The Worthy Adversary

Tag: clohessy

  • Michael Harris trial is a go …

    The Michael Harris trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 18 at 9am. Barring any last-minute settlements, you’ll see me at Dept. CX103, Orange County Supreme Court.

    It should be a barn burner.  Get ready to see some diocese dirty laundry.

    Even Bishop Tod Brown concedes Harris is a monster.

    The victim is an active duty Air Force lieutenant colonel and KC-10 pilot who has flown combat mission over Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East and Europe.

    So, the Diocese of Orange chooses the word of a monster over the word of an active duty war hero — a war hero with everything to lose by coming forward.

    I’m speechless.

  • Cue Angry Mob

    Victims? We don’t care about no stinkin’ victims!

     

    San Diego, California: Fr. Jose Alexis Davila was arrested in January 2012 and pled guilty in April for battery and “unlawful touching of an intimate part of a victim’s body.” He is serving three years’ probation.

    Parishioners tried to accost the victim’s mother at prayer group in an attempt to get her to recant her story, confronted her other family members and called the 19-year-old a liar in the media.

    The diocese put Davila back into unresricted ministry in May, saying

    All legitimate and pastoral concerns have been addressed as regards his case.

    Consequently, we have no reason to believe that women or children are at risk because of his return to ministry. He returned to St. Jude at the beginning of May.

    When SNAP asked that Davila (who is still on probation), be taken out of the parish and assigned to a remote and secure facility where he would have no contact with women and children, parishoners defended the priest … who PLED GUILTY. (Hello? Anyone home?)

    No one at the church or the diocese has publicly said a prayer or a word of support of the victim. (but I am grateful for the whistleblower at the parish who called to tell me that Bishop Brom snuck Davila back into ministry. I mean, if Davila is so awesome, why not make a public announcement about it?)

     

    Ontario, California: In 2011 Fr. Alejandro Castillo pled guilty to lewd and lascivious acts upon a child (in the sentencing documents, prosecutors said that five children had accused Castillo of sexual abuse). He served a year in jail.

    Before the plea, parishioners held car washes and rallies to support the priest, saying that the young victims were not telling the truth.

    After Castillo was released from jail in May, those same supporters threw a huge party in support of the priest. Since there were numerous children present at the party, Castillo was thrown back in jail for violating probation.

    No parishioner or supporter has apologized to the victim in the case, who is still a minor. No one has raised a nickel to help the child with therapy.

     

    Redding, California: Fr. Uriel Ojeda, who was arrested in November 2011, is charged with seven felony counts of sexual molestation of a child under 14. According to an unreleased diocese report, Ojeda admitted to repeatedly abusing the girl.

    When the priest’s bail was lowered, supporters released balloons outside of the courtroom. Dozens of supporters have shown up at every one of his hearings, selling t-shirts, accepting donations for Ojeda’s legal fees, and singing prayers.

    No one has publicly sung a prayer for the young victim, who is still a minor.

     

    Stockton, California: A jury unanimously found that Fr. Michael Kelly sexually abused a boy (another victim has since come forward). Kelly skipped the country. The Diocese doesn’t care … but they still paid the victim $3.75 million in a settlement, because they knew that the jury would award ten times that much for the cover-up and callousness of Stockton Diocese officials.

    Statement from the diocese? Here. Apology to victim(s)? No way.

     

    I’m not saying that parishioners should not pray for these priests, love these priests, or support them quietly and respectfully. They should.  Here’s how.

    I AM saying that if there are victims of child sexual abuse at ANY of these parishes (by priests, dentists, parents, boy scout leaders, teachers, babysitters, etc) do you REALLY think that they believe it’s safe to report?!

    Hell, I’m not going anywhere near those parishes, because I might get punched.

     

    Finally … where are the Bishops?! Last time I read the King James Bible:

    But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)

    There are a lot of children—who have been vindicated in the courts—who are suffering doubly. They were sexually abused, and now they are shunned by their religious community.

    Isn’t is time for Bishops Jaime Soto, Gerald Barnes, Stephen Blaire and Robert Brom to give a lick about the victims and show these well-intentioned (but SORELY misguided) Catholics that they are using their church as an excuse to defend criminals?

    Or am I asking to much?

     

     

  • Bishop Jaime Soto has some explaining to do about Uriel Ojeda

    If you are in the Sacramento area, I hope you can join us. I think that Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto has said, “Report abuse to the Diocese,” so many times, that he thinks it’s the right thing to do. (P.S. Even the Pope says to call the cops first)

     

    For immediate release: June 6, 2012

    Contact: Joelle Casteix (949) 322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

     

    NEWS EVENT: Victims say Sacramento bishop hinders prosecution

    He won’t disclose report of predator’s confession

    Such secrecy keeps other victims silent, group says

    It urges Sacramento prelate to attend court hearing on Friday

    SNAP to Soto: “Teach your flock how to back cleric without hurting victims”

    “Stop telling victims to report to the church, tell them to call cops instead,” they say

     

    What: Holding signs and childhood photos, child sex abuse victims and their supporters will try to hand-deliver a letter to Sacramento’s Catholic bishop urging him to:

    • attend Friday’s hearing for an accused pedophile priest,
    • make public a church staffer’s report of that priest’s admission of the crime, and
    • insist that his flock quietly support accused clerics and stop scaring their accusers.

     

    The group will also blast the bishop for continuing to ask victims to report crimes to church officials instead of law enforcement.

    When: Thursday, June 7 at 12:45 pm

    Where: Outside of the Sacramento Diocese headquarters, 2110 Broadway (at 19th) in Sacramento

    Who: Two-to-three victims of child sex abuse who are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a California woman who is the group’s Western Regional Director.

    Why: Fr. Uriel Ojeda, a Redding-area priest, was arrested in December. He faces criminal charges of sexually abusing a child under 14 and will be in court on Friday for his preliminary hearing.

    SNAP says that Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto is not doing enough to help victims and witnesses in the case and is hindering prosecution by his “continued secrecy.”

    According to press reports and the prosecutor, Ojeda confessed his crimes to a church-paid private investigator.

    SNAP wants Soto to make the investigator’s report public to help enable more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to speak up, help police, get therapy, protect others and start healing. Disclosing the report would also protect kids, since some parents still believe Ojeda is innocent.

    At earlier court hearings, dozens of Ojeda’s supporters filled the courtroom, said they disbelieved the charges and released helium balloons to “celebrate” the admitted predator’s release on bail.

    “These parishioners are unintentionally scaring and silencing victims and witnesses,” said Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director. “Soto should insist that these confused Catholics back accused predators quietly, so no other victims, witnesses or whistleblowers are hurt more or scared into staying silent. By his inaction, Soto is hurting law enforcement officials in this case and others.”

    SNAP is urging Soto to attend the Friday hearing and personally show Ojeda’s supporters how to show respect for victims and survivors while quietly supporting the priest.

    The group also asking Soto to post on diocesan and parish websites an educational pamphlet “What to do when your priest is accused.”

    Finally, the group is blasting Soto for telling victims to report crimes to church officials.

    “Even Pope Benedict has said that victims should report crimes to civil authorities,” Casteix said. “Our experience has shown us that victims and witnesses must report to law enforcement in order for predators and enablers to be prosecuted and kept away from kids. By telling victims to call the church, Soto is recklessly endangering kids by delaying criminal justice. It’s not the Bishop’s job to determine what is or isn’t a crime. That’s why we have police and prosecutors.”

    Copies of the letter and the educational flier will be available at the event.

     


  • Plead guilty to sexual assault? No worries! Brom has got your back!

    **Updated with correction and Diocese Reponse**

    File this under: “What the hell are they thinking?”

    Diocese of San Diego priest Fr. Jose Alexis Davila, who in April pled guilty to to battery and “engaging in an unlawful touching of an intimate part of the victim’s body,” is back at work at his old parish. You know, the one with the state-funded preschool. (The preschool, I am told, has been shut down)

    If you don’t know the whole story, Davila went to a parishioner’s home on New Year’s Eve (she was a 20-year-old woman) and forced himself on her. We don’t know if more happened. But really, the guilty plea is enough, n’est-ce pas?

    Yeah, say San Diego Bishop Robert Brom and his successor Cirillo Flores (who is a licensed civil lawyer), it’s enough to get you your job back! You WIN!

    It gets worse: Davila has been put right smack in the same place where parishioners formed a “lynch mob” and went to the victim’s home in an attempt to get her to recant her story. They kicked her mom out of Bible study. They badgered her family.

    Did Brom or Flores step in and say, “This is not what Jesus would do?” Did they try to hold listening sessions at the parish so that parishioners could hear from other victims? Hell, no. They sat back and allowed their flock to descend into a mob mentality and engage in pseudo-criminal behavior in order to thwart the justice system. Um, excuse me … anyone home on Paducah Drive? You have a big problem here. Don’t you have a Charter for this very thing?

    I could go into how these kinds of actions alienate survivors, scare victims into silence, discourage reporting, enable criminals, put kids in danger, etc. I could say that this flagrant and dangerous act defies common sense, Christianity, and the New Testament (which really frowns upon lynch mobs, endangering children and awarding criminals who show no contrition).

    But let’s look at the bishop’s own rulebook: Davila now has a record. Davila works in a position of power at a parish with a STATE FUNDED CHILD CARE CENTER. Davila will not pass any Church- and common sense-mandated background check.  THEY ARE BREAKING THEIR OWN RULES.

    The solution is simple, Most Revs. Brom and Flores: Let Davila work in a remote and secure facility where he has no contact with kids. Reach out to hurting confused parishioners. Embrace the victim and invite her and her family back to church (All those “Catholics Come Home” brochures? They don’t work when you allow your flock to form angry mobs and go after victims and their families and put offenders in nice jobs at parishes.)

    Below is the press release that SNAP sent out earlier today. I would go to the parish, but I’m afraid that I’d get killed. Nice.

    Here is the statement by Rodrigo Valdivia, Chancellor of the Diocese of San Diego:

    The Diocese of San Diego and Father Alexis Davila have fully cooperated with law enforcement and all legitimate and pastoral concerns have been addressed as regards his case.

    Consequently, we have no reason to believe that women or children are at risk because of his return to ministry. He returned to St. Jude at the beginning of May.

    I’m speechless. I welcome your comments …

    ******************************

    Convicted predator quietly put back in SD parish

    He pled guilty to unlawful sexual touching

    Yet, months later, he’s back around kids, teens

    Victim and her family were subject to “lynch mob”

    SNAP: “Bishop breaks promises & endangers parishioners”

    A Catholic priest who was convicted of trying to sexually assault a 20-year-old woman earlier this year has quietly been put back to work in a San Diego parish.

    Clergy sex abuse victims want him removed. They fear he may assault other vulnerable young women.

    According to the parish website, Fr. Jose Alexis Davila is now the Associate Pastor at St. Jude’s Catholic Church (3785 Boston Ave, San Diego, CA 92113, 619-264-2195). A concerned parishioner alerted a support group called SNAP, (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) to the assignment.

    Today, leaders of SNAP are writing San Diego Bishop Brom and and his successor Bishop Crillo Flores, urging them to oust Davila.

    “These Catholic officials are basically telling employees that ‘If you try to rape a woman, we’ll still give you a job – but quietly – even if you’re convicted in court,’” said Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Western Regional Director.

    Fr. Davila was arrested in January 2012 for attempting to sexually assault a 20-year-old woman who attended church at St. Jude’s Shrine of the West in Southcrest.  He pleaded guilty to battery and “engaging in an unlawful touching of an intimate part of the victim’s body” in April and was sentenced to three years’ probation. He was also ordered to stay away from the victim.

    Last week, SNAP learned from an anonymous source that Davila was back at the St. Jude’s. Calls to the parish confirmed that Davila is currently on the job. As best as SNAP can tell, there was no public announcement that Davila was reinstated.

    In a letter sent today to Brom and Flores, SNAP is pushing for Davila’s permanent removal

    SNAP is also worried because a state-funded child care center is located at the parish.

    SNAP’s letter urges Brom and his successor to:

    — Immediately remove Davila from the parish

    –Put him in a remote, secure, independently run treatment center where he has no contact with women or children,

    –Apologize to the victim and her family for their “irresponsible” actions, and

    — Disclose Davila’s presence at the parish to the California State Board of Education, which funds the child care center at St. Jude’s parish.

    “We were shocked to hear that a convicted predator is back working in a parish,” said Casteix. “This should have been a slam-dunk: Davila pled guilty to sexually attacking a vulnerable young woman. He should never work in a parish again, period. That’s what the bishops have promised us for the past 10 years. And once again, Brom and his successor Flores have turned their backs on the victims they promised to protect.”

    SNAP’s letter pulls no punches.

    “You are violating both the letter and the spirit of your own 2002 abuse ‘reforms,’” the letter says. “If Davila can go unpunished for attacking a woman, every woman, including others at and near his parish, are at risk.”

    SNAP is also concerned about the treatment of the victim in this case. According to press reports, parishioners harassed her family members, came to her home to try and force her to recant, and kicked her mother out of her Bible study group. Because Davila has been ordered to stay away from the victim, it is unknown if the victim and her family are even able to attend mass at the parish.

    SNAP believes that these actions scare other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers into staying silent.

    “When parishioners lashed out at the victim and shunned her mother from the church, you did nothing,” the letter says. “Because you are not reaching out and guiding your flock, you are supporting a predator at the cost of his victim and her family and the well-being of others.  We hope that the victim is reaching out and getting help and support from organizations and people who care about the welfare for survivors.”

    The diocese of San Diego is no stranger to sex abuse and cover up. In 2007, the Diocese settled with 144 victims of child sex abuse for $200 million. Diocese officials had attempted to hide behind bankruptcy protection, but allegations of fraud on the part of the Diocese eventually led to a settlement. Documents were released in October 2010 that exposed the scope and scale of the abuse and cover-up .

    Contact:
    Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, CA, SNAP Western Regional Director, 949-322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com
    Barb Dorris of St. Louis, MO, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-503-0003, snapdorris@gmail.com
    David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Executive Director, 314-566-9790, snapclohessy@aol.com

     

  • **UPDATED**FIRST HAWAII LAWSUIT FILED** Gerald Funcheon: A missing priest appears ….

    The first lawsuit under Hawaii’s landmark civil window was filed yesterday in Hawaii Circuit Court.

    The lawsuit (posted here) charges that Fr. Gerald Funcheon sexually abused a 13-year-old boy at Damien Memorial School in 1983/1984 during an overnight retreat on the eastern shore of Oahu. Considering Funcheon’s history (you can read some of the documents here), we can only assume that there may be more victims in Hawaii who are suffering.

    Besides exposing predators and keeping kids safe, the beauty of the anti-crime civil window is that the responsible parties are forced to be accountable for the harm they did to child victims and take some of the financial burden for victims’ care off of state coffers and taxpayers. The civil window provides an opportunity put that burden back onto the abusers and enablers, where it belongs.

    Similar laws in California and Delaware have exposed hundreds of predators and helped law enforcement put child molesters behind bars.

    Funcheon has also been accused of sexual abuse by two former students at Salinas’ Palma School, Chris Spedden and Steven Cantrell. Cantrell, a Monterey-area doctor, wrote an open letter to Palma and the community about the importance of coming forward and reporting sexual abuse. Both Spedden and Cantrell came forward as a part of the Irish Christian Brothers’ bankruptcy. The Brothers run Damien and Palma, as well as other schools across the United States

    Spedden, Cantrell and the victim in Hawaii are heroes.  Were it not for them, Hawaii and California would never have known about the predator dumped in their schools.

     

    ****************************************

    Original post: March 15, 2012

    Every once in a while, the stars align.

    Last year, I was contacted by family members of a child sex abuse victim. They asked me if I had any information about a priest named Gerald Funcheon who worked at Damien Memorial High School in Honolulu. I had never heard of Funcheon, but a quick search showed that he had a nasty past.

    Not only was the Crosier priest banned from the Diocese of Indianapolis, but there were numerous sex abuse lawsuits against him from his time in the midwest. And then Funcheon vanishes: he disappeared from the Official Catholic Directory in the early 1980s. There is really only one reason why a living priest would vanish from the Official Directory. He was probably in hiding.

    I told the family that I couldn’t find any information about Funcheon in Hawaii, but to keep in touch.

    A few months later, the Irish Christian Brothers based out of New York declared bankruptcy because of more than 50 allegations of abuse at one of their Seattle schools and more than 250 allegations of abuse at Mt. Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. They are the 10th Catholic diocese or religious order to seek bankruptcy protection due to sex abuse claims.

    When a religious order or diocese declares bankruptcy because of child sex abuse, the court will order a “bar date,” that is, a deadline for ALL victims to come forward and use the bankruptcy court to “out” their perpetrator and file a claim. This is a good thing and a bad thing.

    It’s good because it opens a window for victims who couldn’t come forward before because their statutes of limitations had run out. It allows potentially hundreds of victims to use the court system to get justice and do what they can to ensure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to another child.

    It’s bad because the window is only open for a very short period of time. After the deadline, many victims lose the ability to use the civil justice system forever.

    In the case of the Irish Christian Brothers, getting the word out is tough.  They run or ran dozens of schools across the United States. Many well known perpetrators (like Thomas Ford, who was convicted of beating abandoned children, and Robert Brouillette, who was convicted of child pornography after being arrested in a police sting for attempting to meet a child he had lured on the internet) worked in seven or eight of the schools. Many of the brothers sailed under the radar and were never listed in diocese directories.

    But yearbooks never lie.

    I decided to go to Honolulu (I know, it was a tough decision) and do a press event to garner attention about the bankruptcy. While many alumni at the school were scheduled to receive letters telling them that they may have rights, I knew that there was going to be no publicity about perpetrators that worked at the school.

    I got copies of the Damien yearbooks from the Honolulu public library (because of a super-dooper friend who shall remain nameless) and we started comparing faculty to known, admitted, or convicted predators. And guess who we found? Thomas Ford and Robert Brouillette (our two arrested and convicted Christian Brothers) and … Gerald Funcheon. He worked at the school for two years (1983-1985), right after he escaped allegations of abuse in Florida, Indiana and Minnesota.

    We got all three men in the news.

    But there’s more.

    Not only did we find Funcheon in the Damien yearbooks, but we also found him in Palma School yearbooks. Palma, which is a Catholic all-boys school in Salinas, CA, was where Funcheon was “dumped” in 1984 after parents in Hawaii complained that Funcheon was possibly molesting kids. Two victims from Funcheon’s time in Palma have now come forward.

    I kept in touch with the family in Hawaii. They now know that their son has legal rights. They also have photographic evidence that Funcheon worked at Damien.

    And the Irish Christian Brothers? I fear we will uncover a cover-up scandal where Irish Christian Brothers officials knowingly shuffled child predators from school to school and destroyed hundreds of children across the country.