Tim King
June 25th, 2009

After clearing the House, House Bill 2827 will go to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to be signed into law.

(SALEM, Ore.) - A bill that would raise the age of sex abuse victims in Oregon from 24 to 40 will likely become law. The future of House Bill 2827 appeared bleak when we wrote about it May 28th 2009. (see: Will Oregon Stand for Sex Abuse Victims? - Tim King Salem-News.com

Many of the cases originate from churches in Oregon and experts like Portland Attorney Kelly Clark, say it often takes several decades for a person to comprehend the magnitude of their experience and come forward.

Bill Crane from the group SNAP, (Survivors Network of people Abused by Priests) says it is a good day in Oregon and while cautious, he agrees that it is good news on a day that could use it.

Molly Woon with the Oregon State Legislature says H.B. 2827 passed through the Senate Floor today, after moving through the Oregon House unanimously.

Woon says there was an amendment and the bill has to now go back to the House for concurrence. The change, "removed definition of causable connections between injury and child abuse," according to Woon.

She says it amounts to a technical fix.

After clearing the House, House Bill 2827 will go to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to be signed into law.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (CNS) — Bridgeport diocesan officials said they were reviewing their options after a May 22 ruling by the Connecticut Supreme Court to make public sealed documents from settled sexual abuse lawsuits filed against priests in the Bridgeport Diocese.

The 4-1 ruling involves the release of documents from 23 lawsuits against six priests settled in 2001. In 2006, a Superior Court ruled that the files should be released but the diocese appealed the decision.

The Supreme Court’s decision to release the files would not take effect until it was published in the Connecticut Law Journal June 2.

According to a May 22 statement from the Bridgeport Diocese, church officials were "deeply disappointed" in the ruling.

The battle over the sealed documents began in 2002 when The New York Times filed suit to obtain the documents that it said were a key par of the church’s record of handling charges of clergy sex abuse. Three other newspapers joined in the suit: The Hartford Courant, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post.

About a dozen people, including members of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, delivered a letter to Bridgeport Bishop William E. Lori May 26 urging the diocese not to appeal the release of the more than 12,600 pages of documents.

SNAP director David Clohessy personally handed the letter to a diocesan official at the Catholic Center, where the diocesan offices are located. The letter urged Bishop Lori to let the court ruling stand to allow parishioners and the public "the chance to learn the truth about the crimes that were committed and concealed."

Although the group did not meet with Bishop Lori, they were handed a statement by Joseph McAleer, a spokesman for the diocese, which outlined the work the diocese has done to assist abuse victims and prevent abuse.

"We appreciate that emotions run high on this topic," the statement said. It also added that the diocese’s objection to the recent court decision "concerns judicial fairness and the fundamental right of any individual or organization to fair adjudication in any legal proceeding."

"In a state where the Catholic Church has had to vigorously fight for its constitutional rights, we are going to continue to examine any and all legal options," the statement added.

It also faulted the ruling for ignoring the state’s statute of limitations on the unsealing of court documents.

"Sadly, the history of this case has been about access by the secular media to internal church documents of cases more than 30 years ago to suggest, unfairly, that nothing has changed," the statement said.

"This is despite the extraordinary measures the Catholic Church has undertaken over the past several years to treat victims with great compassion and dignity, and to put in safeguards and educational programs to ensure that such a tragedy will not happen again."

The New York Archdiocese also released a statement about the Connecticut court ruling since Cardinal Edward M. Egan, retired archbishop of New York, was bishop of Bridgeport from 1998-2000.

A May 22 statement by Joseph Zwilling, director of communications, said the sealed documents involved five priests who were accused of sexual misconduct prior to then-Bishop Egan’s appointment to Bridgeport. One of the priests died before the bishop was appointed to the diocese and the other four were sent to a top psychiatric institution for treatment and expert evaluation, the statement said.

"They were returned to ministry only upon the written recommendation of the aforementioned institution along with the advice of experienced members of both clergy and laity," the statement said. "At the time, this was the recognized professional manner of handling cases of sexual misconduct with minors."

When new information was received about the sexual misconduct of four of the priests, two were removed from ministry, one retired and another priest was permitted to continue in a restricted ministry in a home for the aged, according to the statement.

by Paul Mones, guest opinion
Tuesday June 02, 2009, 8:30 AM

Our state legislators are in the midst of dealing with one of the worst fiscal crises in recent memory. No doubt they will have to make many tough, unpopular decisions this year. However there is one legislative decision they need not fret over because it is a no-brainer. House Bill 2827 is a simple piece of legislation that gives an extra measure of justice to victims of child abuse.

In the words of one of the bill’s co-sponsors Chris Garrett (D-Lake Oswego ) - the other sponsor is Rep. Andy Olson (R-Albany) - this bill "will ensure an effective civil remedy for victims of child abuse."

The bill extends the present statute of limitations by giving victims until the age of 40 to file an action against their abuser, requiring that claims be initiated by the time the victim turns 40 years old or within five years of when the injury or the connection between the abuse and the injury is discovered. The bill has unanimously passed the house but curiously has not received the same overwhelmingly positive reception in the Senate.

The extension of the statute of limitations makes common sense because it recognizes that most child victims of sexual abuse cannot confront their debilitating problems until they are mature adults. Moreover, most victims can’t even make the connection between the abuse and their psychological problems until they have some real distance from the time period of their abuse.

Child abuse is the perfect crime because its victims are too powerless, too confused to help themselves when they are actually being abused. These children travel quietly through their days interacting with teachers and passing police officers, friends and neighbors, never revealing the anguish of their existences. And if by chance someone asks them how they are being treated at home their responses will be uniformly the same: OK.

As adults we expect all human beings to escape or at least want to escape when someone injures them, but for victims of abuse, the reverse occurs. And that is in fact perhaps one of the most insidious aspects of child abuse: It binds the child closer to the abuser. The abuser’s threats and intimidation engender in the child not only fear but self-blame and embarrassment - all of which turns a child’s survival mechanisms topsy-turvy. Emotional attachment and sexual violence become so inextricably confused that even when the abuse is reported, the child will often kick and scream as they are being removed from their draconian environment by a social worker.

The other aspect that makes child abuse a perfect crime is that most adults continue to believe that child-rearing is a private matter. They don’t want a relative, friend or neighbor telling them how to raise their child so they won’t intervene in someone else’s family. While we all cherish our right to privacy, our devotion to this cornerstone of democracy is strangling the lives of thousands of children every year. Abusive parents and caretakers thrive on isolation and that is exactly what their relatives, friends and neighbors give them.

Daily, people turn a blind eye to the screams, bruises and frightened eyes of battered and molested children. Their reaction actively reinforces the offender’s omnipotence and tells the child you’re on your own, no one is going to help you. By powerful social training we are more likely to intervene on behalf of a dog being kicked by its owner than a child being mistreated by a parent. As Americans we routinely gawk at the suffering of car accident victims but we avert our eyes and ears when we see a child being backhanded in a supermarket.

It is often only when a child becomes a mature adult that he or she has the strength and emotional resources to confront the scourge of their past.

We have done much in Oregon over the past few years to protect victims of abuse, the most recent example being the passage of HB 2062, which will prevent schools from silently moving sexually abusive teachers one district to another. If the Senate saw fit just several weeks ago to join the House in ending the scandalous practice of allowing sexually abusive teachers from negotiating sweetheart deals with their school districts, then it surely should see the wisdom in HB 2062.

Paul Mones is an attorney and a children’s rights advocate.

By Tim King
Salem-News.com
May 28, 2009

(SALEM, Ore.) - Oregon sex abuse survivors joined Portland Attorney Kelly Clark at the capitol in Salem today, to attend a hearing for a bill that would extend the window of time sex abuse survivors have to take action against the person or people who abused them.

Clark is known for taking sex abuse suspects to task and rallying endlessly for victims.

At this time, the cut off age for sex abuse victims to come forward, is 24.

Many of the cases originate from churches in Oregon and experts say it often takes several decades for a person to comprehend the magnitude of their experience and come forward.

The Portland Archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Oregon, much like in other locations including Boston, have worked hard to avoid responsibility and liability for pedophiles who currently or formerly exist as elevated members of the various churches.

Victims and their advocates, including the group SNAP, (Survivors Network of people Abused by Priests) along with Private Investigator Dawn Krantz-Watts of All Things Legal Investigations in Portland, say they are unhappy with the way the bill is progressing and they believe it may fail due to the relationships that exist between the Oregon Senate and various church groups.

In denying, delaying or killing this legislation, Oregon becomes extremely hypocritical as a government that strongly condemns the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, while struggling with basic common sense answers for the people lucky enough to survive the abuse in the first place.

I interviewed Clark and Krantz-Watts and three people who are survivors today after the first round of hearings at the capitol.

Watch the video news report:

For Immediate Release
May 27, 2009

For More Information
Matt Nees: (503) 780 - 1965
mattn@wintreswishes.org

Beaverton, Ore—Wintre’s Wishes Foundation, an Oregon non-profit dedicated to support of child abuse survivors, today announced its support for House Bill 2827, a measure which would extend the civil statute of limitations for child abuse survivors to sue their abusers.

The bill passed the House of Representatives 60-0 in April, but has bogged down in the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Floyd Prozanski (D – Eugene). 

The bill is set for a public hearing and vote on Thursday, May 28^th at 8:00am in Senate Hearing Room 343.

Said Matthew Nees, the father of a seven-year-old sexual abuse victim, and the founder of Wintre’s Wishes Foundation, “We believe this is a common sense bill that will both help survivors of child abuse and will help prevent future child abuse.  We thank Representative Andy Olson for his sponsorship of this bill, and we call on members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Senator Prozanski, to pass this bill.”

Under current Oregon law, victims of child abuse have until age 24 to file a civil law suit, or, until three years from the date they understand that their abuse has caused them injury.  House Bill 2827 extends those periods of time to age 40 with a five year discovery window after that.  “We know that most child abuse survivors never mention their abuse until much later in life, well into their 30’s, 40’s, or 50’s,” said Nees, “and this bill merely recognizes that reality.”

The measure has reportedly bogged down in the Senate because of political pressure from religious groups, including the Catholic Church and Mormon Church, on Senate President Peter Courtney or Chairman Prozanski.  “We call on all senators, especially Senators Courtney and Prozanski, to side with children who have been sexually abused, and not with powerful institutions that would cover up abuse,” said Nees.

###

Contact these Legislators and ask them to support passing this bill:

Chairman Floyd Prozanski (D – Eugene)
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1704
Email:sen.floydprozanski@state.or.us

Senate Pres. Peter Courtney (D – Salem)
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1600
Email: sen.petercourtney@state.or.us

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Priests beat and raped children during decades of abuse in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland, an official report said on Wednesday, but it stopped short of naming the perpetrators.

Orphanages and industrial schools in 20th century Ireland were places of fear, neglect and endemic sexual abuse, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse said in a harrowing five-volume report that took nine years to compile.

The Commission, chaired by a High Court judge, blasted successive generations of priests, nuns and Christian Brothers — a Catholic religious order — for beating, starving and, in some cases raping, children in Ireland’s now defunct network of industrial and reformatory schools from the 1930s onwards.

"When confronted with evidence of sexual abuse, the response of the religious authorities was to transfer the offender to another location where, in many instances, he was free to abuse again," the report said.

"Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from."

The report slammed the Department of Education for its failure to stop the crimes. In rare cases when it was informed of sexual abuse, "it colluded in the silence," the report said.

Successful legal action by the Christian Brothers, the largest provider of residential care for boys in the country, led the Commission to drop its original intention to name the people against whom the allegations were made.

No abusers will be prosecuted as a result of the inquiry.

John Kelly, coordinator of the Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) group, said there could be no closure without accountability.

"I have been getting phone calls all day from former residents, they feel their wounds have been reopened for nothing," he told Reuters. "They were promised justice by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1999 and they feel cheated. They expected that the abusers would face prosecution."

UNDERWEAR INSPECTIONS

The Christian Brothers said they were appalled at the revelations but denied that their lawsuit had obstructed the report. "We are deeply sorry, deeply regretful for what has been put before us today," Brother Edmund Garvey said.

Many of the children were sent into church care because of school truancy, petty crime or because they were unmarried mothers or their offspring. Some were used as laborers, churning out rosary beads or set to work on farms.

Sexual abuse was endemic in boys’ institutions and girls were preyed on by sexual predators who were able to operate unhindered.

The Commission interviewed 1,090 men and women who were housed in 216 institutions including children’s homes, hospitals and schools. They told of scavenging for food from waste bins and animal feed, of floggings, scaldings and being held under water. There were underwear inspections and in one case, a boy was forced to lick excrement from a priest’s shoe.

Absconders were flogged and some had their heads shaved.

Tom Sweeney, who spent five years at industrial schools including two years at the notorious Artane Industrial School, said it still haunted its former residents.

"Unfortunately there are a lot of people that have committed suicide, there are a lot of people that have ended up in hospitals and they have been forgotten about," he said.

Revelations of abuse, including a string of scandals involving priests molesting young boys, have eroded the Catholic Church’s moral authority in Ireland, once one of the most religiously devout countries in the world.

The inquiry, conducted at a reported cost of 70 million euros ($95.16 million), was announced in 1999 by then Prime Minister Bertie Ahern after he apologized to victims following revelations made in a series of television documentaries.

The government has paid out around 825 million euros in compensation to former residents of the institutions and the final bill is likely to top 1 billion euros.

The report can be downloaded at:

here

For More Information:
Kelly Clark, Esq.
503-306-0224
kellyc@oandc.com

Portland, Ore—Fr William McLeod, one of the most prolific abusers of children in the history of the Archdiocese of Portland, is the subject today of the latest post on the public service website www.archpdxpriestfiles.com, a site maintained by lawyers representing abuse victims.

The documents from the Archdiocese of Portland files, plus additional material gathered in litigation, were posted today, according to Kelly Clark, one of the lawyers responsible for the site. "Though he received far less attention than some of the other priests such as Fr Thomas Laughlin, Fr Maurice Grammond or Fr Aldo Orso Manzonetta, Fr William McLeod had nearly a dozen victims just that we know about, and he was responsible for incalculable damage to Catholic children," said Clark.

The website was initiated after the Archdiocese of Portland was ordered by an arbitrator, US District Judge Michael Hogan, to release files on abusive priests as part of the conclusion of the Archdiocese of Portland bankruptcy. The website so far has posted documents on three priests, namely Fr Rocco Perone, Fr Aldo Orso Manzonetta and Fr William McLeod.

More files on these and other priests will be posted in the future, according to Clark

###

The report "will shock us all," said Diarmuid Martin, during Mass at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral.

The archbishop said the report, compiled by the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, is expected to show that "thousands of children or young people across Ireland were abused by priests in the period under investigation and the horror of that abuse was not recognized for what it is."

The government-appointed commission was set up to investigate abuses within the Dublin archdiocese in 2006, the same year the diocese admitted that up to 102 of its priests were suspected of abusing children. The report is studying how complaints of child sexual abuse were handled.

The commission has also now begun an investigation into the Diocese of Cloyne, in County Cork. Commission member Ita Mangan said that could potentially delay the publication of the Dublin report which had been planned for this summer.

"The commission will be finishing the report in May; we then send it to the government, and they then decide when to publish it," Mangan said Thursday. "The government is obliged to publish it, but not necessarily the next day. It could be further complicated by the fact that we’re also inquiring into the Cloyne diocese. It is possible the government would decide to publish the two reports together, which could then be September, October."

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform said Thursday that it could not confirm any planned date of publication.

Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, has been rapidly secularizing in recent years, spurred by the outrage at the hidden abuses within the clergy. Archbishop Martin, a Vatican diplomat assigned in 2003 to address the problem, appeared to address that disillusionment Thursday in his homily.

"There is a dramatic and growing rift between the church and our younger generations and the blame does not lie principally with young people," he said.

A brother and sister are suing a Salem church and the Western Oregon Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists for alleged sexual abuse in the 1990s by a then-teenage babysitter for the church.

The lawsuit claims the babysitter, a teenage boy at the time, fondled the brother and sister several times while watching the two, who were very young at the time.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday morning in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges the church knew or should have known about a prior abuse accusation in Washington state against the teen and not have allowed him to serve in positions of trust and authority.

The complaint, which seeks more than $3 million for each plaintiff, states that the abuse occurred both at the East Salem Seventh-day Adventist Church and at the plaintiffs’ home. The brother, now 18, was between 18 months and 3 years old at the time of the alleged abuse. The sister, now 20, was between 4 and 6 years old, the suit says.

The alleged abuser, the lawsuit says, was later convicted in 1995 of child abuse while employed by the Oregon State School for the Blind. He confessed to abusing the brother and sister at the time.

An attorney for the Adventists, Richard J. Whittemore, declined to comment on the case’s specifics.

"We will thoroughly and aggressively investigate this case and try it in court," he said.

The plaintiffs live in Oregon and remain devout Adventists, said their attorney, Kelly Clark, who has sued several religious entities and other organizations on behalf of clients alleging sex-abuse.

Clark said he did not name the alleged abuser in the lawsuit out of deference to a client who felt naming him in the suit could negatively affect his progress in rehabilitation.

But Clark confirmed that the alleged abuser was sentenced in 1995 to 20 years’ probation and ordered into a four- to five-year intensive treatment program at the Oregon State Hospital.

Clark said he is filing the lawsuit now, because the brother just turned 18 and, as an adult, could follow through on his wish to

– Helen Jung; helenjung@news.oregonian.com

For More Information:
Kelly Clark
O: (503) 306-0224
C:(503) 407-7381
Kellyc@oandc.com

 April 9, 2009

Portland, ORE—A new childhood sexual abuse lawsuit was filed today in Multnomah County Circuit Court against the Western Oregon Conference of the Seventh Day Adventists and the East Salem Seventh Day Adventist Church.  The suit alleges that a then-teenage boy, referred to in the lawsuit only as “S.H.,” acting under the direction and authority of the church, sexually abused two children, siblings, in connection with his role as a childcare provider.  The suit alleges that the church knew or should have known that the young man was dangerous to children, as a result of a prior incident several years earlier in Washington State.  The suit alleges both negligence against the East Salem Church and vicarious liability against the Conference.  The man was later, in 1995, multiply convicted of child abuse in his role as an employee at the Oregon School for the Blind.

This is at least the second lawsuit filed against the Adventist Church for the Conduct of S.H., according to Kelly Clark, an attorney with the Portland firm of O’Donnell Clark & Crew LLP who frequently handles childhood sexual abuse claims, and is the attorney for the Plaintiffs in this case.  Clark previously filed a case in August, 2007, against the East Salem Church and the Adventist Conference on behalf of a 23 year-old woman who was abused by this same perpetrator.  That case was settled in late 2008, just days before trial.

The plaintiffs in this case are two siblings, now 18 and 20 years of age, who were, at the time of this abuse, very young.  According to Clark, the little boy was just a year or two, and the girl was about five.  “We would not even know about the abuse of the little boy,” said Clark, “unless it were for the confession that the perpetrator made at the time of his conviction.  Going back and piecing it together, witnesses now recall the young boy screaming and yelling whenever he was alone with the perpetrator, who had a propensity for physical cruelty at the same time as he was engaged in sexual abuse,” said Clark. The lawsuit seeks in excess of $3 million on behalf of each plaintiff, and the defendants in the case include the Western Oregon Conference Association of Seventh-Day Adventists, and the East Salem Seventh-Day Adventist Church, an Oregon corporation. 

The suit contends that both plaintiffs have experienced permanent psychological damage as the result of the abuse. Clark contends that the teen’s background either was, or could have easily been, fully discovered by a reasonable investigation by Church authorities.  The suit contends that the perpetrator had a history of sexual misconduct involving children in Washington State, and was under restrictions, either legal or family, to have no contact with children. Clark has filed two other cases against the Oregon Adventists in the last six months as well, both arising out of Roseburg, one from the Milo Academy, and one involving the Roseburg Junior Academy.  Those cases are still pending. 

###

 View the Official Complaint.

FLORENCE, Ore. (AP) — An extended living center in Florence is being sued for alleged abuse and neglect for the second time in two years.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday in Lane County on behalf of an unidentified couple for $1 million against Elderberry Square.

Attorney Kelly Clark said the 80-year old man was suffering from advanced dementia. Clark said when his wife visited him over two months she repeatedly found him unattended and soiled in his own waste and that he fell several times and broke a wrist.

Clark said the previous suit was brought in 2007 and was prompted by the death of an Alzheimer’s patient who allegedly was also repeatedly left unattended.

He said in that case state investigators determined the allegations to be documented.

“Our position is that you don’t get a second chance, let alone a third, when it comes to protecting vulnerable senior citizens” Attorney Kelly Clark

(EUGENE, Ore.) - Elderberry Square, an assisted living facility located in Florence, Oregon is the subject of a second lawsuit in as many years, alleging severe neglect and abuse.

The $1,000,000 lawsuit was filed today in Lane County Circuit Court against Elderberry Square, brought by the wife and guardian of an 80-year old man, who at the time of his admission to the facility was suffering from advanced dementia.

This suit alleges he was left alone and unsupervised, resulting in repeated falls, one of which resulted in a broken wrist. In addition, the man’s wife, on numerous visits to Elderberry, found her husband unattended and soiled with his own waste matter.

All of this occurred in the little more than two-month period following his admission to Elderberry.

“Our position is that you don’t get a second chance, let alone a third, when it comes to protecting vulnerable senior citizens,” said Kelly Clark of the firm O’DONNELL CLARK & CREW LLP, which filed the lawsuit.

“What is enraging beyond belief is that this is the second time – just that we know of – that this kind of thing has happened at Elderberry.”

A similar lawsuit was filed by Clark against Elderberry in 2007, involving an Alzheimer’s patient who was repeatedly left unattended, resulting in numerous falls within the two-week period of time following his admission to Elderberry.

The last of these falls, according to the lawsuit, caused his death. In that case, a state investigation determined the allegations of neglect to be substantiated. In the current case, investigators from the Oregon Department of Human Services looked into two complaints against Elderberry and determined the allegations of wrongdoing to be substantiated. However, the agency’s final report on one of the complaints reversed the investigator’s conclusions.

Mr. Clark and his client plan to challenge this finding through an appeal.

Both lawsuits allege that the management and admissions personnel at Elderberry actively misrepresented that they have the expertise, experience, and staffing necessary for the laborintensive work of caring for Alzheimer’s and senile dementia patients. “It was classic bait and switch,” said Clark, adding, “We believe they knowingly misled these vulnerable families.”

For More Information:
Kelly Clark
O: (503) 306-0224
C:(503) 407-7381
Kellyc@oandc.com

February 19, 2009

Eugene, Ore—Elderberry Square, an assisted living facility located in Florence, Oregon is today the subject of a second lawsuit in as many years, alleging severe neglect and abuse.  The $1,000,000 lawsuit was filed today in Lane County Circuit Court against Elderberry Square, brought by the wife and guardian of an 80-year old man, who at the time of his admission to the facility was suffering from advanced dementia. 

This suit alleges he was left alone and unsupervised, resulting in repeated falls, one of which resulted in a broken wrist.  In addition, the man’s wife, on numerous visits to Elderberry, found her husband unattended and soiled with his own waste matter.  All of this occurred in the little more than two-month period following his admission to Elderberry.

"Our position is that you don’t get a second chance, let alone a third, when it comes to protecting vulnerable senior citizens,” said Kelly Clark of the firm O’Donnell Clark & Crew LLP, which filed the lawsuit.  “What is enraging beyond belief is that this is the second time – just that we know of – that this kind of thing has happened at Elderberry.” 

A similar lawsuit was filed by Clark against Elderberry in 2007, involving an Alzheimer’s patient who was repeatedly left unattended, resulting in numerous falls within the two-week period of time following his admission to Elderberry.  The last of these falls, according to the lawsuit, caused his death.  In that case, a state investigation determined the allegations of neglect to be substantiated.  In the current case, investigators from the Oregon Department of Human Services looked into two complaints against Elderberry and determined the allegations of wrongdoing to be substantiated.  However, the agency’s final report on one of the complaints reversed the investigator’s conclusions.  Mr. Clark and his client plan to challenge this finding through an appeal.

Both lawsuits allege that the management and admissions personnel at Elderberry actively misrepresented that they have the expertise, experience, and staffing necessary for the labor-intensive work of caring for Alzheimer’s and senile dementia patients.  “It was classic bait and switch,” said Clark, adding, “We believe they knowingly misled these vulnerable families.”

###

The ink on the Northwest Jesuits’ bankruptcy filing was still drying Wednesday when wrangling over the value of the Catholic order’s assets commenced.

Officials at a handful of Jesuit-sponsored institutions said they don’t belong to the Jesuits and aren’t subject to their legal problems, while lawyers who represent people sexually abused by priests said the province has grossly underestimated its worth.

Kelly Clark, a Portland lawyer who has represented victims of Jesuit priest abuse, said he was surprised to read that the Jesuits declared assets of just $4.8 million in their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing late Tuesday in Portland. And he expects a legal fight over properties commonly associated with the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, better known as the Jesuits.

"They’re going to say that they don’t own Jesuit High School, Gonzaga University, Seattle University and maybe other institutions — even though those institutions were Jesuit established, Jesuit dominated," Clark said. "I think the legal question will be, are they Jesuit controlled for purposes of determining equitable ownership? So there are going to be a number of hard-fought legal battles."

Clark said the Jesuits’ estimate of assets isn’t unprecedented. In 2004, he said, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland underestimated the value of its assets in its initial bankruptcy filing, a calculation that — after much legal wrangling — was corrected by the court. He predicted a similar battle ahead for the Jesuits.

The Oregon Province of Jesuits, including its leader, the Rev. Patrick J. Lee, would not comment on the bankruptcy on Wednesday, said spokesman Pat Walsh. But the leadership of Jesuit High School, St. Andrew Nativity School and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps said their institutions are not owned, financed or governed by the Jesuit province and that the bankruptcy won’t affect their programs.

"We have never shared assets with the province," said John Gladstone, president of Jesuit High School in Beaverton. The school has been separately incorporated since its founding in 1956, he said. Expecting that the Oregon Province might declare bankruptcy, the school consulted its own attorneys. "They looked at our bylaws, how we’re set up financially and structurally … and they told us we’re very safe," he said.

In a letter sent to the parents of Jesuit High’s 1,160 students Wednesday, Gladstone and Principal Sandy Satterberg said there were no pending claims against any Jesuit High priest and that the school is "not at risk in any way as a result of the province’s bankruptcy filing."

Lawyers who represent victims of alleged abuse by Jesuit priests scoffed at Tuesday evening’s comments by Lee, who had described the order’s decision to file for Chapter 11 reorganization as the only way to offer a fair settlement to claimants.

"Does anybody really believe that the Jesuits, who’ve raped hundreds and hundreds of Native (American) kids, are filing bankruptcy to help them?" asked John Manly, a Newport Beach, Calif., lawyer who represents native Alaskans who have accused Jesuit priests and their colleagues of sexual abuse.

Tuesday’s filing wasn’t an altruistic endeavor, he said, describing it as a calculated effort to prevent more victims from coming forward, halt the legal discovery process — and the bad press that comes with it — and downplay the order’s assets.

"I’ve been litigating with these guys for the better part of 10 years," Manly said. "I’ve never seen them try and help a victim. Their idea of help is to file a motion for summary judgment and dismiss. They fought the Alaska Supreme Court to get these cases dismissed and lost, and that’s why they’re in bankruptcy — not to help people, (but) because essentially their legal options have run out."

"We have expected this bankruptcy filing for some time now.  We know that the Oregon Province– which covers Alaska, as well as Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana—had in recent decades an overwhelming problem with priest abuse of children, especially of native children in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Frs. James Poole and Frank Duffy alone account for dozens, perhaps hundreds, of broken and abused children.

"We also know from various court cases and depositions in those cases that the Province often sent troubled or abusive priests from place to place, especially to Alaska, even with the knowledge that they had abused kids. Now they are facing hundreds of claims.  Now these secret crimes and secret cover ups will see the light of day.  Now, finally, for some of these victims who have carried the shame and brokenness of childhood sexual abuse, justice will be done."

"My clients would say this to anyone who would blame them for the Jesuits’ financial trouble:  ‘The Jesuits should look in the mirror; they have no one to blame for their predicament but themselves. What the Jesuits are seeing is simply the consequences of their own actions.’ "

Stay tuned for further developments and a possible public statement and press conference on Wednesday or Thursday, from one or more of attorney Clark’s clients who were abused by Frs. Poole and Duffy.

For More Information, contact Kelly Clark at 503.306.0224 or at kellyc@oandc.com

The Northwest’s Jesuits filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization today in Portland, citing civil lawsuits resulting from allegations of clergy sex abuse.

Formally known as the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, the Roman Catholic order declared assets of $4.8 million and liabilities of nearly $62 million, according to the 123-page filing posted in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon.

The five-state Jesuit province is listed as a defendant in nine active lawsuits in Alaska, Idaho and Washington. Another suit was settled last September in Multnomah County. The suits were brought by plaintiffs alleging sexual abuse by priests.

"Our decision to file Chapter 11 was not an easy one, but with approximately 200 additional claims pending or threatened, it is the only way we believe that all claimants can be offered a fair financial settlement within the limited resources of the province," said Oregon’s provincial, the Rev. Patrick J. Lee, in a written statement.

Although the Oregon province is the largest geographically in the world, it remains the poorest financially of the Jesuits’ 10 provinces in the United States, according to the order’s Web site.

According to the Portland-based province, the Jesuits have settled at least 200 legal claims since 2001, paying more than $25 million, not including payments by the province’s insurers. The bankruptcy filing listed assets of $1.2 million in real property and $3.7 million in personal property.

"Our hope is that by filing Chapter 11, we can begin to bring this sad chapter in our province’s history to an end," Lee said. "We continue to pray for all those who have been hurt by the actions of a few men, so that they can receive the healing and reconciliation that they deserve."

Lee said the filing will allow the province to resolve its pending claims, manage its financial situation and continue its ministries in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The province includes more than 250 Jesuits.

The Jesuits came to the Northwest in 1841 after being invited by the Flathead tribe from what is now Montana.

The Oregon province, created in 1932, has two universities — Seattle University and Gonzaga University in Spokane — and four high schools, including Jesuit High School in Beaverton. In 2001, the order established St. Andrew Nativity School in Northeast Portland.

Cleveland Local News

In other developments, a Portland, Ore., man has filed a $4 million lawsuit against the Franciscan Friars of California, alleging childhood sexual abuse by a priest.

In an unrelated lawsuit seeking $3.25 million, a pastor for the Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and its Roseburg Junior Academy was accused of sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl in 1992.

The complaints were filed by Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, one of the lead attorneys in a number of sexual abuse cases against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland that ended in a $50 million settlement in 2007. Three years earlier, the archdiocese was the first in the nation to declare bankruptcy.

Calls to Franciscan officials were not immediately returned Wednesday.

An Adventist spokeswoman referred calls to an attorney, who was not immediately available.

The lawsuit against the Franciscan Friars, a Catholic order, was filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

A 62-year-old man listed only by his initials alleges he was abused as a teenager by Father Claude Riffel at the St. Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale, east of Portland, in the early 1960s.

According to the lawsuit, 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.

In a statement released with the lawsuit, Clark noted the Franciscan Friars of California is an independent Catholic organization unaffiliated with any diocese.

The lawsuit against the Adventist pastor, who was identified only by his initials, alleges he took the 5-year-old girl to an isolated area of the Roseburg Junior Academy during a "week of prayer" and abused her.

Clark called the case "one of the worst I have seen."

The girl is now 21 and attends community college, he said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Portland man has filed a $4 million lawsuit against the Franciscan Friars of California, alleging childhood sexual abuse by a priest.

The 62-year-old man was listed only by his initials in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

The Franciscan Friars are an order of the Roman Catholic Church. The complaint alleges the man was abused as a teenager by Father Claude Riffel at the St. Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale in the early 1960s.

In an unrelated lawsuit seeking $3.25 million, a pastor for the Western Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and its Roseburg Junior Academy was accused of sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl in 1992.

The pastor was identified only by his initials.

For More Information:
Attorney Kelly Clark
(503) 306-0224 or kellyc@oandc.com

Portland, Ore–Today a Portland man filed a $4M child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Franciscan Friars of California, an order of the Roman Catholic Church, for abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of Father Claude Riffel at the St Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale in 1962-65.  According to the lawsuit, Fr Riffel, then the Dean of discipline for the school, would call the then 15 year old boy out of class on the pretext of assigning him work tasks, at which time he would abuse him.  The abuse occurred, according to the suit on “scores” of occasions. 

The case was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who frequently handles such cases against churches, schools, the Boy Scouts, athletic leagues and other “institutions of trust” that work with children.  St Francis Seminary was owned and operated by the Franciscan Friars, headquartered in California. The Franciscan Friars of California is a part of the worldwide Catholic order of Franciscans, formally known as the Friars Minor. It is an independent Catholic entity unaffiliated with any diocese, including the Archdiocese of Portland, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004 as a result of a torrent of child abuse lawsuits.

 ###

View the Official Complaint Here

Visit NAPSAC at www.sapn.nonprofitoffice.com

NAPSAC, the National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children, and the NAPSAC Foundation are organizations dedicated to ending childhood sexual abuse in three generations through awareness, education and the advocacy of children’s rights through legal reform.

NAPSAC is an organization dedicated to ending the sexual abuse of children through awareness, education, and the advocacy of children’s rights through legal reform.

NAPSAC represents a future of hope where children will be allowed to enjoy their childhood and where society stands firmly against those who cause pain and violence against the innocent. There is no singular solution to this problem. NAPSAC believes it is with this three-key strategic plan, outlining the necessary steps to ending childhood sexual abuse in three generations, is what we must all follow to create a safer America for our children.

February 6, 2009

Sally Roe v. Western Oregon Conference Association of Seventh Day Adventists

For More Information:
Attorney Kelly Clark
(503) 306-0224 or kellyc@oandc.com 

Portland, Ore—A new childhood sexual abuse lawsuit was filed today in Multnomah County Circuit Court against the Western Oregon Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, and the Roseburg Junior Academy, a private religious school run by the Adventists in Roseburg.  The suit alleges that in 1992 a five year old girl was subject to sexual abuse and rape by an Adventist pastor who was assigned to Roseburg Junior Academy to conduct a “week of prayer.”  The suit alleges that the pastor, utilizing the respect, trust, and obedience that a five year-old Adventist child would have for a pastor secluded her into an isolated area of the school, sexually abused and raped her. 

“What we intend to prove will write an awful story, one of the worst I have seen,” said Kelly Clark, attorney for the victim, who frequently handles childhood sexual abuse cases.  “The story this young woman, now 21, tells is chilling.  She absolutely trusted the Church, the school, and anyone affiliated with them, especially a pastor there for week of prayer.  To say she has been traumatized, confused, ashamed and psychologically wounded by this would be a massive understatement.  This was not the kind of sexual abuse, like we often see, where the perpetrator feigns affection and tenderness.  This was an outright assault, complete with cruelty, force, and threats.”

The suit seeks $3 million in general damages, and $250,000.00 for economic damages, primarily for past and future counseling and psychological treatment.

The suit was filed in Multnomah County under a provision of Oregon law that allows a lawsuit to be filed any place where a defendant regularly conducts business, according to Clark, and since the Adventists’ conference and churches are in Multnomah County, venue is proper there.  According to Clark, the suit, should it proceed along normal lines, would process through document exchange, depositions, investigation, and motions, and would likely be ready for a jury trial late this year or early 2010.

According to Clark, the victim is now a young woman, 21, attending community college.  She has not been identified in the suit, under standard practice in Oregon courts.  “She’s struggling,” said Clark, “but she doing the right things to get healed.  It will be a long road.”

This is the second suit filed against the Adventist Church for one of its Roseburg area schools in the last few months.  In late 2008, Clark filed a suit against the Milo Adventist Academy located near Roseburg, for sexual abuse of a teenage girl by an adult staff member there.  That case is in process and scheduled in the regular course for trial sometime later this year. 

Just before Christmas yet another case against the Adventists, was resolved, said Clark this one arising out of sexual abuse of a child at the East Salem Seventh Day Adventist Church by convicted serial pedophile Harrison, who in 1994 was convicted for sexually abusing numerous children both at the Adventist Church and at the Oregon School for the Blind.  The case was settled just before trial for an amount that is confidential.

###

View the Official Complaint here.

• Mahony Interview
• Caffoe Case

Cardinal Mahony would have us believe that the archdiocese offered "a complete breakdown of all of those cases" in 2004. Then they "reached a settlement with the plaintiffs, and that’s all behind us." But as the 508 plaintiffs know, the document release promised in the settlement still has not happened, almost two years later. Without the documents, we are left with the archdiocesan version of events. Thanks to the courage of survivors and their families, and the hard work of attorneys and reporters, the archdiocese’s silence and lies in the Caffoe case have begun to be challenged. But much is still secret. And Caffoe is one of hundreds. O’Brien has a long row to hoe.

Sincerely,
Terence McKiernan
Co-Director - Bishop Accountability

Clackamas County Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit against Lake Oswego School District that claimed that former teacher Judd Johnson sexually abused seven men – then elementary school students – between the late 60s and early 80s. Judge James Tait left the claims against Johnson pending.

In order for the men to win the case, they will have to convince the courts or possibly even the Legislature to change the statute of limitations on crimes involving public entities. The men appealed the ruling to the Oregon Court of Appeals on Jan. 7.

Originally three men filed suit in February, seeking $2 million each for emotional trauma and “permanent psychological damage” and $100,000 each for future therapy. Four more added their names to the list in April, bringing the total suit to $14.7 million.

Some of the men, who are now in their 40s and 50s, have remained friends over the years, and some of them have never met. All seven –anonymous in the lawsuit – allege abuse by Johnson over the course of his career that includes Bryant Elementary School, Forest Hills Elementary School and Lake Grove Elementary School. Typically, Johnson allegedly used the grooming process to fondle the boys’ genitals and buttocks.

The complaint alleges that an LOSD administrator knew about the abuse but had a practice of transferring Johnson around the district to cover it up.

The school district, represented by attorney David Ernst, disputes that the suit is valid because the Oregon Tort Claims Act establishes a 180-day notice period, subject to a 90-day extension. It contains a two-year statute of limitations.

According to the seven plaintiffs’ attorney Kelly Clark, “It is unreasonable up to the point of unconstitutional to expect a child abuse survivor to file suit before he consciously understands he has been injured.”

Clark, who has represented about 150 sexual abuse victims in suits against the Boy Scouts, Catholic Church, other churches and schools, said that there has been no challenge of the constitutionality of the two-year statute of limitations. Clark has concluded from his experience with child abuse cases that the law is unreasonable. Under Oregon law, private organizations such as churches are under different statutes of limitations than government bodies.

The original three victims were prompted to come forward when a series of articles on sexual abuse in schools ran in The Oregonian last February. They claim that realizing the importance of the abuse came to them in 2006 or 2007. The four others joined the suit after it was made public, also in February.

The youngest man in the suit said he told his mother in the early 1980s what had happened while he was a student at Lake Grove Elementary School. She supposedly contacted an administrator who told her that if she kept quiet about the abuse Johnson would be transferred. She refused and went to law enforcement with her complaint.

According to the lawsuit, one year prior to her son’s alleged abuse, Johnson had been discovered abusing a different young boy in a boat on Oswego Lake. The district allegedly knew about the incident but took no action. At that time, Johnson was not prosecuted because the boy did not want to testify.

In a separate incident, Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual abuse in Clackamas County and was sentenced to two years of probation and counseling. He resigned from the school district on Feb. 1, 1984 and the state revoked his teaching license.

Ernst argued that the youngest plaintiff did have constructive knowledge of his abuse in the 80s, so therefore the statute of limitations already started and expired. However, the complaint claims that the plaintiff had no knowledge of the alleged misconduct of the district until after last year.

According to court documents, Johnson denies every allegation since he does not know the identity of the plaintiffs.

Attorney Kelly Clark says the plaintiffs will continue to fight until they achieve justice.

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”   -Thomas Jefferson

Big Government. Not since Ronald Reagan was President or Vic Atiyeh was Governor have Oregonians seen a concerted effort to stop the growth of government—and both of those honorable men failed in that task. And in the November elections– whatever else they did—the voters gave the Democrats the reins of government, unchecked even by a Republican chamber in national or state legislative halls. Now, it is no part of my purpose to discuss the political map. 

But one undoubted consequence of the elections is that Big Government will get bigger.  That is the way that Democrats (and, apparently, judging from recent years, Republicans, too) tackle big problems.  So, in an age of Big Government how do we protect our liberties?  There are really only three tools our constitutional structure has for this challenge: representative government—where the people can remonstrate against excesses of public power through their elected representatives; a free press—which, theoretically at least, can shine the light of day on abuse of power by government; and the jury system—through which those on the wrong end of the Big Government stick can seek to hold public agencies accountable.  It is this last, a potent jury system, that I believe needs to be defended, now more than ever.

Even before I became a trial lawyer, as a conservative I believed in the jury system. Then, over the past decades, as a conservative and a trial lawyer, I have seen time and again how large institutions are afraid to have their oppressive conduct proven to a jury. It does not really matter whether the institutions are private—banks, mega-corporations, insurance companies, or public—land use agencies, regulators, electoral bureaucracies.  All these institutions can and regularly do run over our liberties. Ask anyone who has been on the receiving end of Oregon’s land use system, or whose business has been shut down by an overzealous bureaucrat, or whose idea for a ballot measure has been drubbed into the ground because some elections official misused his or her power. All these citizens will tell you that, sometimes, their only hope for accountability and justice is to plow through the legal system to get the matter before a jury.

So I am always baffled when I hear conservatives talk as if the jury system was the invention of some liberal interest group, and needs to be weakened.  Why would we weaken it?  Because sometimes juries get it wrong?  Well, so what?  Is that any reason to take power away from one of the last remaining checks against public power?  If voters “get it wrong” in some election, the solution is not to take power away from the voters– though some liberals and elections officials seem to think so. No, the voters retain for themselves the right to be wrong: it is one of the risks of constitutional government. Or, if some political movement is patently offensive, even dangerous, to our ideals of life, do we pass a law that restricts its members’ ability to speak out? Of course not—at least we didn’t used to, before political incorrectness became a crime—for we believe in free speech, and we believe that in the marketplace of ideas, the true and wise ideas will eventually win out.So why is it any different when it comes to the jury system? I certainly do not argue that juries always get it right; our system cannot guarantee justice—but it does guarantee a chance at justice. And it is the knowledge of that “chance” that acts as a restraint on Big Government.

Some conservatives seem to trust the wisdom of the common man when it comes to self-government: free speech, free elections and the initiative system, but not when it comes to the jury system. On the other hand, many liberals seem to believe the average citizen perfectly capable of deciding even the most important legal case, but then they turn around and don’t trust that same citizen to wield the full power of the initiative, or even the vote—apparently believing that the people really are not smart enough, fair enough or wise enough to govern themselves. They-these conservatives and liberals-are elitists, all.

We must ask ourselves whether we really believe in the ability of free citizens to govern themselves.  If we do, then we need to keep our jury system strong. Make no mistake—Big Brother would love to see it weakened.  Then, not only will He continue to run roughshod over reluctant or captive legislative bodies, and not only can He keep seducing or manipulating our free press, but He will run over us, and the liberties of our families and our businesses as well. Indeed, He can do so with impunity, for He knows He will never have to answer to a jury of free citizens.

LOS ANGELES — Federal authorities are investigating the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to see whether top church officials tried to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by priests, said a person familiar with the matter.

A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas and begun calling witnesses in the probe, which began late last year, said this person. The investigation is still in its early, fact-gathering stage, and it isn’t known whether any criminal charges will result.

Thomas O’Brien, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, declined to comment on the investigation.

J. Michael Hennigan, a lawyer for the archdiocese, said in an email on behalf of church officials: "The Archdiocese has received requests from the U.S. Attorney’s office for information about a number of individual priests, two of whom are deceased; none of whom remain in ministry. We have been and will continue to be fully cooperative with the investigation."

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who heads the archdiocese, the largest in the U.S., has been criticized by victims’ groups for his past handling of sexual-abuse allegations against priests. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office has been investigating allegations of such abuses for several years.

District Attorney Steve Cooley criticized the archdiocese in 2007 for its "institutional moral failure" to "supervise predatory priests." A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said their investigation is still open.

Catholic Church leaders said they have done much to address the priest sexual-abuse problem. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example, set up a national review board in 2002 aimed at "preventing the sexual abuse of minors in the United States by persons in the service of the Church," according to the organization’s Web site. Individual dioceses "have made significant strides to instill practices that will ensure the safety of children in the church," said the organization’s Web site.

The district attorney’s investigation began in 2002, around the same time that internal archdiocese emails about priests accused of abuse surfaced in the media.

Over the following two years, dozens of alleged victims stepped forward, with many filing lawsuits. They claimed the archdiocese shielded priests accused of molestation by keeping the allegations secret and allowing them to keep working, sometimes moving them from one parish to another.

In 2004, the archdiocese, which covers three Southern California counties containing more than four million Catholics, issued a report on the priest sex-abuse scandal. Cardinal Mahony apologized to victims and acknowledged "my own mistakes during my 18 years" as the archdiocese’s leader.

In 2007, the Los Angeles archdiocese agreed to pay $660 million to 508 alleged victims, among the largest settlements in the U.S. priest scandal.

No senior Catholic Church officials have been criminally charged in the national scandal. But representatives of abuse victims alleged that senior officials helped perpetuate the crimes by ignoring or covering up evidence of misdeeds. They have argued that prosecuting senior church officials would help stop future abuse.

"Everything else has been tried with minimal impact except charging an individual bishop. That would have to an impact," says David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nonprofit victims-advocacy group based in Chicago.

A spokeswoman for the Catholic bishops conference said her organization has seen no evidence that senior church officials were involved in criminal acts. "Enormous strides have been made" in recent years by the Catholic church in dealing with the priest-abuse problem, she said. More than 1.8 million clergy and other church personnel have been trained to create a safe environment for children and to prevent abuse, she said, and a similar number of background checks also have been done on clerics and other church workers.

The federal investigation in Los Angeles is the latest chapter in government’s efforts to grapple with the priest-abuse scandals in the Catholic Church that have struck in waves over the past three decades.

Numerous individual priests have been criminally charged and convicted in abuse cases, and Catholic dioceses around the U.S. have agreed to settle civil lawsuits.

While most of the investigations have been done by state and local officials, federal investigators also have gotten involved at times. In 2005, the Archdiocese of Boston resolved a federal criminal investigation into whether the church officials had withheld information about an allegedly abusive priest. The archdiocese, which denied any criminal wrongdoing, agreed to new disclosure requirements and audits regarding its child-protection practices.

Write to John R. Emshwiller at john.emshwiller@wsj.com

By Scott Glover and Jack Leonard
January 29, 2009
www.LATimes.com

The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles has launched a federal grand jury investigation into Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in connection with his response to the molestation of children by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

The probe, in which U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O’Brien is personally involved, is aimed at determining whether Mahony, and possibly other church leaders, committed fraud by failing to adequately deal with priests accused of sexually abusing children, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

A lawsuit has been filed against the Milo Adventist Academy over allegations that a woman who served as an assistant coach, instructor and choir leader at the Days Creek-area boarding school sexually abused a 15-year-old female student.

The suit, filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges that the woman groomed and sexually abused the girl in 2007 and 2008.

Neither the alleged victim nor the accused woman are named in the lawsuit, which seeks up to $100,000 in damages for past and future counseling and medical expenses and $3 million for psychological suffering and damage.

The suit essentially blames the academy for allowing the alleged abuse to occur, as well as for failing to properly investigate the woman’s background, then for retaining her even once information came to light that she had a history of inappropriate sexual misconduct with children in the past.

“We believe we can prove that there was information they could have learned that should have prevented them from bringing her on at all,” said Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who filed the suit along with Coos Bay attorney Bill McDaniel.

The Oregon Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists and the Western Oregon Conference and Southern Oregon Conference Associations of Seventh-day Adventists are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Herald Follett, general counsel for the Seventh-day Adventists Church in Oregon, said this morning he had not heard of the lawsuit and had no comment at this time. The academy’s principal, Randy Bovee, also declined to comment.

Clark, who regularly handles child sexual abuse cases including those against the Catholic Church and other organizations, said he believed the accused woman was some sort of part-time volunteer at the school.

The woman, who Clark said was in her early twenties, assisted with coaching, instructing and choir. The alleged victim was a member of choir and participated on several sports teams.

Clark said the teen’s parents ended up finding out about the alleged abuse, which was reported to the school. He said the parents did not press criminal charges.

He said he didn’t know if the woman was still working or volunteering with the school. The teen has since moved out of state with her family.

Clark called the case a “very sad story” and said the teen continues to suffer emotionally and spiritually.

“She’s struggling,” he said.

August 31st, 2007

Lawyers for the plaintiff say a fifteen-year old male who molested a seven-year old girl had an established history as a sex offender in another state.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Attorneys representing a 23-year old Oregon woman say she was subjected to multiple counts of sexual molestation and abuse as a 7-year old girl while attending the East Salem Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Kelly Clark of the Portland law firm O’Donnell & Clark LLP, says the offender at the time was a 15-year old boy who attended the same congregation.

Clark says the case is important, because it illustrates the need for churches to monitor and maintain people who are in a close proximity to children. Their law firm has been involved in a number of successful similar actions involving the Catholic Church that date back to 1999.

The 15-year old boy accused of committing sexual acts against the young girl over the course of approximately one year, had a history of sexual misconduct involving children in Washington state, and was under a juvenile court mandate to have no contact with children. Clark says the church should have known that.

He says the young man knew the girl through their enrollment in a youth group called Pathfinders. He was also her instructor in a sign language program at the church.

"I’m confident that we’ll be able to prove that church officials knew that this kid was not well and not safe to be around other kids."

According to Clark, the young man had a good deal of access to the girl, despite his criminal record.

"The fact that this young man was still a minor doesn’t mean in my mind, that he still couldn’t be a representative of the church. If he was, the abuse rose out of that status and the church is responsible."

Clark says that as a young woman, the plaintiff is permanently damaged by the experience at the Salem church.

The specific allegations are harsh. According to the legal complaint, the 15-year old, "sexually abused and molested Plaintiff—then 7 years old—for approximately one year between 1991 and 1992. The abuse included over one dozen instances of fondling, oral sex, and intercourse. All of the abuse occurred at ESSDAC facilities."

The attorneys for the woman say the defendants failed to investigate the background of the teen, referred to as S.H., "prior to accepting him as their agent in instructing the sign language class attended by Plaintiff, and continued to retain him in this agency even after questionable matters from S.H.’s past came to light."

They say the teen’s background could have been fully discovered by a reasonable investigation, indicating that he had some history of inappropriate sexual misconduct with children.

Defendants in the case include The North Pacific Union Conference Association of Seventh Day Adventists, Western Oregon Conference Association of Seventh Day Adventists, and Oregon the East Salem Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Attorney Richard Whittemore in Portland is representing the East Salem Seventh Day Adventist Church in the case. He made this statement to Salem-News.com Thursday.

“The church takes very seriously any allegation of sexual abuse. The filing of this lawsuit on August 29th was our first notice of the case; therefore we will review the case more thoroughly before making any further comments.”

Children in highly developed countries suffer abuse and neglect much more often than is reported by official child-protective agencies, according to the findings of the first in a comprehensive series of reports on child maltreatment, published Dec. 2 in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Based on a review of research conducted on child abuse between 2000 and June of this year, researchers estimate that 4% to 16% of children are physically abused each year in high-income nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. As many as 15% are neglected, and up to 10% of girls and 5% of boys suffer severe sexual abuse; many more are victims of other sexual injury. Yet researchers say that as few as 1 in 10 of those instances of abuse are actually confirmed by social-service agencies — and that measuring the exact scope of the problem is nearly impossible. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)

The issue lies in the delicate nature of the crimes — and the consequences of intervention. Many cases of abuse are rife with potential for long-term harm of the child, whether or not the assault is reported. The decision to report is rarely clear-cut, says Theresa Costello, director of the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services, who was not involved with the new research. "Professionals want to advocate for their clients, but they also know the reality of the public child-welfare system," she says. "There is a natural professional dilemma when you see a kid and you think, ‘I should make a report,’ but you’re not sure you want to subject that child to the system."

Indeed, the second study in the Lancet analysis, citing previous research, reveals that physicians reported only 6% of children’s injury cases to protective services, even though they suspected the injury was a result of abuse 10% of the time. Further, researchers say that many more cases of maltreatment — particularly of sexual abuse — are never even suspected, and the victimized children never come forward to report the assaults.

"The official statistics agencies produce are conservative estimates of probably the lowest level of child maltreatment," says Dr. Cathy Spatz Widom, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who specializes in the long-term effects of child abuse and is a lead author on one of the Lancet studies.

Those numbers, researchers say, may now be on the rise. Historically, economic hardship has often corresponded with increases in child abuse, says Dr. Carole Jenny, a professor of pediatrics at Brown University and an expert in identifying and treating victims of child abuse, who authored a commentary in The Lancet. In the past six months, Jenny says she has seen increases in rates of maltreatment and heard similar reports from her colleagues. "I imagine that as the economy worsens, [child-abuse specialists are] only going to be more and more busy," she says, adding that the recession will likely mean less funding for already strained social services. "As the pressures on families are increasing markedly, the amount of help available goes down," she says.

The new research underscores the fact that the most common type of child abuse in developed countries — simple neglect — is often the least publicized. The Lancet analysis finds that neglect is the No. 1 category of maltreatment reported by child-protective services. "We have paid much more attention to physical and sexual abuse. We have called people’s attention to it. Even though neglect is the largest portion of cases, it’s under everybody’s radar," Widom says. "And yet we know that neglected children are at as high a risk as physically abused kids for becoming violent offenders, for example, or having low reading ability." (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

Widom points to years of past research linking early childhood abuse to an increased possibility of long-term behavioral and psychological problems, ranging from low educational achievement to criminal behavior, risky sexual practices and even increased chance of obesity. "Child maltreatment has long-lasting effects across multiple domains of functioning. It’s not just in childhood. It lasts into adulthood, and we are not really thinking about these long-term consequences, and we’re not planning for them," she says.

Yet there is no completely objective test for the presence of abuse. Identifying victimized children is often a subjective process, and caregivers may be wary of levying false accusations. Self-reports of abuse are frequently flawed and inaccurate as well, says Widom; they often produce the largest estimates of abuse incidence, but their definitions of maltreatment are overly broad. Even when children of abuse are correctly identified, not all caregivers know how to ensure their proper treatment. "There’s no gold standard," Widom says.

There is an effort afoot to rectify that problem. Brown University’s Jenny is one of roughly 250 pediatricians across the U.S. whose specialty is the identification and prevention of child abuse, and the field is gaining momentum — and standardization. By 2012, a three-year postresidency fellowship will be required of all new pediatricians who wish to specialize in child abuse. And the National Association of Children’s Hospitals has advocated requiring all children’s medical institutions to have a child-abuse specialist on staff.

The ultimate goal is to prevent abuse in the first place, says Widom, and to protect the well-being of children who have been victimized. "It would be wrong to assume that all maltreated children are going to turn out to have all of these problems," she says.

See pictures from an X-ray studio.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan Wednesday ordered the Archdiocese of Portland to release files of pedophile priests that the Archdiocese has been withholding.  Pete Springer reports.

Over a year ago, the Archdiocese of Portland agreed to release files on pedophile priests as part of a $70 million bankruptcy settlement.

They did release some documents, but refused to release others, claiming they contained personal information about priests not involved in the lawsuit.

But after months of arbitration and reviewing the documents, Judge Hogan rejected that argument.

His ruling is binding and cannot be appealed.

An attorney who represented the priest sex abuse victims in the bankruptcy case was not available for comment but says in a media release that he plans to use a website to post the church documents so that “the public can understand the history of the problem”.

Attorneys for the victims are planning to discuss the ruling publicly on Friday.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge ordered the release of more documents from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland that may shed light on how church officials responded to allegations that priests sexually abused minors.

The order from U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan on Wednesday was a result of the settlement in 2007 of about 175 lawsuits for $50 million to end the first bankruptcy filing in the nation by a Catholic diocese.

After the settlement, victim advocates and church officials disagreed over how many documents to release.

Hogan’s order requires the archdiocese to release documents about allegations of sexual misconduct by priests involving minors and the knowledge of the archdiocese about the allegations, or its response to them.

He said the order doesn’t apply immediately in the cases of priests involved in a related dispute over disclosure or in pending litigation.

Hogan’s decision says names of victims have been redacted from the documents.

Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, who represented more than 40 victims, praised the decision and said it meant the archdiocese must release almost all of the disputed documents.

"This is a good day for survivors, and all the men and women abused as boys and girls by priests of this archdiocese can feel rightly proud that they have stood their ground and did not let the archdiocese back out of its commitments," Clark said.

He said a Web site is under construction that will organize the documents so readers can understand the history of cases and how church officials enabled or covered up abuse.

The archdiocese released a statement that said almost all of the misconduct occurred from 1940 to the mid-1980s.

"Today the Archdiocese of Portland has comprehensive child protection policies and programs," it said, including an Office of Child Protection and national programs to audit protections and ensure that people who work with minors are appropriately screened.

A Vida man’s name surfaces when a judge releases records tied to lawsuits filed against the Portland archdiocese

A former local priest is among Roman Catholic clergymen named in documents released Wednesday by order of U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in connection with lawsuits filed by victims of sexual abuse.

The documents are the latest public disclosure from the April 2007 settlement of an Archdiocese of Portland bankruptcy case arising from 175 sexual abuse claims by former parishioners.

The archdiocese paid $77 million to settle the lawsuits in exchange for continuing its operations without selling any parish or school properties.

The latest documents became public after the Eugene judge arbitrated a dispute between abuse survivors and the archdiocese over the records. Hogan’s decision was lauded Wednesday in a statement by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who represented more than 40 victims of what he called “pedophile priests.”

Clark said Hogan’s decision forced the archdiocese to release “virtually all of the disputed categories of documents, including those regarding priests who had ‘only’ one claim of abuse filed.”

“I don’t know whether I am more gratified that a common sense federal judge with some guts has stared down the archdiocese or more disappointed that it took all this to get the archdiocese to honor its promises to release the old files,” said Clark of the 18-month legal battle. “Either way, this is a good day for survivors, and all the men and women abused as boys and girls by priests of this archdiocese can feel rightly proud that they have stood their ground and did not let the archdiocese back out of its commitments.”

Among priests identified in the documents as being implicated in a single incident is the Rev. Louis Rodakowski of Vida.

A November 2005 letter to Rodakowski from a diocese official refers to an April 2005 claim from a woman alleging that the former priest who worked in parishes in Salem, Newport, Junction City, Eugene and Vida sexually abused her when she was a minor.

“It is my understanding that part of the allegation you denied and part you admitted, specifically that you touched the young woman improperly,” the Rev. Dennis O’Donovan wrote Rodakowski. “Because of the seriousness of this admission and according to the Bishops’ Charter of 2000 as well as our own Archdiocesan policy, you are hereby placed on administrative leave. I realize that you are retired, but this administrative leave means that you are not to offer any public Masses or offer any pastoral services until there is a canonical disposition of your case.”

O’Donovan also wrote that the case had been settled in the bankruptcy claims process.

The only other document citing Rodakowski was a 2005 internal archdiocese memo stating that the church officials had made a mandatory child abuse report to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office regarding the accusations of sexual abuse against Rodakowski. State court records show that no criminal charges were filed.

Rodakowski’s career included leading the local St. Jude congregation during construction of its South Eugene church. Now 95, he lives in a small house overlooking the McKenzie River at the Goodpasture covered bridge.

In an interview there Wednesday, Rodakowski denied the abuse accusation.

“It was completely false,” he said, saying the young woman, whom he knew in Salem, accused him after he refused to lend her money. “I want to swear on it. I never fondled her — not at all.”

Rodakowski, who appears frail and uses a walker after suffering a stroke two years ago, said he could no longer recall when he served at various parishes. He said he did not recall acknowledging inappropriate behavior or being barred from leading public Masses or pastoral services.

In a statement, archdiocese officials thanked Hogan for “arbitrating this challenging case,” which required him to review thousands of pages of documents.

Archbishop John Vlazny agreed in April 2007 to the release of “relevant and appropriate documents” as “part of the healing process and in the interests of transparency.”

The archdiocese stressed that nearly all of the incidents of sexual misconduct cited in the documents occurred between 1940 and the mid-1980s. It said it now has comprehensive child-protection policies and programs in place and will continue to emphasize child safety.

Hogan agreed with church officials to withhold documents for priests with pending litigation, but only until those cases are resolved.

Clark announced the creation of a new Web site — www.archpdxpriestfiles.com — to make the released documents more accessible and understandable.

“We felt it was important,” he said, “in order to archive this issue, to present the material in a logical way, organized by priest and by parish, so the public can understand the history of the problem and, most importantly, the role of the bishops of the Portland Archdiocese in enabling and, in some cases, covering up, the child abuse problem.”

Statesman Journal
November 11, 2008

A woman was awarded a total of $4.5 million in damages for emotional and physical harm inflicted by her stepfather in what her attorneys say involves the largest award for a sex abuse trial in the state.

Marion County Circuit Judge Lynn Ashcroft added$3 million in punitive damages Monday to the $1.5 million in damages a jury already had levied.

The 24-year-old woman, who asked not to be identified, brought the case against her stepfather, Edward Webb, on accusations that included sexual molestation and inappropriate touching.

Webb’s attorney, Robert Gunn, declined to comment Monday.

The woman was awarded$1.5 million in noneconomic damages on Oct. 31 after a three-day jury trial, said attorney Gilion Dumas of the firm O’Donnell Clark and Crew.

Dumas said the firm also believes the case was the largest award for any personal injury case in Marion County.

"It definitely shows that if the victims of sex abuse are brave enough to come forward, the court system will treat them fairly and with respect in their search for justice," she said.

The alleged acts began when the woman was 11 or 12 years old and continued until she was about 14 years old. Court documents also said Webb, 43, forced the girl into such acts such as wearing pantyhose, tying her up and touching her.

The suit was brought under Oregon law that allows adults to sue their childhood abusers, Dumas said. The woman did not report the abuse under Oregon’s criminal child-abuse law because the statute of limitations had run out.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - A woman who sued her stepfather after claiming she was repeatedly sexually abused as a child has been awarded $4.5 million in damages.

A Marion County jury awarded the 24-year-old woman $1.5 million for pain and suffering before a judge awarded her $3 million in punitive damages in a separate hearing without the jury on Monday.

The woman’s attorney, Gilion Dumas, said it was 1 of the largest awards in a sexual abuse case in the history of the state.

Testimony at trial indicated the woman was only 12 when her stepfather, Edward Webb, would tie her up, force her to wear nylons and then abuse her.

Webb’s attorney, Robert Gunn, declined to comment on the case.

Statesman Journal
November 7, 2008

For the first time, the Catholic Church has offered a garden that honors victims of clergy sex abuse.

"It’s a really small, important physical representation of a horrific thing that happened in many places," she told CNN.

She says the garden’s centerpiece, a symbolic low stone sculpture that’s broken, is fitting for those whose lives were shattered by priests. "The energy that the artist put was this circular stone trying to pull itself to become unbroken. That is our journey. That is what we try to do every day — is to try to be unbroken."

The garden is placed near a wall of the Cathedral of Christ the Light, which was consecrated September 25.

Two low-curved benches bracket the sculpture, one facing toward the cathedral, the other facing away. The benches are surrounded by hedges. 

The bench placement is deliberate and takes into account the feelings and needs of abuse victims.Those who choose not to face the cathedral end up facing a small lake across the street.

Father Paul Minnihan, the provost of the cathedral, says it was important to have the garden — for the victims, and for the church to atone for the sins of its past.

"Part of the church’s mission is to make sure we bring healing to people who are in need of it, even if we were the cause of it," he says. "Having this garden on the campus says we are serious about our desire to help in your healing process on whatever level. As this cathedral will be around for 500 years, so will that garden as a place of healing and hope."

The Catholic Church was rocked earlier this decade by allegations of children being sexually abused by priests, with scores of victims filing lawsuits against their alleged abusers. The church was accused of covering up the abuse for decades by sending offending priests to other parishes.

The church wound up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements. Some priests went to jail; others resigned. Pope Benedict XVI in July apologized to victims and called the abuse "evil."

At the garden’s dedication on October 11, Allen Vigneron, bishop of Oakland, once again offered the church’s apology. "To the hurts of so many innocents, we preferred the darkness to the light. And for that, I again make heartfelt apologies to all victim survivors. As it says on the plaques at the entries, ‘We remember and we affirm: never again.’"

Terrie Light, who has been a vocal advocate for abuse victims for many years, says getting the garden built was not an easy process. "We got silence, then we got passed around," she says.

She said Barbara Flannery, the former chancellor of the diocese who became the church’s point person on helping victims, advocated for the garden to the bishop.

"He thought it was a good idea. But it’s different from ‘It’s a good idea’ to ‘Here’s the people to meet with to make it happen,’" she says. "When we finally met with the architect, things really changed."

"He really understood what we were trying to accomplish and put together some architects to create this garden that he thought would give us what we wanted for a place for people to come and connect to their spirituality not inside the church."

Why outside?

"There are people that want to go into a church that cannot. It’s too painful, too emotionally traumatizing," she says. "There are other people that are ambivalent — that want to be there and not want to be there. This gives them the option."

The garden is not what survivors had originally envisioned — a lush, English garden with flowers and trees. But they are pleased with the outcome.

"It’s a very simple space," Light says.

Most victims of abuse in the Oakland area favored the garden; a few opposed it, feeling that it implied closure to a problem that still exists.

"We wanted to have a place respectful for their needs and their wishes," he says.

 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Higher Balance Institute and its founders face a sex abuse lawsuit.

The complaint accuses the Beaverton spiritual organization and founders Eric Pepin and Jamison Priebe of sexually abusing a teenage boy while he was their disciple.

The lawsuit was filed Oct. 8 in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who filed many of the abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon settled last year for more than $50 million.

Pepin and Priebe were acquitted of criminal sex abuse charges in a trial last year in Washington County Circuit Court.

But Clark says in the lawsuit the pair had a "system for preying upon young people."

Efforts to contact Higher Balance were unsuccessful.

The Higher Balance Institute and its founders face a sex abuse lawsuit.

www.KUIK.com
10/22/2008

The complaint accuses the Beaverton spiritual organization and founders Eric Pepin and Jamison Priebe of sexually abusing a teenage boy while he was their disciple.

The lawsuit was filed October 8 in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who filed many of the abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon settled last year for more than $50 million.

Pepin and Priebe were acquitted of criminal sex abuse charges in a trial last year in Washington County Circuit Court.

But Clark says in the lawsuit the pair had a "system for preying upon young people."

Efforts to contact Higher Balance were unsuccessful.

Sadly, because of the ‘taboo’ nature along with trauma, fear, shame, misplaced loyalty and distrust associated with abuse, only ten percent of victims and survivors ever find the courage to report this crime.

Government statistics estimate that there are approximately 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in America today.  As American taxpayers we spend more than $103 billion each year on costs associated with child abuse.  These facts strongly support the reality that childhood sexual abuse has reached national epidemic proportions that affect each and every one of us.

The National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children is dedicated to ending childhood sexual abuse in three generations through awareness, education, and the advocacy of children’s rights through legal reform.

You can HELP ~ Donate Today!

http://www.trailblz.info/napsac/pages/donate.htm
Your generous gift will help NAPSAC ensure the success of its mission.  NAPSAC believes that by 1) increasing awareness of the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse, by 2) educating parents and professionals on how to recognize, respond and report abuse, and by 3) advocating for laws that better protect our children and victim’s rights to pursue justice, NAPSAC and its supporters will help lead us toward a safer America for our children.

Click here to make your tax-deductible donation today
http://www.trailblz.info/napsac/pages/donate.htm

Join a NAPSAC Event Committee!

NAPSAC is actively recruiting committed individuals who are interested in being on the forefront of helping to ensure the success of the first-ever NAPSAC fundraising events planned for 2009/2010!
Our goal is to build a NAPSAC Event Committee for each of the following events proposed for 2009/2010:

 *   Survivor Art Social
 *   Dinner Gala
 *   Professional Networking Events
 *   Wine and Cigar Social
 *   Darkness to Light Preventathon

As a committee member you would be responsible for:

 *   Attending one meeting each month held for one hour
 *   Recruting additional committee members
 *   Soliciting businesses for sponsorships and silent auction items
 *   Helping to generate attendance by spreading the word about upcoming events
 *   Helping to spread awareness of NAPSAC and its mission
 *   Representing NAPSAC in a professional and respectful manner
 *   Attending your event to show your support

If you are interested in joining a NAPSAC event committee or if you have any questions or would like additional information, please email michele@napsac.us or call 651.340.0537.

Issue: 1
Book a NAPSAC nationally renowned professional speaker for your next corporate training or event!

Click here

Upcoming Trainings
Nov. 17-21, 2008 ~ ChildFirst: Interviewing Children and Preparing for Court

May 4-7, 2009 ~ When Words Matter: Emerging Issues in Forensic Interviewing

May 14-15, 2009 ~ Investigation and Prosecution of child abuse

May 21-22, 2009 ~ Investigation and Litigation of Civil Child Protection Cases

July 13-17, 2009 ~ Implementing CAST in your University

Find Out More Here
________________________________

 Visit the NAPSAC National Child Protection Training Center
_______________________________

Want to know more about NAPSAC trainings and upcoming events?

National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children
366 Jackson Street, Lower Level, Saint Paul, MN  55101
Phone: 651.340.0537  |  Fax: 651.340.1252 www.napsac.us

 Jeff Elizalde’s patriotism is as plain as the U.S. flags in his Salem condo, rescued after parades or blown from car lots. Elizalde has cleaned, pressed and hung them across his windows and walls, next to framed tributes to a World War II radioman — his dad.

But beyond the stacks of Marine Corps Times and the "USMC" tattoos on each biceps, Elizalde’s own military career is nothing to celebrate. He was discharged under conditions "other than honorable" after an incident he says "set me into a pattern of drinking and ruined my life."

Elizalde says he was an 18-year-old Marine playing spades on an Okinawa, Japan, base in November 1977 when he followed a staff sergeant to look for another party. As they walked through an empty Quonset hut, he says, the sergeant overpowered and raped him.

"I didn’t tell anybody," Elizalde, 49, said. "I didn’t know how. How do you tell someone in the Marine Corps you’ve been raped?"

As the nation grapples with the aftershocks of two long wars, the Department of Veterans Affairs is confronting a quiet wave of veterans with mental health problems linked to sexual misconduct. New research has uncovered hundreds of cases among those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and found that those combat vets are two to three times likelier to suffer depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and alcohol and drug abuse.

Read Kelly’s remarks here…

Earlier this year, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced legislation to provide more money to the VA to treat such cases and strengthen protection for women who seek help. Congress will not consider the matter this year. But Murray said Thursday that she’ll relaunch the initiative in January. She said she acted after "women would pull me aside and whisper in my ear" about being harassed and even raped while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VA reports that between 2002 and 2007, 59,345 male veterans and 57,637 female veterans screened positive for some sexual trauma during military service.

In April, clinical psychologist and retired Navy Reserve Capt. Connie Lee Best warned U.S. senators that sexually traumatized veterans will further swell the wave of mental health needs that will hit in years to come.

"To quote a line … from ‘Jaws’ when one of the characters saw the shark for the first time," Best said, "We’re going to need a bigger boat."

In April 2008, nearly 400 women veterans from Oregon, Washington and Idaho gathered in Pendleton to celebrate their military service, dating to World War II. They packed one workshop to trade war stories — of sexual harassment and rape.

"I have that topic at every conference because it’s a huge issue with women in the military, and it’s something they don’t talk about if they don’t feel free or safe," says Valerie Conley, women veterans coordinator for the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Conley was never assaulted. But after joining the Army in 1982, the 27-year-old mother and two other women in their transportation company "took a lot of harassment."

"It was not teasing," Conley said. "It was more vile than teasing. You didn’t walk anywhere alone. I got to the point where I wouldn’t even walk to the mess hall by myself."

Most Americans didn’t link sexual misconduct to the U.S. military until Tailhook, the raunchy three-day reunion of Navy and Marine aviators in 1991 at which 83 women and seven men were assaulted. But the scandal shone light on what turned out to be a wider problem.

Until recently, however, the Pentagon’s male-dominated leadership, its allies in Congress and interest groups have largely dismissed allegations as unfounded or exaggerated. Military officials and independent analysts say punishment varies widely, as does how aggressively some accused are prosecuted.

In 2004, the Department of Defense established a Sexual Assault Prevention Response program; all soldiers receive training.

But in September, Brenda S. Farrell, a senior investigator for the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, told lawmakers that although progress has been made, it’s impossible to know how much because the right questions aren’t being asked, and important data are not being collected. That’s led analysts to conclude that the size of the problem is larger than the Pentagon documents.

"At the 14 installations where we administered our survey, 103 service members indicated that they had been sexually assaulted within the preceding 12 months," Farrell told a House Oversight and Governmental Affairs subcommittee Sept. 10. "Of these, 52 service members indicated that they did not report the sexual assault."

GAO investigators said that victims cited "the belief that nothing would be done; fear of ostracism, harassment, or ridicule by peers; and the belief that their peers would gossip about the incident." They also feared hurting their careers or unit morale and that a report using the restricted reporting option would not stay confidential.

Portland lawyer Kelly Clark, who has represented victims involving the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America, says people underestimate how difficult it is for individuals to challenge a powerful institution to which they’ve sworn their loyalty and life.

"That’s a huge context that cannot be overstated," Clark said. "People don’t have a hard time saying to me, ‘I was sexually violated by a stranger.’ But they have a terrible time saying, ‘I was violated by Uncle Don, the family hero, or by my commanding officer or my priest.’"

Psychiatrists say sexual trauma in the military may be so damaging because the victims often continue to live and work alongside the perpetrators and rely on them for safety, basic needs or advancement. Accusing a colleague also betrays the most sacred tenant of the military: the team.

"In combat, buddies become your brother or sister with whom you live, sleep, shower and share secrets. They become family," says Mandy Martin, an Iraq war veteran and outreach worker with the Portland Vet Center. "So when you tell the secret of a family member, that family now is angry."

Few understand that better than the people around Suzanne Swift. The 21-year-old Army specialist was arrested at her mother’s Eugene home in June 2006 after failing to report for her second deployment to Iraq. In a case that shot onto the international stage, Swift claimed she could not face returning to duty because she had been harassed or abused by two colleagues in Iraq and one at Fort Lewis. Swift said she’d been coerced into a sexual relationship, subjected to humiliating punishments for rebuffing advances and ordered to report for duty to a superior’s bed — naked.

On the eve of a court-martial that would have ended her career, she pleaded guilty to going AWOL. She was busted to the rank of private, sent to jail for 30 days and reassigned to a base in California.

One man she named received a written reprimand and was reassigned. He later left the Army. The Army did not substantiate claims against the others.

Swift has declined to speak further. But her mother, Sara Rich, said the experience was more disheartening than she’d ever imagined.

"You can’t go up against the military," said Rich, a family therapist who was the city of Eugene’s human rights commissioner for seven years. "If you speak out, you get punished. It’s really hard to survive."

Susan Avila-Smith, an Enumclaw, Wash., woman who founded one of the largest advocacy groups for women veterans, says cases surface decades later because most veterans are so busy trying to survive that they compartmentalize or suppress the experience until some event causes the floodgates to open.

Usually when post-traumatic stress disorder keeps people from sleeping and doing their job, "pretty soon, someone who was a functioning person with a high security clearance is working at a job washing dogs," she said. "I call it hitting the wall.

"Then, after you have no job, no house and nowhere to go, you finally go to the VA."

But VA experts say men often fail to disclose assaults even when they are far along into other mental health treatment. Earlier this year, a lead VA psychiatrist told the International Society for Trauma Studies that many kept their trauma secret for 30 years, even after it destroyed their military careers. She advised caregivers to ask frank questions and look for clues: substance abuse — often severe — and lifelong problems with intimate relationships, authority and anger.

Photos of Jeff Elizalde show a trim 145-pound rifleman in the late 1970s, hair neatly clipped. He had no disciplinary problems in his first 14 months as a Marine. Then records show an abrupt descent into alcoholism, including drinking as much as two cases of beer a day, passing out on guard duty, disobeying orders and failing to complete treatment.

"I lost faith in my leaders," Elizalde says. "I had to drink to be in the same room with them."

Within 18 months of the alleged assault, Elizalde faced a court-martial for five drinking-related or disobedient offenses. A commanding officer recommended that Elizalde accept an other-than-honorable discharge. He agreed.

He worked in his parents’ restaurant in California, where he racked up two drunken driving convictions in quick succession. He eventually went to work in construction, following the trades to Salem, where he worked as a union pipe layer. After a construction accident, he went on 100 percent Social Security disability in 1999.

He never married. "It’s hard for me to even be with a gal," he says. "Believe me, I’m straight, but this has affected me so much mentally."

He was treated for severe depression, anxiety and other symptoms for years. Still, Elizalde never told anyone until he saw an item on television in 2006. It said that if you suffer from severe depression and have a sexual assault in your background, that will affect diagnosis and treatment. Documents show that on Feb. 9, 2006, he first disclosed the rape to the Kaiser Permanente mental health counselor he’d seen regularly since 2004.

The counselor and a supervising psychiatrist concluded that his alcoholism, depression, some hallucinations and fear about the security of his home could be the result of the attack. They later wrote that in treating him for five years, "It is our opinion that your PTSD is more than likely the direct result of personal trauma you experienced on active duty with the United States Marine Corps."

Shortly after disclosing the attack, Elizalde also contacted the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, where a caseworker helped him file a claim to upgrade his discharge.

In April 2007, the Board for the Correction of Navy Records rejected the claim, saying that the evidence was insufficient to warrant an upgrade given his five disciplinary actions. "Further, there is no evidence in the record to show you were raped or suffered PTSD at the time of your service."

Elizalde appealed, asking that mental health experts review his records. He also called congressional offices and even candidates, and exhausted the state employees. (The department spokesman declined to discuss his case, even with his permission.) In January, Elizalde was charged with drunken driving — for the first time since the early 1980s.

Finally, two years after he first spoke out, he tried the federal government, and the Portland VA medical center agreed to see him immediately.

Under a new federal mandate that expands services for potential victims, any veteran is eligible for care for sexual trauma in the military as long as he or she had active service, said Sue Hippe, Psych Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, PTSD Clinical team and sexual trauma coordinator. So a veteran with a discharge other than honorable is still potentially eligible, based on an evaluation by the regional office.

Elizalde says at the very least, he’d like the VA to cover some of the mental health care.

"This has been my personal battle for 30 years," he said. "I’m a veteran, even though I don’t feel like one. This has affected every aspect of my life."

The Illinois Supreme Court justice who headed a board chosen by the Catholic bishops to assist them with preventing clergy sexual abuse accuses one of the nation’s top Catholic prelates of dishonesty and sharply criticizes a second in Kerry Kennedy’s new book, “Being Catholic Now,” which is being released tomorrow.

RELATED COVERAGE

• A Kennedy plumbs life as a Catholic
• Transcript: The interview with Kerry Kennedy
• DISCUSS Your thoughts on ‘Being Catholic Now’?
• Video Striking a balance on faith
• Related: Head of bishops’ panel criticizes clerics

The two cardinals named by Justice Anne M. Burke, Francis E. George of Chicago and Edward M. Egan of New York, both issued statements to the Globe rejecting the criticism.

Burke, who was interim chair of the National Review Board for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for two years, details the scope of her concern about the American bishops in an interview with Kennedy, a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, in her book.

She says the board “started having problems with individual cardinals and bishops who thought we were too aggressive,” and that “bishops got away with concealing crime,” and “just when you think these bishops are getting it, they turn around and do something that in any other enterprise would result in their own dismissal.”

She also alleges that, after Frank Keating, former governor of Oklahoma, was forced to resign as board chairman because he compared the bishops to the Mafia, the bishops declined to make her the permanent chairwoman because “there was no way they were going to appoint a woman to the position of chair.”

Burke’s strongest criticism is aimed at George, who is now the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. She says the cardinal withheld from her the fact that he was housing in his residence a priest accused of abuse in Delaware. She says she was “furious at his casual attitude” and that “the cardinal wasn’t honest with me. Perhaps he was not honest with himself.”

Asked by the Globe about Burke’s comment, George said in an e-mail that he allowed the Delaware priest to stay in his residence during a visit to Chicago, and that “to the best of my knowledge, I have been honest in every public and private statement I have made about the sexual abuse issue.”

“I stated publicly that there was no priest in ministry in Chicago who had against him a substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor,” he said. “That statement was true when I made it and it is true now.”

The priest from Delaware, he said, “was never in ministry here. He was someone I had known for several years who was coming to Chicago for a few days on business. At the time, I was unaware of all the details of his situation; but since, he let me know that a question had been raised about his past. I invited him to stay in my house rather than a parish when he came to Chicago while his own diocese was deciding whether or not he should be in ministry.”

Burke’s criticism of Egan is also pointed.

“Cardinal Edward Egan was offended by our insistence for independence,” she says. “I also think he was intimidated by the thoughts of fifty former FBI agents doing our questioning. His animosity reached an absurd level when he publicly uninvited us from attending the Cardinal’s Annual Gala in New York [an Order of Malta dinner].”

A spokesman for Egan, Joseph Zwilling, disputed Burke’s characterizations.

“The Cardinal never had or expressed an opinion on the matter of the so-called ‘dependence or independence’ of the Review Board,” Zwilling said.

“Throughout the process of audits in which former FBI agents were involved, the Archdiocese and the Cardinal Archbishop cooperated without hesitation. There was never any occasion for intimidation and at the last meeting the auditors were very complimentary regarding the Archdiocese and the Cardinal Archbishop.”

And, Zwilling said, “the Cardinal never invited the advisory board to the Order of Malta dinner, and therefore could not dis-invite them. When asked if they should be invited, he responded that in his opinion it would not be fitting because the Order of Malta had nothing to do with the sexual abuse crisis.”

Michael Paulson covers religion for the Globe. He blogs at boston.com/religion and can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

Correction: Because of an editing error, a story on Page A8 yesterday omitted the full response of Cardinal Edward M. Egan to criticisms by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke, who served as chairman of the National Review Board, a panel appointed by the American bishops to review the sex abuse crisis. Egan’s spokesman said that the cardinal was fully cooperative with auditors who examined the New York archdiocese’s child protection measures, that the cardinal was not “intimidated” by the auditors, and that the cardinal had not disinvited board members from a gala dinner, but rather had expressed his opinion that “it would not be fitting” to invite them to the dinner, because the dinner was not related to the abuse crisis.

* * *

For immediate release: Monday, September 8, 2008

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, national president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747)

Today’s Boston Globe discloses that a new book by an Illinois Supreme Court justice blasts Cardinal Francis George for letting a convicted Delaware child molester live part time in his mansion and work in the archdiocese.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/08/head_of_bishops_panel_criticizes_clerics/

In 2003, when the Chicago Sun Times disclosed the priest’s presence in Chicago, George initially claimed he didn’t know about Fr. Kenneth Martin’s past. Later, George’s spokesman split hairs, claiming the church’s sex abuse guidelines deal with only priests, and since Martin abused when he was a seminarian, the guidelines didn’t apply.

George’s secretive and reckless move happened in 2003, AFTER the US bishops supposedly committed to being “open and transparent” about clergy sex cases.

Sadly, however, the Martin case is just one of a long line of irresponsible, deceptive and insensitive steps taken by the Cardinal.

We hope every Chicago area Catholic and law enforcement official reads this book, or at least the sections relating to Cardinal George, and George’s recent deposition. We hope they will keep in mind that the author (Justice Anne Burke) is no church dissident or critic, but was deemed loyal and devout enough to be named to a national panel to oversee the church’s handling of sex abuse cases. And we hope they realize that the Martin case is part of a much larger, on-going, and disturbing pattern in the Chicago archdiocese.

– In March 2004, twice-suspended abusive priest Fr. John Calicott was caught working, living and teaching sex education to kids at his old parish, with the full knowledge of the pastor. George slapped Calicott on the hand, but refused to discipline or censure the pastor, Fr. George Miller, who knowingly put children in harm’s way and violated the US bishops’ national abuse policy.

– In February 2005, Fr. Michael T. Yakaitis worked at the University of Chicago’s Catholic Center, despite admitting sexual misconduct with a teenager years ago. A victim reported Yakaitis’ exploitation and manipulation to at least seven church officials. But George let the abuser stay in ministry until this was publicly exposed.

– In October 2005, George refused to discipline or warn others about Father Elijah Martin who seduced a young woman, fathered her child, ignored her, and refused to pay child support. Martin’s direct superiors also refused to give the mom any information about the priest’s whereabouts. George washed his hands of this controversy, despite repeated requests by our group to show compassion.

– In the fall of 2005, Fr. Daniel McCormack was arrested for child molestation. Weeks later, he was promoted to head a deanery, or region, of the archdiocese.

– In January 2006, McCormack was arrested again. He assaulted one 11 year old boy “on an almost daily basis” from Sept. 2005 until Jan. 2006. McCormack was kept in ministry for years despite several reports of child sexual abuse, including repeated written and verbal ones from a Catholic nun more than seven years ago to archdiocesan staff.

– We repeatedly urged Chicago Catholic officials to “aggressively and immediately” reach out to parishes where McCormack worked, and prodded George to personally visit those churches, emphatically reminding Catholics that they have a moral and civic duty to disclose anything they know about these allegations to law enforcement. He ignored us.

– For months awaiting trial, George let McCormack live with relatives, refusing to order him to stay in a treatment center for pedophiles.

– We were highly critical of that move, calling it ‘reckless’ and ‘irresponsible.’ We repeatedly urged George to reconsider. He ignored us.

– Five top church staff who were involved in the McCormack case have all essentially been promoted since then. Only one has been disciplined - the female school principal who actually called the police and reported McCormack’s crimes.

– Just last month, newly released secret church records and Cardinal George’s sworn deposition show that an accused serial predator priest, Fr. Joseph R. Bennett. Bennett was suspended from his suburban parish in 2006 only after at least a dozen of his victims had reported him to church authorities.

– Those same documents show that George overruled the recommendations of his own hand-picked abuse panel and had him alleged and secretly (but ineffectively) ‘monitored’ by a fellow priest (Fr. Leonard Dubi) who is a close friend of Bennett’s. The two of them own property together in Indiana. They then took a trip to Mexico together.

– George’s hand-picked abuse panel specifically, in two memos, urged George to NOT assign Dubi to this role. The Cardinal rejected their recommendation.

– The same deposition and documents also reveal that George and his top staffers spent considerable time and effort secretly trying to win the early release of a convicted serial child predator, Fr. Norbert Maday, who is in a Wisconsin prison.

– We suspect and fear there are or have been other jailed sex offender clerics who have gotten or are getting the Cardinal’s ‘behind the scenes’ help. We have asked George to stop it immediately, and to disclose if he’s taken similar reckless action with other pedophiles. He has ignored us.

–Last month, we publicly called on George to promise he’d never again try to get a convicted pedophile priest out of jail early. He has not responded.

– We fear other accused child-molesting clergy are in still Chicago parishes right now, unbeknownst to parishioners, allegedly being ‘monitored’ by peers. We’ve asked George to disclose who and where they are and/or abide by the church’s national abuse policy and publicly suspend them. He has ignored us.

In the same documents, Fr. Edward Grace, the archdiocese’s Vicar for Priests, urged Bennett to essentially lie about birthmarks on his genitals to ‘beat’ multiple child sex abuse allegations before a lay church panel.

– Yesterday, we asked George to discipline these ‘enablers’ - Dubi and Grace - whose deceit put kids in harm’s way.

The bottom line is that George continues to put his own reputation and comfort above the safety and well-being of his flock.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 17 years and have more than 8,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Peter Isely (414-429-7259) Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688), Mark Serrano (703-727-4940)

Note: These occasional blogs are my personal reflections on the work we do at this law firm on behalf of child abuse survivors, and are not the views of any client, partner or lawyer at O’Donnell, Clark, and Crew LLP.

No one was more hopeful than I, fifteen months ago at the conclusion of the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Portland.I believed– and I now see that I WANTED to believe– the promises of Archbishop John Vlazny, of his advisors and his lawyers.Those promises talked of treating victims of sexual abuse by priests with compassion.They offered hope that, in the future, the Archdiocese would be open and forthcoming about the records of past criminal conduct by pedophile priests and the bishops who covered up for them.Archbishop Vlazny himself led a mass of healing and reconciliation, again offering words of sorrow, repentance and new beginnings As I say, I believed these words.I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Archbishop and his lawyers, congratulated him on doing the right thing in resolving cases and in making the hard decisions to open the files of the past. See news articles here. I gave presentations and wrote articles on it all. See here. As a person of Christian faith, albeit a very flawed and broken one, I was particularly pleased that we– my clients, other abuse survivors and their lawyers– had held out for a nearly unique commitment and promise from the Archbishop that he would open the files of the past.  I believed this church could not achieve healing and reconciliation for itself, its members and its victims without shedding its old habit of secrecy, and so I was delighted at the promises.  I was even proud, thinking that my clients, other abuse survivors, and I and other lawyers had really accomplished something, that we had helped change an institution that had failed to live up to its own best ideals, and certainly to the example and words of its Lord. A new era of openness; I foolishly called it. Well, how things change. Now—over a year later—now that the lights of the TV cameras are off, now that the media and the public aren’t watching, now that the Archdiocese does not need the cooperation of plaintiffs or their lawyers to get out of a self made mess of a bankruptcy, now that the plaintiffs bring claims one at a time– instead of dozens and scores at a time, as before–my, my how things have changed.

Compassion for victims? The Archbishop and his lawyers are litigating new cases like any other powerful corporation with a pack of insurance lawyers. He has attempted to force plaintiffs to use their full names in public litigation, breaking the time-honored practice, virtually unanimously agreed upon by all institutions facing child abuse cases (Boy Scouts, the Mormon Church, schools, etc), that recognizes that plaintiffs in these cases are crime victims, are covered with the shame of child abuse, and do not need or deserve to be identified publicly. For news coverage of this incredible move, click here. When confronted publicly about this in court papers and by the news media, the Archbishop and his spokespersons have responded in ways that are, at best, simply disingenuous–claiming all they were doing was leaving it up to the Court. Well, that just isn’t so. The fact is, courts NEVER raise the issue on their own. It was the Archbishop’s move, and only that, that tried to force survivors to use their names publicly. Fortunately, a humane and common sense federal judge saw through the tactic, and refused to countenance it

A new era of openness? The Archbishop and his lawyers have fought full disclosure of the files of the pedophile priests tooth and nail, and even as late as July, 2008, were filing papers in bankruptcy court and in federal court to protect the files of such notorious pedophiles as Fr Thomas Laughlin. Even in the process of mediation and arbitration of the issues relating to openness, the Archdiocese sought to secret the entire briefing and arbitration of the agreement to release files.Yes, that’s right– in a proceeding where the sole issue was the Archbishop’s promise to open old files and change old ways, he sought to have the proceeding itself kept secret! And, although the Archdiocese and its lawyers quickly point to the “thousands; of pages of documents they have publicly released, a comparison of that which they have publicly released with that which is actually in the files that they routinely must turn over to plaintiffs in litigation, shows that they continue to be quite selective in what they release. Just one example suffices; concerning Laughlin. In litigation they turn over thousands of pages of documents, because they have to.Yet, as of summer 2008, what they have posted publicly on the internet concerning Laughlin is sparse and selective.Even more staggering, as recently as late July 2008, they filed papers in bankruptcy court ON THE SIDE OF FR LAUGLHIN, as he personally objects to further public release of his files. Once again– as with bishops going back 40 years–a bishop of the Archdiocese of Portland sides with Fr. Laughlin against the interests of abuse survivors and against the full truth coming out.

Choosing a new way? In the face of new claims of abuse against some of the same old perpetrators–Laughlin, Grammond, etc– the Archbishop refused offers of pre-litigation mediation time and time again, instead choosing to litigate each case as vigorously and aggressively as possible, ignoring the cruel impact that such a tactic has on abuse survivors, who most of all want and need closure and justice. He even had his lawyers resist early and global mediation suggested by the federal judge overseeing the new litigation, arguing instead for a litigation-heavy approach that undoubtedly was intended to wear down victims with the brutal tactics and unending delays of litigation.

The fact is that, for the Archdiocese of Portland, nothing has changed.  In my view, the Archbishop has broken, or stretched to the breaking point, virtually every one of his bankruptcy promises. It is really no different than the bishops before him, and their promises to “handle; problems of abusive priests.After years of litigation, we learned what that meant: it meant nothing.It appears now, as to Archbishop John Vlazny’s promises at the conclusion of the bankruptcy, it still means nothing. No one is more disappointed than I. 

Portland, OR  
August 10, 2008

Attorneys for the Society of Jesus Oregon Province are in mediation with a Portland woman who alleges years of sex abuse at the hands of two Jesuit priests.  As Andrew Theen reports, if a settlement isn’t reached the case goes to trial in October.

The $15 million lawsuit accuses  Jesuit leaders in Oregon of fraud and negligence.  A Portland woman says she was sexually abused starting at age 7 for a couple of years in the 1960s.

One of the priests named was implicated in dozens of sex abuse cases in Alaska; the other was a target in a high-profile Archdiocese of Portland case.

Kelly Clark is a Portland attorney representing the victim.  He says "cases like this aren’t fun."

Kelly Clark: "I don’t think it’s a particularly good thing for the Province of Jesuits or my client to go to trial.  But ultimately, if parties can’t agree on how to resolve a legal dispute that’s what juries are for."

Oregon’s Jesuit leaders say they will continue to cooperate with the legal proceedings, and that their desire is to bring "healing and justice" to the victim. 

No one was more hopeful than I, fifteen months ago at the conclusion of the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of Portland. I believed– and I now see that I WANTED to believe– the promises of Archbishop John Vlazny, of his advisors and his lawyers. Those promises talked of treating victims of sexual abuse by priests with compassion. They offered hope that, in the future, the Archdiocese would be open and forthcoming about the records of past criminal conduct by pedophile priests and the bishops who covered up for them. Archbishop Vlazny himself led a mass of healing and reconciliation, again offering words of sorrow, repentance and new beginnings.

As I say, I believed these words. I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Archbishop and his lawyers, congratulated him on doing the right thing in resolving cases and in making the hard decisions to open the files of the past. See news articles here. I gave presentations and wrote articles on it all. See here. As a person of Christian faith, albeit a very flawed and broken one, I was particularly pleased that we– my clients, other abuse survivors and their lawyers– had held out for a nearly unique commitment and promise from the Archbishop that he would open the files of the past. I believed that this church could not achieve healing and reconciliation for itself, its members and its victims without shedding its old habit of secrecy, and so I was delighted at the promises. I was even proud, thinking that my clients, other abuse survivors, and I and other lawyers had really accomplished something, that we had helped change an institution that had failed to live up to its own best ideals, and certainly to the example and words of its Lord. “A new era of openness” I foolishly called it.

Well, how things change. Now– over a year later– now that the lights of the TV cameras are off, now that the media and the public aren’t watching, now that the Archdiocese does not need the cooperation of plaintiffs or their lawyers to get out of a self made mess of a bankruptcy, now that the plaintiffs bring claims one at a time– instead of dozens and scores at a time, as before– my, my how things have changed.

Compassion for victims? The Archbishop and his lawyers are litigating new cases like any other powerful corporation with a pack of insurance lawyers. He has attempted to force plaintiffs to use their full names in public litigation, breaking the time-honored practice, virtually unanimously agreed upon by all institutions facing child abuse cases (Boy Scouts, the Mormon Church, schools, etc), that recognizes that plaintiffs in these cases are crime victims, are covered with the shame of child abuse, and do not need or deserve to be identified publicly. For news coverage of this incredible move, click here. When confronted publicly about this in court papers and by the news media, the Archbishop and his spokespersons have responded in ways that are, at best, simply disingenuous–claiming that all they were doing was leaving it up to the Court. Well, that just isn’t so. The fact is, courts NEVER raise the issue on their own. It was the Archbishop’s move, and only that, that tried to force survivors to use their names publicly. Fortunately, a humane and common sense federal judge saw through the tactic, and refused to countenance it.

A new era of openness? The Archbishop and his lawyers have fought full disclosure of the files of the pedophile priests tooth and nail, and even as late as July, 2008, were filing papers in bankruptcy court and in federal court to protect the files of such notorious pedophiles as Fr Thomas Laughlin. Even in the process of mediation and arbitration of the issues relating to openness, the Archdiocese sought to secret the entire briefing and arbitration of the agreement to release files. Yes, that’s right– in a proceeding where the sole issue was the Archbishop’s promise to open old files and change old ways, he sought to have the proceeding itself kept secret! And, although the Archdiocese and its lawyers quickly point to the “thousands” of pages of documents they have publicly released, a comparison of that which they have publicly released with that which is actually in the files that they routinely must turn over to plaintiffs in litigation, shows that they continue to be quite selective in what they release. Just one example suffices; concerning Laughlin. In litigation they turn over thousands of pages of documents, because they have to. Yet, as of summer 2008, what they have posted publicly on the internet concerning Laughlin is sparse and selective. Even more staggering, as recently as late July 2008, they filed papers in bankruptcy court ON THE SIDE OF FR LAUGLHIN, as he personally objects to further public release of his files. Once again– as with bishops going back 40 years– a bishop of the Archdiocese of Portland sides with Fr Laughlin against the interests of abuse survivors and against the full truth coming out.

Choosing a new way? In the face of new claims of abuse against some of the same old perpetrators– Laughlin, Grammond, etc– the Archbishop refused offers of pre-litigation mediation time and time again, instead choosing to litigate each case as vigorously and aggressively as possible, ignoring the cruel impact that such a tactic has on abuse survivors, who most of all want and need closure and justice. He even had his lawyers resist early and global mediation suggested by the federal judge overseeing the new litigation, arguing instead for a litigation-heavy approach that undoubtedly was intended to wear down victims with the brutal tactics and unending delays of litigation.

The fact is that, for the Archdiocese of Portland, nothing has changed. In my view, the Archbishop has broken, or stretched to the breaking point, virtually every one of his bankruptcy promises. It is really no different than the bishops before him, and their promises to “handle” problems of abusive priests. After years of litigation, we learned what that meant: it meant nothing. It appears now, as to Archbishop John Vlazny’s promises at the conclusion of the bankruptcy, it still means nothing. No one is more disappointed than I.

Two Portland-area men filed an $8.5 million lawsuit Wednesday against the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts, bringing to eight the number of former Scouts alleging sexual abuse by former troop and church leader Timur Van Dykes.

The eight men are seeking a total of more than $33 million in damages.

The lawsuits, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, contend the abuse began in the early 1980s, ended in the early ’90s and involved Boy Scout Troops 478 and 719, both of which were sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Boy Scouts has been part of the Mormon church’s official men’s program since 1913.

Six of the alleged victims agreed earlier this month to enter talks to settle their lawsuits but failed to reach a resolution.

Dykes, a registered sex offender, lives in Southwest Portland. He has been convicted of at least 26 sex crimes since 1983.

The state sex offender registry lists him as a predator who targets infant males and boys ages 7 to 15, warning that he "has used intimidation and threats to maintain victim compliance."

He is one of about 50 Oregon leaders expelled by the Boy Scouts for sex abuse between 1970 and 1990 and more than 5,100 leaders expelled nationally since 1946, according to confidential Boy Scouts files and summaries obtained by The Oregonian.

Under Oregon’s flexible statute of limitations, victims of sexual abuse can bring cases once they’ve discovered how the abuse affected them, sometimes decades after the actual crimes.

In Oregon, the Boy Scouts faces at least four more pending civil cases involving allegations of child sex abuse.

The first criminal sex-abuse charges against Dykes came in 1983, when two boys told Portland police that the Scout leader molested them. Dykes pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree sexual abuse and was sentenced to probation.

The lawsuits contend that the Mormon church discovered in the early 1980s that Dykes had molested a Scout but failed to thoroughly investigate and question Dykes, failed to report abuse to law enforcement, failed to provide mental health services to victims and failed to remove Dykes from contact with children.

"We believe that the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts allowed Timur Dykes to stay in contact with children for years after his first arrest and conviction for child sex abuse," said plaintiff attorney Kelly Clark.

But Steve English, attorney for the Mormon church, said the two new alleged victims were never members of the church and that Dykes had been expelled from the church nearly a decade before the alleged abuse in the late 1980s.

The Boy Scouts Cascade Pacific Council declined to comment on the case.

Dykes has been a source of legal troubles for the Boy Scouts before. Three lawsuits alleging abuse filed in 1987 resulted in undisclosed settlements. The mother of one of Dykes’ earliest alleged victims told The Oregonian in 1995 that abuse of her son contributed to his suicide.

Peter Zuckerman: 503-294-5919; peterzuckerman@ news.oregonian.com

Two Portland men filed an $8.5 million lawsuit today against the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts, bringing to eight the total number of former Boy Scouts alleging sexual abuse by Timur Van Dykes, who was a church and scout leader in the 1980s and early 90s.

The lawsuit contends that Timur Van Dykes molested Boy Scouts in Troop 719, which was supervised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dykes, a registered sex offender who now lives in Southwest Portland, has been convicted of at least 26 sex crimes since 1983.

Together, the pending abuse cases filed in Multnomah County Court against the scouts and the church seek $33.5 million.

Six of the alleged victims agreed earlier this month to enter talks to settle their lawsuits but failed to reach a resolution.

At least a dozen Oregon child-abuse cases are pending against the Boy Scouts.

– Peter Zuckerman; peterzuckerman@news.oregonian.com

Six Portland men agreed to enter talks this week to settle their $25 million lawsuit against the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts of America over alleged sexual abuse.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Portland contends that in the 1980s and 1990s Timur Van Dykes molested Boy Scouts in Troop 719, which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supervised. Since 1983, Dykes, 51, has been convicted of at least 26 sex crimes.

"The amazing thing about this case is the extent to which these institutions continued to allow him access to kids, even after he had acknowledged sexually abusing boys and, indeed, after he had been convicted for doing so," said Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who represents the plaintiffs.

Attorney Steve English, who represents the Mormon Church, said that perspective is inaccurate.

"The church worked cooperatively with the Portland police, who learned of this abuse before the church did, and the church suspended Mr. Dykes’ privileges as a church member within two weeks of learning of this abuse," English said.

The Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Portland did not return phone calls.

Dykes, who lives in Southwest Portland, is one of about 50 Oregon leaders expelled by the Boy Scouts for sex abuse between 1970 and 1990, according to confidential Boy Scout files obtained by The Oregonian. The number of Boy Scout leaders ejected in Oregon eclipses the number of abusive priests identified statewide in the recent Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal.

Under Oregon’s flexible statute of limitations, victims of sexual abuse can bring cases once they’ve discovered how the abuse affected them, sometimes decades after the actual crimes.

Dykes has been a source of legal troubles for the Boy Scouts before. Three lawsuits alleging abuse filed in 1987 resulted in undisclosed settlements. The mother of one of Dykes’ earliest alleged victims told The Oregonian in 1995 that abuse of her son contributed to his suicide.

Peter Zuckerman: 503-294-5919; peterzuckerman@ news.oregonian.com