Diocese of Lincoln NE

Return to main database page. See abbreviations and posting policy. Send corrections.

Terry McKiernan February 26, 2021

12 Accused in This Diocese

Fr. James F. Benton

Ordained: 1973
Status: Accused

Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Placed on leave, then retired 2017. In 8/2018 Benton's 37-year-old nephew stated publicly that the priest sexually abused him as a child in the 1990s, during a sleepover at the rectory. Benton denied the allegations. Case reported to the diocese then sent to the Vatican. In 5/2018 the Vatican responded that any further action was up to the bishop. Bishop Conley imposed restrictions on Benton's ministry. The nephew said he knew of another victim, allegedly abused at age 14 when Benton was a seminarian. He said the boy told another priest, who did nothing. Benton was reportedly also accused of the sexual abuse of a child in 2000 and may have been sent away for treatment. In 8/2018 Benton was living at a home for retired priests. Included on the diocese's list 4/2/2019. Per the NE Attorney General's 11/2021 report, there are three known victims.

Sources:

Fr. John Copenhaver

Ordained: 1988
Status: Accused

Died: 04/4/2021
Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Named publicly as accused by the diocese on its list 4/2/2019. Per the 11/2021 NE Attorney General's report, there are two known victims. One reported to Bishop Bruskewitz in 2003 that Copenhaver sexually abused him at ages 15-16 in the early 1990s; the other was an adult male in his mid-20s who reported his recent abuse by Copenhaver to a parish priest in 2004. Copenhaver was allowed to stay in ministry until 2012, when his faculties were revoked and public ministry restricted. Copenhaver died in 4/2021.

Sources:

Fr. Clarence J. Crowley

Ordained: 1937
Status: Accused

Died: 03/19/1986
Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Monsignor. Named publicly as accused by the diocese on its list 4/2/2019. Died in 1986. Per the 11/2021 NE Attorney General's Report, there are seven known victims, all boys, ages 11-16. The abuse spanned Crowley's entire priesthood. One victim sent a letter in 2001 or 2002 to Bishop Bruskewitz - it was returned and the diocese did not respond.

Sources:

Fr. Richard Deonise

Donate Photo

Ordained: 1983
Status: Accused

Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Named publicly as accused by the diocese on its list 4/2/2019. Noted to have been excommunicated in 1994. Per the 11/2021 NE Attorney General's Report, Deonise sexually abused a boy, ages 11-13, in the mid-1980s. The abuse was reported to the diocese in 1994 and 1995.

Sources:

Fr. Robert C. Hrdlicka

Donate Photo

Ordained: 1977
Status: Convicted

Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

In 1978 the father of four boys, ages 12-15, reported to Msgr. Crowley that Hrdlicka had sexually abused his sons during a recent camping trip. Hrdlicka was moved to another parish. He was also assigned as a state leader in a Catholic Youth organization. (Crowley is also the subject of substantiated allegations of abuse of boys.) Joined the Navy as a chaplain in 1986. Court martialed in 1993 and sent to prison after pleading guilty to indecent acts with minors in South Carolina and Sicily, Italy. Released from prison and from the Navy in 1999. In 2002 the four brothers demanded payment from the Lincoln diocese. Hrdlicka was laicized in 2005. His name was included on the diocese's list 4/2/2019. Per the 11/2021 NE Attorney General's Report, there are nine known victims.

Sources:

Fr. Paul F. Margand

Ordained: 1985
Status: Convicted

Died: 09/1/2022
Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Assistant priest at St. Teresa's in Lincoln in the 1980s when accused of molesting at least three boys, ages 11 and 12, on separate occasions within two years of ordination. Criminal charges were filed in 7/1987 after one of the boys came forward. Found guilty in 1988. Served approximately three years in prison, released in 1/1991. Diagnosed in prison as a pedophile with "obsessive-compulsive personality disorder with paranoid and schizoid features." A 4/2002 story said he was a graduate student in criminal justice at Temple University in Philadelphia. Said to be using an assumed name. Laicized in 2004. Included on the diocese's list 4/2/2019. Per the NE A.G. report released in 11/2021, there are five known victims. Margand was struck and killed by a car in a hit-and-run accident while out walking 9/1/2022. He had been living in Deptford Township, NJ.

Sources:

Fr. Jerome E. Murray

Ordained: 1949
Status: Settled

Died: 04/21/2016
Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Monsignor. Retired in 1999. Faculties revoked, public ministry restricted 2002-2005. Two men filed separate suits in 2003 alleging abuse by Murray in the 1970s. Murray denied all the charges and asked that one of the suits be dismissed due to the statute of limitations. In 3/2004 the diocese settled with one plaintiff, and the other in 10/2004. Murray died in 2016. His name was included on the diocese's 4/2/2019 list of those with substantiated allegations against them. Per the NE Attorney General's Report released in 11/2021, Murray "abused numerous students in the 1960s and 1970s in York, NE." Murray had access to his victims as a parish priest and Boy Scouts leader. He had also been superintendent of schools. There are at least nine known victims, ages 10-13. The abuse occurred in the church sacristy, parish rectory and on camping trips. The diocese knew of Murray's behavior in the early 1970s and allegedly resisted the school board's attempts to have him removed.

Sources:

Fr. Alfred N. Pettinger

Donate Photo

Ordained: 1986
Status: Indicted

Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Pettinger was named publicly in the NE Attorney General's report released in 11/2021. There are two known victims, both 13-year-old girls. The incidents occurred 1986-1988 and 1990, with reports to the diocese in 1987 and 1989. Pettinger was moved to another parish after the earliest report of his behavior, after which the second girl was victimized. He focused obsessively on each girl, with phone calls and letters, inappropriately discussing sexual matters with them and emotional manipulation. He provided alcohol to one of the girls and gave the other a pornographic magazine. Pettinger was sent to treatment in 1989, after the second victim came forward. He was returned to ministry in 1990 and discovered in 1995 to have an addiction to pornography. He would paste photos of the faces of his former female middle school students on the faces of adult women in pornographic magazines. Pettinger was suspended in 1996, his faculties removed.

Sources:

Fr. Aloysius Piorkowski

Donate Photo

Ordained: 1935
Status: Accused

Died: 03/18/1978
Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Extern priest from the Diocese of Chelmno, Poland. Arrived in the Unites States in 1939. Worked in Poland, IL, NE. Arrived at some point in Chicago. Moved in 1947 to the Diocese of Lincoln. Worked at Boys Town 1959-1962, in the Archdiocese of Omaha. Removed when accused of sexually abusing a child. Accepted into the Diocese of Rockford, assigned as a hospital chaplain. Abused a previous victim there. Died in 1978. Named publicly as accused by the Lincoln diocese on its list 4/2/2019. Added to the Rockford IL diocese's list 10/21/2020. Per the 11/2021 NE Attorney General's Report, there are two known victims. Both were boys, age 16, abused in the early 1950s, reported to the diocese in 2007. Included in 10/2021 on the Omaha archdiocese's list; noted to have abused 1949-1964.Added in 10/2022 to the Chicago archdiocese's list of credibly accused. Included in the 5/23/2023 IL Attorney General's Report.

Assignments:

IL Attorney General’s Report Assignment Record

Sources:

Fr. Sean Redmond

Donate Photo

Ordained: 1990
Status: Accused

Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Named publicly as accused by the diocese on its list 4/2/2019. Removed from public ministry in 2009 after an allegation of child sexual abuse. Laicized in 2010. Per the NE A.G. report released in 11/2021, Redmond sexually abused a girl, ages 13-15, in the early 1990s. He admitted the abuse to law enforcement in 2019.

Sources:

Fr. Robert H. Smith

Donate Photo

Ordained: 1956
Status: Indicted

Died: 03/19/1999
Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Named publicly in NE Attorney General's Report released in 11/2021. At least two known victims. One was a boy, age 12-13, abused in the mid-1960s in Alma. The other was a 14-year-old boy against whom Smith made sexual advances in the 1970s, as reported to the diocese in 1991. Smith's personnel file shows other allegations, discounted by the diocese. One was by a man who reported to Bishop Bruskewitz in 1995 and to another priest in 1999 that Smith molested his son in the 1980s. Smith retired to Mexico in 1995 and died in 1999.

Sources:

Fr. Charles Townsend

Ordained: 1991
Status: Convicted

Diocese: Diocese of Lincoln NE

Named publicly as accused by the diocese on its list 4/2/2019. Accused of misconduct/grooming, including supplying a 19-year-old male with alcohol in 2017. He was placed on leave in 2018. Pleaded no contest to criminal charges in 3/2019. Per the NE Attorney General's Report released in 11/2021, Townsend favored a small group of altar servers at his parish. He would have teenage boys at the rectory late into the evening, allow them to drive his car, and he took a few of them on a long trip. In early 2017 church officials gave Townsend a canonical warning, concerned that his behavior would cause scandal.

Sources:

Return to main database page. See abbreviations and posting policy. Send corrections.

Our Database of Publicly Accused does not state or imply that individuals facing allegations are guilty of a crime or liable for civil claims. The reports contained in the database are merely allegations. The U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.