Canadian Justice > Rapes his daughter for 12 years - plea deals to two counts of simple assault; American Justice > for the Rich and Famous - Zuckerburg dropped from Meta suit; No Repentance in Catholic Church

 

Ex-Sudbury man accused of abusing daughter in historic sex assault case

The alleged abuse started in 1968 and ended in 1980; he has pleaded to a lesser charge

Author of the article:

Harold Carmichael

Published Jun 01, 2024  •  Last updated 1 day ago  •  1 minute read

A former Sudbury man accused of sexually abusing his daughter more than five decades ago has pleaded to two counts of simple assault.

The man, 78, now lives in Ottawa.

He was supposed to have been sentenced by a Sudbury court this month but that has been delayed. The court was told he has yet to complete interviews with a probation officer tasked with writing a pre-sentence report the court had ordered.

“My client informed me he has had (just) one meeting with a probation officer,” defence lawyer George Fournier told Superior Court Justice Robbie Gordon.

“I understand (the man) is at the probation officer’s office right now,” added Crown attorney Kara Vakiparta.

As a result, a new sentencing date will be set in Superior assignment court on June 14.

The man cannot be named due to a publication ban protecting his daughter’s identity.

He was facing historical sex-related charges such as indecent assault, gross indecency and carnal knowledge. However, he pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault some time ago. The time frames for the alleged offences were 1968 to 1980.

The court heard the Crown and the defence will present a joint submission at the sentencing hearing.

What kind of sentences resulted from simple assault in 1980? Nothing close to what he deserves for raping his daughter for 12 years. Canadian justice! Do you think the woman feels like she got justice?

This is where a suspicious conpspiracy theorist like me would like to check the bank accounts of certain persons. If Z gets away from responsibility for the millions of children sexually abused on Meta platforms, their blood won't be on Torrez' hands.

New Mexico judge grants Mark Zuckerberg’s

request to be dropped from child safety lawsuit

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge on Thursday granted Mark Zuckerberg’s request to be dropped from a lawsuit that alleges his company has failed to protect young users from exposure to child sexual abuse material.

Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated PressMay 30, 2024 6:04 PMMay 30, 2024 6:21 PM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge on Thursday granted Mark Zuckerberg’s request to be dropped from a lawsuit that alleges his company has failed to protect young users from exposure to child sexual abuse material.

The case is one of many filed by states, school districts and parents against Meta and its social media platforms over concerns about child exploitation. Beyond courtrooms around the U.S., the issue has been a topic of congressional hearings as lawmakers and parents are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media on young people’s lives.

In New Mexico, Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta and Zuckerberg late last year following an undercover online investigation. The civil lawsuit echoed the claims of those levied in late October by the attorneys general of 33 states — including California and New York — that Instagram and Facebook include features deliberately designed to hook children and contribute to the youth mental health crisis.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said he wasn't persuaded by the state's arguments that Zuckerberg should remain a party to the New Mexico lawsuit, but he noted that could change depending on what evidence is presented as the case against Meta proceeds.

Torrez's office said it will continue to assess whether Zuckerberg should be named individually in the future.

Attorneys for Meta had argued during the hearing that prosecutors would not be able to establish that the company had specifically directed its activities to New Mexico residents, meaning there would be personal jurisdiction for which the company could be held liable. They said the platforms are available worldwide and that users agree to the terms of service when signing up.

The judge disagreed, dismissing the company's motion to dismiss the state's claims.

Prosecutors told the judge that New Mexico is not seeking to hold Meta accountable for its content but rather its role in pushing out that content through complex algorithms that proliferate material that can be sensational, addictive and harmful.

The design features and how people interact with them are the issue, said Serena Wheaton, an assistant attorney general in the consumer protection division.

Earlier this month, Torrez announced charges against three men who were accused of using Meta’s social media platforms to target and solicit sex with underage children. The arrests were the result of a monthslong undercover operation in which the suspects connected with decoy accounts set up by the state Department of Justice.

That investigation began in December around the time the state filed its lawsuit against the company.

At the time of the arrests, Torrez placed blame on Meta executives — including Zuckerberg — and suggested that the company was putting profits above the interests of parents and children.

Meta has disputed those allegations, saying it uses technology to prevent suspicious adults from finding or interacting with children and teens on its apps and that it works with law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting offenders.

As part of New Mexico's lawsuit, prosecutors say they have uncovered internal documents in which Meta employees estimate about 100,000 children every day are subjected to sexual harassment on the company’s platforms.

Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press

These Clergy Abuse Survivors Had a Chance to Find

Justice. Then Their Diocese Filed for Bankruptcy.

As more states extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, churches are finding a legal workaround.

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  SOPHIE HAYSSEN

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When Teresa Lancaster was a teenager in the 1970s, she was raped by a chaplain at her Catholic high school in Baltimore. But when she and another survivor, Jean Wehner, sued the chaplain and the diocese decades later, the court rejected their case, saying too much time had passed under Maryland law. Lancaster, by then in her mid-40s, enrolled in law school with one goal: to lift the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits.

“It was crushing,” she said about losing the lawsuit. “I had to pick myself up and decide what I was going to do. I knew if I became a lawyer, people would have to listen to me, and I could gain some respect back.”

Lancaster went on to become an attorney for victims of sexual abuse, and she eventually testified in front of the Maryland state legislature in favor of statute of limitations reform. Last April, Lancaster finally saw her goal achieved when Governor Wes Moore signed the Child Victims Act into law. It was one of 26 similar laws passed in the wake of the MeToo movement and high-profile sexual assault scandals involving the Boy Scouts and USA Gymnastics. 

But even in victory, Lancaster was not fully at ease. “I told everybody, this is a win,” she said. “But I was ready for them to attack back.” 

And they did. In September, just two days before the law went into effect, the Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy—meaning all lawsuits against the Archdiocese would be paused, and any sexual abuse claims against a church would have to go through the bankruptcy court. Now, Lancaster is working hard to finish filing claims for herself and 20 clients by a court-imposed May 31 deadline, or else risk losing their one shot to find justice.      

In recent years, bankruptcy has become increasingly popular among Catholic dioceses as a tool to avoid bad press and prevent future litigation. After an organization files for bankruptcy, all civil litigation against it stops. Instead, the bankruptcy court sets a deadline for victims or other creditors to submit a claim against the organization. That deadline essentially overrides any statute of limitations reform passed by the state legislature—if victims don’t meet it, they likely can’t sue in the future. Then, claims are resolved with a batch settlement—which makes bankruptcy an appealing option to dioceses, because it allows them to settle hundreds of lawsuits via a single process rather than litigating them individually. In a statement, Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori claimed that bankruptcy would “best allow the Archdiocese both to equitably compensate victim-survivors of child sexual abuse and ensure the local Church can continue its mission and ministries.”

But victims like Lancaster are skeptical. Many survivors and advocates argue that the bankruptcy process protects churches’ interests at the expense of victims. Unlike a civil trial, bankruptcy has no discovery process that would allow further information about abusers’ crimes to come to light—which means victims may be left with lingering questions about how much their churches knew about their abuse, or whether other people were victimized. In addition, because bankruptcy sets a deadline for claims, it can force victims to come forward before they’re ready, or risk losing their pathway to justice forever. Since many victims of childhood sexual abuse often don’t disclose their abuse for decades, the public may never know the full extent of clerical abuse. 

“Survivors have a right to say, ‘This happened to me,’” said Wehner, who is also a claimant in the Baltimore bankruptcy case. “Because after this is done, we don’t get to do that anymore. What this bankruptcy does is shortens our time. It puts a pressure on us.” 

Bankruptcy has long been common as a tool for corporations like Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma to respond to mass lawsuits. According to Marie Reilly, a Penn State law professor and bankruptcy expert, the Archdiocese of Portland was the first diocese to use this legal maneuver back in 2004, when it declared bankruptcy amid child sexual abuse claims. Since then, Reilly said, 35 other dioceses have filed for bankruptcy, with 16 of those cases coming in the past four years. 

Reilly attributes the recent acceleration in the trend to the wave of legislation like Maryland’s Child Victims Act. Thirteen of the recent bankruptcies have been concentrated in states like New York and California, which recently passed look-back windows—periods of time in which victims can bring forth child sexual abuse claims previously blocked by the statute of limitations. 

There are some potential solutions to the problem. In April, Representative Deborah Ross (D-NC) introduced legislation to amend bankruptcy proceedings in cases of child sex abuse. The bill would give victims the opportunity to submit impact statements and mandate a discovery hearing where information about individual cases and institutional negligence could come to light. It would also require an independent forensic accountant to examine the bankrupt organization’s estate, along with the holdings of any third parties involved in the proceedings, to ensure victims receive a settlement commensurate with the organization’s worth.

Lancaster supports the bill, though she acknowledges that no amount of money will heal the emotional scars of abuse. Ideally, she’d like to see prosecutions of attackers and a memorial for survivors. But she knows that, at the moment, money is the most important tool survivors have at their disposal to hold the diocese to account. “That is the only thing that the church as a corporation is going to understand,” she said. “If we hit them hard enough, maybe they’ll really do something about the abuse situation.”

When I spoke to Lancaster this spring, she was simultaneously counseling her clients on how to file their claims—which often means recounting abuse in excruciating detail—while working on her own claim. It’s a frustrating, emotionally draining process. But Lancaster’s life has been a lesson in moving forward, even at high emotional cost. “It’s upsetting, but I pushed that into the back so that I can be a fighter in the front, you know?” she said. 

After the Child Victims Act passed and victims were looking for representation, another lawyer cautioned Lancaster against disclosing her abuse to her clients because, as Lancaster recalled, “They can’t see a weak person standing before them to fight for them.” She disagreed.

“One of the reasons people will come and talk to me is because they know I’ve been there,” she told me. “I say, ‘I’m a survivor, and I understand.’”

This is hardly justice either in terms of fairness to the victims or in terms of responsibility of the Catholic Church in the eyes of God. But if the Catholic Church were the least concerned about God's Judgment, these millions of child rape cases would never have happened. The church is still protecting itself at the expense of its victims. There has been no sign of repentence. God's Judgment will be harsh on the whore of Babylon!

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