Files of Five Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse will be Released Tomorrow

KAAL
May 18, 2014

http://www.kaaltv.com/article/stories/S3440530.shtml

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- Files of five St. John's monks accused of sexually abusing children who worked in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will be publicly released at news conference on Monday, May 19. This is according to Jeff Anderson and Associates. A lawfirm based in St. Paul that represents sexual abuse survivors.

Files to be released include Robert Blumeyer, Cosmas Dahlheimer, Thomas Gillespie, Francis Hoefgen and Brennan Maiers. The files were obtained in a lawsuit filed in Ramsey County in 2013 involving the Archdiocese, Diocese of Winona and Father Thomas Adamson.

An announcement will also be made at the press conference concerning the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Stearns County on behalf of two Minnesota men, Doe 33 and Doe 34, naming the Order of St. Benedict a/k/a and d/b/a St. John’s Abbey, and Richard Eckroth. 

The young boys, now adults, were parishioners at St. Joseph’s in St. Joseph, MN when Eckroth sexually abused them at a cabin in Northern Minnesota in the early 1970s. They are two of many kids believed to be raped and abused by Eckroth while a monk who is now, “on restriction at the abbey.

Request that St. John’s release the files of the five monks as well as the files on all 17 clerics from St. John’s who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse involving minor children.

This press conference is organized by