Clergy Sex Abuse Attorney – Recent Developments in the Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal

The KBA Clergy Sex Abuse Attorney update.

The latest Grand Jury Report about the Catholic Church Abuse Scandal in Philadelphia and the investigation of the Catholic Church by the D.C. Attorney General have renewed interest in the decades of sex abuse allegations that survivors claim the check ignored. Governments and organizations around the country have mobilized to provide compensation for survivors of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.

Numerous states and locales have established settlement funds to make compensation available to survivors. As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer in November, “Amid a renewed furor over the Catholic Church’s handling of clergy sex abuse, several of Pennsylvania’s Catholic dioceses, including Philadelphia, announced plans Thursday to launch programs to financially compensate victims whose claims are too old to be taken to court.” As Bishop David Zubik, of Pittsburgh, explained, “[t]he survivors’ compensation program we are working to establish will be designed to create the best opportunity for recovery and healing to survivors . . . They continue to suffer as a result of their abuse and this program will help to provide for their ongoing needs.” This may prove to be helpful for some survivors, particularly those with very old claims that may not be able to sue in court because the time by which they had to file a sex abuse lawsuit has passed.

In places outside of Philadelphia, other Catholic Church Archdioceses have acted as well. “In September 2002, the Archdiocese of Baltimore published a list of priests and religious brothers who had served in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and who had been accused, in their lifetime, of child sexual abuse.” The list includes 57 men who operated not just in Baltimore Maryland, but also in New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Delaware:

• Avant, James (Capuchin)
• Banko, John (Diocese of Trenton/Metuchen, NJ)
• Bauernfeind, Thomas
• Blackwell, Maurice
• Brett, Laurence (Diocese of Bridgeport)
• Brinkmann, Frederick (Redemptorist)
• Bugge, Gerald (Redemptorist)
• Carney, John
• Carroll, Douglas (Pallotine)
• Cox, Brian
• Deakin, Richard (Capuchin)
• Dimitroff, Donald (Christian Brother)
• Dowdy, James
• Duggan, John
• Duke, Frederick
• Emala, Walter (Diocese of Memphis)
• Farabaugh, Kenneth
• Gallagher, Joseph
• Gerg, Joseph (Benedictine)
• Haight, Mark (Diocese of Albany)
• Hammer, John (Diocese of Youngstown and Saginaw)
• Helowicz, Marion
• Hopkins, Robert
• Knapp, Paul (Redemptorist)
• Kruse, Joseph
• LaMountain, Michael (Diocese of Providence)
• LaPorta, Ross
• Lee, Thomas B. (Archdiocese of Seoul, Korea)
• LeFevre, Francis
• Lorento, Anthony (Pallotine)
• Loskarn, George
• Mardaga, Ronald
• Martin, Kenneth (Diocese of Wilmington)
• Maskell, A. Joseph
• Maurer, Arthur (Josephite)
• McGrath, Francis (Diocese of Trenton)
• Melville, Raymond (Diocese of Portland, Maine)
• Michaud, Ronald
• Mike, John
• Murphy, Timothy (Trinitarian)
• Newman, Robert (Sons of Charity)
• O’Toole, Henry (Redemptorist)
• Pecore, Dennis (Salvatorian)
• Rochacewcz, Thomas (Redemptorist)
• Rouse, Charles
• Rydzewski, Thomas
• Simms, William
• Smith, David
• Smith, Thomas
• Spillane, Michael
• Stroup, Edmund
• Sweeney, Francis (Paulist)
• Toohey, Jerome
• Toulas, James (Redemptorist)
• Tragesser, Gerald
• Wehrle, William
• Barber, Michael L.
• Barnes, Michael
• Bellwoar, John F.X.
• Bevan, Thomas
• Bonacci, Louis
• Bourbon, Francis C.
• Bradley, H. Cornell
• Burton, C. Jeffries
• Coyle, Charles
• Cristancho, Fernando
• Cullen, Robert B.
• Davies, Joseph
• Dean, Alfred (Josephite)
• Esposito, Luigi
• Garrity, Stephen M.
• Girard, Steven
• Kenney, Joseph
• Kolodziej, Michael
• Krouse, William Earl “Jay”
• Lentz, Robert
• Lippold, John
• Magnus, E. Neil
• Michele, Robert (Paulist)
• Murray, J. Glen
• Orr, Garrett D.
• Ory, Claude L.
• Salerno, Michael (Pallotine)
• Smith, Richard
• Vazquez-Ortega, Urbano
• Velez Lopez, Jorge
• Antonio (Tertiary Capuchin)
• Walsh, William J.
• Wielebski, John.

As reported, the 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report that a Court ordered to be released named additional Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse as part of its role in the investigation of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal:

• Amy, Michael (Diocese of Erie)
• Bach, Francis (Diocese of Harrisburg)
• Bostwick, John (Diocese of Richmond)
• Cofenas, Robert (Diocese of Allentown)
• Geinzer, John (Diocese of Pittsburgh)
• Jeselnick, Stephen (Diocese of Erie)
• Long, Arthur
• McLaughlin, Neil
• Presley, William (Diocese of Erie)
• Steffen, Carl (Diocese of Harrisburg)

The Pennsylvania Attorney General provided additional information, including videos from survivors. This 2018 Report is not the first of its kind; there is also one from 2005 and, as further reported, “[t]here have been eight reports by prosecutors in the United States. . . .” These reports have spurred renewed efforts to help survivors.

The attorneys at KBA include partner Brian Ketterer who was a prosecutor in Philadelphia. Our attorneys have worked on sex abuse and related human trafficking cases. We have published several articles on these topics, including in peer-reviewed journals. Sex abuse is not limited to human trafficking, it occurs in nursing homes and other residential facilities as well, including multiple women in Arizona raped and impregnated while in vegetative states. Without religious communities, sex abuse is not limited to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. Unfortunately, other religious groups have struggled with this issue as well.