Sexual abuse case against Chaminade College Preparatory School ...

By Lilly Fowler
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
March 25, 2015

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/sexual-abuse-case-against-chaminade-college-preparatory-school-will-proceed/article_0655e202-d4b0-5ff0-a93b-e7e7d1084b11.html

CREVE COEUR • A St. Louis County Circuit Court judge ruled Wednesday that a sexual abuse case against a former Marianist cleric at the Chaminade College Preparatory School can proceed to trial.

“The Marianists and Chaminade attempted to have the case rejected on summary judgment for statute of limitations issues but failed,” plaintiff attorney Ken Chackes said in a news release.

The prep school is sponsored by the Marianist Province of the United States, a Roman Catholic religious order.

The lawsuit, filed in 2012, names Marianist leader the Rev. Martin Solma in addition to Chaminade and the Marianist Province.

Brother Louis Meinhardt, the former teacher and coach accused of abuse, is not named in the suit because he is deceased. The plaintiff is known only as “John Doe.”

Plaintiff attorneys argue that Doe repressed memories of the alleged abuse by Meinhardt but that they surfaced in a visit to the school in 2011 or 2012.

The statute of limitations for sexual abuse in Missouri allows for claims within five years of an alleged victim’s either turning 21, or recalling the abuse.

“I coped by repression of this embarrassment, humiliation and guilt and now see the evidence of chronic, underlying psychological damage as these sick memories have surfaced,” Doe said in a statement in 2012.

Meinhardt, who worked for the Creve Coeur prep school from 1958 to 1982, would allegedly watch juvenile boys shower and grab their genitals, earning several nicknames including “the kissing coach.” He also, according to the suit, used common catch phrases including “come here and give me loving.”

The suit seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress and medical and psychological treatment caused by the alleged abuse that started in 1966 when the plaintiff was in seventh grade.

The suit points to one instance in which Meinhardt allegedly asked the boy after school for a “private tutoring session” and then molested him.

It says that the school and Marianists knew about Meinhardt’s reputation and other instances of abuse and did nothing to stop it.

In 2012, in response to another allegation of sexual abuse against Meinhardt, Solma sent out letters to 1,600 former students seeking additional information. Plaintiff lawyers say they now have more than 30 letters testifying to knowledge related to sexual abuse by Meinhardt.

Chackes said he had handled at least five other sexual abuse lawsuits against members of the Marianist Catholic order: John Woulfe, William Mueller, Robert R. Osborne, Daniel A. Triulzi and Charles H. Miller.

Officials at Chaminade could not be reached for comment. Leaders of the Marianist order declined to comment.