Illinois Lawyer Blog

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria , Illinois is claiming that personnel decisions regarding priests are confidential, and not subject to civil court review. This latest turn in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis arises out of a lawsuit recently filed againts the Peoria Diocese by Andrew Ward. Ward, age 20, filed suit in June, accusing now retired Monsignor Thomas Maloney of sexally abusing him at Epiphany Catholic Church, located in Normal, Illinois, between 1995 and 1996. The Diocese recently filed responsive pleadings seeking dismissal of the lawsuit. The Church apparently argued that it is Constitutionally-protected from disclosing church policies on hiring, supervision and termination of priests. The Church further argued, that if the lawsuit were allowed to go forward, Courts could be asked to evaluate Catholic Church doctrine and religious principles relating to personnel decisions. Precisely the point. Civil juries should be allowed to evaluate, and if appropriate, award damages against those Dioceses that knowingly permit serial predator/priests to posted in positions where they have ready, unsupervised access to children. This "Constitutional" argument is simply the latest argument offered by the Church to avoid facing responsiblity for the appalling way pedophiles priests were simply reassigned to different parishes and word of their activities buried by the Church.

Not suprisingly, apparently Peoria Diocese officials were aware of allegations made against Maloney by a young woman before he was assigned to Ephiphany parish.

The diocese of Belleville recently filed a Motion for a new trial after getting hit with a $5.5 million dollar verdict in a recent sex abuse trial. Bishop Edward Braxton directed lawyers for the Diocese to file the motion. In addition, Braxton sent a letter to churches in the diocese to be read at Sunday mass. According to news reports, the letter indicated that paying the judgment would "...diminish diocesan resources and significantly limit the church's ability to serve our people, our parishes [and]our schools..." [Of course there was no mention of a more subtle objective of the letter - generating sympathy for the church amongst the prospective juror pool in the event there is a new trial]. One online article discussed the church's financial strain argument with Frank Flinn, adjunct professor of Religious Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Flinn, commenting on the church's position noted, "It's a false argument. Had they been genuinely concerned about the finances of the diocese, then the chancellor along with the bishop would have removed this person[the abuser, Rev. Raymond Kownacki] from his cycle of pedophilia in the first place." In addition, the church's tactics were also criticized by Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a St. Louis-based church watchdog group. Barbara Dorris, the group's Outreach Director, noted that the Church's latest maneuver was "Rubbing salt into fresh, deep wounds. That's the only way to described Braxton's selfish decision to appeal the verdict."

At trial the diocese did not dispute that Kownacki was a serial predator; that Church officials knew about his predatory tendacies; that the Church kept his behavior secret and repeatedly moved him from parish to parish, giving him additional opportunities to molest young children.

And finally, another sad development reflecting on the behavior of the church - lawyers who represented the plaintiff in the underlying case indicated that diocese insurance policy funds may not be available to satisy any portion of the judgment. The reason? The church's cover-up of the abuse.

A St. Clair County, Illinois jury today handed down a multimillion dollar verdict against the Belleville Diocese for flagrant sexual abuse of a minor by Rev. Raymond Kownacki. The plaintiff, James Wisniewski, now 47, claimed that he was repeatedly abused in the 1970's by Kownacki. For the appalling details of the abuse, please see my August 27, 2008 post The jury awarded Wisniewsk $5 Million dollars in damages. The award included $2.6 million dollars in punitive damages and $2.4 million dollars in compensatory damages.

According to an online account, the Rev. Joseph Schwagel, a former Belleville Diocese official, testified at trial that there were attempts to cover up the allegations and the victims were treated like "dirty laundry". Sara Wiesner, a juror from O'Fallon Illinois told reporters that the actions of the Diocese were "appalling".

Kownacki, was removed from active ministry in 1995. Shockingly, he remains a priest and receives retirement benefits.

Lawyers for the Diocese made no comment as they left the courtroom. They had argued that the statute of limitations had run on the case and it was not clear if an appeal was planned.

POSTCRIPT:

Several readers have emailed me commenting that my August 27 post was overly harsh, in that I condemned the entire church for the depived actions of a few. In retrospect, they are right. There are many good people in the Catholic Church doing good work throughout the world. Unfortunately, their good work gets overshadowed by the heinous acts of freaks like Kownacki. I will try for more precision in the future.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, there was some absolutely jaw-dropping testimony yesterday in a clergy sex abuse case trial currently underway in St. Clair County, Illinois. James Wisniewski, 47, is suing the Belleville, Illinois Diocese for for damages arising out of the years of sexual abuse committed upon him by Rev. Raymond Kownacki in the 1970's. Wisniewski has testified that Kownacki abused him some 40-50 times over a 5 year period beginning in 1973. Wisniewski further testified that Kownacki told him that the church "condoned" sexual abuse of minors and that if Wisniewski told anyone about the abuse, Kownacki would kill the boy's parents and ruin their business. To drive home the point, Kownacki showed Wisniewski a handgun. In addition, there has been evidence that Kownacki raped a 16 year old girl and aborted her fetus with his hands.

Bishop Wilton Gregory testified yesterday[Tuesday] for the defense. And it didn't go well for the Diocese. Bishop Gregory was brutally honest in his testimony and dropped a couple of bombs.

First, Gregory didn't particularly help the diocese on the issue of liability. He agreed that the Diocese would be liable if, prior to Wisniewski being abused, the Diocese was aware that Kownacki was molesting children, and simply moved him from parish to parish without warning. Previous testimony has indicated that is precisely what happened.

In addition, Gregory testified that there appeared to be an active cover-up orchestrated by the Diocese when he was leading an investigation into sexual abuse of minors in the 1990's. Gregory testified that "dozens" of documents, concerning young victims of certain priests, including Kownacki, may have been withheld from him. Reports on Kownacki dating back to 1973 and 1982 were "not filed where the should have been filed". The evidence has already shown that the Diocese was well aware of the missing reports before Gregory started his investigation.

Gregory also weighed in the propriety of the string of transfers allowing Kownacki to go from one parish to the next without any warnings to parishioners. Gregory ackowleged that after a half dozen reports about alleged abuse, he never would have approved the final transfer to St. Henry's Parish in Belleville - where Kownacki lived next door to an elementary school.

And fomer Vicar General Monsignor James Margason also testified yesterday. He was the last witness for the defense. Rev. Margason is a canon lawyer certified to represent accused priests. Margason testified that he was aware, prior to Gregory's investigation, of the reports about Kownacki raping the 16 year old gir and aborting her fetus. Margason was also aware, prior to Gregory's investigation, of reports that Kownacki was molesting twin boys from Guatemala. Finally, Margason was aware, prior to Gregory's investigation, that there were reports of two other victims, including Wisnieski. So what did the Vicar General Monsignor Margason do when Gregory began his investigation? What did Vicar General Monsignor Margason, the canon lawyer do? He withheld the reports. Margason admitted that in so doing he breached church law and Review Board Guidelines[not to mention basic laws of human decency].

Margason was also asked about his actions when he became aware of allegations against Kownacki in 1986, after a housekeeper found a love note signed by Kownacki and directed to a young boy, asking the youth to come to his bedroom and "give him a massage". The Vicar General Monsignor took Kownacki's word that nothing had happened. Margason took the word of a guy he knew had raped a 16 year old girl and aborted the fetus with his own hands.

Margason also admitted that he was obligated to punish Kownacki for engaging in the abortion, but failed to do so. So although the church doesn't hesitate to viciously condemn those who support the right to choose, it doesn't lift a finger when one of its own performs an abortion on a girl he raped. Hypocrisy run amuk.

Most trial advocacy experts say you should finish your case with a good, strong witness for your client. Maybe the lawyers for the Diocese didn't take Trial Advocacy in law school.

The verdict is expected soon. I hope the plaintiff breaks the Diocese bank.

The story that just won't go away.

Various news agencies carried stories on Friday about the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal that is currently rocking Vermont. In May, a jury heard allegations from a former Vermont altar boy that he was abused repeatedly by Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s. The jury awarded the plaintiff, now in his 40's, $8.7 million dollars. The defendant, Fr. Paquette, had admitted in a 2006 deposition that he had been "sexually involved" with young boys at parishese in Indiana and Massachusetts before he applying for a position with the Burlington, Vermont Diocese in 1972. At the time, Fr. Paquette indicated he wanted to be closer to his parents, who lived in Massachusetts.

When Paquette applied for the Vermont position, Bishop Loe Pursley of the Fort Waye, Indiana Diocese advised Vermont Bishop John Marshall that Paquette had been accused of molesting young boys. Pursley further suggested that if the Vermont Diocese decided to take Paquette, he should be assigned to an institutional chaplaincy or a senior center, so he wouldn't be around children. [Documents reflecting Pursley's concerns were admitted as evidence in the trial] The Vermont Diocese however, elected to ignore that warning and assigned him to three parishes in Vermont. Paquette was subsequently accused of abusing children at each of those three parishes.

According to the victim in the recent trial, Paquette liked giving "pony rides" to the altar boys after mass. He would grope his young victims during the rides. The victim testified he was abused some 40-100 times. The victim had kept quiet for years, but decided to come forward after learning of Paquette's history and the warnings from the Indiana Diocese.

Church officials have defended their handling of abuse claims in the 1970s by claiming that at the time, it was believed that prayer and counseling would cure priests of their attraction to little boys. It is not made clear who exactly thought that prayer would cure these perverts.

In another pathetic development, the Vermont Diocese is claiming that the verdict is covered by insurance...but they just can't find the policy. No doubt they could find all kind of ancient documents damning divorce for example, but they misplaced the policy covering them for abusing children.

In yet another pathetic development, it was revealed that the Diocese had put each individual parish under charitable trusts two years ago, to shield them from what Bishop Salvatore Matano called "unbridled, unjust and terribly unreasonable assault." So the Church has elected to blame not the twisted individuals who preyed upon children, but the persons who are now seeking recovery for years of abuse.

At least three additional lawsuits are scheduled to begin in August.

More details are emerging about precisely how early Church authorities were aware of alleged sexual misconduct on the part of Rev. Donald J. McGuire. McGuire was a teacher at Loyola Academy in the late 1960's. In 1969, Rev. Charles Schlax contacted the the president of Loyola, Rev. John Reinke, to complain about McGuire. A young man had complained to Fr. Schlax that McGuire was a "pervert". The youth had apparently been staying at Loyola for as much as a week at a time, including nights. Schlax had requested an investigation into McGuire. Shortly thereafter McGuire was informed he was going to take a sabbatical.

Then in 2000, several families who had sons working as aides to McGuire expressed more concern about McGuire's behavior. One family reported that their son told them McGuire was overwhelming him with pornography and sexual discussions. Another family complained that McGuire was pressuring their son to avoid college, family and friends - and instead spend more time with McGuire. McGuire apparently encouraged the kid to sleep on the floor in his room, or in his bed.

Shockingly, McGuire's superiors have indicated as recently as 2005 that they had no knowledge of McGuire's proclivities. Turns out they had plenty of notice and allowed this guy to terrorize kids for 40 years.

Just this week, another sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against Rev. Donald McGuire, a Chicago area priest. The lawsuit, filed by two brothers, claims that McGuire sexually abused the two boys at different times. The older brother is claiming abuse from 1988 through 1994, while the younger brother is claiming abuse from 2001 through 2002.
In 2006, McGuire was convicted of molesting two boys in the 1960's. He is currently living in Oak Lawn, a southwest Chicago suburb, while that conviction is being appealed. He was only recently advised by his superiors that he can no longer wear his collar.

AND WHO PAYS THE PRICE??

In an ironic twist, just this week I saw another article about the efforts taken by the Los Angeles Diocese to fund the $660 million dollar settlement it reached with hundreds of sexual abuse victims. The diocese has decided to sell some 50 non-parish properties. One of those properties is the convent used by the Sisters of St. Bethany, located in Santa Barbara. The convent, which was built for the order in 1952 is currently occupied by three older nuns who work with the poor in the community. Although they do not pay rent, they do make sufficient funds to sustain the property. Recently, the Diocese advised them[in a letter]that they were to vacate the premises on or before 12/31/07. The Diocese defended its action by noting that everybody was having to sacrifice. By way of example, it was noted that Diocese employees didn't get a raise in 2007. Okay, but that doesn't quite equate with losing your home of 50 years. And not to put too fine a point on it, but the nuns didn't abuse any minors. Instead, that was done by 245 Diocese priests. And the unrebutted evidence indicates that for decades the Diocese didn't act on parent complaints, didn't call police and didn't warn parishioners when allegations were made against a particular priest. In fact, up until 2004, parishioners were not advised of allegations against a Diocese priest even if that priest was "sent away" for psychological counselling. How many of those 50 non-parish properties that house priests are being sold??