Diocese settles for nearly $10 million
By Karl Zinke
Examiner
October 15, 2014
http://www.examiner.net/article/20141015/SPORTS/141019491/10090/NEWS
Independence, Mo.
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has agreed to settle 30 sexual abuse lawsuits for nearly $10 million, the diocese announced Tuesday night.
The agreement for a total of $9.95 million resolves all 30 outstanding claims – including some involving priests in Independence – filed from 2010 to early 2014 alleging abuse by priests from the diocese from 20 or more years ago.
“The Diocese sincerely hopes that this settlement can bring about some closure to those hurt by abuse in the past,” the diocese wrote in a press release. “The Diocese also prays for a healing which can bring peace to the hearts of all of those hurt by child sexual abuse.”
The diocese said most of the settlement would be covered by insurance with the remaining amount paid by the diocese itself. The settlement ended the civil lawsuit trial brought by Jon Couzens against Monsignor Thomas O'Brien for alleged abuse in the late 1970s and early '80s. That trial has been in court in Independence for more than a week
David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese’s timing in settling the lawsuits in a press release.
“(Bishop Robert) Finn and his aides and their expensive lawyers pulled out all the stops to try and deny Jon David Couzens his day in court,” Clohessy wrote. “They did the same with these other victims. Time after time, Finn failed. So at the 11th hour, to protect their reputations and careers, Kansas City Catholic officials settled this case and the others as well.
"While we are relieved these courageous survivors, especially Jon David, won't have to endure even more mean-spirited legal attacks by Finn and his expensive lawyers, more cover ups by more Catholic officials would have emerged had these cases gone to trial and we're sad that this won't happen.”
Couzens was allegedly sexually abused by a pair of priests, Father Isaac True and O’Brien, in the late 1970s and early ’80s as a 9- and 10-year-old altar boy at Nativity of Mary parish in Independence. Couzens settled the case against True in December for $125,000 but the case against O'Brien continued in Jackson County Court in Independence until it was concluded by Tuesday's settlement.
Couzens said in 2011 when he filed the lawsuit that he decided to come forward after news reports surfaced about Father Shawn Ratigan, a Clay County priest who pleaded guilty to child pornography charges who had been arrested while working at a convent in Independence.
“A close friend of mine – her daughter – may have been a possible victim of Ratigan,” Couzens told The Examiner then. “I thought about it after we spoke and I knew I just couldn’t let it go on anymore. It has to stop.”
A lawsuit filed against Ratigan in 2011 was settled in May 2013 for $600,000. Ratigan pleaded guilty to 13 federal child pornography charges in August 2012. None of the lawsuits settled Tuesday involved the Ratigan case.
Clohessy applauded Couzens for coming forward in the SNAP press release.
“We cannot say this often or loudly enough: these wounded individuals are heroes for doing so much for so long to expose wrongdoing by Kansas City Catholic clerics,” Clohessy wrote. “They have been courageous and compassionate and effective. This settlement won’t magically heal them of the lifelong traumatic effects of the terrible assaults they endured as children. But we are confident that this settlement will help them in their recovery.”
The diocese asked anyone who suspects child abuse to report it to the local police and the Missouri Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-392-3738. The diocese also asked people to contact ombudsman Jenifer Valenti at 816-812-2500 if the suspected abuser works or volunteers for the Catholic church.
Contact: karl.zinke@examiner.net
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