The Worthy Adversary

Author: Joelle Casteix

  • Why Maria Rullo Schinderle should never be a judge

    Just when I thought things couldn’t get stranger, this happened:

    The leading hench(wo)man in the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Orange may be a judicial nominee.

    When I first got word that California Governor Jerry Brown had thrown Maria Rullo Schinderle’s name in the hat of potential nominees for superior court judge, I was floored. Directly on the heels of his church-influenced veto of SB 131, Brown is nominating one of the most questionable Catholic church attorneys in California for a judgeship.

    Victims and those who support victims should be outraged.

    This woman must never become a judge
    This woman must never become a judge

    Let’s go through some of the reason why Brown should immediately remove Schinderle’s name from consideration:

    1) She’s actively escaping her own bad press

    In nominating forms, Schinderle is listed by her bar name “Maria M. Rullo.” In her workings with the Diocese of Orange, including all of her work fighting victims and acting as a spokesperson, she goes by her married name, “Maria R. Schinderle.” That is reason enough to question her veracity.

    Her bar information also lists her as a member of the Busch Law Firm, but there is no listing of her on their website. The Diocese of Orange lists her as General Counsel under the name Maria Rullo Schinderle. So I have to ask: What is her name and where exactly does she work?

    Perhaps her name interchangeability is due to the fact that a Google search of Maria Rullo is far more sanitized than the scandalous information that a search for “Maria Schinderle” unearths.

    2) She has misrepresented her role as an attorney to manipulate victims and get information that can be used against victims in court.

    Schinderle has given herself many titles throughout her years in the Diocese of Orange. Sometimes, she referred to herself as “spokesperson“; other times she was the “Director of Human Resources“; but at all times, she was the chief in-house counsel or general counsel for the bishop.

    Why would she do something like this? Well, when she was answering the confidential help line for victims of abuse at the diocese, she certainly didn’t want to say that she was the bishop’s attorney. The toll-free confidential help line was supposed to be answered by a licensed counselor, not the diocese attorney. What she did was unethical and possibly illegal. I was there at meetings where she gave reports on the calls she received on the helpline.

    She also needed to change her title at will to neutralize potential problems. When I first met with her in 2001/2002, she told me that she was the HR director, not once telling me that she was an attorney. Instead of informing me that I may have legal rights, she offered me a job at the diocese. Instead of telling me that she had full access to my file and that all of my allegations against choir teacher Thomas Hodgman were, in fact, true, she told me that she found “no evidence” of my allegations. She even said she had spoken with Lu Dominguez, one of the administrators involved, who denied everything. Then Schinderle said, “Well, Joelle. You were 16.”

    When my file was eventually released—a file she had full access to—it contained Hodgman’s signed confession and a post-dated memo from Dominguez saying that she knew about the abuse all along, but decided to not report it.

    3) Her demeanor is less than judicial

    A 2004 OC Weekly article said that Maria Rullo Schinderle “operates ‘a reign of terror’ and ‘uses spies, private investigators and any other means that get at people to keep dissidents in line.” While you could say that it’s just nasty reporting on the part of the Weekly, the comments section of the original article does not have a single comment in the defense of Schinderle.

    4) Schinderle knew more about abusers than any other lay person in the diocese.

    For years, Schinderle sat on the “Sensitive Issues Committee,” the pre-lay review board group in charge of reviewing allegations of abuse. This group, of which John Urell was also a member, was allowed access to the secret files of priests with known problems of abusing children.

    The best case in point is Father Michael Pecharich. The press release that the diocese issued (with Maria Schinderle as a contact) when Pecharich was removed as pastor referred to a single incident 19 years previous. The truth is far more nefarious—documents released showed that Rullo Schinderle and the diocese knew about numerous allegations of abuse, but chose to NOT disclose them to the public or the press.

    5) Schinderle was the Diocese’s “minder” of predator clerics.

    Schinderle is a parishioner at St. Edward the Confessor in Dana Point, one of the Diocese of Orange’s most beautiful churches, with ocean views and wealthy parishioners. So, when predator clerics John Lenihan and Denis Lyons (predator priest Henry Perez and Gerald Plesetz were before her time) were assigned to the parish while Schinderle was working hard on the Sensitive Issues Committee … one cannot help but assume they were sent there under her “watchful eye.”

    6) Schinderle does not cooperate with law enforcement 

    When the Orange County District Attorney’s office prosecuted Denis Lyons for child molestation, Shinderle refused to cooperate. It was only after a scrappy deputy DA started issuing subpoenas and “shook up the diocese,” that Shinderle decided to cooperate.

    From The City Pages:

    The Orange County District Attorney’s Office was more than happy to take (Patrick) Wall on board. He met Heather Brown, a deputy DA, at a fundraiser and offered his services for free in the prosecution of Denis Lyons, a former priest accused of four felony counts of lewd acts with a child under 14.

    Wall instructed Brown on the specific types of documents she needed to unearth in subpoenas, and shook up the diocese in the process. Lyons pleaded took a plea deal and received a year in jail rather than fight the charges.

    “Without him, I would have never known the people involved in the cover-up,” Brown says of Wall. “They play little word games. If you don’t use the right vernacular, in their mind they’re justified in not giving you that file.”

    7) Schinderle didn’t report crimes that she knew about.

    Schinderle had intimate knowledge of child sex abuse cases involving John Lenihan, Denis Lyons, Albert Schildknecht, Michael Pecharich, and numerous others. None of these were immediately reported to the police. What crimes does she know about that have not made it into the media?

    I could go on and on, but it’s time for action.

    You can write Governor Brown via his website  or call his office at (916) 445-2841.

    You can tell give him the reasons above as to why Maria Rullo Schinderle must never be a judge. In fact, considering the evidence above, it’s surprising that she is a member of the California Bar at all. The California Bar complaint form can be accessed here.

    No judge is perfect, but our judges must uphold the highest of standards. There is no room for ethical ambiguity, moral turpitude, or other possibly criminal behavior.

    Maria Rullo Schinderle does not deserve to be a judge, and the people of Orange County deserve far better.

  • Hawaii: Bills may give more victims chance for justice

    From today’s Hawaii Star-Advertiser:

    Bills seek more time to file suit

    Expanding the current two-year window, which expires next month, is unfair to the accused entities, critics argue

    By Derrick DePledge

    POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 23, 2014

    “Did you know these men?”

    The question appeared in an ad in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last Sunday that showed old black-and-white photographs of three Roman Catholic priests linked to child sexual abuse.

    Mark Gallagher, a Kailua attorney, and Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney, are searching for possible victims of child sexual abuse before a unique two-year window to file civil claims for decades-old misconduct closes on April 24.

    Two dozen civil lawsuits have been filed during the past two years in what state lawmakers initially intended as a one-time opportunity to help victims in cases where the statute of limitations had long expired.

    But some lawmakers now want to leave the window open longer — perhaps permanently — an idea opposed by the state attorney general’s office and the Catholic Church because it could potentially violate the due process rights of the accused.

    Churches and other private organizations could have difficulty defending against claims involving priests and others who may have died or left the church or group. Two of the three priests in the newspaper ad, for example, are dead.

    Witnesses, documents and other keys to establishing whether the abuse occurred and the organization was negligent could also be hard to produce because of the passage of time.

    “There will be instances where the entity may not have any liability but are unable to defend themselves,” Caron Inagaki, a deputy attorney general, told House lawmakers at a hearing this month. “We can’t think about only the plaintiffs. We’re trying to be fair about looking at this law, and the defendants have rights. They do.”

    Sex-abuse survivors and their advocates believe the two-year window in Hawaii — and others like it in states across the country — has helped bring justice for victims and publicly identified predators who escaped legal consequences because the statute of limitations had expired.

    A bill at the Legislature — Senate Bill 2687 — would expand the two-year window and allow victims to bring civil claims for child sexual abuse until they turn 55. The House Human Services Committee amended the bill and took out the age limitation after lawmakers thought it was too arbitrary.

    The bill would lower the legal standard to bring claims against churches and other private organizations. Damages would be awarded to victims if the courts find that the institutions were negligent. Victims now have to show that organizations displayed gross negligence.

    The bill would also prevent the details in the certificates of merit that victims must file in order to bring civil claims from being disclosed in court. The confidential certificates, which must include a statement from a psychologist, marriage and family therapist, mental health counselor or clinical social worker that the abuse claims are reasonable, are required to screen out frivolous allegations.

    “For me, it’s such an egregious crime when something is committed against a child,” said Sen. Maile Shimabukuro (D, Kalaeloa-Waianae-Makaha), the bill’s co-sponsor and the vice chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee. “As a mother to a 5-year-old you realize that a child’s brain has not fully developed.”

    Shimabukuro said a “generous amount of time” is needed for children — and eventually, adults — to understand and respond to sexual abuse.

    Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom (R, Diamond Head-Kahala-Hawaii Kai), the only senator to vote against the bill when it cleared the Senate this month, had voted for the law two years ago but now has concerns.

    “Why this length of time? Why are we doing this?” he asked. “It has encouraged additional lawsuits. It has encouraged more judicial involvement. But the question is fairness to both sides.”

    Gov. Neil Abercrombie vetoed a bill in 2011 that would have lifted the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits by victims of child sexual abuse against the state and private organizations and created a two-year window for bringing claims for older incidents. The governor had warned that the bill raised constitutional and fairness concerns by threatening due process and could have exposed the state to unknown liability.

    Abercrombie signed a bill into law in 2012 that created the two-year window for old abuse claims — but exempted the state — and also extended the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits to eight years from the victim’s 18th birthday or three years from the time the victim discovers his or her psychological injuries are related to past abuse. State law had previously set the statute of limitations at two years under both scenarios.

    Given the opposition by the state attorney general’s office to the new bill, legislators may be headed toward another veto show­down with the governor.

    Rep. Mele Carroll (D, Lanai, Molokai, Paia-Hana), the chairwoman of the House Human Services Committee, said she wants to give victims the opportunity to tell their stories.

    Carroll has her own bill, House Bill 2034, that would remove both the criminal and civil statutes of limitations on sexual assault in the first and second degrees and the continuous sexual assault against minors under 14.

    “I personally think there should not be any limitations,” she said. “And I think that if evidence is not available, I think it’s to the advantage of the ones getting sued, including the institutions.”

    The accounts of abuse are chilling. The Rev. Gerald Funcheon — the only priest identified in the newspaper ad who is still alive — admitted in a videotaped deposition in 2012 to having sexual contact with more than a dozen children. The true number, other documents suggest, could be as high as 50 children. He also admitted taking nude photographs of boys.

    Funcheon, who served as a priest in Minnesota, California, Indiana and other states, was the subject of the first civil lawsuit in Hawaii when the window opened. He is accused in three lawsuits of molesting students at Damien Memorial High School when he was chaplain from 1982 to 1984.

    In the deposition, when Funcheon was asked whether he would have stopped his behavior had his supervisor at Damien told him it was criminal sexual conduct and he could go to jail, he said: “Absolutely.”

  • When children abuse: A preventable tragedy

    A breaking story today has kept my phone ringing off the hook: A southern California third grader has been accused of sexually assaulting a classmate numerous times during the past year. School administrators only found out about it when other students at an after-school program reported what they saw. (Kudos to those kids!)

    Tragic? Yes. Horrifying? Yes.

    Preventable. YES!

    But fear, panic and over-reaction are not how to prevent this kind of abuse.

    Remember: third graders know little to nothing about sex. For the victim in this case, authorities believe that he didn’t report because he didn’t even have the vocabulary to describe what was happening to him.

    So, what do you do?

    You go back to the four ways to protect your preschooler from abuse. Number 3 is the relevant lesson here:

    3) Looking and touching

    The bathtub is a good time to teach this lesson. Tell children that no one is to touch their private body parts and they are to never touch anyone else’s. Tell them that no one is to take pictures of them when they have no clothes on. Don’t use a tone of fear in the discussion – If you approach this the same way as you approach the rules of crossing the street or sharing toys, your child will not be scared or threatened.

    As your children get older, you can tell them that even if what is happening feels good, they need to tell mom or dad right away.

    I just had this discussion with my second grader this afternoon. I asked him what he would do if someone—an adult or another classmate—touched him or wanted my son to touch them. He said he would say “NO!” and go and tell mom.

    When I asked him what he would do if he really liked that person, he hesitated.

    I told him, “If anyone touches your penis or bottom or touches you in any way that makes you feel icky, come and tell mom. It’s not your job to worry about what the other person thinks about you or their feelings. It’s mom’s job to take care of you. And mom will never be mad at you for it. Remember, sometimes even when things feel good, they are still bad and make you feel bad afterward—like eating too much Halloween candy. So just tell mom and let mom solve the problem for you.”

    He nodded, and then asked if he could play outside today. There was no belabored discussion; I didn’t nag (one of my big faults); and I didn’t act in a way that scared him.

    Later he asked me why I brought up the conversation. I told him that I want to help him be strong and safe.

    Is this method 100% fool-proof? No. But it could have empowered the victim in Riverside to tell his parents or teachers about what was happening to him. And it was also possibly the reason that the other students reported.

    By reporting, the other children did two important things: 1) they stopped the abuse so that the victim can get help and care, and 2) they stopped a child who most probably would have become a repeat molester.

    That’s some pretty powerful stuff that we can all take to heart.

     

     

     

  • Review: A Diary of Disconnect

    Book Review: The Vatican Diaries: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities, and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church; by John Thavis. Penguin Books

    books

    A year after the hardcover publication of The Vatican Diaries (a book whose hardcover release date coincided with the resignation of Pope Benedict XXIII XVI and the election of Pope Francis—a marketing and sales extravaganza if ever there were one), John Thavis‘ chronicle of Vatican shenanigans is now out in paperback.

    A new afterward by the author is the icing on this cupcake of a book—a sweet, delectable, slightly naughty look inside the Vatican: a patchwork of quirky and outdated personalities tied together by allegiance, clericalism, protocol, and theater. While none of these things are very good for Catholics, clergy sex abuse victims or the Vatican state, Thavis expertly shows how the Vatican’s incompetency, callousness and failures reside in its humanity and its all-too-human worship of the most seductive power of all: information.

    Thavis spent more than 25 years as a member of the Vaticanista, the group of journalists charged with covering the Vatican, the pope and other news surrounding the Holy See. As a writer for the Catholic News Service, Thavis was forced to balance the very delicate line between journalistic integrity and his own Catholicism.

    He didn’t have an easy job. Without decent access to information or (the sometimes-kept) promises of transparency in many western governments, journalists covering the Vatican are forced to follow a path reminiscent of the childhood game of telephone. It’s about knowing the right person to call, capitalizing on people’s hot buttons, and most importantly, knowing whom to believe. Imagine The National Enquirer with all of the couture, but none of the good looks.

    The book is a series of well-told anecdotes which follow Thavis’ thesis: The Vatican suffers from a great communication disconnect. Sometimes the disconnect is intentional. Other times, the disconnect is far more nefarious. Whether he’s telling the story of the construction of a underground parking lot (which accidentally unearths an ancient Roman cemetery) or the decades-long saga of serial pedophile and Vatican embarrassment Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, every story is peppered with Three Stooges-esque mishaps and information bottlenecks.

    Immensely readable and thoroughly insightful, The Vatican Diaries does not fall into the “wonk-y and unreadible” trap that ensnares too many other books in this genre. It is what is says it is: a diary. And in this case, breaking open your sister’s locked journal was never this much fun.

    To buy the book, click here.

    And to learn more about my upcoming book, click here.

     

  • Discussing Hawaii’s civil window Hawaii News Now Sunrise

    Attorney Jeff Anderson and I discuss Hawaii’s civil window for victims and its upcoming April 24 deadline.

    Hawaii News Now – KGMB and KHNL