The Worthy Adversary

Category: Child safety

  • Eleven-year-olds are sold for sex in Orange County. Help us stop it.

    Eleven-year-olds are sold for sex in Orange County. Help us stop it.

    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 puberty. That’s why she went for a higher price. She had a quota to meet every night to pay her pimp. He told her what to wear. What to eat. What to say. When to sleep.

    Oree didn’t want this life. She wanted to be a veterinarian. No eleven-year-old wants to be sold for sex.

    When Oree came to talk to my class at UCI, all I could see was my son. If he ended up in the wrong hands, what could protect him from this life?

    Oree is one of the lucky ones. She escaped the life at 15. Now, at 23, she educates everyone from law enforcement to legislators to the public about the children—our children: runaways, throwaways, lost and alone kids—who are bought and sold on the streets of Orange County.

    Child sex trafficking in Orange County is a real problem that law enforcement, social services, nonprofits, faith groups, and advocates like Oree are dealing with head-on. But they can’t do it alone. The key is awareness.

    The first step?

    Join us on April 14. Hear Oree for yourself.

     

  • ICYMI – USA Swimming has a scandal on its hands

    ICYMI – USA Swimming has a scandal on its hands

    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, in some cases even decades, but did not take action against them. In at least 11 cases either Wielgus or other top USA Swimming officials declined to pursue sexual abuse cases against high profile coaches even when presented with direct complaints, documents show. With some of the complaints, the decision not to pursue the case was made by Susan Woessner, USA Swimming’s current director of Safe Sport.

    For example, three U.S. Olympic team head coaches, and a USA Swimming vice president were told in the 1980s that a world-renowned coach has sexually abused a female swimmer beginning when she was 12. Wielgus was informed of allegations against the coach at least three times in recent years. But not only did USA Swimming not pursue a case against the coach, it allowed him to continue to have access to USA Swimming facilities, U.S. Olympic and national team events, and the Olympic Training Center. USA Swimming even awarded the club owned and operated by him more than $40,000 in grants. The coach was only banned after pleading guilty to sexual assault, more than a quarter-century after the abuse was first brought to the attention of the Olympic coaches.

    • In the more than 20 years since Wielgus took charge of USA Swimming in July 1997, at least 252 swim coaches and officials have been arrested, charged by prosecutors, or disciplined by USAS for sexual abuse or misconduct against individuals under 18. Those coaches and officials have a total of at least 590 alleged victims, some of them abused while attending pre-school swim classes.

    • USA Swimming board members and coaches acknowledged they were aware of statutory rape cases that occurred during U.S. national team trips to major international competitions.

    • USA Swimming since at least 2010 has kept a list of more than 30 coaches and officials “flagged” by USA Swimming officials after being arrested or accused by law enforcement of sex crimes including rape and child pornography, but not disciplined by USA Swimming. Some coaches and officials on the “flagged” list have not been banned even after they have been convicted of felonies. Of the 32 people on the “flagged list” in 2010, only six have been subsequently banned by USA Swimming. The “flagged list” is not available to the public. Even when USA Swimming has banned coaches and officials for life for sexual misconduct it can be years before their names are listed on the permanently banned list on USA Swimming’s website.

    • Local swim clubs that are members of USA Swimming are insured by U.S. Sports Insurance Company Inc, a company with $31.3-million in assets originally based in Barbados created and solely owned by USA Swimming and governed by former and current USA Swimming officials. While USSIC provides USA Swimming $2-million worth of liability insurance for sexual abuse civil cases, until recently the company provided local clubs only $100,000 worth of coverage for similar cases. This policy of reducing the financial exposure of USSIC at the local level was a factor in generating millions of dollars in “safety rebates” from USSIC back to USA Swimming. In some years the governing body has received back as much as $750,000 in “safety rebates.”

    • USA Swimming has also paid $77,627 to lobbying firms to lobby against legislation in California that would have made it easier for sexual abuse victims to sue their abusers and the organizations they worked for or represented in civil cases.

    The legislation was SB 131.

    You will want to read the whole thing.

    These poor swimmers were sacrificed with nothing to protect them.

    A note: 

    Yes, I am sure that there will be some kind of congressional action about this, although there have been much larger scandals in religious institutions and groups such as the Boy Scouts. But take a deep breath and remember: no one baptizes their child, marries their spouse, buries their dead, confesses their sins, goes through their rights of passage into manhood, and/or climbs the ladder to God through USA Swimming. A swimming org is an easy target.

    Therefore, the fight must continue.

     

  • The next domino falls: Rockville Center NY

    The next domino falls: Rockville Center NY

    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 Rockville Center began receiving letters last week. I predicted this back in July. 

    Like the other plans in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, victims receiving letters are in “phase one.” These are men and women who have previously come forward to the diocese to say that they were sexually abused.

    Rockville Center, however, is a very unique place.

    Rockville Center: Used Intimidation to Trick and Silence Victims

    A 2003 Suffolk Grand Jury Report found, according to the New York Times:

    Roman Catholic Church officials on Long Island [protected] scores of pedophile priests for decades by using sham policies and a bogus ”intervention team” to trick and silence victims, cover up crimes, avoid scandals and hold down financial consequences.

    The panel said the Diocese of Rockville Centre — the nation’s sixth largest, with 1.3 million Catholics in 134 parishes in Nassau and Suffolk Counties — had protected at least 58 abusive priests with aggressive tactics that purported to help victims and their families but that actually used intimidation, claims of confidentiality, hush payments and other means to avoid lawsuits and publicity.

    Since 1990, the diocese has maintained a special ”uninsured perils fund” to cover sexual abuse claims, asbestos exposure and trampoline accidents, the grand jury found. It said the fund, raised from parish collections, had paid $1.7 million in claims — none for asbestos exposure or trampoline accidents — but still had $11 million in its account last October.

    As for dangerous priests, it said they were shuffled from parish to parish and often allowed to minister to children, while recommendations for psychiatric treatments were ignored and a ”legal affairs” team, ostensibly set up to help sexual abuse victims, worked to suppress legal claims and husband the money.

    ”The grand jury concludes that the history of the Diocese of Rockville Centre demonstrates that as an institution they are incapable of properly handling issues relating to the sexual abuse of children by priests,” the special grand jury said in a 180-page report based on a nine-month inquiry.

    The facts are ugly. You can read the whole report here.

    The Players

    We have no idea how many priests sexually abused children in the Diocese of Rockville Center. The Grand Jury Report lists many of the men as “Priests A-W.” Here is a list of some of the known diocesan priests who are publicly accused of abuse. More details on the public allegations against each of the priests is here.

    Peter A. Allen

    Daniel Babis

    James Bergin

    Brian Brinker

    John Butler

    Michael Carroll

    Gerald (Jerry) Chasse

    Basil Peter Congro

    Damian Lawrence Cooper

    Edward D’Andrea

    Thomas DeVita

    Angelo Ditta

    Peter Duvelsdorf

    Matthew Fitzgerald

    Michael Hands

    Kenneth Hasselbach

    William Logan

    John Mahoney

    Joseph McComiskey

    Brian McKeon

    George J. Michell

    Andrew Millar

    James C. Miller

    Salvatore J. Miraglia

    John D. Mott

    Joseph T. Mundy

    Kenneth T. Nee

    Louis I. Newman

    Frank J. Parisi

    Alan J. Placa

    Charles A. Ribaudo

    Brendan Riordan

    Robert Saccacio

    Thomas G. Saloy

    Richard Schaefer

    Alfred Soave

    Raymond Stegmann

    Gerald Twomey

    Nicholas Unterstein

    Eugene Vollmer

    James C. Williams

    Gregory Yacyshyn

     

    Alan J. Placa

    By far the most interesting name on the list is Placa’s. A close friend of Rudy Giuliani’s, Placa has been accused of molesting teens. He is currently employed by Giuliani’s consulting firm.

    Although Placa was “cleared” by Rome, Placa’s accusers have never been able to use the US courts to seek civil justice or to gain access to Placa’s secret files. Placa’s Vatican trial was secret.

    This is Placa’s alleged victims’ chance to demand accountability. Although victims will not gain access to the files in Placa’s case, the Diocese of Rockville Center is going to have to “put its money where its mouth is,” so to speak.

    What’s up in NY and Brooklyn?

    I don’t know. If I hear anything, I will post it here.

  • Accused former All-American Boys Chorus vocal coach can be extradited, UK judge rules

    Accused former All-American Boys Chorus vocal coach can be extradited, UK judge rules

    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 14, 10 counts of lewd acts upon a child age 14 or 15, three counts of anal penetration by a foreign object and one count of oral copulation of a person under 18 years of age, and a sentencing enhancement allegation for substantial sexual conduct with a child.

    He escaped to England in 2007.

    Once there, Giese changed his name, started a public relations company, and claimed that he couldn’t be sent back to the U.S. because of our “civil commitment” laws.

    According to the OC Register:

    Under civil commitment, a convicted sex offender who has served his sentence can be committed to a state mental hospital indefinitely if medical experts believe that person is likely to reoffend. The law exists in 19 other states.

    The British courts agreed. Until this week.

     

    Chorus has a record of abuse

     

    Giese is the second All-American Boys Chorus official to be accused of child sexual abuse.

    The first, founder Fr. Richard T. Coughlin, has been accused by numerous former singers, removed for allegations of abuse, and put on the Diocese of Orange’s list of credibly accused clerics.

    Call me a broken record, but just think about this: the same people who covered up for Coughlin and Giese still run The All-American Boys Chorus.

    Why does anyone allow their child to be in that group?

     

  • Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Three: A Priest Admits Abusing, Chicago Cardinal Does Nothing

    Fifteen Years After Dallas, Part Three: A Priest Admits Abusing, Chicago Cardinal Does Nothing

    <– Back to Part Two: Is There a Crook in the Diocese of Crookston?

    In 2014, Fr. Bruce Wellems was banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Church officials there found out that he had sexually abused a seven-year-old boy when Wellems was fifteen. Los Angeles booted him back to Chicago where he had ministered for years.

    But they only went halfway: they sent Wellems home, but they didn’t tell parishioners that it was for sexual abuse. When I was at the parish in 2014, parishioners  told me that the allegations came from a dating relationship.

    What did Cardinal Blase Cupich (pictured above) do when Wellems returned to Chicago? He immediately put the priest back into ministry. Why? Because Chicago officials had known about the abuse all along. They didn’t think it was a big deal. Even when Wellems lied about it in the 1990s.

    Eric Johnson, victim of Bruce Wellems, age 7

    In 2015, Wellems was finally removed from ministry in Chicago when a survivor advocate (okay, it was me) called local Chicago authorities and reported him, giving law enforcement information Cupich had all along. Once a priest is reported, the Archdiocese has to remove him. It’s protocol.

    Wellems, a member of the Claretian order, admitted the abuse to the Chicago Tribune.

    Fr. Bruce Wellems leading a December 2015 Posada procession at his parish … when he’s not supposed to be acting as a priest – (Photo credit Chicago Tribune)

    Consequences … or lack thereof

    Wellems’ victim, Eric Johnson, sued the Claretians in 2016.

    Archdiocese of Chicago officials now say he is banned from all church buildings and he is no longer allowed to act as a priest. And remember: Wellems would still be a priest if I hadn’t reported and Eric hadn’t sued. Chicago and the Claretians knew all along that Wellems had sexually abused a seven-year-old when he was a teen.

    Rumor has it that he has petitioned the Vatican to be laicized.

    Now, here is where Cupich has dropped the ball. Again.

    Has Cupich warned the local community? No.

    Last month, Wellems appeared at a fundraiser for the “Peace and Education Coalition,” a high school program that is located at Holy Cross/Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, the Archdiocese parish where he worked for years. In fact. Wellems is the Executive Director.

    He is SUPPOSED TO BE BANNED FROM THE PROPERTY WHERE THE NONPROFIT IS LOCATED.

    Wellems at the fundraiser for the Peace and Education Coalition with the principal of Back of the Yards High School

    Pictured above is Wellems with a local public high school principal who was at the event.

    Did Cupich bother to tell her about Wellems’ past? Should a high school principal be hanging out and taking photos with a man who has admitted to sexually abusing a small child when he was a teen, lying about it, never apologizing to Eric for hurting him, and then being removed from the priesthood for the abuse?

    How do you think this makes Eric Johnson feel? What about other victims of abuse?

    Again … you’ll note that Wellems has never apologized to Eric for abusing him. Cupich has never apologized to Eric for putting Wellems back in ministry.

    Wellems secret personnel file has never been released. We don’t know if there are other victims. We wouldn’t know anything if Eric hadn’t fought for justice for more than 20 years.

    Cardinal Cupich has done little to nothing to protect a single child, warn a single parent, or reach out a hand to a single victim. He couldn’t even report his own predators.

    Reformer indeed.