PA diocese names 71 accused of child sex abuse,
blames bishops
See last article on this post for the actual list of names
By Associated Press
“Many of those victimized as children continue to suffer as survivors from the harm they experienced.”
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Roman Catholic diocese on Wednesday identified 71 priests and other members of the church who had been accused of child sex abuse and said it was holding accountable the bishops who led the church for the past 70 years, announcing their names will be stripped from all church properties.
At a news conference to detail the church’s actions, Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer apologized to those who were abused, the Catholic faithful and the community and expressed his “profound sorrow.”
“Many of those victimized as children continue to suffer as survivors from the harm they experienced,” said the bishop, who was appointed in 2014.
With its announcement, the Harrisburg Diocese became the second of six dioceses under investigation by the state to get out in front of a pending grand jury report on clergy sex abuse. The Erie Diocese released its own findings on clergy abuse in April.
The release of the nearly 900-page state grand jury report has been held up by challenges by some priests and former priests. The state Supreme Court ruled last week a version with some names blacked out can be made public as early as next week. The court said it identified more than 300 “predator priests” in the six dioceses.
Gainer said that the Harrisburg Diocese was making public the names of all those who faced allegations of child sex abuse but that it did not determine whether they all had merit, though some of those on the list have been convicted of crimes. He said no one on the list is currently in the ministry.
In a public letter, Gainer said shortcomings in past investigations and record-keeping made it difficult in many cases to assess credibility or guilt or even determine the underlying conduct. In a few instances, people who were cleared of allegations by the diocese or police were not listed.
The Harrisburg list includes 37 priests, three deacons and six seminarians from the diocese, nine clergy members from other dioceses and 16 from religious communities. Gainer said the conduct was classified as indecent behavior, inappropriate behavior such as kissing and inappropriate communication with children.
Most of the allegations date from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, the diocese said
Gainer said church leadership had failed to protect children by not adequately responding to all the allegations of sexual misconduct over the years.
The diocese is compiling a list of buildings and other properties named to honor clergy members and plans to remove the names of anyone accused of abuse, including all bishops going back to 1947.
The church also is waiving any confidentiality rights the diocese obtained while reaching abuse settlements over the years, Gainer said. The number of such settlements and their dollar values were not disclosed.
The church is adopting a series of new procedures to deal with complaints and to help protect against future abuse, the bishop said. Any new complaint will be immediately forwarded to local authorities, background checks will be conducted on people working for the church, including volunteers, and all employees will be required to take part in training on how to recognize and report abuse, the diocese said.
Court documents have revealed that the pending state grand jury report, the work of a two-year investigation, includes allegations of obstruction of justice by people “associated with the Roman Catholic Church, local public officials and community leaders.”
In its report this spring, the Erie Diocese identified more than 50 priests and lay people accused of child sexual abuse.
The other dioceses investigated are in Pittsburgh and Greensburg in the western part of the state and Allentown and Scranton in the east. They collectively minister to more than 1.7 million Catholics.
Previous investigations have found widespread sexual abuse by priests in the state’s two other dioceses, Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown.
Employee at Arizona migrant children's shelter charged with sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl
Meagan Flynn, The Washington Post
An employee at a shelter for immigrant children in Phoenix has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl housed at the facility, according to court records in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Fernando Magaz Negrete, a 32-year-old employee of federal contractor Southwest Key Programs, is accused of slipping into the girl's room late at night and forcibly kissing and inappropriately touching her, according to court documents. He was arrested and charged Tuesday with molestation of a child, sexual abuse and aggravated assault.
A spokesman for Southwest Key Programs, which operates dozens of shelters across the country for migrant children, said the employee has been terminated.
"When a child tells us of inappropriate behavior, we immediately call law enforcement and start an internal investigation as appropriate," the spokesman, Jeff Eller, said in a statement to The Washington Post. "That's what happened in this case. Southwest Key always works with law enforcement to bring the full force of the law to bear when it is warranted."
The statement did not address questions about whether the girl was an immigrant previously separated from her parents at the border. The Arizona Republic reported that the specific facility where she was held - which is not specified in court documents - is intended to house separated children. Police documents in Magaz Negrete's case describe it as a "juvenile facility for refugee children."
Melania Trump, in fact, visited this same facility in June, Phoenix's ABC15 reported.
According to a probable cause statement, a teenage girl sharing the room with the 14-year-old victim witnessed the alleged June 27 incident and sparked the investigation when she reported it to authorities July 25. In interviews with investigators, the 14-year-old girl said Magaz Negrete entered her room and began kissing her on the lips. She then "pushed him away," got away from him and "went to her bed angry," police said in the probable cause statement.
The two teenage witnesses sharing the bedroom with her told authorities they observed Magaz Negrete touching the 14-year-old's breasts and crotch over her clothes.
Surveillance footage captured Magaz Negrete approaching the girls' bedroom several times between 9 and 10:30 on the night of June 27, according to the probable cause statement. The girls' doorway and bedroom, however, were out of the camera's view.
Police said Magaz Negrete admitted to kissing the girl and touching her vagina over her clothing when police questioned him at his residence.
Since the Trump administration ended its policy of family separation at the border in response to bipartisan outcry, the government has scrambled to reunite the families, including more than 2,500 children, under court-ordered deadlines. While the federal government said last week it had reunited most of the separated families, more than 700 children remained in shelters for various reasons, including because their parents have criminal records or are no longer in the United States, as The Post reported then. Thousands of other children are in shelters after arriving as unaccompanied minors.
Conditions of those shelters have invited scrutiny as reports of the children's experiences have trickled out from immigration attorneys and families. For example, one boy The Post spoke with who spent time at a Chicago shelter said he "felt like a prisoner" and spent three weeks in isolation after getting chickenpox, while a girl said she had come down with conjunctivitis and had been placed in a room by herself at a shelter in Harlingen, Texas. Last week, a federal judge ordered a facility in Manvel, Texas, to stop giving children psychotropic drugs without their parents' consent.
Complaints of sexual abuse at immigrant shelters for children, which are overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services department's Office of Refugee Resettlement and operated by contractors, are not uncommon. A recent ProPublica investigation found that police responded to at least 125 calls reporting sex offenses in the last five years at shelters primarily housing immigrant children. The investigation had analyzed incidents at more than 70 out of approximately 100 such shelters nationwide.
"If you're a predator, it's a gold mine," Lisa Fortuna, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Boston Medical Center, told ProPublica. "You have full access and then you have kids that have already had this history of being victimized."
Magaz Negrete is currently being held in the Maricopa County Jail on $150,000 bond. He made his first appearance in court Wednesday, where a judge pledged to appoint a lawyer for him. Magaz Negrete asked in Spanish whether he could hire his own. No attorney could be located for him in court records as of Wednesday night.
Texas gymnastics coach accused of
child sex abuse
BY STEPHEN ENGLISH senglish@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH
A former gymnastics coach at Sokol Gymnastics in Fort Worth has been arrested near Indianapolis and faces extradition on charges of child sexual abuse, according to Fort Worth police and an attorney hired by the club.
Skipper Glenn Crawley, known as Skip, coached at the club for about a year and is accused of sexually abusing several young gymnasts who were members of the same team, said Russ Prince of the Palma & Prince law firm of Tampa, Fla., and lawyer for Sokol.
Crawley was wanted by Fort Worth police on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child and two charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, said police spokesman Tracy Carter.
The allegations were made in late April, Prince said, and authorities at the school immediately notified police and USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport, which suspended Crawley.
Prince said he believes there are three accusers, who Star-Telegram media partner WFAA said range in age from 8 to 13. He added, however, that there shouldn’t be a rush to judgment.
“I speak for the club, and they want law enforcement to thoroughly vet this,” Prince said. “We believe law enforcement will do their job vetting these allegations. We want to take a healthy step back and let formal discovery do its job.”
Crawley was booked into Hamilton County Jail in Noblesville, Indiana shortly after midnight Thursday. Police did not say how they located Crawley or when his extradition will take place, but credited the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force with taking him into custody without incident.
Crawley was a former gymnast at Richland High School and was inducted into the Birdville ISD Sports Hall of Fame in October 2016, according to a post shared on the BISD high school gymnastics Facebook page.
The post was written by a man who says he lives in Westfield, Indiana, 20 miles north of Indianapolis. The Hamilton County Jail website says Crawley was arrested by Westfield police. The man who made the Facebook post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police did not say how long Crawley was a fugitive, but posts made as recently as July 31 on his Facebook page said he was in Arlington when he made them.
Crawley claimed on Facebook to have been working recently as a master trainer at 24 Hour Fitness in North Richland Hills. Representatives from 24 Hour Fitness did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to Tarrant County court records, Crawley was arrested in January 2017 for intoxicated driving. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined nearly $1,000.
Illinois Senator's son arrested for child sex abuse
ROCKFORD, Ill. - According to WREX, Jordan David Syverson, 27, son of Illinois State Senator Dave Syverson, and James C. Lamont III were booked at the Winnebago County Jail on Wednesday for child sex abuse charges.
Both of the men are facing the same three charges; aggravated criminal sexual abuse to a child under the age of 13 and two separate exploitation of a child charges for offenses that were committed sometime between October 28 and October 31 of 2016.
Syverson is charged with sexual exploitation of a child, exposing himself, aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under 13, and for a sexually exploiting a child involving a sex act., according to the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office
Syverson was booked into the Winnebago County Jail Wednesday on a $20,000 bond.
NY State man indicted, jailed in
child sexual abuse case
Anthony Borrelli, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
A Candor man was charged with sexually abusing a child, after an indictment was handed up Monday from the Tioga County grand jury.
Dennis A. Rose, 53, was indicted on two felony counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one misdemeanor count of second-degree sexual abuse. The charges followed an investigation by the Tioga County Sheriff's Office criminal investigation division.
Authorities did not disclose any relationship between Rose and the alleged victim or any additional information about the child.
After the indictment was handed up in Tioga County Court, Rose was arraigned and sent to the county jail with bail set at $5,000 cash or bond. He's expected to return to court at a later date.
If convicted, Rose could face up to seven years in prison.
N.J. court limits use of long-accepted
child sexual abuse theory
The Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Prosecutors will be limited in using a long-accepted theory on child sexual abuse under a ruling this week by New Jersey's Supreme Court.
The unanimous ruling issued Tuesday focused on child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome, a theory put forth in the 1980s that seeks to explain behaviors among alleged victims. Those behaviors include feelings of helplessness, keeping the abuse a secret and recanting allegations about abuse after they're made.
A defendant convicted of aggravated sexual assault against his underage stepdaughter challenged the use of the evidence at his trial. In Tuesday's ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with a lower court judge that not all aspects of the theory are well-defined or scientifically proven, and that expert testimony about those aspects should not be introduced as evidence.
Experts may still testify, however, about victims' delayed notification about their abuse, if a jury is given specific instructions about the testimony.
The ruling didn't affect the conviction of the defendant who filed the appeal, which was based on "overwhelming evidence of defendant's guilt," the court wrote.
The victim testified the abuse began in 2011 when she was 14, and that the defendant threatened her with a gun to prevent her from telling anyone. The following year, she testified, she made an audio recording of the abuse.
At trial, an expert testified about child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome, and cited studies that support the theory. The judge instructed the jury that the testimony could be used to explain the alleged victim's behavior but not as evidence of guilt.
The defendant challenged the testimony and an appeals court rejected the challenge. The Supreme Court then sent it back to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing.
At the hearing, "a number of shortcomings about the concept of a child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome" arose, the Supreme Court wrote Tuesday. These included labeling the theory as a syndrome, defining the five behaviors with precision and defining how the behaviors related to each other.
"Based on the record before the Court, we conclude that CSAAS (the syndrome) does not satisfy a basic standard of admissibility — reliability — because it is not generally accepted by the scientific community," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote.
It just got harder to protect children in New Jersey. Guess it is time for a bunch of scientific studies!
Hung jury in Montana child sex abuse case
Seaborn Larson, Great Falls Tribune
After nearly a day of deliberations, a deadlocked jury decided no further deliberations would lead to a verdict on the allegations against Johnathan Wayne Teague.
Teague, who faces one count of child sex abuse, and an alternative charge of sexual assault, was taken back into the custody of the sheriff's office after Judge Greg Pinski declared a mistrial in the case.
Prosecutors immediately requested a new trial, a date for which has not yet been set.
After a near two-day trial, jurors went into deliberations around 4:15 Tuesday afternoon, and called it a night around 10:30 that night.
At 1 p.m. Wednesday, jurors relayed to the judge that they were deadlocked, and no further deliberating would produce a unanimous verdict on either charge.
Teague is accused of assaulting a then-nine-year-old girl at his home in April 2017. He had a broken leg at the time and said he was so heavily medicated he believed it was someone else when he allegedly put his hand down the girls pants and digitally penetrated her.
Teague's defense did not call any witnesses in the case but argued the evidence at hand, which consisted of only the girl's testimony, did not add up to a conviction.
The alleged victim had previously told investigators Teague was asleep, but at trial said she actually believed he was awake and had seen one of his eyes open during the alleged assault. Prosecutors said she had previously been coaxed into saying Teague was asleep at the time.
If convicted at a new trial, Teague would face a 100-year sentence due to the nature of the charge and the age of the victim.
Convicted Alabama child molester jailed on
new sex abuse charges
By Carol Robinson crobinson@al.com
A convicted child molester is now accused of similar crimes in another Alabama county.
Timothy Guy Laggy, a 47-year-old Ashville man, was booked into the Shelby County Jail on Monday, according to jail records. Court records made public Wednesday show he is charged with two counts of sex abuse of a child under the age of 12 and two counts of first degree sodomy.
The alleged crimes happened between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2008. Additional details were not made available.
Laggy last year pleaded guilty in St. Clair County to sodomy and child sex abuse charges after he inappropriately touched a 13-year-old girl on her breasts and genital area. That crime happened in 2014.
Laggy was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is an inmate at the Bibb County Correctional Facility. He was transferred from the state prison to the Shelby County Jail where he is being held on $30,000 bond.
I don't understand! If he makes the bond requirements, does that mean he gets out of jail while he is serving a 20 year sentence? Someone please explain the point of the bond.
Shelby Co., AL
Oklahoma couple awaiting trial for child sexual abuse
after toddler's death
by Jessica Remer
WAGONER COUNTY, Okla. (KTUL) -- A Wagoner County couple is heading to trial for child sexual abuse after a judge ruled Tuesday there is enough evidence to proceed.
William and Lisa Woolley were arrested earlier this year after their 14-month-old grandson was reported dead at a home in Broken Arrow. An autopsy determined he was sexually abused and his death was a homicide.
Investigators also placed a 5-year-old in protective custody. The boy told a nurse he was also sexually abused.
The Woolleys have been in jail on $500,000 bonds since their arrests for child sexual abuse and enabling child sexual abuse. On Tuesday, the judge added two additional child sexual abuse charges.
The trial date has not been scheduled.
Arizona jury finds man guilty of child sex abuse
in retrial
By Genesis Lara
Nogales International
After about an hour of deliberation, a 12-member jury returned guilty verdicts Wednesday afternoon against a 36-year-old local man accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl.
Carlos Muñoz was found guilty of four offenses: continuous sexual abuse of a child, sexual conduct with a minor, sexual assault and molestation of a child.
The jury also found aggravating factors for each offense, including that the victim suffered physical or emotional harm, and that Muñoz committed the crimes against the victim for more than a year.
Muñoz is now facing a life sentence in prison plus several more years, according to Prosecutor Vanessa Cartwright of the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office.
“These cases are really hard to prove. You don’t have physical evidence or DNA because these types of crimes are committed in secret,” Cartwright said.
During her opening statement, Cartwright told the jurors that the first assault happened in June 2014 when the victim was 12. The abuse continued for about a year-and-a-half until the girl told her aunt in December 2016, she said.
Muñoz was tried previously on the charges, but Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial on June 13 after another 12-member jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.
While the evidence presented during the second trial was the same, Cartwright said, the verdict really depends on the individual jurors.
“Oftentimes, the only thing we have is (the victim’s) testimony and that’s what we go forward on. That’s direct evidence and thankfully, this jury believed the victim and they convicted him. So that’s a really big deal for all victims,” Cartwright said.
Muñoz’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 4.
Louisiana man accused of rape in
child sex abuse case
Melissa Gregory, Alexandria Town Talk
A Pineville man remains in jail on allegations that he sexually abused a minor, and officials say more charges are possible.
Rapides Parish Sheriff's deputies were called to a local hospital on July 30 for a complaint about the alleged abuse, reads a release. Deputies spoke with the victim's family, learning that the alleged abuse happened in the Pineville area.
A detective from the Kolin substation began an investigation that included help from the Children's Advocacy Center. Warrants were issued for the arrest of 27-year-old Landon Heath Anders, of the 600 block of Palmer Chapel Road.
Anders was arrested on Tuesday afternoon and was booked into the Rapides Parish Detention Center on charges of first-degree rape, aggravated sexual battery and aggravated crimes against nature.
But the investigation continued, and detectives uncovered more alleged crimes. After more warrants were issued, Anders was arrested again while in jail.
He was charged with two counts of aggravated crimes against nature, two counts of second-degree cruelty to juveniles and three counts of indecent behavior with juveniles. He remains in jail without bond.
List of predator clergy and others released by the
Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, PA:
Priests and Religious named in the September 2002 Disclosure (in alphabetical order):
Avant, James (Capuchin)
LeFevre, Francis
Ball, Bruce E. (Diocese of La Crosse, WI)
Lorento, Anthony (Pallotine)
Banko, John (Diocese of Trenton/Metuchen, NJ)
Loskarin, George
Bauernfeind, Thomas
Mardaga, Ronald
Blackwell, Maurice
Martin, Kenneth (Diocese of Wilmington)
Brett, Laurence (Diocese of Bridgeport)
Maskell, A. Joseph
Brinkmann, Frederick (Redemptorist)
Maurer, Arthur (Josephite)
Bugge, Gerald (Redemptorist)
McGrath, Francis (Diocese of Trenton)
Carney, John
Melville, Raymond (Diocese of Portland, Maine)
Carroll, Douglas (Pallotine)
Michaud, Ronald
Cox, Brian
Mike, John
Deakin, Richard (Capuchin)
Murphy, Timothy (Trinitarian)
Dimitroff, Donald (Christian Brother)
Newman, Robert (Sons of Charity)
Dowdy, James
O'Toole, Henry (Redemptorist)
Duggan, John (Jesuit)
Pecore, Dennis (Salvatorian)
Duke, Frederick
Rochacewcz, Thomas (Redemptorist)
Emala, Walter (Diocese of Memphis)
Rouse, Charles
Farabaugh, Kenneth
Rydzewski, Thomas
Gallagher, Joseph
Simms, William
Gerg, Joseph (Benedictine)
Smith, David
Haight, Mark (Diocese of Albany)
Smith, Thomas
Hammer, John (Diocese of Youngstown and Saginaw)
Spillane, Michael
Helowicz, Marion
Stroup, Edmund
Hopkins, Robert
Sweeney, Francis (Paulist)
Knapp, Paul (Redemptorist)
Toohey, Jerome
Kruse, Joseph
Toulas, James (Redemptorist)
LaMountain, Michael (Diocese of Providence)
Tragesser, Gerald
LaPorta, Ross
Wehrle, William (Jesuit)
Lee, Thomas B. (Archdiocese of Seoul, Korea)
Additional Allegations (in order of disclosure):
Barnes, Michael
Bevan, Thomas
Bonacci, Louis (Jesuit)
Coyle, Charles (Jesuit)
Cristancho, Fernando (Diocese of Istmina-Tado, Colombia)
Dean, Alfred (Josephite)
Girard, Steven
Kolodziej, Michael (Franciscan)
Lentz, Robert
Lippold, John
Murray, J. Glen (Jesuit)
Salerno, Michael (Pallotine)
Smith, Richard
Wielebski, John
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