CHRISTIAN SEX CRIMES - REPORTED 1992
(by U.S. states, Canadian states, other countries)

 

File: XCrime92

*** ALABAMA ***

PASTOR BOOKED FOR MOLESTING SCHOOLGIRL. A girl, 15, was molested at a church-run school in Birmingham by Rev. James E. Johnson, of Ensley, according to police. He was charged with 2nd degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor. Source: _Birmingham News_ 11/21/92.

*** ARIZONA ***

PRIEST GETS 10 YEARS. In an April plea-bargain, Rev. Mark Lebman, 29, of St. Thomas the Apostle Church, will get a 10-year prison sentence without parole, followed by lifetime probation, for fondling 3 young Phoenix girls. He was not prosecuted for 15 other charges of sexual misconduct with 2 girls and a boy. He agreed to pay $15,000 for counseling for all 6 victims, ages 8 to 13. Source: _Arizona Republic_ 4/11/92.

PHOENIX MAN SUES POPE. A Phoenix man represented by attorney Dick Treon has added the Pope and Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien to a suit filed in 1990 over George Bredemann, 49, a long-time abuser of altar boys. Bredemann is serving 45 years in prison Source: _Arizona Republic_ 6/4/92.

BAPTIST VOLUNTEER PREYED ON GIRLS? Thomas Road Baptist Church in Phoenix failed to screen church volunteer John Herman Kuiper for a criminal record when it permitted him to drive a church bus &
volunteer at youth events. Kuiper, who had been convicted in 1991 of a felony charge of 3rd degree sexual assault, was arrested in Phoenix for molesting 5 girls. As a church bus driver in Fort Collins, Colorado, he had received a deferred sentence for molesting a little girl, 5. Rev. Ken Adrian, church pastor, complained to
media that the publicity was not good for his Phoenix church. Source: _Arizona Republic_ 11/4/92.

LUTHERAN COUNSELOR NABBED. St. Paul Lutheran Church youth counselor John Wayne Nase, 40, Phoenix, was accused of multiple counts of child molesting, sexual conduct with a minor & kidnapping. Police
say he ordered a boy, 12, into the choir loft & performed sex acts on him after Nase's Sunday confirmation classes. Source: _Arizona Republic_ 7/21/92.

*** CALIFORNIA ***

REDEEMER CHURCH SETTLES SUIT. Redeemer Lutheran Church, Redwood City, made a secret settlement to a victim of youth counselor James A. Weller, who had sought $25,000. The victim said the pastor and other church officials interrupted Weller when he was molesting the victim, then 13, but failed to report it. Weller had been dishonorably discharged from the Navy for sexual molestation and had a record when he was hired by the church. He was convicted in 1990 of 27 counts of sex crimes against 4 boys and a girl, including oral sex, rape and pornography. He is serving a 4-year prison sentence.  Source: _Redwood City Tribune_ 5/19/92.

DYING CANCER PATIENT RAPED IN MONASTERY. A terminally ill woman staying at a Benedictine monastery in Oceanside was raped and beaten by a masked intruder while a female accomplice ransacked her room. After beating her in the head with a flashlight, the intruder ripped her clothes, raped her and forced her into other sex acts. Source: _New York Post_ 2/27/92.

PRIEST CHARGED WITH MOLESTING GIRLS. A Sacramento judge issued a warrant for the arrest of priest Gerardo Beltran, 34, for sexually molesting 2 girls, ages 6 and 12, between 1989 and 1991. Beltran left for Mexico when an investigation began. "More than anything, I feel angry. How dare this man come into my home and do such a horrible thing?" said the mother of the girls. "Nothing will ever be the same. Not only was it a horrible crime, it also affected our religious beliefs. This is a man who performed our Sunday Masses,
who listened to our confessions." The diocese won't admit wrongdoing, but has offered counseling and an evaluation of both girls. Source: _Sacramento Bee_ 3/20/92.

PLEA BARGAIN TO BAN PRIEST. Los Angeles city attorneys offered to settle charges against Patrick Kelly, 72, for making sexual advances to a girl, 9, if he agrees to stay in Ireland and not return to California for 3 years. Source: _Los Angeles Times_ 4/7/92.

 

 

SAN DIEGO WOMAN SUES PRIEST. A San Diego woman, 29, filed suit against a retired priest and caretaker for molesting her hundreds of times at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church from 1974-1979. Also named is the diocese of Escondido. Father Victor Ubaldi, 79, now in Italy, denies the charges. The janitor has not been located. She said the men separately committed rape, oral sex and molestation, starting when she was 12. She seeks to recoup the cost of psychological counseling as well as unspecified damages. Another woman has come forward saying Ubaldi fondled her at the age of 12 or 13 when he came to her house to give communion to her sick grandmother. Father Charles Fuld, Diocese of San Diego, insists there is "no indication at all, that he served in anything but aIl exemplary fashion". Source: _Los Angeles Times_ 1992.
 
PROMINENT EVANGELICAL RESIGNS; NO CHARGES? Prominent Sunday-school teacher/leader James C. Truxton, 77, resigned his positions at the 5,000-member First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton. The founding president of Mission Aviation Fellowship admitted he was stepping down because of "molestation perpetrated by me in the past upon young girls within & outside this congregation". Truxton & his wife's memberships were revoked They were told not to set foot on church property again. Both had been teaching second-graders; the wife was called "culpable". At least 7 church members in their 20s & 30s said they were molested by Truxton as children. The statute of limitations has expired; no criminal charges were filed. When parents 20 years ago complained to Mission Aviation Fellowship officials about Truxton, they were told a psychologist at Fuller Seminary evaluated him, concluding he was in no need of help. Source: _National & International Religion Report_ 10/19/92.

  

PASTOR OUSTED FROM 4,500-MEMBER CHURCH. Pastor David Hocking of Calvary Church in Santa Ana was forced to resign after confessing to an affair with a married woman. Hocking, 51, is married with grown children. Source: _National & International Religion Report_ 10/19/92.

CATHOLIC COACH ABUSED RUNNER. Former marathon runner Linda Van Housen, 28, was awarded $1.1 million in damages by a San Mateo jury that ruled her coach had sexually molested her for than than 10
years from the time she was 13. Coach Michael Ipsen, 49, made a sexual slave of her, she testified. It was unsettled who would pay the damages, pending outcome of a legal battle between the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, where Ipsen had coached, & its insurance carrier. Source: _San Francisco Chronicle_ 10/3/92

SAN JOSE CATHOLIC COVER-UP? A San Jose woman is charging that Rev. Peter Luc The Phan, her priest, told her it was her religious obligation to help him get over his "fixation with the female body". She said when she tried to break off the relationship in 1990, Phan raped her. Three priests told the woman to keep quiet to protect the church, she said. One priest suggested she forgive him & take up tennis. Another told her the church couldn't help her until she agreed not to press charges. The woman, a nurse, said she has tried to commit suicide twice because of the priest, who began exploiting her when she started religious instruction with him. Source: _San Jose Mercury News_ 6/25/92.

PASTOR GETS 13 YEARS FOR INCEST. Springfield Baptist Church pastor Jon L. Walker, 43, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for molesting a relative for 2-1/2 years, beginning when she was 13. Twenty persons pleaded for leniency, including the local NAACP president. Walter's defense was to accuse his wife of concocting the charges to get even with him because he had an affair with a young church member! Deputy DA Karen Gray said the letters of support were "a sad testimony to the fact that Mr. Walter's life has been a fraud". Source: _San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune_ 8/5/92.

VICTIM SUES CONVICTED MINISTER. Rancho Cucamonga pastor John Marshall, convicted of sexually battering an ill man, 25, is being sued for $1 million by victim Kirk Judy, along with his church, the American Baptist Churches of USA & of the Pacific Southwest. The 6'2", 200-lb pastor overpowered the 5'6", 140-lb victim at a bedside counseling visit. He got only 2 years of probation. The suit alleges that Marshall had committed other crimes, & that the 2 Baptist groups should have known about them. Source: _Ontario Daily Bulletin_ 7/29/92.

CHARGES AGAINST JUBILEE CHRISTIAN CENTER. Two assistant pastors at Jubilee Christian Center, San Jose, were charged with 4 felony counts of lewd & lascivious conduct with children, stemming from assaults on 4 boys, ages 10-15, at the church between September 1988 & February 1992. Charged are Pablo Geraldo Boas, 28, & David Ernest Brimmer, 39. Sources: _L.A. Times_ 12/19/92, _San Francisco
Examiner_ 1/10/93.

MORMON TEACHER GETS 30 YEARS. Sobbing Mormon Sunday School teacher John Allen Midgett asked for God's forgiveness before being sentenced to 30 years in state prison for molesting & terrorizing 8 girls, ages 5-10. A parent testified Midgett turned her cheerful, trusting daughter into a frightened, scarred recluse. He was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution Source: _San Diego Times Union_ 1992, _Los Angeles Times_ 9/12/92.

 

** COLORADO ***

PRIEST COMMITS SUICIDE. The day after the attorney of St. Mary's High School in Colorado Springs hired an investigator to look into charges of sexual misconduct by Rev. Richard Chung, the Benedictine priest committed suicide. A glowing report of his popularity with students was printed, but no details on the  allegation. Source: _Gazette Telegraph_ 3/24/92.

CANCER VICTIM ALLEGES MISCONDUCT. Carolyn Kruse, Aurora, filed suit against her minister and church, saying he coerced her into a sexual relationship when she went for counseling while ill with Hodgkin's
disease. Sued is John R. Leonard, pastor of Harvest Christian Center, who told the congregation Kruse was possessed by a demon. Source: _Rocky Mountain News_ 1/1/92.

EPISCOPAL PRIEST SETTLES. Episcopal Rev. Paul Robinson agreed to pay $575,000 in damages to Mary Tenantry, mother of 5, for luring her into an extramarital affair while counseling her. Source: --Reuters/Boston Globe_ 8/92.

COUNSELING VICTIM GETS $300,000. The Bear Valley Church of Christ & its former minister Homer Wolfe agreed to pay $300,000 to a man whom Wolfe sexually assaulted during family counseling sessions. Earlier, a boy, now 17, was awarded $450,000 by a jury for similar charges. Wolfe, 59, has not been criminally charged. He told parishioners to undress & massage themselves, & masturbated during counseling sessions, also touching parishioners. The fundamentalist Church of Christ teaches that nonchurch members will go to hell. Wolfe now lives in Texas. Source: _Rocky Mountain News_ 8/2,29/92.

FUGITIVE RELIGIOUS LEADER NABBED. Fugitive religious leader James Randazzo, convicted in 1989 of sex crimes, had skipped the country in 1990 & was nabbed in Hungary after a manhunt. He will now be
sentenced on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of children & drug use. Randazzo founded Spiral of Friends Church in Molina. Source: _Pueblo Chieftain_ 10/29/92.

*** CONNECTICUT ***

CULT LEADER'S SON GETS YEAR. The *son of Connecticut religious cult leader "Brother Julius" was sentenced to a year in prison for sexually abusing 4 children, ages 7, 9, 10, & 17. His father claims to be God & a "sinful messiah" & has also been accused of molesting children. His civil suits have been settled out of court, but he has never been criminally indicted. Source: _Boston Globe_ 9/20/92.

*(This son was not Mark Shacknow)


PRIEST PREYED ON JUVENILE. A Bethel priest is accused of assaulting a boy, 16, in a motel room after plying him with liquor. Rev. Kieran (Thomas) Ahearn, 55, vicar at St. Mary's Church & member of the Capuchin Franciscan order for more than 30 years, was charged with several counts. The Bridgeport diocese relieved him of his duties. Sources: _Berkshire Eagle_, Pittsfield, MA 1/21/93; _Waterbury Republican-American_ 1/22/93.

GIRL, ALTARBOY CHARGE PRIEST. The assistant pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Church in Strafford, also in the Diocese of Bridgeport, repeatedly raped a teenage girl & an altar boy from 1978-1982 in his room, & at a cabin, according to a civil lawsuit filed against the diocese & Rev. Raymond Pcolka, 53. The girl alleges that one time after the priest raped her in the rectory, he forced her to confess her "sins" to him. Victims Sharon See & Brian Freibott, both 28, claim severe emotional injury & suicidal tendencies. Pcolka was temporarily removed from his post as pastor at a Greenwich church. The congregation was told only that he was "ill". Church officials & congregation members expressed themselves "shocked"; many insisted publicly that it could not be true. Following publicity, 2 more men came forward saying Pcolka had abused them when they were 9 & 10, involving a second parish. One man said Pcolka had tied him & his brother to a bed & beat them before assaulting them. Attorney T. Paul Tremont of Bridgeport said he has evidence the Diocese was aware of crimes by Pcolka as long as 10 years ago. Complaints were made at least 3 times, but officials took no action. Source: _Connecticut Post_ 1/6/93.

CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER RENEGES CONFESSION. Facing 11 felony counts stemming from  molestations of 2 young brothers since 1987, Rev. Boardman Kathan says a damaging statement he gave police in July was coerced. Former chair of the Region 16 Board of Education, Kathan retired last summer as associate minister of the First Congregational Church of Cheshire in Waterbury. Police say their investigation shows he molested a boy, 17, numerous times over the past 5 years, & once molested his brother, now 12. Source: (Waterbury) _Republican American_ 1/23/93.

*** FLORIDA ***

CULT LEADER REPEAT OFFENDER? Holy Way leader Clarence "Brother Will" Williams was arrested after a 19-year-old woman said he brainwashed her into having sex starting when she was 15. The member of the sect said he forced sex upon her and other women more than 40 times between 1987-1990. Williams, who pleaded guilty 5 years ago to "cleansing" underage members by ordering them to bare their breasts,
was 2 months short of completing his 5-year probation. Terms of probation prohibited practicing aspects of his religion such as nudity, fondling children, and having non-related children spend the night. In 1986 prosecutors interviewed about a dozen girls and their mothers who described a religious ritual in which they would strip and fondle each other at Williams' command. Williams claimed this was _Bible_-based: "Our belief is that biblically if you have a problem within yourself, it is because of sin or weakness, and about the only thing that's going to cleanse you of that is if you expose it before the Lord." Source: _Palm Beach Post_ 2/26/92.

 

SOLICITOUS TOWARD MONSIGNOR SOLICITOR. Charges for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer last fall were dropped against prominent Tampa monsignor Norman Balthazar, 51. The monsignor drove to a notorious prostitution area and approached the undercover cop offering to "play with each other" and proposing a specific sex act. Balthazar was a prominent foe of gay rights. Source: _St. Petersburg Times_ 1/8/92.

  

ACCUSED PASTORAL COUNSELOR A PHONY. Port Charlotte church school principal Albert Joseph Clerico Jr., 47, charged with sexual misconduct by a psychotherapist by means of therapeutic deception, claims to be licensed by a nonexistent "scripturally based" group, National Christian Counselors Association & to have attended the nonexistent Carolina University of Theology. State investigator Robert Ford charged that Clerico "did cloak himself in the guise of Christianity & did represent to the female defendant that sexual contact" was part of the treatment. Clerico maintains his position as "pastoral counselor" exempts him under state law from charges. Police miked the victim & recorded Clerico making sexual advances, soliciting her comment on his graphic fantasies & telling her to perform oral sex. He was arrested after the 75-minute "counseling session". He has been suspended as principal of Community Christian School of First Baptist Church in Port Charlotte, & as minister of First Baptist Church, which operates the school. Source: _Sarasota Herald-Tribune_ 8/4/92. 

CATHOLIC CHOIR DIRECTOR CHARGED. Richard Trepinski, 55, music director at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Port Charlotte & director of Charlotte Co. Boychoir, was charged with 99 counts of lewd & lascivious assault against minors. He was also charged with sexual activity with a child while in a custodial capacity. He admitted having sexual relations with several boys over the past 25 years in Port Charlotte & Tampa, Florida, & in Colorado. The all-male Boychoir had performed throughout the United States & Europe. Source: _Toledo Blade_12/24/92.


*** GEORGIA ***

MINISTER GUILTY. Murrayville minister L.G. Gilsrap pleaded guilty to 2 counts of child molestation Q after the state high court in 1991 overturned a 1989 conviction for molesting young boys at church. Source: _USA Today_ 3/6/92.


 "WOUNDED SOLDIER" LEAVES CHURCH. Senior pastor of Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, with 12,000 members Q one of Atlanta's largest churches Q stepped down, admitting an "improper" relationship with a female church employee. Charismatic Rev. Don Paulk, 53, sermonized, "I am not here today as a martyr or hero, but as a fallen, wounded soldier ... My family's forgiveness was second only to the forgiveness of
God." His brother, Bishop Earl Paulk, berated the media for exposing the "weaknesses" of others, and blamed "Satan", promising Don would return. Source: _Atlanta Constitution_ 5/11/92.

DEKALB CHURCH BLESSES COVER-UP. A sex scandal, now encompassing 4 ministers from one family, has been uncovered at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in DeKalb, Georgia, praised by former President Bush as one of his "1,000 Points of Light". The $12 million, racially diverse 7,700-seat church with a TV program, social services, lost half of its 12,000 members following revelations that its minister, Bishop Earl Paulk, had an adulterous affair. Other church employees or members have stepped forward to say they had affairs with the bishop's brother, Rev. Don Paulk, & his nephews Rev. Duane Swilley & Rev. Alan Mushegan. Women charge the ministers coerced them into having sex in order to "serve God." The church filed, then dropped a slander/libel suit against several former members & staffers, resulting in a gag order by a DeKalb judge forbidding them to discuss their allegations of sexual misconduct. It promotes a doctrine of "covering", blessing cover-ups of sexual misconduct & requiring submission to authority. Don Paulk accuses former church schoolteacher Rebecca Moses of seducing him, saying "I know now what it was like for Samson to place his head in the lap of Delilah." Six victims have not filed suit, but are asking for legislation making it a felony in Georgia for clergy to have sex with members of their congregations. Sources: AP/_Atlanta Journal/Constitution_ 11/14/92; _USA Today_ 12/18/92; _Boston Globe_ 1/9/93.

*** HAWAII ***

PRIEST GUILTY OF ASSAULTING BOY, 10. Maui priest Arthur O'Brien pleaded no contest to 4 counts of sexual assault and attempted assault of a boy, 10, in his Haiku parish. The prosecutor suggested erasing the conviction of Arthur O'Brien, 55, but Maui Circuit Judge Richard Komo rejected the deferred sentencing plea bargain because of the seriousness of the case. Source: _Honolulu Advertiser_ 4/8/92.

*** ILLINOIS ***

CATHOLIC PRINCIPAL SUSPENDED. St. Francis High School principal/priest J. Michael Foley, Wheaton, was suspended on allegations he fondled a female student, 17, in a school hallway. Source: _Wheaton Daily Journal_ 6/2/92.

 

PRIEST WON'T BE PROSECUTED IN ILLINOIS. Rev. Norbert Maday, 54, on leave from the Chicago Archdiocese, won't be prosecuted for a charge that he sexually abused a boy, 14, in 1986. Wisconsin charges may be pending. Attorney Stephen M. Komie lashed out at accusers, claiming they made up stories for money. Source: _Chicago Sun-Times_ 5/20/92.


DAVIS FACES MORE CHARGES. Rev. L.R. Davis, charged in Illinois with criminal sexual misconduct, child pornography, and perjury, was also charged with assaulting a teenage boy in San Diego. Davis, 57, is a
prominent Waukegan minister with Christian Fellowship, Inc. Two fellow ministers, Michael Camer, 30, and David Annstrong, 33, are indicted on lesser charges. Young boys may have been brought from Tijuana, Mexico to Davis' San Diego church for molestation.

AIR FORCE CHAPLAIN COURT-MARTIALED. Capt. Perry W. Bell, 37, pleaded guilty to adultery with 6 women, conduct unbecoming an officer, and bringing discredit upon the armed forces. He was also convicted of attempted seduction of a 19-year-old Air Force cadet who fought off advances in his chapel office. The Scott Air Force Base chaplain was court-martialed and given 3 months in jail. He could have been sentenced for up to 12 years. In exchange for guilty pleas, the Air Force agreed to a brief sentence and dropped other charges of indecent advances, possession of a pornographic videotape while in the United Arab Emigrates during the war against Iran, ordering an enlisted man to obtain a pornographic tape, and dereliction of duty. Three of the victims were Air Force Officers, others were a sergeant, a sergeant's wife seeking counseling, and an enlisted woman. The senior Protestant chaplain sought out vulnerable women seeking help for emotional upsets. Source: _Edwardsville Intelligencer_ 2/19/92.

DAVIS GETS 31 YEARS, CLEMENCY ASKED. The founder of the notorious First Christian Fellowship Church of Waukegan, Rev. Lloyd Davis, 57, flanked by many supporters, was sentenced to 31 years in prison for criminal sexual assault, child pornography & sexual abuse. He imported teenaged boys from Mexico for sex. Lake Co. Judge Christopher C. Starck said: "The burning question in this case is whether this man is a minister or a monster, a pastor or a pedophile." Starck said he is all of those things. Davis is believed to have molested children since the 1960s. Former church members accuse him of running a cult, making sexual demands on supporters & locating all churches near Naval bases, where he is known for trying to lure young sailors into his churches for sexual purposes. About 374 persons wrote letters to the judge asking for mercy. "He is the greatest person there is," insisted Martha Allsopp, a Kenosha church member. He faces more charges in California. Two other ministers from his Waukegan church, David Lee Armstrong & Michael Carner, go on trial in March. In January, 200 supporters led by Rev. Peter Paine of the Christian Fellowship Church presented a request for clemency for Davis to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. "I believe L.R. Davis may be the most sexually dangerous man to have ever walked the streets of Lake Co.," maintains Assistant State's Attorney Jeff Pavletic. Sources: _Chicago Tribune_ 8/15/92, AP/ _Quad-City Times_ 8/15/92, _News-Sun_ (Lake Co.) 1/15/93.


LUTHERAN PASTOR CONFESSES TO 13 YEARS OF CRIMES. The 500 members of Christ Lutheran church in Palatine were sent a letter informing them that Rev. Wayne Tellekson has confessed to sexual misconduct while he was pastor from 1975 to 1988. He was removed from his current St. Paul, Minn. church when a former victim confronted Tellekson. Source: _Chicago Sun-Times_ 1/15/93.

MAYER FINALLY CONVICTED. Although he is believed to have blatantly molested numerous minors, male & female, for many years, priest Rev. Robert E. Mayer, 53, had eluded criminal prosecution with the help
of the Catholic Church's friendly policy of transferring molesters, until now. A girl, 15, sobbed during her testimony describing how the priest wordlessly molested her on a rectory couch in 1991 when she was a 13-year-old 8th grader at St. Odilo's R.C. Church in Berwyn. Two altar boys & classmates of the girl also testified that Mayer openly talked about wanting to have sex with her, including the suggestion that she be a "visual & demonstrative aid" during the boys' sex-education classes taught by Mayer. Jeanne Miller filed suit against Mayer in one of the first suits against Catholic molesting priests. Her suit, also naming Bernardin & the Archdiocese of Chicago, did not take Mayer off the streets, so she formed Victims of Clergy Abuse Linkup. VOCAL has been assisting 3,000 victims of priests; 300 survivors of clergy abuse met at a well- publicized VOCAL conference in Chicago in November. Contact VOCAL at PO Box 1268, Wheeling IL 60090 (708)202-0242. Source: _Chicago Sun- Times_ 12/10/92.

LAWSUIT ALLEGES CLERGY MALPRACTICE. David S. Guppy filed a civil suit for clergy malpractice, misrepresentation, fraud & other counts against Rev. F. Scott Luthy, resigned pastor of St. Stephen Evangelical Lutheran Church, Rockford. Guppy says the minister seduced his wife, a parishioner, than misused his counseling relationship with Guppy to conceal the affair, urging him to have an affair of his own. Source: _Jackson Citizen Patriot_ 7/31/92.


WEST CHICAGO PRIEST ARRESTED. Indignant parishioners defended westside priest Thomas O'Gorman, charged with sexual misconduct against a minor in the church rectory. O'Gorman is well-known for community crusades. State's Attorney Jack O'Malley criticized the archdiocese for impeding his investigation into this allegation & those against 21 other priests in 1992. O'Gorman was placed on leave. Source: _Chicago Tribune_ 9/3/92.

SUIT AGAINST PRIEST TIP OF ICEBERG? An attorney representing a victim in a civil suit against Rev. Lawrence M. Gibbs, a Joliet priest, says he's received calls from other victims, including 2 mothers linking their children's suicides to Gibb's abuse. The suit accuses Gibbs of using liquor to force a long-term sexual relationship on a boy, starting when he was 11. The victim, now 22, attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The suit says Bishop Joseph Imesch of the Joliet diocese knowingly transferred Gibbs to a position at St. Joseph's in charge of altar boys after he was accused of similar offenses at a church in Lombard. Source: _Chicago Sun-Times_ 1/6/93.

2,000 SUPPORT MINISTER MOLESTER. About 75 supporters from the Christ Universal Church picketed before the Criminal Courts Building in Chicago in support of Rev. Paul Hall, 47, convicted of sexually abusing a boy, 13, in 1989. He had been free on appeal since then. His 4-year sentence began in January. The Illinois Appellate Court, which denied him a rehearing, received more than 2,000 letters in his behalf. Source: _Chicago Sun-Times_ 9/3/92, 1/8/93.


CIVIL SUIT AGAINST PRIEST NOT SEALED. A Sangamon Co. judge refused to seal a court file detailing charges by a Decatur woman that Rev. Kevin Sullivan, priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Decatur, exploited their priest-parishioner relationship to take sexual advantage of her for 8 years, arrange an abortion when she got pregnant, tell others she was "crazy" & had a "fatal attraction" to him, & refuse to administer sacraments to her. Source: _Decatur Times_ 1/16/93.

ZION CHURCH JANITOR GETS PROBATION. A janitor at Christian Catholic Church in Zion, Thoeun Duong, was sentenced to 24 months probation & 8 months work-release, plus fines & costs, for fondling a girl, 11, in the church parking lot in June. He had molested his daughter's friend, after driving them to church & Sunday School. Source: _Zion- Beton News_ 1/21/93.

*** INDIANA ***

NEW LAWSUIT AGAINST INDIANA PRIEST. Former priest James Blume is accused of bribing and inducing an altar boy to perform nonconsensual sex acts, in a civil suit filed in April. Also named is the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese. Blume and the diocese were named in a lawsuit in November by another man who said he was sexually abused as a 14-year-old altar boy. Source: _Indianapolis Star_ 4/13/92.

FORT WAYNE DIOCESE SUED. Darren M. Robertson, 25, filed suit against the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend & priest Robert Mahoney of Ancilla College, for sexually assaulting, battering, raping & abusing him at Our Lady of Hungary School in South Bend. Robertson says Mahoney & various agents of the diocese advised him never to mention the sexual abuse & conspired to keep it a secret. Source: _Marshall Co. Life_ 8/16/92.

PLEA BARGAIN FOR PRIEST. The Rev. Myles Patrick White, 51, will serve 4 years in prison under a plea suggested by Indiana prosecutors, who discovered the priest had molested minors when a videotape purchased at a flea market revealed the priest molesting a boy. The sentencing will occur March 5. White faces 5 additional sexual misconduct charges in Illinois. He served in both Culver, Indiana & Kankakee, Illinois. Source: _Indianapolis Star_ 1/9/93.


*** IOWA ***

LUTHERAN PASTOR NABBED. Dirk van der Linde, 43, pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Waterloo, was charged with intent to commit sexual abuse of a boy, 14. He is affiliated with the Missouri Synod. Relatives complained about a 2 month delay in arresting him. An aunt said she believed the delay stemmed from racism, because the victim is black & the minister white. "It would not be this way if it had been a black minister molesting a white child," she said. Source: _Waterloo Courier_ 9/23/92, _Des Moines Register_ 9/24/92.

"SOUND DOCTRINE" PASTOR QUITS. After nearly 20 years as pastor, Rev. Wendell Beets, of Sound Doctrine Church, resigned following a claim of sexual impropriety with a female church member, 19. A married couple who were also ministers at the church expressed indignation that "he would attack a 19-year-old girl", & concern that Beets will start a new church & continue preying on the congregation. Louise & Clarence Ellis of Cedar Rapids say others have criticized them for speaking out against Beets. Source: _Cedar Rapids Gazette_ 8/29/92.

PRIEST CHARGED WITH ABUSING BOY, 14. Father Toussaint J. Perron, 61, was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse for abusing a boy, 14, last year. He presides at St. John's Catholic Church in Walnut & Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Ohio. Source: _Quad City Times_ (Davenport) 12/23/92.

*** KANSAS ***

BAPTIST YOUTH PASTOR NABBED. Youth minister-Sunday School teacher William Speaker, 21, of First Baptist Church in Excelsior Springs, was charged with a felony for sexually molesting a boy, 14, while chauffeuring him to church activities. Source: _Kansas City Star_ 8/21/92.

JURY ACQUITS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. A Louisville jury of 6 men & 6 women found in favor of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in a $5 million sexual-harassment suit brought by Janet Gellhaus. The employee claimed her superior Nagy Tawfik sexually harassed her, pressuring her into a sexual relationship by threatening to fire her. Church attorney Michael Valenti, apparently conceded the relationship when he said after the acquittal (shades of the U.S. Senate): "The lesson should be you need to immediately tell people about it, you need to immediately investigate your rights, you need to use some common sense & say 'no'." Source: _Presbyterian Outlook_ 9/7/92.

BAPTIST PASTOR GOES TO TRIAL. Indicted for 6 counts of aggravated sexual battery & 5 counts of sexual battery was Rev. George Walker, 64, of New Tazewell, who has pastored a number of area Baptist churches. He is accused of victimizing a female piano student instructed by his wife for 4 years. Source: _The Daily News_Middlesboro, 12/24/92.

RETIRED PRIEST CHARGED WITH MOLESTATION. Several men have accused a retired priest of abusing them while he was a teacher. Rev. Earl Bierman pleaded not guilty in mid-December to charges of molesting a student 18 years ago. Source: _Republican-American_ 1/23/93.


*** LOUISIANA ***

CINEL INVESTIGATOR LOSES JOB. Sgt. George Tolar, chief investigator of the Dino Cinel case that was thrown out of court in January, lost his job in February with the Orleans Parish DA's office. Tolar's testimony about the former priest, who kept a cache of child pornography at the rectory, had conflicted with that of DA Harry Connick. Tolar testified he recommended in 1989 that Cinel be prosecuted for child pornography, but that Connick was only concerned whether young men recorded having sex with Cinel in home videos were consenting adults. Connick admitted he did not prosecute Cinel earlier to avoid embarrassing the Catholic Church. Judge Frank Marullo dismissed the charge against Cinel on Jan. 10, saying Cinel had been told by Tolar in 1989 that Connick would not prosecute him since the men were of age. Source: _Times-Picayune_ 2/5/92.

*** MARYLAND ***

PRESBYTERIAN REFORM URGED. The Presbyterian General Assembly, meeting in Baltimore in June, voted 446-78 to recommend abolishing the statute of limitations for reporting sexual misconduct by clergy. The church, citing critical proportions, has a 3-year time limit for reporting sexual misconduct by church officials. The vote must be ratified by 2/3 of the church's 171 regional presbyteries. It also voted 491-26 to establish a policy on sexual misconduct, advising local churches to set up "sexual misconduct response teams" & notify secular authorities "when appropriate". The adopted policy said there is evidence that "10-23 percent of clergy nationwide have engaged in sexualized behavior or sexual contact with parishioners, clients, employees, etc., within a professional relationship". Source: AP 6/12/92.

ST. LUKE'S HELPS PRIESTS EVADE PROSECUTION? An interview with officials at St. Luke Institute in Suitland, which has treated 137 priests for sexual disorders since 1985, reveals the center is openly used to help priests avoid prosecution for sexual abuse of children. It also revealed that the staff promotes keeping pedophiliac priests in the ministry, albeit closely monitored. St. Luke's claims follow-up shows none have been accused of new misconduct, including 60 remaining in the ministry. Dr. Stephen Montana claims its treatment is "light years ahead" of that given James Porter 25 years ago in the Servants of the Paraclete Catholic treatment center in New Mexico. St. Luke staff agreed offending priests should not be put in settings placing future children at risk, but reject the proposal that molesting priests be automatically barred from the priesthood or church posts. One priest who had been through therapy admits, "The way I was going I would have ended up in prison." Sources: _New York Times_ 10/12/92, _Washington Post_ 1/2/93.

*** MASSACHUSETTS ***

"PRAY FOR PRIEST CHARGED WITH RAPE." Rev. Gary A. LaMontagne, 37, was charged in April with raping a church employee in the rectory of St. Mary's Church, Westfield in February. He is the second R.C. priest this year from the Springfield diocese to be charged. Springfield Bishop John A. Marshall told people not to judge them yet, but pray for them. LaMontagne's reported victim said he had touched her sexually on other occasions. She has been harassed by phone calls since reporting the rape. Westfield police Detective Sgt. Brian Boldini of Westfield revealed that as soon as the investigation began in March, the diocese decided to "whisk him out of the parish. As soon as they were aware, they packed his bags", transferring him to Holy Family Church in Holyoke. Source: _Westfield Union-News_ 4/25/92.

UNITARIAN GUILTY ON 6 CHARGES. Northboro minister Mack W. Mitchell, 56, was convicted on 6 of 23 charges of sexual assault involving a Tibetan woman who testified he sexually abused her as a teenager
after offering to sponsor her education in this country. "I came here with a lot of wonderful dreams, and my dreams were shattered," said the victim, now 23. With the conviction, "I can dream again and become a whole person again." Rape and assault-battery charges are still pending against him by another Tibetan woman. Source: _Worcester Telegram & Gazette_ 5/15/92.

LAVIGNE INDICTED BY JURY. Shelburne Falls priest Richard R. Lavigne was indicted in February by a grand jury for molesting 5 victims, which supersedes fall molestation charges at the district court level. He faces greater penalties if convicted in superior court. Nearly 500 supporters signed onto a legal brief in support of Lavigne's bid to separate the 5 indictments. Source: _SpringfieldUnion News_ 2/19/92.

POLISH PRIEST GETS WRIST SLAP. Charges of raping a 16-year-old from Poland were dropped against Rev. Julian Pagacz, 50, pastor of St. Valentine's Polish National Catholic Church in Northampton, after
she refused to testify. Charges of indecently assaulting a Hampshire Co. girl, age 17, were plea-bargained down to one charge of indecent touch. Pagacz was accused of threatening to deport the Polish girl if she reported the rape. A judge ordered him to turn over the girl's passport, as well as his own. He also denies a charge by a neighbor that she and her husband caught him looking in her window late one night and that she had stopped sunbathing in the backyard because he ogled her. She wrote out a trespass notice against him
and informed the church, but was told "he wouldn't do that". Angry parishioners decried the women's  complaints as a "witch hunt". Follower Ellen Mierzewski called one of the alleged victims "a Communist who thought she'd get money out of it". Source: _Springfield Union-News_ 2/17,18/92, 5/8/92; _Sun-Republican_2/16/92; _Boston Globe_ 5/5,8/92.

RAPIST-MINISTER GETS 12 YEARS FOR INCEST. Suspended associate rector of a Tucson Episcopal church, Stephen P. Apthorp, 56, pleaded guilty in Massachusetts to repeatedly raping his stepdaughter between her 10th and 16th birthday, an estimated 830 incidents of abuse. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Charges included indecent assault and battery, rape and distribution of pornographic materials to a minor. The assaults began in 1980 when a Lincoln, Mass. Congregation asked him to leave because he was abusing alcohol, ignoring their problems, and "using the women of the parish like they were some kind of fringe benefit", Apthorp said. He was suspended from the Tucson church. His contract as a counselor for Tucson General Hospital's Westcenter was not renewed. He gave nationwide worships and lectures based on a book of advice for clergy with alcohol and drug addictions. The 21-year-old victim, who publicly identified herself as Mimi Coleman, noted the betrayal made her suicidal, gave her eating disorders and nightmares, shameful feelings over sex, continuing gynecological problems, feelings of someone always watching her, feelings of panic whenever she sees a man in a clerical collar, and feelings that she is a freak. "Never have I seen him practice what he preached, and I heard him preach a lot." Source: _Arizona Daily Star_ 3/13/92; _Boston Herald_ 5/7/92; _Lincoln Journal_ 5/14/92.

NO END TO WORCESTER DIOCESE SCANDALS? A man saying he was raped 14 years ago by Rev. Victor Frobas, Worcester Diocese, has contacted the DA's office. Frobas was assigned to the parish while receiving psychological treatment at the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville. "I want him prosecuted," says victim Robert A. Malo, who was an 11 year old altar boy at the time of the described assaults. He said the priest talked about God while he raped him, saying "This is OK because I'm a priest." Malo accused then-Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan of refusing to act on parental complaints, which Flanagan denied. Three other victims came forward also accusing the priest of abusing them, as well as 3 parents of others believed to have been victimized. One mother said her son was assaulted while taking a shower with Frobas. Another said when he was 9, he was forced to watch the priest masturbate. Frobas was convicted in St. Louis of sexual abuse & deviant sexual assault, & served 2 of his 4 year sentence. Source: _Boston Globe_ 1/9/93.


BARRE PRIEST CHARGED: PHOTOGRAPHED NUDE BOY. Father Ronald D. Provost, 53, pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Barre, was charged with taking photographs of a nude boy. Provost left the parish earlier for counseling at St. Luke Institute. A man at the Greenwood Memorial Pool in Gardner told police he saw Provost taking photos of 7-10-year old boys in the locker room as they changed clothing. Police confiscated the film. He admitted having pedophiliac tendencies, of taking numerous pictures of boys at athletic functions he organized, keeping the photos in his church rectory bedroom. Police found photos dating from 1977. Provost, very popular, had been dubbed a modern "Pied Piper" in a 1988 news story. Sources: _Boston Globe_ 9/22/92, _Worcester Telegram & Gazette 9/18/92.

FUGITIVE PRIEST LOCATED. Rev. Joseph Fredette, who disappeared in 1974 after being charged with molesting 2 teenagers in Worcester, fled to Canada. Fredette founded a halfway house for the state Department of Youth Services in 1970. Prior to that, he had worked 12 years as a teacher & Boy Scout leader at Assumption Preparatory School. He faces 6 counts of moral offenses, & 2 counts of assault & battery. Officials initially scoffed at allegations he abused boys, saying they could not believe delinquent boys over an established priest. Then they apparently failed to search for the fleeing priest. Fredette, now 59, first fled to the Pope John XXIII Retreat in New York, then went to Canada. Relatives of some of his alleged victims traced him. After a year as parish priest in New Brunswick, he had alienated the parish, & established what critics call a cult hermitage. In January a provincial supervisor finally said Fredette would be suspended while they investigated charges. That announcement came in the midst of a Massachusetts murder trial in which the defendant, accused of slaughtering his family, in part defended himself by saying Fredette, his uncle, had molested him as a child. Sources: _Worcester Telegram_, _Boston Globe_ 8/26/92; _Boston Globe_ 1/9/93.

"MASSACHUSETTS-TO-NEW MEXICO PERVERT PIPELINE." Priest Rev. David A. Holley, 65, believed to have molested young boys in his 25-year career as a parish priest in at least 4 dioceses in Massachusetts, New Mexico & Texas, was sued by 2 men in December. Joe Hafermann, 28, of Minneapolis & Mark Sanchez, 35, of Albuquerque, allege that Holley was free to assault countless children because the church failed to stop him. Both men say he repeatedly molested them in the 1970s in the sacristy & his parish in Alamogordo, N.M., after he was sent there in 1971 for treatment by the Worcester diocese for molesting boys. A 40-year-old Boston professional says he & 2 boyhood friends at the age of 10 were forced to engage in repeated acts of oral sex by Holley at his parish in East Douglas. He said the priest would show them _Playboy_ or  pornographic cards in the rectory, expose himself & molest them. The Catholic Servants of the Paraclete periodically released him to work with children throughout the Southwest. At least 27 other victims came forward attesting to similar abuse in El Paso, 8 of them also filing suit. The El Paso victims charge he photographed them, forced them to visit sex shops & engage in sex while they were altar boys & yard workers. Holley wound up working in Denver, with the Archdiocese there claiming it had no idea of his record of abuse. Attorney Bruce Pasternack alleged, "New Mexico is a dumping ground for pedophile priests. The church had them say prayers & rosaries, then they released them for sexual sabbaticals with young boys." Holley's case is another example of the "Massachusetts-To-New Mexico pervert pipeline." "How could he have gone from church to church across the country doing things like this for 25 years? Were there no adults willing to stand up?" asked the Boston victim. Roderick MacLeish, Jr., the Boston attorney who recently sealed a lawsuit against the diocese for more than 60 victims of James Porter, is urging the Worcester DA to investigate & prosecute Holley. Sources: _Rocky Mountain News_ 1/16/92, _Boston Globe_ 12/21/92; _Boston Globe_ 1/8/93.


PRIEST-THERAPIST ADMITS SEX WITH NUN. Monsignor Leo Battista, who surrendered his state social workers license in 1991, admits initiating a sexual relationship with a suicidal nun he was counseling, from 1972-1977. He is pastor of St. Anna's parish in Leominster, under the diocese of Worcester. The former nun, who left her order during the "therapy", filed a complaint with the state Board of Registration of Social Workers in Boston in 1990. She said Battista once had sex with her hours after she had attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of painkillers followed by liquor. The next morning she slashed her wrists with a razor blade & was hospitalized as a psychiatric patient for 19 days. Counsel for that board advised the priest that in voluntarily giving up his license he was admitting "you engaged in an inappropriate, intimate relationship with her while you were providing therapeutic services to her in what she understood to be your capacity as a social worker". Source: _Boston Globe_ 1/21/93.


WORCESTER DIOCESE REWARDS DIRTY-TALKING PRIEST. The Worcester Diocese, stung by the expose of molesting priests, publicly claims it will be more responsive to complaints about priestly misconduct. However, the father of a 14-year-old altar boy told media it has stonewalled their family's March 1992 complaint that their parish priest had subjected their son to constant sexually suggestive & abusive language & gestures. As of August, no action had been taken. The priest had repeatedly referred to "jerking off", "dick", accused their son of being gay & of having anal intercourse, & even accused him of masturbating in the back seat of a car "because the windows were foggy". The diocese claims "there is nothing to this", & the unnamed priest has been promoted to supervising altar boys as well as religious classes. Source: _Boston Globe_ 8/4/92.

PORTER UPDATE. Former priest James Porter, convicted of molesting a babysitter in Minnesota in December, faces multiple criminal charges in Massachusetts, where many victims recently settled out-of-court, as well as civil claims in Minnesota and New Mexico. Porter admitted he molested "a number of children", leaving a trail of hundreds of victims wherever the church transferred him in Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Minnesota to cover up the crimes. 97 people in 3 states brought combined civil suits. More than 200 people have alleged molestation by him. In late January Porter was sentences in Minnesota to 6 months in jail & probation on a 12/12 conviction for 6 counts of 4th-degree criminal sexual conduct in 1987 against a babysitter, 15. Porter's sister-in-law came forward in October to say Porter had molested her on an almost-daily basis during the mid- 1980s when she lived in his basement. Sources: _Boston Globe_ 9/25/92, 10/25,28/92, 12/1/92, 1/20/93; _New York Times_ 9/24/92, 10/22,25/92, 12/12/92; _Providence Journal_ 9/22,23/92; _Boston Herald_ 9/22/92; AP 12/8/92, 1/20,28/93.

FALL RIVER PRIEST ON LEAVE. Taunton priest Paul Connolly was put on leave following accusations that he molested children at a Fall River church in the early 1960s, about the same time James Porter is accused of racking up victims. A man, now 41, says the priest abused him & at least 10 other Fall River boys. A parent informed the bishop, who transferred Connolly to Hyannis. Source: AP/8/30/92, _Boston Globe_ 9/10/92.

FALL RIVER DIOCESE ANNOUNCES POLICY. The Fall River diocese, implicated in the James Porter scandal, announced a detailed policy on priestly misconduct. A representative of the bishop would investigate allegations quickly with a review team following up & indicating they will report accusations to civil authorities. "No diagnosed pedophile will receive an assignment in the Diocese of Fall River." Source: _Standard Times_ 10/3/92.


CATHOLIC CHURCH A "CESSPOOL"? A man alleges he was sexually abused by a priest at Cathedral Camp in Freetown between 1956 & 1960. Calling the camp a "complete cesspool", he said other children were also molested. His attorney Roderick MacLeish, Jr. said he has given the Fall River diocese the name of the priest. Former priest James Porter was also accused of molesting at least one minor at the camp during those years. That victim was among the 68 men & women who accepted an out-of-court settlement in December from the Fall River diocese. Since then 2 other men have alleged being sexually abused at the camp by a priest other than Porter. Source: _Boston Herald_ 12/31/92.

BOSTON PRIEST TAKES PRAYERFUL LEAVE. Tyngsborough priest Rev. T.Raymond Sullivan is on leave after a woman alleged sexual misconduct. Cardinal Bernard Law asked for prayer that "all those affected by the developments may experience God's consolation & strength & that both justice & truth will prevail". Source: _Boston Globe_ 11/18/92.


BOSTON ARCHDIOCESE REOPENS SEX CASES. Cardinal Bernard Law announced a new review board will reopen every case of child sexual abuse by still-living priests in the archdiocese of Boston. The new procedure was prompted by the James Porter scandal racking Boston & other dioceses. The archdiocese just adopted a policy for dealing with abuse by priests, & telling victims of their right to file charges. It will also set up a committee to study whether priests are "adequately educated" about sexual abuse. On the board will be 3 priests, a deacon, an attorney, a psychiatrist, & a retired Supreme Court justice, Edward Hennessey. A priest & a nun will hear & investigate complaints. An accused priest will be suspended pending investigation. If the church finds evidence, the archbishop "could" assign him to a treatment program, reassign him to a supervised position, limit activities, remove him or "invite him to resign". Despite the appearance of doing the right thing, saying his policy will require reporting abuse cases when compelled by law, in actuality, Law claims: "The ordinary work of a priest is not covered by that kind of demand for reporting & this policy does not call for reporting to legal authorities." Law claims the matter should be kept in the "family" & handled "pastorally". Only when a priest worked as a school counselor, for example, would the archdiocese consider it legally necessary to report allegations. Sources: _Boston Globe_ 11/12,22/92; AP/_Toledo Blade_ 1/16/93.


ARROGANT BISHOP COMPLAINS ABOUT MEDIA. In announcing a 9-member all- Catholic commission will now investigate misconduct complaints against priests, Bishop John A. Marshall complained that 2 1992
convictions of molesting priests in his diocese, Richard R. Lavigne and Gary A. LaMontagne, were "magnified beyond all perception ... The Roman Catholic Church seems to be the only institution in this whole country that has been singled out in this fashion." The diocese has a hotline number, & said if its members deem the complaints "legitimate & serious", they will recommend "corrective action" to the bishop, then inform civil authorities. "You get the impression sometimes that people think we are coddling these priests because we don't ... chop their heads off. They are human beings & they need help," Marshall said. Source: _Springfield Union-News_12/15/92.

LUTHERAN MINISTER REMOVED. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America removed Rev. Wendell Henkenmeier of Marblehead from the ministry after a panel found him guilty of sexual misconduct & destructive practices during counseling of 5 victims. Source: _Union-News_ 5/30/92.

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER IMPRISONED. Groton Sunday School teacher Leslie Richard Danielson, 63, was sentenced to 5-10 years after pleading guilty to sexually abusing 6 children under 14 years. He is already serving up to 10 years for a 1991 conviction involving 4 other children, but will be eligible for parole in 4 years. Source: _Boston Herald_ 5/22/92.

*** MICHIGAN ***

BAPTIST CONVICTED OF RAPING BOY. A jury convicted Baptist minister Edward Quakenbush, of New Testament Baptist Church, town of Wyoming, of raping & molesting a teenage boy in his church over a 4-year period, starting when he was 12. Members of his church & family sobbed & shouted at jurors & a police detective who testified that the pastor had confessed to the molestations. Quakenbush later denied confessing. Source: AP/_Daily Telegram_, Adrian, Ml 9/12/92.


BRONSON MINISTER ARRAIGNED. First Congregational Church minister David Covert Moore was charged with 5 counts of criminal sexual conduct of 4 children under the age of 15. In July he checked himself into Pine Rest Christian Counseling Services in Grand Rapids. Source: _Jackson Citizen Patriot_ 8/29/92.


CHURCH EVANGELIZERS PREYED ON LOW-INCOME KIDS. Men from a rural Baptist church known for its aggressive evangelizing of children are suspected of molesting as many as 22 boys & girls. The associate pastor, volunteer bus driver & a third church member are believed to have fondled some & raped others, ranging in age from 3 to 10, on church buses & property. Charges involving 10 victims were brought against Associate Pastor Timothy Lee Leonard, 32, of North Sharon Baptist Church near Grass Lake, & volunteer Sunday school bus driver, church deacon Mark Foeller. Three other church members are being investigated. The suspects went to low-income housing projects or trailer parks in 4 counties, telling parents they would "take the children to church & teach them about God", according to Det. Robert Fitzpatrick, Jackson Co. Men would walk up to children in their yards, coaxing them with treats to come to weekend services or summer _Bible_ school. Leonard was relieved of church duties involving children in August, after police started investigating him when a doctor reported suspected abuse in a child with a sexual disease. He also worked as instructor & gym teacher in the North Sharon Christian School, enrolling about 65 students. Church members were not informed, even after the arrests. In November, Gail Ganger, who lives 5 houses from the church, organized a Sunday morning picket after learning that the church secretary knew about the allegations, yet still recommended Leonard as a babysitter for her children. He & his wife Nadine had babysat for her 3 children 7 times since Oct. 1. About 2 dozen protesters carried signs saying "Close It Down." "The church knew about the allegations of child molesting, but nobody told me about it. This church should not be able to carry on business as usual," she said. "What a wonderful thing it is to be part of a church where adversity happens," said Rev. Bill Wininger, senior pastor. In January, Leonard was released after 72 days in jail after 10 charges were dropped over the objections of the DA by Washtenaw Co. Dist. Judge Thomas Shea, saying victims were either too young to testify or could not pinpoint the time of their assaults. Leonard still faces 2 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct charges. Although he resigned from the church, church funds are being used to help support his family & pay his legal expenses. The pastor said if he is acquitted, "I'm sure he would be welcomed back with open arms." Sources: _Ypsilanti Press_ 11/12/92, _Detroit Free Press_ 11/12/92, _Toledo Blade_ 11/18/92, _Jackson Citizen Patriot_ 11/16/92, 2/1/93.


*** MINNESOTA ***

LUTHERAN LEADER ADMITS CHARGES. Lutheran pastor David L. Anderson admitted having sexual relations with a number of boys and young men while pastor of a leading Lutheran congregation in Moorehead, Minn. He resigned from the clergy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and as vice president for college relations in St. Olaf College in April, admitting sexual misconduct with minors, college students, and male parishioners from 1973-1985. He confessed only after a parishioner approached a staff member at the 4,000 member church with allegations in March. Source: _Star Tribune_ 4/20/92.


PUNITIVE DAMAGES UPHELD. The Minnesota Court of Appeals on March 24 upheld a court order requiring 2 Catholic dioceses to pay punitive damages to a victim of sexual abuse. The $187,000 award would not be covered by insurance, and thus was appealed by the Archdiocese of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Diocese of Winona as a violation of "religious freedom". The damages resulted from a civil suit involving Thomas Adamson, who was moved from parish to parish with no restrictions despite repeated evidence and  allegations of his abuse to children. Compensatory damages of $855,000 were not challenged. Source: _Christian Century_ 4/15/92.

RETIRED PRIEST PLEADS GUILTY. The Rev. Henry Caniere, 71, of Roseau, pleaded guilty to 3 counts of child sexual abuse. Source: _Grand Forks Herald_ 12/19/91.


STANDING OVATION FOR BISHOP. Bishop Gerald O'Keefe of the Davenport diocese received a standing ovation at Our Lady of Victory Church the day after news hit that 2 Minnesota women filed lawsuits accusing him of sexually abusing them 30 years ago. They say O'Keefe molested them on the grounds of St. Paul Cathedral in the 1960s when he was auxiliary bishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis and rector there. One was 9 to 12 years old, the other 7 to 9. They are represented by Jeffrey Anderson, who has represented victims of clergy in more than 100 cases in 23 states. Source: _Des Moines Register_ 4/20/92.


WOMAN SUES NUN FOR ABUSE. A Minnesota woman filed suit against a nun for sexually abusing her for 3 years while she was a teenager. Sister Georgene Stuppy "regularly and repeatedly engaged in unpermitted, harmful and offensive sexual contact" from 1978-1981 at a parochial school, and in the nun's convent room. The case is being handled by Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul. Also named as defendants are the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes in Rochester, and Queen Of Angels Church in Austin. An attorney for Queen of Angels said: "We deny any responsibility in the matter." Anderson said Stuppy acknowledges engaging in sexual conduct with the girl, but claims a spiritual purpose, not sexual gratification. Source: _Star Tribune_ 1/29/92.

[See Porter Update under "Massachusetts".]

73-YEAR-OLD PRIEST GUILTY. The parish priest at Holy Family Catholic Church in Bull Dog Lake pleaded guilty to charges of molesting 2 teenagers, ages 14 & 19, over a 3-year period. Rev. Victor Chateauvert, 73, accepted a tentative plea agreement to be placed on probation & complete a sex offender's treatment program at the church's unlicensed treatment center in New Mexico. Source: _Minneapolis Star-Tribune_ 1/9/93.


ANOTHER BENEDICTINE SUED. Another priest at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville was accused of molesting a male student at the prep school in the 1980s. A suit accuses Rev. Allen Tarlton of molesting him at least 3 times in his capacity as counselor, teacher & confidant. It is the 5th suit filed in 2 years against a member of the Order of St. Benedict who run the school. Three other suits, filed by attorney Jeff Anderson, accuse priests of abuse at the same school. The other suit charges a Benedictine brother at a rural parish near St. Cloud. One suit has been settled. Source: _Star Tribune_ 10/22/92.

LUTHERAN PASTOR RESIGNS. For the third time Rev. Rod Broding has left a job after being accused of sexual improprieties. The Lutheran pastor resigned from First Lutheran Church in Pine River following accusations he admitted to sexual misconduct there, but denies earlier accusations. Bishop Roger Munson, who oversees the Northeastern Minnesota synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said, "The church will assist in providing counseling to work through this turmoil & pain so that healing & wholeness can be experienced in their lives." Source: _Star Tribune_ 10/22/92.

*** MISSOURI ***

AIR FORCE CHAPLAIN RAIDED. Deputies raided the home of Veterans Administration chaplain Rev. Donald G. Phillips, of Butler County, seizing 500 video tapes, movie equipment and restraints following a tip that he produced pornographic movies with young girls. The Baptist minister recently received the highest recognition awarded a VA chaplain, "the Award for Excellence in Chaplain Service". Source: _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_ 2/19/92.

VICTIM SUES JEFFERSON CITY DIOCESE. David Clohessy, 35, filed suit last year against the Diocese of Jefferson City and his childhood parish priest, a family friend for whom he performed rectory chores. The priest began taking him on trips to the Ozarks and out of state, and first abused him on a camping trip when he was feeling ill. His suit, argued by attorney Jeff Anderson, alleges abuse from 1967 to 1971, and is being fought by the diocese. Source: _Kansas City Star_ 3/92.

PRIEST GOES TO PRISON. Hillsboro priest Donald Heck, 57, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for fondling an altar boy, 11, 2 years ago, following a no-contest plea. Source: _Boston Globe_ 8/2/92.

*** MONTANA ***

CIVIL SUITS NAME PRIEST. A Missoula man filed suit against priest Wilson F. Smart and the bishop of Helena, for suffering sexual abuse during the 1960s. "J.R." was a 13-year-old altar boy in Missoula in 1962 and was molested for 9 months, following the death of his father. He says the bishop and many priests to whom he confessed knew of the abuse, yet did not remove Smart from contact with children and teenagers. He is represented by Bozeman attorney Monte Beck. This joins a suit filed a year ago against Smart by a former Butte man, who is also suing the Helena diocese and Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, who formerly served in Helena. The other plaintiff alleges 8 years of sexual abuse starting in 1967, which included molestation, rape, and pornography. Source: _Missoulian_ 1/31/92.


RELIGIOUS BROADCASTER MOLESTED GIRLS. Well-known former broadcaster Tom Speed, 35, for Billings Christian radio pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 6 girls ranging in age from 4 to 14, who were at his home for day-care or piano lessons. Source: _Missoulian_ 1/18/92.

*** NEW HAMPSHIRE ***

BAPTIST VOLUNTEER CONVICTED. Granite State Baptist Church volunteer David Kirsch, 39, of Salem, was convicted of sexually assaulting 6 young girls through the church from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Source: _USA Today_ 9/25/92.


*** NEW JERSEY ***

CLERIC FACES INCEST, RAPE CHARGES. Rev. Eugenio Matos of Spanish Mennonite Church, Trenton, father of 12, was charged in March with raping his daughter from the time she was 5 to 15 years. In April he was charged with endangering welfare of a child and 2 counts of aggravated sexual assault when a 23-year-old woman told investigators he repeatedly raped her while she was between the ages of 8 and 10. Source: Trenton Times_ 4/28/92.

FUGITIVE PRIEST INDICTED FOR MOLESTING GIRL, 13. Medford priest Florencio Tumang, 69, was indicted for fondling a girl, 13, at a youth activity in April at St. Mary of the Lakes R.C. Church, where he has served 8 years. He went fugitive after confronted by the girl's mother and could face 5 years in prison. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer_ 4/25/92.

PRIEST BUSTED ON MOLESTATIONS. Pastor of Sacred Heart Jesus Church in Rockaway, Rev. John G. Pisarcik, 47, was suspended from duties at the church and a church college, after he was charged with molesting 2 boys, one in 1989 who is now 13, and another last summer who is now 12. Source: _Star Ledger_ 10/5/92.


MINISTER & GIRLFRIEND INDICTED. Trenton pastor Franklin Tucker, 37, Final Call Ministry, was indicted for molesting his girlfriend's daughters, 9 & 15. His girlfriend was indicted for forcing her daughters to recant the allegations to police. The abuse came to light when the 9-year-old told a school official, who contacted police. Source: _Trenton Times_ 9/15/92.

VICTORY FOR MOLESTED. Gov. Jim Florio signed a bill permitting childhood victims of sexual abuse to sue molesters years, sometimes even decades, after the abuse occurred. Under former law, victims only had until their 20th birthdays to file a lawsuit. The new law gives victims 2 years after they discover their abuse to sue. The old law had stymied attempts to charge molesting priests. Source: _Newark Star Ledger_ 9/25/92.

PRIEST STARTS SENTENCE. A Camden priest convicted of sexually molesting a boy, 13, in 1989, started his 5-year sentence, after an appeals panel ruled that his confession following instruction of his rights did not constitute self-incrimination. Rev. John J. McElroy admitted fondling a boy in the church rectory, but had been free on $25,000 bail. Source: _Courier-Post_ 11/31/92.


*** NEW MEXICO ***

ATTORNEY: CLOSE CATHOLIC CENTER. "Although New Mexico has only one- half of 1 percent of America's population, it has 20% of America's priest pedophiles," says attorney Bruce Pasternack, representing 39 clients in sexual abuse lawsuits against former priests. Authorities are investigating 7 current & former New Mexico priests for molesting children in the state, while sent there by the church for treatment for pedophilia. New Mexico authorities confirmed that the Paraclete center has never been licensed or even inspected as a medical facility. Nor have state authorities ever been contacted by employees there, although state law requires that all professionals, including psychotherapists, report incidents of sexual abuse of children. Pasternack is calling on authorities to shut down the 45-year-old retreat, located near Jemez Springs. He called the unlicensed center "a recipe for disaster". Source: _Arizona Daily Star_ 1/3/93.

ACCUSED PRIEST DISAPPEARS. Rev. Art Perrault of Santa Fe disappeared in October after being sued for sexual abuse. Source: _USA Today_ 12/31/92.

PORTER GIVEN MANY DUTIES WHILE IN TREATMENT. Lawyers for "survivors" of James Porter's reign of terror against children allege that the Servants of the Paraclete (SOP) treatment center routinely permitted him & other pedophiliac priests to work at nearby parishes. Victims have come forward saying Porter molested them in 1969 after being judged "cured" by the rehabilitation center. Although the Santa Fe archdiocese denied knowledge of this, a former priest at St. Edwin~s Parish in Albuquerque, near the Catholic treatment center he was posted to, told a reporter he often called on priests being treated at the facility to perform "nonofficial functions" such as counseling, at the church. A top official in the St. Louis Diocese also acknowledged that when he was a parish priest in Kirkwood, Missouri, he would often use priests being treated at another halfway house operated by SOP. Porter was believed to have been assigned to the New Mexico home between 1967-69, & also resided at a SOP center in Nevis, Minnesota in 1969 & another halfway house in St. Louis in 1971. In January, attorney Bruce Pasternack obtained church documents showing that the Archdiocese of Santa Fe knew about Porter's predilections & still assigned him to parishes. The documents show, says Pasternack, that a church official endorsed Porter's 1968 application for an assignment, while acknowledging, "His trouble was boys." Concludes Pasternack, "What they demonstrate is proof positive that the Archdiocese of Santa Fe & the Paraclete Center knew their children were going to be raped by Porter before they were raped." Sources: AP 1/8/93; _Boston Globe_ 7/16/92.


*** NEW YORK ***

NUDE MINISTER CONVICTED. Rev. Bruce Rentz, found guilty of indecent exposure after a state trooper saw him jogging naked and chased him to his home, has resigned as minister from Greenbush Presbyterian
Church. He was ordered to perform community service, pay a $50 fine, and get counseling. Source: _Union News_ 5/14/92.


TOP EPISCOPAL PRIEST RESIGNS AMID SEX SCANDAL. The highest-ranking U.S. Episcopal priest, who ironically headed a national committee examining the church's position on sexuality, resigned in October following charges he sexually abused young men in his congregation. Rev. Wallace A. Frey, rector of St. David's Church in DeWitt, is married with 2 grown children. A church official said he had been involved in "sexual misconduct over a lengthy period with some male, young adults & a teenager under his pastoral care". The official said the number of victims appears to be "less than 10". Source: NYT News Service/_Chicago Tribune_ 10/7/92.

BOOK INDICTS RITTER. _New York Post_ reporter Charles Sennott, who first broke the Father Ritter scandal, has written a new book, _Broken Covenant_, calling the priest "the Donald Trump of the Catholic Church", who set up the Covenant House shelters so he could do "exactly to the kids what he is publicly professing to be saving them from". The book details a pattern of sexual abuse by Ritter with teenagers who came to the shelter for help. At least a dozen social workers & members of religious organizations had heard allegations about Ritter, but did not report them. The New York State Attorney General's office investigated Ritter's financial misconduct, but no charges were filed about that or sexual exploitation. Ritter, eulogized in Bush's "Thousand Points of Light", resigned from Covenant House. Source: _Boston Globe_11/1/92.

PRIEST: 90 DAYS FOR SODOMY. After pleading guilty to sodomizing a boy, 16, in the parish rectory after getting him drunk, Rev. Daniel Calabrese, 31, was sentenced to only 90 days in jail. At the sentencing, the DA quoted from taped phone conversations in which the priest told the boy what they had done happens all the time. He was priest at St. Mary's Parish, Poughkeepsie. Source: _New York Times_ 10/10/92.

$14 MILLION SUIT FILED AGAINST PRIEST. A lawsuit against Rev. Daniel Casey was filed seeking $14 million by a teenager alleging he was sexually molested 4 years ago by Casey when he was 11. The priest stripped & had the boys remove their clothing at a swimming pool, fondled & kissed the boy & other youths. The boy was a student at St. Paul's Elementary School where Casey directed religious education. He was also associate pastor at St. Paul's Church. The suit charges that the Syracuse diocese "failed to investigate signs, symptoms & behavior ordinarily associated with pedophilia", permitting him unchaperoned contact with boys. Source: _Syracuse Herald-Journal_ 10/27/92.

*** NORTH CAROLINA ***

CIVIL SUIT: 11-YEAR-OLD MOLESTED. A family in Dare County, North Carouna is suing Methodist minister Carl M. Eller for abusing their daughter, 11, as well as the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, a bishop and a reverend for knowing of his history of sexual misconduct but doing nothing about it. The family says she was molested when her father, a carpenter, was installing cabinets in the parsonage. Eller pleaded no contest to a charge of criminal assault on a female. However, the family said that in 1987 Eller had molested or made lewd comments to 4 women at his church, and forcibly kissed and touched 2 girls age 13. Three women had lodged formal complaints with the church, but the only action was to transfer him from Aurora to Hamlet. Source: _News & Observer_ 1/15/92.

GREEK ORTHODOX GETS 21 DAYS. Father Angelo N. Kasemeotes, 65, pleaded guilty Dec. 2 to 2 counts of indecent sexual liberties with a boy, 15. He is serving 21 days in jail for a suspended 4-year sentence. He also gets 5 years probation, must perform 150 volunteer hours & pay $1,000. The glib molester told a reporter, "St. Paul teaches us that from everything bad, some good can come. I see the good here as being my alcoholism & behavioral problems surfacing & being treated." The victim said the priest gave him cocaine & marijuana, showed him a pornographic video & initiated sex. Police recorded a telephone conversation in which the priest tried to guilt-trip his victim, threatening that if anyone knew, "I'd probably commit suicide ... It would just destroy me." He dismissed the victim's pain by saying, "Chalk it up to your growing experience." The widowed Kasemeotes, father of 2, served 15 years as pastor of the Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, & had a New Mexico position. Source: _Milwaukee Sentinel_ 12/18/92.


BAPTIST PASTOR RESIGNS AMID SCANDAL. Asheville Baptist pastor Michael R. Stewart, 34, of Oakley, resigned following his arrest in a prostitution sting. Stewart's name was among 400 on a full-page ad that month promoting family & traditional biblical values. Source: _Citizen-Times_ 6/30/92.

*** NORTH DAKOTA ***

PRIEST RESIGNS FOLLOWING CHARGES. A Minnesota man has filed a $50,000 suit alleging sexual abuse by Rev. David Wild, now priest at Holy Cross Church in West Fargo, dating from 1966. The man said the priest fondled him at his living quarters at a Oriska church. The Fargo Diocese, St. Bernard's & St. Thomas are also named. Source: _Minot Daily News_ 9/25/92.

*** OHIO ***

SUPPORTERS GATHER FOR CONVICTED "FRIEND". Pastor Roy McKinley, 45, who stepped down from Milan Friends Church after being charged with molesting a teenage girl, pleaded guilty to gross sexual imposition and related charges. Supporters, including a minister, crowded the courtroom where McKinley pleaded for mercy. Source: _Toledo Blade_ 5/25/92.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT SUIT HITS CHURCH. A female employee at World Harvest Church in Columbus has filed a lawsuit saying the father of the pastor sexually harassed her, also naming the church & its pastor as defendants. Naomi Endicott, 48, said Rev. Rodney L. Parsley knew about the harassment but did nothing to stop it. James G. Parsley, his father, was her supervisor & made unwanted sexual advances, even offering money for sex, she said. Source: _Columbus Dispatch_ 10/17/92.

TOLEDO DIOCESE CONTINUES COVER-UP? An unnamed priest in the Toledo diocese initiated a sexually abusive relationship with parishioner Barbara Blaine when she was 13. Blaine is now founder of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). Although the statute of limitations for a lawsuit expired, Blaine is seeking removal of the priest (who works as a hospital chaplain), resumption of payments for her counseling (the Diocese has paid about $15,000 of her expenses), an apology from the priest, & acknowledgment from the church of stonewalling & blaming her The priest's religious superior, Rev. Paul Grehl, insists she misconstrued the priest's hugs. Blaine's allegations were corroborated by a woman who ignored her pleas for help 18 years ago. Sources: _U.S. News & World Report_ 11/16/92, _Toledo Blade_ 1/3/93.

WOMAN SUES EPISCOPAL PRIEST. A Fostoria woman is suing Rev. Douglas Hodges, of Trinity Episcopal Church, Bishop James Moodey & the owner of a counseling center, alleging the priest forced her to have sex as "treatment". The abuse occurred at a counseling center & the church. Shelley & Daniel Lebay seek more than $700,000 in damages. Source: _Columbus Dispatch_ 10/9/92.

CONVICTED PRIEST TRANSFERRED TO OHIO. Bishop Joseph L. Howze, Biloxi diocese, reassigned convicted priest Joseph Romansky to Cleveland, Ohio, where, in 1985, he pleaded guilty to charges of sexual misconduct with 2 boys. The bishop announced the transfer after "The church had them say prayers and rosaries, then released them for sexual sabbaticals with young boys." The priest went to Cleveland on a visit. He had pleaded guilty, was placed on probation, & was sent to St. Luke Institute in Suitland, Maryland. An official with the Cleveland diocese said the priest will remain on administrative leave, promising "full disclosure of his background & appropriate supervision" should he be reassigned. The official said the priest has done "satisfactory work" & had a "very successful ministry". Bishop Howze knew of the priest's criminal past but had not disclosed it to parishioners when he came to Biloxi 4 years before. Source: _Mississippi Press_ 7/30/92.

*** OKLAHOMA ***

CHURCH SUED FOR NEGLIGENCE. One of several girls who said Alva minister Rev. Robert Bruce Brigden molested her is suing the First Presbyterian Church for failing to check his background before hiring him. Allegations of sexual crimes were made at his former position in Kansas. Charges allege that he molested Alva church girls, ages 4 to 14. The church posted his bond. Source: _Tulsa Tribune

PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER GETS 40 YEARS. Rev. Robert Bruce Brigden was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting young girls in his congregation, convicted on 8 counts of lewd molestation & 1 count of rape by instrumentation involving a girl, 7. Bridgen, 57, was accused of molesting 11 girls, aged 4 to 14, during the 4 years he was at the Alva church. His congregation put the church up as bond, insisting he was innocent. He was placed in protected custody. Brigden blamed his arrest on a girl, 4, whose parents were the first to take the children's allegations seriously. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," Brigden wrote his wife about the 4-year-old, whom he described as "4 going on 400 years old", saying she invited him to spend the night in her bed, & was mad that he declined. Source: _Tulsa Tribune_ 8/92, _Tulsa World_ 9/3/92, _Daily Oklahoman_ 6/14/92.


*** OREGON ***

MINISTER MOLESTER OF 400 SENTENCED. Eugene Church for the Deaf minister Joseph Bernard Ponder, 47, was sentenced to 2 years for violating probation in 2 felony convictions of 1st degree sexual abuse of boys. He had received a year in jail for 2nd degree sexual abuse of a boy, 14, in 1988. Officials believe an estimate that he molested 400 boys may be low. "This may be the most prolific abuser of young boys who has ever stood in this court," said prosecutor Kent Mortimore. "His whole life has revolved around this Q his ministry, his choice of careers Q to put himself in contact with potential victims." Ponder denies abusing the boy during a swimming incident, and failed to complete court-ordered sex offender treatment. Source: _Register-Guard_ 3/5/92.


CHURCH VOLUNTEER CHARGED WITH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. Church volunteer Seven Jon Long, 41, was arrested for sodomy and taking pornographic pictures of young girls under 12 from Assembly of God Church in Rogue River, where he was a youth volunteer. He told detectives his pictures were art. Source: Daily Courier_, Grants Pass, 4/17/92.


CONVICTED PASTOR "RIGHT WITH LORD". Rev. Virgil Carpenter, 48, pastor of Bible Missionary Church in Ontario, was convicted of sodomy & sexual abuse of a girl, 9, over a 1-1/2 year period. A jury convicted Carpenter of 2 felony counts of sodomy & 4 felony counts of sexual abuse. He faces 5 additional felony charges in 2 upcoming trials. "I'm really not worried," he told supporters who had gathered in the courtroom before the verdict. "I'm right with the Lord." Source: _Corvallis Gazette-Times_ 10/11/92.


LAY PREACHER WITH AIDS TRIED TO INFECT KIDS? Lay preacher Adam Brown, of Roseburg, Oregon, infected with HIV, was indicted Nov. 13 for sexually abusing children to infect them with AIDS, including 5 counts of attempted murder, 9 counts of sodomy, 4 counts of rape, 5 counts of reckless endangerment, & 3 counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object. Boys & girls told police he molested them repeatedly, threatening them with knives, scissors & matches. One boy said Brown rubbed semen into a scratch on his arm. Another said Brown burned a _Bible_, warning that Satan would come unless the child stopped resisting. Alleged victims include a 3-year-old girl, 7-year-old girl & 8-year-old boy. AIDS tests so far for the children have been negative. Source: AP/_Boston Globe_ 11/29/92.


YOUTH PASTOR JAILED FOR ABUSING GIRL. Sentenced to 60 days in jail for molesting a young girl was Michael Wayne Cross, 32, youth pastor of Oregon City Evangelical Church. He must undergo a sex offender treatment & register with the state for life as a convicted sex offender. The girl, now 17, said he sodomized her numerous times over a year. An officer said the crimes occurred at the church or at church functions. Source: Oregonian_ 10/29/92.

PROMINENT METHODIST PASTOR WITH AIDS EXPLOITED PARISH? Following the death on July 4 of Rev. William O. Walker, a prominent Eugene pastor at First United Methodist Church, it was discovered he not only died of AIDS but had used his ministerial position to make sexual advances to at least 12 men, including 6 ministers. Walker infected his wife Carol with AIDS; she died in 1990. In November a church superintendent told parishioners that Walker had been accused of making sexual advances to 2 male teenagers at a Methodist church camp 17 years earlier. Source: _Register-Guard_ 12/6/92.

*** PENNSYLVANIA ***

PRIEST PLEADS GUILTY. Rev. Robert N. Caparelli pleaded guilty from a Maryland rehab sentence to sexually abusing a boy, 13, in Milford. Source: _Scranton Times_ 5/16/92.

CHURCH COUNSELING TURNED ABUSIVE. A Fairless Hills couple filed suit against a church counselor and Calvary Full Gospel Church, alleging the pastor referred them to abusive Aldo Maselli. The depressed woman said he told her he "had prayed about it and that God told him that it was OK for him to express his feelings of love", initiating a 2-year sexual relationship. The suit by Rebecca and Steven Hicks charges negligent, reckless practices contrary to accepted counseling standards, and battery and sexual abuse. Source: _Bucks County Courier Times_ 5/20/92.

DEACON ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING 8 GIRLS. Victory Baptist Church deacon Daniel Eaves, 34, was arrested for sexually assaulting 8 girls, ages 3 to 14, at his Springfield home and during youth groups last year. Source: _Philadelphia Inquirer_ 4/25/ 92.

 
DIOCESE BLOCKS INFORMATION. The Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese is refusing to open secret archives sought by an attorney for an Ohio man whose civil suit accuses former Altoona priest Rev. Francis Luddy of sexually abusing him for 6 years. The state Superior Court ruled 2-1 in late February that the records should be given to the attorney. The _Catholic Register_ editorialized that the decision "violates the rights of the church in a democratic and free nation", and only the bishop should have access to the records. The suit was filed 5 years ago by the man; a subsequent suit was filed in Somerset County by his brother. They testified that Luddy, their godfather, repeatedly molested them as they were growing up. Luddy, 49, is on a leave of absence living at a Catholic center for pedophiles in Albuquerque, N.M. Source: _Daily American_ 2/26/92, Altoona Mirror_ 3/10/92; _Scranton Times_ 3/10/92.

PRESBYTERY REMOVES PASTOR. The Pittsburgh Presbytery removed the associate pastor of the prominent East Liberty Presbyterian Church on charges of sexual misconduct. Rev. Howard Eybers, 43, is accused by 3 women of making sexual overtures. Source: _Pittsburgh Post- Gazette_ 3/7/92.

MOLESTING PRIEST GETS 2-5 YEARS. Roman Catholic priest Robert N. Caparelli was sentenced in July to 2-5 years in prison & ordered to pay $5,000 in fines for sexually abusing a boy, 13, for 9 months. He pleaded guilty to only 6 of 26 counts against him. He will also serve 5 years of probation, must undergo counseling & may not work with children. Source: _Scranton Tribune_ 7/3/92.

ROGUE CHURCH ORDERED TO ANSWER. Following 5 years of legal maneuvers to quash investigation into the church's culpability over Rev. Francis Luddy, accused of molesting his godson for 6 years, a judge ruled that the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese must answer questions. Source: _Scranton Times_ 7/25/92.

SEXTON GETS 35 YEARS. A sexton at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Whitehall Township was sentenced to 35-70 years in jail for molesting boys. Adam Tannous, 61, of Allentown, agreed to plead guilty to 7 merged charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, after originally being charged with more than 4,000 crimes. One victim said Tannous bragged of having sex with 400 boys over the past 40 years. He was removed as pastor of St. George's Episcopal Church in Hellertown in 1970 because of similar allegations. In 1972, he was arrested on a morals charge in Emmaus. He was "treated", not jailed, then expelled from the ministry. Despite this record, St. Stephen's hired him in 1976 to be custodian, saying he was rehabilitated. Many victims say Tannous caused them alcohol problems by plying them with liquor. Source: _Express-Times_ 12/17/92.

PRIEST ARRESTED FOR HIGHWAY STOP ASSAULT. Police arrested Rev. Patsy Joseph Wash, 51, of St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Fairmont, W. Va., for fondling an undercover officer at an Interstate 79 rest stop in Lone Pine where travelers have reported lewd behavior. Source: _Lebanon Daily News_ 10/8/92.

CULT PASTOR NOT PROSECUTED. Officials in Clearfield & Delaware counties won't prosecute doomsday pastor Anthony Marcolongo of Johnstown, despite allegations by 6 women followers of sexual assault. "We thought this wasn't the type of case that tax dollars should be spent on," said Assistant DA Sheldon Kovach. The women said the minister broke them physically, making them work 18-hour days, & filled them with fear of doom in Hell if they did not have sex with him. Source: _Clearfield Progress_ 9/1/92.

*** SOUTH DAKOTA ***

METHODIST MINISTER PLEA BARGAINS. Rev. Wally Walton, Grace United Methodist, Pierre, pleaded no contest to felony charges of incest & sexual contact with a minor, & was immediately jailed. Walton has agreed to provide details of "sex crimes & illicit sexual activities" against latchkey kids, Girl Scouts & other children. Additionally, Walton's wife Betty was charged with sexual contact with a child, incest, & failure to report a felony. Also indicted are Walton's adopted twin daughters & son-in-law, facing similar charges. Walton drove a bus for a local latchkey program. Mrs. Walton worked with the Girl Scouts. Fellow minister Rev. J. Edwin Coates of the First United Methodist Church in Mitchell, accuses social workers of being overzealous, & said the arrests were indicative of a "police state" & a witchhunt. Prosecutor Mark Moreno excused the delay in charging Walton by saying: "If you charge a minister as I've done, you'd better be sure that you have some concrete evidence, because it's going to totally annihilate his future." Walton voluntarily surrendered his ministerial credentials. Methodists dropped a 2-year statute of limitations on disciplinary problems in May 1992, with no time limit on sex offenses. Source: _Rapid City Journal_ 7/28,29,31/92, 8/1/92.

METHODIST COVER-UP ALLEGED. No charges were brought when youngsters in Piedmont told police & social services they were molested in 1983 by Rev. Wally Walton (see above) at Piedmont Grace United Methodist Church. After a 2-year sabbatical, Walton became pastor at Grace United Methodist in Pierre, where he has been charged with sex offenses against children. The Methodist hierarchy decided he was "not a danger to anyone", permitted him to give sermons during his 2-year break, & "felt he should be given another chance", said Rev. Dick Fisher, formerly Westem Dist. superintendent of the Methodist Church in Rapid City. "We had two concerns at the time: to protect the people & save a person for the ministry." Source: _Rapid City Journal_ 7/29/92.

RAPID CITY SUIT ALLEGES PRIEST CONSPIRACY. Bob Koenig, 46, has filed a civil complaint in the 7th Circuit Court in Rapid City, charging Rev. William Lambert with sexually abusing him from 1958-1975,
starting when he was 12. He says he was forced to confess the abuse to at least 17 other priests, but none helped him. He seeks compensation from Lambert & the Catholic Diocese for battery, clergy malpractice, & negligent hiring & supervision. Lambert is accused of giving the altar boy wine, talking about "sins of the flesh", & handcuffing & tying him up when he resisted. Lambert instructed him to confess to priests that he was doing "impure acts with a priest". Koenig contacted the diocese before suing, but "Their main concern seems to be to keep it all quiet. So that's why I'm doing this, to get Father Lambert out of the priesthood, to stop him from having further access to vulnerable children, to get the church to accept responsibility for clergy who abuse children & to do something about it." Lambert, 69, has been dismissed from duties. In September the priest admitted he had sexually abused Koenig 30 years ago. A letter about Lambert's confession from Bishop Charles J. Chaput was either read aloud by priests or put in their weekly bulletin to "prepare you for this public disclosure". _Rapid City Journal_ 8/9/92, _Rapid City Journal_ 9/10/92.

*** TENNESSEE ***

MOLESTING MINISTER-BROTHERS CONVICTED. Youth minister Don McCary, 48, was sentenced to 72 years of prison for molesting 4 boys at his Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn. His twin brother Ron McCary, a Christian comedian and pastor, is in prison after committing aggravated rape on a boy, 6. Their older brother Richard McCary spent 2 years in the California prisons in the 1980s after conviction on 6 charges of child molestation. Explains sex offender therapist Deloris Roys, Don McCary "had a perfect camouflage ... For the person who uses religion as a camouflage, it gives them the mantle of being an OK or holy person. We all imbue religious people with the idea they wouldn't hurt us. They have instant authority, a power we don't have, a mantle of respect." Don McCary had been youth/choir director for 15 years at Central Baptist Church of Hixson, Tenn. He recorded lewd conversations with young boys and gave copies to his brother Ron in jail. Source: _Birmingham News_ 5/9/92.

$10 MILLION SOUGHT FROM BAPTISTS. Five civil lawsuits asking for $10 million in damages were filed against the Southern Baptist Convention for sexual assaults by convicted minister Donald McCary, of Chattanooga, sentenced in April to 72 years in prison for assaulting 5 boys. James Guenther, general  counselor for the SBC in Nashville, shrugged off the suits: "We've probably had a dozen of these cases where a plaintiff has undertaken to show that SBC controls a minister." He says no SBC agency beyond the level of the congregation has legal or disciplinary authority over pastors. McCary's twin brother is also in prison for abusing children; their older brother is on parole for similar charges. Source: _Birmingham News_ 8/21/92.

*** TEXAS ***

EL PASO MOLESTER "BRILLIANT". Court documents show that Father Jaime Madred said he told El Paso Bishop Raymondo Pena he had sexually abused an altar boy more than 20 years ago. That victim, Charles Romero, is suing the priest and diocese for sexual abuse. Diocese spokespriest Ed Roden-Lucero  commented: "But I know Father Madred, and he's a brilliant, holy man who has helped a lot of people over his 20 years as a priest. All of that will be ignored, and I think that's sad." Source: _San Antonio Light_ 3/6/92.

HOUSTON PRIEST GETS 10 YEARS. For assaulting a girl when she was 14 in 1984, Fernando Noe Guzman, 41, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The former Houston priest pleaded guilty. Source: _San Antonio Express-News_ 4/4/92.


SAN ANTONIO DIOCESE HIDES MOLESTER? The Archdiocese of San Antonio sent accused priest Xavier Ortiz-Dietz to the unlicensed New Mexico treatment center run by the church after hearing that he molested 5 young parishioners. Church officials claim they "intended" to turn information over to the DA's office. He resigned in August from 2 Bexar Co. parishes after a 3-priest panel heard the allegations. A former altar boy told police he was molested for more than 3 years. The archdiocese has offered counseling to the youths, & publicized the reason for the resignation to both parishes in September. Although Rev. Federico Fernandez was indicted for molesting 2 brothers in 1987, prosecutors dismissed the charges under the claim a trial would be too traumatic for them. The diocese secretly settled the family's $6 million civil lawsuit, reportedly for more than $1 million. Archbishop Patrick Flores denied a new cover-up. Source: _San Antonio Light_ 10/28/92.

BAPTIST CHARGED WITH INDECENCY. Charged with indecency for fondling a preteen girl in 1991 was Norman "Buddy" Wilcoxen, 60, former pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Bastrop. Source: _Austin American-Statesman_ 10/17/92.


CATHOLIC TEACHER'S AIDE, FEMALE, GUILTY. Catholic youth director Elizabeth Sanchez, 28, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a 14- year-old under her tutelage at St. Anthony Claret Catholic Church. A parishioner told a reporter, "We're there for her." She coerced the boy into a month-long sexual relationship while working as a teacher's aide in his middle school. Source: _San Antonio Light_ 8/23/92.

CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN ACCUSED OF DISCRIMINATION. Three women say Air Force Roman Catholic Chaplain Capt. Stephen Jeselnick of Randolph AFB practices sexual discrimination. One woman filed 3 claims for $30 million against the Air Force, alleging discrimination & official incompetence by investigators handling her complaints. He told her during a staff meeting on Dec. 3,1991, that he was "authorized by God & the Air Force" to be Randolph's priest & would not tolerate further complaints. The chaplain has been reassigned overseas. Source: _San Antonio Express-News_ 10/20/92.

*** VERMONT ***

OFFENDING PRIEST FAILS PROBATION, GETS PRISON. After failing a sex offender treatment program that was a condition of probation for his 1989 conviction for lewd contact with a Barton boy, Rev. Michael K.
Madden, 50, has been ordered to serve 2 years in prison. The Catholic priest
, from Warren, had pleaded no contest. Source: _Boston Globe_ 19/28/92.

*** VIRGINIA ***

POLYGAMOUS HILLBILLY PREACHER CHARGED. The leader of the Evangelistic Tabernacle in Martinsville was charged with felonious seduction & taking indecent liberties with a minor when he "married" a 16-year-old high school junior. Although already married, he was not charged with polygamy since he did not legally marry the teenager. Rev. Elwood Gallimore, 42, was also charged with performing marriage ceremonies without a license. His favorite topic for sermons is polygamy, citing such polygamous biblical characters as David & Solomon. He said the _Bible_ will be his only defense during the trial. Gallimore, whose dutiful 42-year-old wife was hospitalized for "nerves" after the second "marriage" was proposed, says he is being prosecuted by "jealous" men. A magistrate ordered him to stay away from the teenager on Jan. 19. Source: _Washington
Post_ 1/21,27,28/92.

MONSIGNOR SUICIDE FOLLOWING REVELATIONS. Two days after former altar boy Joe McDonald, now 39, confronted priest William T. Reinecke about molesting him 25 years ago, the priest committed suicide.
McDonald went to the Diocese of Arlington to discuss his allegations, but was rebuffed so took his story to the press. The diocese now claims it was not trying to suppress anything. The dead priest had officially been in charge of investigating claims of pedophilia in the diocese for 13 years. The publicity unleashed savage comments against the victim & vows of loyalty to the priest's memory by many in the parish. However, a second man came forward to say he too had been molested by Reinecke. Joseph T. O'Brien of Virginia Beach said the priest molested him 23 years ago on an overnight trip with other boys. A Falls Church police dispatcher says police phones have been tied up by people calling to say what a wonderful man & dedicated priest Reinecke was. Source: _Washington Post_ 8/30/92, 9/12/92.

PROMINENT EPISCOPALIAN REMOVED. Nationally known Rev. W. Graham Pulkingham, now living in Virginia, was suspended temporarily from the Episcopalian priesthood after admitting he initiated a sexual relationship with a man he was counseling, destroying the man's marriage. Church officials asked everybody to pray. Source: _Denver Post_ 8/92.

*** WASHINGTON, D.C. ***

METHODIST LEADER ADMITS IMPROPER RELATIONS. Newly retired Rev. Edward W. Bauman, once named one of the country's top preachers by _Time_ Magazine, admitted in a September letter to the Foundry
United Methodist Church in D.C. to "relationships of a sexual nature...with several women in the congregation". Bauman, 65, has a TV show, "Bauman _Bible_ Telecast", airing worldwide. The admission came only have 2 women filed grievances with Bishop Joseph Yeakel; one had sought counseling from Bauman. Bauman agreed to seek counseling at Johns Hopkins Hospital & to retire. After a 3rd woman came forward. Bauman agreed to write a letter to the congregation & make financial restitution to 2 women. Bauman insists the relationships were "fully consenting" & "could not be interpreted as harassment". Among Bauman's congregants were Sen. Bob Dole & Elizabeth Dole, & former Sen. George McGovern. According to the national United Methodist newsletter, 13% of pastors in 5 Protestant denominations acknowledged having intercourse with parishioners. Source: _Washington Post_ 9/18/92.

HO HUM ... BISHOPS MAKE NOISES. At the conclusion of a 4-day conclave, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops issued its first joint policy declaration suggesting voluntary guidelines on the subject of priest molesters, citing the "pain, anguish & sense of alienation felt by the victims", pledging a "healing ministry". The body has refused to deal since the mid-1980's with evidence of widespread abuse in the nation's clergy, researched by former canon attorney Rev. Thomas Doyle, then on the staff of the Vatican Embassy. The hastily-drawn recommendations came only after the bishops were embarrassed by picketers into meeting with survivors of priest misconduct. Eight protesters met privately with only 3 bishops. No reforms were promised. The 372-word resolution recommended that dioceses adopt policies that provide prompt response to allegations, remove clergy where charges are supported, report abuse when required specifically by law, reach out to victims, & inform the community of abuse "when appropriate". Legal judgments for sexual abuse cases already have cost the church at least $300 million, according to Jeffrey Anderson, an attorney representing many victims. Source: Associated Press 11/20/92, _Boston Globe_ 11/17,22/92.

*** WASHINGTON STATE ***

LUTHERAN PRINCIPAL ACCUSED.
Denying charges of indecent liberties with a student is John P. Rossow, who resigned in March as principal of Central Lutheran Christian School, Tacoma. Now a senior, the youth said Russow took him on outings and French kissed him for hours when he was a 5th grader, and tried to  masturbate him at a state park after plying him with whiskey. A teenager said, "He had kids at his house a lot." Source: _Morning News Tribune_ 4/8/92.

METHODIST MINISTER PLEADS GUILTY. Rev. Lawrence "Larry" E. Trim, 55, of Evangelical Methodist Church in Methow, pleaded guilty to 3rd degree rape of a child, in connection with an assault of a boy, then 13. Source: _Wenatchee World_ 9/17/92.


WOMAN SUES SPOKANE DIOCESE. Debra Hatcher filed suit against the diocese of Spokane, the Franciscan Order & Brother Berard Connelly, saying he sexually abused her more than 20 years ago when she attended Marycliff High School in 1968-1973. Connelly left Spokane in 1973, received "treatment", & is on administrative leave now in California. Source: _Spokesman-Review_ 1/24/93.

*** WEST VIRGINIA ***

CONVICTED MOLESTER RECRUITING BOYS. A convicted child molester barred in Pennsylvania from recruiting choirboys to tour in Europe is now operating out of Morgantown, WV. John B. Shallenberger, 74,
was convicted in 1985 of indecent assault, indecent exposure and corrupting the morals of a Dutch choirboy, 11. He was convicted in 1961 and 1975 on similar charges. In 1990, a judge ordered him to reveal his criminal record while recruiting boys and to pay a $5,000 fine for violating a 1978 agreement with the Bureau of Consumer Protection to reveal his background. He has not paid the fine or signed the petition. Shallenberger insists, "Every choirmaster and every music teacher in the country knows of my criminal record ... You would be surprised at how many parents beg me to take a second brother on tour." His July in Paris tour was handled through the Children's Choir Federation. Source: _Pittsburgh Post-Gazette_ 2/15/92.

CONVICTED MOLESTER STOPS TOUR. Following an investigation by the West Virginia attorney general's office, convicted child molester John B. Shallenberger, 74, folded his Children's Choir Federation, soliciting boys from grades 4-7 to take 2-week singing tours in Europe. He had been convicted in 1975 & 1961 for child molestation. In 1991, Pennsylvania authorities charged him with ignoring a court order to reveal his child molestation convictions to the parents of recruited children, so he moved to West Virginia. Shallenberger has moved back to Pennslyvania & is running an elevator repair company. Source: _Charleston Gazette_ 7/8/92.

MINISTER PLEADS GUILTY TO ABUSING NIECE. Baptist minister Rev. Ernest Lee Rowsey, 51, of Wharton Missionary Baptist Church in Bim, pleaded guilty to 1 count of 1st degree sexual abuse, involving his niece. Originally, he was charged with molesting 2 nieces between 1976-1982, but they agreed to drop all but one charge against their uncle. The kids were molested for 6 years starting from ages 5 & 7. Rowley's sister also said he molested her as long ago as 1969, but at that time, child sexual abuse was a misdemeanor, & the statute of limitations has expired. Source: _Charleston Gazette_ 11/1/92.

RELIGIOUS ACTIVIST FACES INCEST-PATERNITY SUIT. An anti-sex education activist in Marshall Co. is being sued by his stepdaughter to pay child support for her son, now 18. Richard Rose, 75, has sued the school board to stop sex education classes. Ruth Elaine Limes of Glendale, Arizona also claims that Limes is her father, not her stepfather, & that when he married her mother after her birth, he pretended he was helping an unwed mother. Source: _Charleston Gazette_ 2/6/92.

*** WISCONSIN ***

PRIEST CONVICTED. A priest who knew one of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's victims pleaded no contest to 2nd degree sexual assault of a teenage boy. Rev. Peter Burns, 32, was found guilty in Sheboygan court of molesting a boy, 13, in 1988 and a boy, 14, in 1987. Source: _Wisconsin State Journal_ 1/23/92.

WOMAN SUES MILWAUKEE DIOCESE. "Jane Doe" is suing the Milwaukee Archdiocese and St. Stephen Martyr parish for $1 million, saying Rev. Maurice Hayes enticed her into a sexual relationship and into giving him money while instructing her, serving as her counselor. Hayes was reassigned in 1990 after allegations surfaced. Source: _Appleton Post-Crescent_ 1/21/92.


FUGITIVE PRIEST SURRENDERS. Rev. Bruce Ball, of Colby, a fugitive for 12 hours, was taken into custody to start his prison sentence of up to 5 years. Ball, 44, was convicted of sexually touching a boy, 12, during a counseling session. Ball was relieved of duties as priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church. Source: AP/_Wisconsin State Journal_ 10/14/92.


15 VICTIMS NAME SHEBOYGAN PRIEST. Father William J. Effinger, who was removed as pastor of Holy Name Catholic Church in Sheboygan, after more than 15 victims came forward, was charged with molesting an 8th grade boy. He admitted sexually abusing a 13 year old boy 23 years ago. The man wore a hidden tape recorder & confronted the priest, who acknowledged the abuse. The victim took the tape to the Milwaukee Archdiocese & a TV reporter. Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland told the reporter an accusation was bought against the priest about 15 years ago, & that he has been "monitoring" him since then. He then invited anyone knowing of sexual abuse by Effinger to contact him directly. However, the DA's office said the victims they have been hearing from have no intention of contacting the archdiocese. Victims say as grade school children were served liquor by the priest, especially martinis. One woman molested by him said he was a close family friend. She never told her parents because "My father thought he was God (and) walked on water." Source: Milwaukee Sentinel_ 10/92; 12/92.

FRIARS NAMED BY EX-STUDENTS. Eight former students at a Catholic prep school run since 1857 by the Capuchin order in Fond du Lac say they were sexually molested by friars who plied them with liquor & showed them pornography. Three of the victims have attempted suicide. Most assaults occurred in the 1970s, although  tne episode occurred in 1987. The assaults were reported to school authorities, who broke Wisconsin law by not notifying authorities. Two former students who entered the order themselves say they were given $4,000 each for therapy on condition of not reporting the crimes. One of them, Michael Rocklin, 30, now of San Diego, has since left the order & alleges more than 50 sexual encounters over a 3 year period with 3 friars. Director of the Detroit-based province, Rev. Kenneth Reinhart, acknowledged being aware of some of the allegations, adding he wants to "address any friar that I become aware of who needs help". Two accused friars have left, 2 have died, & 1 was at the school when the allegations broke. The friar named in a 1987 molestation was fired in 1988, then rehired, & was suspended only in December. The Capuchin order, known for its soup kitchen feeding 500 a day in Detroit, set up hotlines in Detroit & Milwaukee so abuse victims could call. Two Detroit men also came forward saying they were abused at a program for young men interested in entering the order. Capuchin officials did not indicate their intention to report new allegations to police. Abuse victims have set up their own hotline in Milwaukee: (414) 256-1362. Sources: _Boston Globe_ 12/21/92, _Detroit Free Press_ 12/22/92.

"NOT A TIME FOR JUDGMENT." The arrest of Brookfield minister Richard O. Bidwell for lewd & lascivious conduct is "not a time for judgment" but "a time when we in the Christian community need to offer our support & our prayers," opines Rev. Kenneth Wheeler, an official with the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bidwell, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church, married with children, was arrested at a park in the afternoon with his genitals exposed, in the company of another exposed man. Source: Milwaukee Sentinel_ 7/14/92.


OSHKOSH CASE INVOLVES CHICAGO DIOCESE. Winnebago Co. DA Joseph F Paulus filed a motion seeking to use testimony by 6 Cook Co. youths alleging sexual misconduct by Rev. Norbert J. Maday, 54, who is being tried in Oshkosh for molesting 2 youths during a 5-day outing. One boy said the priest threatened to kill his little brother if anyone learned of the episode. Five men & a 16 year old in Cook Co. came forward too, but the statute of limitations had run out except for the teenager. Maday was removed in March 1992 when the  Wisconsin allegations arose. The DA also wants to call 4 Chicago priests to the stand. The trial was postponed indefinitely in December. Sources: _Chicago Sun-Times_ 9/12/92, _Toledo Blade_ 12/7/92.

*** *** CANADA *** ***

*** BRITISH COLUMBIA ***

B.C. PRIEST CONVICTED OF BUGGERY. Priest Kevin Michael Rolston, whose testimony was characterized as "glib", "insincere" and "crafted to suit his convenience" by the judge, was convicted of gross indecency and buggery of 3 young boys in Kelowna, B.C. Source: _Canadian Press/Spectator_ 2/12/92.

INDIANS ASK POPE TO DEFROCK RAPIST BISHOP. A British Columbia judge stayed charges against Bishop Hubert O'Connor, 63, ending a trial for legal technicalities. He was accused of raping 2 workers & indecently assaulting 2 female students while principal of a Native residential school near Williams Lake in the 1960s. Eight Native women testified at a preliminary hearing about being taken from their homes, forced to go to the church school and being sexually abused. O'Connor resigned as Bishop of Prince George although the Pope hasn't accepted it yet. "In the name of justice, we call upon the Pope to defrock & excommunicate Bishop O'Connor for his admitted violations of canon law & church doctrine," said Terry Saul, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. "The case against Bishop O'Connor is not over. Nobody is off the hook." Source: _Canadian Press_/_Regina Leader-Post_ 12/12/92.

RC CHURCH PAYING FOR THERAPY. The Catholic Church in Canada, admitting about 60 priests have been charged with sexual abuse, has been urged to help pay for counseling & therapy for victims of priests by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Archdiocese of Vancouver says 10 victims are now receiving subsidized counseling, even when criminal charges have not been brought. "We look at this way: If a person is alleging abuse by a priest & it happened, they need help. And if they are alleging abuse & it didn't happen, they also need help," said Father Gregory Smith. What Smith didn't mention is that such minor financial help may buy the silence of victims, & discourage costly civil suits. Source: _Spectator_ 1/7/93,

*** NEW BRUNSWICK ***

NEW BRUNSWICK PREACHER CONVICTED. Calling his crimes a "most sick, disturbing and tragic matter", Justice Thomas Riordon convicted Pentecostal preacher Rev. Aubrey McCallister of touching, fondling and sodomizing a young girl for 10 years, beginning when she was 7. The assaults took place at his home and church Sunday school in Minto, New Brunswick. He was convicted of the same offense 2 years ago and sentenced to 5 years in jail but was granted a new trial. His loyal congregation packed the courtroom during both trials, and had to be warned not to repeat their angry outburst. Followers shook the convict's hand and said they were sticking by him. The victim, now 20, was jeered by the minister's congregation. McCallister called her "daddy's little girl" and rewarded her with Oreo cookies or told her to pray for forgiveness after each encounter. "Aren't we sneaky? If we ever get caught, mom would kick us both out," he told her. Source: Telegraph Journal_, Saint John, N.B., 3/6/92.


*** NEWFOUNDLAND ***

NEWFOUNDLAND BROTHER GETS 4 YEARS. Mount Cashel Christian brother Alan Ralph was sentenced to 4 years after pleading guilty to 11 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys at Mount Cashel orphanage. Victims told the sentencing judge of continual problems since leaving the orphanage more than 15 years ago, including flashbacks of abuse, difficulty forming relationships with women and lack of trust. Ralph is the 7th of 8 Christian Brothers convicted on charges reopened in 1989, after a 1975 investigation into rampant abuse was stifled. Source: _Spectator_ 2/8/92.


MT. CASHEL SUPERINTENDENT GETS 5 YEARS. The last of 9 men charged with sex crimes at the Mount Cashel orphanage, Douglas Kenney, was ordered to serve 5 years in prison for 7 counts of indecent assault
against 7 boys. He insisted he was innocent of all charges, including molesting a boy the day he arrived at the orphanage. "Kenny's self_ indulgent search for sexual gratification has left the wreckage of seven lives in his wake," said Justice Leo Barry of Newfoundland Supreme Court. "If anything is the epitome of evil, it is this. Public abhorrence must be great." The 8 other members of the Christian Brothers lay order have received prison terms ranging from 6 months to 13 years. The orphanage closed 2 years ago and will be demolished. The land will be sold to fund programs for victims. Source: _Spectator_ 2/11/92, _Ottawa Citizen_ 4/14/92.

MOUNT CASHEL REPORT ISSUED. A 1,029-page report of the official inquiry into Mount Cashel concludes sexual abuse at the orphanage in the 1970's was covered up by a deputy justice minister and the police chief. Retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes cited collusion and disdain for sex offenders, advising that public funds not be wasted in treating "people animated by evil". The Justice Department interfered when an inquiry was made into abuse in 1975, although ample evidence was found to charge Christian Brothers. Abuse was occurring long before then. Hughes advised creating a solicitor general's office to oversee police, a  government compensation fund for victims, an independent police complaints commission, training on sexual abuse with a special child abuse unit in each police department, and charges against any citizen who fails to report their knowledge of abuse.

 

PRIEST ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING GIRL. Catholic priest Hillary Maher, 42, was charged with 6 counts of sexual assault on a girl between the ages of 14-16 in the early 1980s while he was a parish priest in Stephenville. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 8/11/92.

*** NOVA SCOTIA ***

"GOD HAS FORGIVEN ME FOR WHAT I'VE DONE." Nova Scotia religious leader Harold Jollimore, 63, convicted in December of sexual and indecent assault of young girls, was sentenced to 2 years in prison. He preached biblical passages while sexually abusing neighbor girls. One 9-year-old who had a breakdown after 8 years of abuse has been in therapy since 1978. He attracted children by running a candy and soda pop store on his property. He told the judge, "God has forgiven me for what I've done," saying he doesn't understand why the victims haven't been able to "put this behind them". He was also ordered to take psychiatric counseling during a 3-year probation. Source: _The Spectator_ 2/11/92.

*** ONTARIO ***

PRIEST ADMITS MOLESTING GIRLS. Priest Paul Blancard pleaded guilty to molesting 5 girls, ages 6 to 10, including an 8 year old whom he said would "feel like the mother of God" if she went to bed with him. Church officials knew of his pedophilia by at least 1967, when he was told to stay with the Jesuits and pray. In 1988 he went to Southdown Institute in Ontario for problem clergy. Source: _Spokesman Review_.


"HORRIFIC" HARASSMENT IN CHURCH OF CANADA PROMPTS STUDY. The task force on sexual abuse, exploitation, and harassment urged the Church of Canada to develop a code of ethics for ministers because of ~horrific proportions" of sexual harassment in the church. The panel said women are more likely to be sexually harassed in the church than in the workplace. "A five-denominational study [in the U.S.] conducted in 1987 found 5.5% of therapists had sex involving intercourse with their clients, while 12.6% of clergy admitted to sexual involvement including intercourse with their parishioners," reported Rev. Peter Lougheed of Evanville, Ontario. Many ministers are engaging in personal counseling without any training or codes of ethics, said Walter Faquharson, moderator of the United Church.


LUTHERAN TEACHER CHARGED. Arrested for sexually assaulting boys at John Calvin Christian School in Burlington, Ontario is Theodore Richard Vanderveen, 30, who taught 4th grade for 4 years. Source: _Spectator_ 3/2/92.

CHRISTIAN BROTHER CASES: 300 VICTIMS GET $13 MILLION. Helpline, a 300-member organization of former students at 2 Ontario reform schools run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, signed a historic agreement, netting them compensation of about $13 million. The settlement will be financed by the Ottawa branch of the Brothers, Ontario taxpayers & the Roman Catholic archdiocese of both Ottawa & Ontario. The Ottawa brothers ran St. Joseph's Training School for Boys in Alfred, which closed in 1974. Helpline is planning to sue the Toronto branch of the Brothers for $300 million unless they agree to pay the victims $3 million. The Toronto branch is resisting because they claim "only" 8 of their brothers have been charged with sexual or physical assault. Two of them have been found not guilty & one pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault but was not jailed. The Toronto brothers still own & operate the St. John's Training School for Boys in Uxbridge. "Our position is that the St. John's Training School for Boys is a well-run school & it has been for 100 years," insisted the attorney representing the Toronto brothers. The Ontario government had evidence of abuse as early as 1960 but did not act. More than 500 men have come forward alleging abuse at the 2 Ontario reform schools. Nearly 200 charges, ranging from buggery to assault, have been laid since 1990 against 29 members & former members of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, a Catholic lay order not associated with the Christian Brothers who ran Mount Cashel. In August the church & government had proposed a $16-million compensation package demanding ex-students to sign a waiver promising never to sue, & quashing an investigation. Victims refused to sign. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 8/14, 9/3,12/12/92.

CHRISTIAN BROTHER GETS JAIL TIME. After admitting he fondled students at St. Joseph's Training School for Boys in the early 1960s, Christian brother Jean-Louis Jeaurond, 53, was sentenced to 4 months in jail after a plea bargain. Cleared of a criminal charge was Giles Nadeau, 49, a former Christian brother who is now vice-principal of a high school. There were inconsistencies in the statements of the man set to testify against Nadeau for sodomizing him at St. Joseph's. The witness is serving a rape sentence. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 9/29/92, 10/15/92.

CHRISTIAN BROTHER GETS ONE YEAR. Andre St. Jean, 54, was sentenced to a year in jail for sexual assaults committed against students at St. Joseph's Training School for Boys in the early 1960s. Charges
against Jean Ravacley, 76, were stayed because of his poor mental health. St. Jean & Ravacley are 2 of 19 Christian brothers charged with crimes of physical or sexual assault alleged by former inmates at the school in Alfred. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 11/14/92.

CONVICTION BRINGS "MEMORIES OF HELL". A jury convicted Lucien Dagenais, 67, of 15 counts of physical & sexual assault of students at St. Joseph's Training School for Boys. During the 5-week trial, Albert Daigneault testified that in April 1954, he was beaten by a goon squad, handcuffed, stripped naked, held in solitary confinement & sexually assaulted almost daily. Now 50, he testified against "Father Joseph", known as "the Hook". Dagenais was also convicted of sodomizing victim David McCann, credited with launching the investigation into the home. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 12/4, 9/92.


76-YEAR-OLD CHRISTIAN BROTHER JAILED. A probation officer & Christian brother at the Catholic reform school in Alfred was jailed for 2 years less a day for crimes he still denies. Camille Huot was the 3rd Christian Brother to be imprisoned since the St Joseph's scandal. He was found guilty of indecent assault & sodomy, while proclaiming his innocence. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 10/3/92.


CBC SERIES BANNED. A fictional CBC mini-series, inspired by the scandalous abuse of children by Catholic Christian Brothers in Canada, was banned in Ontario & Montreal by a Toronto judge. He ruled the broadcasting of "The Boys of St. Vincent" would compromise the rights to a fair trial by 4 Christian Brothers facing charges in connection with St. Joseph's training school in Alfred & St. John's training school in Uxbridge. Neither the court nor the Christian Brothers' attorneys had seen the movie. It may be broadcast in Ontario & Montreal after the trials are completed. An appeal court lifted a 2nd ban that made it illegal to publish information about the program, the injunction or the fact that an injunction had been sought. A 3-judge panel overturned that gag order, comparing it to a "Star Chamber".

PRIEST GOING ON TRIAL. Rev. Brian Hart, 38, goes on trial in April on charges of sexually assaulting an altar boy 9 years ago in Belleville. The victim, 16 at the time, said Hart assaulted him at St. Michael's seminary. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 10/28/92.


CHURCH SUED FOR CHOIRMASTER'S ASSAULTS. St. George's Cathedral & the Anglican church are being sued over a choirmaster's sexual assaults on choirboys. John Gallienne is serving a 6-1/2 year sentence for abusing boys. Now 17 plaintiffs are suing, claiming damages, plus interest & costs. The suit in part claims church officials were aware of Gallienne's misconduct & held at least 5 meetings over a 6- year period to discuss them, yet took no action to protect boys. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 11/11/92.

MONK CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING GIRLS. Former Catholic priest Henry Paul Veilleux, 55, was charged with sexually assaulting & raping 3 girls at an Ottawa monastery 20 years ago. The girls were 6, 7, & 11 in 1968-70. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 11/21/92.


ANGLICAN PRIEST SUSPENDED WITH PAY. Owen Sound minister Jim Francom was suspended With pay from St. George's Anglican Church after being charged in July with rape & assault of a girl under 14. The assaults were alleged to have occurred in London, Ontario between 1975-1984 Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 8/18/92.


BOYS' CLUB OWNER WANTED BY POLICE. Ron Carron, who ran a club for altar boys at a church on Hamilton Mountain in the 1970s, faces 6 sex-related charges regarding 4 victims, molested as young teenagers in 1976. Police are checking Ireland & the United States for his whereabouts. Source: _Spectator_ 1/6/93.

BISHOPS' POLICY: "CORPORATE DAMAGE CONTROL". A 92-page report "From Faith to Hope" released in June by the Canadian Catholic bishops, which makes 50 recommendations on priest sex abuse, of which only 4 deal with victims, was called "corporate damage control" by reporter Bob Harvey of the _Ottawa Citizen_. "Fair but feeble" was another evaluation published in the _Toronto Globe_. The report does recommend a policy of complete openness with judicial authorities, the public & the media on all incidents of sexual abuse. In the past 6 years, more than 70 priests & members of Canadian religious orders have been charged for sexual offenses. Source: _Ottawa Citizen_ 6/13/92.

*** SASKATCHEWAN ***

SASKATCHEWAN "SAINT" SENTENCED. Rev. Lucien Larre, 59, dubbed a saint for his work with troubled youth, was sentenced to one symbolic day in jail and a $2,500 fine for slapping and choking one youth and forcing another to take pills. He was acquitted on 9 other counts, including a charge of sexual assault. His jail sentence was waived. Source: _Toronto Star_ 4/25/92.

*** YUKON ***

PASTOR GETS 6 MONTHS. Pastor Ed Brennan, 45, of Whitehorse Christian Bible Fellowship Society, got 6 months in jail and 3 years' probation for sexually assaulting a young married parishioner in the Yukon. Source: _Spectator_ 12/17/91.


*** *** *** ABROAD *** *** ***

*** *** AUSTRALIA *** ***

CHILDREN OF GOD CULT PROBED. Sydney social workers interviewed 140 children, ages 2 to 14, seized from Children of God, a cult founded by "Moses David", accused of brainwashing members, forcing children to watch adults have sex, and encouraging preteens to have sex with each other. Source: AP 5/17/92.

ANGLICAN BISHOP CHARGED FOR SOLICITATION. Anglican Bishop Owen Dowling, 57, of Canberra and Goulburn, was recently charged with soliciting a male off-duty cop for prostitution. Source: _Christian Century_ 5/13/92.


New South Wales Anglican priest Eric William Griffith, 50, of Gratton, was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to 3 counts of indecent assault & 4 counts of gross indecency against a boy, 14. Source: _Courier-Mail_ 11/15/92.

*** *** IRELAND *** ***

IRISH BISHOP FATHERED CHILD. Catholic Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway, Ireland resigned in May after admitting publicly that he fathered a boy 17 years ago after seducing Annie Murphy, now 44. He resigned after learning of a secret video of a meeting between Murphy and himself at a New York hotel. Murphy said they had a "magical love" affair, but he refused to help her when she became pregnant. She gave birth at a home for unwed mothers and kept his paternity a secret. The Connecticut woman negotiated a $125,000 payment from the bishop 2 years ago. Her son Peter went public after Casey, 65, was not forthcoming with the payment. Casey's public statement asked "forgiveness from God". He admitted taking nearly $120,000 in church money for child support, saying private donors had repaid that amount for him with interest in the week the scandal was publicized.


*** *** UNITED KINGDOM *** ***

London religious-education teacher Monika Kocanek, 27, says a priest is the father of her baby daughter. A priest, 38, not identified, urged her to have an abortion in 1991, she said. Source: AP/Reuters,_Arizona Republic_ 9/1/92.

 

 

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