Category Archives: Child Sexual Abuse Attorney

A Look Back, a Look Ahead: What’s Changed for Sex-Abuse Cases in the Last 20 years

By TIM KOSNOFF
Two years ago, Simon and Schuster published “The Sins of Brother Curtis,” a book about a case of mine from the 1990s, which stretched for five years, start to finish. It was a transformative time for me. Not only was it my first civil case representing abuse victims, it also launched me in a completely different area of the law, from working as a criminal defense attorney to exclusively representing childhood sexual abuse survivors. That was nearly 20 years ago, and I haven’t looked back. I was among the first of a handful of attorneys in the country to identify themselves as a child sexual-abuse lawyer.

Since the book’s publication, Lisa Davis’s expose about child sexual-abuse in the Mormon Church has garnered well-earned recognition. The book has helped raise awareness about the ability and willingness of leaders of powerful institutions to tolerate and protect pedophiles within their ranks.

The book continues to be discovered, as it should be. This past spring, reviewer Julie Smith reposted a review:
“When Jeremiah [Scott] was young, he had been repeatedly molested by a Mormon Church elder. The church ‘bishop’ had been notified, but nothing was done. In uncovering the truth behind Jeremiah’s molestation by Brother Frank Curtis, [Tim] Kosnoff and his team also uncover a decades-long (1977-1991) string of molestations by Frank, in three different Mormon wards, as well as the now grown-up 20 other victims, one of them having spent time in a juvenile facility, himself accused of molestation. They also uncover what appears to be a pattern of cover-ups and misdirection on the part of the Mormon leadership that allowed this type of molestation to occur with other youth leaders.”
My law firm will take due credit for our involvement in this case. However, the lasting value of Davis’s work has been in helping shine a bright light on the grim realities of child sexual abuse.

Much has changed since the time of the Scott lawsuit. Our firm continues to represent victims who now number in the thousands. Our efforts have resulted in winning more than a quarter billion dollars for victims.

Moreover, due to several factors, victims are becoming ever more emboldened to come forward and seek legal help in bringing cases to court.

There are several key reasons for this increasing willingness. One is from the publicity itself. Few adults in the United States and beyond can possibly be unaware of what has transpired pertaining to child sexual abuse within major organizations such as the Mormon and Catholic churches, the Boy Scouts of America and sports programs such as Penn State. On our Facebook page, we update each week day some of the major developments related to child sexual abuse.

Beyond this, victims also have been able to appreciate the strength in numbers they can summon when they come forward. The more who are willing to go after those who have victimized them, the greater the chances are that others will follow.

One advantage victims have is the increasing awareness at seemingly every level of government that lawmakers must expand – or, indeed, abolish – statutes of limitation so that pedophiles can’t simply stall and avoid being made to face their accusers.

There has been, inevitably, strong opposition by members of the organizations cited above, even though resistance to statute-of-limitation reforms inevitably brings such institutions yet more bad publicity. Recall, for example, the recent change of papacy for the Catholic Church. Before, during and after the change of leadership, more often than not the news stories from around the world had to do less with general aspects of Pope Francis’s background, more about what he intends to do about sexual abusers of children.

As for the Boy Scouts, the organization has been plagued for much of the past year with the exposure of damning documents generally referenced as “The Perversion Files.” These records have been hidden away for the better part of a century. It was long past due these found their way to news web sites from coast to coast. I’m gratified to have helped play a part in bringing these important documents to the public by spending several years creating a database chronicling the Scouts knowledge of pedophilia among its volunteers.

Beyond American shores, authorities in many major countries are diligently making their own public attempts to deal with histories of abuse, from Australia to India to Great Britain.
Where does all this leave Kosnoff Fasy Stronger than ever. Our commitment continues as far as identifying victims and winning for them the justice they deserve. One goal is changing the culture in which secrecy prevails and crimes against children are allowed to continue in the shadows. That’s one reason why I welcome frequent exposure to a broader audience courtesy of television and print news media.

What began with the Lisa Davis book will not end for Kosnoff Fasy. Those who have been victimized by pedophiles should strongly consider coming forward to seek the justice they deserve. We’ll stand with you.

Our attorneys are highly experienced in child sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338
Kara Tredway, direct: 206-453-0579
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

Minnesota Senate OKs Bill Easing Lawsuits for Child Sexual Abuse

Change in Minnesota Law would:

Drop the statute of limitations for civil suits involving child sexual abuse going forward.

For older cases, it would create a three-year window for past victims to file lawsuits against abusers and institutions that may have failed to protect them

Posted on May 10, 2013

“This is a huge development. Other states likely will follow.”Tim Kosnoff
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/05/08/politics/senate-passes-bill-easing-lawsuits-for-child-sexual-abuse

Our attorneys are highly experienced in child sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338
Kara Tredway, direct: 206-453-0579
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

Alleged Abuse by Hawaiian Priest Has a Familiar Ring to It

By TIM KOSNOFF

Cops know it as “M.O.” In Latin it’s “modus operandi” and in English it’s “mode” or “method” of operation.

In matters of child sexual abuse, the M.O. is often eerily the same. Such, according to recent allegations, was the case pertaining to Father George DeCosta, a priest in Hawaii. DeCostsa is listed in a database of priests publicly accused of childhood sexual abuse in Hawaii, as tracked by BishopAccountability.org. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/
The temptation is to use the cliché, “Stop us if you’ve heard this one.” At our law firm we’ve heard the familiar sounding account many times, and the details are as predictable as recurring bad dreams.

The following is from the Aug. 22, 2012, Hawaii Tribune Herald:
The child sex abuse scandal surrounding the Catholic Church has hit close to home, with fingers of accusation pointing at a priest revered in the local community.

Father George DeCosta, who for almost three decades was the parish priest at Malia Puka O Kalani Catholic Church in Keaukaha, has been accused of abuse by two Hawaii men. The two were students at Damien Memorial High School in the 1960s when DeCosta was the chaplain there. [One of the men] was a sophomore at Damien in 1968. …

The [victim] states that DeCosta provided him with alcohol, ‘insisted they go swimming’ and ‘forced’ him into skinny dipping. He wrote that he became ‘incapacitated’ and when he awoke DeCosta was ‘masturbating’ him and ‘fondling his testicles.

The victim went on to describe physical, emotional and psychological injuries due to the sexual abuse by DeCosta, including, but not limited to: dreams, nightmares and flashbacks. The 74-year-old DeCosta, denied the allegations. DeCosta retired from Malia Puka O Kalani in 2002 and is living in Volcano.

So here it is yet again: the familiar sequence. A trusted Catholic Church official is alleged to have been a pedophile. An alleged victim comes forward and gives vivid details of child sexual abuse, a modus operandi familiar to those of us who deal with such cases. Then the alleged perpetrator denies the charges and, until the claims are adjudicated, the accused — his reputation tarnished, if not ruined — nonetheless remains free.
There suddenly is one less priest “revered in the local community.”
And the victims? They’re left, here again, with shattered lives during seemingly every waking hour. Then, when they sleep, there are the predictable, recurring bad dreams. We’re here to help.

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338
Kara Tredway, direct: 206-453-0579
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

Joliet, Illinois: How one abuse victim pushed for release of secret church files, and prevailed

By DAN FASY

It could’ve been a heart-breaking tale. Instead it’s eminently heartening, about a man wanting to do more than settle his case with Catholic Church officials who, for more than half a century, were the enablers and protectors of pedophile priests in and around Joliet, Illinois.

In a superb story (URL below) by three Chicago Tribune reporters, it’s recounted how David Rudofski stood up to the power of the Joliet Archdiocese. Rudofski was sexually abused the day of his first confession. In settling his case, Rudofski demanded that church officials make public what proved to be more than 7,000 documents detailing how pedophile priests were protected and child victims were ignored.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-21/news/chi-open-files-part-of-settlement-for-priest-sex-abuse-victim-20130320_1_joliet-diocese-abusive-priests-priests-with-substantiated-allegations
According to the Tribune article, church officials verified the claims of Rudofski, now a 38-year-old electrician. Part of the archdiocese’s offer to the abuse victim included a personal apology from a bishop and at least six times what Rudofski makes per year. This would have been in trade for the abuse victim limiting publicity.

Rudofski, however, according to the Tribune, wanted the diocese to pay in “a currency far more precious to the church than money. He demanded that the diocese settle its debt by turning over the secret archives it maintained on abusive priests and making them available for public consumption.”

“If people don’t know how this was allowed to happen for decades, they can’t prevent it from happening again,” Rudofski said.
The story details the importance of releasing pertinent information previously not made public. The reporters claim that “documents also raise new questions about whether the church has been forthcoming about the number of local priests involved in the scandal and the percentage of clergy confronted with credible claims.”

The story points to “the ineptitude and indifference that greeted the allegations almost since the religious district’s inception in 1948. The errors span more than six decades and involved three bishops, 91 places of worship and more than 100 victims.”

As an example of the entrenched indifference that continues to define church officials, the Tribune story notes that, reached at his home, retired Bishop Joseph Imesch, 81, said he didn’t want to discuss details of the revelations in the documents. He told the Tribune:
“‘I’m not going to rehash all of this. I know what I did; I know what I should have done,’ he said, expressing frustration with the way news reports portrayed his conduct.”

Other church officials responded to reporters’ queries by citing what they claim is statistical verification that pedophilia doesn’t occur among priests any more than it does among members of other professions.

David Rudofski has provided more than just a great service to other victims of child sexual abuse. He also has become a terrific role model who has the potential of emboldening many other victims to come forward and take on those responsible — officials who somehow believe an insincere apology from a retired bishop somehow makes it OK that the institution countenanced pedophiles’ crimes for six decades.

We at Kosnoff Fasy have welcomed as clients many victims similar to David Rudofski. Such victims deserve justice. Moreover, as Rudofski and others have shown, victims needn’t live in fear of pedophile-enabling organizations. We know that, in a court of law, the truth about child sexual abusers and their protectors will prevail.
We will advocate for you. Contact us at:855-LAW4-CSA, 855-529-4272.

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338

Kara Tredway, direct: 206-453-0579
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

The Sad, But All Too Familiar Fact in Abuse Cases: Pedophiles are Often ‘Trusted,’ Well Known by Survivors and Relatives

By DAN FASY

A recent pair of links we posted on our Facebook page inadvertently demonstrate something of a range of ways the scourge of child sexual abuse is revealed to the public.

One is a news story about the aunt of an alleged victim discovering references to abuse incidents on her niece’s Facebook page. The allegations indicate that the predator is another member of the extended Indianapolis family.
If so, the case would jibe with several familiar patterns. One is the high likelihood that the pedophile would be well known by the victim — would, in fact, likely be a family member. Another is that the alleged victim waited, in this case about two years, before revealing what she remembers. Yet another is the implicit reluctance of the victim to more overtly come forward and charge the perpetrator.

One certainly can understand the reluctance. Imagine the feeling of powerlessness of, in this instance, a 13-year-old girl. She’s already been forced by circumstances to process what she claims are two cases of molestation. Then she has to summon the emotional wherewithal to come forward in some fashion and, in effect, let the world know what happened.
Obviously it requires the kind of courage no one should have to demonstrate.
Then there’s the related recent link on our Facebook page. Rather than being about average citizens with no claim to celebrity, it concerns a woman for whom celebrity has been a live-long given.
Her name is Anoushka Shankar. The last name belonged to her late father, Ravi, for half a century a name synonymous with sitar music. As it happens, Anoushka Shankar also is the half sister of singer Norah Jones, also Ravi Shankar’s daughter and a celebrity better known than any from the extended family.

Anoushka Shankar, herself an accomplished sitar-player and composer, is in the news precisely because of the familiarity of her name. She reported just a few days after attending the 2013 Grammy-award event in Los Angeles that she was repeatedly molested as a young girl by an apparent “family friend.”
The timing of her announcement, revealed in a video, has to do with her support of the One Billion Rising global movement for women’s rights.

In the video Shankar says: “As a child, I suffered sexual and emotional abuse for several years at the hands of a man my parents trusted implicitly. Growing up, like most women I know, I suffered various forms of groping, touching, verbal abuse and other things I didn’t know how to deal with. I didn’t know I could change.”

A Huffington Post story indicates that Shankar “has dedicated her ‘rising’ message to the 23-year-old Indian physiotherapy student who died after being brutally gang-raped by five men in New Delhi. ‘I’m rising with the amazing women of my country who are together calling and saying enough is enough. I’m rising for the child in me who I don’t think will ever fully recover from what happened to her.”
Shankar’s bold, selfless revelations bear at least one striking similarity to the Indianapolis story. In each case the accused perpetrator was known to — perhaps trusted by — the alleged victim.
What the two instances do not have in common may prove to be most notable. The fact is, the Shankar story no doubt will have far greater resonance with a much larger audience than that of an anonymous girl from Indiana. That the latter has been bold enough to reveal her story should be admirable to many. But the notion that a celebrity would tell a similar tale can’t help but make it at least incrementally easier for other heretofore reticent victims to reveal their own deeply guarded secrets.
In this way, we can at least hope that such victims, so emboldened, will help us bring to justice the myriad sex-abusers who otherwise will continue to prey on defenseless children.

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

Pennsylvania: Home to Two High-Profile Child Sexual-Abuse Scandals, Eyeing Change

By DAN FASY

Our Facebook page is updated weekdays to apprise interested parties about the many aspects pertaining to child sexual abuse. We cull reports from world media and provide links for readers. By its nature, the page can seem unremittingly grim.

Now and then, however, news comes along that at least seems to ameliorate the inevitable feelings of hopelessness about the fight against pedophilia. One such report is emerging from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. What better place, one would think, than a state that has been home relatively recently to a couple of the world’s most high-profile stories of child sexual abuse.

The following is from an article earlier this year in the Uniontown Herald-Standard:
“A group of state lawmakers who said they were frustrated that the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky and the [Philadelphia] Roman Catholic sex abuse scandals were not enough to move legislation out of committee last year, announced plans Wednesday [Jan. 23] to reintroduce a bill that would remove the statute of limitations in cases of child sexual abuse.
“Where the statute of limitations has expired, Democratic Reps. Mike McGeehan and Louise Bishop said another bill would open a two-year window that would allow victims of child sexual abuse to report their story to file civil lawsuits.
“‘It is time to put victims first,’ said Bishop, who said she was 12 when her stepfather began to sexually abuse her.
“‘I didn’t know how to handle it,” she said. “I knew if I told my mother, it would hurt her. I knew if I told my sisters and brothers I [would be] talking about their father and they wouldn’t like it and I would be even more isolated than I was. And if I told my grandfather, he would take his legal shotgun and would have blown his head off.”
Those of us who deal daily with the realities of pedophilia are eminently aware of the power sex-abusers have over young victims. One recent news report described how many pedophiles are turning toward abusing ever-younger children with hopes that the victims will lack the comprehension and wherewithal to inform adults about what has happened to them.
The two House bills in Pennsylvania would get rid of the statutes of limitation in criminal and civil child-sex-abuse cases and also would grant those whose S.O.L. periods have expired two more years to bring cases. While the proposed legislation amounts to favorable news to many, it’s well worth noting that similar bills died at the end of the state’s most recent legislative session.
Advocates speak of the S.O.L. bills (similar efforts have been successful in California and Delaware) as a means of confronting Pennsylvania’s Catholic hierarchy.
“Marci Hamilton,” the newspaper story explains, is “an attorney known for her expertise in church and state law and the author of a book on how the country can better protect children from predators. [She] said: ‘The only way the truth will come out is if this Legislature has the guts to look at the Catholic conference and say we want the truth and we’re not playing your game of secrecy anymore.’”
Another expert in Pennsylvania added that institutionalized cover-ups of pedophilia also have been attempted in such organizations as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Boy Scouts of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Hassidic Jewish community.
But child advocates worry that the attempt at S.O.L. reform will once again languish in Pennsylvania. The frustration of advocates was caught particularly well by writer Tara Murtha in a Jan. 29 piece in Philadelphia Weekly when she quoted Jeff Dion of the National Center for Victims of crime:
“After all the grand jury reports, after Penn State, after the release of the Boy Scout secret files, after the criminal convictions of church officials who knew that they were not going enough to protect kids . . . what is PA waiting for?”
Pedophiles, he added, “know they don’t need to keep kids quiet forever. Just long enough.”

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

A 50-State Map of Reported Child Sexual-Abuse Cases within the Catholic Church

By TIM KOSNOFF

Certain Americans may miss seeing online and in various print media a blue-and-red-hued map indicating the state-by-state horse race that was the United States presidential election of last fall.

Perhaps interested parties might find another colorful U.S. map to be instructive. It’s done up in a veritable rainbow of colors, the brightness of the cartography scarcely coordinating with the dark details indicated in the map http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbydiocese.html.

The document is the work of a group called Bishop Accountability. The advocacy organization compiles evidence of child sexual abuse relating to crimes and accusations from Catholic dioceses in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. It’s quite a staggering scheme of details.

B.A. made headlines by releasing some 6,000 documents relating to the highly publicized child-sexual-abuse scandals in Philadelphia http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2013/01/24/latest-news-philadelphia-catholic-church-sex-abuse-scandal/

For a macro reckoning of crimes and transgressions throughout the country, go to the map indicated by the url above.

Point and click, for example, to Washington state. Highlighted are the Archdiocese of Seattle and the diocese of Spokane and Yakima.

Click Seattle. You’ll find a grid indicating nearly three dozen Catholic Church officials whose accusations are documented with details and links to news reports. The officials’ status is either “accused,” “sued,” “settled” or, in just one case, “convicted.” That would be Paul Joseph Conn, about whom it’s written in the website grid:

“In 5/88 Conn was charged with five felony counts of indecent liberties with minors. In 7/88 he pleaded guilty to molesting six boys between the ages of 11-13. Also admitted to abuse of others police did not know about. Sentenced to 4 yrs in prison. Also a former supervising priest of another abuser, James McGreal. Civil suit settled with archdiocese in 1996. Laicized.”
“Laicized” indicates that Conn was “secularized,” or driven from official church involvement.

Click Yakima. Thirteen names are given. None has been convicted.

Spokane? Only one among the 39 who have been accused and/or sued has been convicted. That would be Louis Wayne Ladenburger, about whom the Bishop Accountability notes indicate:
“Arrested 5/07 for sexual battery of teenage boys at Idaho school for troubled boys where he was a counselor. Admitted being a sex addict. Order revealed 2 past allegations of “inappropriate relationships.” Sent for treatment both times. Placed on restricted leave in 1993. Laicized in 1996. Pleaded guilty 11/07 just before trial. Sentenced to 5 years 3/08. Worked in dioceses of Stockton (twice), Tucson, Portland, El Paso, Spokane, Seattle, Sacramento, Reno, and Phoenix; aka Wayne 1963-74.”

If the 86 names populating the B.A. rolls in Washington state seem to amount to a staggering number, consider that Portland, Oregon, alone has 72 on its list. This is well behind Philadelphia, with 132, and Boston, with 251. Twenty-two of the latter were convicted with just one winning acquittal.

It’s worth noting that the volume of those accused of child sexual abuse doesn’t necessarily correlate with the size of the general population within a diocese region. New York’s number of accused Catholic officials is a relatively scant 63 while the database for the Los Angeles Archdiocese has 259 names.
What the casual observer no doubt will note is the cumulative numbers: hundreds of dioceses in the United States alone; thousands of names of accused and/or convicted pedophiles.

Bishop Accountability, then, is to be thanked for taking on the grim ongoing task of quantifying and qualifying Catholic Church-related crimes and accusations. I think of the growing B.A. database as the repository of the epoch. Its value certainly has earned the financial support of this law firm. The U.S. map at its website ought to garner the concern of everyone dedicated to mitigating what has amounted to decades of institutionalized child sexual abuse.

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338

Priyanka Prakash, direct: 206-453-0579
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

Revising the Statute of Limitations in New York and Other States is the Right Thing to Do

By DANIEL FASY

No one can say that Margaret M. Markey hasn’t tried.

The New York State assemblywoman has been laboring in vain since 2006 to change the way that the Empire State has remained maddeningly negligent in facing a pressing need, articulated last May by the Queens Borough Democrat

Last spring she wrote to constituents:

“I held a series of informational events in Albany earlier this year to bring to the attention of Governor [Andrew] Cuomo and my colleagues in the Legislature to the wide-ranging problem of child sexual abuse in society.

“We looked at the recent revelations in the world of sports and learned about abuse in schools and institutions. We heard one of the state’s leading prosecutors speak about how current statutes of limitations in New York State need to be changed in order to bring justice to victims.
“A panel of legal experts spoke about the change that is taking place across the nation where other states are facing up to the challenge of providing justice and punishing perpetrators and those who hide them. My Child Victims Act of New York seeks to update our laws regarding this crime.

“Our New York State statutes of limitations are so lax that many perpetrators evade exposure by waiting out the short statute of limitations. I want to change that because pedophiles who are not exposed will continue to abuse yet more children in the future.”

She then urged readers to sign an online petition to help speed the cause.

Fast forward to a Jan. 2, 2013 story in the New York Daily News. The piece is about how, in the wake of revelations about possible decades-long cover-ups of alleged pedophilia at a Brooklyn, New York, prep school, Markey is insisting that the statute of limitations be dropped altogether in New York rather than being merely expanded. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/poly-case-vicims-shouldn-limited-seeking-legal-action-article-1.1231848

The Daily News piece notes: “Current [New York] state law requires survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file a case by the time they are 23 years old. Previous versions of Markey’s Child Victims Act would have extended the deadline by five years.”

Making the deadline age 28 still would’ve been comparatively unfair. The fact is that a victim of pedophilia in Washington or Oregon has much longer to bring legal action than does a similar victim in New York, to say nothing of other states that provide relatively brief time periods before statutes of limitations expire.

It should be noted that the notion of “statute of limitations” usually is subject to what is called “tolling.” As a practical matter, tolling typically means that a victim’s statute “clock” time doesn’t start until after he or she reaches age 18. In New York, victims have just five years to seek justice for first-degree offenses. Other states like Washington and Oregon provide survivors more time to bring forward with a civil claim for sexual abuse.

Is New York the worst in this regard? Scarcely. The statutes in North Dakota and Tennessee provide victims reaching age 18 just one year to seek legal action. In Indiana and New Jersey it’s only two years.

Some would ask why these statute times are so important. I would ask them to remember what their lives were like when they were 18 years old, when much of the world was still very mysterious, when they were absorbed in issues relating to reaching adulthood, when peer pressure for so many reasons may have been at an apex in their lives.

Then, for those who have been fortunate not to have endured sex crimes when they were children, imagine what your frame of mind might have been if you had? Would you, at age 18, have had the emotional wherewithal much less the means and familial support to seek an attorney?

More likely, as we who deal with this know, it would have taken more time, more maturing before you would have become emboldened to bring such an abuse case to authorities.

And that, of course, is really all that Margaret Markey and those of us who support her are asking for: More time.

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

After the Pope’s Butler Leaks Documents, the Vatican Tightens Security

What Are the Implications for Continued Secrecy Amidst Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandals?
Posted on Dec. 10, 2012

By TIM KOSNOFF

Micro-chip tracking for human surveillance in the Vatican?

Monsignor 007?

Is this the contemporary Catholic Church or a new James Bond movie?

Truth be known, observers are never really sure about what to make of the deliberately arcane ways that have made the Catholic Church something of an ongoing mystery for two millennia.

The latest strange behavior by Vatican authorities would seem amusing in perhaps a satirical way were it not juxtaposed with the grim realities of an institution pressed with the necessities of dealing with decades of child sex abuse crimes, details of which are being revealed each week from around the globe.

That’s why one may need to look twice or more at a recent headline from a reputable news organization. Is it supposed to be factual or is it a made-up amusement by Andy Borowitz or some other clever satirist the equal of the veteran humor-writer for The New Yorker and other publications?

The piece is in fact from the Rome bureau of London’s The Daily Telegraph. The Dec. 2 dispatch, by Josephine McKenna, is headlined:

“Vatican introduces new security measures after Vatileaks scandal”

It reports that Vatican clergy and employees each “will be issued with an identity card complete with a microchip-tracking device in sweeping new security measures designed to prevent a repeat of the Vatileaks scandal. Much tighter controls have already been introduced for anyone seeking access or photocopies of the Holy See’s archives, dossiers and documents.”

The reporter observes that a Slovenian priest, Mitja Leskovar, “an anti-espionage expert nicknamed ‘Monsignor 007,’ is in charge of implementing the new security procedures with the identity cards expected to be introduced from January 1.”

Uh, one utters, Monsignor 007? Really?

“Leskovar,” the report continues, “who grew up in the former Yugoslavia under Communism, is responsible for the transmission of confidential documents between the Vatican and its papal nuncios or diplomats inside the Secretariat of State and also supervises all requests for document photocopying within the secretariat.

“Thousands of clerical and lay staff working inside the walls of the Vatican from the Apostolic Palace to the Secretariat of State will be affected by the tighter scrutiny that will also enable their superiors to monitor when they clock in and out. The security shake-up was revealed after Claudio Sciarpelletti, the computer expert convicted of aiding and abetting the pope’s former butler Paolo Gabriele in the Vatileaks scandal, dropped his appeal.”

Ah, yes. If we remember correctly that was the caper in which the verdict was that “the butler did it.”

“The move came as the three judges who assessed the case raised doubts about Sciarpelletti’s credibility and the friendship between the two men,” the news story continues.

“Sciarpelletti was convicted in November of aiding and abetting Gabriele, who himself was convicted of stealing the pontiff’s private documents and leaking them to an Italian journalist in an embarrassing security breach that rocked the Vatican earlier this year.”

The report concludes that “Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told The Daily Telegraph these kind of security measures had been talked about within the Vatican for years but declined to comment on any details and said he did not know the precise timing of the measures.”

So we’re left to surmise several points that aren’t exactly revelatory. One could be that, indeed, it can and does take “years” before authorities at the Vatican seem moved to do anything about transgressions. Another could be that, when eventually moved to act, Catholic authorities are much more likely to try to prevent leaks about factual data and much less inclined to deal directly with problems.

“Problems” could constitute a euphemism. The truer term in the context of child sexual abuse would be “crimes”: criminal transgressions that for decades have proliferated from America to Australia and seemingly everywhere in between.

Many within the Vatican may be amused that the slapstick machinations of the Catholic Church would include functionaries dubbed “007.” Is it any wonder, then, that those of us appalled by the crimes of church personnel aren’t surprised when the institution’s authorities don’t seem to take seriously what so many of their minions have done to innocent children?

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338

Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590

How Child Molesters Get Away with It: Enablers Help Evade Detection

By TIM KOSNOFF

“In Plain View,” an article in the latest (Sept. 24, 2012) issue of The New Yorker Magazine, ostensibly is about the world’s current most infamous sexual abuser of children, Jerry Sandusky.

No doubt there are a 1,001 lessons being learned from this case. And we welcome the media spotlight on the social scourge that is child sexual abuse.
Malcolm Gladwell’s piece is pitch perfect because it so deftly gets at what we battle daily: How do child molesters get away with it? How do they escape detection, prosecution and often continue to abuse scores of victims over a lifetime? “In Plain View: How Child Molesters Get Away With It” describes much of what we see in our casework, with textbook accuracy.

Abusers get away, more often than not, because of enablers. Enablers are those who, for various reasons, simply can’t bring themselves to believe that pedophiles, suspected or accused or maybe even arrested-and-convicted, could have possibly done such things.

Gladwell recounts the case of a charismatic young Canadian grade-school P.E. teacher thought to have sexually molested boys. Despite suspicions of parents and evidence from victims, the teacher’s peers said they just couldn’t believe he was capable of such behavior. When the teacher threatened to sue parents of an alleged victim, the parents decided to drop their charges.

The Gladwell piece is accurate in its description of the typical modus operandi of a child molester — selecting possible victims, grooming them, etc.

But pedophiles also count on support from enablers: those who rise to their defense for no better reason than because observers believe it’s impossible for such people to commit the crimes. The Canadian teacher, after all, was an apparently happily married young man, as though that alone somehow was enough to eliminate him from suspicion and contradict the evidence presented by victims.

Or, just as bad, persons well-known in public enjoy reputations based on little more than their own accomplishments. Sandusky? Well, didn’t he make the exemplary effort to launch the charity Second Mile for the benefit of needy kids (never mind that the “selfless” gesture was in retrospect calculated precisely to provide him with easy access to young boys)? Wasn’t he, in fact, such a legendary good guy that Second Mile was cited in 1990 as recipient of a “Points of Light” plaudit from President George H.W. Bush?

When child-molesters have thus been honored in public, those who don’t know any better feel inclined to further deify them

The New Yorker article recalls a particularly ironic passage written by Bill Lyon of the Philadelphia Inquirer paying tribute to Sandusky’s apparent selflessness:

“In more than one motel hallway, whenever you encountered him and offered what sounded like even the vaguest sort of compliment, [Sandusky] would blush and an engaging, lopsided grin of modesty would wrap its way around his face. He isn’t in this business for recognition. His defense plays out in front of millions. But when he opens the door and invites in another stray, there is no audience. The ennobling measure of the man is that he has chosen the work that is done without public notice.”

Perhaps one makes particular note of Lyons’ unfortunate uses of the phrases “no audience,” “without public notice” and “invites in another stray.”

As to the notion of youthful victims giving “notice” to authorities about sex predators, we’ve seen the futility of such efforts. What’s particularly difficult for prosecutors or even attorneys representing victims in civil cases: taking the word of a minor over the word of an adult. Recently, we had a call from a prospective client from out of state whose child was abused in the restroom of a church during Sunday school by an adult who was supposed to be supervising the kids. The alleged abuser was an attorney. The case was taken to police but local prosecutors declined to prosecute.

So, what are we left with? We have the word of a minor against the word of an attorney (make that “Attorney” with a capital “A”) — that, and no criminal conviction. In this way, the pool of enablers extends beyond the disbelieving acquaintances and clueless, sycophantic reporters and award-givers. Enablers include the very public officials whose job it is to see to it society is protected from such sexual predators.

If someone you know needs help, you can contact us:

Our attorneys are highly experienced in childhood sexual abuse law and offer free initial consultations to potential clients. We are also willing to assist other attorneys in sexual abuse cases. Please call 206-257-3590, or email us directly. Conversations will be kept confidential, and even if you are unsure about a lawsuit, often we can direct you to the assistance you need. You will be treated with compassion and respect.

Toll free: 855-529-4274
Tim Kosnoff, direct: 425-837-9690
Dan Fasy, direct: 206-462-4338
Kosnoff Fasy, Seattle office: 206-257-3590