National Survivor Advocates Coalition

NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Bruce Daniels – ABQnewsSeeker
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 07:10

Backgrounds of all active, retired, former or deceased clergy being checked for sex abuse.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup is checking into the backgrounds of some 400 active, retired, former or deceased priests in the diocese to see whether there is any history of sexual abuse, KOAT-TV reported.

The diocese’s newly installed Bishop James Wall called for the probe, saying all priests who are serving or who have served will undergo a thorough background check and if any wrongdoing is exposed, the priest will be removed and the public given a full explanation why, Action 7 News said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Examiner

Kay Ebeling
LA City Buzz Examiner

The decision affects anyone who wants to file a civil lawsuit for child sex abuse, but cases against the Catholic Church were being thrown out in L.A. because of a 2006 decision in a case litigated by Thomas Hightower, a plaintiff who filed his own briefs from a cell in Mule Creek State Prison.

The Bishop of Oakland won the case against Thomas Hightwoer on appeal, saying the suit was time barred by the Statute of Limitations, thus making all cases filed after the age 26 cap since December 2003 invalid. Now another appellate decision on the Quarry case in February 2009 disagrees with Hightower and says cases filed after age 26 are valid.

“The main difference is that Quarry was litigated by professional plaintiff attorneys,” says a plaintiff attorney in Santa Barbara.

Any day now the California Supreme Court could either agree to take the Quarry appeal, or refuse to take Quarry, making Hightower law. “The main difference is that Quarry was litigated by professional plaintiff attorneys,” says a plaintiff attorney in Santa Barbara.

WINDOW ROCK (AZ)
Gallup Independent

Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

WINDOW ROCK — A third priest abuse lawsuit has been filed in the Navajo Nation court system against Charles “Chuck” Cichanowicz, a former Franciscan priest who once served at Catholic parishes in St. Michaels and Shiprock.

The complaint was filed in Window Rock District Court on Monday on behalf of a 45-year-old Navajo man, said Patrick Noaker, an attorney with Jeff Anderson & Associates of St. Paul, Minn. Noaker and Gallup attorney William R. Keeler have filed two previous civil complaints naming Cichanowicz as a defendant, along with the Diocese of Gallup, the Franciscan Friars Province of St. John the Baptist, and the Franciscan Friars Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The first complaint was filed in November 2007, and the second was filed in April of this year. All three alleged victims are Navajo men in their 30s or 40s who claim Cichanowicz abused them during their teen years. The legal complaints can be read online on the law firm’s Web site.

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Elizabeth Benjamin

For the first time in recent memory, the New York State Catholic Conference has beefed up its lobbying effort in Albany, adding two additional guns-for-hire – Patricia Lynch Associates and Hank Sheinkopf – to bolster the efforts of its in-house team and longstanding outside firm, Wilson Elser.

As Crains Insider reported earlier this month, the Catholic Conference brought on Lynch (best known for her ties to the Assembly Democrats) and Sheinkopf (who serves as an unpaid advisor to Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith) to focus on legislation that would extend the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims – a move that would undoubtedly make a big dent in the already-struggling church’s bottom line.

Interestingly, at least one of the conference’s new lobbyists – Pat Lynch – is on the opposite side of another issue of utmost importance to the church: Gay marriage.

SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

Former Spokane Diocese priest Patrick O’Donnell testified Wednesday that in addition to the two men whose lawsuit is being tried here this week, he abused at least four other boys while serving at St. Paul’s church in Seattle in the late 1970s.

But, he said, he didn’t tell people in Seattle about the abuses, or of his abusive history.

“I guess I was hiding it, yes,” and hoping to live a normal life, he said.

The trial opened Tuesday with lawyers for the two plaintiffs questioning O’Donnell, who has a long history of abusing boys and has admitted to molesting at least 30.

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WOODHAVEN (MI)
The News Herald

By Jackie Harrison-Martin

WOODHAVEN — A Downriver priest was arraigned Wednesday before 33rd District Judge Michael McNally on a charge of disorderly conduct after an employee at a restaurant saw him exposed and rubbing his privates.

The Rev. Roger Knapp, 57, of Gibraltar was cited for lewdness and indecent exposure after a waitress at Amigo’s Restaurant, 22085 West Road, reported the incident. It occurred at about 2:30 p.m. March 26.

Knapp has been the pastor at St. Victor Catholic Church in Gibraltar since 1996.

ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Express-Times

by Colin McEvoy and Precious Petty
Wednesday May 13, 2009, 5:40 PM

Sharon Tell said she has repeatedly told the Diocese of Allentown that she was molested by the Rev. James J. McHale, but was turned away.

“They just swept it under the carpet,” the Minnersville, Pa. woman said during a news conference today outside the diocese building in Allentown. “All those years of saying, ‘No, he didn’t do anything wrong, it’s you, he didn’t do anything wrong.”

Tell, 56, has filed a sex abuse lawsuit against the Diocese of Allentown, which employed McHale until his death in 1997.

Spokesman Matt Kerr said the current diocese administration had no knowledge of Tell’s allegations until recently.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
After a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will try to hand deliver a letter to the public safety director of a university, challenging him and the school president to a public debate over the housing of sex offender clergy. As students and staff walk by, the group will also hand out leaflets to passers-by about
— one predator priest on the campus against whom new child sex abuse settlement was just reached, and
— six other proven, admitted or credibly accused sex offender clergy who are or were associated with the university.

WHEN
TODAY, Wednesday, May 13, 10:00 a.m.

WHERE
At St. Louis University, starting at the corner Lindell and Grand), then walking to the Director of Security’s office (DuBourg Hall, 221 N. Grand) in St. Louis