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| Victims to Wisconsin Attorney General: " Conduct Your Own Clergy Child Sex Abuse and Fraud Investigation"
SNAP Wisconsin
February 28, 2012
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Victims to Wisconsin Attorney General: "Conduct your own clergy child sex abuse and fraud investigation"
Church motion in bankruptcy court on Wednesday will ask Judge Kelley if Archdiocese can conduct abuse inquiry "for" the Attorney General
Victims will ask Van Hollen to open a "full and independent inquiry" into over 8,000 reported acts of clergy sex abuse, tens of thousands of church documents, and newly taken depositions of church officials
WHO
After an impromptu press conference holding signs and childhood photos, victim/survivors of clergy sexual assault who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, and Fr. James Connell, Vice Chancellor of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and victim advocate, will attempt to hand deliver a letter to the Milwaukee Office of Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen concerning a new court motion to be heard Wednesday in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy court filed by the archdiocese of Milwaukee.
In the new motion, archdiocesan lawyers will ask to submit to Van Hollen their own "statistical analysis" of the criminal evidence contained in 570 victim claims, which detail at least 8,000 acts of criminal abuse by 100 alleged offenders never before identified by the archdiocese of Milwaukee. Victims want Van Hollen to conduct his own investigation of the new reports and offenders, not have church officials do it for him, along with examining tens of thousands of pages of internal church documents related to the abuse of children and the fraudulent cover up of these crimes, which have spanned some 50 years.
WHEN
Tuesday, February 28, 12:30 p.m.
WHERE
In the lobby of the State Office Building, outside of the Department of Justice, Office of Crime Victim Services (Room 180), 819 N. 6th Street, Milwaukee.
WHAT
Victim/survivors of clergy sexual assault will join the vice chancellor of the Milwaukee archdiocese and victim advocate Fr. Jim Connell, and urge in a letter to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen that he conduct his own investigation into the reported thousands of child sex crimes committed in the archdiocese of Milwaukee, the vast scope and extent of which are only now beginning to emerge in the hundreds of claims and tens of thousands of documents submitted to the federal bankruptcy court in Milwaukee.
Victims want Van Hollen to reject any attempt by the archdiocese to replace an investigation by the Attorney General with their own "statistical analysis" of abuse reports which they would submit to Van Hollen instead.
Last week, in federal bankruptcy court in Milwaukee, it was revealed that there are at least 8,000 incidents of child sexual abuse that have been reported in claims by victims of clergy sexual assault, which include at least 100 alleged offenders never named before by archdiocesan officials. The criminal acts span a period of fifty years.
Archdiocesan lawyers will make their request at a hearing in federal bankruptcy court on Wednesday before Judge Susan V. Kelley.
The archdiocese is also concerned, according to their motion filed for Wednesday's hearing, about the recent appeal made by Wisconsin state legislators urging Van Hollen to launch his own investigation into the newly submitted reports.
In their letter to Van Hollen, legislators noted that the existence of as many as 100 previously unidentified sex offenders named in sealed court records is "nothing short of a public safety crisis". The lawmakers want the Attorney General to not only investigate the actual acts of criminal abuse but "anyone who participated in concealing the sexual abuse of children" who, they say, "must also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting these heinous crimes." Potentially supporting the legislator's claims, Judge Kelley ruled on February 9th that under state law, the archdiocese can be held legally responsible for fraud, even if the actual criminal acts of assault and abuse occurred decades ago.
According to data gathered at BishopAccountablity.org, in every U.S. diocese where an independent, law enforcement or court investigation of child sex crimes has occurred–such as by a prosecutor's office, a state's attorney general, through a bankruptcy reorganization, or through court litigation–the total number of sex offenders and incidents of child sexual assaults is revealed to be dramatically higher than the bishops or the diocese had previously reported to the public.
Archbishop Jerome Listecki led the diocese of La Crosse before his appointment to Milwaukee in 2010. A 2004 national study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found that Listecki's previous diocese had "cleared" 64% of all priests accused of sexual misconduct, the highest percentage of any diocese in the U.S., six times higher than the national average.
Victims also want Van Hollen to direct a criminal probe into the likelihood that several cases submitted to the court may still be prosecutable, even though the past criminal statute of limitations may have tolled. Wisconsin law "freezes" the criminal statute on child sex crimes if the offender crosses state lines. There have been several high profile, successful prosecutions of "fleeing sex offender clergy" in recent years, including in Milwaukee, Juneau, Waukesha, and Walworth counties.
CONTACT
Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, 414.429.7259
John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director, 414.336.8575
Mike Sneesby, SNAP Milwaukee Director, 414.915.4374
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our national website is SNAPnetwork.org
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