By Brett Shipp
WFAA
September 26, 2006
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/localnews/investigates/
stories/wfaa060926_kd_stpius.1c7559be.html
Dallas — Just days ago, the Dallas Catholic Diocese agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a young victim of sexual abuse.
She was one of at least 13 girls molested at the Saint Pius X Parish daycare by two male employees.
While both men are behind bars, the victims and their families feel one other culprit has never been held fully accountable — the Church.
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Scope of day care abuse at St. Pius had been kept quiet. Dallas Catholic Diocese just settled with a young victim. Photo by The WFAA-TV |
The scope of the abuse has been kept quiet for years, and some are calling it the worst case of sexual molestation ever at a Dallas Catholic Church.
From the outside, Saint Pius X Parish appeared to be the model place to entrust one's child.
An established day care in impeccable surroundings governed by the nurturing arms of the Catholic Church.
But lurking inside, there were two day careworkers with questionable credentials and disturbing behavior.
Patrick Willhoite was a convicted felon with a history of mental illness.
Julio Marcos, who had little experience working with children, tried to commit suicide a few months after taking the job.
In a jailhouse deposition, Marcos admitted his addiction to child pornography. Attorney Michael Pezzulli, who represents one of Marcos' victims, says that the daycare center provided both men with the perfect environment for abuse.
"They came to that church with the avowed intent of abusing children," said Pezzulli. "There were warning signs everywhere about both of these men."
According to Marcos, the abuse by Willhoite began in 1993. Marcos says he warned the daycare director about Willhoite's mishandling of toddlers he frequently held on his lap. Marcos says no action was taken against Willhoite and the inappropriate behavior continued.
One year later, according to one parent's sworn affidavit, she witnessed Willhoite, "touch a young female child in an inappropriate manner."
When she reported it to the daycare director, "the director did not seem at all upset," the statement said. According to the affidavit, the director indicated only that she "would meet with [Willhoite]."
Meanwhile, in a secluded second story classroom, Julio Marcos was systematically luring seven, eight and nine year old girls into his own web of sexual abuse.
"He would bring the children up one by one, sometimes in pairs, and put them behind the podium and molest them behind the podium, in the classroom with the other kids in the classroom," said Pezzulli.
The mother of one of his young victims tells News 8 that her daughter started behaving strangely as soon as she began attending the St. Pius day care in the summer of 2000.
"She was tired a lot," the mother said. "She wasn't the same giggly bubbly little girl that she'd been before." The mother went on to say, "She wasn't sleeping. She'd wake up with nightmares. She didn't want to have anything to do with anything girlie, anything frilly, no dresses, anything to that matter."
As it turns out, other warnings about Marcos surfaced in 1993 when one student -- according to her sworn affidavit -- said, "Marcos walked into the girl's bathroom while several of us were changing our swimsuits."
It went on to say that sometime later Marcos again, "walked right in to the girl's bathroom while…some of the girls were partially naked."
She says she "reported this incident," yet Marcos kept his job.
In the summer of 1997, a Dallas jury awarded the largest clergy abuse verdict in history — $120 million dollars — to eleven young men molested by Reverend Rudy Kos at various churches around the Dallas Diocese.
So angry were jurors, they issued a handwritten directive to the church that "any hint, rumor, or suspicion of any kind of abuse must be acted on."
But just a few months later at the Saint Pius X daycare, Julio Marcos told his boss, Father Michael Forge, that a parent had accused him of molesting children.
In a subsequent video deposition, Father Forge confirmed, he ignored what some might consider a "hint of abuse."
In the videotaped deposition, attorney Pezzulli asks Father Forge: "You didn't tell Father Ramon?"
"No," responded Forge.
"You didn't tell Father Pichard?"
Again, Forge responded, "No."
Pezzulli asked again, "You just kept this to yourself?"
"Yes," Forge replied.
Pezzulli asked, "Why?"
"I didn't see that it was important," said Forge.
One year later, another parent sent Marcos a letter, again accusing him of abuse and asking him to resign.
Marcos says he turned the letter over to day care director Jeannie Easler who, in a sworn affidavit said she did not investigate.
"He handed me the envelope, I'm not sure if the letter was in it," said Easler.
Attorney Pezzulli then asked Easler, "You could have looked in that envelope, right?"
Easler responded, "I could have."
Upon learning these facts, the mother of one abused child said, "I'm enraged with St. Pius because they should have known what was going on. They did not investigate and pretty much covered up every single clue as to what was going on at that daycare that summer."
Action at any point over the course of the eight years leading up to that summer, could have spared the abuse of at least 13 young girls and possibly could have spared one mother's lingering anguish and what she calls her daughter's living nightmare.
"It's a nightmare you will never wake up from...one she will never wake up from," she said.
Julio Marcos was finally caught in 2001 after a victim went to the police.
Marcos is serving life in prison.
Willhoite resigned from Saint Pius X day care in 1999 and was finally arrested only after he was caught molesting a child at another facility. He is still in prison, as well.
Attorneys for both St. Pius and the Dallas Diocese have settled eight lawsuits in connection with the molestation cases. Up to this point, Saint Pius X and the Catholic Diocese of Dallas have declined to respond to this story.
E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com.
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