OAKLAND (CA)Alamedia TimesSouthern California man accuses former priest who was 'forced into retirement' in1991By Kristin BenderSTAFF WRITER Thursday, April 03, 2003 - OAKLAND -- Already facing several lawsuits stemming from decades-old alleged clergy sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland has been slapped with yet another suit involving a priest who served at parishes in six East Bay cities.
The alleged victim, Michael Martell, a 43-year-old Southern California man, said he hired Hayward-based attorney Rick Simons and Stockton-based attorney David Drivon to file a civil lawsuit against former Concord priest Donald Eugene Broderson after years of suffering.
"As a young teenager, the amount of shame, the amount of hurt and what he took away from me as a young boy is unexplainable," Martell said on the steps of Alameda County Superior Court, where the suit was filed Wednesday. "I think it's im- portant that I come forward, it's part of my healing process and I want to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Sister Barbara Flannery, the diocese chancellor, said Wednesday that she had not seen the suit and could not comment on the specifics of it. However, she did confirm Broderson was "forced into retirement" in 1991 and officially retired a few years later.
A third woman yesterday accused a former Roman Catholic priest of sexual abuse, alleging that he molested her over a fourto five-year period in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Carol Beckman Eversmann of Underwood, Ind., accused Joseph E. Carrico of abuse in a lawsuit filed yesterday against the Archdiocese of Louisville.
Eversmann, whose cousin Lysha Beckman Sitzman filed similar allegations in a suit last week, said Carrico was a family friend and alleged he began molesting her when she was about 10.
Carrico -- who left the priesthood in 1973 but remained a lay religious educator in the archdiocese -- was named in a second lawsuit filed Tuesday by Evelyn Abell McKemie.
Eversmann's lawsuit was one of two filed yesterday in Jefferson Circuit Court against the archdiocese, which faces more than 200 lawsuits alleging abuse by priests and others associated with the church. Another plaintiff alleged sexual abuse by the Rev. Louis E. Miller, a retired priest who pleaded guilty to 50 criminal abuse counts Monday.
''It's something I've thought about for a long time,'' Eversmann said. ''But it takes one to be courageous to come forward for others to come forward.''
After her cousin filed suit, ''I had to support her,'' Eversmann said.
Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb announced late Wednesday afternoon that he dismissed the Rev. Arthur C. Schrenger from the ministry after the priest "confirmed two instances of misconduct with minors prior to 1985."
In a prepared statement, Lipscomb did not elaborate on the nature of the misconduct, but said he acted Tuesday in keeping with new church laws that require priests be removed after "even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor -- past, present or future."
Lipscomb said he turned over information about Schrenger, as well as Brother Victor Bendillo, who had a longtime assignment to Mobile's McGill-Toolen High School, to Mobile County District Attorney John M. Tyson Jr. Tuesday.Tyson said the archdiocese provided him with documents about Bendillo, as well as two other area priests, the Rev. Eugene Smith and the Rev. Barry Ryan. Tyson said he had not received any documents regarding Schrenger.
OAKLAND (CA)Contra Costa TimesBy Brian AndersonCONTRA COSTA TIMESOAKLAND - A former Contra Costa County man who said he suffered years of "severe" sexual abuse at the hands of a longtime East Bay Catholic priest filed a lawsuit Wednesday, saying he was left with eternal emotional scars.
Michael Martell, 43, said in a lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court that the Rev. Donald Eugene Broderson, 60, of Richmond molested him a dozen times between 1973 and 1974. Martell was an altar boy at Concord's Church of the Most Precious Blood, now St. Francis of Assisi, when the abuse began, he said.
"It started slowly and progressed in its severity," Martell said of the abuse. "I felt ashamed. I was scared."
Broderson was a trusted family friend who regularly dined at his parents' home, Martell said. On one such occasion, he said, Broderson molested him in his bedroom. At other times, Martell suffered abuse on a road trip and inside a bedroom at the church rectory, he said.
Bishop Richard G. Lennon Tuesday announced that the Archdiocese of Boston would refuse any money raised by Voice of the Faithful and ordered Catholic Charities to decline any offer as well.
Catholic Charities President Joseph Doolin seemed to be striving to stay on the fence in response.
"We have always respected the teaching authority of the Archbishop and will continue to do so," Doolin said in a prepared statement. "As a separately incorporated public charity, it is incumbent upon Catholic Charities to also respond to such imperatives that that status requires."
MOBILE (AL)Mobile Register04/03/03By KRISTEN CAMPBELL Religion Reporter
8PriestArchbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb announced late Wednesday afternoon that he dismissed the Rev. Arthur C. Schrenger from the ministry after the priest "confirmed two instances of misconduct with minors prior to 1985."
Lipscomb said he turned over information about Schrenger, as well as Brother Victor Bendillo, who had a longtime assignment to Mobile's McGill-Toolen High School, to Mobile County District Attorney John M. Tyson Jr. on Tuesday.
The Mobile Register spoke Wednesday with a man who alleges that while he was a student at McGill-Toolen 12 years ago, Bendillo sexually abused him. The Register plans to publish an account of his story in upcoming days.
OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)Alva Review Courier04/03/03Enid Attorney Stephen Jones told the Alva Review-Courier that he has agreed to defend the Oklahoma City Catholic Diocese and former Enid/Alva priest Dave Imming of abuse charges filed by an Oklahoma City Attorney in Oklahoma County District Court.
Jones said, "These allegations are completely unfounded. I am proud to defend Dave Imming. I have known him for almost 30 years. I have found him to be a compasionate, wonderful man. A great pastor."
ALTOONA JOHNSTOWN (PA)The Pittsburg Post-GazetteThursday, April 03, 2003 By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. -- Two lawsuits filed today accuse two more priests from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown with molesting young parishioners. And, as with four similar lawsuits filed in the diocese during the past two months, the plaintiffs are suing the diocese's top leadership -- not the priests -- and are charging them with a years-long cover-up to keep the cases from surfacing. The lawsuits filed this morning also include the first allegation of molestation that occurred during the 16 years that current Bishop Joseph Adamec has been in office. In one case, a 25-year-old man, now living in Philadelphia, charges that he was molested between 1988 and 1990 or 1991 by Msgr. Thomas Mabon at St. Mary Catholic Church in Hollidaysburg, Blair County. The lawsuit says that the Mabon's abuse ranged from open-mouth kissing to oral sex -- acts that the lawsuit says Mabon coaxed the boy into, telling him, "God wanted him to do it." The second is filed by a Dover, York County, man, now 44, who charges that he was about 14 when the Rev. John Boyle began molesting him at St. Agnes Church in tiny Beaverdale, Cambria County. The molestation there continued from 1973 to 1975, the plaintiff charges. In at least one case, Boyle gave him alcohol until he passed out, committed a sex act with him and warned him of "big trouble" if the abuse were revealed, the plaintiff claims.
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. -- Two lawsuits filed today accuse two more priests from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown with molesting young parishioners.
And, as with four similar lawsuits filed in the diocese during the past two months, the plaintiffs are suing the diocese's top leadership -- not the priests -- and are charging them with a years-long cover-up to keep the cases from surfacing.
The lawsuits filed this morning also include the first allegation of molestation that occurred during the 16 years that current Bishop Joseph Adamec has been in office.
In one case, a 25-year-old man, now living in Philadelphia, charges that he was molested between 1988 and 1990 or 1991 by Msgr. Thomas Mabon at St. Mary Catholic Church in Hollidaysburg, Blair County.
The lawsuit says that the Mabon's abuse ranged from open-mouth kissing to oral sex -- acts that the lawsuit says Mabon coaxed the boy into, telling him, "God wanted him to do it."
The second is filed by a Dover, York County, man, now 44, who charges that he was about 14 when the Rev. John Boyle began molesting him at St. Agnes Church in tiny Beaverdale, Cambria County.
The molestation there continued from 1973 to 1975, the plaintiff charges. In at least one case, Boyle gave him alcohol until he passed out, committed a sex act with him and warned him of "big trouble" if the abuse were revealed, the plaintiff claims.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court took up the subject of old sex crimes Monday in a case that could determine when statutes of limitations can be erased and prosecutions begun.
Although the case involved a California man's alleged abuse of his daughter, demonstrators outside the court included people arguing against time limits on charges against priests accused of abuse.
The justices are considering whether California violated the constitutional rights of a man by prosecuting him in 2001 on charges of molesting his daughters that began almost 50 years ago.
The time limit had run out for such charges, but California changed the statute of limitations in 1994 for some sex offenses. Hundreds of people have been convicted under the law, after child victims came forward to report crimes.
OAKLAND - A former Contra Costa County man field a lawsuit today in Alameda County Superior Court accusing a Catholic priest who had worked in Concord, Dublin and Castro Valley of repeatedly molesting him decades ago.
Michael Martell, 43, said that Rev. Donald Eugene Broderson molested him a dozen times between 1973 and 1974. Martell was an altar boy at Church of the Most Precious Blood, St. Francis of Assisi, when the abuse began, he said.
The lawsuit also names the Catholic Diocese of Oakland as a defendant.
Broderson was ordained in 1968 and worked for at least seven different churches, including St. Raymond in Dublin and Transfiguration Church in Castro Valley. He retired in 1994, but continues to work for the diocese, said David Drivon, one of Martell's attorneys.
MALDEN (MA)Boston GlobeBy Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff Correspondent, 4/3/2003
n his Lenten journey to help lay Catholics and clergy heal from the priest sex abuse crisis, Bishop Richard G. Lennon tonight will bring his message of hope to Malden. Lennon, interim head of the Archdiocese of Boston, will speak at a prayer service scheduled for 7 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Church on Pleasant Street. Earlier, Lennon will meet privately with about 100 priests from the archdiocese's North Region, which includes 77 parishes from Woburn to Gloucester. ''Bishop Lennon has made it a priority to meet with the laity and priests,'' said Auxiliary Bishop Francis X. Irwin of Peabody, spiritual leader of the North Region. ''His focus will be on forgiveness.'' Lennon's visit comes at a painful time for the archdiocese. Church finances are in peril due to high legal costs from the sex abuse scandal and a severe drop in donations. Locally, parishes in Malden, Salem, Gloucester, and Haverhill were among those rocked by allegations of priests molesting children. Several area victims have filed lawsuits against the church.
Lennon, interim head of the Archdiocese of Boston, will speak at a prayer service scheduled for 7 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Church on Pleasant Street. Earlier, Lennon will meet privately with about 100 priests from the archdiocese's North Region, which includes 77 parishes from Woburn to Gloucester.
''Bishop Lennon has made it a priority to meet with the laity and priests,'' said Auxiliary Bishop Francis X. Irwin of Peabody, spiritual leader of the North Region.
''His focus will be on forgiveness.'' Lennon's visit comes at a painful time for the archdiocese. Church finances are in peril due to high legal costs from the sex abuse scandal and a severe drop in donations. Locally, parishes in Malden, Salem, Gloucester, and Haverhill were among those rocked by allegations of priests molesting children. Several area victims have filed lawsuits against the church.
SAN BERNARDINO (CA)Boston GlobeBy Wendy Davis, Globe Correspondent, 4/3/2003
The decision by officials of the Diocese of San Bernardino, Calif., to file a claim against the Boston Archdiocese for failing to warn about an allegedly abusive priest appears to be the first case of its kind in the American church, but some legal specialists doubt it will be the last. San Bernardino made the claim Tuesday in a case in which the diocese was named as a codefendant, with the Boston Archdiocese, in a suit filed by an alleged victim of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley -- a Boston priest who had moved into the California diocese. The California diocese wants to be indemnified by Boston for any damages caused by Shanley, saying Boston knew and should have warned of Shanley's alleged abuse. It is a novel strategy, according to legal specialists following the abuse cases. ''I'm not aware of any cases where any diocese has sued another diocese in another clergy abuse case,'' said Patrick Schiltz, associate dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law and a lawyer who used to represent Catholic dioceses. Carmen Durso, the Boston lawyer who represents Kevin English of Big Bear Lake, Calif., the alleged victim in the San Bernardino case, agreed that he had never heard of one diocese suing another as a result of abuse allegations.
San Bernardino made the claim Tuesday in a case in which the diocese was named as a codefendant, with the Boston Archdiocese, in a suit filed by an alleged victim of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley -- a Boston priest who had moved into the California diocese.
The California diocese wants to be indemnified by Boston for any damages caused by Shanley, saying Boston knew and should have warned of Shanley's alleged abuse. It is a novel strategy, according to legal specialists following the abuse cases.
''I'm not aware of any cases where any diocese has sued another diocese in another clergy abuse case,'' said Patrick Schiltz, associate dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law and a lawyer who used to represent Catholic dioceses. Carmen Durso, the Boston lawyer who represents Kevin English of Big Bear Lake, Calif., the alleged victim in the San Bernardino case, agreed that he had never heard of one diocese suing another as a result of abuse allegations.
LOUISVILLE (KY)WAVE 3By Charla Young
(LOUISVILLE, April 2nd, 2003, 5 p.m.) -- Another woman has come forward with a civil lawsuit against reverend Joe Carrico. The former Catholic priest was serving as a religious educator at a Samuels, Kentucky parish but was suspended over the weekend after being accused of abuse more than 30 years ago. Now, a Louisville woman is speaking out about Carrico's alleged abuse against her. Charla Young has her story.
For more than three decades Evelyn Able McKemie says she has been living a silent nightmare. "I didn't say a word for 34 years ever -- not ever."
Instead she says she tried to push memories from her mind. "I knew that if I never told anyone, then I'd never had to feel emotions that would be there."
Evelyn says her horror story began on Meadowview Drive in the backyard of her family's home when she was only 12. It was there she says Father Joe Carrico -- her priest at St. Barnabas Church and School in Louisville, molested her multiple times in the family swimming pool.
But she kept silent for all these years because "I was afraid." She remained too afraid to come forward even after hearing from 200 other abuse victims. She says it wasn't until she heard one woman's story of sexual abuse with Father Joe Carrico that Evelyn decided to break the silence.
MOBILE (AL)The Mobile RegisterThe Rev. Adrian Cook, however, says incidents were consensual
04/02/03By STEVE MYERS
A Mobile woman on Tuesday accused a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Mobile of sexually abusing her after she sought counseling from him in the early 1970s, when she was 19 and he was in his late 20s.
Honey Weiss, 47, said the Rev. Adrian Cook, then a priest at Holy Family Catholic Church, had sex with her at her apartment after she talked to him about her troubles following an unplanned pregnancy. Cook would have been 28 at the time.
Cook, 57, now serves as pastor of St. Maurice Catholic Church in Brewton. In an interview with the Mobile Register on Tuesday afternoon, he acknowledged that he had sex with Weiss, but said it was consensual. He also confirmed that he had fathered a child with another woman.
Weiss said Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb learned of the accusations in 1996 and offered to pay for counseling and medications she said became necessary largely as a result of her relationship with the priest. She said she accepted.
As of Jan. 31, 2002, Weiss said, the archdiocese had paid her therapist $11,790, and reimbursed her directly for doctor visits and medications, which she said averaged $125 a month. That would put the archdiocese's total payout at more than $20,000.
