In The News
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010Secrets’ the Boy Scout Leaders don’t want you to know!
Saturday, June 27th, 2009Bill to Raise Age of Sex Abuse Victims Moves Through Legislature
Tim King
June 25th, 2009
After clearing the House, House Bill 2827 will go to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to be signed into law.
(SALEM, Ore.) – A bill that would raise the age of sex abuse victims in Oregon from 24 to 40 will likely become law. The future of House Bill 2827 appeared bleak when we wrote about it May 28th 2009. (see: Will Oregon Stand for Sex Abuse Victims? – Tim King Salem-News.com
Many of the cases originate from churches in Oregon and experts like Portland Attorney Kelly Clark, say it often takes several decades for a person to comprehend the magnitude of their experience and come forward.
Bill Crane from the group SNAP, (Survivors Network of people Abused by Priests) says it is a good day in Oregon and while cautious, he agrees that it is good news on a day that could use it.
Molly Woon with the Oregon State Legislature says H.B. 2827 passed through the Senate Floor today, after moving through the Oregon House unanimously.
Woon says there was an amendment and the bill has to now go back to the House for concurrence. The change, "removed definition of causable connections between injury and child abuse," according to Woon.
She says it amounts to a technical fix.
After clearing the House, House Bill 2827 will go to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to be signed into law.
Guest Opinion – The Fight Against Child Abuse
by Paul Mones, guest opinion
Tuesday June 02, 2009, 8:30 AM
Our state legislators are in the midst of dealing with one of the worst fiscal crises in recent memory. No doubt they will have to make many tough, unpopular decisions this year. However there is one legislative decision they need not fret over because it is a no-brainer. House Bill 2827 is a simple piece of legislation that gives an extra measure of justice to victims of child abuse.
In the words of one of the bill’s co-sponsors Chris Garrett (D-Lake Oswego ) – the other sponsor is Rep. Andy Olson (R-Albany) – this bill "will ensure an effective civil remedy for victims of child abuse."
The bill extends the present statute of limitations by giving victims until the age of 40 to file an action against their abuser, requiring that claims be initiated by the time the victim turns 40 years old or within five years of when the injury or the connection between the abuse and the injury is discovered. The bill has unanimously passed the house but curiously has not received the same overwhelmingly positive reception in the Senate.
The extension of the statute of limitations makes common sense because it recognizes that most child victims of sexual abuse cannot confront their debilitating problems until they are mature adults. Moreover, most victims can’t even make the connection between the abuse and their psychological problems until they have some real distance from the time period of their abuse.
Child abuse is the perfect crime because its victims are too powerless, too confused to help themselves when they are actually being abused. These children travel quietly through their days interacting with teachers and passing police officers, friends and neighbors, never revealing the anguish of their existences. And if by chance someone asks them how they are being treated at home their responses will be uniformly the same: OK.
As adults we expect all human beings to escape or at least want to escape when someone injures them, but for victims of abuse, the reverse occurs. And that is in fact perhaps one of the most insidious aspects of child abuse: It binds the child closer to the abuser. The abuser’s threats and intimidation engender in the child not only fear but self-blame and embarrassment – all of which turns a child’s survival mechanisms topsy-turvy. Emotional attachment and sexual violence become so inextricably confused that even when the abuse is reported, the child will often kick and scream as they are being removed from their draconian environment by a social worker.
The other aspect that makes child abuse a perfect crime is that most adults continue to believe that child-rearing is a private matter. They don’t want a relative, friend or neighbor telling them how to raise their child so they won’t intervene in someone else’s family. While we all cherish our right to privacy, our devotion to this cornerstone of democracy is strangling the lives of thousands of children every year. Abusive parents and caretakers thrive on isolation and that is exactly what their relatives, friends and neighbors give them.
Daily, people turn a blind eye to the screams, bruises and frightened eyes of battered and molested children. Their reaction actively reinforces the offender’s omnipotence and tells the child you’re on your own, no one is going to help you. By powerful social training we are more likely to intervene on behalf of a dog being kicked by its owner than a child being mistreated by a parent. As Americans we routinely gawk at the suffering of car accident victims but we avert our eyes and ears when we see a child being backhanded in a supermarket.
It is often only when a child becomes a mature adult that he or she has the strength and emotional resources to confront the scourge of their past.
We have done much in Oregon over the past few years to protect victims of abuse, the most recent example being the passage of HB 2062, which will prevent schools from silently moving sexually abusive teachers one district to another. If the Senate saw fit just several weeks ago to join the House in ending the scandalous practice of allowing sexually abusive teachers from negotiating sweetheart deals with their school districts, then it surely should see the wisdom in HB 2062.
Paul Mones is an attorney and a children’s rights advocate.
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Will Oregon Stand for Sex Abuse Victims?
While church and state are separate in the United States, Oregon’s government may be more interested in the welfare of churches than victims.
By Tim King
Salem-News.com
May 28, 2009
(SALEM, Ore.) – Oregon sex abuse survivors joined Portland Attorney Kelly Clark at the capitol in Salem today, to attend a hearing for a bill that would extend the window of time sex abuse survivors have to take action against the person or people who abused them.
Clark is known for taking sex abuse suspects to task and rallying endlessly for victims.
At this time, the cut off age for sex abuse victims to come forward, is 24.
Many of the cases originate from churches in Oregon and experts say it often takes several decades for a person to comprehend the magnitude of their experience and come forward.
The Portland Archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Oregon, much like in other locations including Boston, have worked hard to avoid responsibility and liability for pedophiles who currently or formerly exist as elevated members of the various churches.
Victims and their advocates, including the group SNAP, (Survivors Network of people Abused by Priests) along with Private Investigator Dawn Krantz-Watts of All Things Legal Investigations in Portland, say they are unhappy with the way the bill is progressing and they believe it may fail due to the relationships that exist between the Oregon Senate and various church groups.
In denying, delaying or killing this legislation, Oregon becomes extremely hypocritical as a government that strongly condemns the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, while struggling with basic common sense answers for the people lucky enough to survive the abuse in the first place.
I interviewed Clark and Krantz-Watts and three people who are survivors today after the first round of hearings at the capitol.
Watch the video news report:
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Sex Abuse Victims Testify
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
In legal first, ex-Portland man wins right to sue Vatican
by Michelle Roberts, The Oregonian
Monday, March 09, 2009
Oregon has found itself at the center of an international story after a federal appellate court ruled that a former Portland man can sue the Vatican in a U.S. court over his alleged molestation as a teenager by a parish priest.
It is the first time in history that a victim has won this right. The decision also means that top Catholic officials may be deposed for Rome’s role in the case.
Victims have long argued that in a rigid hierarchy such as the Catholic Church, decisions come from the Vatican and, therefore, Rome should be held responsible for ongoing coverups of clergy sex crimes.
But defense attorneys for the Vatican argued that the Holy See is insulated from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, ruled last week that the claim by the plaintiff, known only as Doe, meets the criteria for an exception to the act.
The Roman Catholic Church has 90 days to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"For years, I never felt like we had the case to take on the Vatican," said Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul, Minn., attorney who filed the suit in 2002 for Doe, who alleges he was sexually abused as a teenager in Portland by the Rev. Andrew M. Ronan, who has since died.
"But when this one emerged, we felt this might be a chance, and this survivor had the courage to allow us to take it on," Anderson said. "Now, seven years later, here we are. It is really a landmark decision, not just for him, but for kids across the country and maybe worldwide."
Anderson, an expert in priest abuse cases for the past 25 years, filed the suit in Oregon because that’s where the alleged abuse took place.
Bud Bunce, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland, which covers western Oregon, declined to comment.
The suit seeks money damages for personal injury in this country caused by the deliberate act of an official or employee of a foreign state while acting within the scope of his office or employment. That, the judges found, opens the door to Holy See liability.
"Because Doe has sufficiently alleged that Ronan was an employee of the Holy See acting within the ’scope of his employment’ under Oregon law, Ronan’s acts can be attributed to the Holy See for jurisdictional purposes," the ruling stated. "Further, Ronan’s acts come within the FSIA’s exception, so the Holy See is not immune from the suit."
The suit also alleges that the Holy See creates dioceses and archdioceses, gives final approval to the creation, division or suppression of provinces of religious orders, and that it employed and placed Ronan in the Portland Archdiocese in Oregon.
"These acts do establish jurisdiction over the Holy See for the claims to which the acts are relevant," the judges concluded in the 59-page opinion.
Anderson said the ruling, if it stands, will allow accountability at the highest levels of church hierarchy.
"It means that survivors — and this one in particular — have a real chance of holding those responsible at the top of the pyramid accountable in a very meaningful way," Anderson said, adding that he hoped the ruling would be a "day of reckoning" for the Vatican. "They may begin to change a culture of secrecy, control and a culture that avoids scandal at all costs."
The ruling stirred old wounds in a city that has long been a legal battlefield between alleged sex abuse victims and the Catholic Church.
The suit alleges that in the mid-1950s, while Ronan was a parish priest in Ireland, he molested a minor and admitted it. He was removed and placed at St. Philip’s High School in Chicago in the early 1960s, where he molested at least three boys and, when confronted, again admitted it, according to Doe’s suit.
About 1965, when Doe was 15 or 16, Ronan was placed at St. Albert’s Church, which closed decades ago, in Portland, where Doe came to know him "as his priest, counselor and spiritual adviser," the suit says.
The suit claims the sexual contact occurred "in several places, including the monastery and surrounding areas."
The case isn’t the first time Portland has found itself at the heart of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal.
The Rev. Maurice Grammond, who died in 2002, was accused of molesting more than 40 boys in Portland during his career.
In 2000, the Portland Archdiocese settled with 25 of the disgraced priest’s accusers for an undisclosed sum. Facing mounting financial pressure from lawsuits filed by victims of sexually abusive priests, the Portland Archdiocese filed bankruptcy in 2004.
The bankruptcy settlement paid more than $50 million to 175 people who said they were sexually abused by clergy going back more than 50 years. The plan set aside an additional $20 million for people who have not yet come forward with sexual abuse claims.
Bill Crane, 43, Oregon director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he hopes last week’s ruling will cause Pope Benedict XVI to "rein in" his defense lawyers, stop the delaying tactics and honor his own admonition to "do everything possible" to help child sex abuse victims heal.
"If he really wants to do what he said he did during his visit to the United States last year — promote reconciliation and healing — he will not appeal this ruling," said Crane, a landscaper and priest abuse survivor from Sandy. "It’s time for the Vatican to stop the hardball tactics, the stonewalling and the appealing. Just let this man have his day in court."
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Archdiocese of Portland Bankruptcy
The Oregonian
April 13, 2007
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/04/key_players_moments_in_priest.html
Here are key players and developments in the priest sex-abuse cases against the Archdiocese of Portland:
1. Joe Elliott’s lawsuit in December 1999 started a flood of priest sex-abuse litigation against the Portland Archdiocese.
2. Elliott’s suit named the Rev. Maurice Grammond, a deceased priest accused of molesting about 60 boys between the 1950s and 1980s.
3. Attorneys Bill Barton (right) and David Slader were scheduled to go to trial in July 2004 in cases involving Grammond.
4. Archbishop John G. Vlazny’s precedent-setting decision to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection put a stop to the trial.
5. Lyle C. Velure, a Lane County circuit judge, was appointed one of two mediators in August 2006 — two years into a bankruptcy proceeding that was not progressing quickly.
6. U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan, Velure’s longtime mediation partner, helped broker a $75 million settlement announced in December 2006.
7. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth L. Perris ruled today that she plan meets the requirements with one small change; she is expected to issue her final order Tuesday.