)(1), clergy can avoid their obligations to notify law enforcement of reports of childhood sexual abuse if their knowledge or suspicion is acquired in the context of a penitential communication.

Thus, by insisting the parishioner make any disclosure regarding Krumm as a penitential communication, Father Harvey insured he would have no reporting obligation under section 11166 in the event of a report of childhood sexual abuse.

The legislature could not have intended section 11166(c) to be used as a shield by entities that protect perpetrators of childhood sexual abuse, but that is exactly what Father Harvey and the Franciscans have accomplished by insisting that any reports of misconduct by Franciscans be made in the context of penitential communications.

The U.S. Constitution Turned On Its Head

The Franciscans have turned the Constitution on its head, using First Amendment protections to shield Franciscan perpetrators from law enforcement and to make the world a much more dangerous place for children.

As a result of such efforts by the Franciscans efforts to protect their predatory members, very few of these men have been prosecuted, convicted, and forced to register as sex offenders. Thus, the Franciscans have successfully concealed the identities of an unknown number of Franciscan perpetrators.

Full in depth report this by weekend maybe sooner here at City of Angels Blog.

ke

New charges re Franciscan pedophiles in 2 lawsuits filed Nov. 3 in Santa Barbara

2009-11-18T18:25:00.000-08:00

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PREVIEW: Watch City of Angels late Thursday or early Friday, we will get a story up about new charges and evidence regarding Franciscans in Santa Barbara in time for a good weekend read. But prepare yourself. Here is a sample of what you will read: From one of the Nov. 3 complaints:

As to Gus Krumm, long before the Franciscans assigned him to St. Anthony’s he and another notorious Franciscan perpetrator, Father Philip Wolfe, contracted the sexually transmitted disease known as "crabs" while doing field work as novices (training to become Franciscans). The source of the crabs were adolescent boys Wolfe and Krumm encountered who, according to Krumm, were willing to do anything for money. And according to Krumm, Wolfe contracted not only crabs but other sexually transmitted diseases from these adolescent boys, prompting Wolfe’s and Krumm’s novice master (also a Franciscan) to lecture both men angrily and repeatedly with regards to the sexual promiscuity with these boys that resulted in Wolfe and Krumm contracting crabs. Thus, long before the Franciscans hired Krumm and Wolfe and assigned them to work at St. Anthony’s (seminary Santa Barbara), the Franciscans knew both Perpetrators had been sexually involved with adolescent boys. Despite this knowledge the Franciscans assigned both Perpetrators to work with adolescent boys, including plaintiff, doing nothing to stop the contact or to warn plaintiff.

ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM THE COMPLAINT FILED in Santa Barbara Superior Court:

Finally, with regards to physical examinations of students, during either the 1964-65 or 1965-66 school year, the Franciscans not only authorized such examinations but authorized them by Father Mario Cimmarrusti –a man with no medical training who was one of the most prolific Franciscan perpetrators in the history of this scandal. Cimmarrusti had expressed "concern" during a faculty meeting that some students appeared not to be developing normally, and had undescended testicles. No Franciscan questioned how Cimmarrusti gained such knowledge. Cimmarrusti then told the faculty, including Fr. Harris, that other signs a student was not developing normally included undeveloped sexual organs, lack of pubic hair, softness or femininity, or no changes to a student’s voice. He then proposed a program to the faculty wherein he would perform an initial assessment of freshmen students to determine if they were exhibiting any of these so called signs. Despite the fact Cimmarrusti had no medical training, the fact the rector (who had worked at other high schools prior to St. Anthony’s) had never heard of such a program, and the fact St. Anthony’s applicants were required to submit proof of a complete physical exam by an actual physician, the St. Anthony’s Franciscan faculty, including rector Father Xavier Harris, approved this program. Even worse, they approved the program without any understanding as to how Cimmarrusti would perform these so-called "assessments."

(I'm having to read the documents in segments, then stop and wrap my head around what I just read, before I can read more. Will get an in depth report on these new lawsuits, charges, and alarming evidence, as soon as I finish this Grand Slam of work on my other job... luckily I rarely sleep... slept enough in the nineties...)

ke

Nancy Pelosi and the Bishops

2009-11-18T06:05:00.000-08:00

QUIET POST:

From email to an overseas friend:

Pelosi is a Congresswoman, the Legislative branch, Obama is the Executive Branch. In US this is drilled into our heads in third grade. So having Pelosi sign a doc from The White House bombs as a joke...

Best humor would be to combine all Pelosi's gay constituents in San Francisco with her recent bursts of reliosity as she begins to get closer to ... old age.

In SF there are three classes of people. The EXTREMELY wealthy, the gays, and blacks, who are mostly still living in ghetto projects, even in 2009. Nice new projects on the South Side, away from everyone else.

Her dad was mayor of Baltimore, as a young girl in the 1960s (?) she came to SF and married one of the incredibly wealthy people they have in that city-

You have to understand Calif and SF are full of a very strange demographic of partying liberal wealth. In SF most working people have to commute and live in the suburbs, there is NO PLACE for a working class person to live in SF unless their family had the home since the 1940s, the rest of the housing is taken up by those three classes of people- extremely wealthy, well connected gay, or ghetto black. So those are Nancy's constituents.

With Jerry Brown it's the same, the Old Money (for California, old). These are descendents of families that exploited the hell out of the region when it was first discovered by white men. They created ways to squirrel away the wealth before statehood came and made them have to obey laws.

We've ended up with a Libertarian population that likes to party and be rich, it's hard to understand the mixture of ideologies that results from Calif politics unless you live here.

I mean we have Governor Schwartzenegger.

Arnold is very savvy and figured out as soon as he stepped on US soil that volunteering as a Republican campaign worker would pay off for him in the end.

Funnier things to say about Pelosi are she's a skinny coifed rich lady with this weird group of people she represents- rich, gays, and ghetto blacks. She took up household in the House of Representives for 30 (?) years and now is the matriarch over all these men...

Pelosi's a wily politician. Even after this thing with the bishops, I am waiting to see the end result of what she did before criticizing her peronally.

Working with the bishops, knowing Pelosi, may have been part of her long term strategy. Politically she just won points with a bunch o' these idiot brained fundamentalists who only grasp two issues in American politics: They're Anti Gay and Pro Jesus.

She just got 50 percent of their brains back on the health care side by playing around with the bishops ... so wait and see how health care reform ends up before totally trashing Nancy Pelosi.

ke

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Why is the Catholic Church, after its pedophile priest crisis, allowed into the inner circle anywhere in America anymore?

2009-11-16T10:20:00.001-08:00

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What other organization could have had five thousand active and aggressive pedophiles identified among its employees since 2002, and still have influence in American politics? These bishops should be being prosecuted right now, not welcomed into Nancy Pelosi's office to write United States law on health care.

How can an organization that has proven to aid and abet pedophile priests' crimes in almost every archdiocese in America continue to have any influence at all?

It says a lot, about control of the message from the top, that after the story of pedophile priests broke in city after city across the country the past decade, the average American still does not know the true extent of these crimes.

This story fizzled across the country in the last seven years, when it should have exploded the cathedral, file cabinet, and archive doors wide open.

We still have no oversight of the Catholic Church. We still have no accountability.

Newly empowered after the way they got away with decades aiding and abetting pedophilia, the U.S. bishops now can walk right into the Speaker of the House's office. They know they can get away with anything now that they've managed the flow of information about their pedophiles so well in the new American mind-numb media.

Most news reporters only see what is released at the press conferences, which is a big part of the problem.

Truth is the total story has been controlled and stifled from the top since the very beginning. Many of us don't even realize how much we've been manipulated by church heirarchy as part of their plan.

Keeping a lid on the story of pedophile priests was what the bishops wanted since the 1980s, before any of the rest of us even knew there was a crisis.

Now that they've accomplished that goal of keeping mot of America in the dark about their felonies, these politician bishops are ready to take on the U.S. Government in total.

Stay tooned.

kay ebeling

Same secrecy- slash- confidentiality found with Mormon and Adventist as in Catholic clergy sex crime cases

2009-11-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

*
By Kay Ebeling

(When different churches face charges of clergy sex crimes, they respond in similar ways, Kelly Clark tells City of Angels. A lawyer for plaintiffs in pedophile lawsuits regarding Mormon and Adventist clergy as well as Roman Catholic priests, Clark took time to sit down and answer several questions on video when we were in Portland Oregon last summer. His answers re similarities between religions' responses is transcribed here, with the video embedded for viewing below the transcript. We will use Clark's answers to other questions from last summer's interview in future blogs.)

Here, Clark says: "We find the same secrecy slash confidentiality emphasized in Mormon and Adventist cases, as we find in Catholic cases. I call it secrecy, the Churches call it Privacy or Confidentiality. They end up being sued not just for child abuse but for coverup as well.

"Another common theme is, Our work is too important to have our name smudged with child abuse claims. Another similarity in Mormon, Adventist, and Catholic Church sex abuse cases is institutional blindness.

"The Catholic Church is safer today, not because bishops got the Holy Spirit, but because they got sued over and over and over again.

"Anyplace where relationships of trust are being built with children, abuse can happen."

HERE IS THE TRANSCRIPT

The video is at our channel on YouTube, also embedded in this blog post at the bottom

Q : You have cases that are Seventh Day Adventist and Mormon and you were talking about similarities with the Catholic Church?

KC : Yes, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormon Church, Boy Scouts, we've done cases involving public and private schools, athletic leagues, any place where kids hang out, any place where relationships of trust are being built with children is where child abuse happens.

And the interesting dynamic, I think the piece the public needs to get here is that there’s a twofold truth here. One, these institutions almost always react to preserve their good name, to protect their self interest.

They almost always have the same instinctive response. Protect the institution.

Q : The institution and not the child?

KC : I don't think that's unique to the Catholic Church, I think that happens in a lot of different institutions. The second thing that I would say, and this is something I’ve thought about a lot, most of these institutions are good institutions, you know. They are institutions that we should want to improve, not want to throw out. I have always had a healthy respect for the Catholic, the best of the Catholic Church.

The Boy Scouts, the Mormon Church, the Adventist Churches, these are all institutions that do a lot of good for society and I think properly understood civil litigation can be a, a change agent. And to the extent that the Catholic Church is a safer place than it was 25 years ago, it’s not because the bishops got the Holy Spirit it’s because they got sued over and over and over again. And they decided to change what they were doing.

We're seeing the same dynamics in some of these other institutions as well, and I don't want to overlook the fact that these are good institutions that do a lot of good for society and need to be made better. We're not suing the child pornography industry here. You know, people who set out to do bad. We're suing people who set out to do good, and that's, that's sometimes an issue, it’s very much an issue in front of juries. Some juries don't want to award money against the Boy Scouts or a church.

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Some juries don't want to award money against the Boy Scouts or a church
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But if they begin to see that lawsuits may be the only way some of these organizations are going to change, then that level of understanding can lead to, I think, some positive things. That's what I hope this work does. That's what I see in common between all these institutions, because good institutions can be made better.

Q : Can you give an example of something similar in Mormon and a Catholic clergy sex abuse cases?

KC : Sure. The bishop will handle it. Yes, there’s a report that's made of child abuse.

The bishop in the Mormon Church means something very different than the bishop in a Catholic Church

Now the bishop in the Mormon Church means something very different than the bishop in a Catholic Church. The bishop in a Mormon Church is essentially a pastor of a local ward or a parish. So a complaint comes in and the family is told, I'm the bishop, I’ll handle it. And the family says great, they trust that that's going to be handled.

Well the same thing happens of course, we know unfortunately that it happened a lot in the Catholic Church. An allegation comes in about a priest, maybe the bishop meets with the family. I’ll take care of it, [BACKGROUND NOISE, TRAIN] I’ll speak to Father John, it won’t happen again, we'll take care of it. and then nothing happens or Father John gets a slap on the wrist and he’s back in ministry three months later.

The absolute trust of the families.

That the hierarchy of the church is going to do the right thing, that’s a frequent theme, same is true for scout leaders, in institutions across the board.

Q : Almost any religion that you deal with?

KC : Not just any religion, any organization that by definition is trying to do good. The reason I keep saying that is because I think there’s a certain sense in which these organizations think that the ends justify the means. We are such a noble organization, the work we're doing is so important, that we can’t afford to have our good name smudged by a public accusation of child abuse.

And so they think the ends justify the means, and that kind of institutional blindness I think is very-very dangerous. No institution no matter how good it is, is exempt or immune from the cancer of child abuse. Which is the reason they all have to be vigilant, look at their policies, put them in place, practice them, follow them, and when an allegation comes forward, do the right thing.

The right thing and the smart thing is the same thing.

Which is protect the child.

It’s the right thing to do for all the obvious moral reasons, it’s the smart thing to do because if you don't do that, and you get sued, then you're not just sued for child abuse, you're sued for coverup as well. And in these situations, it’s almost never a mistake, it’s almost always a coverup, that comes back to bite you in the rear end. So those are some of the similarities I see between all of these institutions of trust.

Q : What about secrecy in the other institutions?

KC : I see a lot of the same emphasis on secrecy slash confidentiality. I call it secrecy, the institutions tend to call it confidentiality or privacy. Where they want to handle things kind of behind the scenes.

There’s something about a culture of power and a culture of secrecy that go hand in hand. And in my opinion these organizations would do well, they would do the smart thing, and they would do the right thing, if they would get the secrets out.

Look, once the secrets come out, then healing can happen.

Governments understand this. The South African government had Truth and Reconciliation Hearings.

We're going to get the truth out, and once the truth gets out, they're going to get past apartheid and everybody is going to understand what our history has been, what mistakes were made, who was at fault, we're going to have forgiveness, and then we're going to move on. The South African government did that with apartheid.

None of the churches we've been talking about have yet gotten the truth out concerning child abuse.

That's why we had such a hard time getting documents released from the Catholic Church all over the country. The bishops promise they'll do it and then they don’t do it.

(We planned to produce a super video to post here, using this interview with music, wowser edits, and dissolves, and all that. But have not been able to get the video software I have on this computer to open these files…)

So posted above, Kelly Clark in raw video speaking with Kay Ebeling August 22, 2009, in his Portland, Oregon law firm offices.

Raw Video

Hey, I'm 61 years old, my sister doesn't even have email...

.......

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After each post we pass the hat, using the Donate buttons on the left. That's how it works.

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POST SCRIPTS:

Your Parish Lobbyists At Work

Anyone who was surprised that the Bishops were able to lobby Congress so BLATANTLY on health care this week has not been paying attention to the pedophile priest crisis and lobbying the Church has done in Ohio, Illinois, New York, Connecticutt, and on and on and on...

It's unfortunate but the entity that evokes the least faith and hope during these troubled times is the Catholic Church, revealing its true colors in city after city as it fights to prevent personnel files on pedophile priests from getting into the public's hands.

Any other organization that had produced five thousand pedophile priests and let them prey on families in nearly every city in the country would be under intense federal investigation. Since it is the Catholic Church, we get to see the United Conference of Catholic Bishops spend time in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office this week, while she phoned the Vatican, then allowed anti abortion language to enter the House Health Care Reform bill, possibly killing the chance for hundreds of thousands of poor people to get medical treatment.

This colony of felons allowed pedophilia to become institutional, and a population of pedophiles now operates around the country, confusing religious ceremony with rape of children..

IT NEVER STOPS:

Like In Missouri:

Of the six pedophiles, two generations of males in a town east of Kansas City, MO, arrested this week for ritualistic sex crimes against children,

Three were lay priests:

"Three of the men arrested this week were members of the Community of Christ lay priesthood: Burrell Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler. The priesthood licenses of all three were suspended Wednesday morning, said Linda Booth, church communications director."

What is this sick connection between mutated religious ceremonies and sex with children?

Read the article here:

Child sex abuse allegations may turn into a murder case
MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star
By DONALD BRADLEYThe Kansas City Star
LEXINGTON, Mo.

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Catholics think the Times reports too much about clergy sex abuse... This quote from: Sunday New York Times Opinion piece:

James Martin, a priest and an editor of the Jesuit magazine "America" believes reporters at The Times work hard to get stories right, though he sometimes questions the prominence and frequency of articles about the church’s sex scandal....

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From Jay Nelson:

The Return of Robert Sanchez

He’s back. They say criminals always return to the scene of the crime; bad pennies always show up again.So perhaps it was inevitable that the person of Robert Fortune Sanchez, the former Archbishop of Santa Fe disgraced by his own admitted abuse of at least five women along with gross negligence in his incompetent handling of the clergy abuse scandals, has once again shown up in his New Mexican homeland.Only now, he’s no longer a prelate, but a simple monk — a Franciscan friar, to be exact.

According to the website of the Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the former archbishop has been a friar for two years now, and is celebrating his fiftieth anniversary as a Roman Catholic priest with his Franciscan brothers.He has so much to celebrate, after all. What a record. During his nineteen years as archbishop, hundreds of New Mexico children were sexually abused by his priests, while he did virtually nothing to stop them. Nor did the chief shepherd of the community minister at all to victims and their families and parishes hurt by these monsters.... Read More Here

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Meanwhile, so much for closure:

Sentencing brings some closure to victims of priest's abuse

Nov 10, 2009
By: Laurel Myers, Sudbury Northern Life

Four grown men, with tears streaming down their faces, stood up in a courtroom and told their stories of lifelong pain, feelings of shame and loneliness. More than a quarter of a century ago, the four men, between 12 and 17 years of age at the time, each served as an altar boy at their local Catholic church, under the guidance of Father Bernard Cloutier.

NEXT DAY:

Catholic priest released on bail one day after sentencing for sexual abuse

KIRK MAKIN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Nov. 11, 2009 12:00AM EST
JUSTICE REPORTER

A Catholic priest who moved from parish to parish in Northern Ontario for a decade abusing altar boys was freed on bail yesterday, less than 24 hours after he was sentenced to five years behind bars. Mr. Justice Michael Moldaver of the Ontario Court of Appeal characterized his decision to grant Father Bernard Cloutier bail as "a very close call" - particularly given the judge's misgivings about how the public might react to his prompt release. "The public could lose faith in the administration of justice if they see this as a revolving door - he's in for a day and then he's out," he remarked.

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That's how it works.

Church claims impotence as Statutes are Creatures of Public Policy, then fights 11 entities to 1 to keep SOL's unfair as possible

2009-11-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

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By Kay Ebeling

Using teams of attorneys, eleven corporate entities of the Catholic Church are fighting a lawsuit by one family in California all the way to the state's highest court. The bishops are expending endless legal hours and Church resources to get a California appellate court decision "de-published," as letting the Quarry decision stand would open the door for dozens more legal claims against corporate entities that allow child sex crimes to take place.

In briefs quoted below, the Catholic Church argues to the high court that statutes of limitations are just "creatures of public policy that may be disappointing to plaintiffs," and "are unfair because they bar potentially valid claims," but what can you do...

At the same time, the Church uses teams of attorneys to keep statutes of limitations as unfair as possible, in California, as well as other states. The Church is able to lobby state lawmakers and file mountains of legal briefs to justices. The Church can fight changes in law that would help get settlements for crime victims of the Church, who are unable to get help by going to the Church itself. Genuine pastoral outreach to adult victims of pedophile priests appears to be totally off the Church’s agenda.

Quoted below is the latest document filed by Church lawyers in the Supreme Court of California, as we continue at City of Angels to report how the Catholic Church fights against its own parish families when it comes to the sex crimes of its priests.

The newest casualties of Church abuse of civil justice are plaintiffs who are over age 40. In California and other states, older crime victims are a small group, easy targets for dismissal by the church and its attorneys.

In California, if you did not realize by December 31, 2003, that you were part of this class of crime victims and take advantage of the one-year window that year, but instead filed a lawsuit after the end of 2003, the church wants you to be SOL on the SOL. Even if in 2003, a plaintiff did not know they were part of this class of victim, the Catholic Church will fight all the way to the state Supreme Court to keep families from getting help they need.

In Illinois, the Church fought and won a similar legal battle against older victims. The Supreme Court of Illinois ruled last October to cut off persons in the older age category from further lawsuits (thus ending the writer of this blog post's own hopes of ever getting help from the Church).

In New York victim advocates gave in to an age 52 limit on the statute of limitations last April, and they still didn't get their bill past the State Legislature’s first committee.

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CORRECTION: emailed 5:10 PM

In New York the age limit is 53. The bill did get past the first committee, it was never introduced to the floor for a vote. There are enough assembly members who support the bill, but the day it was to be schedule for a vote, there was not enough members in the chamber. Assembly members called in sick, were absent or gave birth. This bill will go to a vote sooooooooooon.

Tim Echausse
SNAP Long Island
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In California, The Church is fighting tooth and nail to get the state Court to depublish Quarry, a recent appellate Court decision that allowed plaintiffs who discover the cause of their injury after 2003 to file lawsuits. Not easy lawsuits to file, but ones that need to be filed, because corporate entities allowed sex abuse against children to take place.

Usually those entities that allowed molestation end up being the Catholic Church. So the Church grabs onto statutes of limitations like they were the Bible and Church attorneys argue for interpretations of civil laws that work as much as possible in the Church’s favor and against the crime victims.

SNAP quote

“It's immoral and impractical to try to force deeply wounded victims of horrific child sex crimes to meet some arbitrary deadline that's set up to benefit the wrongdoers,” wrote Barbara Dorris, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests outreach director November 4th about arbitrary statutes of limitations activity in Spokane, Washington.

“Traumatized victims step forward when they can, not when church bureaucrats and lawyers try to tell them they must,” Dorris said.

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“Traumatized victims step forward when they can, not when church bureaucrats and lawyers try to tell them they must,” Dorris said.

In the Quarry case in California, we see Church attorney stalling tactics in full play as well, stretching every legal matter out for as long as possible, getting an extension, then filing the brief on the last day of the extension October 20th.

Eleven (11) corporate entities filed briefs supporting the Church’s argument concerning the Quarry case leading up to the anticipated brief quoted below from Stephen McFeely, one of those Church attorneys who jets all over the state defending sex criminals and their felonious enabling religious orders.

At the same time, there is one law firm on the plaintiffs’ side, writing in opposition to de-publication of Quarry, as far as this writer-reporter can see. Meanwhile at least one, sometimes two or three, lawfirms submit briefs asking the state supreme court to de-publish the Quarry decision, representing these 12 corporate arms of the Catholic Church:

Archbishop of Los Angeles, a corporation sole

Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, a corporation sole

Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland

Roman Catholic Bishop of Monterey a corporation sole

Roman Catholic Bishop of Sacramento, a corporation sole

Boy Scouts of America

Masonic Homes of California, Inc.

Sweeney & Green, LLP

Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America

United States Fire Insurance Company

and

American Insurance Association

*****************

No One Said the World Was Fair

If anything the age group that needs the most attention is us older folks, who managed to stay alive in spite of the side effects of pedophile priest rape. 1950s sex crimes took place when secrecy and subterfuge were the norm in handling anything that had anything to do with sex, let alone molestation of children. People just didn't talk about it, at all. Plus fifty years ago people really believed kids would just get over these experiences in time. So if anything, we older persons lived through sex crimes as children that would probably not even take place in today’s environment, where alert caretakers are watching out for pedophiles as if Nancy Grace’s cameras were everywhere. And they are. If anything it’s this older aged class of plaintiffs that need legal and pastoral care more than anyone.

But of course, if the Catholic Church can get away with ignoring us, it will ignore us, and as we see in Connecticut, New York, Spokane, Illinois and California - and that's just this month - the Church will keep hiring teams of law firms to totally weigh down the fight for justice in favor of the Church.

Your Parish Dollars at Work:

In the brief filed October 20th by Stephen McFeely for the Bishop of Oakland, an irascible tone emanates from the paragraphs:

Arguing for the Bishop of Oakland, church attorney McFeely writes that the Quarry brothers have a misunderstanding of the law, thinking “that in 2002 the Senate and Assembly must have meant, in effect, to eliminate the statute of limitations on civil child abuse claims completely.

“After all, statutes of limitation are unfair because they bar potentially valid claims. Such a facile argument apparently worked with the Quarry court - it will not be enough here.

“By their very definition, statutes of limitation limit claims. Their enforcement disappoints potential plaintiffs. But such statutes are creatures of public policy."

See what I mean.

The Church just throws up its hands in innocent powerlessness before the Justices. It’s out of our hands, the bishops claim.

“Quarry must be overruled and Hightower confirmed.”

In the original Quarry lawsuit, lead plaintiff Terry Quarry and his five brothers, ages 43 to 49, sued the Diocese of Oakland in 2006, saying they had only recently discovered that their psychological problems as adults were related to the molestation they suffered as children.

Their abuser was the Rev. Donald Broderson, who was a priest in Concord in the 1970s but was transferred to several parishes before the diocese forced him into retirement in the early 1990s

(Look up Broderson at Bishop Accountability under the letter B in the "Database of Accused Priests.)

Broderson never did get charged with a crime, but the Oakland Diocese settled several lawsuits that filed in 2003 because of claims about Broderson's molestation of children.

In a court deposition Broderson admitted he “sexually abused children in the 1970s.”

Broderson specifically admitted molesting the Quarry brothers in deposition.

In fact, California state legislators passed its amendments to 340.1 in 2002 that opened time limits for these lawsuits, because of reports of clergy abuse and the way the Catholic Church covered up the crimes. The law in California is now written specifically to deter institutions that allow molestation to take place, and the Catholic Church just ends up being the main one.

Oh well, I guess the plaintiffs are powerless too.

********************
Hightower, as reported here and here and here at City of Angels earlier this year, is a case the state high court threw out two years ago, and refused to reconsider.

Even though Hightower is a poor example of a typical lawsuit against the Church, the Church is doing everything it can to keep Hightower the law as long as possible.

Slowing down progress on Quarry means Hightower remains law, a decision that dismissed a decades old case, favoring the Catholic Church's position.

The Plaintiff in Hightower filed his claim from prison, he missed the 2003 window by filing incorrectly, but since he’s in prison serving as his own attorney, specific laws concerning prisoners’ rights allowed Hightower’s case to go all the way to the state high court, where they said, what, there’s a thousand holes in this case, and threw Hightower out.

Because Quarry is in limbo, the Church gets to take advantage of the dismissal of Hightower to get new lawsuits dismissed.

There are two other cases that are more relevant in front of the state supreme court now and their decision in Quarry and KJ will set a more realistic precedent for future handling of sex abuse lawsuits against the church.

But since it is in the Church’s best interest to keep Hightower the law as long as possible, they are dragging out the Quarry decision before the State Supreme Court as long as they can.

*********************

What Steve McFeely Wrote for the Bishop:

Just to keep people up to date, here are quotes from the 40 page brief filed by Foley & Lardner, LLP, of Los Angeles, on October 20, 2009, the last possible date possible to file the brief, on behalf of the Bishop of Oakland.

“While the Legislature has gradually expanded and liberalized the statute for childhood sexual abuse claims, it has not lifted all limitations.

“The Legislature did not do what the brothers are effectively asking this Court to do, namely throw the door wide open - forever - to allow suits against non-perpetrators to be brought indefinitely into the future for claims reaching indefinitely into the past. That was not the Legislature’s intent.”

McFeely, attorney for the Bishop of Oakland and other Catholic religious organizations around the state who are trying to keep their pedophile priest problems secret, went on to write:

“The Plaintiffs claim the underlying legislative concern was really about avoiding an ‘arbitrary’ cutoff. ‘Arbitrary’ connotes randomness, illogicalness, and lack of deliberation."

“The statute evinces anything but arbitrariness."

The Defendants’ position is that “The revival window cured any arbitrariness.”

McFeely feels the Revival Window of 2003 took care of all the people who were older, and now the “prospective application of the discovery rule” is “For people who were younger.”

***********

The Church wants to quickly write off persons who fit in that small space between being too old to file under the new rules, and having missed the 2003 window. Even if in 2003, the plaintiffs had not yet begun to deal with the repercussions of being raped as a kid by a priest.

The Catholic Church just shrugs and says, too bad about all these crimes we let happen, if the law doesn't say we have to help the victims, we won't.

What a Christian organization.

******************

I totally understand years of delay between discovering the cause of your problems and filing a lawsuit. I sat with my mouth hanging open for about ten years before I could take any action, then when I called the Chicago Archdiocese, they said, Get an attorney. By the time I got one, they proceeded with the State Court decision referred to above.

After I made the connection in 1994, it was only in about 2006 or 2007 that my position in this mess of pedophile Catholic priests became clear to me. Way too late to take advantage of the statute of limitations laws in Illinois, the state where crimes in my case took place.

Forget pastoral outreach. When I contacted the Chicago Archdiocese in 2005 saying, I realize now I need help, they told me to get a lawyer.

******************

The following are quotes from the Quarry brothers brief filed April 15, 2009, for the plaintiffs.

By Devin Storey and Michael Kinslow at the Zalkin Group law firm in San Diego.

“Plaintiffs are six brothers who were repeatedly sexually abused by a trusted Catholic priest. The abuse took place in 1972 and 1973, but due to the nature of the abuse and psychological coping mechanisms resulting there from, Plaintiffs did not discover that the abuse resulted in adult-onset injuries until 2006.

“The trial court sustained the defendant’s demurrer on statute of limitations grounds, and the Court of Appeal reversed.”

Plaintiffs say that amendments to 340.1, the California law on Statutes of Limitations in child sex crimes, “extended the statute’s reach to non perpetrator defendants, and applies to all claims filed after January 1, 1999."

Plaintiffs say, the SOL does not begin to run until the plaintiff discovers the cause of his or her adulthood trauma.

The Quarry cases were filed in 2006, after the brothers compared notes and discovered they were all victims of the same crime. How could they have been included in the 2003 window?

The lawsuit has to reflect “the statue in effect at the time of the filing of the action.”

**************
Oh shoot, I'm having trouble keeping this straight. The Court of Appeal reversed another court decision that used to be in favor of the plaintiffs but now was in favor of the Bishop so now the Church is trying to de-publish that decision. If Quarry stays, California plaintiffs have new doors open to them to seek justice.

If Quarry is de-published- There is still the case of KJ.

Oh No!

Can’t we all just rant and rave about Roman Polanski? That's so much easier.

*****************

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After each post we pass the hat, using the Donate buttons on the left, that's how it works.

As of today, every high $5 buys one point (1 point) in City of Angels Productions, the value of which will be determined when we start making money.
.
NEW STUFF OF INTEREST since this story posted:

"Black-collar crime": 115 Australian court cases involving Catholic Church personnel— and also some out-of-court cases ...

**************

2009-11-01T16:33:00.001-08:00

UPDATE: Tuesday, Nov. 3, Ebeling is slammed at work, can't post for a few days.

I may be going crazy.

Working on a show called 1000 Ways to Die, one interview was with a doctor, commenting on each bizarre death from the season, one at a time, and as I heard the details of one of these accidents after another...

I Could Not Stop Laughing

After awhile, one of the best ways to deal with trauma is laughter, no matter how bad the trauma is, you've got laughter to heal you... ANYTHING can be funny

ANYTHING

*****************************

Criminal activity thrives behind the scenes across the country, as Catholic bishops continue to battle plaintiffs and advocates in child molestation cases. The Catholic Church never ends its effort to stop the truth about the pedophile priest edpidemic from reaching the mainstream:

In New York:

Bishop “Nicky the Don” DiMarzio of Brooklyn

Bishop “Nicky the Don” DiMarzio, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn, is staying true to his support of those things that are neither Catholic nor Christian. The New Jersey transplant and “wannabe mobster”, has decided to record a political phone message in support of Assemblyman Vito Lopes who is in the midst of a tough reelection campaign. Taking a strong political stand and putting the tax exempt position of his Diocese at risk, the Bishop is supporting a proponent of many issues in direct opposition to Catholic positions.
“Nicky the Don” is openly supporting the Assemblyman who was instrumental in defeating an attempt in the New York State legislature to pass window legislation that would allow adult victims of sexual abuse as children to seek a civil remedy for the crimes committed against them. The Bishop, obviously a great man of god, opposed the bill because...

**************

And in Connecticutt
Bottomless resources Defense trying to find a Court higher than U.S. Supreme to fight release of documents...

Supreme Court Denies Diocese Again
BRIDGEPORT (CT)NBC Connecticut
By CAROLYN FREER
Updated 12:45 PM EST, Mon, Nov 2, 2009

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the Bridgeport Diocese again. On Monday, the most powerful panel of legal minds in the country turned away another appeal to stop the release of documents generated for sexual abuse lawsuits against priests in the diocese

AND

GORE VIDAL totally on the other end of the Generation Gap

Gore Vidal said to Atlantic Monthly, when asked, "What's your take on Polanski?" My favorite part is the "Communion dress" reference.

Q: So what’s your take on Polanski, this many years later?

VIDAL: I really don’t give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s been taken advantage of? First, I was in the middle of all that. Back then, we all were. Everybody knew everybody else. There was a totally different story at the time that doesn’t resemble anything that we’re now being told.

VIDAL WENT ON:

The media can’t get anything straight. Plus, there’s usually an anti-Semitic and anti-fag thing going on with the press – lots of crazy things. The idea that this girl was in her communion dress, a little angel all in white, being raped by this awful Jew, Polacko – that’s what people were calling him – well, the story is totally different now from what it was then.

*******************

Read Conversation with Gore Vidal at Atlantic Monthly for more of this 83 year old man's blathering

Ebeling is working on Reality TV and as a result has no time left to post this real stuff... this week

*******************
Here is an interesting movie to watch, banned from network broadcast, narrowcasting everywhere thanks to the Internet:

Onward through the exhaled marijuana smoke that blends with the smog of L.A.

Why stop at Polanski? Extradite Cardinals Law & Levada as well; plus Capozzi play reading December 11th in New York

2009-10-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

*
By Kay Ebeling

"First indict Cardinal Roger Mahony for aiding and abetting about a hundred pedophiles in Central and Southern California." (Comment posted on a Hollywood Reporter story saying Roman Polanski may voluntarily be extradited.)

Note the cool graphic above the headline here at City of Angels announcing a performance of “For Pete’s Sake” in New York, as a benefit for Road to Recovery. Reading of the one-act play will be December 11th, 8PM in Manhattan at 2 West 64th Street, the NY Society for Ethical Culture ceremonial hall. Wow. Tickets are $15 and the show is a fundraiser for Road to Recovery, the East Coast nonprofit that provides direct support to survivors of pedophile priest sex crimes.

Somewhere in New Jersey there are likely more victims of Monsignor Pete Cheplic, namesake of "For Pete's Sake." Playwright Joe Capozzi talked to City of Angels recently: “I hear from people,” Capozzi said. “I know he’s had guys suddenly pull out of his life, guys he was close to all of a sudden once they get married, they cut him out, for whatever reason. I know he had relationships with a bunch of other guys. Was it the same with them, I don't know, unless they want to come out and say. They were the same age range, they would also go drinking with Cheplic and to dinner.”

Announcing the upcoming reading, Joey wrote: "For Pete's Sake" is a story of a young man who chose to keep a secret without realizing how it would affect the rest of his life. Twenty years later he's getting divorced, quit his job and is finally forced to deal with the truth about his life long relationship with his Priest. Dealing with the church, the press and his family was only the beginning. Being honest with himself would be his greatest challenge. "For Pete's Sake" is an honest and humorous look at his journey

City of Angels wrote about "For Pete's Sake" in the October 9th post.

Writing on the Web about Roman Polanski

At work I'm transcribing interviews regarding the film The Ghost, which will be released in 2010 if Roman Polanski is able to complete production from a Swiss prison. Often when I'm doing my TV job, I end up hearing something I need to hear for the project of writing these blogs.

Today’s job - well shoot, I'm not allowed to reveal anything from what I transcribe for TV shows while they are in production. But I can say that in one of the interviews I worked on, a cast member of The Ghost made a remark which I'm paraphrasing here:

"If your life depends on something, you make sure you are good enough, even if it’s something at which you're not natural." She said, "It’s amazing what skills you can acquire when it’s life or death.”

She's talking about the character she plays, but that quote stunned me today and lit my fire.

After the Illinois Supreme Court decision early last October, it seems people born before 1964 in Illinois are SOL as to the SOL, as far as civil lawsuits regarding pedophile priests in that one state.

So now that I know I'm probably not going to get a settlement from the Chicago Archdiocese, my life depends on doing something else to pull myself up, I mean poor people die young, so I’ve got to do something fast.

It is life or death, my life depends on it.

At City of Angels 2 I'm developing something.

Like the woman in the quote: I can’t be held back by the fact I don't know what I'm doing, my life depends on this, I have to create something that pulls me up,

So, stay tuned to City of Angels 2.

I hope 'Sunset Boulevard' will grow into an online book, or some new thing that because it's online, it has not really been invented yet, but it is sort of a living book.

I don't know what the end result will be but I'm posting it there, posting it every day

Like dailies.

Some of the scenes will be rewritten, some of the events described may never be referred to again. And as you will see at the top of the page, “This Story is Available for Sale to be made into a major motion picture."

MEANWHILE

With all the news about Roman Polanski, I recently went on a frenzy, going to every story I could find about the convicted pedophile on the lam, to put in a comment. If anyone wants to try the same project, here is a sample of what I’ve been posting. However, I'm not necessarily toting a party line here, and I'm sure others in the survivor community do not agree with me, here goes:

In the USA, pedophile Catholic priests performed worse crimes than Polanski’s, many with similar MO's - drugs, isolating the child from parents, etc. If the USA really wants to prosecute pedophiles, indict Cardinal Roger Mahony of L.A. Extradite pedophile aiding and abbettors who are now hiding out at the Vatican, such as William Levada and Bernard Law. It's easy to go after Polanski, let's see some real muscle in law enforcement, go after the real source of most of the pedophilia in the USA, the Catholic Church. . .

Another comment on a Hollywood Reporter story saying Polanski may voluntarily be extradited:

First indict Cardinal Roger Mahony for aiding and abetting about a hundred pedophiles in Central and Southern California. Catholic priests preyed on parish families all over the state, and committed sex crimes against hundreds of children, much worse than Roman Polanski. Read City of Angels blog for more...

At another news outlet:

There are about a thousand pedophiles that have not been prosecuted right now in the USA. What these Catholic priests did to kids the last 40 years was 10 times worse than Polanski's crimes, and at least the director has admitted guilt. The priests, many of them serial felons, often live in luxury today and even continue to run schools and parishes.

Polanski's victim does not want him prosecuted or any more news coverage. Many of us priest victims WANT our stories told...

Another one at the Hollywood Reporter:

I posted a true crime story yesterday at City of Angels about two Catholic priests out of the five thousand who got away with serial pedophilia in the US in the last fifty years.

If we really want to extradite pedophiles, there are plenty felons involved with American pedophile crimes hiding at the Vatican or living lives of luxury around the country, with a news media that is afraid to run stories about their criminal activity. Please read city of angels blog for the truth, Roman Polanski's crimes are nothing compared to these guys.

Then at Los Angeles Times:

The news media refuses to run stories about the worst pedophiles ever to operate in America, Yesterday at cityofangels5 . blogspot . com I put up a story about two Catholic priests who operated in Louisiana. There were 5000 pedophile priests preying on parish families in the last 40 years in this country, (see bishopaccountability . org )

If the USA really was concerned about sex crimes against children, law enforcement would stop caving to Catholic Church pressure and prosecute felony bishops, monsignors, etc.

What Roman Polanski did was nothing compared to the epidemic of pedophile Catholic priests.

(Note: The L.A. Times did not post any of the comments I wrote on their site to any of the stories.)

ANOTHER COMMENT:

The issue here is rich & powerful people getting away with crime and crime victims not getting justice. What Polanski did is not half as bad as the 5000 Catholic priests who raped children in the USA and the bishops who let them do it. I'm one of the priest victims and what I see here is an imbalance of justice.

If we overlook the epidemic of pedophilia in the Church, we have no credibility prosecuting Polanski.

********************

NOTE THIS POINT:

As recently as this week, the victim has said she does not want Polanski extradited, shw wants the whole story to go away, the media frenzy is making her sick.

Roman Polanski's victim asks court to drop charge against director
October 26, 2009 2:19 pm
The victim of Roman Polanski’s 1977 sex charge has asked an appellate court to drop the charge against the film director, saying the unceasing publicity has disrupted her family, job and health.

Since the director’s arrest last month, Samantha Geimer and her attorney have received close to 500 phone calls from media as far as Germany, Israel and Japan, attorney Lawrence Silver wrote in a statement filed Friday.

Larry King and Oprah have beckoned, and photographers have been camped outside her Hawaii home, trying to take photos or video through holes drilled in their cars and offering gifts to her children in exchange for information, Silver wrote.

“This statement makes one more demand, one more request, one more plea: Leave her alone,” Silver wrote in the filing.
...

ALSO:

Free Polanski – the woman has spoken!
Times LIVE - ‎Oct 27, 2009‎
The woman raped by Roman Polanski when she was 13 yeard old wants the case against him to be thrown out for the sake of her “mental health”. ...

Polanski victim wants case to go away -- is she right?
Kansas City Star - ‎Oct 27, 2009‎
The teenage girl who accused director Roman Polanski of rape is now a grown woman with a family and a job. And she's officially asking the courts to dismiss ...

From Huffington Post this morning:

From the classical French point of view, the US is criminally puritanical about sex as opposed to France , with its own more "liberal" wink-an-eye espousal of affairs under the sheets. The extent of this prejudice is so great that most popular French papers -- such as "Le Monde" and Liberation -- have chosen to distort the facts when reporting on the case. Liberation described Polanski's crime as an "affaires des moeurs", a banal case of mores, rather than a convicted case of "illegal sex with a minor". Le Monde describes what happened as "Polanski's relations with a young girl," forgetting the word "illegal

Today a crime like Polanski's would receive a much harsher sentence than in 1978. Now, if Polanski returns for sentencing, legally the most he himself could receive is two years.

Read entire story

*****************

BACKGROUND on "For Pete's Sake"

Friday, October 9, 2009

New one act play shows passion of going public about crimes of pedophile priest

*By Kay Ebeling

It's yet another case of a Catholic priest insinuating himself on a parish family then raping the children. Survivor Joe Capozzi of New York City is also an artist, so as he went public with his charges against Monsignor Peter Cheplic of New Jersey...

************************

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POST SCRIPT:

Phillip Garrido, who held Jaycee Dugard captive for 18 years up in Lake Tahoe, was also a self-described Fundamentalist Christian pastor.

Garrido was passing out flyers shortly before his arrest last summer, to round up people to come hear him give a sermon.

I got to see one of the flyers on a video, again because of my job. The flyers said:

Brand New

The first time anywhere in the world, right here at J&M enterprises.

You can witness what the world believes it’s impossible to produce. Look for date and time in your local newspaper coming soon.

DON'T MISS OUT

God has allowed me to speak in the tongue of angels in order to provide a wake up call that will in time include the salvation of the entire world.

A demonstration of this ability had already taken place during the month of July.

********

Ah, that wonderful confusing connection between sex and spirituality that thrives in the backwoods of America.

*****

"For Pete' s Sake"

A play by Joe Capozzi

Staged reading to benefit Road to Recovery

Friday, December 11th at 8pm
NY Society for Ethical Culture
2 West 64th St @ CPW, NYC
Ceremonial Hall, 4th Fl.

Tix: $15
Reservations:
email: forpetessaketheplay@gmail.com

For more information about Road to Recovery go to road-to-recovery.org
.

Gauthe forced a gun in my mouth and said what he was going to do. He was at our orphanage for the summer- Louisiana Plaintiff

2009-10-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

*
By Kay Ebeling

Almost forty years after Father Gilbert Gauthe stuck a gun into his mouth and forced him into a violent sex act, Ted Lausche is part of the $5.1 million settlement for twenty-one persons this week in Louisiana, because of abuse at the hands of priests and nuns in and around New Orleans Archdiocese and Lafayette.

The charges from 1971 push the years of reported sex crime activity by renowned pedophile Catholic priest Gilbert Gauthe forward by several years.

"I woke up and Gauthe was doing me in the ass," says Lausche. "I couldn't breathe, because he had the pillow over my head. Then he said he’d kill me if I told."

That night when Ted got back to his Catholic boarding school near New Orleans, he still did try to tell what happened with Gauthe, but before he got the word "gun" out of his mouth, the nun at Madonna Manor was beating the anally injured thirteen-year-old in the face with her fist.

"At the orphanage you live in a world where the only touch you feel is violence,” Lausche said.

Recently, in the weeks before the October 13th settlement, the Catholic Church and its attorneys tried to claim Lausche was not even a student at their orphanage. Defendants finally turned over Lausche's school records with hundreds of pages redacted.

The crime survivor had to fly to New Orleans.

“They called me in so they could apologize,” Lausche said. ”I had to tell my story to a roomful of Catholic representatives.

“At least they didn't try to say it was not an admission of guilt."

City of Angels asked Lausche how his case involves Gilbert Gauthe, whose antics fill the pages of the 1992 book, Lead Us Not Into Temptation by Jason Berry.

"Gauthe was a seminarian who came to the orphanage for the summer," Lausche, a union carpenter in Wisonsin said by phone Thursday morning. "Without doing any kind of background check, they let him go out and play with us kids.

"This guy Gauthe was a kid’s size, he was five foot one, he was really short. I was bigger than him. I was almost six feet tall by that time, in 1971. I would have been about 13.

"They sent him out to supervise us while we were playing soccer and a couple of kids were giving him a hard time. I stepped in so we wouldn't get in trouble and he latched onto me.

*****************
Gauthe pulled a 45 pistol out and stuffed it in my mouth and told me anything he wanted to do he was going to do.
****************************

"Then one day the nuns said, you're going to go home with him, and he took me and another kid to a big house in Napoleonville. He and his parents lived in the Lafayette dioceses.

"He had a ham radio in his car there which I thought was pretty cool. He drove a Thunderbird, the one from the early 1960s that was a sports car.

"When we left the orphanage it was six o'clock, so by the time we got to the house, it was already dark. Ironically the house was next to a police station. Napoleonville is a real small Louisiana agricultural town along the bayou. Just a strip of road about a quarter mile long, with the original homes.

"He pulled a 45 pistol out and stuffed it in my mouth and told me anything he wanted to do he was going to do.

"We got to the house in Napoleonville and he separated us, put the other boy who was with us and I in different rooms. Then while I was asleep he put the pillow over my head, pulled the shirt over head to hold my arms back. He was restraining me, and then he-

"I woke up and he was f---ing me in the ass, I couldn't breathe, because he had pulled on my shirt pinning my arms with the pillow over my head, then he told me he’d kill me if I told. “

"When I got back to the school, I did try to tell what happened, but it didn't do any good. Gauthe had ripped my asshole apart, I was bleeding, and the nun didn't do anything,

"I told her what happened and without warning, I had no indication, she just slugged me in the face.

"That was her thing,

"She loved beating up on kids, this five foot one 190 pound female.

"I told her Father Gaute had a gun and had threatened me and that's as far as I got."

*****************
"She loved beating up on kids, this five foot one 190 pound female.

"Her name was Sister Martin Marie."
*******************************

City of Angels asked Lausche he had any more interaction with Gauthe after that incident?

"Not with him. I stayed away from him after that.

“Gauthe happened just before I ran away. At those orphanages you were living in a world where the only touch you feel is violence.”

Named as defendants in Lausche’s 2005 lawsuit that settled this week are Catholic Charities, the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, School Sisters of Notre Dame, and Hope Haven-Madonna Manor.

After a five year legal battle, Lausche is part of the settlement announced this week, where $5.1 million is to be shared between 21 adult victims of pedophile from primarily Madonna Manor and Hope Haven orphanages in Louisiana.

"I had to go down there around a month ago. I don't travel well so they had to sedate me, my son had to fly out from California, to be with me," Ted told me from the phone where he lives in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

"The Salesians staff were there, people from the archdiocese, 15 or 20 people."

******************
"They tried to tell me I wasn’t even at the orphanage, they had blacked out and withheld over a hundred pages of my personal records."
********************************

Lausche said the Archdiocse first tried to claim he was not even a student at the school.

"They tried to tell me I wasn’t even at the orphanage, they had blacked out and withheld over a hundred pages of my personal records."

Now that he's part of the settlement, the money is not the issue for Lausche:

"I want a public apology

"I want a chance to address the community that raised us thanking them for their charity, but also to remind them to hold those who manage your resources accountable so this can never happen again.

"And I want to put up a cell phone number any place where these predator priests are working today unsupervised, so people can call me, if they need to report sex crimes."

***********************

Above: Escorted by two sheriff's deputies, convicted pedophile and former priest Gilbert Gauthe walks out of the Lafayette parish jail in downtown Lafayette upon his release in February 2002. (Picture lifted from Boston dot com who lifted it from Times Picayune / Photographer: G. Andrew Boyd)

According to bishopaccountability :

"As of 2008, Gauthe was living near Houston, TX. He was arrested 4/08 because he failed to register as sex offender."

**********************
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Peeping in on the Paracletes

Jay Nelson pipes in
Where is the aluminum Mary?

Spies report and it is now confirmed that the enormous aluminum sculpture that towered over the Servants of the Paracletes' church in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, has been removed.

A rendition of the Virgin Mary and the dove, it stood in place of a cross ever since the place was built in the early 60s. Now it's said to be just laying in the dirt in front of the the steeple by the side of the road. Sad. Here's a picture of how it looked a year ago.

Funny thing is that in the last chapter of SONS OF PERDITION, I mention specifically that it still stands, even though the place is no longer their mother church. Gee, I wonder if they also chiseled out the dedication plaque I quote from in the very next paragragh...

It's probably just a co-incidence. Rather like the Archdiocese this spring replacing the stone cross atop the cathedral in Santa Fe. It was discovered to be corroded at the base, and could have fallen and killed someone.

You see, in the card that I sent to Archbishop Sheehan with a copy of my novel THE HARROWING, wherein the bishop nearly gets beaned by a cross falling from the cathedral, I said that not all was fictional. I had once been told that the cross was loose by a rock-climber I knew who claimed he had scaled up to it. And that I hoped he fixed it. Only took them several years to get around to it.

Yep, doubtless pure coincidence. Why to think the Church would be paying attention to little old me would be pure narcissism, wouldn't it?

The fact that they now only publish press releases for events on their calendar AFTERWARDS is doubtless just one of those things, too.

-- Jay Nelson

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FOUND AT GOOGLE IMAGES TODAY:

FOUND AT GOOGLE TODAY

Seven years of scandals? Try 25
GetReligion (blog) - E.E. Evans - ‎Oct 20, 2009‎
Gilbert Gauthe in a small Louisiana community more than 25 years ago. Read that story (or this article), and you get what was a fresh look at the tragedies ...

Our View-Pedophile priests lose in Supreme Court
Daily 49er - ‎Oct 7, 2009‎
In 1985, Gilbert Gauthe pleaded guilty to 11 counts of molesting boys under 18. In 2002, five Boston priests were accused of pedophilia and the church paid ...

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>UPDATE:

Found at Google October 23 at 7:45 AM

Cityof Angels 5: Hope 2009
Almost forty years after Father Gilbert Gauthe stuck a gun into his mouth and forced ... City of Angels asked Lausche how his case involves Gilbert Gauthe, ...cityofangels5.blogspot.com/ - Similar -

Abuse Scandal Still Echoes Through Catholic Church : NPR

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FOUND ON ONION

October 24, 2009:

Priest Shortage Forces Vatican To Hire Temps To Deliver Sacred Rites

MILWAUKEE—In an emergency effort to boost the dwindling number of Roman Catholic priests in the United States, the Vatican contracted with a nationwide staffing firm last week to hire thousands of temporary employees to provide liturgical services and administer holy sacraments in its American churches."The reduced number of active diocesan clergy has forced us to take unprecedented measures to stop parishes from closing," Pope Benedict XVI explained in a decree issued Saturday by the Vatican. "That is why, for the first time in two millennia, we're allowing pretty much anyone who is willing to show up at 9 a.m. and work for slightly more than minimum wage to act as a Vessel of Christ."

According to a statement issued by Manpower Inc., most of the part-time priest applicants are 18- to 26-year-old males with no previous clerical experience. After watching a 35-minute video on the Rite of Ordination and receiving Holy Orders during a brief phone conference, new hires are issued two sets of ecclesiastical vestments and assigned to fill a pastoral vacancy.

Randy Nelson, a recently hired temp priest at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Miami, said he was initially nervous about celebrating mass in front of a large congregation, but soon got the hang of it.

"I was a little intimidated on my first day because I had no idea what I was supposed to do during communion," said Nelson, referring to the transubstantiation of the Holy Eucharist, a miracle he is expected to perform at each mass in order to transform earthly bread and wine into the Most Precious Body and Blood of Christ. "But basically I just have to pour some watered-down cabernet into the gold cup, wave my arms around, say some stuff about God, and give each person in line one of those wafer things."

It's really not all that different from a fast food gig," Nelson added. "Except maybe the uniforms here are a bit more humiliating."
Many temp priests told reporters they were only planning to work for the Church until they could land a more serious job, and that having the name of an archdiocese on their resumé was probably better than nothing.

"This is okay for now. They need somebody to do their grunt work and I need the money," said recent college graduate Justin Willingham, explaining that the vow of celibacy is "kind of a drag" but that he rarely has sex between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. anyway. "Plus, I make a ton in tips. The people here are super generous."

According to parishioners at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Fayetteville, AR, their recently acquired temp is unfamiliar with many of his priestly duties and frequently takes the Lord's name in vain when he loses his place during Gospel readings.

"These things never happened when Father Tom [Whelan] was here," said Gloria Huston, 67. "In the 45 years that I've been a member of this parish I never once saw a priest sitting on the altar eating McDonald's."

Ben Rosenthal, 23, who is a newcomer to Catholicism, said the most interesting part of his job is administering the Sacrament of Penance, because while sitting in the confessional he hears "all kinds of shit you wouldn't believe."

"My friends were totally cracking up when I told them how Doug Merchant confessed to having impure thoughts about his next-door neighbor's daughter and was almost caught masturbating in the bushes outside her window," Rosenthal said. "I feel like I should probably call the cops on some of these people, but during orientation they told us we would get fired if we broke the Seal of Confession. So I just make them say a lot of Hail Marys."

While a majority of temps said they were happy just to have a job, some, like Greg Purcell, believe the priesthood is simply too demanding.

"There's no way I'm working Sundays," Purcell said. "Not for what they pay."

(Click here to go to ONION)

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Part 2: Church battles veterans who come off active duty and file lawsuits under SCRA re pedophile Catholic priests

2009-10-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

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Continued from Part 1 here:

My friend Michael Baumann in Virginia, is a retired Naval officer and an adult victim of pedophile priest who we quoted earlier, saying if he had filed a lawsuit against an archdiocese while he was on active duty, it would have destroyed his career. He elaborated in an email:

I wanted to pass along some thoughts on the impact revealing this great dark secret would have on a military career.

When I came home from the Iraqi Theater of Operations in 2003, I was required to see a psychologist as part of my return to the United States from the war zone.

During this interview, I only revealed enough information to get through the interview being careful not to reveal any information on the abuse I had suffered as a child (at the hands of Father Robert Gibson). The reason for withholding the information was very simple. An active duty military member does not enjoy the same confidentiality with a Military psychologist or psychiatrist that a civilian would expect.

A military mental health official has a responsibility to report to the chain of command any condition that would preclude the member under their care from performing their military duties. Anything that may be a threat to good order and discipline would have consequences, as mild as inability to qualify for assignments, to more extreme consequences that could impact the ability of a service member to hold a clearance, to qualify for a higher clearance, or maintain a position of trust and confidence. In extreme cases you could lose your command, or be removed from a critical position.

It could negatively impact future promotion potential. In a word, being completely honest and open may have dire consequences on your military career.

Medications, if prescribed, would also be made known to a commanding officer. This could lead to some uncomfortable conversations about a private matter which may or may not have an effect on the performance of your military duties.

I would have been horrified at the thought that a very personal matter such as the what happened to me at age 13 was known to some of the commanding officers I served with.

Many military members would seek mental health services outside of the military health care system to avoid the stigma and the potential for being ostracized within the military community. Having the chain of command know you were raped, repeatedly, by a priest could lead to isolation from peers, mistrust by superiors and disdain from subordinates.

Today's warrior ethos in the post 9/11 military does not leave a great deal of room for anyone who may be perceived as "weak".

(Read more from Michael Baumann at his blog Off My Knees)

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I may be in the courtroom but...

I'm off again, drifting. That dark room, the smell of brandy, Mahony and Potts sit across from each other. Both men are so much alike - diminutive, just skin drawn across bones, skin that rarely sees sunlight, both men have thinning hair that used to be brown.

Plus they are both so odd shaped, both Mahony and Potts (pictured right) have a kind of oblique imbalance in the size of different parts of them. Mahony’s neck is so long, then this head sort of bobbles there over the rest of his body. Potts is a similar bobble head looking individual, just much shorter than Mahony.
These two brittle men, sitting in a room that grows even darker than the thick curtains had kept it that afternoon, pour more brandy, now laughing at just how audacious they can be in fighting plaintiffs in these cases, plus who’s watching? That little old lady from City of Angels is the only “reporter” there.

Cardinal Mahony and Lee Potts would both laugh at that.

(Photo of Mahony credit to LA Weekly.)

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For background read:

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Church to Iraq Vets: Overseas in 2003? Too bad, dismiss the cases, bishops are above Federal law

*By Kay Ebeling

Servicemenbers who were at war during the one-year window that allowed lawsuits against the Catholic Church in 2003 should not be allowed to proceed with lawsuits filed in 2008 regarding child molestation by priests, even though Federal law allows benefits such as delayed lawsuits for active duty personnel, attorneys for the Catholic Church argued in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday.Both Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego want several civil cases regarding molestation thrown out, because the plaintiffs were overseas serving their country during the one-year window that opened to file civil lawsuits in 2003.

One plaintiff was and still is in Iraq, another adult victim of a peophile priest from Tuesday's hearing was in Guam and other farflung places on active duty during the one-year window in 2003, and did not file his suit until 20 months after leaving the military.

Also article by Pat Noaker quoted below:

The Service member’s Civil Relief Act has recently been used to help a service member get the help he needed. In St. Paul, Minnesota, our law firm handled a case where a 20-year Naval officer was sexually abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest (See Jeff Strickler, “9 Minnesota clergy abuse cases being settled for $1.7 million,” Star Tribune, February 6, 2009; Emily Gurnon, “Nine men to share $1.7 million from Catholic order that admits sex abuse,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, February 6, 2009).

In this case, the Catholic religious order of The Crosiers Fathers and Brothers attempted to get the abuse lawsuit dismissed claiming the statute of limitations had expired on the Naval officer’s claims. Relying on the Service member’s Civil Relief Act, the Court refused to dismiss the claims because the survivor/Naval officer had been a full-time active service member for 20 years and thus, the statute of limitations did not begin to run until he left full-time military service. Similar applications of the Service member’s Civil Relief Act to sexual abuse lawsuits involving other Catholic clergy is occurring across the country to help service members get the help that they need.

Patrick Noaker, Attorney at Law writing in Veteran Journal February 2009 Noaker is with Anderson Advocates in Minnesota.

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The plaintiff in the Crosier case in Minnesota had spent 20 years as a naval officer, and the statue of limitations clock stops running while a person is in the armed forces, meaning that his case was still active. That was the legal wedge Anderson needed.

In Minnesota the SOL stopped while the plaintiff was on active duty, which should set a national precedent regarding the Catholic Church and returning Service Members filing lawsuits because of the epidemic of pedophile Catholic Priests. :

IN MINNESOTA THE COURT ORDERED

In a case regarding the Service Members Relief Act and Crosier Brother Wendell Mohs:

“The Statute of Limitations is tolled for any time Plaintiff served on active duty by the provisions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and its predecessor act, The Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act.

“Plaintiff has a little more than twenty years of active duty between his eighteenth birthday, April 28, 1983, and the date he initiated this suit, April 17, 2006, a period of approximately twenty three years.

"Subtracting the twenty years of active duty from the twenty three years that elapsed from Plaintiff’s 18th birthday to suit initiation results in only three years of the six year statute of limitations have elapsed.

“Under the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act, ‘the period of a servicemember’s military service may not be included in computing any period limited by law, regulation, or order for the bringing of any action or proceeding in a court.

"Tolling provisions of SCRA should be liberally construed to protect the rights of persons in the military service.

(Minnesota law, but interesting: The “doctrine of unclean hands.”)

From Minnesota Court order:

Defendant cannot take advantage of the doctrine of laches because of the doctrine of unclean hands.

“The defense of unclean hands is premised on ‘withholding judicial assistance from a party guilty of illegal or unconscionable conduct.’

“While plaintiff maintains Defendant Crosiers’ conduct is unconscionable, they do not present any evidence unconscionable conduct other than Crosiers’ knowledge of questionable behavior by Mohs.

While there has been a delay in the Plaintiff’s assertion of his rights, this delay is protected by the SCRA.

“Here Defendant Mohs has admitted the sexual abuse of Plaintiff, so the substantive issues relate mainly to defendant Crosiers’ liability for Mohs’ actions.

Although there has been a long period of time, at this point there does not appear to be a significant loss of evidence or unavailability of witnesses.

Therefore, because there has not been such an unreasonable delay that it is inequitable to grant the Plaintiff relief, it is in appropriate to dismiss this case based on the doctrine of laches.

Not “excessive entanglement” (again Minnesota law)

“This Court will treat Defendant Crosier like any other organization in our society, applying neutral civil law, and possibly subjecting Defendant to civil liability. There is not excessive entanglement with religion that violates the First Amendment.”

More from Minnesota order:

The delayed discovery statute does apply to Plaintiff’s negligence and vicarious liability claims.

From other documents filed for Plaintiffs by Anderson Advocates in Minnesota:

“The Crosiers try to assert that plaintiff was not on active duty service when he attended an Officer Candidate program for 3 years at Naval Postgraduate School, even though the Navy lists him as on active duty during those periods of time. Attached as evidence was plaintiff’s DD 214 showing his active Duty time of 20 years 3 months and 26 days.”

While we're talking about the Crosiers in Minnesota, here is what the Church in this case knew and ignored:

In 1974 the Order requested that Mohs refrain from alcohol because Mohs had a problem with moderation probably due to underlying problems.

In 1978 the Order raised questions about Mohs’ sexuality and personality.

In approximately 1978 Dan Davidson then head of the Crosier seminary in Onamia, and soon to be head of the Order, noted that Mohs had repeatedly gone over the appropriate boundaries for adults and students and questioned whether Mohs should have any involvement with a teen program Teens Encounter Christ, in which the Crosiers were heavily involved.

In 1979 the Crosiers had a serious discussion with mohs over a card he gave to a minor student.

“In 1971 an evaluation of Mohs in the Crosiers’ files stated that Mohs had ‘some degree of sexual preoccupation.

In 1972 another Crosier noted that Mohs has real problems.

In 1973 another Crosier wrote that Mohs might become the ‘playboy of the order.’”

“In 1974 the Order requested that Mohs refrain from alcohol because Mohs had a problem with moderation probably due to underlying problems.

In 1978 the Order raised questions about Mohs’ sexuality and personality.

In approximately 1978 Dan Davidson then head of the Crosier seminary in Onamia, Minnesota, and soon to be head of the Order, noted that Mohs had repeatedly gone over the appropriate boundaries for adults and students and questioned whether Mohs should have any involvement with a teen program Teens Encounter Christ, in which the Crosiers were heavily involved.

In 1979 the Crosiers had a serious discussion with Mohs over a card he gave to a minor student.

For more about Wendell Mohs go to Bishop Accountability Data Base of Priests and look under M.
For more about Robert Gibson go to same place and click under G or read Off My Knees blog by Michael Baumann.

If you would like to see full PDF documents in these cases email me, as we can’t post PDFs here but I can email them.

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(Below Church Attorneys Potts and Roberts talk after 9/09 hearing)

The attorney who defends Catholic pedophile priests in Los Angeles, Donald Steier, does not want me to put his picture up in a post. So we are only going to post pictures of parts of Donald Steier here.

Donald Steier says he's afraid one of his pedophile priest clients' crime victims will come after him.

Steier should know that even though A lot of us survivors do become enraged, the crimes we commit are usually victimless, or the damages inflicted are only on ourselves. You could say the victims absorbed the message of the Church moreso than the perpetrators, or the bishops who pay Steier's legal fees today.

Still to assuage Steier's fears, we are only going to show parts of Donald Steier:

At right Donald Steier's head.
.

At right, Donald Steier's tie.

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Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign using the Donate buttons on the left. After each post we pass the hat, that's how it works.
.

Church battles veterans who come off active duty and file lawsuits under SCRA re pedophile Catholic priests

2009-10-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

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By Kay Ebeling

“They may as well not have the Soldiers and Sailors Act at all, by your way of thinking,” said Judge Emilie Elias to Attorneys for the Archdioceses in both Los Angeles and San Diego, during a hearing last month in L.A. “You're saying the federal law that protects service members is meaningless?”

Lee Potts appearing for Cardinal Mahony, sputtered, “I'm not, I'm - I'm - uh- well over the years many provisions have been considered, for example, go to the third paragraph down, sub section G. We have this new use of the word computing.”

Military personnel returning from years of war now find themselves battling the Catholic Church when trying to pursue personal justice. The hearing September 22nd in L.A. Superior Court was on demurrers by Bishops in Los Angeles and San Diego against plaintiffs just come off active duty now filing lawsuits against the church for pedophilia. The battle in California today is similar to a fight the Church fought and lost in February of this year in Minnesota.

In many cases, service men and women have been overseas fighting wars since before the Catholic clergy pedophile epidemic burst out in the media across the nation with the Boston cases in 2002. Now those returning vets are taking advantage of a long standing entitlement for active duty personnel: the clock stops ticking on legal matters, and does not start up again until you go off active duty.

There’s good reason for military officers to have this right. Filing a lawsuit against the Catholic Church in the middle of your active duty status would destroy your career. A retired Naval Commander who is also an adult victim of pedophile priest explained to City of Angels:

“I had a top secret clearance, if I’d filed a lawsuit at the time I was on active duty, I would not have been able to do my job.

“If the military perceives any sign of weakness, especially in the officer ranks, any discriminator can knock you out of the running. The military mindset and culture right now is very unforgiving to anybody that seems to be showing any signs of weakness. Filing a lawsuit like this against the Church while on active duty would preclude you from getting the jobs you’d need to continue to move up in rank.”

Still, just when you thought the Catholic Church and its attorneys had been as audacious in the priest molestation cases as human limits would allow, there were two lawyers in court last month, one from San Diego, the other from L.A., fighting returning veterans who are now filing lawsuits based on the 2003 one year window for doing so in California, under the Service Members Relief Act.

You would expect a church to embrace returning veterans in every way possible with enthusiasm. No matter how awful the war, Americans from all over the political spectrum come together and agree that whatever we can do for the veterans, we do with fervor. But then again, when has the Catholic Church responded the way a Church should respond when it comes to reconciling its crimes against parish families? You would expect settle with the vets without even fighting.

Returning veterans want to take part in the same law that allowed close to a thousand lawsuits to be filed in 2003, which then settled over the next years, such as the July 2007 settlement in Los Angeles where 510 persons shared a $660 million settlement.

And the Catholic Church is fighting the returning veterans, in the usual way, with phalanxes of attorneys, mounds of litigious paragraphs of print. In the hearing September 22nd, attorneys for the bishops debated the meaning of words, one at a time. Why does the law use the word “computing”? asked Lee Potts.

In Minnesota the Crosiers Religious Order tried to say the plaintiff's DD214 was incorrect, that time spent in education for the Navy was not active duty. In February 2009 the Crosier cases in Minnesota settled in favor of the plaintiffs.

In L.A. last month, after Potts had babbled a bit, Vince Finaldi (pictured right) on the plaintiffs' side rose and said: “Mr. Potts is addressing the statute of limitations. These are federal laws that are designed to protect service men and women.”

Potts gets back up and continues to recite dictionary definitions for various words in the statutes as a form of litigation at god knows how much per hour billed to the L.A. Archdiocese. As Potts speaks, I find myself composing headlines to go with a story about this hearing.

Mahony to Vets: Screw You.

Mahony Sneers at veterans from Iraq to Afghanistan,

Catholic Church Fights Against Returning American Service Members

Mahony Fights American Soldiers with Battalions of Wiry Bony Attorneys

POTTS: Not only that but there are latches and waivers…

JUDGE: They may as well not have the Soldiers and Sailors Act at all, by your way of thinking. You're saying the federal law that protects service members is meaningless.

POTTS: I'm not, I'm - I'm - uh-

JUDGE: What if every state applied it differently? It would mean the Service Members Act was meaningless.

(I'm thinking, not only does the Catholic Church think they have a right to turn pedophiles loose on whole populations of families and not pay the consequences. Now archdioceses around the country think they have the right to ignore Federal law that was designed to protect American service men and women from being denied the same justice as Americans who don’t join up and go to war. The Church continues to fight bone by bone against the parish member children, now adults, whose lives were damaged by their negligence.)

POTTS: We have the word computing and the statute of limitations.

There’s a woman sitting next to Potts and now she rises, introduces herself as Marie Roberts (pictured right) for the Bishop of San Diego

ROBERTS: I agree with Mr. Potts. The Soldiers and Sailors Act is a jurisdictional issue not a traditional statute. It would not toll, I think it’s an error. How much time do they have once they get out of the military? This one plaintiff got out of the military in July 2006 and waited until April 2008 to file. At one point the court commented but did not issue an order saying they would have one year to file a lawsuit. This filing is 36 years after the abuse, so -

Roberts went on: Number one, he waited too long after getting out of the military, then you can’t file a lawsuit thirty six years later.

JUDGE: Wait a minute, how far back do the oldest cases in the clergy cases go.

(Me, I want to jump up and holler, they went back as far as the 1940s, that's why I'm going so nuts, because if I’d been raped in California, I’d have money in the bank right now, but since I was raped outside Chicago, I'm still damaged with no recompense. The military members are not the only ones crying out for national unity in application of justice in the clergy cases. Since people in California were able to settle, people all over the country should be able to settle because of similar cases. But I'm just one lone blogger babbling. . .)

I'm Also Wondering

Why does Judge Elias have to ask if the clergy cases that settled in July 2007 went as far back as the 1940s?

Several lawyers in the room call out in answer.

Potts says, “the sixties even.”
A plaintiff attorney says, “No farther back.”
I want to scream “They went all the way back to the 1940s.”
Potts says, oh well maybe the early sixties.
Finally one of the plaintiff attorneys gets heard, “They went back as far as the 1940s, your honor.”

Potts tries to get the conversation back on his argument:

POTTS: The plaintiff waited too long, he went too far, you can’t just say I get to start all over again.

And I drift off again, thinking of Potts meeting with Cardinal Mahony later to discuss this hearing:

These two men are so similar in body construction, their brittle boniness, their somewhat disconnected from most other humans quality they both have. As I daydream about the Cardinal and Mr. Potts meeting together, I think I smell expensive brandy.

Then Judge Elias said, “Requests for Judicial Notice should be granted on all of these," meaning she ruled in favor of the Plaintiffs.

As Potts arose again, she stopped him: “Yes, I know it said ‘shall instead of ‘may’ and it say’s ‘in computing.’” She motions with her hand and Potts stops the word from coming out of his mouth, then Judge Elias continues: “And it says ‘a temporary reprieve to service members,’ including an effort to be fair to all parties.”

Potts is bony and hyperactive, his presence brings up memories of a young Anthony Perkins, before American filmgoers adjusted to Perkins’ oddness.

More pours from the mouth of Lee Potts: “Over the years many provisions have been considered, for example, go to the third paragraph down, sub section G”

Potts jabbers on: "Plus it says, shall be excluded. They know how to say shall only when they mean it.

To me, it seems like everyone in the courtroom squirmed as Potts went on, all nine defense and two plaintiff attorneys, plus me and the one reporter from the L.A. Times, just changed position all at the same time. Trying not to project uncivil behavior in civil court.

POTTS: Changing ‘shall’ to ‘may’ means something.

JUDGE: You're comparing apples to oranges.
I wonder how much the archdiocese pays per hour for Potts and the Hennigan firm to do this.

Michael Kinslow for the plaintiffs rises, saying he represents John Roe 67 whose lawsuit is against the San Diego Archdiocese, and “since 1925 this law has been interpreted differently but always for service members.”

Potts: Yes but it now says if you do not take action in a timely manner. Plus ‘in computing’ does not apply to a fixed period of time.

Jibber jabber jibber jabber jibber jabber jibber jabber

POTTS (cont’d) - yeah it’s true Roe 67 is still in the military, but there’s no claim he was unable to know about the 2003 window for filing lawsuits wherever Roe 67 was serving overseas, he should have heard about the 2003 window and gotten his lawsuit filed.

I'm thinking, yeah, even though a couple thousand or so potential plaintiffs didn't hear about the 2003 window when they were living inside the United States, even some living here in California didn't hear about the window in 2002 in order to file in 2003.

Nothing stops a church attorney from litigating, the Church still has the same bottomless briefcase full of cash they were using in 2007 to pay for their never ending defense.

POTTS: As to the clergy cases 2007, there was not one who was permitted 40 years later to use this act as a sword 30 to 40 years later.

(I’m not making this up, I was taking notes he really said that- ke)

KINSLOW: This plaintiff was injured and in a veterans’ hospital.
POTTS: Still you're not taking into account the big picture.
JUDGE: The big picture is that these cases will go on as long as your legal career.
POTTS: The most time they have is one year.
JUDGE: John Roe 65, I’ll look at again. Otherwise the Soldiers and Sailors Act overrules your demurrer on all but John Roe 65. For TH Doe the stay is lifted.

And Judge Emilie Elias surmised as she ended the hearing, "I think we have a very interesting issue in interpreting the soldiers and sailors act."

In court that day were six attorneys for the defense, three for the plaintiffs, plus another guy from defense attorneys’ team sitting in the back.

One reporter from Los Angeles Times showed up took notes and asked questions in interviews outside the courtroom later. However, nothing appeared in the L.A. Times about the hearing. Not that I’ve ever seen…

In an attempt to understand what was going on better, City of Angels tracked down documents and spoke to a couple military officers who are also adult victims of pedophile priests aka survivors.

From plaintiff documents filed by Devin Storey and Michael Kinslow at The Zalkin Law Firm in San Diego:

The Church’s demurrers are, “A thinly veiled attempt to confuse this Court into applying the incorrect standard.”

Defense argues, “That the service member must be subjected to some hardship to pursue his claim as a result of his service.”

The plaintiff in one of the cases being fought by the Church September 22nd in L.A. had “a 47 year career in the military.”

“Plaintiff was born on June 7, 1959. Plaintiff enlisted in the delayed entry program of the United States Navy on November 18, 1976. Plaintiff went active in July of 1977. Plaintiff remained on active duty with the United States Navy until July of 2006.”

More from Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint:

From 2001 until mid-2004, Plaintiff John Roe 65 was stationed in Guam in connection with his active military service.

By virtue of John Roe 65’s active military service, the statute of limitations on his claim was tolled under the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940.
The statute of limitations did not resume running until Plaintiff John Roe 65 left active duty in July of 2006.
Mathematically, Plaintiff could not have been more than 53 days past his eighteenth birthday when he began his active duty with the United States Navy.”
The Defense claims using the SCRA is prejudicial to the Archdioceses.

Aside from the passage of time, Defendant’s only feeble attempt at demonstrating prejudice lies in its contention that “it paid almost $200 million to secure final resolution of ancient claims like the Plaintiffs” here. It did so “in reliance on the Legislature’s assurance that such claims were revived only during calendar year 2003.”

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This argument from the two Archdioceses, San Diego and Los Angeles, that they can bypass the Service Members Civil Relief Act displays how Church hierarchy consider themselves above the law. Sometimes you can’t quite pinpoint that arrogance from Church heirarchy, but here it is in their own documents.

They want the court to ignore the rights of American service members in favor of the bank accounts of the Roman Catholic Church.

In documents filed in early September 2009 for the hearing on the 22nd, Plaintiffs argued:

“Congress made a deliberate policy judgment to omit a prejudice requirement from the tolling provision. (cite Conroy)

“Defendants’ analysis regarding legislative history rests upon general statements of individuals, and a press release, regarding the general purpose of the Act in its various forms.

Evidence put forth by the defense to argue against the returning service men and women:

1) Three sentences spoken by the Secretary of War in 1940, when testifying about his views on the 1940 version of the Act.

1) Two sentences spoken on the floor of the House of the United States Representatives by Representative Christopher Smith in which he reports upon the opinions of unidentified others.

3) A single phrase from a press report issued by a House Committee

4) Three sentences uttered by an Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense when testifying about his understanding of prior versions of the Act.

Continued in Part 2 here .

New one act play shows passion of going public about crimes of pedophile priest

2009-10-09T10:32:00.001-07:00

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By Kay Ebeling

It's yet another case of a Catholic priest insinuating himself on a parish family then raping the children. Survivor Joe Capozzi of New York City is also an artist, so as he went public with his charges against Monsignor Peter Cheplic of New Jersey, Capozzi also burst out his story in a one-act play. The result is "For Pete's Sake" a portrayal of the anguish of Capozzi's first dealing with the crimes, and the obliqueness of being an adult victim of pedophile priests.

Capozzi is an actor-writer building professional credits and living in Manhattan. In "For Pete's Sake" he writes and performs what he went through before going to the media and law enforcement in 2006 to report a Catholic priest's sexual assaults that started in Joe's early adolescence. Capozzi used his art as a way of coming to terms with the serial crimes. Today performances of "For Pete's Sake" raise money for Road to Recovery, a support organization for adult victims of pedophile priests in New Jersey and New York.

Capozzi knew he couldn't just tell one or two people what happened and then let the secret continue to fester inside. So he put the angst and confusion of the experience into a one act play that is moving and dynamic and brings the experience alive.

Joe told me about the play in a recent phone conversation and sent me the script. Below are quotes from that conversation along with, in italics, quotes from the play. In the scene below Joe sees that his friend's son is the next target being groomed by Father Pete, and he has to say or do something:
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Pete: He is special.
Joe: I would see-
Voice3: Those hugs
Joe: The gifts, the attention, seeing Pete with Little James is like looking in the mirror.
Voice3: He’ll do it again
Joe: I gotta call him. Oh man, what am I going to say, Hey Father Pete diddled me and I’m worried about your son...?
Voice1: It’s okay
Joe: Umm Pete...
James: What?
Voice2: Oh what the heck.
Joe: Pete’s done things to me
James: What are you talking about?
Joe: Physically, Pete, Pete’s done some things to me, you’re going to be hearing some things soon, he’s sick and I’m worried about Little James
James: What?
Joe: I just want you to know…
James: What things?
Joe: …I can’t…please just keep Little James away from Father Pete.

****
From phone interview:

The play portrays the battle between these three voices in my head, the good, bad and sensitive unsure child. It takes us through a 20 year period I held the secret. I knew Father Pete since I was seven years old. Look back now it’s of course, you can see the origin - that moment when I first met him, I didn't trust him-
******

Voice1: Sunday dinners turn into Birthdays, turn into the holidays. Next thing you know-
Joe: Welcome to the family, Father.

*****
I never bought into it, as a kid, I never really did. I was scared of it, I was fearful of the place, because our family didn't always go to church, and the nuns and priests were scary people. When I first met Father Pete, I thought, this guy is scary. Then he pretty much won me over with attention.

In the play I portray a specific moment age 13 14. I yearned to have a mentor in my life, someone who understood me. My parents were great but I was definitely a sensitive kind of emotionally needy kid.

And I loved the arts, I loved talking about politics, I was interested in those things and he was the perfect person to talk to about that stuff. He was interested in theater and arts and music and we would talk about everything. Was he just telling me what I wanted to hear, and that then begins the whole struggle within. He’s telling you you're special, then he starts physically abusing you.
********

Voice2: Typical story.
Joe: We know that now.
Voice1: But you did keep your distance at first
Joe: As much as I could
Voice1: But he worked you well
Joe: He did, but I don’t think he liked me at first either.
Voice3: That was his plan.
Joe: He would call me…
Pete: You little shit
Joe: Always when mom and pop weren’t around.

****************
I didn't want the play For Pete's Sake to be about abuse, it’s a story about a relationship. And there’s a lot of humor in it, because that's how I dealt with it, and how I survived, was being the joker and with humor, and that's what's in the play.

You can affect people better with laughter, they open up, then you hit them over the head with this drama, no one wants to sit there for an hour and a half feeling miserable. Entertaining people I have a better shot at getting a message out, is my feeling, for people that come to the show.
*****************

Joe: I actually started to look forward to seeing him; I wanted him to like me. I had someone I can trust, just like that.
Voice2: You’ve been groomed!
Joe: Now that word. groomed. Sounds like I’m a dog. What do they teach grooming in the seminary, seems like these priests all use the same techniques. They must have a handbook

*****************
I had to play dead a lot of times.

Pretend to be passed out tell him I took the Dramamine when I didn't take them, then having to deal with him sneaking up on me in the middle of the night. Me pretending I was passed out and physically trying to cover myself up without letting him know that I was not passed out. ‘’I’ve had a number of years of dealing with that and that's in the play, what a typical night with him would be, passing out, faking being passed out, then dealing with him in the night coming to check on me.

Then I’d leave and be telling myself, ‘you are such a scumbag.’ And then he gives you gifts and this turns into a self hatred, disgust with yourself, you feel like people can see it and smell it on you.
********************

Mom: Father Pete is planning a trip to Australia and he offered to take you as well. It would be a gift, would that be something you’d like to do?
Voice1: No!
Joe: Australia wow, that’s far away, cool.
Pete: Here we go, are you ready for another!
Joe: Sure, I need to get used to drinking like this for college
Joe: Enough! Never got to see where Crocodile Dundee lived. I hated that trip. I still feel
like that 18 year old, and not in a good “hey I’m so cool for my age” way. I started to
look at things very differently. The world got darker.
Time to go to college. Pack up, me and my little secret.
Pete: So did you jerk off today?
Voice3: Oh crap here it comes

******************

(City of Angels: Like many adult victims - and this is a story I’ve heard several times in the last three years of interviewing the crime victims Joey asked the perpetrator priest to officiate at his wedding.

His Perpetrator Performed His Wedding?

Joe explained:)

It’s this priest that you're friends with, he’s close with your family, he’s married your brother, your cousins. When it’s time for me to get married, I have to do it in a Catholic church, marry a Catholic girl…

Then the guilt I feel towards my ex wife and putting her through that, in terms of my relationship with him. There’s a scene in the play after a dinner, me and my wife are talking and she says to me, was it just me or was he being a little bitchy to me tonight.
*****************

Ex-wife: Is it me or was Pete being kind of, I don’t know, bitchy to me tonight?
Joe: No..
Ex-wife: …at times he tries to get me to look dumb, makes fun of me a little too much
Joe: He’s joking around.
Ex-wife: It makes me uncomfortable…and it’s not the first time
Joe: He’s goofing with you, c’mon. I don’t know…he was just tired, really tired tonight.
Ex-wife: It’s like he’s jealous…
Joe: Of what?
Ex-wife: So you didn’t see any of that? It’s my imagination…

**************
Because what Pete would do was he was jealous, and I could see before my eyes, he would do his best to make her uncomfortable especially when he started drinking.

In my mind I had an exit strategy how to get him out of my life. Once I got married and that obligation was done, I would distance myself. But the problem is he’s still friends with the family. He’s still there.
**************

Ex-wife: I’ve been talking to my therapist…
Joe: What? Your shrink? About me
Ex-wife: Well for myself but of course I talk about you, us and she says that you are emotionally unavailable
Joe: Oh so a shrink can tell you what’s wrong with me, without meeting me, talking to me? So you spend the time talking about me, you should worry about yourself, emotionally unavailable, I mean what the hell does that mean?
Ex-wife: It means that you are so caught up in yourself that emotionally you cannot bethere for someone, like me
Joe: See I think I am emotionally available, because right now emotionally I’m pissed and it’s available to you.
Voice1: She was right…
Joe: (JOE looks at EX-WIFE) I know…

***************
(City of Angels: There is a scene in the play where he uses the sounds of all the voices talking at once. You can hear it. You can envision it. The words are the kinds of words actors like to wrap themselves around.

In scene below, we see how 'For Pete's Sake' portrays the confusion created by sex crimes of Catholic priests:)
***************

Voice3: Open your eyes he’s trying again, get up you have to go!
Joe: Pete, I gotta go!
Voice3: Just get to your car! Go down the stairs, through the rectory, out the door, get to your car,
Voice1: Pete is following behind, tell him you have to get home!
Joe: I have to get home
Voice2: You let it happen again,
Voice3: Just go, this is embarrassing, Say goodbye but be polite,
Joe: Goodnight Pete, thank you!
Voice2: You can end it here!
Voice1: Stop saying that!
Voice2: Wrapped around a pole in Jersey.
Joe: Just tell one person
Voice2: End it all here and you won’t have to tell anyone!
Voice1: Tell someone
Joe: Who can I tell?
Voice3: Please slow down!
Voice2: Keep the secret
Voice1: Tell someone
Voice3: Slow down!
Voice2: Keep it, keep the secret, keep it, keep the secret
Voice1: Tell someone, tell someone, tell someone
Voice3: Slow down, slow down, slow down
Joe: KEEP IT!
(MOM enters, JOE gets up from chair to greet his MOM)
Joe: Mask on. (beat) Hey mom
Mom: How was your night?
Joe: Good
Mom: How was dinner?
Joe: Good
Mom: How’s Pete?
Joe: Good, good to see him, always fun

*******************
The first person I told was my ex-wife. We, our relationship- I was in no position of being in a relationship, I had so much stuff that I had to deal with and I couldn't do that to someone. I couldn't be a supportive person, I couldn't be a partner. Until I dealt with it like I'm doing now, dealing with my own crap, how can I be there for someone else.
*********************

Ex-wife: Are you okay?
Voice1: Stop being afraid
Joe: No… I’m not okay,
Voice2: You’re just as guilty
Ex-wife: Why, what’s wrong?
Voice1: Tell her
Joe: …I don’t know
Ex-wife: Maybe you should go stay with Pete for a little while.
Joe: No…
Voice1: The truth. Say it!

***************
As an actor when you have those moments that you do it, you make someone laugh or cry, you also have the feeling of being heard and listened to, it’s a drug that thing that gets you, makes you feel alive.

Monsignor Cheplic got a better deal than I did. He’s got his full pension, his benefits, nobody knows where he is living today.

That's so funny, they say since he’s retired, they don't have to be accountable for where he is.
******************

(EX-WIFE exits)
Voice3: You are emotionally unavailable.
Joe: I know!
Voice3: You had nothing to give
Joe: I know that now, I haven’t had one honest relationship
Voice3: Well what do you expect, the last time you opened up to someone he…
Joe: I need to learn how to trust.
Voice1: Give it time.

****************
PERFORMANCES of For Pete's Sake
Often benefit Road to Recovery

"I credit Bob Hoatson Hoatson with really saving me, saving my life," Capozzi said. "When I came out with what happened to me, I was like, now what do you do, who can you trust. When I told my family, actually my brother put me in touch with SNAP in New Jersey, and then Pat Serrano from SNAP in New Jersey who’s just been an incredible supportive trusting woman, put me in touch with Bob Hoatson.

"I talked with him one night and next day met with him. He had information, he knew of Cheplic, and knew of past abuse allegations about Cheplic.

"When I came forward, Bob Hoatson already knew a history of Cheplic. So when I went public, Hoatson was very supportive, I put my name out there. I didn't trust just going to the archdiocese.

"Bob Hoatson was one of the first people who started to give that back to me. He guided me through the process of formally going to the church and to law enforcement to make record of my allegations. He would always call to check on how I was doing.

"Hoatson NEVER once asked me for anything. The church has put him through hell only because Bob wants the truth to be known and the church is afraid of the truth.

"When I started writing 'For Pete's Sake' I promised myself that if I ever presented the play to an audience Road to Recovery would benefit. Since the first reading in December of 2008, we have raised over $2000 and will continue raising money and awareness for Road to Recovery with the benefit readings of "For Pete's Sake" planned in the future."

**************
CofA: In the last three years I’ve heard these stories from so many people. The MO these priests used is too similar for there not to have been some kind of communication - a network, yes, even a conspiracy - between the predator priests who stalked families throughout the United States in the last century and the bishops who enabled them. The problem of being crime victims who are also writers and artists is -

How do we explain the depth of the damage.

When someone sexualizes a person before adulthood, it affects them at the very core of their being. Add in the factor that the rapist is a clergy person with community wide credibility of being a man somehow connected to God - lines and lines of blog posts and newspaper articles, volumes of books still can’t capture it. It takes that spark of creativity, a lightning bolt to shock an audience awake.
*******************

Pete: So did you jerk off today?
Voice3: Oh crap here it comes
Joe: uhhm actually nope not today, like I’ve told you before, not really into that…
Voice2: Liar!
Pete: I’m just wondering,
Voice1: You don’t have to tell him!
Joe: I really don’t. It’s a sin isn’t it? I don’t want to go blind.
Pete: Oh come on… what do you guys do nowadays?

****************
In “For Pete’s Sake” by Joe Capozzi you ride a roller coaster - fly parabolas in a test aircraft - experience excitement rage hilarity despair - a lot like a day in the life of an adult victim of a pedophile priest. A reading of the play is tentatively on calendar for a location in Manhattan Dec. 5.
****************

Joe: I thought, just be quiet.

Don’t be a troublemaker.

But no one hears John Doe

View Capozzi's video

Read more about Cheplic by Looking Under C in the data base of accused priests at Bishop Accountability

How does one pay for this great blog?

Do the PayPal high five campaign.

Just click one of the Donate buttons on the left. After each post we pass the hat, that's how it works.

Police call it suicide, survivor sees overlooked evidence and wrongful death settlement, asks for homicide investigation

2009-10-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

*
UPDATE: Slammed at work, more stories coming soon (10/08)
*
By Kay Ebeling

In the last years of his life, a fellow Jesuit brother assaulted him sexually when he had two broken legs and couldn't defend himself. He then lived in a recovery center, where many of the fellow priest patients were named in pedophile cases. Father Jim Chevedden hated living around sexual predators, and he’d asked the Jesuits numerous times to let him relocate. In May 2004 he was enthusiastic, as he was finally going to start a new assignment.

Then a fellow patient at the Jesuit recovery center took Father Chevedden for a ride. . .

His brother John Chevedden of Los Angeles recently wrote to the District Attorney in San Jose: “There is no evidence that the victim had any contact with the 42-inch high wall. Therewas no trace of white paint from the wall on the victim’s dark clothes or on his shoes. There was no clothing fibers from the victim’s dark clothing on the white wall. There were no victim footprints on the wall. There were no victim fingerprints at the scene. There is no evidence that the victim was on the hoods of any of the new cars parked next to the wall.”

It’s been more than a month, and the DA has still not responded to John Chevedden's letters and emails about the questionable death of his brother, Father James, who landed face up on the sidewalk just a few yards away from where the DA sits in his office in San Jose.

Details of his brother’s death do not add up to “suicide” for John Chevedden.

On the day he died, Father Chevedden’s psychiatrist told police: “The decedent called to talk and said he had a hard time sleeping the night before. There were no specific problems discussed and no suicidal ideations.”

On the day of James' death, Father Jerold Lindner was supposed to be there, to pick up Brother Jim after jury duty.

So the last person to be alone with Brother Chevedden before he died was likely one of the more menacing predator priests in the state of California, Jerold W. Lindner.

Lindner’s sidekick, another serial pedophile at the Jesuit center in Los Gators, was Brother Charles Leonard Connor who, to make matters worse, even sexually assaulted Brother Chevedden while he was immobilized in a wheelchair because of two broken legs. Now the two credibly accused predator priests had been intimidating Father Chevedden for months.

Instead of being picked up from jury duty that day by Jerold Lindner, James Chevedden was found dead on the sidewalk outside the courtroom parking structure. There was no note, no suicidal behavior.

In 1998, Jim had fallen off a ladder and it was not clear if it had been a suicide attempt or a case of his not taking antidepressant medication as prescribed. Since that incident, the priest had been taking his medication regularly, and in early 2004 the priest reportedly was doing fine.

The events the day of Brother Jim's death:

James Chevedden asked Jerold Lindner to say Mass for him, so James could get to jury duty on time. Instead the ever manipulative Lindner turned the tables and insisted on driving Chevedden to jury duty. They then took a circuitous route, time for a good long talk.

Lindner dropped Chevedden off at the courthouse and made a questionable U-Turn, as if he was in a hurry.

In L.A. today, John Chevedden brings up that U-Turn often when he talks about what happened to his brother. Unanswered questions about his brother’s death keep the retired aerospace engineer motivated. He pores over police reports and writes to law enforcement. He connects with activists, such as members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

John Chevedden wants an investigation into his brother's questionable death

On May 19, 2004, Father James Chevedden reported for jury duty in clerical collar, so no doubt he was noticed. The priest waited in a jury room for hours, then his group was dismissed. Minutes later, Chevedden’s body
was found dead on the sidewalk outside. His Bible was sitting next to the barricade at the top of a six-story parking structure. Based almost solely on the evidence of the Bible lying where he would have jumped, the San Jose Police ruled Chevedden’s death a suicide.

Police never questioned others on Chevedden's jury panel or courtroom personnel who worked with the waiting jury

There were no fibers from the wall on Chevedden’s clothing, no fingerprints or footprints on the cars where he would have had to climb to jump to his death. There was, however, plenty of opportunity for someone to throw his body over the side. Homicide would coincide better with marks on the body and face and its position on the sidewalk.

VIDEO: NO FIBER EVIDENCE

There was no suicide note, though the priest wrote prolifically in journals. At the Los Gatos Center, Father Chevedden thrived on medication, showed no signs of suicidal depression for which he had been treated more than five years earlier.

The only unusual thing in Father James Chevedden’s life before he died was the pattern of intimidation and even sexual assault with which he had to live, as a brother in “treatment” at the Jesuit center in Los Gatos, California. Because Chevedden had survived a bout of depression six years earlier, he had to continue living at the Jesuit recovery center in Santa Clara County.

The last man to see or be with Chevedden before he died:

Four of Jerold Lindner's accusers said they were so traumatized that they tried to commit suicide as teenagers. Others reported suffering failed marriages, depression, flashbacks and a loss of faith. Many said they had remained silent until now because of a deep sense of shame and because they feared retaliation by Lindner. The alleged victims said they are angry -- at the priest and at the Jesuits. "We all want him behind bars, where he belongs," said Tamara Roehm, 35, of Lancaster, one of Lindner's nieces.

See: LA Priest Blamed for Legacy of Pain in Los Angeles Times

Also look up: more stories about Lindner under L at Bishop Accountability:

Look up more stories about Connor under C at Bishop Accountability:

John Chevedden emailed City of Angels:

Kay, These are the my notes on Fr. Thomas Smolich’s deposition which I attended in San Jose. Fr. Smolich is now the top Jesuit in the USA and he was the Provincial of the Jesuit Calif. Province from 1999 to 2005.

John.

== Deposition of Fr. Smolich in Chevedden case, July 28, 2006

[Page] 19
When Smolich was made Provincial in 1999, Jim was permanently assigned to Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos
28
Smolich never met Jim’s 2002 to 2004 psychiatrist, Dr. Maloof
29
Jim’s 1998 jump was not a suicide attempt. It was the result of a conflict that Jim had with his parishioners.
46
Dr. Susan (Jim’s psychiatrist from 1996 to 2002) was put on the Jesuit Sensitive Incidents Team and Smolich knew Jim was seeing her as a client (conflict of interest for Dr. Susan)
60
Smolich did not have day-to-day care of the 435 Calif. Province Jesuits.
61
Smolich did not ask the Jesuit communities to send their priests with psychological problems to Los Gatos. [Yet Jim was required to live at Los Gatos.]
64
Jim’s first complaint re Br. Connor was in June 2004 (not in March 2002, see page 77 below)
65
Smolich claims that Jim merely complained about harassment by Br. Connor.
71
Smolich claims that Br. Connor’s [retaliatory] jamming of Jim’s injured foot happened before Connor’s groping
73
Connor must be telling the truth about Jim because Connor even admitted to massaging one of the dishwashers [above the waist].
74
Smolich did not know who to believe – Chevedden or Connor [a registered sex offender]
77
In March 2002 Smolich knew Jim felt strongly against living with sex offenders
84
The University of Santa Clara (where Jim wanted to move to) did not have a suitable “personality perspective” for Jim – maybe Smolich means the Jesuit culture there was too gay
88
Jim raised his fist to Fr. Smolich because Fr. Smolich did not give Jim a yes or no answer fast enough
89
Jim also let out a “frustration” sound.
102
Jim could “scream out loud” so it was safe to house him with Br. Connor
104
Jim’s letter to Fr. Neuhaus was an attempt to go to the press [It was a request for advice]
[Smolich infers that since Jim’s letter to Fr. Neuhaus did not result in a news article, that Smolich has no fear of Jim blowing the whistle.]
110
Groping is harassment according to Smolich
122
Was Jim a liar? No. [But Smolich could not decide if Jim was telling the truth about Br. Connor’s groping]
123
Preventing Jim from accepting the New York Chinatown assignment was Smolich’s decision
143
Fr. Lindner [housed in the same building as Jim] may well be the sickest human being.

Kay – This article was in the San Jose Mercury News in 2008. It mentions Fr. Jerold Lindner, who was alone in a car with my brother 3-hours before his death. Fr. Lindner was a friend of Br. Connor who sexually assaulted my brother in 1998 and then in retaliation injured my brother's foot which had recently been operated on.

John

From Mercury News Story:

The lone Jesuit accused of abuse in the Diocese of Oakland was the Rev. Jerold Lindner, who was named in a 2003 lawsuit by a girl who said he molested her at Corpus Christi in Piedmont while he was serving at St. Ignatius Prep School in San Francisco.

The lawsuit contends that from the 1950s to the 1980s, Lindner "abused and molested his 5-year-old nephew in Arizona and Berkeley," "sodomized and molested two brothers, ages 4 and 7," "orally copulated and sodomized his 11-year-old nephew" and "molested three nieces."

Lindner has been accused by 10 men and women in Southern California, Phoenix and the Bay Area, the Los Angeles Times reported. Lindner has denied the allegations, but he was part of a secret $625,000 settlement in 1997, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Kay, I sent this second email message with new information to the San Jose District Attorney’s office (David Tomkins) in regard to the questionable death of my brother.

- John Chevedden

Dear Mr. Tomkins

This is to forward additional information to supplement my September 1, 2009 email message on the lack of evidence to explain how a 56 year-old man can thrust himself, without any help, into to an immediate horizontal fall that propels him to land approximately 10 feet away from the building, parallel to the building and flat on his back. The difficulty of this is compounded by the police photos that lead one to believe that the fall began from a 42-inch high wall with a narrow 12-inch ledge that was blocked off by parked cars.

The additional information here highlights the significance of the lack of evidence to explain the launching of the victim’s body to its final resting place approximately 10-feet outward from the building.

There is no evidence that the victim had any contact with the 42-inch high wall. There was no trace of white paint from the wall on the victim’s dark clothes or on his shoes. There was no clothing fibers from the victim’s dark clothing on the white wall. There were no victim footprints on the wall. There were no victim fingerprints at the scene. There is no evidence that the victim was on the hoods of any of the new cars parked next to the wall.

Two factors compound each other: The launching of the body over a significant distance outward from the building and the lack of contact with the 42-inch wall with a narrow ledge which was a barrier to anything going over the side.

The victim also had unexplained injuries such as a bruised forehead and nose. Additionally the palm of the left hand showed numerous cuts and there was a cut on the right wrist. There was no evidence that the victim’s body or clothes had made any contact with the fence next to the body.

Sincerely,
John Chevedden
Brother of James Chevedden

Lindner & Death Threat

Bart [Lynch] was four, he remembers, when Father [Jerold Lindner, S.J.] assaulted him in the course of a CFM camping trip. "Violence is the key issue, even more important than the sexual abuse. I literally feared for my life. Whispering in my ear, Father Jerry said, 'You want to live, don't you. Don't tell anyone, or I'll kill you.'"

This was after Father Jerry had sodomized the four-year old. "I remember blood in my pants and Father Jerry burying them in the woods".... But before the formal charges were laid, the Jesuits were made aware of the accusations against Father Jerry made by the two Lynch brothers.

In May of 1997, so Father Jerry has testified, he met with the Father Provincial, John Privett and also with Father Sonny Manuel, another senior Jesuit. According to testimony, Manuel said it was okay for Father Jerry to continue teaching at Loyola High, but that he couldn't lead youth groups to Europe because the agency running the trips would have to be informed of the lawsuit.

Michael Meadows, "The Case of Father Jerry," Counterpunch 1999:

Source:

Kay, Attached are photos of my brother 7-months before his death. Jim’s parishioners are celebrating his 25th jubilee as a priest.

In 2008, the Chevedden family received a moderate settlement, quietly, from the Jesuits for “wrongful death.” But those unanswered questions from the “suicide” still plague John Chevedden, who now retired from aerospace, pours out letters to law enforcement and media trying to get an investigation open into his brother’s 2004 death.

Supposedly Father Jim walked out from serving jury duty to the top level of the parking lot, set his Bible on the ground, and somehow got over the rail to fall to his death without touching anything around him. Just took up wings and flew over the rail to his death, is what the police report leads you to believe.

FROM POLICE REPORT:

SYNOPSIS: On 5-19-04 at approx. 1648 hrs, a death occurred at 171 W. Nedding St. (parking garage), San Jose. The victim was located by fire paramedics on the ground on the north side of the garage. The victim was pronounced dead at 1648 hours by Fire Paramedic Estrada from Engine Five. The coroner was contacted and took custody of the victim.

NARRATIVE: On 5-19-04 at approx. 1647 hours I was dispatched to a call of a person down in the area of W. Hedding Street and No. San Pedro, San Joose. Upon my arrival, I contacted fire-paramedic Estrada #173 from Engine #5 and he said he had pronounced the victim dead at 1648 hours. Sgt. Pate #2737 was dispatched and was on scene. The scene was taped off with crime scene tape and the medical / fire personnel were escorted out of the scene.

I responded to 101 W. Younger and made contact with Maples and Mijokovic and they provided the following statements:

Statement of Maples: Maples was on her brake [sic] sitting on the break room balcony of building A at 101 W. Younger Ave. At Approx. 1624 Hours, Maples saw a dark object falling and hitting the ground at north side of the parking garage. Maples was approx. 100 to 150 yards away and could not see what the object was.

Maples went inside and asked R / P Mijokovic to move the security camera to the area of the dark object to see what it was. Maples did not see where the object had fallen from.

STATEMENT OF R/P MIJOKOVIC: Mijokovic said that Witness #1 had told him to turn the security camera to the parking garage to see what had fallen. Several minutes later Mijokovic used the security camera at the Dispatchers’ office to zoom in on the dark object.

After zooming in Mijokovic realized that the object was a body and called 911.

I responded back to the scene and was posted by Sgt. Paate as scene security. At 1953 Hours I took over the crime scene log from Office Waara #3345. Sergeant Barrera #2017 of the Night Detectives was advised and responded to the scene.

Items were located on the 6th floor of the parking garage directly above where the (V.) was located, see Officer Sizeth(?) #3474 F-3 for further.

Sgt. Pate adviced [sic] me that there was some possible latent prints on a vehicle on the 6th floor.

Physical Evidence: I lifted 3 cards of possible latent prints. Two cards from the front bumper of a Ford Expedition and one card from the light pole base located on the north east side of the sixth floor.

Officer Smith had taken photos of items prior to me dusting them.

At approx. 1901 hours Coroner Investigator Albright arrived at the scene and took custody of the victim.

SUMMARY:

“On the sixth floor of the garage I discovered a Jewish Bible and a legal note pad sitting on the floor next to the wall where the subject was found. On 5/19/04 at approx. 1656 hours, I responded to a suicide incident at 171 W. Hedding Street.”

Medical Examiner's Report Contradicts Police Report and Evidence in Several Places: :

“This 56-year old male was witnessed to have jumped from a six-story parking structure.”

NO, the witnesses saw an object falling, no one actually saw him jump. And physical evidence does not support a jump, as there was no residue from the white concrete wall on the dead priest’s body or clothing and no fingerprints found on the wall or nearby cars.

“Emergency services found the decedent face up on the dirt behind the parking structure.”

Why did Chevedden go out to the top floor of the parking structure. Why didn't police even attempt to interview persons who were with Chevedden in the jury room area?

Kay, This is the Medical Examiner Report. Page-one has the made-up story by the detectives that Jim was observed to have jumped. Jim was only observed after the fall began. Plus this report mentions the unexplained cuts to the hands and the unexplained bruised nose and forehead.- John

FROM THE MEDICAL EXAMINER’S REPORT:

I spoke with the decedent's psychiatrist, George Maloof, who said that he treated him approximately two years for paranoia and depression. Dr. Maloof said the decedent had a prior suicide attempt by similar means of jumping off a building.”

No. James Chevedden was on a ladder when he fell and broke both legs, which is how he was immobilized in a wheelchair and as a result sexually assaulted by Connor.

(It’s so hard to write about sex crimes of Catholic priests without getting stuck in run-on sentences and endless references to similar crimes, they all seem connected.)

From Medical Examiner’s Report:

Dr. Maloof said the decedent was functioning well for the problems he exhibited. The decedent had recently worked at a ministry in Taiwan and because of his language skills worked at a Chinese ministry in Oakland.

The decedent repeatedly expressed his anxiety and stress over his job. Dr. Maloof said the decedent called him today to talk and said he had a hard time sleeping the night before.

"There were no specific problems discussed and no suicidal ideations.”

PLUS the Psychiatrist’s statement, that the day Chevedden died: “The decedent called to talk and said he had a hard time sleeping the night before. There were no specific problems discussed and no suicidal ideations.”

"There were no specific problems discussed and no suicidal ideations.”

Fr. James Chevedden had two job offers and hopes of being a parish priest again soon in the Chinese community he loved. His brother John has photos of Jim seven months before his death at his 25 year
jubilee and getting the Man of the Hour award from a Chinese American parish where he’d been serving, a big grin on his face.

Details of Brother Jim’s death just don't add up.

He’d been living in a kind of recovery center / spa “overlooking Santa Clara Valley.” Because of Jim Chevedden’s clinical depression, the Jesuits kept him in the center, with sexual predators who had dozens of credible, sometimes violent, charges against them. One of those predators even assaulted Jim when he was in a wheelchair.

Brother Jim wanted out, he was applying for jobs away from the center, he had a job offer, he was grinning ear to ear and taking his medication.

********************

John Chevedden shows up today at events for clergy sex abuse survivors. He’s one of the most reliable members of SNAP in Los Angeles. John will arrive at a moment’s notice to leaflet, leaflet, leaflet. At the same time he strikes up conversations with the activists, describes the mysteries of his brother’s death.

John has been writing to the District Attorney of Santa Clara about the unsolved mystery of his brother’s death. So far no answer from law enforcement, surprise, surprise.

INSERT VIDEO 025

Jerold Lindner menaced him, then may have been the last person to see James Chevedden alive

John Chevedden of Los Angeles tells of the threatening environment in which his brother Jim lived the last months of his life. In the rehab center for Jesuits, at least two co-patients were serial sexual predators. They intimidated Brother James on a regular basis.

At one point while his brother was recovering from two broken legs, one of the priests, Father Connor sexually assaulted Brother Jim.

His brother wanted OUT of the Jesuit Center in Santa Clara, but Jesuit hierarchy continued to side with the very priests who were intimidating Father Jim, forcing him to stay.

He didn't like living around pedophiles, Father Jim told his brother John not long before his death. But he was also a dedicated Jesuit brother, who obeyed his superiors.

Lindner has been accused by 10 men and women in Southern California, Phoenix and the Bay Area, the Los Angeles Times reported. Lindner has denied the allegations, but he was part of a secret $625,000 settlement in 1997, according to the Los Angeles Times.

James Chevedden was finally going to get out from under the menacing stronghold of Jerold Lindner, then Lindner was the last person to see James Chevveden alive.

John Chevedden wants the District Attorney in San Jose to reopen the investigation into his brother’s death.

Q: You describe a scene that to me seems kind of threatening. Where Father Lindner took your brother for a ride, and drove him around in a very strange manner, just hours before your brother’s death. Can you describe that for me again?
JC: Well it seemed like Father Lindner tricked him into accepting a ride. My brother asked Father Lindner to say a Mass for him so that my brother could go to jury duty. And Father Lindner said, well you say the Mass, and then I’ll drive you. I think that my brother was very polite and he would be reluctant to turn down this favor, which would put him in a small car with a person who is credibly charged with sex abuse of young children.
And my brother was very, very dedicated to young children. He had a kindergarten, he was responsible for a kindergarten in Taiwan. And when my brother and I would take walks, I mean, he would strike up conversations with young children, and here there were all these media reports of how Lindner chose these young children as his victims.
Q: Did your brother mention Lindner to you as being a person who was kind of threatening?
JC: I believe he told me that he was concerned that he relied upon Lindner for some help with the computers, and he thought that Lindner had seen his password. And so he asked me to give him a new password on his Yahoo email.
Q: He was already not real comfortable about Lindner anyway?
JC: It seems that way. And here he was thrust into a situation where he had to depend upon Lindner for the, should we say, the daily necessities, you know, like for email access. And my brother also made comments that he would access certain websites at the computers at the Jesuit Center and then later on these websites were not accessible. It raises the question whether Lindner might have blocked, might have gone through the history and seen some of the websites and blocked access to them, that's a question that my brother had.
******

City of Angels blog is produced and written by Kay Ebeling. After each post we pass the PayPal hat, that's how it works. Please click us a cosmic high five through the Donate buttons in the left hand column and below, thank you

Even Jesus would frown on this one.

2009-10-05T05:26:00.000-07:00

.
Invoking Jesus to explain away sex crimes

The bishop of Nova Scotia dashes off a quick letter to his flock after the Vicar is arrested at the airport with child porn on his laptop. The bishop of Nova Scotia right away invokes Jesus to explain away priest sex crimes:

"It has occurred to me that in these past few days many of us are experiencing the reality and the full implication of the mystery of our faith. We are personally going through the passion and the death which Christ experienced ..."

No! You didn't say that!
But he did, and he goes on then to infer that pedophile priests are just being human, succumbing to human weakness like any of us would:

"One of these lessons is for all of us to have a better understanding of what constitutes a human person. People, priests, bishops are human, and failure to see, recognize and care about this will continue to produce inhuman expectations and give rise to inhuman behaviour. Another lesson is that failure in pastoral leadership is also connected to a misunderstanding of the diverse relationships which are needed to hold together the community of faith."

No.

Jesus, like any decent human, would not just turn the other cheek and walk away from hundreds of thousands of sex crimes against children in one continent alone. Being a pedophile is not just human nature or even human weakness, which is the underlying message here: "Hey, even priests and bishops are human."

"Bishops, priests, deacons and lay ministers are not superheroes; leadership among the people of God is not about power, it is about caring. There are many areas that we must attend to in order to move forward. Some are immediate, others will take more time. Together, let us face the present crisis; let us find the heart needed to slowly reconstruct our relationships and our capacity to trust and to care. It starts by being still before God."

If clergy want to be human, prove it. Get out of the robes and start paying attention to the way the rest of the human race acts. For example, you don't have sex with children. Instead this holy man writes that after decades of sex crimes by priests uncovered:

He goes on to blather:

"God: Why Lord? What does all this mean? What are you
asking of me and of my priests?"

Like the guy in the flood calling out to God for help while turning down passing humans offering rescue.

"My God, what is God asking of you?"

Well first stop invoking your own religion as an excuse for sex crimes to take place.

AARGH

I'm beginning to think it wasn’t angels who rolled away Jesus’ gravestone, the man rolled over in his grave himself, hearing future platitudes like this.

When will the church start facing responsibility for its crimes instead of running and hiding from them?

PS Wonder why they were searching his laptop at the airport in the first place...

OROGINAL STORY:

Text of the letter from Archbishop Anthony Mancini to the Catholics of Nova Scotia
CANADARoman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax
To the Roman Catholic Faithful of Nova Scotia,

Greetings and peace.
In the past days, I have been asked over and over again. What do you say to the parishioners...

Thanks to Abuse Tracker

***************

*
Preview: Story Coming Monday:

There is no evidence that the victim had any contact with the 42-inch high wall. There was no trace of white paint from the wall on the victim’s dark clothes or on his shoes. There was no clothing fibers from the victim’s dark clothing on the white wall. There were no victim footprints on the wall. There were no victim fingerprints at the scene. There is no evidence that the victim was on the hoods of any of the new cars parked next to the wall.

Q: What did you think was suspicious about the crime scene where your brother supposedly committed suicide?
A: Well he landed flat on his back, and he landed parallel to the building. He landed eight feet away from the building or rather ten feet from the building. His complete body was parallel and it was ten feet away from the building. So how he could have thrust himself in that position, I have no explanation for.
Q: You were describing that there was no trace evidence of-
JC: Yeah as far as we know, there’s no fibers on this 42-inch wall that has a narrow twelve inch ledge that would prevent anything from going over the side of the building. And he was dressed in dark clothing. The wall was obviously painted white. I don't believe there’s any trace that we know of any trace of white paint on his clothing. And no black fibers from his clothing on the white wall.
Q: Did you see a police report? What did it say in the police report? (About the fibers?)
JC: That wasn’t addressed in the police report at all.
Q: Why wasn’t it? It seems like they assumed it was a suicide from the start.
JC: Yeah it seems, you know, like that there was no contact with the building. as far as you look at the police report there’s no contact.

Q: You describe a scene that to me seems kind of threatening. Where Father Lindner took your brother for a ride, and drove him around in a very strange manner, just hours before your brother’s death. Can you describe that for me again?
JC: Well it seemed like Father Lindner tricked him into accepting a ride. My brother asked Father Lindner to say a Mass for him so that my brother could go to jury duty. And Father Lindner said, well you say the Mass, and then I’ll drive you. I think that my brother was very polite and he would be reluctant to turn down this favor, which would put him in a small car with a person who is credibly charged with sex abuse of young children.
And my brother was very, very dedicated to young children. He had a kindergarten, he was responsible for a kindergarten in Taiwan. And when my brother and I would take walks, I mean, he would strike up conversations with young children, and here there were all these media reports of how Lindner chose these young children as his victims.
Q: Did your brother mention Lindner to you as being a person who was kind of threatening?
JC: I believe he told me that he was concerned that he relied upon Lindner for some help with the computers, and he thought that Lindner had seen his password. And so he asked me to give him a new password on his Yahoo email.
Q: He was already not real comfortable about Lindner anyway?
JC: It seems that way. And here he awesome thrust into a situation where he had to depend upon Lindner for the, should we say, the daily necessities, you know, like for email access. And my brother also made comments that he would access certain websites at the computers at the Jesuit Center and then later on these websites were not accessible. It raises the question whether Lindner might have blocked, might have gone through the history and seen some of the websites and blocked access to them, that's a question that my brother had.

*************

Fr. Chevedden's Bible sat where the priest "jumped" to his death.

*****************

Story coming Monday

************************

ke

YES the videos are still unedited. Remember I have two other jobs... Current status is the camera uploaded videos are not compatible with the editing software on the computer. My daughter (who is City of Angels Technical Director) downloaded some new software, so now I just have to figure out where it went in the laptop ...

WISH I could quit my two other jobs and just write this Blog, get in a car and travel across the country doing all these stories.

The Questionable Death of Fr. Jim Chevedden

2009-10-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

*
Preview: Story Coming Monday:

There is no evidence that the victim had any contact with the 42-inch high wall. There was no trace of white paint from the wall on the victim’s dark clothes or on his shoes. There was no clothing fibers from the victim’s dark clothing on the white wall. There were no victim footprints on the wall. There were no victim fingerprints at the scene. There is no evidence that the victim was on the hoods of any of the new cars parked next to the wall.

Q: What did you think was suspicious about the crime scene where your brother supposedly committed suicide?
A: Well he landed flat on his back, and he landed parallel to the building. He landed eight feet away from the building or rather ten feet from the building. His complete body was parallel and it was ten feet away from the building. So how he could have thrust himself in that position, I have no explanation for.
Q: You were describing that there was no trace evidence of-
JC: Yeah as far as we know, there’s no fibers on this 42-inch wall that has a narrow twelve inch ledge that would prevent anything from going over the side of the building. And he was dressed in dark clothing. The wall was obviously painted white. I don't believe there’s any trace that we know of any trace of white paint on his clothing. And no black fibers from his clothing on the white wall.
Q: Did you see a police report? What did it say in the police report? (About the fibers?)
JC: That wasn’t addressed in the police report at all.
Q: Why wasn’t it? It seems like they assumed it was a suicide from the start.
JC: Yeah it seems, you know, like that there was no contact with the building. as far as you look at the police report there’s no contact.

Q: You describe a scene that to me seems kind of threatening. Where Father Lindner took your brother for a ride, and drove him around in a very strange manner, just hours before your brother’s death. Can you describe that for me again?
JC: Well it seemed like Father Lindner tricked him into accepting a ride. My brother asked Father Lindner to say a Mass for him so that my brother could go to jury duty. And Father Lindner said, well you say the Mass, and then I’ll drive you. I think that my brother was very polite and he would be reluctant to turn down this favor, which would put him in a small car with a person who is credibly charged with sex abuse of young children.
And my brother was very, very dedicated to young children. He had a kindergarten, he was responsible for a kindergarten in Taiwan. And when my brother and I would take walks, I mean, he would strike up conversations with young children, and here there were all these media reports of how Lindner chose these young children as his victims.
Q: Did your brother mention Lindner to you as being a person who was kind of threatening?
JC: I believe he told me that he was concerned that he relied upon Lindner for some help with the computers, and he thought that Lindner had seen his password. And so he asked me to give him a new password on his Yahoo email.
Q: He was already not real comfortable about Lindner anyway?
JC: It seems that way. And here he awesome thrust into a situation where he had to depend upon Lindner for the, should we say, the daily necessities, you know, like for email access. And my brother also made comments that he would access certain websites at the computers at the Jesuit Center and then later on these websites were not accessible. It raises the question whether Lindner might have blocked, might have gone through the history and seen some of the websites and blocked access to them, that's a question that my brother had.

*************

Fr. Chevedden's Bible sat where the priest "jumped" to his death.

*****************

Story coming Monday

Launch: Shop City of Angels at Zazzle, opens today

2009-10-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

***
Take images from City of Angels blog, combine them with sayings about pedophile priests. You end up with new products for sale at Shop City of Angels at Zazzle, launching today, October 3, 2009, featuring an orange and black men's tie that says "Mahony Kept Secrets" for Halloween (pictured at right).

The Zazzle Stream of cool new stuff is running today at the top of City of Angels blog and will run continuously at the bottom of the blog, so readers can browse and buy products that communicate so well the Catholic priest sex crime dilemma - Caps t-shirts and aprons that call out to a passing crowd: "Would you let a Catholic priest babysit your children?"

We will continue to create new stuff. Please send photo, art, and ideas for sayings to put on products to City of Angels.

UPDATE 9:14 AM: Plus Bumper Stickers, just found how to make bumper stickers.

Among the "gifts" available at Shop City of Angels at Zazzle so far:

The heretical words from Molested Catholic in San Diego, "I was molested by..." cascades creating a beautiful purple and orange tie, the perfect Christmas gift for that adult victim of pedophile priest relative you have for whom it's so hard to shop ... (pictured left)

UPDATE 2: 9:15 AM, I think they've removed the image from Ken's "I Was Molested" - too bad, as it made a lovely purple tie.

Yes, just went back and checked. They removed the Image from the group I've uploaded to work with at Zazzle, those images with the words "I was Molested by..." all of a sudden are no longer there.

The tie still seems to be for sale, as it is still in the stream, but I don't know yet what has happened.

If you can still buy the purple tie right now, it could be a one time only opportunity ... stay tuned...

More New Stuff:

Mahony in his cardinal crown on an apron, poster, hat, or travel mug saying, "Would you let a Catholic priest babysit?"

Men's ties with cascading images: the “Mahony Kept Secrets” sign from the January 2009 demonstration in Los Angeles, asking for a Grand Jury investigation. Makes for a beautfiful orange and black Halloween tie .

More men's ties that feature the Reversed Eye, iconic image from the top of the page at City of Angels Blog, cascading, for an elegant gray and black hued men's accessory. Some contain reversed type with messages.

Aprons that say, “Would you let a Catholic priest babysit?” With Cardinal Mahony in full Holy Man costume.

Would you even let a Catholic priest babysit?

Hats, Mugs, Shopping Bags, even works of art on canvas: Express yourself by shopping at City of Angels on Zazzle

Please send this link to your friends: http://www.zazzle.com/cityofangelslady

And, come back often. We will be adding new products all the time.

*********
Hey, the PayPal Donate Buttons were collecting cosmic dust, I had to do something ...
- kay ebeling

Boycott Polanski, says pedophile priest victim advocacy group, and more reporters show up for a media event than have in years

2009-09-30T21:49:00.001-07:00

*
By Kay Ebeling

Usually SNAP sends the media a notice about pedophile priests and bishops who commit felonies and one or two reporters show up. Wednesday they put the name Roman Polanski in a press release and about seventeen news reps arrived - early - the majors: CNN, ABC, KNX Radio Los Angeles, Fox LA, two Spanish TV crews, one French.

I have to beat down an urge to be Killjoy here and point out to these news hounds that a story of bishops who for decades aided and abetted crimes similar to the one Roman Polanski committed should at least arouse some curiosity in a journalist. But no, here, I see SNAP is right again, just play the way they play, and maybe along the way some reporter with a budget will notice this incredible story of thousands of serial sex crimes against children, and point the cameras away from the celebrities for a few hours.

If you can’t lick ‘em join ‘em. So here thanks to the SNAP event today about Roman Polanski I’ve added three videos at YouTube, with Roman Polanski in the title. So as we speak, people typing in Polanski’s name in the YouTube search engine might find the videos and then from there City of Angels Blog. (The videos from today's event in L.A. are embedded below.)

Even though it strikes me at the very craw of everything I believe about journalism, I’ll use the name Roman Polanski to try to drive up readership at City of Angels Blog too. I’ll use the name Roman Polanski if it helps get this message out.

SNAP calls for boycott of Roman Polanski products:

The audio is bad, so here is what the West Coast rep for SNAP, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, Joelle Casteix is saying:

JC: We are first of all urging the State Department to move without delay to extradite Mr. Polanski back to the United States. We are also begging urging and pleading with all the Hollywood dignitaries and luminaries who signed a petition supporting Mr. Polanski to talk to a victim of child sex abuse.

Ask if they would allow their child to go to Mr. Polanski’s home and be given champagne and a Quaalude and be left alone with a child molester.

This is egregious.

And we want all of these people who are standing up in the national media and asking if Mr. Polanski be given special treatment, because he’s rich and because he’s powerful, and because he’s talented, to seriously reconsider. You know, child molesters can be rich and talented, but they also need to be fully accountable.

Q: You are asking for a boycott?

JC: We are asking for a complete boycott of all Polanski’s films, as well as a complete boycott of any of the luminaries, including Mr. Scorsese, Mr. Allen, and anyone else who signed that petition, to ask for Mr. Polanski’s release.

Q: What about the prosecutorial misconduct?

JC: Well if there was prosecutorial misconduct, really I'm not a lawyer, but why not stand up for yourself.

City of Angels piped in with a question:

While we're extraditing pedophiles from foreign countries, why not go after Cardinals William Levada of San Francisco and Bernard Law of Boston, who are both now living in the Vatican?

Since both bishops oversaw the sex crimes of dozens of pedophile priests on hundreds of children in parish families, why don't we extradite them?

THud KillJoy was HeRe--

Alas, I no sooner said the word "Cardinals" and the reporters around me started packing up. The sounds of their clamping shut camera gear and wrapping up microphones drowned out my question.

As I tried to bring up the subject of church hierarchy crimes, these starry eyed news guys started looking for somewhere else to find someone else to make some new comment about Roman Polanski.

Why isn't the U.S. extraditing the bishops from the Vatican?

I called into the din...

ABOVE: Transcribed:

JC: We urge the State Department to work diligently to ensure that anyone who allows the sexual abuse of a minor is brought to justice, is extradited to the United States and brought to justice.

****************

Of course, I know that was another one of my former hippie hopelessly naive questions.

The bishops always high tail it to the Vatican. Always just hours before having to testify under oath they fly away, and once they are living in that "sovereign state" no one can touch them.

So many things are wrong here on so many levels, it's hard to figure out where to start. That's why I own City of Angels 1 through 30 and plan to keep writing these stories for years.

CHECK OUT THE PICS from Wednesday Sept. 30, 2009, SNAP event in L.A. about Roman Polanski:

Joelle Casteix (left) sent out the press release for SNAP about Polanski

Polanski? Polanski? Huh?

.

One reporter knew what City of Angels is: Phil Shuman, at left, is on the Fox 11 Investigates team.

Below, Joelle talks to Fox reporter at left, Esther talks to ABC reporter at right.

At right, Esther, SNAP member and survivor, talks to Univision 34 in Spanish.

As adult victims of pedophile priests we know there are hundreds of thousands of crime victims in the United States, that dozens of bishops who still hold office in cities across the country flagrantly took part in coverup of sex crimes against children. Nothing has changed institutionally in the Church that will get to the real cause of the epidemic of crimes, so it will likely happen again.

And the news media of Los Angeles think the story is Roman Polanski and his drugged out assault on a 13 year old girl in 1977. Strange, since in the seventies, there were so many people in the Hollywood Hills romping around naked in hot tubs having anonymous orifice penetration with each other not even knowing what sex each other were let alone what age - you'd think it was orientation at the seminary.

So, today in L.A., Roman Polanski is a more important story than the thousands of adult victims of pedophile priests who have never seen justice in American courts or law enforcement.

Maybe one reason we've never seen justice is this numb-brained news reportage with which we have to deal.

And here I am doing it too.

Best Coverage on Roman Polanski and the Media Circus:

Word in Edgewise
Santa Monica Daily Press - Kenny Mack - ‎Sep 29, 2009‎
Realizing he was going to spend the next decade being treated the way he treated his victim, but without the Jacuzzi, booze, and pills, Polanski fled...

Why Robert Harris' NY Times Pro-Polanski Op-Ed Is an Offensive ...
Huffington Post (blog)
In his NY Times op-ed piece Wednesday, "Why Arrest Roman Polanski Now?," Harris desperately attempts, as have so many others in the past several days, ...

Some creepy coverage:
THE timing of Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland on Sunday on ...
New York Post - ‎Sep 29, 2009‎
"The family has forgiven [Polanski]. The victim has forgiven him. The rest of the world has forgiven him," said Ratner, who cast Polanski as a French ...

Steve Lopez from L.A. Times:

STEVE LOPEZ Polanski's defenders lose sight of the true victim
Los Angeles Times - Steve Lopez
I'd like to show all these great luminaries the testimony from Polanski's underage victim, as well as Polanski's admission of guilt. ...

Self explanatory:

Hollywood Burning
National Review Online - Jack Dunphy
The victim's grand-jury testimony should disabuse any reader of the notion that she consented to what Polanski did to her. A warning, though: It is indeed ...

Polanski a Victim of Circumstances?

Elitist Justice?
Germantown Now - Al Campbell -
And, Polansky must be compelled to stand trial, finally, so that we can learn whether he is guilty as charged or if he was merely the victim of circumstance ...

Above transcribed:

Q: What do you make of the woman’s forgiving Roman Polanski and in fact urging last year that the case be dropped?

JC: Forgiveness is the gift you give yourself. For her to heal and for her to move on, she has to forgive Roman Polanski. You know, you can’t live a life full of anger at someone that you have no control over. And many of us work a long time to find forgiveness. But at the same time, that's what she needs to heal. And every time the case comes up in the media, her name is dragged in there.

*********************

Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign using Donate buttons on the left. After each post we pass the hat, that's how it works. - ke

**************************

Peering into the future...

About the time the Federal Courthouse in construction above is finished in L.A., the U.S. Government may finally be willing to prosecute Bishops of the Catholic Church - for obstruction of justice, massive fraud, and conspiracy, among other crimes. I predict that some of the hearings will take place in this Courthouse, in construction at 1st and Hill Street downtown as seen Wed. Sept. 30, 2009, a work in progress...

******

Vatican starts new lie campaign, plus unfortunately Hightower is still law

2009-09-30T06:43:00.001-07:00

:
The Vatican is lying, again, starting a new campaign saying it's gays that are the problem, not pedophiles, unless part of being gay is raping 11 - 17 year olds. By saying 1.5 - 5 percent of clergy are "involved" in pedophile priest sex crimes, the Vatican is lying, unless bishops and monsignors who make administrative decisions are not really clergy.

15 percent is closer to the number of clergy who were “involved” in Catholic priest sex crimes the last 50 years, in ways such as obstruction of justice, collusion, fraud, neglect, child endangerment, and outright lies to parishioners coming to them saying a priest molested their child, thinking bishops and monsignors were actually holy, and would respond on the side of justice regarding the crimes of pedophile priests. I guess the Vatican doesn't consider collusion corruption and conspiracy to be crimes.

Notice, also, how the Church from the Vatican down now are turning the tables, saying see, there's pedophiles in every other religion just as bad as Catholicism. Those are cooked numbers. No other religion has secret caverns where they store documents on things like how to handle priest sex crimes, written in Latin, accessible to inner circle leaders only.

Most other religions did not systematically transfer clergy AFTER finding out they were pedophiles. No other religion carried on the coverups at a national level as did the Catholic Church.

Maybe all religions operate with too much secrecy and too little accountability. But the Vatican is truly spinning with its recent releases, trying to distract attention from the real issue.

Fraud, negligence - and an ongoing coverup of the crimes.

Why were children literally served up as entitlements to priests with sex problems? We lived through it, we know what happened.

Credit Kathy Shaw at Abuse Tracker for uprooting this story:

Original story on Vatican lies, as posted on Abuse Tracker:

Vatican responds to sex abuse accusations

WAtoday (Australia)
RIAZAT BUTT AND ANUSHKA ASTHANA,

LONDON
September 29, 2009 .

The Vatican has lashed out at criticism over its handling of its pedophilia crisis by saying the Catholic Church was ''busy cleaning its own house'' and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger.

In a defiant and provocative statement, issued after a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said most of the Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not pedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.The statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's permanent observer to the UN, defended its record by claiming that ''available research'' showed that only 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse.
.

Why are Church Attorneys still citing Hightower?

I wondered why church attorneys arguing this month in Superior Court are still citing the Hightower case, when it is a very unusual case, not demonstrative of most clergy cases. Our coverage of Hightower was among stories removed from Examiner when they removed LA City Buzz at the request of the L.A. Archdiocese. Below we are posting the story again.

How could a case filed by a plaintiff from his prison cell be used as the standard for decisions in all future cases filed by attorneys for plaintiffs on the outside?

When you are dealing with Catholic Church attorneys, anything can happen.

The lawsuit known as "Hightower" that almost went to the CA Supreme Court was filed from prison - just after January 1 2004, so after the close of the 2003 one-year window in this state to file lawsuits previously time-barred. Thomas Hightower, a convicted pedophile who used the rape by a priest decades ago in his own defense, did not qualify for the one-year 2003 window, he was actually relying on other laws that applied to inmates filing legal documents to get his case through the courts.

I thought Hightower was no longer an issue since his appeal was turned down by the state Supreme Court and he's gone back to his cell without a dime. We reported on Hightower in May 2009 and that story is reprinted below.

In the real world, both the Church and Plaintiffs are waiting for the Court to decide on two other more related cases, KJ and Quarry.

However, I recently found out, Hightower is still relevant, as an attorney and reader explained to me:

"Quarry and KJ are uncitable as they are up on review before the Supremes. So until the Supremes resolve those two cases, Hightower remains the law.

"It all depends on what they do with Quarry and KJ. Until then, Hightower lives, and the church is trying to squeeze every last drop of usefulness out of it. Hopefully it will have a short lifespan.

Homework.

My hand is still too swollen to hit the keys, hopefully by tomorrow, we'll be rolling again. Meantime, for background on Hightower, here are two stories we published in May, one of our last before the L.A. Archdiocese got L.A. City Buzz removed from Examiner Dot Com.

Case filed by plaintiff who is child molester in prison could set standard

May 13, 6:09 PM

Thomas Hightower watched from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, as the Diocese of Sacramento agreed in July 2005 to pay $35 million to settle 33 claims of sexual abuse by priests, including 16 against Tacoma priest Mario Blanco. There were 17 cases filed, presumably the 17th was Hightower’s left unsettled. Yes, pedophile priest named in 17 lawsuits, Mario Blanco was still serving as a priest in 2005 in Tacoma, Washington.

Perpetrator priest Blanco In fact, while at least 17 men dealt with interrogatories from Catholic Church attorneys and lengthy litigation on their cases, Mario Blanco was being flown around the state by Mel Gibson. A man who became close to the priest in the 12 years he was at the Tacoma church and kept his schedule for several years said:

“Blanco traveled to such cities as Redding, Calif., Spokane, Tucson, Ariz., Denver and Los Angeles. The priest was so respected that the actor Gibson regularly flew Blanco to Southern California to celebrate Mass for a group of traditionalists. He said the actor also took the priest to Mexico to buy vestments and other items for the church.
From: Accused Priest Led a Public Life
The News Tribune [Tacoma WA]

A description of how Blanco insinuated himself into families’ lives in and around Sacramento from the Sacramento Bee:

According to diocesan records and people who remember him. Blanco was a talented musician who started church youth bands. That's how the the family of one of his plaintiffs met him

They recount how their parents were thrilled that Blanco paid attention to their sons, especially when he told them he wanted to start a band featuring their kids.

"My parents thought it was going to take them somewhere ... that he was going to make their kids famous," says Chico Chavez.

He says his father worked long hours as a landscaper. Their mother was often ill and spent much of her time in bed. There were 10 children. Blanco taught the kids music, and their father was so happy that he built a makeshift stage area in a corner of the basement. The Norteno-style band called "Crysol" played at several churches throughout the diocese, according to a church news clipping from the time. They cut two records in Spanish.

Over time, Blanco became a frequent visitor to the Chavez house.

Chico Chavez claims in his suit that the priest assaulted him repeatedly beginning when he was young. He says he was too ashamed and frightened to tell anyone and that the priest threatened the family. Chavez says it wasn't until he was a teenager, and told his brothers David and Javier that he had been abused, that they told him they had also been assaulted by Blanco.

Jaime says he fought off the priest. But Jaime also became increasingly hostile -- he picked lots of fights at school -- over the priest's presence in their home.

The boys say that when they told their parents about the abuse, their father became angry, accusing them of telling lies about the priest. But the boys made it clear they didn't want the priest around.

But they say Blanco did come back.

Each of the Chavez brothers describes waking up in the middle of the night and seeing that the priest had been staring at them through a window while they slept in the basement. They say he threatened them, and they chased the priest down the street. After that, they started sleeping with the baseball bats by their sides.

Their father declined to speak to The Bee. Their mother died in 1992.

Blanco said he does not remember the incident

(From Dec. 20, 2003 Sacramento Bee story)

Tim Hale, Santa Barbara attorney, helped me understand Hightower

"Hightower came out during heart of coordinating proceeding and claimed the plain language statute 340.1 was not the plain language of the statute," Hale said.
"As to why Hightower could impact so many other cases, as you know, most survivors never come to terms with what happened to them. Hell, some never even remember it, instead taking their nightmares to their graves. And for those few who do remember they were abused and recognize the harm the abuse caused, quite often that recognition does not come until much later in life after years of struggling with various demons they did not realize originated with their abuse.

“The end result of this is very few people make the connection between injury and abuse before they turn 26.

“Under Hightower, anyone who was 26 or older in 2003 does not have the right to make a claim under CCP 340.1's standard of making the connection between the injury and the abuse. This arbitrary cut-off could not have been intended by the legislature, but that is exactly what Hightower holds.

“The result is the dismissal of any case filed by someone who was over the age of 26 in 2003 (unless they had completely repressed their memory of the abuse, in which case there is case law that some courts -- not Judge Elias -- believe allows the plaintiff to avoid the Hightower result).”

The march of justice goes on. . . slowly

The decision affects anyone who wants to file a civil lawsuit for child sex abuse, but cases against the Catholic Church were being thrown out in L.A. because of a 2006 decision in a case litigated by Thomas Hightower, a plaintiff who filed his own briefs from a cell in Mule Creek State Prison.

The Bishop of Oakland won the case against Thomas Hightwoer on appeal, saying the suit was time barred by the Statute of Limitations, thus making all cases filed after the age 26 cap since December 2003 invalid. Now another appellate decision on the Quarry case in February 2009 disagrees with Hightower and says cases filed after age 26 are valid.

“The main difference is that Quarry was litigated by professional plaintiff attorneys,” says a plaintiff attorney in Santa Barbara.

Any day now the California Supreme Court could either agree to take the Quarry appeal, or refuse to take Quarry, making Hightower law. “The main difference is that Quarry was litigated by professional plaintiff attorneys,” says a plaintiff attorney in Santa Barbara.

The outcome of this case could keep plaintiffs from being able to file lawsuits as adults about sexual assault they experienced as a child in the state of California, except under strict guidelines that either no longer exist or continue to exist since the passage of CCP 340.1 in 2002.

Mario Blanco, Hightower perp (at left)

Attorneys and judges in the California Clergy Cases are now “waiting for Hightower,” as future civil cases re child sexual assault in this state hinge on this decision coming up any day now in the California Supreme Court. In hearings last month, Judge Emilie Elias referred indirectly to the February 2 Quarry decision and delayed action on several Los Angeles cases re Catholic priests saying, “My intent is to stay any more of the Hightower motions until we see if the Supreme Court takes them.

“I'm just not going to hear them until we see what's happening.”

Judge Elias has already dismissed about a dozen child sex assault lawsuits against the Catholic Church that have come before her since January 2008 when she took over the Clergy Cases from retiring Judge Haley Fromholz, based on the 2006 decision in the Hightower appeal.

One after the other, Elias granted the LA Archdiocese’s motions to dismiss - based on the Second District Court of Appeal decision in the case of Hightower vs. the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sacramento, now on appeal, which said the Legislature did NOT remove the age 26 cap. She stopped dismissing cases when the February 2, 2009 Quarry decision came out, and now everyone is waiting for the California Supreme court.

The Deck Once Again Stacked in Church’s Favor

The church will have managed to stack the deck entirely in its favor if the state Supreme Court turns down Quarry and retains Hightower, because Hightower was filed by a plaintiff filing motions for himself from state prison, where he is incarcerated as a hild sexual molester himself.

How could the Hightower case become the case that decides the future of child sex assaults lawsuits in California?

A decision as important as the Hightower appeals court decision in August 2006, litigated for plaintiffs by a damaged man in prison, if left in place, could return the State to pre- CCP 340.1 thinking. When the Legislature created the one-year window for lawsuits to be filed in 2003, most lawyers agree the legislators also removed age 26 cap from the statute of limitations.

The Bishop of Sacramento was able to get an appellate court to disagree. Fighting against one plaintiff filing motions from prison.

“Under Hightower, anyone who was 26 or older in 2003 does not have the right to make a claim under CCP 340.1's standard of making the connection between the injury and the abuse,” explains attorney Tim Hale in Santa Barbara. “This arbitrary cut-off could not have been intended by the Legislature, but that is exactly what Hightower holds.”

The Quarry decision from the First Appellate Court in Alameda in February 2009 counters Hightower, saying:

“Effective 2003 the Legislature deleted the age 26 cutoff as against a narrow category of third party defendants who had both the knowledge and the ability to protect against abusive behavior but failed to do so. Anyone discovering that childhood abuse was the cause of their injuries after 2003 could sue these—more culpable—defendants without regard to the age 26 cutoff.”

The Hightower decision reads:

“The statute of limitations ran out on Hightower's claims in 1977.”

Hightower’s case if full of errors, and it is different from almost every other child sex assault case in California. Yet the decision in this case filed by a prison inmate, fighting singlehandedly all the way to the Supreme Court against the Roman Catholic Church, could affect all future cases filed for sexual abuse that include a third party, not just against the Catholic church, but any guilty third party that was negligent and allowed sex crimes against the child now an adult filing a lawsuit to continue.

Where the third party - any employer or a corporate entity - is at fault, as has been the case with thousands of cases against the Catholic Church, the appellate decision in this weak case filed by Thomas Hightower, a prison inmate without an attorney, could affect the future of child sexual assault tort law in California.

Background on the unique case of Thomas Hightower:

(Pictured, Mule Creek State Prison, where Hightower resides)

The Hightower case like so many is a story in itself:

Thomas Hightower claims he got his “letter to bishop stating intent to sue” postmarked from Mule Creek State Prison mail December 23, 2003, putting his “motion” into the one year window for civil suits re sexual assault that the California Legislature opened in Civil Codes: 340.1 -

What is it this one plaintiff’s case - filed by a prison inmate acing on his own behalf; indeed the appeal briefs that led to the Second District appeal decision were filed by Hightower acting as his own attorney from prison - why is this the case that is used to go all the way to the California Supreme Court?
Hightower’s case is not at all similar to the more than 600 civil cases filed in California during that one-year window in 2003 or any cases filed since. Yet this weird case might be used to set the standard for all future child sex assault lawsuits in the state.

Once again the cards are stacked in favor of the Roman Catholic Church, who we know had teams of attorneys from several law firms fighting against Hightower, as they do with all their cases in California. All that power is fighting one damaged man in prison, who says he is a child molester himself because of the damage done to him by Mario Blanco?

Hightower’s case was too muddled to set a standard

From the Hightower appellate decision:

“January 14, 2004, the Sacramento court refused to file the document as a complaint because Hightower did not include the filing fee or a fee waiver request,” reads the Hightower decision.

“He alleged that as a state prison inmate he had an extra year to file his complaint under section 352.1 and that the delayed discovery rule for repressed childhood memories applied."

The Hightower case is extremely unusual and should not be allowed to affect future cases in California.
Hightower made a lot of mistakes filing from prison: More from the Hightower decision:

“Apart from a general statement that beginning at the age of 12 he was sexually abused by a priest of the Sacramento Archdiocese from 1970 to 1972, the document contains no allegations concerning a basis of liability against the bishop, does not mention damages, and seeks no relief. Finally, Hightower confirmed at the hearing on the bishop's demurrers that he filed the December 2003 document in order to put the court on notice that he was suing the bishop, that a formal complaint was being prepared, and that he eventually planned to file a complaint.”

He told the court in a hearing: “This is what I'll be suing for, and the formal complaint is being composed just as fast as I can get it composed.”

The case in the Quarry Decision is more likely similar to future cases: In Quarry, six brothers claim they were sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1970’s, when they were children. They sued defendant Doe I (Bishop of Alameda) in 2007 for damages due to adult-onset psychological injuries allegedly caused by that abuse. When they sued, they ranged in age from 43 to 40, but they did not discover until 2006 that the cause of their adulthood psychological injuries was the childhood sexual abuse.

The Bishop demurred to the complaint, arguing that the complaint was barred by the statute of limitations of Code of Civil Procedure[1] section 340.1.
The appellate court disagreed and said:

“Plaintiff need only allege the onset of psychological injury or illness after the age of majority and that he commenced his action within three years of the time he discovered or reasonably should have discovered such psychological injury or illness was caused by the childhood sexual abuse. (§ 340.1, subd. (a).)” (Id. at p. 1186.)

NOTE: Once again, the Church never denies these crimes took place, they just hire teams of attorneys to block justice for the crime victims.

More about Hightower’s case that reads like a drama:

Thomas Hightower watched from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, as the Diocese of Sacramento agreed in July 2005 to pay $35 million to settle 33 claims of sexual abuse by priests, including 16 against Tacoma priest Mario Blanco. (there were 17 cases filed, presumably the 17th was Hightower’s left unsettled.
Yes, Mario Blanco was still serving as a priest in 2005 in Tacoma, Washington.

In fact, while at least 17 men dealt with interrogatories from Catholic Church attorneys and lengthy litigation on their cases, Mario Blanco was being flown around the state by Actor Mel Gibson:
.
Originally posted May 13, 2009, at Examiner Dot Com.
Reproduced today because it is relevant to cases going forward in L.A. Superior Court now.

While at least 17 men dealt with interrogatories from Catholic Church attorneys and lengthy litigation on their cases regarding Blanco, the pearly toothed priest was being flown around the state by Mel Gibson.

A man who became close to the priest in the 12 years he was at the Tacoma Church and kept his schedule for several years said: “Blanco traveled to such cities as Redding, Calif., Spokane, Tucson, Ariz., Denver and Los Angeles. The priest was so respected that the actor Gibson regularly flew Blanco to Southern California to celebrate Mass for a group of traditionalists.

He said Gibson also took the priest to Mexico to buy vestments and other items for the church.

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I have a feeling this story isn't over.

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Best blog on the subject of Roman Polanski extradition so far:

Roman Polanski and Roman Catholics
UNITED STATES
GetReligion

Jim Lindgren over at the legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy has excerpted a fascinating George Orwell essay from 1944 about what a morally depraved yet talented artist Salvador Dali is. It discusses how the fans of his art claim “a kind of benefit of clergy” where they exempt him from the moral laws that constrain ordinary people. Here’s the line that got me...

Read John Manly on Polanski:

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Roman Polanski was 43 when he made the decision to drug, sodomize and rape this young girl

By John Manly
In 1973, Roman Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized a 13-year-old little girl. In 2007, he told newsmagazine show "60 Minutes" that the

Roman Polanski was 43 when he made the decision to drug, sodomize and rape this young girl

2009-09-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

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By John Manly

In 1973, Roman Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized a 13-year-old little girl. In 2007, he told newsmagazine show "60 Minutes" that the victim was “not unschooled in sexual matters” and that “she consented.” There is no dispute a crime occurred; he plead guilty to it. While awaiting sentencing, he fled the country because he was concerned, perhaps even with justification, that the judge was going to sentence him to a long prison term.

For 30 years he has dodged, bobbed, weaved and gone to great lengths to avoid sentencing for his crime. If nothing else, any civilized society has an obligation to protect children. It is not a mystery or a secret that individuals who molest or sexually assault children have a high rate of recidivism.

It seems that Messrs. Allen, Scorsese and others believe that because Mr. Polanski is a tremendously talented director, famous, and wealthy that he should get a pass. Sexual abuse and molestation is epidemic in the United States and western Europe, especially among young girls. Roman Polanski was 43 when he made the decision to drug, sodomize and rape this young girl. He had been married, made successful movies and frankly knew better. Even the age of consent in France is 15.

Now dozens of Hollywood’s elite, including, incredibly, Woody Allen, are demanding his release. (Woody Allen. What a surprise.) In other words, if you drink thousand dollar bottles of wine, have an Academy Award, you can occasionally give a 13-year-old qualudes and rape and sodomize her with no consequence.

The justifications being put forward by the Hollywood elite and others in Europe are the almost the same justifications that the United States Catholic Bishops make when one of their own is disclosed as a molester. For example, Angelica Houston described Polanski’s victim to law enforcement officials as “appearing to be one of those kind of little chicks between - could be any age up to 25. She did not look like a 13-year-old little thing.” Former Orange County Bishop Norman McFarland testified he placed a molesting priest back in ministry because his 15-year-old victim was “fully developed and precocious.” There are thousands of sex offenders in our nation’s prison who did far less than

Mr. Polanski did to this young girl. If we are a nation of laws, then Mr. Polanski needs to face justice just as any working class man who drugged, raped and sodomized a little girl. If we are a nation of laws that is the only acceptable result.

jmanly@manlystewart.com
http://www.manlystewart.com/
Newport Beach, California and New York City

John C. Manly
Manly and Stewart Lawyers
(949) 689-7895 cell, (949) 252-9990 office

Manly has represented more than 500 victims of child sex abuse across the United States. He does not represent the victim in the Polanski case.

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more on Polanski

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.htmlThe Smoking Gun Archive - polanski

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/index.htmlReminder: Roman Polanski raped a child