Conviction of Monsignor For Covering Up Priest's Abuse Is Reversed

A Pennsylvania appellate court yesterday reversed the 2012 conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn who was the first U.S. priest criminally convicted of covering up sexual molestation of minors by another priest. (See prior posting.) In Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Lynn, (PA Super. Ct., Dec. 26, 2013), a unanimous 3-judge panel held that the trial court had misinterpreted the Endangering Welfare of a Child statute under which Lynn was sentenced to a term of 3-6 years. (The statute was later amended.) The appellate court held that the statute under which Lynn was convicted only applied to a person who is directly in charge of a child, not to someone supervising the person in charge. Also there was insufficient evidence to convict Lynn as an accomplice to the priest's violation of the statute. According to AP, prosecutors say they will appeal yesterday's decision and Lynn cannot be released until the appeals process is completed. The appeals court yesterday denied Lynn's motion for bail pending appeal, leaving that to the trial court. (Docket Sheet setting out order.)

UPDATE: On Dec. 30, the trial court set bail for Msgr. Lynn at $250,000.  He will also be subject to electronic monitoring and must surrender his passport. (NBC 10 Philadelphia).

UPDATE 2: The Dec. 31 Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has posted $25,000 (apparently the amount needed for a bail bond) for the release of Msgr. Lynn.  The district attorney has strongly criticized the Archdiocese for doing so.

Clergy Abuse Lawsuit Settled By Diocese and Religious Order

The Kansas City Star reported Sunday on the settlement this month of a clergy sex abuse lawsuit filed against Catholic priest James Urbanic by a man who alleges that, as a high schooler, he was sexually abused by Urbanic in the 1970's.  Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Kansas City-St. Joseph (MO) Diocese and Urbanic's religious order, Missionaries of the Precious Blood, each of whom contributed half of the $130,000 settlement.  Urbanic taught religion at a Catholic high school in St. Joseph. The suit alleges that the Diocese and the religious order failed to take action when they received reports about Urbanic in the 1970's.  It was only after a 2011 investigation that Urbanic was removed from the public ministry.

Sex Abuse Plaintiff Identifies Himself In Lawsuit Against Chicago Archdiocese

In Chicago, numerous sex abuse victims of former Catholic priest Daniel McCormack  have filed "John Doe" lawsuits, and the Chicago archdiocese has settled many of them.  Yesterday's Chicago Tribune reports that the first case against McCormack in which the victim has identified himself was filed Wednesday.  Plaintiff, 27-year old Darryl McArthur, who like all of McCormack's victims is African-American, says he took this step to combat "the culture of secrecy" surrounding sexual abuse in the African-American community. McArthur has agreed to try to settle the lawsuit through a mediation arrangement that has resolved 20 other claims against the Chicago Archdiocese.  Meanwhile, the accused former priest remains in a mental health facility while a judge considers whether to commit him indefinitely as a sexually violent offender.

Suit Seeks Release of Files of Former Duluth Priests Accused of Abuse

According to the Duluth News Tribune, a Minnesota state court lawsuit was filed yesterday against the Catholic Diocese of Duluth on behalf of a John Doe plaintiff who says he was abused in the 1970's by Father Robert Klein, now deceased. A statement by the Diocese in response to the filing of the lawsuit says that there are several publicly known substantiated allegations against Klein, but the allegations in the lawsuit are new. The lawsuit claims that the Diocese was negligent in allowing sexual abuse to continue, and that it has created a nuisance by not releasing information about accused priests. The suit asks for release of the names and files of 17 former priests who were identified in a 2004 report as having credible allegations against them. The Diocese says that the 2004 list is imperfect, and that no priests with known accusations of sexual abuse of minors are active in the ministry in the Diocese.

Court Orders Minnesota Dioceses To Release Information On Credibly Accused Priests

A Minnesota state trial court judge yesterday ordered release by the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis of the names and information on 33 priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse. He also ordered the Diocese of Winona to release the names and information on 13 other similarly accused priests.  AP reports that the information, including current status and residence for those still alive, must be released by Dec. 17. The Archdiocese says it will release the information on its website on Dec. 5. It added that most of the names that will be released have already been identified by the media, and all that are still alive have been permanently removed from ministry. The names will be those compiled in 2004. The Church has until Jan. 6 to release information of priests accused since that time.

LA Times Carries Long Investigative Report On Handling Of Priest Sex Abuse By Archdiocese

Today's Los Angeles Times carries a very long investigative report on how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, under the leadership of Archbishop Roger Mahony from 1985- 2011, handled revelations of sex abuse by priests. The article gives special attention to the handling of charges against now-defrocked Father Michael Baker. Here is an excerpt from the Times report:

Mahony and his aides insisted on secrecy even when lives were at risk. In one case, the archdiocese was informed that a man dying of AIDS had been having sex with a parish priest, who in turn was abusing high school students.... Yet church officials did nothing to alert the priest or the students.... 

Mahony's schedule brought him in regular contact with the police chief and the district attorney, but he never mentioned the accused abusers in his ranks or reported them to law enforcement. In private memos, he discussed with aides how to stymie police.

Mahony and his aides selected therapists who they knew wouldn't report abuse to authorities, and urged suspected molesters to remain out of state to avoid police investigations and lawsuits..... 

LAPD policy was to notify the archdiocese when an investigation was underway. But once the church was informed,[Detective Dale] Barraclough said, "we knew that the suspect, 99% sure, that he was going to be out of the country or out of state."...

From early in his time as archbishop, Mahony did more than his predecessors to address sexual abuse by priests. For the most part, he didn't ignore allegations or shuffle untreated molesters from parish to parish. He insisted on inpatient therapy and placed returning priests in jobs where they had little access to children....  But he drew the line at steps that would acknowledge abuse cases publicly.

 (See prior related posting.)

Chicago Catholic Archdiocese Settles Abuse Suit; Agrees To Release Files

The Chicago Sun-Times this week reports that the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to a $2.3 million settlement in a suit by a man now in his early 20's who between 2004 and 2006 was sexually abused by now-defrocked former priest Daniel McCormack. The settlement also calls for the Archdiocese to release on Jan. 15 files on allegations of sexual abuse against a total of 30 priests, including McCormack.  The files will include information on how Church officials responded to the allegations. On its website this week, the Archdiocese confirmed that it plans to release these files in January, and also will update its website to include more complete information on 30 others. In a related posting, the Archdiocese responded to several statements made in a press conference by the president of Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests.

Private Foundation That Funds Milwaukee Archdiocese Is Respondent In Securities Fraud Case Supreme Court Agrees To Review

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, (Docket No. 13-317, cert. granted 11/15/2013). (Order List.) This is the second time the case is before the Supreme Court. (The Court's 2011 opinion was Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton.) Reports on yesterday's decision by the Court to grant review, such as this report by Reuters, all focus on the main issue involved-- whether the Court will back off of the so-called "fraud-on-the-market theory" that makes it easier for securities fraud class actions to be brought in federal court.  What few, if any, media are reporting is that the plaintiff-appellee, the Erica P. John Fund, was previously known as the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Supporting Fund.  In recent years it has donated some $600,000 per year to the Catholic Archdiocese-- which is now in bankruptcy reorganization. Here are excerpts from a somewhat unflattering March 2011 report about the Fund by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The nonprofit Erica P. John Fund, which has given millions of dollars to the archdiocese and other organizations over the years, is among a number of revenue sources expected to be scrutinized by creditors in the archdiocese's bankruptcy.

Victims and their attorneys question the timing of the name change in 2009, suggesting it may have been intended to obscure the fund's true purpose - to financially support the archdiocese - and may have been part of a broader effort by the archdiocese to shield its resources from being used for sex abuse claims....

Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said the John Fund, as a private foundation, cannot be tapped to pay sex church abuse settlements and that its grants obtained by the archdiocese are restricted to specific uses....

Proceeds from the fund - more specifically, from the sale of a property it donated - were used to pay $450,000 in hush money in 1998 to a man who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland when he was a seminary student years earlier. Weakland, who abruptly retired after the payment became public in 2002, has maintained that the relationship was consensual.

[An Archdiocese spokesman] said the building was donated before Erica John dictated that no family funds could be used to pay sex-abuse settlements. And federal authorities investigated the allocation but found no wrongdoing by the archdiocese because the money had not been diverted from a specific purpose.

Wrongful Death Suit Filed Against Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese and Two Priests

The Legal Intelligencer reports that a wrongful death lawsuit was filed last Wednesday in a Pennsylvania state trial court against the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Monsignor William Lynn and Rev. Robert L. Brennan.  At issue is the death of Sean Patrick McIlmail who last month was found dead in his car from a drug overdose. The suit alleges that McIlmail, who was addicted to drugs, suffered psychologically and emotionally as a result of sexual abuse by Brennan, and that McIlmail developed "various psychological coping mechanisms" in order to deal with the trauma. The suit claims that the Archdiocese and Msgr. Lynn "protected Brennan in his position so as to facilitate his sexual abuse of children...." Criminal charges against Brennan were dropped after McIlmail's death. A jury had previously deadlocked on criminal charges against Brennan.  Lynn was convicted last year of child endangerment for covering up sexual abuse by other priests. (See prior posting.)

Appeals Court Dismisses Failure To Supervise Suit Against Diocese By Abuse Victim

In D.T. v.Catholic Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph, (MO App., Nov. 12, 2013), a Missouri state appeals court upheld the dismissal of claims against a Catholic diocese by plaintiff who was sexually abused by a priest serving in one of its parishes. The suit alleges that that the Diocese knew that the priest had sexually molested children in the past and knew that it was substantially certain that he would molest other children in the future.  Relying on the Missouri Supreme court's 1997 decision in Gibson v. Brewer, the appeals court held that negligence-based claims against the diocese are barred by the First Amendment because deciding them leads to excessive entanglement.  It also, reluctantly, dismissed the claims of intentional failure to supervise clergy because under Gibson, a diocese could be held liable in such cases only when the abuse occurred on property belonging to the diocese. The appeals court said it is bound by the state Supreme Court precedent, despite the questionable outcome it produces in this case:

Taken to its extreme, then, a religious organization could be fully cognizant that a member of its clergy, when placed near children, is certain or substantially certain to sexually molest children; but as long as it counsels its clergy to take their personal criminal proclivities to premises not owned, possessed, or controlled by the church and not to use a chattel of the church in the commission of the harmful and often criminal actions, there could be no civil liability for intentional failure to supervise. 

That result seems to contradict the spirit and intent of the intentional tort recognized and announced by the Gibson court.... Perhaps this is a case that our Supreme Court may wish to accept on transfer to clarify application of the elements of the tort of intentional failure to supervise clergy that it previously announced in Gibson, particularly in light of the fact that both the Restatements (Second) of Agency and Torts have been revised since Gibson was decided.

AP reports on the decision.

Consent Order Requires Priest Charged With Sexual Misconduct To Petition Vatican For Removal From Priesthood

Bergen County, New Jersey prosecutor John L. Molinelli issued a press release last week announcing an unusual resolution in a clergy sex abuse case.  As explained by an RNS report yesterday, in 2007 Catholic priest Michael Fugee, in order to avoid a retrial on improper sexual conduct charges, signed an agreement, embodied in a judicial order and Memorandum of Understanding, banning him from ministering to children.  It was discovered earlier this year that Fugee violated the agreement by attending youth retreats and hearing confessions from teens.  In response, in May he was charged with 5 counts of criminal contempt.  On November 1, those charges were disposed of through a binding agreement and court order under which Fugee has agreed to petition the Vatican to remove him permanently from the priesthood.  Prosecutor Molinelli said that this result could not have been achieved by a contempt conviction because:

it is not believed that the American Justice System has such authority as a condition of probation or upon conviction. This is a requirement that will eliminate the threat of Michael Fugee, ever again, obtaining the trust of people through his clerical position nor using his ordained position as a Priest to exert improper contact with children.... The agreement that has been reached forever bars Michael Fugee from holding himself out as a current or former priest or spiritual advisor. Most importantly, he is prohibited from working with children in any capacity. 

Molinelli also emphasized that this new order will be supervised by the prosecutor's office, and not by the Archdiocese of Newark, in which Molinelli has lost confidence.

UPDATE: Here is the full text of the court's order in State of New Jersey v. Fugee, (NJ Super. Ct., Nov. 1, 2013).

Los Angeles Archdiocese Settles 4 Suits For Nearly $10 Million

AP reported yesterday that the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to settle four cases against it by abuse victims of now-defrocked priest Michael Baker for a total of nearly $10 million. The abuse allegations cover 26 years-- 1976 to 2000. Two of the cases named Cardinal Roger Mahony who failed for many years to remove Baker. Released documents show that Mahony helped shield abusive priests. (See prior posting.)  An attorney for the Archdiocese says that the Archdiocese is responsible for Baker's actions. Two of the cases were set to go to trial next month, and the judge had ruled that plaintiffs could seek punitive damages. In the settlement, two of the plaintiffs will receive $4 million each, and two other will each receive $1 million.