The head of USA Swimming recently offered a dramatic apology to the young swimmers who were victims of sexual abuse in his organization — four years after he told ABC News he had nothing to be sorry for. “I’m sorry,” read the first words of a post by USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus, published on a USA Swimming blog Friday. “Those are powerful words some people have wanted to hear from me for a long time.” Wielgus said he has been criticized for years for “not apologizing for not having done more to prevent sexual abuse by [swim] coaches” and said he brought the critici…
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A Catholic priest in northern Mexico is still nowhere to be found after 19 people filed a sexual abuse criminal complaint against him with authorities late last month.Eduardo Córdova, a clergyman and legal representative for the church in the state of San Luis Potosi, is accused of using his clout to prey upon minors over the course of his 30-year career.Evidence has been passed on to prosecutors but no formal charges have been filed yet. Cordova’s current whereabouts are unknown.The Vatican has since stripped Córdova of his clerical functions, following investigations into the alleged sexual …
Archbishop Carlson Deposition Clip
When the Rev. Joseph D. Ross was assigned to minister at St. Cronan Church, the other priest there already knew his secret.He heard the pastor coming to help him in 1991 had just returned from the St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md., a mental health treatment center for Catholic clergy, according to court filings.The priest recognized that in all likelihood this was code for Ross having just undergone therapy for a sexual attraction to children. Although the priest worried about the well-being of the parishioners, according to court filings, the Archdiocese of St. Louis assured him that R…
The Rev. Timothy McCarthy was the “kids’ pastor” who wore sneakers under his vestments and dropped profanities into his sermons. Girls had crushes on him, and parents let their children go camping with him.When McCarthy abruptly resigned the priesthood in 1991, he told his flock at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Maplewood that he had outgrown Catholic Church dogma. He was quitting, he said, to go down a new spiritual path.But newly released files reveal that the church ousted McCarthy after allegations that he sexually abused two boys early in his career and later engaged in an…
Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn’s sworn testimony, taken May 14, 2014, has been released publicly. Flynn’s deposition was taken in a civil lawsuit involving a man sexually abused in the 1970s by former priest Thomas Adamson. The entire deposition transcript and video clips are available at http://www.andersonadvocates.com. A DVD copy of the video deposition is also available at our office…
Click Here for Harry Flynn Deposition Transcript 05-14-2014 Clips from Flynn’s Deposition </iframe
Deposition of Fr. Peter Laird Deposition
(St. Paul, MN) – The sworn testimony of the Archdiocese’s former Vicar General Father Peter Laird has been publicly released by attorneys as a part of a civil lawsuit filed in 2013 in Ramsey County; Doe 1 vs. the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis, Diocese of Winona and Father Thomas Adamson. “Father Laird’s deposition raises serious questions about Archbishop Nienstedt…
Doe 1 Depo of Peter Laird 05-12-2014
A Dorchester County jury awarded teacher and former Assistant Principal of Knightsville Elementary School, Mary Rita Watson a $1,000,000 verdict in a civil lawsuit filed on her behalf involving an incident that occurred at the school in 2009. Attorney Gregg Meyers of Jeff Anderson & Associates, a Minnesota-based law firm specializing in cases of child sexual abuse with an offic…
HASTINGS, Minn. (KMSP) – Former Rev. Francis Hoefgen was charged Wednesday in Dakota County with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with allegations he sexually abused a former altar boy.The alleged abuse occurred from the spring of 1989 to the fall of 1991 when the boy was 9 to 12 years old. The victim brought the allegations to Hastings police in November 2013, telling investigators he was sexually abused by Hoefgen multiple times as a student and altar boy at St. Boniface Church and school.Hoefgen, now 63, began serving as a priest in the St. Boniface Church in…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A priest who was convicted of fondling a 12-year-old girl while he was working in the Diocese of Winona has been deported to his native India.Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say 48-year-old Leo Charles Koppala was turned over to authorities in New Delhi on Wednesday.Koppola was charged last June with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He pleaded guilty in March, admitting he fondled the girl while eating dinner at her grandmother’s house.
A third lawsuit filed against Shattuck-St. Mary’s accuses officials at the boarding school in Faribault, Minn., of failing to protect students from a teacher after hearing reports of his sex games and abuse.The suit, filed Tuesday in Rice County, claims that Lynn P. Seibel — a former drama teacher and “dorm parent” — sexually abused the unnamed plaintiff from 2000 to 2001.Seibel, 72, pleaded guilty in July to seven criminal, felony counts for molesting six male students between 1999 and 2003. In October 2013, he was sentenced to 52 months in prison.This week’s lawsuit, filed in Rice County…
A third lawsuit filed against Shattuck-St. Mary’s accuses officials at the boarding school in Faribault, Minn., of failing to protect students from a teacher after hearing reports of his sex games and abuse.The suit, filed Tuesday in Rice County, claims that Lynn P. Seibel — a former drama teacher and “dorm parent” — sexually abused the unnamed plaintiff from 2000 to 2001.Seibel, 72, pleaded guilty in July to seven criminal, felony counts for molesting six male students between 1999 and 2003. In October 2013, he was sentenced to 52 months in prison.This week’s lawsuit, filed in Rice County Dis…