Yesterday, I was a featured speaker at UCI Law School’s series on the #MeToo movement. Our discussion: Victims of child sexual abuse and sexual assault have been empowered to speak out about what happened to us. But what do we do to change the systemic problem in our institutions that made this abuse and cover-up […]
“The realization that I had used, willingly and unwillingly, my charm for the wrong reasons.” This was a quote from Joseph L. Bishop. He has admitted to “acting inappropriately” (read: sexually assaulting) numerous women during his career in the LDS church. It was the use of the word CHARM that got me. He still, at […]
My son is eleven years old. He likes to play basketball. Oree Freeman was eleven when she was sex trafficked on the streets of LA and Orange County. Men bought her for sex across the street from Disneyland. Bought her through websites like Backpage or via text. They knew full well that she hadn’t hit […]
The Georgia State Legislature is trying to pass a bill to help adult victims of child sexual abuse. The legislation, dubbed the “Hidden Predator Act,” extends the statute of limitations for victims from age 23 to 38, and creates other avenues for adults to sue long after that age. This is not groundbreaking legislation. It […]
From the Associated Press: [The] Catholic Church is concerned that the [Michigan] statute of limitations bill could “open up other things that have been closed.” Other things? Things like abuse and cover-up? And these things have been closed? I don’t think so. Certainly not for the victims, who are still suffering. Not for the predators, […]
Kill the celibacy requirement, kill the scandal? Hardly. The Catholic clergy sex abuse cover-up scandal is not totally unique. It’s an institutional cover-up, just like the institutional cover-up with Larry Nassar in US Gymnastics, the recent scandal in USA Swimming, the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandal, the scandal in LAUSD, and smaller scandals in private, religious, and public institutions […]
Last week, The Orange County Register published an excellent two-part series on the sex abuse cover-up scandal inside of USA Swimming. Some of horrific facts reporter Scott M. Reid unearthed: • Top USA Swimming executives, board members, top officials and coaches acknowledge in the documents that they were aware of sexually predatory coaches for years, […]
It’s time to talk. Those of you who have followed my blog may have noticed that it was dark for much of the fall. There were some good reasons for this. I am on the faculty at the UCI School of Law this semester, co-teaching a course on how to use the legislative process to […]
When Pope Francis appoints Cardinal Roger Mahony as a Papal Envoy in a state where almost every diocese is under investigation for the cover up of child sexual abuse, you know the Vatican has gone full tone-deaf on sex abuse. And now is not the time to go full tone-deaf. The PR Shine Fades Since his […]
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles does not want you to know about Fr. Juan Cano. Yesterday, they sent an official to Encino’s Our Lady of Grace Parish and told Catholics there that Fr. Juan Cano was placed on administrative leave on January 19th due to “several allegations” of inappropriate behavior with women, including one minor. […]
November 3, 2017 To: Dr. Jeffrey Docking, President Adrian College @JeffreyDocking, @AdrianCollege cc: Ms. Bridgette Winslow, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Title IX Coordinator Dr. Seth Knox, President, Adrian College Association of Professors The dam has broken: You can no longer blame a fifteen-year-old victim for the fact that one of your professors, […]
The Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Plan is not perfect. But because of it, last week, victims were able to expose two, decades-long hidden priest perpetrators. One of the predators—Casper Wolf—taught in a Bronx high school for 27 years. The Archdiocese knew about allegations entire time. And said NOTHING. If you were sexually abused by a […]
Do I have proof of the scandal? Yes. Do a simple Google search on the Sugar’n Spice Photos of a 10-year-old Brooke Shields. You’ll read about the Playboy photos her mother approved and for which the photographer said the child felt “totally comfortable posing.” (That’s not comfort, BTW. That’s the product of grooming.) Fortunately, the […]
UPDATE: The board of The Weinstein Company has fired Harvey from the company he help found. Hollywood’s deafening silence this week in the case of Harvey Weinstein should be telling to everyone: It tells us a story about power. It tells us a story about morality. It tells us the story of fame’s fickle friendship. […]
The Catholic Diocese of Rockville Center, NY has announced an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Plan. These plans, administered by Ken Feinberg and funded by the individual dioceses, aim to compensate victims for abuse. You can read more about them in my four-part series here. Victims of sexual abuse in the Long Island Catholic diocese of […]
A Vatican priest and diplomat under suspicion for violating US child pornography laws wrote his 2003 doctoral dissertation on church laws addressing how the Holy See deals with clerics accused of molesting children. Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, recalled by the Vatican last week, wrote The criminal protection of ecclesiastical celibacy in the canonical laws of 1917 […]
Even I was guilty of assuming that Archdiocese of Agaña (Guam) Archbishop Anthony Apuron was charged with child sexual abuse in his current and highly publicized Vatican Tribunal. But then I learned: Charges in a Vatican Tribunal are secret. Apuron’s replacement confirmed it. From The Tablet (UK): Asked if [Guam] archbishop [Anthony Apuron] was also […]
Rita Milla had a horror story. It was a story that no one could believe. It was 1978. The California teenager said she was being sexually abused by seven priests from the Philippines. She was 16. Who would believe a horrible story like that? The abuse continued. Then she got pregnant. One of the priests, […]
A former vocal coach for Orange County’s All-American Boys Chorus—and a member of the FBI’s Most Wanted List—can be sent back to California from the UK, a judge there ruled this week. Roger Alan Giese, 42, according to KABC: has been charged with five counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of […]
In February 2017, Al Jazeera’s 101 East produced this 25-minute documentary feature about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the Philippines. It’s a great primer for anyone interested in learning more about the clergy sexual abuse crisis in this VERY Catholic country. Here’s a peek at what you’ll see: The Catholic Church in […]
