The Worthy Adversary

Category: Hawaii

Hawaii Diocese knows who the predators are. They just won’t tell us.
Yesterday’s LA Times told the story of Edward Courtney, former Irish Christian Brother who is accused of molesting upwards of 50 kids. He’s living “under the radar” in Hawaii.

The bigger story is that EVERY cleric in Hawaii who has been accused of abuse (including former Bishop Joseph Ferrario) lives or has lived under the radar.

Why? Because unlike more than 30 other dioceses across the US, the Diocese of Honolulu and Bishop Larry Silva (pictured above) aren’t telling us who the perpetrators are.

Accused Hawaii priest George DeCosta

These are men like:
- Former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario, who has been accused of abuse by at least two boys. When one of his victims came forward in the 1980s, the diocese said that according to an internal investigation, the accusations were “groundless.” The diocese’s sham investigation and repugnant treatment of the first accuser, David Figueroa, are well-known.
- George DeCosta, a retired priest who still runs retreats on the Big Island. Two civil suits have been filed against him, and he was reportedly forced to retire from the priesthood in 2002.
- Joseph Henry, who has been accused of sexual abuse by at least 18 boys. Although the diocese had known about Henry and his crimes for decades (Henry died in 1974), the diocese last November finally removed a plaque that named the hall at Kailua’s St. Anthony’s Parish after the serial child molester.
- Larry Spellen, who has been accused of abuse by at least two boys. After he was removed from ministry in 1993 by the Bishop of Salt Lake City, he moved to Orange County, CA, where he worked as a hospital chaplain (so much for that suspension) before he died in 2003. You’ll note in the obituary that he is survived by “two foster sons.” Does that remind you of anyone?
And what about the guys who are living “under the radar?” What about the 60 lawsuits? Who’s in there? What about the predators that the diocese knows about, but no victims have filed cases?

If a similar list from Seattle can unearth one guy living in hiding in Hawaii, how many men can a Diocese of Hawaii list expose?

Don’t you think that the public deserves to know?
February 13, 2016
Hawaii civil window update, part II: Kamehameha Schools get slammed

I wasn’t joking when I said it was a big day for the Hawaii civil window for victims of child sexual abuse.

First, we found out that the Diocese of Honolulu is suing its insurer, exposing the fact there are 60 sex abuse lawsuits against the diocese, 29 of which have been settled.

Now, we have learned that Hawaii’s sex abuse scandal goes deep into the heart of one of its most beloved institutions:

More than 26 alleged victims of a long-time psychiatrist at the Kamehameha Schools have filed sex abuse lawsuits against the school.

According to the lawsuit, “Kamehameha Schools has known about the allegations for the last 25 years but failed to respond or investigate them.”

The school, whose mission is “to create educational opportunities in perpetuity to improve the capability and well-being of people of Hawaiian ancestry,” has more than 5400 students and a $11 billion (yes, with a “b”) endowment.

That’s 11 billion reasons to cover up for a sex-abusing psychiatrist, n’est-ce pas?

January 20, 2016
Hawaii Civil Window update
60 sex abuse cases

29 settlements

1 stingy insurance company

Hawaii Bishop Silva – years of experience make him an obfuscator expert

Things have been pretty quiet in Hawaii. And because of a new lawsuit, we now know why.

The Diocese of Honolulu today sued one of its insurers, First Insurance Insurance of Hawaii, for refusing “to honor commitments made in liability policies it sold the church over the course of several decades.”

The lawsuit isn’t the meat of the story. These kinds of suits happen all of the time. Insurance companies don’t like to pay big claims. It’s bad for business.

It’s what’s IN the text of the Diocese’s complaint that is newsworthy.
- Sixty child sex abuse cases have been filed against the Diocese of Honolulu as a result of the civil window
- There have been three rounds of mediation
- Approximately 29 child sex abuse cases against the diocese have already been settled
Since this information didn’t come from the victims’ attorneys, we can only guess that this intel was a part of the mediation privilege … until now. In other words, they aren’t allowed to talk about it (yet—hence the Hawaii radio silence for the past few months). The only party who could talk about it was the Diocese. And they were mad enough at First Insurance to blow their cover.

There are still three more months until the Hawaii civil window closes. Hopefully, this development will encourage more victims (who may have believed that the window was closed) to come forward.

The money quote from the complaint is highlighted in the City Beat story:

[First Insurance has] delayed, obfuscated, and misled its policyholders, consistently putting its interests ahead of the interests [of the church and the claimants.]

Well, if anyone would know delays, obfuscation, and misleading practices, it’d be the Diocese of Honolulu.

Remember, he was the guy who said it “hurt victims” to expose predators.
January 20, 2016
Gerald Funcheon … sued again

A number of years ago, a family reached out to me asking for help. Their son had been abused by a priest named Gerald Funcheon, and the family wanted to know what happened to the Crosier cleric.

Jerry Funcheon

At the time, I looked at the resources available. I saw a priest with huge holes in his assignment record and a couple of lawsuits. Other than that, he had simply vanished.

How times have changed.

This week, Funcheon (who had hidden assignments in Hawaii and California and very public assignments all over the country—including Indiana, where he was banned because of his “plans” to molest) was sued for sexual abuse by two more victims in Minnesota. That brings the victim tally to somewhere around 20.

Funcheon was also the first predator exposed under Hawaii’s civil window. His video deposition—where he talks about abusing kids in Hawaii and elsewhere—was made public a few years ago.

Funcheon now lives is a facility for offending clerics in Missouri. But he’s free to do whatever he wants.

His victims? They are the ones who suffer for Funcheon’s crimes.

July 29, 2015
The Best Revolutions Begin With One Small Action

This blog has long rallied against the problem of the cover-up of sexual abuse in public schools. Unfortunately, the victims in these cases—when they are ready and able to come forward and get accountability— usually don’t have criminal and civil rights to expose the abuse. As a result, victims and the public are seldom, if ever, able to learn the full story.

The only times we do get a peek into how alleged sex offenders in public school are treated (unless they are arrested) is when scandal breaks. For example, when the Miramonte child sex abuse scandal broke in Los Angeles, we learned a ton: accused teachers were suspended with pay; teachers arrested for abuse were getting huge payoffs; teachers unions were paying big money to block bills which would have expedited the removal of sex-offending teachers; and, of course, we learned about the infamous “teacher jail,” where teachers accused of inappropriate contact sit idly at taxpayer expense.

For parents and the 99.9% of good teachers out there, this is appalling stuff. Children are second priorities and the reputations of an entire class of hard-working, law-abiding public educators are sullied.

But a little law in Hawaii may be starting a revolution.

On Friday, Hawaii’s civil window for victims of child sex abuse was extended for two more years. But it was also expanded. The new law added the state and counties as potential defendants. That means that if kids were sexually abused in public schools and institutions, they have the next two years to come forward and expose the crime. And if the crime was covered up by a government official, school administration, or bureaucracy, we will find that out, too.

My hope? Other states will look to Hawaii as an example. And a revolution will begin.

June 23, 2014