Online child abuse network smashed, Organizational Infidelity Amplifies Sexual Trauma, Pursuit of Truth Film

- Online child abuse network smashed
“hundreds of thousands of child abuse images”

- Organizational Infidelity Amplifies Sexual Trauma

- Pursuit of Truth Film
Adult Survivors Of Child Sex Abuse Seeking Justice
“a court system weighted in favor of perpetrators combine to make it extremely difficult for survivors to successfully assert their legal rights and far too easy for perpetrators to walk free and continue to abuse other children”

Online child abuse network smashed
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 15/03/2013
Reporter: Ben Worsley

Federal police have smashed what they allege is one of the largest online child abuse networks they’ve seen, arresting twenty one people, confiscating hundreds of thousands of child abuse images and reportedly rescuing a young victim of the network….

BEN WORSLEY, REPORTER: This scene was repeated in 40 homes across Australia in every state and territory, the AFP swooped en masse….
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3717028.htm

Organizational Infidelity Amplifies Sexual Trauma
By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 11, 2013

Organizational Infidelity Amplifies Sexual Trauma

A dispiriting sign of the times is human fallibility associated with hitherto “safe” environments. Previously sacrosanct institutions – universities, the military, the church, scouts — are now headline news for the wrong reason.

Researchers are now learning that recovery from sexual trauma is more challenging when an individual has been betrayed by a perpetrator within a conceptually secure setting.

In a study of 345 female university students, University of Oregon researchers found that 233 of them had experienced at least one unwanted sexual experience in their lifetime, and 46 percent of those victims also experienced betrayal by the institution where incidents occurred.

In the final analysis, researchers found, those who experienced institutional betrayal suffered the most in four post-trauma measurement categories, including anxiety and dissociation.

In the study which appears in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, investigators used a 10-item analysis tool — the Institutional Betrayal Questionnaire — to assess institutional betrayal and involvement.

“Our work on institutional betrayal has coincided with increased public awareness of the harm inflicted by unresponsive institutions surrounding traumatic events,” said researcher Jennifer J. Freyd, Ph.D….

Those reporting a sense of institutional betrayal were found to have more severe post-traumatic symptoms of sexual abuse trauma, anxiety, sexual dysfunction and dissociation.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/11/organizational-infidelity-amplifies-sexual-trauma/52465.html

Pursuit of Truth Film

Adult Survivors Of Child Sex Abuse Seeking Justice
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a crime that is committed behind closed doors without witnesses and remains in the dark because children typically are unable to speak about their abuse.  This inability to come forward frequently continues into adulthood.  Regrettably, close to 90% of cases go unreported.  Thus, despite its epidemic proportions in this country – at least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 5 boys likely to be abused before age 18 – CSA remains in the shadows, hidden from the wheels of our justice system.

The legal system itself must share responsibility for such tragic underreporting.  As presently constituted, the legal process constructs unfair barriers for survivors to overcome to achieve justice against their abusers.  Unjust laws– including arbitrary statutes of limitations (SOL’s) that effectively bar 60%-70% of survivors’ cases from even being filed, erratic police/prosecution practices, and a court system weighted in favor of perpetrators combine to make it extremely difficult for survivors to successfully assert their legal rights and far too easy for perpetrators to walk free and continue to abuse other children.

But winds of change are stirring.  There is a growing movement to change the justice’s system fundamental approach to survivors’ cases.  Reformers in a number of states have either eliminated SOL’s or expanded the filing deadlines substantially.  Activists are shining the light on the need to transform the handling of survivors’ cases by police, prosecutors, and courts so that justice can become a reality for survivors.
http://www.pursuitoftruthfilm.com/

New York May Ease Statute of Limitations for Decades-Old Child Sex Abuse Claims, Sixth Circuit Rejects Commonsense Approach to Child Pornography Restitution

New York May Ease Statute of Limitations for Decades-Old Child Sex Abuse Claims

Bill Would Ease Path to Court for Yeshiva U. Victims
By Paul Berger Published March 07, 2013, issue of March 15, 2013.

Adults abused as children decades ago in New York could file civil lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions that employed them, if a national surge of legislative reform reaches Albany.

Advocates for child sex abuse victims say that this year, the prospects look good for a bill that sank four times previously following strong opposition from Catholic and ultra-Orthodox groups. If passed, the legislation could ease the way for a slew of lawsuits against Jewish and Catholic institutions accused of failing to report accounts of child sex abuse to law enforcement authorities.

“I’ve never been more optimistic we can succeed in 2013,” the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, said.

Yeshiva University may also be casting a wary eye toward Albany as it continues to investigate a scandal involving abuse allegations first reported by the Forward and dating back four decades.

Read the Forward’s COMPLETE COVERAGE of the allegations of abuse against staffers at Yeshiva U. high school.

The bill, known as the Child Victims Act, still faces a real test in the state senate where a key Democrat, Jeffrey Klein, indicated he would not support it….
http://forward.com/articles/172412/new-york-may-ease-statute-of-limitations-for-decad/

Sixth Circuit Rejects Commonsense Approach to Child Pornography Restitution
By James R. Marsh on March 8, 2013

Last week, the Sixth Circuit issued this confusing decision on child pornography restitution.

The Court held that the child pornography restitution statute contains both a cause-in-fact requirement—i.e., a showing that the defendant’s conduct actually caused the victim’s losses—and a requirement that the cause be proximate.

The Court found that “the statute still allows victims to collect more restitution than under earlier and concurrent restitution statutes. The statute expands the definition of victims and the categories of losses for which victims can receive restitution and makes restitution mandatory. In addition, the list of recoverable losses that the statute provides confirms the breadth of what is a foreseeable consequence of defendants’ actions.”

The Court concluded that “a proximate cause showing is necessary for restitution awards under § 2259, meaning the losses must be both “directly attributable” to the defendant’s offense, and “reasonably foreseeable.”….
http://www.childlaw.us/2013/03/sixth-circuit-rejects-commonse.html

California statute of limitations bill, All of Me – Kim Noble and MPD

Beall Introduces Bill to Bring Justice for Victims of Child Sex Abuse January 25, 2013 SACRAMENTO

A proposal to eliminate the statute of limitations for victims of child molestation to file lawsuits against their abusers has been introduced by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose.

Senate Bill 131 addresses the inability of victims to seek damages because of repressed memories that do not surface until after the deadline to file a lawsuit has passed. Currently, the law states that an action must be filed by the plaintiff’s 26th birthday or within three years of the date that the adult plaintiff reasonably discovers that the psychological trauma he or she is suffering from is linked to sexual abuse. Beall said the law needs to be updated to reflect recent medical findings.

“Well documented medical literature has been developed since the last time the statute of limitations for civil claims was last extended,” he said. “The medical evidence shows psychological injuries stemming from sexual abuse emerge later in life and well past the age of 26…. http://sd15.senate.ca.gov/news/2013-01-25-beall-introduces-bill-bring-justice-victims-child-sex-abuse

HATTIE the novel begins with the end—the end of a woman’s life. In a spare and powerful narrative—delivered in three parts “In The Meadow,” “By the Stream,” and “Through the Woods” —this soulful novel takes us on an intimate journey through the meaning of Hattie’s life and life in general. It delves fearlessly into the complexity of our human relationships, our yearning for the divine, and the ways in which these paths cross throughout our lives. http://annabozenabowen.com http://annabozenabowen.com/hattie-the-novel/

All Of Me: My incredible true story of how I learned to live with the many personalities sharing my body  Kim Noble and Jeff Hudson  Piatkus Publishing 2011 ISBN-10: 0749955902

ALL OF ME
Kim Noble is an accomplished artist and a mother of a 14-year-old girl. She is bubbly and vivacious. To meet her you wouldn’t think anything was wrong. There’s just one problem. To all extents and purposes, Kim Noble does not exist. . .
At some point before her third birthday, as a result of repeated and horrific abuse, Kim Noble’s mind shattered. Her body now plays host to many different personalities. Suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) her body is occupied by a little boy who only speaks Latin, a gay man and an anorexic teenager. Some age with her body; others are stuck in time. http://www.piatkusbooks.net/all-of-me/

Kim Noble  is a  woman who, from the age of 14 years, spent 20 years in and out of hospital until she made contact with Dr Valerie Sinason and Dr Rob Hale at the Tavistock and Portman Clinics.  In 1995 she began therapy and was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (originally named multiple personality disorder). D.I.D is a creative way to cope with unbearable pain. The main personality splits into several parts with dissociative or amnesic barriers between them. It used to be a controversial disorder but Kim has had extensive tests over 2 years by leading psychology professor at UCL, John Morton, who has established there is no memory between the personalities and that she has the misfortune of representing the British gold standard over genuine dissociation.

Kim has 20  main personalities, many fragments and 14 of the main personalities are artists. Having no formal art training, 14 of the main alters became interested in painting in 2004 after spending a short time with an art therapist. These 14 artists each have their own distinctive style, colours and themes, ranging from solitary deserts, sea scenes and abstracts to collages and paintings with traumatic content. Many alters are unaware that they share a body with other artists. http://kimnoble.com/

The Priest That Preyed

The Priest That Preyed
By DANIEL A. OLIVAS February 6, 2013  LOS ANGELES

….The title story of the book, called “Assumption,” describes a fictionalized priest, Father González, who served a parish in a neighborhood not unlike the one I grew up in. The priest in the story is known for being “cool” and spending time with some of the more troubled boys at the nearby grammar school. The boys talk about how he has invited them to visit his room, drink wine, listen to Sly Stone and look at dirty magazines. These visits, of course, lead to the boys’ molesting. In the story, the priest gets caught and, in disgrace, hangs himself.

In real life, shame did not bring an end to the abuse. The priest I based the story on, the priest the sister recognized, was the Rev. Eleuterio Ramos. My parish knew him as Father Al, the hip young priest who spoke out for immigrant and Chicano rights, railed against the Vietnam War, could drink with the best of them and dedicated his spare time to mentoring the most troubled boys at St. Thomas….

The allegations against Father Al, who became a priest in 1966 and was transferred from parish to parish 15 times, first came out in the ’90s, when the Orange Diocese was sued by two men. They accused Father Al of plying them with alcohol when they were children, showing them adult films and sexually abusing them. But by that point, he had already been suspended from priestly duties. In 2003, he admitted to the police that he had molested at least 25 boys. But because of the statute of limitations, he was never charged, and he died in 2004, a year after my conversation with the nun.

According to church records that became public last month after years of litigation brought by victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and brothers of religious orders, this story is sadly familiar. The documents include information on 124 priests over four decades, and demonstrate a pattern by the church of cover-up, denial and — I can’t help but think it — evil….

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/opinion/the-catholic-church-abuse-cancer-spreads.html

On Behalf of 25 Child Advocacy Organizations In Support of Boy Scout Survivors on Release of “Perversion Files” – Calling on All States to Eliminate the Statutes of Limitations Keeping Child Sex Abuse Victims Out of Court

October 18, 2012
Comment by Professor Marci A. Hamilton

on Behalf of 25 Child Advocacy Organizations In Support of Boy Scout Survivors on Release of “Perversion Files”

Calling on All States to Eliminate the Statutes of Limitations Keeping Child Sex Abuse Victims Out of Court

The Oregon Supreme Court ordered the release of the Boy Scouts’ “perversion files” in Jack Does I-VI vs. Corp. of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Corp. of the President of the Church of Latter Day Saints and Successors & The Boy Scouts of America, et. al (Or. June 14, 2012), available at http://media.oregonlive.com/portland_impact/other/S058601%5B1%5D.pdf  .

These files establish that the Boy Scouts knew about predators, but instead of protecting children by going to the authorities, they kept their identities secret and let them abuse more children. Marci Hamilton, one of the nation’s leading experts on child sex abuse in institutional settings, states, “The Boy Scout files, like the Philadelphia Grand Jury Reports on abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and the grand jury report on abuse by Jerry Sandusky, document how yet another institution has covered up child sex abuse. They kept records and knew more than anyone else in the country about the recidivism of abusers, yet, they did not go to the authorities.

They enabled perpetrators and endangered one child after another. Internal records and investigations are never enough. Nor is sending the perpetrator away, with no notice to the authorities and the next community at risk. Sadly, the statutes of limitations for the vast majority of the Boy Scout survivors in many states likely have expired, making it difficult to prosecute or sue the perpetrators, or to bring the organization to account for endangering children. The Boy Scout’s perversion files are another stark reminder to our elected representatives that laws in many states favor the organization, aid the predator, and put children at risk. Right now, there are untold numbers of hidden child predators who are preying on one child after another, because the statutes of limitations have been configured to give them that opportunity.

It is a fact that approximately 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 5 boys are sexually abused. Thus, there is an iceberg of victims across the country, including many Boy Scout victims, who have no access to justice. Under the current statute of limitations in many states–which halt criminal prosecution and civil cases long before most victims are ready to come forward — those who caused the abuse or created the conditions for the abuse are being given a free ride.

The Boy Scouts of America is just the latest organization whose failure to report abuse led to justice denied. Now is the time for every state to look hard at its SOLs and to give child sex abuse victims a chance at justice.”….
http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/uploadedFiles/Cardozo/Profiles/hamilton02-447/PressReleaseBSA2.pdf

Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Mystery Surrounding its Etiology and its Connection to Satanic Ritual Abuse, Repressed memory in child molestation lawsuit

Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Mystery Surrounding its Etiology and its Connection to Satanic Ritual Abuse

A Research Paper Presented to The Faculty of the Adler Graduate School In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Master of Arts in Adlerian Counseling and Psychotherapy….

The purpose of this project is to inform its readers of the often overlooked and sometimes avoided diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder along with its possible connections to extreme abuse such as satanic ritual abuse as well as intentional mind control….

It has also been argued that dissociative identity disorder is a “chronic, posttraumatic dissociative disorder characterized by recurrent disturbances of identity and memory” (Kluft, 1988, p. 212). Dissociative identity disorder is a complex disorder that generally finds its roots in an individual?s childhood. “The severe, sustained, and repetitive trauma that occurs during the early to middle stages of childhood (ages 2 and a half to 8) for most victims is thought to promote the development of Multiple Personality Disorder” now known as dissociative identity disorder (Wilbur, 1984, p. 5)….

The Connection of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Satanic Ritual Abuse

There is a rising belief among therapists working with those diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder that there has been a missing piece to the puzzle to better understand and work with these clients. That missing clue being that a high percentage rate of individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder are also victims of satanic ritual abuse….

Over the past few decades the field of psychology has improved its effectiveness in society as it has willingly accepted the awful truths that research was revealing regarding issues of abuse. For example, in the 1960′s there was rampant denial that any form of child abuse even existed. There seemed to be a belief that maybe “one in one hundred children were abused” (Friesen, 1991, p. 206). In the 1970′s incest finally came into focus of a possibility of being more widespread than previously thought and in the 1980?s victims of abuse and incest were finally beginning to be believed as telling the truth. As a result of these individuals finally being believed diagnoses such as multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder, began to rise (Friesen, 1991)….

As the field of psychology and more importantly society embraced the ugly truth of rampant child abuse and the reality of wide spread incest America improved. America improved in its ability to rescue, protect, and bring some restoration to these abused individuals by lifting the widespread cloak of shame surrounding abuse. As society and the field of psychology slowly embrace and believe what individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder are sharing as truth then the cloak of shame for them can be lifted as well….

One of the mainstays of working with individuals with dissociative identity disorder is to aid the client in breaking down the amnesiac, dissociative walls which have been constructed as a means of self-protection. One way to help break down these walls is to aid the individual in remembering the abuse he/she endured. As these walls begin to weaken more and more memories of trauma begin to rise. According to the research conducted by Bryant (1995) these memories are not delusions, hallucinations, or made up fantasy, in fact as research is revealing they are indeed memories of actual events that have taken place….

Extreme Abuse Survey….
The results were overwhelming in revealing a connection of satanic ritualistic abuse to the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder as well as opening shedding light into other ritualistic forms of abuse such as mind control used through the occult rituals as well as government-sponsored mind control experiments. This research reveals the two are very often connected with one another. For example this data shows that “64% of 985 respondents reported memories of incest and 48% of 977 respondents reported memoires of ritual abuse before they sought therapy and 69% of 257 respondents who reported secret mind control experiments used on them as children also reported having been abused in a satanic cult” (Rutz et al., 2008, p. 50). http://www.alfredadler.edu/sites/default/files/Vogelsang%20MP%202010.pdf

Friday, July 13, 2012

Psychiatrist testifies on repressed memory in child molestation lawsuit

By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER —  A defense expert testified today in U.S. District Court that “there is no satisfactory scientific evidence that you could lock up a memory of a major traumatic event” and not remember it again.

Harrison G. Pope, a clinical psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School, testified for Richard B. Edison, a plastic surgeon who is being sued by Timothy Clark. The Charlton resident alleges that the doctor sexually abused him for several years, beginning in 1974, when the doctor was a student at University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Mr. Clark was a 10 year old in Shrewsbury.

Mr. Clark returned to the witness stand today to say that he had no memory of his sexual abuse in the 70s until he visited his mother’s grave in 2008. If so, that would reset the 3-year statute of limitations, allowing him to pursue the allegations against the doctor.

Stephen J. Gordon, Mr. Clark’s lawyer, got Dr. Pope to acknowledge that  he made “possibly more than $100,000” by testifying or consulting on repressed memory cases last year, more than he got for working half-time at Harvard. Dr. Pope said he testified or consulted for the Roman Catholic Diocese in Indiana on about 10 cases and two other cases for the Diocese in Minnesota.

James Hopper, an expert for the plaintiff, gave more subtle testimony. The Harvard Medical School psychologist testified that an abuse victim can forget a traumatic event, deliberately or otherwise, and then be unable to recover it until there is a “password” such as a similar event or someone questioning the victim about the event.

Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV said that after additional testimony, he expects the case to be given to the jury of 5 women and 3 men on  Monday.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120713/NEWS/120719752/1116/

Deal ends trial of surgeon By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF Tuesday, July 17, 2012

WORCESTER —  The civil trial in which a doctor was accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy in Shrewsbury when he was a medical student 38 years ago ended abruptly in its sixth day yesterday when the two sides announced in U.S. District Court that they had reached a settlement.

Lawyers for Dr. Richard B. Edison, 59, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Timothy Clark, 48, of Charlton, said they reached an agreement Sunday night. They informed Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV as a hearing was scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. yesterday, the last scheduled day of testimony.

The settlement leaves unanswered how the jury would have voted on the allegations of years of sexual abuse, which were made by a man who said that he had repressed his memory of what happened to him over several years in the mid-1970s until he visited his mother’s grave the day before Mother’s Day in 2008.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed because of a confidentiality clause….

One of the eight jurors said he was more impressed with Mr. Clark’s allegations than with Dr. Edison’s defense. The juror, Pei Liang Zhang, said, “Personally, I believe that the defendant must realize he did something to the poor” plaintiff.

Mr. Zhang, an engineer living in Shrewsbury, said he found it “pretty obvious” why the plaintiff’s mother went court to get an order for Mr. Edison to stay away from her children. There was evidence that Mr. Edison was charged in 1977 with disturbing the peace in a complaint by Diane Clark, mother of Timothy Clark, in the state’s Central District Court….

The district attorney’s office is not looking into the allegations raised in the trial, according to spokesman Paul Jarvey. The office looked into those allegations around 2008, he said, and found insufficient information to proceed. http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120717/NEWS/107179925/

A Troubled Silence, Jury breaks without verdict in Philadelphia church abuse case

Op-Ed Contributor – A Troubled Silence
By RICHARD B. GARTNER June 7, 2012

THE revelation this week of alleged widespread child abuse at the elite Horace Mann School in New York City, most of it occurring during the 1970s and ’80s, is only the most recent instance of men coming forward, many years after the fact, with horrific stories of sexual molesting from their childhood.

Most of those accused of the abuse in the Horace Mann case are dead, but under New York State law, if alive they would most likely be safe from justice. The state’s statute of limitations on child abuse is five years from the victim’s 18th birthday. After age 23, the victim has no recourse.

Yet young adults, particularly men, who suffer the aftereffects of abuse are rarely in an emotional state to bring charges. Given what we now know about why it takes victims so long to come forward, the law needs to be changed.

Many people cast a skeptical eye on those who wait so long to reveal instances of child abuse, particularly when it happened to them as teenagers. They assume that accusers are making it up, blaming what were at most minor incidents for their troubles.

But in my decades of experience working with abuse victims, I have found that men spend years putting their emotions in a deep freeze or masking post-traumatic reactions with self-defeating behaviors like compulsive gambling and substance abuse. Eventually, they are forced by internal or external events to find treatment….

Finally, since boyhood abuse was not part of the public conversation until recently, many boys and men assumed their experiences were repulsive and aberrant. And a man who has not talked about it might feel it would be humiliating to first disclose it in middle age or later. Needless to say, the decades spent trying to bury the memories rarely work….

Things may be changing, thanks, in part, to the recent spate of abuse revelations. Many older victims have gained the courage to come forward. In my own practice, I received almost as many calls from sexually abused men in December and January, soon after allegations surfaced about abuse by the former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, as I usually get in a year. With Mr. Sandusky’s trial set to begin next week, I expect to get even more calls.

But more needs to be done. Every year since 2005, Margaret M. Markey, a New York State assemblywoman, has introduced a bill to extend the statute of limitations for five more years, a modest increase; it would also create a one-year window for adults up to age 53 to bring charges against alleged abusers. The bill has passed the Assembly four times but has consistently been blocked from coming to the floor of the Senate, largely thanks to fierce lobbying by the Roman Catholic Church….

Richard B. Gartner is a psychologist and psychoanalyst and the author of “Beyond Betrayal: Taking Charge of Your Life After Boyhood Sexual Abuse.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/opinion/in-light-of-child-abuse.html

Jury breaks without verdict in Philadelphia church abuse case
June 7, 2012 PHILADELPHIA (Reuters)

A Philadelphia jury ended its fifth day of deliberations on Thursday without reaching a verdict in the child sex abuse trial of a Roman Catholic monsignor, the highest-ranking U.S. clergyman to stand trial in the church’s wide-ranging pedophilia scandal. Monsignor William Lynn, who supervised hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese for 12 years as secretary of the clergy, is accused of conspiracy and child endangerment. If convicted on all charges, he faces the possibility of 21 years in prison….

Prosecutors say Lynn, 61, covered up child sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.

Lynn’s motive was to avoid scandal and any potential loss of money for the church, they argued. His job was to supervise 800 priests, which included investigating sex abuse claims, from 1992 to 2004.

The defense said Lynn tried to handle documented cases of pedophile priests, making a list in 1994 of 35 accused predators and writing memos to suggest treatment and suspensions. He was hampered because he could only make recommendations to the head of the archdiocese, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died in January at age 88, the defense said….

The Philadelphia jury also is deliberating the fate of the Reverend James Brennan, 48, who is charged with child endangerment and the attempted rape of a 14-year-old child in 1996.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-churchbre8561g8-20120607,0,7146796.story

Penn State Officials Face Trial In Abuse Case, radio interview on child molesters

Penn State Officials Face Trial In Sex Abuse Case
by Jeff Brady
December 17, 2011

Accused of trying to cover up Penn State’s child sex abuse scandal, two former administrators will face a trial on perjury charges. A judge made that decision at a preliminary hearing on Friday, as NPR’s Jeff Brady reports. Warning: This segment contains language that may not be suitable for all audiences. http://www.npr.org/2011/12/17/143886780/penn-state-officials-face-trial-in-sex-abuse-case

Penn State officials to stand trial in abuse case
By Mark Shade HARRISBURG, Pa  Fri Dec 16, 2011

(Reuters) – A judge ruled on Friday that two former senior Penn State officials must stand trial on charges of lying to a grand jury about what they knew of sexual abuse allegations against former coach Jerry Sandusky.

District Judge William Wenner decided there was enough evidence against former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz that they should be brought to trial. The ruling capped a court hearing where a key witness, Mike McQueary, testified in public for the first time that he saw Sandusky in a sex act with a 10-year-old boy in 2002.

The explosive allegations against Sandusky have shocked the university and the college-sports world, and focused national attention on the serious problem of child sex abuse. The story told by McQueary, a graduate assistant in the university’s football program at the time, is key to the case against the two Penn State officials and Sandusky.

This is because McQueary testified that he personally witnessed the abuse and then told his boss, former head coach Joe Paterno, who in turn told Curley. Even though McQueary’s account was passed up the line of authority at Penn State, no one told police and Sandusky’s alleged behavior continued for years.

Curley and Schultz deny that they lied to the grand jury and say that Paterno and McQueary only told them in general terms about the incident and not in graphic detail. Sandusky has been charged with 52 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 victims over 15 years. The identity of two of the victims, including the boy in the shower, remains unknown, prosecutors said. Sandusky has said he is innocent….

“I believe he was sexually molesting the boy,” McQueary testified at the hearing in the Dauphin County Courthouse on Friday. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/17/us-crime-coach-pennstate-idUSTRE7BF01R20111217

Radio talk show host Keith Hansen interviews researcher and former therapist, Lynn Crook, M.Ed., on current issues related to child molesters.   Where do we find them?  How do they operate?  When should we decide what to do if our child is molested? http://vyzygothraw.com/audio/crook.mp3

Syracuse Child Abuse Cases Spur Calls To Reform New York Statutes Of Limitations

Subcommittee Hearing – Breaking the Silence on Child Abuse: Protection, Prevention, Intervention, and Deterrence
Committee: Subcommittee on Children and Families
Date:  Tuesday, December 13 2011, 10:15 AM
http://help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=12f57f31-5056-9502-5d46-d6c877eaa515

Syracuse Child Abuse Cases Spur Calls To Reform New York Statutes Of Limitations  by John Rudolf 12/13/11
NEW YORK

On Dec. 7, William Fitzpatrick, district attorney for Onondaga County in upstate New York, said he found credible the allegations of two former Syracuse University basketball team ball boys that Bernie Fine, the team’s long-standing assistant coach, molested them in the 1980s.

“These two victims are believable,” Fitzpatrick said at a press conference.

But state prosecutors won’t be bringing any criminal charges against Fine for the alleged abuse, which the coach adamantly denies. The statute of limitations in both cases expired nearly two decades ago — just two years after his accusers, now in their late 30s, passed their 18th birthdays.

Fine can’t be sued either: under state law, the two men needed to file a civil suit against him before they turned 23.

“There is no remedy,” said Jeff Dion, director of the National Crime Victim Bar Association. “Because of New York law, a child molester is going to get off scot-free.”

Fine would not have fared nearly as well elsewhere in the country. In a growing number of states, legal reforms now allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek civil damages and criminal charges against their alleged abusers many years after reaching adulthood. The reforms are an acknowledgement of substantial research demonstrating that abuse victims often require an extensive period of time before they are ready to confront their abusers.

“People are so messed up that they don’t get the courage and the gumption to do anything until they’re in their 40s — if then,” said Thomas Neuberger, a Delaware attorney who has represented hundreds of victims of childhood abuse. “It takes a person decades before they get the courage to speak out.”….

In the last week, two lawmakers announced plans to introduce legislation extending the time period when victims of childhood abuse can seek criminal charges and civil restitution against their abusers. A previous bill to reform New York’s child abuse laws passed the Assembly three times, but was repeatedly stymied in the state Senate after heavy lobbying by Catholic bishops, who vigorously opposed a key provision to temporarily lift the civil statute of limitations for decades-old abuse.

Yet the intense publicity now surrounding the Syracuse and Penn State scandals may finally push the vote for a reform bill over the top in New York, according to Marci Hamilton, a law professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York and a long-time advocate for child sexual abuse victims.

“I do think in the next year or two or three, it’s going to be impossible for legislators to maintain statutes of limitations that favor predators,” Hamilton said. “The public outrage is building.”

The proposed reforms would bring New York closer in line with many other states, which afford child abuse victims special rights not given to other crime victims or civil plaintiffs.

Delaware has no criminal statute of limitations at all for any sex crime against a child. In Pennsylvania, victims have until their 50th birthday to seek criminal prosecution against an abuser. Six other states, including Connecticut, Louisiana and Missouri, allow criminal prosecutions of child sex abuse for at least 20 years after victims turn 18. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/syracuse-and-penn-state-child-sex-abuse-statute_n_1146138.html