INDIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )
A former Hammond Baptist pastor, who is serving a 12 year prison sentence for child sexual abuse, has had his petition to overturn his sentenced denied. We are glad the judge saw through this farce and upheld this rightly deserved sentence.
Rev. Jack Schaap was charged with using his position at the church to abuse an underage girl. He voluntarily agreed to a plea deal, and later claimed that he had a bad lawyer and his sentence should be tossed out. Gail Riplinger, a noted religious scholar, in a letter to the judge, wrote that since Schaap is a well educated man, with many lawyer friends, “(his) ‘assertion that he could not understand the words regarding the sentencing seems preposterous.’” We applaud Riplinger for speaking up.
It is always disheartening when predators attempt to avoid justice through legal loopholes or by playing ‘dumb’. We are glad he failed in his goal and that he must serve his sentence. We also hope that First Baptist Church of Hammond aggressively reaches out to anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse at the hands of Schaap.
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