MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Each settled for six figure amounts
One man was assaulted by two clerics
A Catholic religious order resolved his suit
But Bishop Finn’s diocese refuses to do so
In the other case, predator admitted wrongdoing
What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, victims of clergy sex abuse and their supporters will disclose two recent settlements in local clergy sex abuse cases against two priests.
In one of them, a boy was assaulted by two priests. In the other one, a boy was assaulted by a priest who later admitted wrongdoing.
They will also
–prod Bishop Robert Finn to disclose the identities of predator priests (as a Minnesota judge just ordered a bishop there to do) and post their names on his KC diocesan website, and
–prod anyone who many have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or cover ups to come forward, get help, expose predators, protect kids, deter wrongdoing and start healing.
When:
TODAY, Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 1:15 p.m.
Where:
Outside the KC Catholic diocesan chancery office/headquarters, 20 W. 9th Street in downtown KC.
Who:
Three members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), including a St. Louis man who is the organization’s long time executive director
Why:
Two local pedophile priest lawsuits have settled.
1. – A high profile Kansas City clergy sex abuse victim has settled, for $125,000, with one of two Catholic defendants in a lawsuit that he filed two years ago.
In September 2011, Jon David Couzens Jr. filed a civil suit charging that two priests – Fr. Isaac True and Msgr. Thomas J. O’Brien – sexually assaulted him in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he was a nine and ten year old altar boy at Nativity parish in Independence.
Another defendant, Bishop Robert Finn’s KC diocese, has NOT settled with Couzens.
2. – John Doe M R has settled his case against Fr. James Urbanic, the KC diocese and Society of Precious Blood for $130,000. The case was filed in Feb. 2012 in Buchanan County, where the alleged crimes took place, at St. Francis Xavier’s Catholic church. The two met at Bishop LaBlond High School in St. Joseph.
In this case, all three defendants settled.
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