• U.S. Tops List of Donors to Vatican
Beliefnet, www.beliefnet.com/story/149/story_14908_1.html , The Associated Press, July 8, 2004
VATICAN CITY: (AP) The United States remained the main source of donations to the Vatican despite the financial woes of the U.S. Church because of settlements in the sex abuse scandal, Vatican officials said Thursday.
The Vatican's annual financial report for 2003 showed a deficit for a third consecutive year but an increase in donations for papal charities and humanitarian relief operations. "There was no reduction in offerings," said Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, the Vatican's economic chief. "The United States is still in first place."
Sebastiani was referring to offerings from individuals as well as financial assistance from dioceses, a key source of revenue for the Vatican.
• Lawyer to serve 15 days for theft
Lexington Herald-Leader, www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/legislature/9113389.htm , By Peter Mathews, CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU
WINCHESTER (KY): Lexington lawyer Robert Treadway will serve 15 days in jail for stealing nearly $70,000 from a former client and friend, Ale-8-One President Frank A. Rogers and his company.
At his sentencing yesterday, Treadway and his attorney, Jimmy Dale Williams, asked for probation, blaming his problems on anti-depressants he was taking.
But they also said Treadway's unsuccessful scheme grew out of the work for which he became noted: representing victims of sexual abuse.
Williams told Circuit Judge Julia Hylton Adams that Treadway identified closely with his clients, who sued the Catholic Diocese of Lexington and Lexington's city government.
• 2nd sex-abuse victim sues Rockford diocese [1999-2000 Campobello]
Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi-0407090142jul09,1,5702779.story? coll=chi-newslocalnearwest-hed ; By Angela Rozas, Published July 9, 2004
ROCKFORD (IL): A second lawsuit has been filed against a Rockford diocese priest, his bishop and the diocese, this time by a woman who was abused while a student at an Aurora Catholic high school in 1999.
Mark Campobello, 39, Bishop Thomas Doran, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford were sued last month by a woman who was abused by the priest in 1999 when she was a 14-year-old student at St. Peter Catholic School in Geneva. Campobello, who served as a priest at the school, is serving 8 years in prison for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of the woman.
He also pleaded guilty to abusing a 15-year-old girl at Aurora Central High School. The woman, who is now 21, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Kane County Circuit Court.
In 1999, the girl was a sophomore at the high school, where Campobello served as assistant principal and spiritual director.
Campobello befriended the girl, who looked to him as a "surrogate" for her estranged father, whom she had not had contact with for several years, the lawsuit states. He encouraged her to meet with him one-on-one to discuss her spiritual growth, and then later engaged in sexual encounters with her at the high school, in his vehicle and at other locations through March 2000, according to the suit.
• Seattle, Spokane dioceses hope insurance covers abuse settlement costs
KGW, www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D83MVSJ80.html , Associated Press, July/09/2004
WASHINGTON State: Roman Catholic church officials in Seattle and Spokane say they hope insurance coverage will enable them to continue settling claims with victims of clergy sex abuse and avoid any bankruptcy filing.
That should work as long as insurance payouts remain fair and reasonable, church officials said this week.
"We've been very fortunate," said Pat Sursely of the Archdiocese of Seattle. "We have had a good management, good insurance coverage and a good working relationship with each of our insurance carriers."
The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., on Tuesday became the first in the nation to file for bankruptcy protection because of the steep costs of sex abuse litigation.
• Monsignor in Rare Attack on Egan Over Suspension [Kavanagh]
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/nyregion/09church.html?ex=1089950400&en=3afc920ef6891b83 &ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; By DANIEL J. WAKIN, Published: July 9, 2004
NEW YORK: With his sexual abuse case languishing in Rome and his old pastorship now filled, a once-prominent monsignor in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has begun a harsh attack on his archbishop, Cardinal Edward M. Egan.
The cleric, Msgr. Charles M. Kavanagh, who is the leading New York priest caught up in the church's sex abuse scandal, said the cardinal threatened to use further damaging information to keep him from fighting his suspension. He said archdiocesan officials did not tell him of additional complaints before adding them to his file recently. The cardinal, the monsignor added, also refuses to permit his longtime canon lawyer to stay on the case.
Such broadsides by a priest against his bishop are highly unusual, but they give an idea of how bitter the dispute between Cardinal Egan and Monsignor Kavanagh, the archdiocese's onetime chief fund-raiser, has become.
"I'm defenseless," Monsignor Kavanagh said in an interview Wednesday. "I don't have any forum. It becomes a scandalous attempt to make me look bad," he said of the additional charges. He said the archdiocese had turned over no formal evidence, had not formally told him the charges against him, and had refused to show him what it had sent to the Vatican for a final judgment on his case.
• Accused priest had prior offense [1961 Wilt]
Post-Gazette, www.post-gazette.com/pg/04191/343880.stm , By Ann Rodgers, Friday, July 09, 2004
PITTSBURGH (PA): The Rev. George Wilt, a retired Catholic priest accused of fondling a 13-year-old girl in 1961, had his ministry restricted in 2003 for reasons that the diocese says had nothing to do with child sexual abuse.
Diocesan officials would not give the reason. Their statement came as they engaged in a war of news releases with attorneys suing the diocese for an alleged conspiracy to protect priests who sexually abused minors.
Wilt, now 72, retired in May 2003 after 35 years at St. Bernard Church in Mt. Lebanon. He is accused of fondling the girl in the St. Bernard rectory seven years before he was assigned there.
On Tuesday, Wilt's attorney said that the diocesan lay review board had "fully exonerated" Wilt because there was no evidence that he had counseled anyone at St. Bernard in 1961.
• Diocese calls suits 'extortion'
Tribune-Review, http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_202612.html , By Michael Hasch, Friday, July 9, 2004
PITTSBURGH (PA): Two lawyers filing lawsuits on behalf of individuals claiming to have been sexually abused by priests are making "extortion-like demands for money," the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh charged Thursday.
Attorneys Richard Serbin and Alan Perer also appear to be making "attempts to unduly influence a potential jury pool" and seem interested in trying "their case in the media" instead of the courts, according to a prepared release from the diocese.
• N.S. diocese sued for abuse [MacDonald 21 suing] - RCC.
Winnipeg Sun, www.canoe.ca/ NewsStand/ WinnipegSun/ News/2004/07/09 /532750.html , July 9, 2004
HALIFAX, Canada: -- Three men who say they were sexually assaulted by a Roman Catholic priest when they were children are suing the Nova Scotia diocese that once supervised him.
The plaintiffs filed separate statements of claim stating the Bishop of Antigonish and the diocese failed to protect them from sexual abuse by Rev. Hugh Vincent MacDonald, who died on June 27.
Prior to his death, the priest was charged with 27 offences involving 18 children between the ages of eight to 15.
• Portland Diocese's bankruptcy stuns bishop in Tucson
Tucson Citizen, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0709diocese09.html , by Sheryl Kornman, Jul. 9, 2004
TUCSON (AZ): The Tuesday bankruptcy filing by the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., was a "surprise" to Bishop Gerald Kicanas, the leader of the Tucson Diocese.
Kicanas said earlier this month he will decide by Sept. 15 whether to file bankruptcy for the Tucson Diocese, which faces unresolved claims of sexual abuse by its priests and other church personnel.
A Chapter 11 action in U.S. Bankruptcy Court would lay out all the assets of the diocese, determine its debts, make decisions on how much and who should be paid and in what order. Kicanas has said "it is the best way to respond to all victims."
Fred Allison, the Tucson Diocese communications director, issued this statement by Kicanas in response to the Portland bankruptcy:
"The news of the decision by the Archdiocese of Portland to file for Chapter 11 reorganization and protection, while not unexpected, came as a surprise.
• Priest Accused of Pedophilia Released [1973 Klep] -- deported from Samoa
The Mercury News, www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/9112153.htm?1c , Associated Press, ~ July 9, 2004
MELBOURNE, Australia - A Roman Catholic priest who was kicked out of Samoa last month for failing to disclose a 1994 child sexual assault conviction was released from custody here Friday ahead of a trial on similar charges.
Frank Klep, 61, faces five counts of indecent assault against a 15-year-old boy from 1973, when he taught at the Salesian of Don Bosco's Rupertswood College in the southeast Australian town of Sunbury.
He faces 10 years in prison if convicted. He has yet to enter a plea.
Prosecutors filed the charges in May 1998, a month after Klep moved to Alafua, Samoa, to become senior financial officer with Moamoa Theological College.
He was ordered deported from the South Pacific nation following the appearance of an article about the Salesians religious order by a Texas newspaper.
• L.A. Archdiocese Seeks to Intervene in Dispute
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me- sbriefs9.3jul09,1,3794246.story?coll=la-headlines-california ; From Times Wire Reports
LOS ANGELES (CA): The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has asked a federal judge in San Diego for permission to intervene in a dispute about a state law that opened the doors to hundreds of decades-old sexual abuse cases.
Lawyers for the archdiocese argue that they have a special interest because the suits "threaten to ruin the archdiocese economically and to impose unprecedented and punitive stigmatization upon the church."
• Ex-priest, diocese face new lawsuit [1999-2000 Campobello]
Rockford Register Star, www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20040709/NEWS0101/407090322/1004/NEWS
ROCKFORD (IL): The Rockford Catholic Diocese is facing another lawsuit over sexual abuse by Mark Campobello, a priest who admitted previous abuse and is serving an eight-year prison sentence.
The suit, filed Thursday in Kane County, is from a 21-year-old woman who says Campobello assaulted her over the period of a year from April 1999 to March 2000.
At the time, she was a student at Aurora Catholic High, where Campobello was assistant principal and spiritual director.
The lawsuit claims the victim met Campobello in September 1998, when she enrolled at Aurora Catholic and was one of five students in the priest's Latin class. Her parents had divorced in 1990, and she had not seen her father since 1993.
According to the suit, Campobello encouraged her to share her anxieties and hopes with him, and she came to look upon him as a surrogate for her father. The priest taught her Catholic doctrine and urged her to join the church, which she did when she was baptized as a 16-year-old in April 1999.
• Mannix torn between justice, church's rights
Statesman Journal, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=83237 , By PETER WONG, July 9, 2004
SALEM (OR): Kevin Mannix of Salem is a Catholic and a member of St. Joseph Church.
Mannix also is a lawyer who has long supported victims of crime. As a legislator more than a decade ago, Mannix sponsored legislation enabling adults to sue people who abused them as children.
But Mannix said Thursday that he never imagined that myriad sex-abuse lawsuits would prompt the Portland Archdiocese to become the nation's first archdiocese to file for bankruptcy. The 20 largest unsettled lawsuits seek more than $340 million in compensation.
The church filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court just before the start of a civil trial in Portland in which two plaintiffs sought compensation totaling more than $160 million.
Mannix said that state law, the way it has been interpreted by the Oregon Supreme Court, the church and other religious and charitable groups, is wide open to a never-ending stream of lawsuits.
"I am an advocate for victims," Mannix said. "But I never advocated the destruction of charitable organizations. That is what is happening now."
• Priest-abuse lawyers spar over legal doctrine
Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/9112998.htm?1c , By David O'Reilly
PHILADELPHIA (PA): Sex-abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia entered a pivotal stage yesterday as lawyers for the church and alleged victims sparred in court over the merits of a key legal argument called "fraudulent concealment."
Lawyers for plaintiffs urged Common Pleas Court Judge Arnold New to allow the argument even though it has been little used in abuse cases.
But the archdiocese's lawyer urged New to throw out 17 suits filed recently against the archdiocese, saying that the fraudulent-concealment tactic had no merit and that the statute of limitations had expired in all the cases.
"The archdiocese finds these events [of abuse] tragic, but we feel the statute is appropriate," said lawyer C. Clark Hodgson Sr.
Pennsylvania's statute of limitations has long frustrated those who allege sexual abuse of children because, until 1984, it required filing charges or a civil suit within two years of an assault. Even judges sympathetic to the emotional suffering of victims have felt obliged to dismiss late claims.
• Ex-bishop invokes 5th Amendment [Dupre]
Republican, www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1089359357280590.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com, Friday, July 09, 2004
SPRINGFIELD (MA): Ever since he was confronted with allegations that he sexually abused two boys decades ago, former Roman Catholic bishop Thomas L. Dupre has remained silent.
In his recent response to a civil suit, Dupre's stance didn't change. He pleaded the Fifth Amendment, his constitutional right not to incriminate himself.
But Dupre's lawyer, as well as a local law professor, warn against concluding that invoking the Fifth Amendment is an admission of guilt.
"A Supreme Court case clearly states that a person's right to remain silent is as important to and meant equally for the innocent," said Dupre's lawyer Michael O. Jennings of Springfield.
Dupre invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to all claims of sexual abuse and circumstances surrounding the abuse as stated in the suit.
The men whose names appear on the suit, but who have requested their names not be used by the media, allege Dupre abused them as minors when he was serving as a parish priest.
• Diocese may file for bankruptcy
The Courier-Journal, www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/07/09ky/B3-diocese07090-2997.html , Associated Press
COVINGTON, Ky. - Bankruptcy could be an option to keep the Diocese of Covington financially solvent as it faces a class-action lawsuit over claims of clergy sexual abuse, one of its attorneys said.
Attorney Carrie Huff of Chicago said Wednesday that such a move might be inevitable. The suit could cost the diocese tens of millions of dollars, Huff said, and while bankruptcy is not an attractive alternative, at some point reality kicks in.
It is a consideration that comes on the heels of the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., filing for bankruptcy on Tuesday because of the steep costs from clergy sex-abuse lawsuits. The Portland Archdiocese has paid $53 million to settle 133 claims from people who were abused by priests. Another 60 claims are pending.
The Archdiocese of Louisville, which settled 243 sex abuse claims for about $26 million last year, "never seriously considered it," spokeswoman Cecelia Price has said.
• Priests want due process [1980s Kavanagh]
The Journal News, www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/070904/a0109kavanagh.html , By GARY STERN, (Original publication: July 9, 2004)
NEW YORK: The fall of Monsignor Charles Kavanagh at the height of the Catholic Church's sex-abuse crisis of 2002 was a stunner to New Yorkers who had attended church galas or given hefty sums of cash to Catholic causes.
Kavanagh had helped raise millions for the Archdiocese of New York as its vicar of development and was a trusted friend to New York's Catholic upper-crust. So when he was removed from ministry in May 2002, after being accused by a former seminarian of having an improper, sexually charged relationship two decades before, it was widely assumed that Kavanagh would be given every chance to defend himself.
More than two years later, priests and others are wondering if the man who took care of hundreds of VIPs at Cardinal John O'Connor's funeral in 2000 has gotten a fair hearing from his church. A growing chorus is pointing to Kavanagh's case as an example of a lack of due process that has been afforded accused priests since the scandal unfolded.
"Everywhere you go, people say 'What's the situation with Charlie,' " said the Rev. Edward Byrne, pastor of St. Ann's Church in Ossining, who helped organize a letter to Cardinal Edward Egan, signed by 75 priests, that protested the treatment of accused priests. "It's very puzzling that a man with such a wonderful ministry, who is so beloved, can be hung out to dry for so long. There's no due process, no information for Charlie or anyone else."
• Priest's penalty light, some say [Hawkins, Clay]
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/9115196.htm?1c , By Darren Barbee
ARLINGTON (TX): An Arlington priest was reprimanded by the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese for allowing a friend and fellow clergyman once accused of sexual misconduct to lead worship at his church.
But a national victims' group says Fort Worth Bishop Joseph Delaney should take more substantial action against the Rev. Allan Hawkins of St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Church in Arlington.
For more than a year, Hawkins allowed a Pennsylvania priest to lead Mass and perform other duties at his church. Hawkins failed to inform the diocese or the bishop of the priest's presence, in violation of diocese policy.
Hawkins said the priest, the Rev. Christopher Clay, maintains his innocence and has not been charged with a crime.
• Woman's lawsuit alleges sex abuse by now-imprisoned priest [Campobello]
Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-priest09.html , BY MIKE CETERA, July 9, 2004
ILLINOIS: Mark Campobello guided the teenager through her conversion to Roman Catholicism, tutored her in Latin and then turned to sexually abusing the Aurora Central Catholic High School student, a new complaint alleges.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the woman says the priest molested her many times at the school, in his car and on the grounds of Mooseheart, a residential child-care facility in Kane County.
The complaint, filed in Kane County Circuit Court, mirrors a lawsuit filed last month by a 19-year-old Geneva woman against Campobello, the Diocese of Rockford and Bishop Thomas Doran. It was the Geneva woman's claims of abuse that led to criminal charges against the 39-year-old Campobello.
Campobello is serving an eight-year prison sentence at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton after pleading guilty in May to two counts of aggravated sexual abuse. He acknowledged abusing both the Geneva woman and the Aurora Central student. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:11 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri July 09, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont88.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sat July 10, 2004 edition follows:-
• Once an Exporter of Priests, Ireland Now Has Too Few -- only 8 to be ordained in 2004.
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/international/europe/11irel.html?ex=1090123200 &en=f78df6e90656bc43&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; By LIZETTE ALVAREZ, For July 11, 2004
LIMERICK, Ireland - For centuries, Ireland mass-produced Roman Catholic priests, ordaining and exporting them at so steady a clip that the Mass in America seemed forever cast in a thick Irish brogue.
Now, with that religious heyday long gone, Ireland finds itself facing a serious shortage of priests. The problem is expected to grow significantly worse in the next decade as more older priests retire, abandon the priesthood or die, and too few men prepare to replace them.
Only 8 Roman Catholic clerical students are expected to be ordained in 2004 in all of Ireland, compared with 193 ordinations in 1990. The Diocese of Dublin, the largest in the country, has planned no ordinations for next year, and the Diocese of Limerick, a hardscrabble city on the banks of the Shannon River, is expected to ordain one man soon, and then wait years for its next priest. ...
The reasons for the scarcity are varied, but not unfamiliar. Like other Catholic countries in Europe, Ireland has shed much of its religious devotion for more secular pastimes. Its newfound wealth as a European Union country has only accelerated this exodus from the pews. What is more, Ireland's Roman Catholic Church establishment - not to mention its older parishioners - was badly shaken by the abuse scandals involving Irish priests and nuns.
Changing sexual mores also have had a profound effect. Today, even churchgoing Irish mothers, who once proudly steered their sons into the priesthood, are reluctant to encourage their sons to take that path.
"There tends to be an assumption on the part of people that priests are lonely, and that it is impossible to live happily if you are not engaged in a sexual relationship," said Father Kevin Doran, Ireland's national coordinator for vocations. "It's part of the way the culture has developed. We have become a highly sexualized culture." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:17 PM]
• The abuse curse in the clergy - RCC.
Stuff, www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2968492a1861,00.html , for 11 July 2004
NEW ZEALAND: Sexual abuse by Catholic priests seems to be the new white collar crime and, as Sarah Stuart reports, genuine clergy are having to pay for the sins of a few.
His office was the red-brick building next to the school gates, his white-haired, black-clad figure a familiar sight as the bell rang.
Through the roar of lunchtime screams, Father Pat's laugh sang out like the icecream-van song in summer, drawing kids from every direction, registered before it was heard. Running from the playground benches we'd dive for his hand, or, those that knew him best, for the deep pockets in his regulation black trousers.
There lay our earthly reward - a handful of paper-wrapped sweets for those game enough to grab.
In 1979, Father Pat's pockets were nothing more than a schoolyard game, an innocent distraction from a well-loved cleric. Twenty-five years later they're enough to make a young Catholic priest gasp in horror.
• Priest put on leave after sex allegations [1971-81 Hebert]
The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/ news/local/conn ecticut/articles/ 2004/07/10/priest_ put_on_leave_after_ sex_allegations ; July 10, 2004
NORWICH, Conn. -- The Norwich Diocese has suspended a Pomfret priest following allegations that he sexually abused a boy in the 1970s.
Father Paul L. Hebert, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish, has been placed on a leave of absence while the matter is investigated, the diocese said.
Jacqueline Keller, a spokeswoman for the diocese, said Friday that in addition to its own investigation, the diocese has referred the matter to the state Department of Children and Families and the state's attorney's office.
The allegations date back to when Hebert was a priest at St. Michael's Church in Stonington, from 1971 to 1981, according to The Day of New London.
Bishop Michael R. Cote made the announcement in a June 28 letter to parishioners, which was read at masses last weekend.
"My heart and prayer go out to the man who has made the allegation for the suffering he has experienced over a long period of time," Cote wrote. "I pray he will find healing and reconciliation as we seek to discover the truth."
Hebert, 72, has denied the allegations, the church said. There was no answer Saturday at a number listed for him in Pomfret.
• San Francisco Archbishop Questioned Over Role in Portland Molest Cases [$US 53m wasted so far]
CBS5, http://cbs5.com/news/local/2004/07/10/San_Francisco_Archbishop_Questioned_Over_Role_in_Portland_Molest_ Cases.html ; July 10, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) (KCBS): The San Francisco Catholic Archbishop has been named in connection with a sex abuse scandal that led to the surprising bankruptcy of Portland's Archdiocese this week.
The Portland Archdiocese has settled more than 130 claims of priest sex abuse at a cost of $53 million.
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle in Saturday's edition, William Levada served as Portland's Archbishop between 1986 and 1995.
Lawyers for a group of molestation victims say Levada allowed one of the accused priests back into the ministry after a period of "rehabilitation."
• Sex abuse not cited in first State inquiry
One in Four organisation, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/notcited , by Jim Morahan - Irish Examiner
IRELAND: No reference was made to sexual abuse in the State's first official document referring to non-accidental injury of children, the Inquiry into Child Abuse heard yesterday
Issued by the Department of Health in March 1977, the four-page memo contained a checklist to identify physical abuse cases and what steps should be taken. The previous April an Irish expert committee had reported to the department on non-accidental injury in the wake of British girl Maria Colwell's killing by her stepfather. The experts estimated that there were between 300 and 400 Irish cases of non-accidental injury of children each year, based on the figures in other countries.
Yesterday, principal in the department's childcare legislation unit Mary McLoughlin, gave evidence to the inquiry. The unit is responsible for dealing with adult victims of past abuse in residential institutions.
Until the 1980s, she said the majority of the social work on the ground was provided by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and before that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), which went back to the end of the 19th century. Ms McLoughlin agreed that the question of child sexual abuse emerged with the development of rape crisis centres in the early 1980s.
In parallel with this development came the knowledge that these centres were dealing with a growing number of people who had been abused as children. Official guidelines on non-accidental injury to children, issued in 1983, made the first reference to the existence of sexual abuse.
• Minister's lawyer says drugs, not exorcism, killed boy [Hemphill]
Court TV, http://courttv.com/trials/exorcist/070604_ctv.html , By Lisa Sweetingham, July 6, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): An 8-year-old autistic boy who was accidentally suffocated to death by a minister during an exorcism last summer appeared visibly sedated by prescription drugs before the ritual even began, a defense attorney for the minister told jurors Tuesday.
Although the minister, Ray Hemphill, admitted to leaning on the boy for almost two hours while attempting to cast out demons, his defense attorney told jurors that medication Terrance Cottrell was taking, not Hemphill's "good works," actually killed the boy. Autopsy reports determined that Terrance Cottrell died of asphyxiation from intense pressure on his chest.
Hemphill, 47, who prayed over Terrance's chest as parishioners held the boy down, stands trial this week on one charge of felony physical child abuse, defined as the reckless causation of great bodily harm. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Terrance had been diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 and had been taking the drug ziprasidone, also known by the brand name Geodon, at the time of his death.
• Details of boy's death changed, witness says [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jul04/241862.asp , By DERRICK NUNNALLY, dnunnally@journalsentinel.com ; Posted July 6, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): A minister on trial in the death of an autistic 8-year-old boy during a long, physical "prayer service" last summer told a firefighter responding to a 911 call that the boy collapsed while playing with other boys, the firefighter testified Tuesday.
But Milwaukee firefighter James Kopp said he saw no other boys in the storefront Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, where he had arrived the evening of Aug. 22, 2003, to treat Terrance Cottrell Jr.
Kopp's testimony surprised the lawyer representing Ray Hemphill, whose trial for felony child abuse began Tuesday. Defense attorney Thomas Harris had contended in his opening statement that Hemphill had taken every proper step after Terrance quietly stopped breathing sometime during the prayers.
Harris later asked Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jean DiMotto to keep prosecutors from reminding the jury that his client had apparently lied to the first official on the scene. Harris said he had never seen a fax prosecutors said they had sent to his office detailing the firefighter's testimony.
• Prosecution rests in minister's abuse trial [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jul04/242043.asp , By DERRICK NUNNALLY, dnunnally@journalsentinel.com , Posted July 7, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): The last two hours of an autistic 8-year-old boy's life were revisited in such excruciating detail in court Wednesday that his father, Terrance Cottrell Sr., began to cry in his seat in the gallery.
It was the second day in the trial of minister Ray A. Hemphill for felony child abuse in the two-hour, physical "prayer service" at his Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith on Aug. 22 that left 8-year-old Terrance Jr. dead from what the county medical examiner said was suffocation. The prosecution rested its case late Wednesday, relying largely on police accounts of what Hemphill and church members said went on that night.
The father began weeping openly as Milwaukee police Detective Djordje Rankovic relayed what Pat Cooper, Terrance Jr.'s mother, told him about the church service, which came at the end of a three-week series of rituals intended to invoke holy help with the boy's autism. There was reportedly singing, praying and a laying on of hands while the preacher pleaded into the struggling boy's ear for the demons to leave.
"Terrance would be forced to the floor and pinned down with Minister Ray Hemphill holding his head down, with his knee pinned across Terrance's chest to keep him from moving," said Rankovic, reading from a page of notes from his Aug. 25 interview with Cooper.
• Doctors says drug most likely did not cause overdose [2003 Hemphill] -- self-described minister
Duluth News Tribune, www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/9106575.htm , Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (WI): The Milwaukee County medical examiner and a toxicologist both say they believe the amount of drugs in the system of an autistic boy who died during a prayer service most likely had not caused an overdose.
Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen and toxicologist Richard Tovar expressed that view during testimony Wednesday in the felony child abuse trial of self-described minister Ray. A. Hemphill.
Authorities have contended that Terrance Cottrell Jr. died Aug. 22 when Hemphill pinned the boy while trying to release "demons" at the storefront Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith.
Defense attorney Thomas Harris repeatedly sought to have the doctors summoned by Assistant District Attorney Mark S. Williams admit that there was a possibility the boy had overdosed on drugs rather than suffocated in the preacher's restraint.
• Exorcist's brother says God claimed autistic boy's life, not defendant [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
Court TV, http://courttv.com/trials/exorcist/070804_ctv.html , By Lisa Sweetingham, July 8, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): The brother of a minister on trial for suffocating an autistic child during an exorcism told jurors Thursday that it was God who "took" the child, not the defendant's intense ritual.
"I'm the pastor and God has ordained my brother to be an evangelist, he has the gift to cast out devils," David Hemphill testified.
Ray Hemphill, 47, who prayed and sang over 8-year-old Terrance Cottrell's chest as parishioners held him down on Aug. 22, 2003, stands trial for felony physical child abuse. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
On Thursday, the defense called David Hemphill, known as Bishop Hemphill to his flock. He is the pastor of the independent Faith Temple of the Apostolic Faith Church, which he founded in 1977. He also ordained his brother into the church.
• Religion debatable, but the law is clear [Hemphill] -- self-ordained leaders
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/jul04/242570.asp , by Mike Nichols, Posted: July 9, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): For a while there, after the jury in the "Minister" Ray Hemphill trial had been holed up for about the fourth hour Friday, I was convinced common sense was going to be cast out like some imaginary demon.
Convinced by more than a ticking clock.
Hemphill, according to the criminal complaint, was ordained a minister in the Faith Temple Church of Apostolic Faith by his brother David. And even David didn't have any formal religious training, his wife was quoted as saying at one point.
Ray Hemphill himself was, in real life, a janitor with the Milwaukee Public Schools - albeit one who seemed to have a strong, and odd, set of beliefs.
Hoping to hear him explain those beliefs, and how they could be twisted into child abuse, I stopped by the courthouse earlier this week.
• Church minister could face five years in jail after autistic boy died in 'exorcism' [2003 Hemphill] -- Faith Temple Church
AWARES, www.awares.org/pkgs/news/news.asp?showItemID=457&board=&bbcode=&profileCode=§ion
MILWAUKEE (WI) USA: A minister was found guilty on July 9 of abusing an eight-year-old autistic boy who died in what prosecutors called an exorcism at a storefront church.
Prosecutors said that Ray Hemphill had lain on the boy's chest for at least an hour while trying to release "demons" from him. Hemphill's attorney said his client was only trying to help Terrance Cottrell, and that the boy had died after an overdose of medication.
Jurors found Hemphill, 46, guilty of a felony charge of physical abuse of a child recklessly causing great bodily harm. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Sentencing was set for August 17.
The boy died in August 2003 at Hemphill's Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith. The medical examiner ruled that he had suffocated. The authorities said Hemphill had pinned the youngster during what prosecutors called an exorcism, but his attorney said was a prayer service.
• Minister guilty in boy's death [Hemphill] -- self-described minister
Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0407100174jul10,1,4616170.story?coll=chi- newslocalnorth-hed ; Associated Press, Published July 10, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): A self-described minister was found guilty Friday of abusing an 8-year-old autistic boy who died last year in what prosecutors called an exorcism in a storefront church.
Prosecutors said Ray Hemphill lay on Terrance Cottrell Jr.'s chest for at least an hour while trying to release "demons" from him before the boy died.
Hemphill's attorney said that his client was only trying to help the boy, and that Terrance died after an overdose of medication.
• Janitor guilty in 'exorcism' death [2003 Hemphill] -- makeshift exorcism of 8-y-o
News Corporation, www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10096089^1702,00.html , From correspondents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 10, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI) USA: An American school janitor who moonlighted as an evangelical pastor was convicted of child abuse today in the death of an autistic boy during a "makeshift exorcism" ceremony.
Ray Hemphill faces up to five years in jail on the charge and another five on supervised release.
He was arrested in August last year following the death of eight-year-old Terrance Cottrell during a prayer service at a storefront church in Milwaukee in the US Midwestern state of Wisconsin.
The youngster's death came at the end of a bruising two hour prayer service during which Hemphill laid on top of the boy as he sought to expel the youngster's "demons," witnesses told police.
• Two priests, deacon added to list of clergy accused of sexual abuse [Warren, Jablonowski, DeChant]
KVOA, http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2022330
TUCSON (AZ) (AP): In Tucson, two priests and a deacon have been added by the Roman Catholic Diocese to a public list of clergy accused of sexually abusing minors.
The addition of the Reverend Thomas Warren, the Reverend Anthony Jablonowski and Deacon Ron DeChant brings the list to a total of 28 priests, two deacons and one nun.
The diocese created the list in 2002 after reaching a multimillion-dollar settlement with ten men.
The men said they were abused by four members of the local clergy during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
• Portland archbishop faces fresh challenges with bankruptcy filing [1950s-80s 50 boys]
KGW, www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_071004 _news_portland_archbishop_.2e4fa3323.html ; By SARAH LINN, Associated Press Writer, 09:35 AM PDT on Saturday, July 10, 2004
PORTLAND (OR): When Archbishop John Vlazny moved here from Minnesota in 1997, he thought he was coming to a diocese where he wouldn't have to deal with allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
Two years later, allegations surfaced that a Portland priest had molested more than 50 boys starting in the 1950s and through the 1980s.
The charges - and the lawsuits - began to pile up.
With more than $53 million paid in court settlements and roughly 60 lawsuits still pending, Vlazny decided this past week that the archdiocese had to file for bankruptcy - becoming the first in the nation to do so.
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