PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A late Yale University professor's family should be allowed to sue the disgraced Roman Catholic order the Legion of Christ over a more than $1 million bequest, a federal magistrate judge in Rhode Island recommended.
The retired mechanical engineering professor, James Boa-Teh Chu, was living in East Providence, R.I., before he died in 2009. His son, Paul Chu, sued in U.S. District Court in Providence in 2012, saying his father was coerced, defrauded and deceived into signing over many of his assets to the Legion.
Among the allegations made in the lawsuit, Chu says members of the order convinced his devout father that the Legion's founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, was a saint, even as the church was investigating allegations against him including sex abuse. The Vatican took over the order in 2010 and Pope Benedict XVI ordered a wholesale reform.
Supreme Court justices expressed compassion for a woman raped as a child as they struggled with how much money should be paid to her by one man convicted of possessing pornographic images of the abuse that have spread among thousands of online viewers.
The woman known as "Amy" was in the courtroom, her legal team said, for arguments in which the justices talked frankly about the abuse she and other victims of child pornography suffer from those who look at the pictures.
"The woman has undergone serious psychiatric harm because of her knowledge that there are thousands of people out there viewing her rape," Justice Antonin Scalia said early in the hour long arguments.
Yet the court seemed to wrestle with determining how much restitution for counseling, lost income and legal fees any single defendant should be asked to pay.
MISSOULA, Mont. -- Three people arrested in a child sex sting operation in Missoula denied the charges against them Tuesday.
Christopher Michael Cooper, 30, and Justin Gale Walker, 28, both pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse of children during a hearing before District Judge Karen Townsend, the Missoulian reported.
Prosecutors said Cooper and Walker were among several people who responded to an online ad in which a woman purported to offer a 12-year-old girl for sex. Charging documents said the two men were arrested after negotiating with undercover officers to have sex with the fictitious girl.
Jenna Elizabeth Davis, 29, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to sexually abuse children for allegedly arranging for her boyfriend to have sex with the girl.
The boyfriend, Chad Lee Briggs, 36, along with Matthew Steven Keith, 22, are scheduled to enter their pleas Wednesday to sexual abuse of children.
Neal Lewis Gray, 54, pleaded not guilty Jan. 9, while a seventh suspect — former Mineral County juvenile probation officer James Stewart Myers (No relation, I hope) — was found dead in his home last week.
A Florida jury has ordered the Florida Baptist Convention to pay $12.5 million to a man who was sexually abused by a Southern Baptist church planter as a boy, but the attorney representing the religious group insists the judgement will be overturned once he files an appeal.
While the jury's verdict came on Saturday, Jan. 18, Gary Yeldell, the attorney representing the Florida Baptist Convention, said on Tuesday that his client plans to appeal the Lake County jury's decision because the church planting pastor was working independently and not under the supervision of the organization at the time of the crime.
The 64-year-old former church planter spent seven years in prison after pleading guilty to lewd and lascivious molestation of the boy, who he met in 2005 at Bay Street Baptist Church in Lake County and abused for six months. Douglas W. Myers, (that's it, I'm changing my name) married at the time, reportedly left a trail of sex abuse allegations in various churches where he worked during his 30-plus years in Christian ministry. Amazing that it didn't catch up to him for more than 30 years. How dreadful!
The retired mechanical engineering professor, James Boa-Teh Chu, was living in East Providence, R.I., before he died in 2009. His son, Paul Chu, sued in U.S. District Court in Providence in 2012, saying his father was coerced, defrauded and deceived into signing over many of his assets to the Legion.
Among the allegations made in the lawsuit, Chu says members of the order convinced his devout father that the Legion's founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, was a saint, even as the church was investigating allegations against him including sex abuse. The Vatican took over the order in 2010 and Pope Benedict XVI ordered a wholesale reform.
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| US Supreme Court |
The woman known as "Amy" was in the courtroom, her legal team said, for arguments in which the justices talked frankly about the abuse she and other victims of child pornography suffer from those who look at the pictures.
"The woman has undergone serious psychiatric harm because of her knowledge that there are thousands of people out there viewing her rape," Justice Antonin Scalia said early in the hour long arguments.
Yet the court seemed to wrestle with determining how much restitution for counseling, lost income and legal fees any single defendant should be asked to pay.
 |
| Missoula, Montana |
Christopher Michael Cooper, 30, and Justin Gale Walker, 28, both pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse of children during a hearing before District Judge Karen Townsend, the Missoulian reported.
Prosecutors said Cooper and Walker were among several people who responded to an online ad in which a woman purported to offer a 12-year-old girl for sex. Charging documents said the two men were arrested after negotiating with undercover officers to have sex with the fictitious girl.
Jenna Elizabeth Davis, 29, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to sexually abuse children for allegedly arranging for her boyfriend to have sex with the girl.
The boyfriend, Chad Lee Briggs, 36, along with Matthew Steven Keith, 22, are scheduled to enter their pleas Wednesday to sexual abuse of children.
Neal Lewis Gray, 54, pleaded not guilty Jan. 9, while a seventh suspect — former Mineral County juvenile probation officer James Stewart Myers (No relation, I hope) — was found dead in his home last week.
A Florida jury has ordered the Florida Baptist Convention to pay $12.5 million to a man who was sexually abused by a Southern Baptist church planter as a boy, but the attorney representing the religious group insists the judgement will be overturned once he files an appeal.
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| Douglas W. Myers |
While the jury's verdict came on Saturday, Jan. 18, Gary Yeldell, the attorney representing the Florida Baptist Convention, said on Tuesday that his client plans to appeal the Lake County jury's decision because the church planting pastor was working independently and not under the supervision of the organization at the time of the crime.
The 64-year-old former church planter spent seven years in prison after pleading guilty to lewd and lascivious molestation of the boy, who he met in 2005 at Bay Street Baptist Church in Lake County and abused for six months. Douglas W. Myers, (that's it, I'm changing my name) married at the time, reportedly left a trail of sex abuse allegations in various churches where he worked during his 30-plus years in Christian ministry. Amazing that it didn't catch up to him for more than 30 years. How dreadful!
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