Scouts-SexAbuse-Newspaper Search

2 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA)
June 5, 2007 Tuesday

Idaho Edition
FOUR MORE MEN ALLEGE ABUSE AT BOYS' RANCH;

Two men name Weitensteiner as perpetrator at Morning Star;
BYLINE: Benjamin Shors Staff writer
SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 521 words
Four more men sued Morning Star Boys' Ranch on Monday, including two men who allege that the
ranch's revered director sexually abused them in the 1970s and '80s.
Two of the plaintiffs - 50-year-old Raymond Nelson and 38-year-old Robert Gariepy - allege that the
Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner sexually abused them at the Catholic boys' home south of Spokane. In previous
legal filings, four other men have accused Weitensteiner of sexual abuse, according to Spokane County Su-
perior Court documents.
Reached late Monday, a Morning Star spokeswoman said Weitensteiner was not available for comment.
"Neither Morning Star nor our legal counsel have reviewed these new claims, so we can't comment on
them," said Jenn Kantz.
In previous statements, Weitensteiner has strenuously denied previous allegations of sexual abuse.
Morning Star said the priest passed a polygraph test.
"His denials have to be viewed with increasing skepticism given the mounting number of men who have
come forward and explicitly described the sex abuse they suffered at his hands," said Timothy Kosnoff, a
Seattle attorney representing the plaintiffs.
Weitensteiner, a 74-year-old Catholic priest, retired from Morning Star in 2006 amid allegations of sexual
and physical abuse. The well-known boys' home opened in 1956 and has served 1,300 boys - many of whom
had been involved in Washington state's juvenile justice and child welfare system.
Gariepy has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for burglary, drug offenses and vehicle
prowling, according to newspaper archives. Nelson also has a criminal record, Kosnoff acknowledged.
"You have accounts that are so detailed and cross-corroborating," Kosnoff said. "The grooming patterns,
the information they know ? it just could not have been made up."
Thirteen former residents have sued Morning Star in three separate lawsuits, and the cases have been
slowly winding through the civil courts. Last month, in a critical decision, a Spokane Superior Court judge
ordered the ranch to release more than 1,000 personal files of former residents to the plaintiffs' attorneys.
The allegations came as a shock to supporters of Weitensteiner, a decorated Boy Scouts leader, who
began working at Morning Star as a counselor in 1957. He later left to join the priesthood and returned to be-
come Morning Star's director in 1966.
In 2005, after the first allegations surfaced in court documents, Weitensteiner said he had "never been
sexually inappropriate with any child at any time."
Earlier that year, The Spokesman-Review reported that Morning Star had repeatedly allowed the physic-
al and sexual abuse of boys in its care, citing records from the Department of Social and Health Services,
court documents and interviews with former counselors and residents.
In Monday's filing, part of an ongoing lawsuit against Morning Star, two other men - Curtis Stump, 42,
and Glenn Anderson, 41 - alleged they were abused at the boys' home. Both men allege that former Morning
Star counselor James Clarke sexually abused them.
Clarke has previously been accused of molesting another resident who sued the ranch in 2005.
LOAD-DATE: June 8, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2007 Spokane Spokesman-Review
3 of 265 DOCUMENTS

Metro Edition

SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 563 words
Reached late Monday, a Monday Star spokeswoman said Weitensteiner was not available for comment.
them," said Jenn Kantz, Morning Star's spokeswoman.
The allegations came as a shock to supporters of Weitensteiner, a decorated Boy Scout leader, who
Earlier that year, the Spokesman-Review reported that Morning Star had repeatedly allowed the physic-
Clarke has previously been accused of molesting another resident, who sued the ranch in 2005.
SIDEBAR:
AT A GLANCE
*The Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, a 74-year-old Catholic priest, retired from Morning Star Boys' Ranch in
2006 amid allegations of sexual and physical abuse. He is accused of sex abuse by two of the alleged vic-
tims named in Monday's lawsuit. The other two men say former Morning Star counselor James Clarke sexu-
ally abused them.
*The Morning Star Boys' Ranch opened in 1956 and has served 1,300 boys, many of whom had been
involved in Washington state's juvenile justice and child welfare system.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
4 of 265 DOCUMENTS

Idaho Edition

SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 607 words
Reached late Monday, a Morning Star spokeswoman said Weitensteiner was not available for comment.
them," said Jenn Kantz.
Weitensteiner, a 74-year-old Catholic priest, retired from Morning Star in 2006 amid allegations of sexual
and physical abuse. The well-known boys' home opened in 1956 and has served 1,300 boys - many of whom
had been involved in Washington state's juvenile justice and child welfare system.
The allegations came as a shock to supporters of Weitensteiner, a decorated Boy Scouts leader, who
Earlier that year, The Spokesman-Review reported that Morning Star had repeatedly allowed the physic-
Clarke has previously been accused of molesting another resident who sued the ranch in 2005.
SIDEBAR:
AT A GLANCE
*The Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, a 74-year-old Catholic priest, retired from Morning Star Boys' Ranch in
2006 amid allegations of sexual and physical abuse. He is accused of sex abuse by two of the alleged vic-
tims named in Monday's lawsuit. The other two men say former Morning Star counselor James Clarke sexu-
ally abused them.
*The Morning Star Boys' Ranch opened in 1956 and has served 1,300 boys, many of whom had been
involved in Washington state's juvenile justice and child welfare system.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
6 of 265 DOCUMENTS
London Free Press (Ontario)
June 1, 2007 Friday

FINAL EDITION
Church adopts sex abuse policy;

The Roman Catholic diocese is responding to Charles Sylvestre's
victims.
BYLINE: BY JANE SIMS, SUN MEDIA
SECTION: CITY & REGION; Pg. B4
LENGTH: 316 words
It appears the Roman Catholic diocese of London is listening to Rev. Charles Sylvestre's victims.
This week, letters were sent to the women abused as children by the disgraced priest announcing the
church will adopt some of their ideas in a new, long-awaited sexual abuse policy.
The suggestions came from a meeting of survivors in Chatham last month.
Sylvestre, 84, died in prison last January just three months into his three-year sentence for 47 counts of
indecent assault on girls in his parishes over four decades.
The draft policy is still not complete, after the diocese was advised the scope had been limited to child
sexual abuse and not all sexual misconduct.
In Rev. John Sharp's letter to the victims, he said there's also a stronger shift towards prevention.
The letter from Sharp, head of the diocese's sexual abuse committee, says two key suggestions from the
victims will be adopted:
- A protocol for receiving complaints "that is sensitive to needs of the complainant." The first contact
would not be a priest, but a trained person, perhaps a survivor of sexual abuse, who would continue to com-
municate with the complainant.
- The "Two Deep Rule," requiring a priest to have another adult with him when meeting a child alone in
confession or elsewhere.
Sharp says "your feedback has helped us broaden our scope in developing a policy" to prevent sexual
misconduct in the church.
Chatham-Kent Crown Attorney Paul Bailey, who prosecuted Sylvestre, said the "two-deep rule" is "unpre-
cedented."
"It's an excellent strategy," he said, used by many child-centred organizations such as minor hockey and
the scouting movement.
"I'm really hoping other members of the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops will see this and use it
as a template for its own actions."
Diocese spokesperson Ron Pickersgill said it's hoped the draft sexual abuse policy and code of conduct
will be out by the end of June.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 Sun Media Corporation

All Rights Reserved
10 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Daily Miner and News (Kenora, Ontario)
May 12, 2007 Saturday

FINAL EDITION
Victims testify at sex abuse trial

BYLINE: BY DAN GAUTHIER, THE ENTERPRISE
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 432 words
The testimony of five more alleged sexual abuse victims of Ralph Rowe were scheduled to be heard this
week and into next week as his trial in Kenora Superior Court continues.
The first of the five First Nation men completed his testimony Wednesday detailing years of sexual abuse
he suffered as a boy at the hands of the former Anglican minister in the 1970s.
Rowe, 67, already convicted of similar offences in 1994, is now facing 12 charges - six counts of sexual
assault and six counts of indecent assault - from five complainants.
On May 7, the first day of the trial proceedings, Rowe pled guilty to 20 charges - 10 counts of sexual as-
sault and 10 counts of indecent assault - during the same time period involving 20 other victims from the
northern First Nation communities of Muskrat Dam, Wunnumin Lake and Big Trout Lake.
The Crown withdrew 24 of the charges that involved the same 20 victims, bringing the number of
charges down to 12.
Justice Erwin Stach ruled Tuesday that he would not sentence Rowe for his 20 guilty pleas until the con-
clusion of the trial.
Witness recalls camping trip
The first witness for Crown testified that he grew up in Weagamow (Round) Lake in Northern Ontario
where Rowe used to fly in on a weekly basis to act as the Anglican minister and organized games and camp-
ing trips through the Boy Scouts.
The man, now in his 40s, spoke of first becoming involved in Cub Scouts, and first being exposed to
Rowe, as an 11-year-old boy in the 1970s. He said he and many boys would sleep over at the Anglican mis-
sion house in the community when Rowe came to town.
He said there were various bunk beds throughout the house as well as Rowe's bed where he slept with
Rowe on many occasions and endured years of sexual abuse from the age of 11 until he was 15.
He confirmed for Sinding that his first public admission of the sexual abuse by Rowe came about 10
years after the fact, to a psychiatrist at a Thunder Bay hospital following a suicide attempt.
In 1994, Rowe was convicted of 27 counts of indecent assault and one count of common assault in-
volving the sexual abuse of 16 aboriginal boys between 1976 and 1982 in the same communities. He was
sentenced to six years in jail, of which he served four and a half years.
Because of a plea agreement made at the time, Rowe will not be sentenced to additional jail time for his
20 new convictions, only concurrent time on his previous jail sentence.
Justice Stach, however, ruled following a pretrial hearing last summer, that Rowe could receive additional
jail time for more serious offences than those he was convicted of in 1994.
LOAD-DATE: May 13, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Lake of the Woods Enterprise
GRAPHIC: photo by Neil MacKinnon, The Enterprise Nic Camire, 13, sets up for a feeble grind at the KMTS
Skatepark Tuesday.
Copyright 2007 Sun Media Corporation

All Rights Reserved
11 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Lancashire Evening Post
May 9, 2007
Paedophile scout leader jailed

LENGTH: 367 words
A scout leader and a Lancashire County Council IT specialist who downloaded images of child sex abuse
has been jailed.
Neil Hooson claimed he viewed the images purely for "research purposes", but a judge at Preston Crown
Court told him he had to go to prison as the children depicted being sexually abused were so young.
Hooson, 35, of Watering Pool Lane, Lostock Hall, pleaded guilty to 22 offences of possessing obscene
photographs of children - some 292 images, of which 13 were 'level five', the most serious.
Joanne Shepherd, prosecuting, said police investigating paedophilia chatrooms seized Hooson's com-
puter from his then-home in Walton Avenue, Penwortham. On it they found images he had viewed and tried
to delete of babies being abused.
The court heard Hooson had been a scout leader in Bamber Bridge, and an IT technician with the county
council for five years, and defence counsel Mr Christopher Hudson called him to the witness box to give evid-
ence.
Hooson told the court that, after an incident when he was a boy, an image he saw led him to seek inform-
ation on the type of people who accessed such sites.
He said he had not paid any fee and added: "I thought I had deleted them. It was purely for research,
there was never any sexual gratification involved."
Mr Hudson said Hooson was at present suspended from work and anticipated being sacked. His involve-
ment with the scout movement has now ended.
Mr Hudson said there was never any question, after police investigations, of inappropriate behaviour dur-
ing his involvement with the scouts, and asked the judge to suspend any prison term.
But Judge Andrew Gilbart QC said he could not suspend the five-month prison term because of the seri-
ousness of the case, and he also passed orders disqualifying Hooson from working with children and from
owning equipment capable of downloading images apart from computers used for work.
Hooson's name is on the sex offenders register for seven years.
A Scout Association spokesman said: "He has betrayed the trust placed in him by parents, by other vo-
lunteers and by the Scout Movement."
A spokesman for the county council said: "Police have confirmed that the images were only found on his
computer at home."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 Johnston Press Plc
All Rights Reserved
12 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
May 9, 2007 Wednesday

FIFTH EDITION
Historical group sued over child sex abuse b;

Valley man, former member, is in prison for 1999-2003 acts.
BYLINE: By Daniel Patrick Sheehan Of The Morning Call
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 614 words
The parents of six children who were sexually assaulted by a Lehigh County member of the Society for
Creative Anachronism are suing the medieval history group, saying its safeguards against such crimes were
woefully inadequate.
Benjamin Schragger, 45, was sentenced to 311/4 to 621/2 years in state prison in 2005 after pleading
guilty but mentally ill to assaults on nine boys and two girls who ranged in age from 6 to 16.
The attacks happened between 1999 and 2003, mostly at the Weisenberg Township home where
Schragger lived with his parents and, in the guise of "Lord Ben the
Steward," taught the children how to make armor and weapons for mock combat.
According to court testimony, Schragger massaged naked children and fondled a 15-year-old boy who
said Schragger watched as he, his 9-year-old sister and a 13-year-old female cousin performed sex acts on
each other.
Two civil suits filed Monday in U.S. District Court on behalf of the two girls and four of the boys claim the
California nonprofit society failed to enforce basic safeguards, such as requiring the presence of at least two
unrelated adults at events involving children.
The suits demand unspecified damages for each victim on counts of negligence, negligent infliction of
emotional distress, negligent misrepresentation, negligent failure to rescue and violation of the Pennsylvania
Child Protective Services Law.
"It's quite clear, it seems to us, that there was an absence of appropriate policies and procedure, and we
want to prevent children from being in that circumstance," said Alison Soloff, a partner at Soloff & Zervanos
law firm in Philadelphia.
"We're not saying the organization needs to cease from existing," attorney Jeffrey Fritz added. "There
are a lot of people who are part of it and take a lot from the experience. But they need to employ common
sense measures."
In a statement, the society said it would "take all appropriate actions available to defend itself against the
allegations."
Society officers and employees had no knowledge of the misconduct and had never received any com-
plaints about Schragger, the statement says. At the time of his arrest, Schragger was suspended from the so-
ciety and, after his plea agreement, his membership was revoked permanently.
The society said officers and employees "make reasonable attempts to ensure the safety of children who
are involved in activities. Steps have been and continue to be taken to protect youth participants."
In a Tuesday morning conference call with the attorneys and media, the mother of one of the victims said
she had allowed her son to attend events after being assured by other society members that Schragger, the
so-called "dean of pages," was harmless. She discovered the truth on her son's eighth birthday, when he de-
scribed the activities at the house.
Now 11, the boy continues to receive therapy.
"All things considered, I think he's doing OK," the woman said. "He's not involved in Scouting or anything
like that. He's not allowed to be alone with others."
Tammy Lerner of Bryn Mawr, Montgomery County, state director of the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex
Abuse, said the lawsuit "may help bring people forward who were living in silence" about abuse. "In my ex-
perience, when you have one or two or 10 kids, there's many, many others," she said.
The society, which began in Berkeley, Calif., in 1966, claims 30,000 members around the world. It spon-
sors festivals and other events that can draw thousands of participants.
Its co-founder was writer Walter Breen, who published a book advocating man-boy sexual relationships
and died in prison in 1993 while serving a sentence for child molestation.
daniel.sheehan@mcall.com
610-820-6598
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO by UNKNOWN

Benjamin Schragger pleaded guilty but mentally ill
DOCUMENT-TYPE: LOCAL
Copyright 2007 The Morning Call, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
17 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Kansas City Star
April 30, 2007 Monday

In brief
SECTION: A; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 268 words
Charity investigated
NEW YORK | The attorney general's office is investigating a charity set up by New York's Fraternal Order
of Police for its handling of more than $15 million raised after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Investigators want to know why the union has not distributed $7 million of the contributions to its WTC
Police Disaster Relief Fund, the New York Daily News reported.
Georgia wildfire
WAYCROSS, Ga. | Firefighters have managed to contain about 70 percent of the largest wildfire in Geor-
gia history, which has charred 100 square miles.
Winds and drought conditions with no rain in the forecast mean the fire will continue to rage for at least
another week, said Georgia Forestry Commission spokeswoman Susan Reisch.
Assault charges
DIXON, Ill. | A former regional Boy Scout official has been charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old
Scout at least four times since July.
Charles Bickerstaff, 56, of Dixon, was charged with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and
four counts of criminal sexual assault, Lee County Correctional Officer Larry Schremp said Sunday. Investig-
ators discovered journals in Bickerstaff's house that detailed facts supporting the boy's account, Lee County
Detective Sgt. David Glessner said.
Sex abuse case

DALLAS | A Texas Youth Commission administrator charged with sexually abusing teenage inmates got
continuing support from a supervisor despite recurring allegations, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Lydia Barnard, a former director, did not fire or demote Ray Brookins over five years amid multiple abuse
warnings, according to agency records.
| From wire services
LOAD-DATE: April 30, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 The Kansas City Star

All Rights Reserved
18 of 265 DOCUMENTS
April 20, 2007 Friday

Idaho Edition
Child safety elusive;

Our View: Despite increased oversight, children vulnerable;
SECTION: B; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 533 words
It seems impossible - with all the awareness about child sex abuse in recent years, with all the back-
ground checking going on, with all the parents alert now to any sign of weirdness - that children and teens
can still be vulnerable to sex abuse when they participate in activities outside the home.
But consider these two stories from Thursday's newspaper:
*William Smylie, a Washington state contract worker hired to take foster children on outings, asked Jac-
ob Rogers, a level 3 sex offender, to accompany him on those outings. Rogers, 19, was arrested Tuesday for
allegedly molesting two of those foster boys.
*An Ohio principal was charged with a misdemeanor after paying 14-year-old students $15 each to let
him kiss their feet.
Sexual predators will find ways to be near children, no matter how stringent the safeguards. So it's up to
parents and other adults to be alert at all times when children join Scouts or church and community groups or
any organization that takes children outside the moms' and dads' purview.
That said, there is some good news. The high-profile cases of sex abuse allowed people to exit from na-
iveté about the type of people who abuse children. In the 1970s, when former priest Patrick O'Donnell dam-
aged dozens of young lives, most people still believed that pedophiles looked creepy, and not charismatic
like O'Donnell.
So parents handed over their children, often without question, because it wasn't in our collective con-
sciousness that charming adults would be capable of such gross injustices against our children.
Society has awakened. Organizations that serve children have strict rules now regarding adult-child con-
tact. Staffers and volunteers receive training in appropriate touch and behavior. And parents who raise suspi-
cions are taken seriously.
These safeguards are good, but they came at a price. Displays of natural affection between adults and
children are discouraged. Men, especially, can feel awkward about interacting in any way with children they
don't know well. Children as young as 3 and 4 receive instruction in good-touch-bad-touch. It's a new world.
Safer? That requires constant vigilance. If a principal can kiss the bare feet of his 14-year-old students
and a level 3 sex offender can somehow go on outings with foster children, we're not there yet.
SIDEBAR:
ASK QUESTIONS
When your child joins an organization, ask:
Have staffers and volunteers had adequate background checks?
Have staffers and volunteers had training in sex abuse prevention?
Are two or more adults with the children during field trips and overnight activities?
Are parents invited to drop in on activities?
Parents should also:
Do some background checking on staffers and volunteers through Internet search engines, such as
Google.
Raise concerns about any activities or behaviors that seem inappropriate.
Volunteer as chaperones for field trips and overnight excursions.
Make sure their children has good information about personal safety.
To evaluate your child's personal safety knowledge, go to Lutheran Community Services SAFeT Re-
sponse Center Web site at lcsnw.org/spokane/SAFeT.html
TYPE: Editorial, Commentary, Column, Series: Our View, Our kids: Our business
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
19 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Spokesman-Review (Washington)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
EDITORIAL: Child safety elusive: Despite increased oversight, chil-

dren vulnerable
BYLINE: The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
SECTION: COMMENTARY
LENGTH: 439 words
Apr. 20--It seems impossible -- with all the awareness about child sex abuse in recent years, with all the
background checking going on, with all the parents alert now to any sign of weirdness -- that children and
teens can still be vulnerable to sex abuse when they participate in activities outside the home.
But consider these two stories from Thursday's newspaper:
--William Smylie, a Washington state contract worker hired to take foster children on outings, asked Jac-
ob Rogers, a level 3 sex offender, to accompany him on those outings. Rogers, 19, was arrested Tuesday for
allegedly molesting two of those foster boys.
--An Ohio principal was charged with a misdemeanor after paying 14-year-old students $15 each to let
him kiss their feet.
Sexual predators will find ways to be near children, no matter how stringent the safeguards. So it's up to
parents and other adults to be alert at all times when children join Scouts or church and community groups or
any organization that takes children outside the moms' and dads' purview.
That said, there is some good news. The high-profile cases of sex abuse allowed people to exit from na-
ivete about the type of people who abuse children. In the 1970s, when former priest Patrick O'Donnell dam-
aged dozens of young lives, most people still believed that pedophiles looked creepy, and not charismatic
like O'Donnell.
So parents handed over their children, often without question, because it wasn't in our collective con-
sciousness that charming adults would be capable of such gross injustices against our children.
Society has awakened. Organizations that serve children have strict rules now regarding adult-child con-
tact. Staffers and volunteers receive training in appropriate touch and behavior. And parents who raise suspi-
cions are taken seriously.
These safeguards are good, but they came at a price. Displays of natural affection between adults and
children are discouraged. Men, especially, can feel awkward about interacting in any way with children they
don't know well. Children as young as 3 and 4 receive instruction in good-touch-bad-touch. It's a new world.
Safer? That requires constant vigilance. If a principal can kiss the bare feet of his 14-year-old students
and a level 3 sex offender can somehow go on outings with foster children, we're not there yet.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Busi-
ness News. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550,
send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glen-
view, IL 60025, USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20070420-SR-0420-EDITORIAL-Child-safety-elusive
JOURNAL-CODE: SR
Copyright 2007 Spokesman-Review
20 of 265 DOCUMENTS
April 19, 2007 Thursday

Idaho Edition
DEFINING MIRACLES DOWNWARD;

BYLINE: Doug Clark
SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 515 words
It's positively pathetic what passes for a miracle these days.

At least by Shaun Cross' definition, anyway.
Cross is an attorney for the Catholic Diocese of Spokane. On Wednesday, in a top-of-the-front-page
story, the lawyer appeared ecstatic that every clergy sex-abuse victim involved in the diocese's bankruptcy
and all of its Catholic parishes voted to accept a $48 million bankruptcy settlement.
Cross dubbed the unanimity "a miracle."
Well, praise the Lord and pass the collection plate.
Sorry, Shaun.
Call me old-school, but I have a more traditional view when it comes to the subject of divine intervention.
Walking on water?
Miracle!
Lazarus raised from the dead?
Miracle!
Water to wine? Feeding the multitude? Parting the Red Sea?
Miracle! Miracle! Miracle!
Al Sharpton and Don Imus sharing a cabin on a Carnival cruise this summer?
Yep. That would definitely qualify as a modern miracle.
But Cross is talking about the acceptance of a glacial-paced bankruptcy settlement that, if approved, will
financially resolve the most shameful chapter in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane's history.
This is really about perverted priests, child molesters and sexual deviates who robbed some of our youth
of their innocence.
So call the settlement vote a hard-won compromise, if you will.
Call it a grudging meeting of the minds.
A miracle?
Not on your burning bush.
Am I being too hard on Cross? Maybe this is just a lawyer's transparent and misguided effort at spin
control.
I realize that nearly 250 votes were cast in favor of the deal. The voters included sex-abuse victims, par-
ishes and church service providers.
And considering the factions involved and the acrimonious nature of the case, the unanimous vote does
come as a bit of a surprise. The vote, according to the story, "may bolster the expected confirmation of the
settlement and related bankruptcy plan by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams next week."
Despite all the progress, Steve Barber isn't exactly doing somersaults of joy.
Barber, allegedly molested by Patrick O'Donnell, a now-defrocked priest, was one of 161 people with ab-
use claims who were eligible to vote.
I believe in a less miraculous and more believable scenario: that victims went along with the proposed
settlement more as a way to get on with their lives and put the years of frustration and legal wrangling behind
them.
"Basically we were asked to accept the only thing they would give us," Barber told Spokesman-Review
reporter John Stucke.
My heart goes out to those who were preyed on by these two-legged monsters.
The emotional scars and psychological damage must be ghastly to bear.
I had a great childhood. I had loving parents.
My Scout leader was a fine fellow. I was never molested by a minister. I was never groped by a school-
teacher.
In other words, I have no clue when it comes to trying to comprehend the terrible travails of what Barber
and the others say they went through.
But I do know this:
No legal settlement, no amount of cash can begin to undo their sufferings.
If it could, well, now, Mr. Cross, that really would be a miracle.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or
dougc@spokesman.com.
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Column, Commentary
21 of 265 DOCUMENTS
April 19, 2007 Thursday

Metro Edition
DEFINING MIRACLES DOWNWARD;

BYLINE: Doug Clark
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 515 words
It's positively pathetic what passes for a miracle these days.

At least by Shaun Cross' definition, anyway.
Cross is an attorney for the Catholic Diocese of Spokane. On Wednesday, in a top-of-the-front-page
story, the lawyer appeared ecstatic that every clergy sex-abuse victim involved in the diocese's bankruptcy
and all of its Catholic parishes voted to accept a $48 million bankruptcy settlement.
Cross dubbed the unanimity "a miracle."
Well, praise the Lord and pass the collection plate.
Sorry, Shaun.
Call me old-school, but I have a more traditional view when it comes to the subject of divine intervention.
Walking on water?
Miracle!
Lazarus raised from the dead?
Miracle!
Water to wine? Feeding the multitude? Parting the Red Sea?
Miracle! Miracle! Miracle!
Al Sharpton and Don Imus sharing a cabin on a Carnival cruise this summer?
Yep. That would definitely qualify as a modern miracle.
But Cross is talking about the acceptance of a glacial-paced bankruptcy settlement that, if approved, will
financially resolve the most shameful chapter in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane's history.
This is really about perverted priests, child molesters and sexual deviates who robbed some of our youth
of their innocence.
So call the settlement vote a hard-won compromise, if you will.
Call it a grudging meeting of the minds.
A miracle?
Not on your burning bush.
Am I being too hard on Cross? Maybe this is just a lawyer's transparent and misguided effort at spin
control.
I realize that nearly 250 votes were cast in favor of the deal. The voters included sex-abuse victims, par-
ishes and church service providers.
And considering the factions involved and the acrimonious nature of the case, the unanimous vote does
come as a bit of a surprise. The vote, according to the story, "may bolster the expected confirmation of the
settlement and related bankruptcy plan by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams next week."
Despite all the progress, Steve Barber isn't exactly doing somersaults of joy.
Barber, allegedly molested by Patrick O'Donnell, a now-defrocked priest, was one of 161 people with ab-
use claims who were eligible to vote.
I believe in a less miraculous and more believable scenario: that victims went along with the proposed
settlement more as a way to get on with their lives and put the years of frustration and legal wrangling behind
them.
"Basically we were asked to accept the only thing they would give us," Barber told Spokesman-Review
reporter John Stucke.
My heart goes out to those who were preyed on by these two-legged monsters.
The emotional scars and psychological damage must be ghastly to bear.
I had a great childhood. I had loving parents.
My Scout leader was a fine fellow. I was never molested by a minister. I was never groped by a school-
teacher.
In other words, I have no clue when it comes to trying to comprehend the terrible travails of what Barber
and the others say they went through.
But I do know this:
No legal settlement, no amount of cash can begin to undo their sufferings.
If it could, well, now, Mr. Cross, that really would be a miracle.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or
dougc@spokesman.com.
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Column, Commentary
22 of 265 DOCUMENTS
April 18, 2007 Wednesday

Idaho Edition
A Chilling effect;
Child abuse cases are forcing clergy, Scout leaders and other vo-
lunteers to put more distance between themselves and the young
people they're trying to help;
BYLINE: Virginia de Leon and Sara Leaming Staff writers
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1162 words
Changing times and a growing awareness of child abuse have led to greater distrust of adults who work
with children, prompting stricter rules in churches, Boy Scouts and other organizations.
That means less one-on-one contact between children and adult mentors, so relationships that could
steer at-risk kids away from trouble take longer to build.
"Our trust has been eroded," said the Rev. Chuck Wilkes, associate pastor of Spokane Valley Nazarene
Church.
No longer is it acceptable for an adult to initiate contact with a child, he said. Children, from an early
age, are taught to be wary of people they don't know.
"It's an unraveling of the community contract, which says we are responsible for the children," said
Wilkes.
It's affected even our willingness to commit simple acts of compassion.
Wilkes recalls being in his car and seeing a boy shivering in the cold, walking in a snowstorm. He con-
sidered pulling over and offering the boy a ride home.
"But I drove on by," he said, his voice tinged with sadness.
The boy would have been too scared to get in the car. And Wilkes, a stranger, would have automatically
been suspect for stopping to talk.
"And that little first-grader paid the cost - he walked home without a coat on and he had nothing to do
with this," Wilkes said.
Today, would-be volunteers at various organizations undergo heavy scrutiny, including criminal back-
ground checks and interviews with references. They must undergo training and comply with strict codes of
conduct.
Here's how some organizations have dealt with the changes:
* Mentors paired with youth through Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Northwest can meet one-on-
one with children. But mentors who have second thoughts about those meetings are provided with another
option. About 60 percent of the matches made through the national organization involve "site-based" pro-
grams, where an adult mentor meets with a child in a school or high-visibility site, said Darin Christensen,
CEO of the Inland Northwest office.
"Sometimes that kind of mentoring isn't quite as effective," Christensen said. "I guess the positive thing
is that it allows that person who is concerned to still be involved in a way that feels comfortable."
* The Boy Scouts of America also has new rules for how Scout leaders interact with boys. "We don't al-
low one-on-one contact with youth and adults in this day and age," said Tim McCandless, executive director
of the Inland Northwest chapter. "If there is a campout, there must be at least two adults present."
The Inland Northwest chapter of the Scouts - which has about 5,000 volunteers and serves about
13,000 boys in Idaho and Washington - also requires boys to receive training on how to recognize an abus-
ive adult. Scouts must complete a Youth Protection Program to learn the signs of abuse before earning their
first badge. The program also is taught to parents of Scouts, McCandless said.
"If they find themselves in an abusive situation, we know they have the skills to recognize that it's wrong;
they can recognize an adult who may have malicious intent," he said.
Like schools and other volunteer programs for youth, all Boy Scout volunteers and staff must undergo
extensive background checks. The cost typically is paid by the organization.
* At the Boys and Girls Club of Spokane County, an after-school program, "we definitely do not let any-
one in the building unless they went through our extensive background program; they do this before they
have any contacts with kids," said Ryan Davenport, executive director of the chapter.
But background checks don't always catch those who might harm children. Most abusers don't have a
criminal background and are in positions of trust in a child's life.
* As a result of the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Spokane has ad-
opted policies to ensure the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
Many of the regulations - which include outside audits, extensive training and a code of conduct that ex-
plicitly defines inappropriate behavior to include wrestling, piggy-back rides and massages - are also being
emphasized by other churches in the area, particularly in Spokane Valley.
About a year ago, Wilkes and Ian Robertson, pastors of Spokane Valley Nazarene Church, decided they
needed to offer support to their Catholic brothers and sisters and learn from past mistakes.
"It's been so traumatic," said Robertson, reflecting on the experience of the diocese. "What can we learn
from this? How can we bring healing to the whole community?"
The victims of abuse, after all, aren't the only ones who have been affected, said Wilkes. The crisis also
has hurt the victims' families, clergy, church members and society as a whole.
The legal system, however, isn't always set up for healing, said Wilkes, an attorney who practiced law
for nearly 30 years. "The legal system is about retributive justice, not restorative," he said.
He and others believe it's up to the faith community to bring about that healing and restore trust, the es-
sential element that "holds us together as a community."
"The sexual abuse problems are bigger than the Catholic Church," said Robertson, who meets regularly
with Catholic Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane. "It's time for us, as the entire faith community, to work on
a combined solution."
In recent months, the roughly 33 pastors who belong to the Spokane Valley Ministerial Association have
been discussing an initiative known as "Healing to Our Community."
Based on lessons learned from the diocese and using its "Safe Net for Children and Youth" as a tem-
plate, members of the ministerial association are establishing an official code of conduct and policies to pre-
vent abuse.
Part of their efforts includes an informational brochure with local resources and a list of common signs
and symptoms that could indicate sexual abuse. On the cover of the brochure is a photograph of two little
boys and the words: "Please listen to me, please believe me."
Wilkes, Robertson and others hope the work pastors are doing in Spokane Valley can become a model
for healing in other places.
"We have to reweave that tapestry of trust," Wilkes said.
SIDEBAR:
AGENCIES
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF THE INLAND NORTHWEST
222 W. Mission, Suite 210
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: (509) 328-8310
Hours: M-F, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Description: Matches boys ages 7-13 and girls ages 6-14 from single-parent homes or children who
have an incarcerated parent with trained volunteers committed to being positive role models.
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
411 W. Boy Scout Way
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: (509) 325-4562
Hours: M-F, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Description: A program that teaches citizenship, personal fitness and leadership.
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF SPOKANE COUNTY
544 E. Providence
Spokane, WA 99207
Phone: 489-0741
Hours: M-F, 3-8 p.m.
Description: Offers activities in education, athletics, fine arts, crafts and social recreation for ages 6-18.
TYPE: Series: Our kids: Our business
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
23 of 265 DOCUMENTS
April 18, 2007 Wednesday
A Chilling effect
BYLINE: Virginia De Leon and Sara Leaming, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 1080 words
Apr. 18--Changing times and a growing awareness of child abuse have led to greater distrust of adults
who work with children, prompting stricter rules in churches, Boy Scouts and other organizations.
That means less one-on-one contact between children and adult mentors, so relationships that could
steer at-risk kids away from trouble take longer to build.
"Our trust has been eroded," said the Rev. Chuck Wilkes, associate pastor of Spokane Valley Nazarene
Church.
No longer is it acceptable for an adult to initiate contact with a child, he said. Children, from an early age,
are taught to be wary of people they don't know.
"It's an unraveling of the community contract, which says we are responsible for the children," said
Wilkes.
It's affected even our willingness to commit simple acts of compassion.
Wilkes recalls being in his car and seeing a boy shivering in the cold, walking in a snowstorm. He con-
sidered pulling over and offering the boy a ride home.
"But I drove on by," he said, his voice tinged with sadness.
The boy would have been too scared to get in the car. And Wilkes, a stranger, would have automatically
been suspect for stopping to talk.
"And that little first-grader paid the cost -- he walked home without a coat on and he had nothing to do
with this," Wilkes said.
Today, would-be volunteers at various organizations undergo heavy scrutiny, including criminal back-
ground checks and interviews with references. They must undergo training and comply with strict codes of
conduct.
Here's how some organizations have dealt with the changes:
-- Mentors paired with youth through Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Northwest can meet one-on-
one with children. But mentors who have second thoughts about those meetings are provided with another
option. About 60 percent of the matches made through the national organization involve "site-based" pro-
grams, where an adult mentor meets with a child in a school or high-visibility site, said Darin Christensen,
CEO of the Inland Northwest office.
"Sometimes that kind of mentoring isn't quite as effective," Christensen said. "I guess the positive thing is
that it allows that person who is concerned to still be involved in a way that feels comfortable."
-- The Boy Scouts of America also has new rules for how Scout leaders interact with boys. "We don't al-
low one-on-one contact with youth and adults in this day and age," said Tim McCandless, executive director
of the Inland Northwest chapter. "If there is a campout, there must be at least two adults present."
The Inland Northwest chapter of the Scouts -- which has about 5,000 volunteers and serves about
13,000 boys in Idaho and Washington -- also requires boys to receive training on how to recognize an abus-
ive adult. Scouts must complete a Youth Protection Program to learn the signs of abuse before earning their
first badge. The program also is taught to parents of Scouts, McCandless said.
"If they find themselves in an abusive situation, we know they have the skills to recognize that it's wrong;
they can recognize an adult who may have malicious intent," he said.
Like schools and other volunteer programs for youth, all Boy Scout volunteers and staff must undergo
extensive background checks. The cost typically is paid by the organization.
-- At the Boys and Girls Club of Spokane County, an after-school program, "we definitely do not let any-
one in the building unless they went through our extensive background program; they do this before they
have any contacts with kids," said Ryan Davenport, executive director of the chapter.
But background checks don't always catch those who might harm children. Most abusers don't have a
criminal background and are in positions of trust in a child's life.
-- As a result of the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Spokane has ad-
opted policies to ensure the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
Many of the regulations -- which include outside audits, extensive training and a code of conduct that ex-
plicitly defines inappropriate behavior to include wrestling, piggy-back rides and massages -- are also being
emphasized by other churches in the area, particularly in Spokane Valley.
About a year ago, Wilkes and Ian Robertson, pastors of Spokane Valley Nazarene Church, decided they
needed to offer support to their Catholic brothers and sisters and learn from past mistakes.
"It's been so traumatic," said Robertson, reflecting on the experience of the diocese. "What can we learn
from this? How can we bring healing to the whole community?"
The victims of abuse, after all, aren't the only ones who have been affected, said Wilkes. The crisis also
has hurt the victims' families, clergy, church members and society as a whole.
The legal system, however, isn't always set up for healing, said Wilkes, an attorney who practiced law for
nearly 30 years. "The legal system is about retributive justice, not restorative," he said.
He and others believe it's up to the faith community to bring about that healing and restore trust, the es-
sential element that "holds us together as a community."
"The sexual abuse problems are bigger than the Catholic Church," said Robertson, who meets regularly
with Catholic Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane. "It's time for us, as the entire faith community, to work on
a combined solution."
In recent months, the roughly 33 pastors who belong to the Spokane Valley Ministerial Association have
been discussing an initiative known as "Healing to Our Community."
Based on lessons learned from the diocese and using its "Safe Net for Children and Youth" as a tem-
plate, members of the ministerial association are establishing an official code of conduct and policies to pre-
vent abuse.
Part of their efforts includes an informational brochure with local resources and a list of common signs
and symptoms that could indicate sexual abuse. On the cover of the brochure is a photograph of two little
boys and the words: "Please listen to me, please believe me."
Wilkes, Robertson and others hope the work pastors are doing in Spokane Valley can become a model
for healing in other places.
"We have to reweave that tapestry of trust," Wilkes said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20070418-SR-0418-A-Chilling-effect
JOURNAL-CODE: SR
24 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)

Sunrise Edition
Obituaries
BYLINE: The Oregonian
SECTION: Obituaries; Pg. E03
LENGTH: 3296 words
Louis Joseph Adams

Louis Joseph Adams died April 7, 2007, at age 75.
Mr. Adams was born Dec. 16, 1931, in Chicago. He served in the Air Force for 25 years, including in the
Korean and Vietnam wars. He moved to Gresham in the early 1970s and worked for Boeing of Portland. He
married Doris Swann.
Survivors include his wife; daughters, Pam Thomas and Debbie Adams; son, Joe; brothers, Mike and
George; sister, Anni Jones; nine grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Service held. Remembrances to Adventist Health Hospice. Arrangements by Gresham Funeral Chapel.
Kathryn W. Baird
A service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 21, 2007, in First Christian Church in St. Helens for Kathryn
W. Baird, who died April 11, 2007, at age 63.
Kathryn Wong was born March 12, 1944, in Portland. She graduated from Cleveland High School and
worked for Northwest Regional Education Research before becoming a homemaker and working in child
care. She lived in Scappoose for 38 years. In 1969, she married Thomas.
Survivors include her husband; sons, Thomas Jr., Jason and Joe; brothers, Ron Wong, Duane Wong
and Jim Wong; and four grandchildren.
Remembrances to M.A.D.D. Arrangements by Columbia.
William Bayley
William Bayley died April 12, 2007, of a lung infection at age 84.
Mr. Bayley was born Dec. 7, 1922, in Crookston, Minn. He served in the Navy during World War II and
graduated from the University of North Dakota. He moved to Sandy in 1951 and later lived in Portland. He
was a salesman for the FMC Corp. In 1951, he married Bonita Hills.
Survivors include his wife; son, Ray; daughter, Carol Nelson; sister, Lois Sexton; brother, Lovell; and two
grandchildren.
Remembrances to the American Cancer Society. Arrangements by Omega.
Douglas Lee Behrend
Douglas Lee Behrend died March 30, 2007, of a stroke at age 65.
Mr. Behrend was born Feb. 3, 1942, in Portland. He moved in 1969 to Beaverton and was an engineer
for Tektronix. In 1963, he marriedMarlene Wallace.
Survivors include his wife; daughter, Teresa Norman; sister, Caryl; and two grandchildren.
Remembrances to the National Kidney Foundation. Arrangements by Springer and Son.
Alton C. Billings
Alton C. Billings died April 7, 2007, of cancer at age 85.
Mr. Billings was born April 14, 1921, in Myrtle Point. During World War II, he served in the Army in
Europe and received a Purple Heart. He moved to Milwaukie in 1945, and was a canner for M. & S. Canning
for more than 20 years, and retired as a dispatcher for Silver Eagle Trucking. He moved to Powers about
1985, and was its mayor before returning to Clackamas in 1993. He moved to Oregon City in November. In
1943, he married Yvonne Sherk; she died in 1995.
Survivors include his daughters, Cheryl Cutter and Kina Minto; five grandchildren; and 10 great-grand-
children.
Remembrances to Willamette Falls Hospice. Arrangements by Portland Memorial.
Ruth Agnes Blackburn
Ruth Agnes Blackburn died April 10, 2007, at age 98.
Ruth Agnes Hennagin was born July 28, 1908, in Portland. She graduated from St. Mary's Academy, and
was a homemaker in Eugene and Roseburg before returning to Portland in 1942. In 1936, she married
Laurence E.; he died in 2005.
Survivors include her son, Gary L.
Remembrances to the Oregon Humane Society. Arrangements by Mt. Scott.
Charles Burch
Charles Burch died April 1, 2007, at age 70.
Mr. Burch was born May 5, 1936, in Baton Rouge, La. He served in the Air Force for 25 years, including
in the Vietnam War. He moved to Vancouver in the early 1980s. He was a window clerk for the U.S. Postal
Service in Portland.
Survivors include his wife; daughter, Cherie; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Arrangements by Neptune.
Freda Chartier
Freda Chartier died March 24, 2007, at age 97.
Freda Reif was born Nov. 3, 1909, in Wasserburg am Inn, Germany. A homemaker, she immigrated to
Skamania, Wash., in 1955, and moved to Portland in 1980. In 1955, she married Philip; he died in 1967.
Survivors include her niece, Maria Beranek; grandniece, Gabrielle Unscheid; and grandnephew, Chris-
toph Weiss.
Remembrances to Friends of the Columbia Gorge. Arrrangements by Holman's.
Horace M. Davis
Horace M. "Dave" Davis died April 7, 2007, from complications of diabetes at age 84.
Mr. Davis was born Sept. 16, 1922, in Cortland, Ohio.
He graduated from Forest Grove High School in 1941, moved to Hillsboro in 1945, then moved back to
Forest Grove in 1992. During World War II, he served in the Army in the 104th infantry. He was the owner
and operator of Well Drilling Company. In 1951, he married Mae Trussell.
Survivors include his wife; sons, David and Dan; daughter, Rhonda; brother, Robert; sister, Marian Ol-
nhausen; eight grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Remembrances to Casey Eye Institute. Arrangements by Westside Cremation & Burial.
Aloys J. Dugi
Aloys J. Dugi died April 3, 2007, at age 82.
Mr. Dugi was born June 1, 1924, in Falls City, Texas. During World War II, he served in the Marine Corps,
and later was in the Army Air Corps and Air Force, for more than 20 years of service. He was a licensed prac-
tical nurse at the veterans hospital in Roseburg and moved to Portland in 1982. He married Helen Pepper;
she died in 1987. In 1991, he married Jean McCool; she died in 2001.
Survivors include his daughters, Joanna Dugi, Kathleen Lowe, Janice Gauthier and Donna Dugi; four
grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Arrangements by Lincoln Memorial.
Mary Ferrante
A funeral will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 17, 2007, in Ascension Catholic Church in Portland for Mary
Ferrante, who died April 12 of a stroke at age 84.
Mary Milne was born Sept. 30, 1922, in Portland, where she lived all her life. She graduated from Com-
merce High School and was a claims supervisor for John Hancock. In 1945, she married Ron.
Survivors include her husband; daughters, Mary Davis and Gabrielle Ferrante; and two grandchildren.
Remembrances to the Alzheimer's Association. Arrangements by Lincoln Memorial.
Joeann Carol Gould
A memorial service will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 28, 2007, in the Nazarene Holiness Campground
in Vancouver for Joeann Carol Gould, who died March 30 at age 63.
Joeann Carol Hanson was born Oct. 23, 1943, in St. Helens, and raised in Wapato, Wash. She gradu-
ated from Clark College and was a musician and singer, including for several churches. She served as sec-
retary of the board of her last church. She moved to Sherwood in 1993. In 1966, she married Harvey Lewis;
they divorced. She married Johnny Woods in 1984; he died in 1989. In 2004, she married John Gould.
Survivors include her husband; daughter, Stephanie Woods; son, Stephen Lewis; brother, Edgar Han-
son; and two grandchildren.
Remembrances to Camas, Wash., Church of the Nazarene. Arrangements by Springer & Son.
Donald D. Graber
A memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 19, 2007, in Columbia View Wesleyan Church in
Gresham for Donald D. Graber, who died April 11 at age 80.
Mr. Graber was born June 8, 1926, in Portland. He graduated from Milwaukie High School and served in
the Army Air Corps during World War II. He was franchise manager for a Kings Table restaurant and owner of
Papa Don's restaurant, both in Gresham. He later was a financial planner for Waddell & Reed. He served on
the board of trustees for Western Evangelical Seminary for about 20 years. He had lived in Boring since
1971. In 1949, he married Charlotte L. Dresser.
Survivors include his wife; daughters, Susan Doran, Peggy Brown, Barbara Peterson, Donna Degler,
Charlotte Hottmann and Janet Wakefield; sons, David, Tim and Dan; 25 grandchildren; and one great-grand-
child.
Remembrances to the Arthritis Foundation. Arrangements by Peake.
James E. Hafer
A funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 18, 2007, in Holy Cross Catholic Church in Portland for
James E. Hafer, who died April 13 at age 84.
Mr. Hafer was born Feb. 11, 1923, in Stanfield. He served in the Army Air Corps (later Air Force) for 25
years, including during World War II. He also was a sander for Nicolai Door Co. In 1947, he married Eliza-
beth Granfield.
Survivors include his wife; sons, Steven, Timothy, Michael and Patrick; daughters, Mary Williams, Ann
Brownlee and Catherine Rost; 18 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Remembrances to Holy Cross School. Arrangements by Caldwell's, Hennessey, Goetsch & McGee.
Bruce Haverstick
Bruce Haverstick died April 7, 2007, at age 92.
Mr. Haverstick was born Sept. 28, 1914, in Bellingham, Wash., and moved to Hillsboro as a child. He
graduated from Hillsboro High School. A machinist, he owned Haverstick Manufacturing for more than 35
years. He moved to Aloha in 2005. In 1941, he married Amelia Miller.
Survivors include his wife and brother, Lee.
Arrangements by Donelson Sewell and Mathews.
Howard R. 'Randy' Hedrick Jr.
A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 20, 2007, in St. Luke Lutheran Church in Portland for
Howard R. "Randy" Hedrick Jr., who died April 3 at age 59.
Mr. Hedrick was born June 3, 1947, in Astoria, and moved to Portland at age 11. He graduated from
Beaverton High School. He was a senior project draftsman and methods analyst for ESI for 15 years and
later a document control manager for Laerdal for 13 years.
Survivors include his parents, Doris and Howard Sr.; sister, Lori; and brother, Jeff.
Remembrances to the Fish Camp Fund at Camp Angelos, Corbett. Arrangements by American Burial.
Lee Ora Houdek
Lee Ora Houdek died April 8, 2007, of lung cancer at age 66.
Lee Ora Scheel was born July 11, 1940, in Lyndon, Kan. A homemaker, she moved to Milwaukie in 1973,
and graduated from the Museum Art School. She then lived in Honolulu for more than 20 years before return-
ing to Portland in 2005. In 1962, she married Don; they divorced.
Survivors include her son, Scott E.; and brothers, Larry Scheel and Alan Scheel.
Remembrances to the American Cancer Society. Arrangements by Omega.
Byron Dean Jennings
Byron Dean Jennings died April 2, 2007, of cancer at age 47.
Mr. Jennings was born June 18, 1959, in Medford, moved in 1967 to Portland and in 1972 to Oregon
City. He graduated from Oregon City High School. He was a lumber salesman and lived in Gresham since
1997. In 1980, he married Jeri Lynn Garoutte.
Survivors include his wife; daughter, Amy L. Olsen; son, James D.; parents, Lyndel D. and Tommie M.;
sister, Cindy L. Zeppenfeld; and three grandchildren.
Service later. Remembrances to Legacy Medical Services at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center. Arrange-
ments by Hillside.
Ronald Harlen Johnson
Ronald Harlen Johnson died April 6, 2007, at age 48.
Mr. Johnson was born March 27, 1959, in Klamath Falls, and moved to Portland as an infant. He was a
self-employed mechanic.
Survivors include his mother, Esther, and sister, Melissa Faber.
Arrangements by American Burial & Cremation.
Mildred Orrell Kerchner
Mildred Orrell Kerchner died March 31, 2007, at age 92.
Mildred Griffiths was born June 16, 1914, in Kansas City, Mo., and raised in Southern California. She
was a senior bookkeeper for Sears Roebuck, where she worked for 35 years. She moved to Portland eight
years ago. Her husband Harold died in 1975.
Survivors include her daughter, Donna Roberts; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Arrangements by Neptune.
Glen Dwight Konkle
A gathering will be from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 21, 2007, in the family home for Glen Dwight
Konkle, who died April 3of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at age 75.
Mr. Konkle was born July 9, 1931, in Hubbard. He graduated from Parkrose High School, where he was
a state champion wrestler. He served in the Navy in the Korean War. He worked for Goodyear Industrial Rub-
ber & Supply and was a volunteer purchasing/inventory control specialist for small businesses. In 1951, he
married Betty Jones.
Survivors include his wife; daughter, Tracy Miller; sons, Kevin and Dana; brother, Wayne; five grandchil-
dren; and three great-grandchildren.
Arrangements by Omega.
Robert Emerson Leach
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, April 20, 2007, in Christ the Vine Lutheran Church in Clacka-
mas for Robert Emerson Leach, who died April 12 at age 68.
Mr. Leach was born April 17, 1938, in Halliday, N.D., and moved to Portland in 1942. He graduated from
Franklin High School and served in the Coast Guard Reserve. He was a central office technician for Qwest
for 31 years. He was a charter member of the church. In 1965, he married Lucille Taylor.
Survivors include his wife; sons, Larry and Eric; and sister, Christine.
Remembrances to the Huntington's Disease Society of America in New York City. Arrangements by Bate-
man Carroll.
Judith Ann LeFever
A gathering will be at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 21, 2007, in the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver for Judith
Ann LeFever, who died April 2 of ovarian cancer at age 57.
Judith Belcher was born Feb. 4, 1950, in Fruita, Colo. She graduated from Roosevelt High School and
lived in Battle Ground, Wash., since about 2002. She worked for Borders Books. In 2003, she married Mike.
Survivors include her husband; son, Kyler Jorden; and four grandchildren.
Remembrances to the American Cancer Society. Arrangements by Evergreen Staples.
John Daniel MacDonald
A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Monday, April 23, 2007, in the Providence Milwaukie Hospital
chapel for John Daniel MacDonald, who died April 11 at age 72.
Mr. MacDonald was born April 7, 1935, in Boston, where he lived for 48 years. He also lived in Los
Angeles for 14 years and was in Milwaukie for the past 10 years. He had worked for Polaroid and more re-
cently volunteered at Providence Milwaukie Hospital. He married Audrey Fitzgerald.
Survivors include his wife; son, Richard; daughters, Marie MacDonald, Kathleen Farrell, Gini Nichols and
Carolyn Fowler; stepdaughter, Karen Bennett; sister, Alice Breen; brother, Robert; 13 grandchildren; and 10
great-grandchildren.
Remembrances to the Providence Milwaukie Foundation. Arrangements by Peake.
Archie Leo Maddalena
Archie Leo Maddalena died April 6, 2007, at age 82.
Mr. Maddalena was born June 28, 1924, in Reno. He served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War
II. He was a store manager for Rodda Paint who moved to Hillsboro 12 years ago. In 1946, he married
Jessie Hurley.
Survivors include his daughters, Lee Reed and Kim Maddalena; son, Lynn; five grandchildren and 13
Remembrances to Hospice of Washington County. Arrangements by Springer and Son.
Colleen Virginia Meyer
A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 21, 2007, in Gateway Little Chapel of the Chimes for
Colleen Virginia Meyer, who died April 10 at age 81.
Colleen Edelman was born Nov. 24, 1925, in Portland, where she lived all her life. She was a clerk for
the Super Yarn Mart, a Girl Scout leader and a volunteer for Providence Hospital. In 1942, she married Jack
R.; he died in 1988.
Survivors include her daughters, Jackie Altman and Kathy McCreary; sons, Jim, Phil, Mark and Dave;
sisters, Arlene Wicklund and Edna Hall; brother, Bill Brandt; 15 grandchildren; 23 great-grandchildren; and
two great-great-grandchildren.
Remembrances to the Alzheimer's Association.
MaryJo Neuhof
A gathering will be from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 21, 2007, in the Portland home of her sister-in-
law, Rose Casciato, for MaryJo Neuhof, who died April 14 of lung disease at age 62.
MaryJo Delgard was born April 17, 1944, in Portland. She graduated from Madison High School and was
a secretary for Clackamas County. In the mid-1970s, she married Henry.
Survivors include her husband; daughter, Gina Kroft; and three grandchildren.
Arrangements by Gateway Little Chapel of the Chimes.
Warren R. Osborn
A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Thursday, April 19, 2007, in Omega Funeral & Cremation Service for
Warren R. Osborn, who died April 10 at age 89.
Mr. Osborn was born Sept. 28, 1917, in Lawrence, Kan. He served in the Army during World War II in the
South Pacific and received the Bronze Star. He moved to Portland in the late 1940s and was a machinist
who worked for several companies, including Iron Fireman, Electronic Specialties and Boeing. He also oper-
ated a charter boat business. In 1964, he married Joyce Kellington.
Survivors include his wife; son, Montie Osborne; stepdaughter, Jerri Blodgett; stepsons, Dwight Gruber,
Kent McIntosh and Mike McIntosh; brothers, Gene Osborne and Bruce Osborne; five grandchildren; and five
Remembrances to charity.
Viola Robison
A memorial service will be at 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 20, 2007, in the Provincial House chapel of Mary's
Woods in Lake Oswego for Viola Robison, who died April 1 at age 95.
Viola Day was born July 31, 1911, in Westford, Mass. She graduated from Syracuse University in New
York and was a homemaker in Westfield, N.J., before moving to Lake Oswego in 1989. In 1931, she married
Samuel C.; he died in 1996.
Survivors include her son, Cliff; and one grandchild.
Remembrances to Lake Grove Presbyterian Church in Lake Oswego. Arrangements by Young's.
Harrison Lee Sandidge
Harrison Lee Sandidge died April 10, 2007, of a stroke at age 54.
Mr. Sandidge was born April 16, 1952, in Ganado, Ariz. He served in the Navy and moved in 1975 to
Portland, where he was a truck driver for Cascade Columbia Distribution.
Survivors include his son, Brandon Allard; mother, Lola Snively; sister, Marge Pariseau; and brother,
Paul.
Remembrances to the Anatomical Research Fund in care of OHSU Foundation. Arrangements by
Cornerstone.
Georgia Marie Shelley
Georgia Marie "Jo" Shelley died April 9, 2007, of cancer at age 80.
Georgia Marie Fiala was born July 27, 1926, in Salem, Neb., and moved to Lebanon in 1937. She was a
secretary for the U.S. Postal Service in Seattle and Portland. She moved to Milwaukie in 1979. In 1958, she
married Arnie; he died in 1986.
Survivors include her sisters, Helen Borigo, Ethel Smith and Alice Ammon; brothers, Richard Fiala, Har-
old Fiala and Glenn Fiala.
Arrangements by Holman Hankins Bowker & Waud.
Barbara A. Ward-Ziegler
A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, 2007, in Riverview Abbey Funeral Home for
Barbara A. Ward-Ziegler, who died April 8 of lung disease at age 69.
Barbara A. Bowen was born Dec. 23, 1937, in London. She received a master's degree from Portland
State University and was a social worker for Multnomah County Children's Services Division. She helped to
develop a sex abuse treatment program for the county. In 1988, she married Walter L. Ziegler; he died in
2002.
Survivors include her friends.
Remembrances to Dove Lewis Animal Hospital.
George W. Wilson Sr.
A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 22, 2007, in River View Cemetery chapel for George
W. Wilson Sr., who died April 4 at age 83.
Mr. Wilson was born July 18, 1923, in Hartselle, Ala. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II
in Europe. He then lived in Spokane, where he operated a real estate company with his wife for about 40
years. In 2000, he moved to Palm Desert, Calif., and then in June of last year he came to Portland. In 1944,
he married Mary Palmer.
Survivors include his wife; daughter, Patti; sons, George Jr. and Steve; three grandchildren; and two
Remembrances to charity. Arrangements by River View Cemetery Funeral Home.
Jorge Mario Zamora
A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Monday, April 16, 2007, in Meridian United Church of Christ in
Wilsonville for Jorge Mario Zamora, who died April 12 of cancer at age 61.
Mr. Zamora was born June 14, 1945, in San Jose, Costa Rica. He graduated from Escuela Agricola Pa-
namericana in Honduras, as well as the University of Florida and Portland State University. He was a sys-
tems administrator for Georgia-Pacific who lived in Lake Oswego for 31 years. In 1969, he married Joanne
Bennett.
Survivors include his wife; sons, Jorge D. and Alex J.; daughter, Ana R.; mother, Maria Bolanos; sister,
Flor Isabel Wagner; brother, Edgar; and three grandchildren.
Remembrances to Portland Rescue Mission.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 The Oregonian
All Rights Reserved
29 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Bristol Herald Courier (Virginia)
April 3, 2007 Tuesday
Children's Advocacy Center coping with growing case load

BYLINE: Bristol Herald Courier, Va.
LENGTH: 569 words
Apr. 3--In most cases, growth isn't a bad thing.

But for one Sullivan County agency, it just might be.
"We're bursting at the seams," Joette Street, executive director of the Children's Advocacy Center of Sul-
livan County, said Monday.
The agency's mission is to fight child sexual and physical abuse and coordinate and provide services to
children and families in crisis.
Monday marked the kickoff of Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Street, who took the helm of the CAC in February, said she asked the staff what they needed to keep up
with the growing case load.
In part, the answer was more space and more full-time therapists. Unfortunately, Street said, that means
more children need treatment. In fact, the load for the 2006-07 year has so far increased by 35 percent over
the previous year, with 928 cases of child sexual abuse and severe physical abuse reviewed by the Child
Protective Investigative Team.
In addition to more employees and office space, agency officials want to include fifth-graders in the pre-
vention programs.
As for why there are more cases, Carey Lewis, program coordinator, said the hope is it's awareness.
"We like to think that more people are reporting the abuse, not that it's happening more," she said.
Assistant District Attorney Barry Staubus said the proclamation of child abuse month is important, but
"what happens behind the doors of the Children's Advocacy Center is ... really a world of children who are
victims of various kinds of serious abuse. The advocacy center, for many of these kids, provides a safe
haven from a chaotic world."
In addition to therapy for victims, the center provides a place for investigators to meet and discuss cases,
a secure location for victims who have to undergo physical examinations and a place for prosecutors to pre-
pare child victims for court.
Across the state line, the Children's Advocacy Center of Washington County also has its share of cases
involving child sex abuse, according to Marcia Hicklin, community education and prevention coordinator.
"Every two days, we have a new case," she said.
To represent the 165 children served in the county and Bristol Virginia, pinwheels were "planted" Monday
in the garden at the center.
By the end of the year, Executive Director Kathi Roark said the center had already served 104 children
for the fiscal year, which began July 1.
"The most important thing people can do is be a strong supportive adult in the life of children, whether it
is their own child, someone they know from their church or in a scout troop. Having the presence of one
caring adult really makes the difference," she said.
A child who has been abused is more likely to seek help if he or she has a close relationship with an
adult, she added.
If local residents want to help, those at both centers said they can use volunteers, and each also accepts
donations. Volunteers likely would not work directly with children, but provide services such as office work or
maintenance.
For more information about the Children's Advocacy Center of Sullivan County, call (423) 279-1222. For
the CAC of Washington County, call (276) 645-5867.
Copyright (c) 2007, Bristol Herald Courier, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For re-
prints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-
635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025,
USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20070403-BC-0403-Children-s-Advocacy-Center-coping-with-growing-case-load
JOURNAL-CODE: BC
Copyright 2007 Bristol Herald Courier
30 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Herald News (Passaic County, NJ)

All Editions
Child's murder spurred action;

Mandatory sentencing adopted as result
BYLINE: By DEENA YELLIN and GIOVANNA FABIANO, Special to the Herald News, North Jersey Media
Group
SECTION: OUR TOWNS; Pg. B03
LENGTH: 324 words
Rasheed Muhammad will spend the rest of his life behind bars, thanks to Joan's Law.
Muhammad was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1998 for the rape and murder of an 8-year-
old Newark girl. If his sentence had come just a few years earlier, there's a chance Muhammad could have
been released someday. Instead, he remains in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, with no chance of get-
ting out.
"He's one person that I know is in jail directly because of Joan's Law," said Bergen County Assistant Pro-
secutor Cathy Foddai, who tried the case in Essex County.
Tuesday is the 10-year anniversary of Joan's Law in New Jersey, which is named after Joan D'Aless-
andro, a 7-year-old Hillsdale girl who was raped and murdered by a neighbor in 1973 when she went to his
home to deliver Girl Scout Cookies.
Joan's Law mandates life terms without parole for child molesters who kill children under the age of 14.
The better-known Megan's Law is a notification law which requires sex offenders to become registered and
places them in different categories based on the severity of the crimes, Foddai said.
Joan's family has spent the past 34 years trying to draw something positive from the tragedy. Her mother,
Rosemarie D'Alessandro, fought for laws to keep criminals who prey on children in prison.
"People who murder and molest children should not ever receive parole," she said recently, reflecting on
the upcoming 10th anniversary of Joan's Law.
She campaigned for three years to get the law passed. It became national when President Clinton
signed it in October 1998.
What's next
A garage sale to benefit the Joan D'Alessandro Foundation will be held on May 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and May 20 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 45 Florence St. in Hillsdale.
Proceeds will go toward providing an excursion for the poor and homeless youth of the Father English
Center in Paterson and Youth Haven in Passaic.
To donate goods, contact the foundation at del2@email.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.,

All Rights Reserved
33 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Sunday Star-Times (Auckland, New Zealand)
March 25, 2007 Sunday
CRIME 'Average Kiwis' use child porn

BYLINE: HILL RUTH
SECTION: NEWS; NATIONAL; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 488 words
Typical user is Pakeha and in his early 30s THE TYPICAL man trading internet child pornography is an
Auckland Pakeha, aged in his early 30s, according to new research from Internal Affairs.
He is most likely a student or working in the IT industry.
In other words, such traders appear to be average Kiwi blokes.
Based on information collected by censorship inspectors, the Internal Affairs department's censorship
compliance unit has built profiles of 215 traders in internet child pornography, including their social, demo-
graphic and behavioural characteristics.
It is hoped profiling will give investigators an insight into offenders and why they offend - and help stop
them.
The unit's head, Steve O'Brien, said since the first child porn trader was convicted in 1997, the "average"
offender had changed significantly.
"We used to be predominantly dealing with people in their late teens or early 20s, but this may have
been because the technology was so new.
"Now the internet is part of everyday life for many people, we see the age range creeping up."
Last month the unit charged a man in his 60s.
The most recent update, in February, included profiles of 215 offenders, of whom all but one were male.
Just over half (52%) lived in the main urban areas of Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and
Dunedin.
About 75% (162) were New Zealand European, while only 1% (three people) identified as Maori.
More than half (63%) were aged between 10 and 34, the average age range being 30-34.
Students remained the largest occupational group among offenders (23%) and workers in the information
technology sector represented 17% of the total.
Most (55%) had no prior criminal convictions, although 13% had sexual convictions, 9% involving
someone under 16.
Alarmingly, about 75% had contact with children through their family life, occupations or volunteer work.
These included two soccer coaches, a primary school headmaster, a school bus driver, the driver of an
ice cream van, a teacher's aide who was involved in the Boy Scouts and taught martial arts to children, a hol-
iday camp labourer and a CYFS caregiver.
O'Brien said although only 1% of those prosecuted had a previous censorship conviction, there were
some who had been prosecuted two or even three times, which showed the "addictive nature" of porno-
graphy.
"Most of the time, they put their hands up straight away and say `fair cop' or Ì've been waiting for you to
come'.
"In some cases, they aren't even trying to hide."
O'Brien said although few images found over the years were of New Zealand children, research showed
a correlation between offenders who collected and distributed child sex abuse images and other offending
against children.
"Possessing child sex abuse images is a warning about an offender's sexual attitudes to children.
"Our actions are not about pictures on a computer - they're about preventing child abuse."
INSIDE THE MIND OF AN INTERNET PORN ADDICT / Focus C1
LOAD-DATE: March 26, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 Independent News Auckland Ltd.

All Rights Reserved
36 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Newsday (New York)

HUNTINGTON EDITION
NOTEBOOK;
Students perform at music fest
BYLINE: MARY ELLEN PEREIRA
SECTION: LI LIFE; Pg. G20
LENGTH: 1015 words
Student musicians and vocalists from across Long Island were invited to perform with the 2007 Music
Educators National Conference All-Eastern Honor Ensembles. This weekend, March 8-11, about 650 talen-
ted high school students from Maine to Washington, D.C., were to gather at the Bushnell Center for the Per-
forming Arts in Hartford. Ensembles include a concert band, symphony orchestra, mixed chorus and jazz en-
semble.
The local high school students are: Bellport: Michael Celentano; Commack: Ji Wook Kim, Jason Martz
and Christopher Toomey; Deer Park: Anthony Chrones; Dix Hills (Half Hollow Hills East): Thomas Grosskur-
th; East Hampton: Asalia Goldberg; East Islip: Keriann Shalvoy; East Meadow: Nicole Cirillo, Katherine Fer-
retti, Michael Lombardi and Steven Miller;
Eastport-South Manor: Stephanie Barnes; Elwood-John Glenn: Hana Abrams and Stephanie Hyon;
Farmingdale: Michael McCoy; Farmingville (Sachem East): Robert Cinnante Jr., Brian Nekoloff, Sarah
Parsloe and Rachel Roger; Great Neck South: Benjamin Cohen, William A. Shine; Hewlett: Benjamin
Pesenti; Lake Ronkonkoma (Sachem North): John-Patrick Mauro and Justin Moniz; Lynbrook: Ashley Carv-
er;
Manhasset: Megan McCarney, Jordan Roher and Timothy Tan; Massapequa: Michelle Femminella,
Gregory Kappleman and Julianne Prisco; Mattituck: Ian Grinere; Merrick (Calhoun): Tyler Lee; Middle Island
(Longwood): Christopher Gerig and Samuel Ortiz; Miller Place: Laura Hopwood; Mount Sinai: Toni Ann Gal-
luccio and Andrew Shapiro; New Hyde Park (Herricks): Allison Schachter; North Babylon: Kara Edwards and
Meggan Kent; Northport: Anna Avino, Michael Gordon and Marc Schwartz; Oyster Bay: Benjamin Cohen and
Philip Ha; Patchogue-Medford: Edan Krolewicz, Erik Schmalenberger and Kathryn Wrede; Plainview-Old
Bethpage (Kennedy): Scott Davis; Port Washington (Schreiber): Matthew Greenblatt; Sayville: Katherine
Buono; Setauket (Ward Melville): Hillary Lin; Shoreham-Wading River: Alyssa Jutting; Southold: Emily Hud-
son; Syosset: Andrew Lelin, Erin Steigerwald and Minkee Sung; Westhampton Beach: Spencer Hood; West
Islip: Lisa Corey.
CONNETQUOT
Career speakers
Through the Student Support Center at Ronkonkoma Middle School, the Boy Scouts of America arrange
for professionals to speak with students about careers. Recently the students met with Joseph Celano from
FedEx, Judith Lespinasse from the Legal Aid Society, and Trinette Zizzo from the U.S. Army.
DEER PARK
50th anniversary
May Moore Primary School in Deer Park celebrated its 50th anniversary in November with a variety of
activities. Dressed in 1950s attire, students and faculty took hula-hoop lessons, danced at a sock hop and
enjoyed root beer floats. The highlight was opening a time capsule buried in 1956 containing letters from stu-
dents about life back then.
HALF HOLLOW HILLS
Global warming
Students at West Hollow Middle School in Melville created and starred in a film about pollution and the
effects of global warming. They raised $500 for SurfRiders, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated
to protecting oceans, waves and beaches.
HUNTINGTON
Young artists
Artwork created by six Huntington High School students in the Heckscher Museum's docent program
was recently displayed in the art gallery at the Huntington Public Library. Works included photographs, an oil
painting, mixed media and computer graphics. The docent program affords students the opportunity to work
with museum educators and volunteers as they expand their knowledge of art. The student docents are Scott
DeMotta, Kean Ferin, Grace Kelly, Samantha LoBue, Dana Silverberg and Emika Wada.
ISLIP
Special award
Students in the EXCEL program at Islip Middle School participated in the Future City competition,
sponsored by National Engineers Week. The team including eighth-graders John Cronau and Nikko Santiago
and seventh-grader Mark Schuessler, earned the Best Infrastructure Layout award for their computer-model
city, Neo Geo.
SACHEM
The Constitution
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) spoke at Sachem High School East in Farmingville about the U.S.
Constitution. A question-and-answer period focused on such topics as Iraq, global warming, immigration and
the Patriot Act.
SAYVILLE
Math in the oven
Second-graders in Jessica O'Rourke's class at Cherry Avenue Elementary School in Sayville blended a
handful of math with a touch of science and learned to bake. The interdisciplinary lesson involved measuring,
mixing, kneading and using a thermometer. With help from parent volunteer Tina Philbin, the children baked
German stollen and challah bread.
SMITHTOWN
Sex-abuse seminar
Parents for Megan's Law and Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) presented "Apple of My Eye, " a
sex-abuse seminar, for parents at St. James Elementary School. The program offered tips and safety rules
children should be taught on the traps used by sexual predators, how to detect inappropriate actions and the
physical and behavioral signs of sexual abuse.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Museum president
Barry M. Stern, director of the Hillwood Art Museum at Long Island University, C.W. Post campus, was
elected president of the Long Island Museum Association. Stern has been an adjunct professor in arts man-
agement at Post since 1984 and assumed leadership of Hillwood 10 years later. Under his leadership, the
museum has been awarded many grants. Its permanent collection includes African art, contemporary photo-
graphy and Hellenistic, Etruscan and Roman artifacts.
ISLANDWIDE
Sunday science series
The Long Island Science Center offers science workshops for children on Sundays. On March 11, "Music
and Sound," learn about sound waves and make an instrument; March 18, "Kites," experiment with different
shapes and materials; March 25, "Fetch Day," based on the PBS show; April 1-4, "Vacation Week
Animation," create moving pictures; April 15, "Arbor Day," learn about trees and make a leaf rubbing; and
April 22, "Earth Day," create alternative energy. The Long Island Science Center, a nonprofit organization, is
open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 11 W. Main St., Riverhead; $5 for children; $2 for adults. Call 631-208-8000 or
visit liscience center.org.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.

37 of 265 DOCUMENTS
THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
March 10, 2007 Saturday
DEFROCKED SEATTLE PRIEST ACCUSED OF ABUSE IN LAW-

SUIT CLERGYMAN SUSPECTED OF MOLESTING OTHERS
BYLINE: LEVI PULKKINEN P-I reporter
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 511 words
A former parishioner is suing the Seattle Catholic Archdiocese for allegedly allowing a Maple Leaf-neigh-
borhood priest to sexually abuse him.
In documents filed Friday in King County Superior Court, the alleged victim claimed that the Rev. James
Knelleken molested him numerous times 50 years ago. The alleged victim was 13 at the time.
"I've lived with this for 50 years, and it's just killing me," said the alleged victim, identified in court docu-
ments only as J.P.
He declined to give his name during an interview with the Seattle P-I. His attorney, Mary Fleck, was
present during the phone interview and confirmed his identity.
Knelleken was removed from the ministry in 1988 and later defrocked because of suspicions that he was
sexually abusing children in the church, said archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni.
"I would offer our regret that this occurred," Magnoni said Friday on hearing of the lawsuit. "We'll work
with the victim to the best of our ability to reach a settlement in this case."
Knelleken, who died in 2003, allegedly started "grooming" J.P. after meeting the boy at a Catholic youth
group dance at St. Catherine of Siena Church.
In the months that followed, Knelleken then had sexual relations with J.P., according to court documents.
"He was telling me that just because he was a priest he was still a human being, and he still had feelings
for people," J.P. said. "In the fifth month or so, I just started feeling bad. I just got a feeling that it was wrong."
J.P. said he cut off ties with Knelleken, over the priest's objections.
After the abuse was over, J.P. withdrew. He said he gave up a paper route and his Cub Scout troop. He
started joyriding, making little kinds of trouble.
In his entire adult life, he said, a day hasn't passed when he didn't think of the abuse.
"I think about this 20, 30, 40 times a day," the Chelan County resident said. "It's my last thought at night
and my first thought in the morning."
Knelleken died at 76, after serving as pastor at churches in Bremerton, Raymond and Seaview, accord-
ing to an obituary.
Knelleken was among 49 Western Washington priests included in a 2004 archdiocese investigation into
decades-old allegations of sex abuse, Magnoni said.
Investigators didn't offer any judgment on Knelleken's case or 35 others in which the suspected priest
had died, resigned or moved away. Nine priests were eventually sanctioned or defrocked by the Vatican.
As of last year, the archdiocese had settled more than 200 sexual-abuse claims and paid out more than
$20 million in damages, Magnoni said.
In his lawsuit, J.P. argues that the archdiocese helped conceal Knelleken's alleged pedophilia and failed
to warn parishioners about the priest.
No specific financial claim for damages has been made. J.P. said what he wants most is an apology from
the church.
Magnoni said that's something Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett is willing to extend.
"Our archbishop has reached out to victims," he said. "And I'm sure he will in this case."
P-I reporter Levi Pulkkinen
can be reached at 206-448-8348
or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photo, A former Seattle man accuses the Rev. James Knelleken of abusing him 50 years ago.
Knelleken died in 2003.
Copyright 2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
38 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)
March 7, 2007 Wednesday
Ranger says that priest was predator

BYLINE: DARREN BARBEE, STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 780 words
The Rev. Thomas Teczar, 65, is on trial in Eastland charged with aggravated sexual assault.
EASTLAND -- The Rev. Thomas Teczar was a child predator who used others to help him "lay the
groundwork" to find his victims, a Texas Ranger testified Tuesday in the aggravated sexual assault trial of the
former Fort Worth Diocese priest.
Teczar, 65, is accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy in the 1990s in Ranger. He pleaded not guilty to
charges Tuesday. He waived a trial by jury, meaning that state District Judge Steven Herod will decide his
guilt or innocence.
Teczar left Eastland County 14 years ago while police investigated child abuse accusations against his
friends Daniel Hawley and DeWilliam Bixler.
Both men are now serving long prison terms after their convictions in the 1990s for sexually abusing as
many as nine children.
Allegations against Teczar came in 2002 after one of the men's victims told Texas Ranger David Hullum
that the priest, about 38 years his senior, also abused him.
The man is not being identified because of the nature of the case. Teczar is believed to be one of the few
Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese priests to face criminal sex abuse charges.
Hullum testified that the man was embarrassed and unable to look him in the eye as he described his ac-
cusations of abuse by Teczar. Hullum told the court that Teczar encouraged the use of alcohol, drugs and
pornography and used Hawley as a "protective layer" between himself and potential victims.
"He used Daniel Hawley as a facilitator, as a forward scout to kind of lay the groundwork," Hullum testi-
fied.
In 1993 as police were investigating Hawley, former Eastland County Sheriff Ronnie White interviewed
the priest, White testified on Tuesday.
Teczar told the sheriff that he was aware of nude photographs Hawley had taken of several boys and that
he had warned Hawley to destroy them, White testified.
Teczar was subpoenaed in 1993 to appear before a grand jury but refused to answer questions, White
said. The next day White said he was told that Teczar left town.
Asked by Eastland County District Attorney Russ Thomason whether he believed Teczar was involved in
the molestation that resulted in jail sentences for Hawley and Bixler, White answered, "I feel like he was fully
involved in it."
But White said his investigation was hampered at the time because officials at the Fort Worth Diocese
did not return several messages he left seeking information about the priest.
Diocese officials have said they were unaware of White's inquiries.
White was also a witness in a civil lawsuit against the diocese. In 2005, the diocese settled for $4.15 mil-
lion a lawsuit with two Teczar accusers, one of whom filed the criminal complaint in Eastland.
White also testified that he believed that Teczar knew about the abuse but failed to report it to law en-
forcement. In 2005 Teczar told the Star-Telegram, "I didn't know I had an obligation to do that."
Prosecutors on Tuesday first called the priest's brother, Edward Teczar, who lives in Tarrant County, and
questioned him about his brother's history in the priesthood. Edward Teczar said his brother is not capable of
committing such a crime.
"I know my brother," Edward Teczar said. "I know he's been falsely accused of something he would never
do. Ever."
Other witnesses Tuesday painted a far different picture of the priest.
Andrew Grumbles of Arlington told the court he was about 16 or 17 when he delivered marijuana to
Teczar or Hawley on several occasions at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Ranger.
Grumbles told the court that the priest offered him Southern Comfort whiskey and showed him porno-
graphic magazines.
Grumbles also testified that he had seen the pictures of several of Hawley's and Bixler's victims.
But questioned by Teczar's attorney, Edwin Youngblood of Fort Worth, Grumbles told the court he had
identified the boys from their faces.
Earlier, White, the former sheriff, testified that the pictures apparently did not show the boys' faces, to
conceal their identities.
David Lewcon, co-founder of the New England chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests,
testified that Teczar began abusing him when he was 16 or 17 and Teczar was a priest at his church in Mas-
sachusetts.
Lewcon later sought out Teczar's accuser in Ranger and offered him assistance.
But Youngblood raised questions about Lewcon's motivation for testifying, saying that hate and rage had
compelled him.
"Is there no forgiveness?" Youngblood asked.
"He's forgiven," Lewcon answered. "What he did, is not."
Testimony will continue today in Eastland's 91st State District Court. Eastland is about 90 miles west of
Fort Worth.
Darren Barbee, 817-390-7126 dbarbee@star-telegram.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2007 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

All Rights Reserved
39 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)
Ranger says that priest was predator

BYLINE: Darren Barbee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
LENGTH: 820 words
Mar. 7--EASTLAND -- The Rev. Thomas Teczar was a child predator who used others to help him "lay
the groundwork" to find his victims, a Texas Ranger testified Tuesday in the aggravated sexual assault trial of
the former Fort Worth Diocese priest.
Teczar, 65, is accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy in the 1990s in Ranger. He pleaded not guilty to
charges Tuesday. He waived a trial by jury, meaning that state District Judge Steven Herod will decide his
guilt or innocence.
Teczar left Eastland County 14 years ago while police investigated child abuse accusations against his
friends Daniel Hawley and DeWilliam Bixler.
Both men are now serving long prison terms after their convictions in the 1990s for sexually abusing as
many as nine children.
Allegations against Teczar came in 2002 after one of the men's victims told Texas Ranger David Hullum
that the priest, about 38 years his senior, also abused him.
The man is not being identified because of the nature of the case. Teczar is believed to be one of the few
Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese priests to face criminal sex abuse charges.
Hullum testified that the man was embarrassed and unable to look him in the eye as he described his ac-
cusations of abuse by Teczar. Hullum told the court that Teczar encouraged the use of alcohol, drugs and
pornography and used Hawley as a "protective layer" between himself and potential victims.
"He used Daniel Hawley as a facilitator, as a forward scout to kind of lay the groundwork," Hullum testi-
fied.
In 1993 as police were investigating Hawley, former Eastland County Sheriff Ronnie White interviewed
the priest, White testified on Tuesday.
Teczar told the sheriff that he was aware of nude photographs Hawley had taken of several boys and that
he had warned Hawley to destroy them, White testified.
Teczar was subpoenaed in 1993 to appear before a grand jury but refused to answer questions, White
said. The next day White said he was told that Teczar left town.
Asked by Eastland County District Attorney Russ Thomason whether he believed Teczar was involved in
the molestation that resulted in jail sentences for Hawley and Bixler, White answered, "I feel like he was fully
involved in it."
But White said his investigation was hampered at the time because officials at the Fort Worth Diocese
did not return several messages he left seeking information about the priest.
Diocese officials have said they were unaware of White's inquiries.
White was also a witness in a civil lawsuit against the diocese. In 2005, the diocese settled for $4.15 mil-
lion a lawsuit with two Teczar accusers, one of whom filed the criminal complaint in Eastland.
White also testified that he believed that Teczar knew about the abuse but failed to report it to law en-
forcement. In 2005 Teczar told the Star-Telegram, "I didn't know I had an obligation to do that."
Prosecutors on Tuesday first called the priest's brother, Edward Teczar, who lives in Tarrant County, and
questioned him about his brother's history in the priesthood. Edward Teczar said his brother is not capable of
committing such a crime.
"I know my brother," Edward Teczar said. "I know he's been falsely accused of something he would never
do. Ever."
Other witnesses Tuesday painted a far different picture of the priest.
Andrew Grumbles of Arlington told the court he was about 16 or 17 when he delivered marijuana to
Teczar or Hawley on several occasions at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Ranger.
Grumbles told the court that the priest offered him Southern Comfort whiskey and showed him porno-
graphic magazines.
Grumbles also testified that he had seen the pictures of several of Hawley's and Bixler's victims.
But questioned by Teczar's attorney, Edwin Youngblood of Fort Worth, Grumbles told the court he had
identified the boys from their faces.
Earlier, White, the former sheriff, testified that the pictures apparently did not show the boys' faces, to
conceal their identities.
David Lewcon, co-founder of the New England chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests,
testified that Teczar began abusing him when he was 16 or 17 and Teczar was a priest at his church in Mas-
sachusetts.
Lewcon later sought out Teczar's accuser in Ranger and offered him assistance.
But Youngblood raised questions about Lewcon's motivation for testifying, saying that hate and rage had
compelled him.
"Is there no forgiveness?" Youngblood asked.
"He's forgiven," Lewcon answered. "What he did, is not."
Testimony will continue today in Eastland's 91st State District Court. Eastland is about 90 miles west of
Fort Worth.
------
Darren Barbee, 817-390-7126 dbarbee@star-telegram.com
Copyright (c) 2007, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to
847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025,
USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20070307-FT-0307-Ranger-says-that-priest-was-predator
JOURNAL-CODE: FT
Copyright 2007 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
41 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Idaho Falls Post Register (Idaho)
February 27, 2007 Tuesday Main Edition
House approves sexual abuse billThe bill extending the time period for victims of sex abuse to sue their at-
tackers now heads to the Senate.
BYLINE: By PHIL DAVIDSON,
SECTION: THE WESTPg. A7
LENGTH: 369 words

BOISE - Sixty members of Idaho's House of Representatives approved legislation Monday that gives
sexual abuse victims additional time to sue their attackers.
House Bill 125 now heads to the Senate.
It would allow sexual abuse victims to sue their predators as many as five years after a victim ""dis-
covered"" he or she was molested. Existing law prevents victims from suing their predators after their 23rd
birthdays.
The 60-7 vote brings Idaho closer to matching the laws of its neighbors, all of which allow victims to sue
at least three years after they discovered they were molested.
One of the measure's supporters, Rep. Mack Shirley, R-Rexburg, testified Monday that the legislation is
needed because abuse victims will come forward when they're ready, and for some, that means well into
adulthood.
Several eastern Idaho lawmakers were concerned about a section of the legislation dealing with the liab-
ility for employers of child molesters. Businesses and organizations could be sued, but only if they are
grossly negligent.
Democratic Rep. James Ruchti, a Pocatello lawyer who's a co-sponsor of the bill, said an example of this
would be an employer who knowingly hires a child molester.
""It's not just as simple as saying an abuser is an employee of a certain company, therefore we're
suing,"" he said.
The driving force behind the legislation is Pocatello native Paul Steed, whose sons have filed a lawsuit
against the Grand Teton Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Steeds' sons were victims of former Camp
Little Lemhi director and now-convicted child molester Brad Stowell. The Grand Teton Council is also named
as a defendant in a pair of civil suits relating to sexual abuse.
In closing, Ruchti told lawmakers that the proposal was not ""boondoggle"" legislation that would benefit
attorneys and result in more lawsuits.
""This is a piece to provide redress for children who've been abused,"" he said.
Who voted against it?
Eastern Idaho lawmakers who voted against the measure to give victims of sexual abuse more time to
sue their attackers include Rep. Dell Raybould, R-Rexburg; Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot; Rep. Lenore
Barrett, R-Challis; Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone; and Rep. Jim Marriott, R-Blackfoot.
LOAD-DATE: February 27, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright2007The Post Register

All Rights Reserved
42 of 265 DOCUMENTS
February 16, 2007 Friday Main Edition

Sex-abuse bills move forward- The bills extend the time victims have to sue their assailants and how long
prosecutors have to charge those who withhold reports.
BYLINE: By PHIL DAVIDSON,
SECTION: A SECTIONPg. A1
LENGTH: 527 words
BOISE - Paul Steed's most persuasive argument before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday
might have been the analogy he drew between victims of sexual abuse and children who come home with a
broken leg.
There are costs associated with healing a child's leg, Steed told the committee. The same can be said
for minors who are sexually abused.
""In a figurative way, they're bleeding all over the place,"" he said.
The Pocatello native was pushing two bills that received unanimous approval in the House Judiciary,
Rules and Administration Committee.
One would allow sexual-abuse victims to sue their predators up to five years after victims ""discover""
they were molested. Existing law prevents victims from suing their molesters after their 23rd birthday.
The other bill would give prosecutors up to four years to criminally charge someone who's made aware
of but fails to report sexual abuse within 24 hours.
Prosecutors currently have only one year to charge those who neglect to report, which is a misdemeanor
punishable by up to six months in jail.
Last year, Steed was instrumental in getting lawmakers to enact legislation that erased the criminal stat-
ute of limitations for children who are sexually abused.
His crusade this legislative session would increase the access that abuse victims have to recover coun-
seling and other costs borne by their attacks.
Rep. James Ruchti, a Pocatello Democrat sponsoring the bill, told the committee the proposed legisla-
tion requires that the clock to sue an attacker starts at the last occurrence of abuse.
In other words, a predator who molested a victim from the time the child was 10 to the time the child was
16 could not argue that the discovery clause begins at age 10.
Experts say many victims repress memories of their abuse and aren't able to gather the courage to come
forward until well into adulthood.
Steed, who has a master's degree in psychology, said he tried to pick an age limit in which victims could
no longer sue. But because each case is different, any age selected would be arbitrary.
If the discovery proposal becomes law, Idaho would be on par with its neighboring states - all of which al-
low victims to sue at least three years after they discovered they were molested.
Though Steed has said these proposals weren't specifically targeting the Boy Scouts of America, much
of Thursday's testimony focused on that organization.
Steed's sons were victims of convicted child molester Brad Stowell while they were junior staffers at a
Boy Scouts camp in 1997.
Stowell admitted to molesting at least 24 boys at the Scout camp, but the parents of these children wer-
en't made aware of what happened until a year after the fact in some cases, even though Scouting attorneys
learned what happened.
Now that the bills have cleared committee, they'll be sent to the House floor for a full vote. Rep. Mack
Shirley, a Rexburg Republican and co-sponsor, said he thinks his chamber will overwhelmingly approve the
measures.
If that happens, they'll move to the Senate, where support is being gathered.
Senate President Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, was once wary of the discovery proposal but said he
now approves of the idea.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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46 of 265 DOCUMENTS
February 10, 2007 Saturday

Idaho Edition
Ex-Scoutmaster faces more abuse charges;

He was convicted of molestation in 2003
BYLINE: John Craig Staff writer
SECTION: B; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 592 words
A former Spokane Valley Scoutmaster who was convicted of grooming a 14-year-old Boy Scout for sex in
2003 is to be arraigned Tuesday on a charge that he had similarly abused another boy a year earlier.
Ralph E. "Ray" Willcox Jr., 58, was arrested Monday on a first-degree child molestation charge filed Jan.
30. Court documents say Willcox molested a boy in the summer of 2002, when the boy was 9.
That was a year before Willcox molested a 14-year-old boy and pleaded guilty to communication with a
minor for immoral purposes in 2003. Willcox got a one-year suspended jail sentence and two years of proba-
tion in the 2003 case.
The 9-year-old who allegedly was molested in 2002 didn't agree to talk to a sheriff's detective until last
month at age 14.
In both cases, according to court documents, Willcox frequently invited the boys into his Otis Orchards
home on Garry Road, where he touched them and encouraged them to reciprocate.
The boy Willcox abused in 2003 said he and Willcox sat in the same chair while Willcox tickled him,
fondled him and talked about sperm, according to court documents.
That boy told his parents, and his father confronted Willcox. Court documents say the father successfully
demanded that Willcox resign from a position "which allowed him access to children."
The records don't say what that position was, but Inland Northwest Boy Scout Director Tim McCandless
said the father also contacted Scouting officials, and Willcox was immediately removed as Scoutmaster of
Troop 413.
McCandless said his records indicated the molestation occurred in a hotel room during a trip unrelated
to Scouting.
Boy Scout records don't show how long Willcox was a Scoutmaster, but court records say the 2003 vic-
tim had known Willcox for three or four years.
In addition to forcing Willcox out of the Boy Scouts, the boy's father persuaded Willcox to seek Christian
counseling. Court documents say leaders of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane reported Willcox's admissions
to the Sheriff's Office when he requested sex-offender counseling.
"When it was reported to me, I immediately reported it to the police," the Rev. Steve Dublinski, vicar gen-
eral of the diocese, said in an interview Friday. "Reporting child abuse is part of our normal operation."
Dublinski said Willcox was a parishioner but had no other role in the diocese. However, Boy Scout Troop
413 is sponsored by the Catholic Knights of Columbus and draws most of its members from two Spokane
Valley parishes: St. Joseph's and St. Mary's.
McCandless was unable to determine whether the alleged victim in the newly filed charge was a Scout.
The boy told Detective David Skogen that Willcox encouraged him to go naked in Willcox's basement
while Willcox wore a bathrobe with nothing underneath in the summer of 2002. The boy said Willcox exposed
himself and fondled him on several occasions, according to court documents.
Willcox told the boy not to tell his parents about the nude encounters, and he didn't until last month, Sko-
gen said in a court affidavit. Skogen said the boy's mother had been suspicious of Willcox since the summer
of 2003, when Skogen contacted her while investigating the case in which Willcox molested the older boy.
Skogen said Willcox's wife at the time now says she also was suspicious of the attention Willcox paid to
the younger boy in the summer of 2002.
The ex-wife will testify that she questioned Willcox about the younger boy in 2003 when he was charged
with abusing the older boy, and Willcox admitted abusing the younger boy, according to Skogen.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
47 of 265 DOCUMENTS

Metro Edition
Ex-Scoutmaster faces more abuse charges;

He was convicted of molestation in 2003
BYLINE: John Craig Staff writer
SECTION: B; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 592 words
A former Spokane Valley Scoutmaster who was convicted of grooming a 14-year-old Boy Scout for sex in
2003 is to be arraigned Tuesday on a charge that he had similarly abused another boy a year earlier.
Ralph E. "Ray" Willcox Jr., 58, was arrested Monday on a first-degree child molestation charge filed Jan.
30. Court documents say Willcox molested a boy in the summer of 2002, when the boy was 9.
That was a year before Willcox molested a 14-year-old boy and pleaded guilty to communication with a
minor for immoral purposes in 2003. Willcox got a one-year suspended jail sentence and two years of proba-
tion in the 2003 case.
The 9-year-old who allegedly was molested in 2002 didn't agree to talk to a sheriff's detective until last
month at age 14.
In both cases, according to court documents, Willcox frequently invited the boys into his Otis Orchards
home on Garry Road, where he touched them and encouraged them to reciprocate.
The boy Willcox abused in 2003 said he and Willcox sat in the same chair while Willcox tickled him,
fondled him and talked about sperm, according to court documents.
That boy told his parents, and his father confronted Willcox. Court documents say the father successfully
demanded that Willcox resign from a position "which allowed him access to children."
The records don't say what that position was, but Inland Northwest Boy Scout Director Tim McCandless
said the father also contacted Scouting officials, and Willcox was immediately removed as Scoutmaster of
Troop 413.
McCandless said his records indicated the molestation occurred in a hotel room during a trip unrelated
to Scouting.
Boy Scout records don't show how long Willcox was a Scoutmaster, but court records say the 2003 vic-
tim had known Willcox for three or four years.
In addition to forcing Willcox out of the Boy Scouts, the boy's father persuaded Willcox to seek Christian
counseling. Court documents say leaders of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane reported Willcox's admissions
to the Sheriff's Office when he requested sex-offender counseling.
"When it was reported to me, I immediately reported it to the police," the Rev. Steve Dublinski, vicar gen-
eral of the diocese, said in an interview Friday. "Reporting child abuse is part of our normal operation."
Dublinski said Willcox was a parishioner but had no other role in the diocese. However, Boy Scout Troop
413 is sponsored by the Catholic Knights of Columbus and draws most of its members from two Spokane
Valley parishes: St. Joseph's and St. Mary's.
McCandless was unable to determine whether the alleged victim in the newly filed charge was a Scout.
The boy told Detective David Skogen that Willcox encouraged him to go naked in Willcox's basement
while Willcox wore a bathrobe with nothing underneath in the summer of 2002. The boy said Willcox exposed
himself and fondled him on several occasions, according to court documents.
Willcox told the boy not to tell his parents about the nude encounters, and he didn't until last month, Sko-
gen said in a court affidavit. Skogen said the boy's mother had been suspicious of Willcox since the summer
of 2003, when Skogen contacted her while investigating the case in which Willcox molested the older boy.
Skogen said Willcox's wife at the time now says she also was suspicious of the attention Willcox paid to
the younger boy in the summer of 2002.
The ex-wife will testify that she questioned Willcox about the younger boy in 2003 when he was charged
with abusing the older boy, and Willcox admitted abusing the younger boy, according to Skogen.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
48 of 265 DOCUMENTS
January 23, 2007 Tuesday

Sunrise Edition
2 men sue Mormons, Scouts over abuse

BYLINE: PETER ZUCKERMAN, The Oregonian
SECTION: Local News; Pg. B01
LENGTH: 697 words
SUMMARY: $6.5 million | The brothers claim a Scout and church leader molested them from 1983 to
1985
Two brothers filed a $6.5 million lawsuit Monday against the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts of
America for alleged sexual abuse in the 1980s by a Portland church teacher and Scout leader.
The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, contends that Timur Van Dykes, 50, of Portland
used positions of trust to molest the boys, who were not identified, in the years 1983 to 1985. During those
years Dykes served as a leader of Boy Scout Troop 719, which was supervised by the Cherry Park Ward of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Dykes, also known as Vandykes, has been convicted of at least 23 sexual crimes against boys since
1985, when he was indicted by a Multnomah County grand jury and later convicted of sexual abuse and
sexual penetration with a foreign object.
One of his earliest victims, also a Portland-area Boy Scout, led a troubled life after being molested and
committed suicide in April 1995, the boy's mother told The Oregonian after her son's death.
Dykes served time in the Oregon State Penitentiary and now lives in Southwest Portland, where he is lis-
ted by the state as a sexual predator of infant males and boys 7 to 15.
Through his parole officer, Dykes declined to be interviewed.
Dykes' crimes have resulted in at least three lawsuits against the Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints.
Boy Scout officials, who learned about the case Monday, said Dykes was registered for scouting from
1981 to 1984. They declined to comment on specifics of the lawsuit.
Confidential Boy Scout files obtained by The Oregonian indicate that Dykes resigned in 1985 and was
banned from the organization in 1987, two years after Dykes was first charged with molesting boys and at
least three months after the Scouts concluded that he molested five boys from two families.
People generally aren't put on the Boy Scouts national blacklist until allegations against them have been
substantiated, Boy Scout officials said, and authorities probably suspended Dykes immediately after he was
investigated.
The suit filed Monday claimed that in the years 1983 to 1985 Dykes molested one of the boys once but
committed multiple offenses against the other, including fondling and oral sex.
The lawsuit says that although the offenses were committed years ago, the victims did not realize until
2005 and 2006 that the abuse resulted in continuing damage and injuries.
Kelly Clark, a Portland-based attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the brothers, said that a quicker
and more forthright response from the Boy Scouts and Mormon church could have helped the victims recov-
er.
"The last 20 years of these men's psychological suffering did not have to happen," said Clark, who has
handled more than 100 claims of child sexual abuse against the Catholic Church.
"Had the church but followed the law --reported allegations of child abuse involving this very same indi-
vidual to law enforcement in the 1980s as they were required to do --we believe these men could have begun
the healing process 20 years ago," Clark said.
In a statement, church attorney Steve English of Portland said: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints condemns child abuse and does not tolerate such actions by anyone affiliated with our faith. . . . The
Church adamantly denies allegations of responsibility in this case and will defend itself vigorously."
The church excommunicated Dykes more than 20 years ago, English said.
Sex abuse in the Scouts was "very prevalent" before 1988, when the Boy Scouts overhauled their child
abuse prevention, said Don R. Cornell, Boy Scouts field services director.
Cornell said that Oregon's Cascade Pacific Council, which has 16,000 adult volunteers, bans five to 10
leaders a year for reasons that include child abuse and ignoring Boy Scout policies.
The abuse described in the lawsuit wouldn't happen today, he added. Two years ago, he said, the Boy
Scouts of America began doing background checks on people who register to volunteer.
ILLUSTRATION: Dykes Listed as
sexual predator
Peter Zuckerman: 503-294-5919; peterzuckerman@news.oregonian.
LOAD-DATE: January 24, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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52 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Buffalo News (New York)
January 15, 2007 Monday

NIAGARA EDITION
NIAGARA POLICE & COURTS

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B3
LENGTH: 235 words
>Home is destroyed by fire in Lockport

TOWN OF LOCKPORT -- Fire investigators are trying to determine what triggered a Saturday morning
blaze in a Crosby Road home that had just been gutted by fire less than a week ago.
The two-story, single-family residence at 6662 Crosby Road has been vacant since a Jan. 8 fire. A neigh-
bor noticed smoke coming from the home around 1:30 a.m. Saturday and crews found the home fully en-
gulfed upon their arrival. Damage to the building was estimated at $50,000.
-----
>Items valued at $600 taken in car break-ins
NIAGARA FALLS -- Thieves broke into two cars in the Whirlpool Street parking lot of the Aquarium of
Niagara overnight Friday, taking a crate of Girl Scout cookies and several others items.
Among the items taken were $600 in beauty products, including scissors, trimmers and clippers, and
hunting equipment and toys, police said.
-----
>Probe of sex abuse claims focuses on grandfather
NIAGARA FALLS -- City police have launched an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against
multiple female family members by the victims' grandfather.
A cousin of one of the victims contacted police Sunday to report the latest incident, According to reports,
the victims have been reluctant to come forward and have received money from the suspect to remain quiet.
The informant told police that as many as six family members may have been abused by the suspect, a
city resident.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Briefs
Copyright 2007 The Buffalo News

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53 of 265 DOCUMENTS
St. John's Telegram (Newfoundland)
January 14, 2007 Sunday
Fred Hutton
BYLINE: Rosie Gillingham
SECTION: DIGEST; Pg. B2
LENGTH: 1463 words
There are a couple of things that remind Fred Hutton of how much things have changed during his years
in television. One is watching old film footage of stories he's covered for NTV news. The other is seeing him-
self in that footage.
"I had a full head of hair and a little mustache,' he says with a laugh. "Now, I've got neither.'
What he does have are plenty of colourful stories and fond memories of his experiences as news report-
er and co-host of the NTV Evening News Hour.
"Hey, I flew with the Snowbirds upside down - with a camera strapped to my head - and didn't throw up,'
he said with a chuckle.
"That was pretty cool.'
In his 17 years at NTV, he has interviewed everyone from prime ministers and premiers to everyday
people with compelling stories to tell.
Hutton has covered many of the major stories in this province, including first oil from Hibernia, the Mount
Cashel sex-abuse scandal, the Voisey's Bay discovery, the 1997 Matthew celebrations from Bristol, England
and Bonavista, Brian Tobin's bid for the federal Liberal leadership and the closure of the northern cod fishery.
"It's really kind of strange looking back at it,' he said of those stories, including the announcement of the
cod moratorium.
"You realize it was part of history and I was in that room when (former federal fisheries minister) John
Crosbie made the announcement while on the other side, angry fishermen were trying to beat their way into
the door.
"I mean, I was 25 years old!'
Hutton got his first taste of broadcasting back in the late 1980s, when he volunteered for CHMR radio at
Memorial University, where he was studying political science.
"One day, my dad said to me, 'You've been spending an awful lot of time at the radio station. Why don't
you do that as a career?' I thought it was a good idea,' said Hutton, who then moved to Vancouver, where he
graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology's broadcast communications program.
In 1989, he returned and worked for CBC-TV for a summer as resource producer, where his love for tele-
vision was born.
A year later, he started a work term at NTV and ended up staying.
"I was there two days and they put me on the air,' the St. John's native said.
He recalls his first assignment with laughter.
"We still talk about it in the newsroom. It was a fire at A&W on Kenmount Road. They sent myself and
cameraman Dan Lake there. It was his first shoot as well,' he said.
"Fire trucks were there and smoke was coming out the side of the building. We pulled up, looked at each
other and said, 'What do we do now?'
"Anyway, the rest is history.'
Hutton has seen plenty of changes in the industry over the years, and said he's glad to see NTV broad-
casting across the province, and to other parts of the world, thanks to satellite.
"It's not always rocket science, but people like what we're doing. It's stories about Newfoundland and
Labrador, and what we do every day is basically hold up a mirror to the province,' said Hutton, who has an
11-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter.
"And the cool thing about the news business is that you have a front-row seat to whatever events are un-
folding.'
Hutton anchors both the lunch-time and 6 p.m. news and is also assistant news director to Jim Furlong,
which means he doesn't get out in the field these days as much as he once did.
"There are a lot of people going in a lot of different directions every day,' Hutton said, "and you've kind of
got to co-ordinate that and be able to put it all together in a news program.'
He said he especially enjoys his airtime with co-host Lynn Burry.
"We are friends on and off the air and we have a good time,' he said. "What you see on the air is basic-
ally what we're like off the air. We always try to have a good laugh.'
He believes that's why his years at NTV have flown.
"I know it sounds corny, but it's because I love what I do,' he said.
"Sure, there are lots of days you'd prefer to be playing golf, but I've never said, 'Oh God, I've got to go to
work today.'
"That's because I like what I do and I like the people I work with. It's a great job.'
What is your full name?
Frederick Charles Hutton.
Where and when were you born?
The Grace Hospital, St. John's, in June 1966.
Where is home today?
Portugal Cove.
What is your greatest indulgence?
Definitely golf. No question. It's never too early and never too late for golf. Final answer.
What was one act of rebellion you committed as a youth?
I grew my hair pretty long when I was a teenager. Now I wish I could just grow my hair. Period. It doesn't
necessarily have to be long.
What do you like to cook?
I like cooking stew, chicken fried rice, cod, and my kids love my chocolate chip pancakes. I've got it down
to a science, thanks to the just-add-water mix.
What is your greatest regret?
One regret is that I quit playing the piano in Grade 7 or 8. But I'm fulfilling that dream again. My daughter
and I are taking lessons. Hey, it's never too late.
What are five CDs in your music collection?
Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, John Prine, the Chieftains and the Masterless Men.
Who would play you in a movie about your life?
I would play myself. I've always wanted to star in a movie, but ended up in news. Who better to play me
than me? And besides, who would want to play me?
What was the most vivid dream you've ever had?
This is an easy one. I've had this dream a long time and I keep having it. I can fly. I fly over the city. I nev-
er get to land and never get to take off. I just fly. I know I have it at least once a year and I never know why.
Maybe someone can explain it to me.
Where is your favourite vacation spot?
Orlando, Fla. I'm going to be there in less than two weeks playing golf with 11 friends and they're going to
be handing over their money to me at the end of our tournament. I can't wait to take their money. This is our
second year going down and we just have a great time.
What are you reading at the moment?
"The Seven Laws of the Golf Swing" (by Nick Bradley). It was a gift from a friend, who is going on the trip
with us, but it hasn't worked for me. He's trying to screw up my game by making me think more.
What is your personal motto?
I have a bunch. One is be prepared - from my days as a scout. Another one is don't wish away my time.
Anyone who is a parent should understand that one.
Do you have any hidden talents?
If I do have any hidden talents, they're so well hidden, I can't even find them. I've tried for 40 years. I'm
sure they're in there somewhere.
What bugs you?
Gossip. When people have it and they don't tell me! I hate being left out of the loop.
What do you like to do to relax?
I usually just listen to music or go for a walk before work. Most days, I'll take the dog and go on a trail be-
hind my house.
Who inspires you?
My children and my family.
What is your most treasured possession?
I've got a ring that was given to me by my mother. It was actually her father's ring. He died when she was
very young, but she held on to it. I'm named after my mother's father. So, when I was a teenager, she gave it
to me. I actually lost it for a while once, playing softball in a friend's yard. We spent about an hour looking for
it in the grass. We finally found it, but after that, I stopped wearing it and kept it as a keepsake. Just after
Christmas, my son asked me about it. I told him the story and he said he hoped to have it one day. I told him
he would, but not for a very long time.
Who would you least like to be stuck in an elevator with?
It depends on how long we'll be there and whether or not there's food. Ah, I'm going to take the stairs and
avoid it. I'm trying to lose a bit of weight anyway.
Who is one person, living or deceased, you'd love to have lunch with?
I'm going to have to say two people - my mother's parents. My grandfather died before I was born and
my grandmother died just after I was born. I never got to meet them. My mother has a picture of her dad.
When she first showed it to me, I was shocked because I looked so much like him. At first, I actually thought
it was a picture of me.
If you were premier of the province, what's one thing you'd try to do?
I'd try to bring people back to the province who moved away. I have a lot of friends who have moved. I
could have gone somewhere else to work. but I always wanted to live in Newfoundland to work and raise a
family. I love Newfoundland.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Pay off some bills, build a new house, help family and friends, travel, golf. How many pages is this art-
icle, anyway? Oh, one other thing I'd do is buy Lynn Burry a Porsche Boxster. She wants a red one. It's an
ongoing joke with us. I actually gave her a dinky like it once and she got a grand charge out of it. She has it
displayed in her living room. I told her one day I'd get her the real thing.
rgillingham@thetelegram.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Fred Hutton has been a news reporter and anchor at NTV for 17 years, and says it is easy to go
to work, "because I love what I do." - Submitted photo
Copyright 2007 St. John's Telegram, a division of Transcontinental Media Group Inc.
All Rights Reserved
55 of 265 DOCUMENTS

Idaho Edition
A time for healing;

Our view: Priest abuse scandal;
holds lessons for entire community
SECTION: B; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 542 words
The stories told by adult survivors of childhood sex abuse help educate listeners to the true nature of ab-
use. Victims explain how predators are often charismatic and subtle in their manipulations. Victims under-
stand how pedophiles groom children and often zoom in on the boys and girls who lack involved and caring
adults in their lives.
When the priest sex-abuse scandals in the Spokane Catholic Diocese erupted several years ago, some
of the victims began to tell their stories to the media. They grew up in a church that protected its leaders and
their secrets, a church that hushed children when they tried to explain the horror happening to them.
The victims also grew up in a culture that denied, and often still denies, the incidence of sex abuse in
families and communities. The damage followed the young victims into adulthood, where some developed
problems that society ended up paying for - addiction, domestic violence and mental illness.
As announced this week, a $48 million settlement will end the Catholic Diocese of Spokane's bank-
ruptcy, if approved by a bankruptcy judge. The settlement calls for the diocese's parishes to contribute $10
million, and it calls for important non-monetary obligations, too.
For instance, victims will be allowed to speak publicly in the parishes where they were abused, and this
will further educate Catholics who have so far been unable - or unwilling - to hear these stories.
But the sex-abuse scandal, and the two years of the diocese's bankruptcy, has affected non-Catholics
here, too. The Catholic influence has long been part of Spokane's culture and history. Well-established insti-
tutions, such as Gonzaga University and Sacred Heart Medical Center, were founded by pioneering priests
and nuns.
During the Catholic boom time of the '50s and '60s, Catholic children "networked" in Spokane's once-
large parochial schools and this gave them the resources and connections to become community leaders
and successful business owners.
Abuse victims and their families, as well as parishioners - whose churches, schools and pocketbooks
will feel the impact of the $48 million - are neighbors to us all.
The bankruptcy threw the entire community into the national spotlight in a negative way. It coaxed to the
surface some of Spokane's darkest secrets and exposed other institutions, such as the Boy Scouts, because
some of the abusing priests served as Scout leaders. The scandal awakened many to the fact that predators
reside not just in church communities, but in schools, neighborhoods and families.
The abuse victims' stories illustrate what happens to children when adults don't listen and believe. The
diocese's expensive bankruptcy illustrates what happens to institutions that fail their most vulnerable mem-
bers.
The hope attached to the settlement is that the lessons, and the healing, will truly begin now and lead to
a future of increased justice and safety for our children.
The Spokane Catholic Diocese encompasses 24,356 miles in 13 counties: Adams, Asotin, Columbia,
Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Walla Walla and Whitman.
There are approximately 97,000 Catholics and 82 parishes in the diocese.
TYPE: Column, Commentary, Editorial: Our View
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
56 of 265 DOCUMENTS
EDITORIAL: : A time for healing: Priest abuse scandal holds les-

sons for entire community
BYLINE: The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
SECTION: COMMENTARY
LENGTH: 542 words
Jan. 7--The stories told by adult survivors of childhood sex abuse help educate listeners to the true
nature of abuse. Victims explain how predators are often charismatic and subtle in their manipulations. Vic-
tims understand how pedophiles groom children and often zoom in on the boys and girls who lack involved
and caring adults in their lives.
When the priest sex-abuse scandals in the Spokane Catholic Diocese erupted several years ago, some
of the victims began to tell their stories to the media. They grew up in a church that protected its leaders and
their secrets, a church that hushed children when they tried to explain the horror happening to them.
The victims also grew up in a culture that denied, and often still denies, the incidence of sex abuse in
families and communities. The damage followed the young victims into adulthood, where some developed
problems that society ended up paying for -- addiction, domestic violence and mental illness.
As announced this week, a $48 million settlement will end the Catholic Diocese of Spokane's bankruptcy,
if approved by a bankruptcy judge. The settlement calls for the diocese's parishes to contribute $10 million,
and it calls for important non-monetary obligations, too.
For instance, victims will be allowed to speak publicly in the parishes where they were abused, and this
will further educate Catholics who have so far been unable -- or unwilling -- to hear these stories.
But the sex-abuse scandal, and the two years of the diocese's bankruptcy, has affected non-Catholics
here, too. The Catholic influence has long been part of Spokane's culture and history. Well-established insti-
tutions, such as Gonzaga University and Sacred Heart Medical Center, were founded by pioneering priests
and nuns.
During the Catholic boom time of the '50s and '60s, Catholic children "networked" in Spokane's once-
large parochial schools and this gave them the resources and connections to become community leaders
and successful business owners.
Abuse victims and their families, as well as parishioners -- whose churches, schools and pocketbooks
will feel the impact of the $48 million -- are neighbors to us all.
The bankruptcy threw the entire community into the national spotlight in a negative way. It coaxed to the
surface some of Spokane's darkest secrets and exposed other institutions, such as the Boy Scouts, because
some of the abusing priests served as Scout leaders. The scandal awakened many to the fact that predators
reside not just in church communities, but in schools, neighborhoods and families.
The abuse victims' stories illustrate what happens to children when adults don't listen and believe. The
diocese's expensive bankruptcy illustrates what happens to institutions that fail their most vulnerable mem-
bers.
The hope attached to the settlement is that the lessons, and the healing, will truly begin now and lead to
a future of increased justice and safety for our children.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20070107-SR-0107-EDITORIAL-A-time-for-healing
JOURNAL-CODE: SR
57 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Chicago Daily Herald
December 29, 2006 Friday

D1 Edition; D2 Edition; D4 Edition; D5 Edition; D6 Edition
Top Newsmakers of 2006

SECTION: NEIGHBOR; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 3935 words
Imagine you are asked to draw a single face to represent 2006 in DuPage County.
Well, you say, it should reflect the incredible kindness of those who help neighbors in need, who put
themselves on the line for others, who are willing to make unfathomable sacrifices to benefit us all.
Still, be careful how strong you carve those lines, you say, because the same face also must show the
greed of some and the evil of others.
There should be a sense of joy and accomplishment around the eyes, of course, but they should show
sadness and pain, too.
Should the mouth be curved in a smile for those who have won success and acceptance?
In a frown for those who have come under fire and sometimes tilted at windmills?
And what of the forehead? Wrinkled with age and worry? Smooth with the promise of youth and hope?
Imagine you are asked to draw a single face to represent 2006 in DuPage County.
It can't be done, you say. For all of our similarities, it is often our differences that define us.
Here then, are just some of our Faces of 2006.
Maureen Hayden
Addison's Maureen Hayden, a 27-year member of Wood Dale's Veterans of Foreign Wars Tioga Post
2149, was sworn in as the new statewide president of the Ladies Auxiliary group on June 25. Hayden, who
was 18 when she joined the auxiliary in 1979 after years in the Junior Girls Unit, is Post 2149's first woman to
rise all the way to the top of the state's ranks.
Reid Colliander
The Wheaton youngster didn't allow treatments for a brain tumor to slow his spirit. Buoyed with help from
a loyal team of buddies, he organized a series of events to help fund pediatric brain tumor research, raising
more than $2,000 with Reid's Lemon-Aid Stand.
Richard Gaines
Professional dancer Richard Gaines, who broke into the business in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video,
choreographed a routine based on that dance for the marching band at Glenbard East High School. In just
two days, he taught the band how to dance Thriller- style in formation and on the football field.
Irene Bahr
The Wheaton attorney was installed president this year of the Illinois State Bar Association. Her ascen-
sion marks the third time in the state bar's 130-year history that a woman made it to the top spot.
George Bakalis
The strict but compassionate circuit judge stood out again for being fair, independent and well-versed in
the law. He is presiding over several high-profile cases, including that involving convicted killer Brian Dugan
for the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville.
Mike Cass
Illinois Martial Arts Hall of Fame welcomed Lombard resident Mike Cass. He began his martial arts train-
ing in 1975 and is a seventh-degree black belt.
Glennette Tilley Turner
The well-known authority on the underground railroad became Wheaton's Citizen of the Year for 2006.
She also published a new book, "An Apple for Harriet Tubman."
Jeannette Pawula
This Bloomingdale resident and former Rolling Meadows High School teacher made it to the final six on
"The Bachelor: Rome" with Prince Lorenzo Borghese before she was sent home.
Henry Hyde
After decades in power, the renowned Wood Dale Republican is calling it quits. Hyde was first sworn into
office in 1975. The iconic U.S. representative and chairman of the International Relations Committee leaves
a colorful legacy including quarterbacking the impeachment of President Clinton, and supporting an assault
weapons ban.
Michael J. Fox
The Hollywood actor came to Wheaton in October to help out 6th District congressional candidate
Tammy Duckworth's campaign and advocate on behalf of embryonic stem cell research. Fox, who suffers
from Parkinson's disease, said embryonic stem cell research is a nonpartisan issue and urged the govern-
ment to fund it.
John McCain
The Arizona senator popped into Addison in late October, stumping for 6th District Congressional Repub-
lican candidate Peter Roskam. The Vietnam War hero remained coy about his presidential aspirations.
Patrick Collins
The Lisle native and Benet Academy grad led the team of U.S. attorneys who took on Illinois power-
broker George Ryan and won. The former governor was convicted in April of corruption charges.
J. Peter Sartain
The Joliet Diocese's new spiritual leader was welcomed in a June ceremony amid much pomp and cir-
cumstance. The bishop told his enthusiastic congregation that "The task for us is to give ourselves to God."
Sartain was born in Memphis and last served as bishop of Little Rock, Ark.
Jesse Alcozer
The Elmhurst resident suffered back-to-back blows in late 2005 when his son, Christopher, died in the
Iraq war and his rental house burned down. To make matters worse, protesters picketed Christopher's funer-
al. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn helped organize a press conference for the Alcozer family in early January, appealing
to the public for assistance to help them get back on their feet after the fire.
Thomas Kim
As the pastor of Roselle United Methodist Church, he shaved his head to match 7-year-old church mem-
ber Logan Davenport of Hanover Park. Kim promised the haircut if his congregation helped raise $1,000 to
help Logan's family purchase a trained dog that will help with the boy's autism and Down's syndrome ther-
apy.
Jeff and Tyanna Cannata
The Wayne Township couple were the lead plaintiffs in a class- action lawsuit involving 80 families with
polluted wells. The lawsuit filed in April alleges vinyl chloride seeped from the former Mallard Lake landfill
nearby and into the aquifer.
Grant Eckhoff
The county board member lost the GOP primary to newcomer Jerry "JR" McBride only to edge out a long
list of hopefuls and be placed on the fall ballot to fill a vacancy created by the death of former county board
member John Noel. Then the 47-year-old Wheaton attorney completed the political comeback by defeating
Democratic challenger Richard Dunn during the general election.
Jeff Redick
One of the newly elected DuPage County Board members, Redick, a political newcomer, upset longtime
District 2 representative Irene Stone during the Republican primary. The 37-year-old attorney from Elmhurst
then bested Democrat Elizabeth "Liz" Chaplin during November's general election.
Peter Roskam
The Republican attorney from Wheaton gathered a grassroots following that pushed him over the top in
the tightly fought 6th Congressional District race. Roskam's hard work and polished presence allowed him to
hold fast against a Democratic tide, providing one of the few GOP bright spots on election night. The state
senator will be sworn in Jan. 4, replacing his hero, outgoing U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde.
Tammy Duckworth
The wounded Iraq war helicopter pilot won many hearts in the 6th Congressional District but not enough
to buck a longstanding Republican trend. Democrat Duckworth, who lost both legs in a grenade attack, re-
ceived 49 percent of the votes to state Sen. Peter Roskam's 51 percent. She'll still be in the public eye,
however. In November, Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed the Hoffman Estates resident as his new director of
the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.
Laura Martindale
When the Roselle woman graduated from Lake Park High School last June, she asked for books in lieu
of gifts. She received approximately 120 and then donated all of them to not-for-profit Metropolitan Family
Services in Wheaton.
William Maio
The former DuPage County board member had his name immortalized in his hometown of Itasca. Maio's
ex-colleagues on the county board in August agreed to rename a stretch of Prospect Avenue as the Honor-
ary William J. Maio, Jr. Highway. The public recognition for the 61-year-old came nearly a year since he
resigned his elected post to become a county employee. He works in the circuit court clerk's office as its chief
compliance officer.
Michael Connelly
He successfully made the transition from Lisle Village Board to the county board by narrowly winning a
four-way District 5 race in the GOP primary. But with Joe Wozniak coming in second place to Connelly by
only 69 votes, Wozniak demanded and was granted a recount. It didn't change the outcome of the election.
Michael Swanson Jr.
Michael Swanson Jr. of Lombard earned his Eagle Scout award in January from the Boy Scouts of Amer-
ica. For the service requirement, Swanson created a reflection garden at the Fountain of Life Church in Lom-
bard. Swanson also served as Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 202.
Irene Stone
After losing the Republican primary to a political newcomer, longtime county board member Irene Stone
shocked the GOP faithful by endorsing Democrat Elizabeth "Liz" Chaplin for her former District 2 seat.
However, it didn't help Chaplin enough to overcome Jeff Redick during the general election. Stone officially
retired on Dec. 1 from the county board seat she held since 1986.
Ashlee Simpson
Fans wondered if she'd make good on her promise to milk a cow at the annual DuPage County Fair last
July. She didn't deliver, but put on a solid show.
Jesse McCartney
After high fan demand, the pop prince performed for the second consecutive year at the 2006 DuPage
County Fair. Although his show did not sell out, fair organizers are not ruling out booking him again in 2007.
John Madormo
This North Central College professor sold a script for his film, "Coach Dracula," last fall to Dog & Rooster
Productions in Studio City, Calif. Though no release date is set, pre-production was scheduled to start last
November.
Gary Sinise
The star of "CSI: New York" traveled to Wheaton last summer and played in the pouring rain with his Lt.
Dan Band at Cantigny Park. The show raised money for the not-for-profit Operation Support Our Troops
Illinois, Inc.
Hailey Zito
At age 3, she was named the overall winner of New Star Discovery's Most Beautiful Baby regional con-
test last March at Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale. The event was held in 35 cities across the country.
Joseph Imesch
Despite turmoil over his handling of sex abuse allegations, the Joliet Diocese bishop left content with his
management during the past 26 years. He announced his retirement in May while introducing his successor,
Bishop James Peter Sartain, who had overseen the much quieter Little Rock, Ark. diocese.
Cory Viger
The Bloomingdale resident won $1,500 on Friday the 13th last October after entering a drawing held by
Stark Realty at Bloomingdale's annual Septemberfest. He won just in time to repair his home's deteriorating
roof.
Joe Birkett
The DuPage County state's attorney celebrated a milestone with his 25-anniversary as a prosecutor. He
lost a bid for lieutenant governor on a ticket with running mate Judy Baar Topinka, but won points with his
party for answering their call to help. Midway into his third term, he may announce next summer if he'll seek
a fourth term in 2008.
Melanie McCarthy Shannon Derrick
After her daughter's new iPod Nano was stolen June 6, Aurora mother Melanie McCarthy sued the family
of the girl who had borrowed it to get them to pay up. The highly publicized dispute - which nearly landed on
the Judge Judy TV show- was settled out of court Nov. 9 when the other side donated a used iPod.
Mark Prior
Though it was far short of a perfect game, a Will County judge gave this Cubs pitcher a win in a May 4
ruling in a lawsuit related to a chaotic autograph-signing event in Naperville that left a few kids in tears. The
judge ordered Prior to pay back nearly half of his earnings to Just Ducky Too for unsigned merchandise, but
he sided with the pitcher that he wasn't a poor sport and never agreed to all that the store hyped.
Bob Adams Dirk Enger
As co-directors of the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans, Adams and Enger spent many months
finding an appropriate location for a shelter that would serve a large portion of the homeless population. They
testified at both the national and state level for funding needed to open the shelter, and convinced the neces-
sary people that their goal was worthy. The shelter is set to open by the end of 2006.
Ralph Russo
This Bartlett man inspired thousands during the August PGA tournament in Medinah for his courage
fighting Lou Gehrig's disease while working tirelessly as the event's marketing director.
Bob Thomas
A Kane County jury awarded this Illinois Supreme Court chief justice $7 million in a Nov. 14 verdict in his
libel trial against the Kane County Chronicle and former columnist Bill Page. Thomas also is a Wheaton attor-
ney.
Judge Perry Thompson
The DuPage County judge's July 25 ruling in an Addison murder trial so infuriated prosecutors, they
began replacing him in more than 40 percent of the felony cases assigned to his courtroom. A Jan. 2 hearing
is set to determine if they overstepped their authority.
Ann Riebock
New Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 superintendent Ann Riebock submitted a $37,325 bill to the dis-
trict to cover her moving costs, including her Realtor's commission. Riebock subsequently withdrew her re-
quest after it was made public and returned the reimbursement.
Kristen Bowen
Bowen, 14, of Villa Park, was struck and killed by a train in February trying to cut over the railroad tracks
instead of walking at a crossing. Since Kristen's death, her father, Ray Zukowski of Lombard, has mounted a
regional railroad safety campaign that's led to increased awareness of the issue and a commitment by two
villages to build safety fences along nearby Union Pacific rails.
Erin Pelz Zahir Wahali Michelle Jacobs
Three Glenbard North High School students went to the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., last sum-
mer after their essays on the privatization of space travel were selected from entries submitted across the
nation. Erin Pelz, Zahir Wahali and Michelle Jacobs won all-expense paid trips to spend a week at the facility.
Jason McDermott
Jason McDermott, a convicted felon with ties to Villa Park Village President Joyce Stupegia, was arres-
ted during a traffic stop in late August after showing state police an ID that said he was the deputy mayor of
Villa Park. No such position exists. What does exist is McDermott's history of latching onto politicians, imper-
sonating them and trying to take their money. And, according to many witnesses, McDermott ran Stupegia's
campaign under a fake name and later pretended to be her son, Sean.
Michael Fortner
Fortner spent his last year as West Chicago mayor by shepherding several major companies into the
DuPage Technology Park and overseeing the last stages of thorium removal from the city. In November,
voters made his bid for 95th District representative successful. Fortner resigned Dec. 4. A special election in
April will determine who will replace him.
Michael A. Wolfe
The DuPage County criminal prosecution chief put serial killer Paul Runge on death row after a six-week
trial. Wolfe received a national award for his dedication and integrity. In addition, the career prosecutor se-
cured lengthy prison terms for a violent Warrenville home invasion. He also is handling the prosecutions of
two heartbreaking crimes: Brian Dugan for the 1983 Jeanine Nicarico murder and Neil Lofquist, who is ac-
cused of killing his daughter in Clarendon Hills.
Tony Reyes
Reyes, president of the West Chicago Community High School District 94 school board, attempted to re-
duce a $1.4 million deficit this year with daring decisions. Under heavy fire from the community and teachers'
union, Reyes' board moved to fire staff and increase class sizes to reduce expenses. In all, 13 teachers, six
assistant coach positions, and one nurse were fired.
Ann Banfield Baylie Owen
Glenbard East High School teacher Ann Banfield helps raise money for research into pseudomotor
cerebri, a rare brain disease that affects her and friend Baylie Owen. Owen started a Web site where she
could sell beaded bracelets she makes to fund research.
Lori Most
Some 13 years after she was killed by a train while taking a shortcut home from school, the Wheaton
Park District and other units of local government built a pedestrian bridge over the tracks to make sure it
would never happen again. The bridge will bear Most's name.
Brad Ogilvie
Brad Ogilvie founded the Mosaic Initiative in Wheaton with Cathy Hetrick, director of the group. Their
goal is to promote measures and practices that prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. They held the first World
AIDS Day prayer breakfast Dec. 1 in Wheaton.
Tim Hetzner
As president of Lutheran Church Charities in Addison, Tim Hetzner oversees an agency dedicated to as-
sisting those in need. He is the videotaped presenter of Cover to Cover Bible Study, available across the
U.S. at churches and via the Internet from September to May. He includes video that he taped while in Israel
in August 2006.
Ruth La Sure Barb Retelny
La Sure, of West Chicago, and Retelny, of Glen Ellyn, traveled to Uganda to learn about the needs of the
people and report back to churches here.
Alice Teisan
The Wheaton resident helped provide bicycles for Hurricane Katrina victims as executive director of His
Wheels International.
Olive Fleming Liefeld
The Lindenhurst woman joined others from Wheaton College in January for a preview of "End of the
Spear," a full-length movie about her first husband, Pete Fleming, who was murdered while serving as a mis-
sionary in Ecuador 50 years ago. Three of the five slain missionaries, Jim Elliott, Nate Saint and Ed McCully,
attended Wheaton College.
Alexa Scimeca
The 14-year-old Addison girl placed first in the ladies division of the 2006 Morges Cup, a figure skating
competition in Switzerland.
Harry Paney
Harry Paney, an 80-year-old Itasca resident, spent more than a hundred hours taking photographs of
every Itasca police department employee. The photographs were later turned into the department's new
2006 Cop Cards.
Aiham Alsammarae
The Oak Brook man was named electricity minister in the interim Iraqi government, but was imprisoned
when he was accused of "financial mismanagement." His family says he was imprisoned for urging the Iraqi
government to find peace with minority groups in the country.
John Pohl Michael Campbell
Wood Dale police officers Pohl and Campbell received one of the department's highest honors on June.
They were honored with the Wood Dale Police Department Lifesaving Award for their role in an April 23
house fire. Both officers responded at about 5:45 a.m., seconds before Wood Dale firefighters, to a house
fire at 185 Forest Glen Road. Homeowner Christine Fintikis, her two adult daughters and the family dog had
climbed out a second-story window and onto the roof. Pohl and Campbell rescued an elderly grandmother
from the basement.
Tim Grasso
Hanover Park resident Tim Grasso, owner of the Pizza Cottage in Roselle, lowered his cholesterol 14
points, from 207 to 193, in just a month by adding three-quarters of a cup of oatmeal to his daily food con-
sumption. He took the "Quaker Oatmeal Smart Heart Challenge" and became one of less than a dozen chal-
lenge-takers nationwide who were contacted by Quaker Oats after hearing their success stories. He taped a
commercial for the company.
Dr. Doug Johnson
The neurosurgeon on staff at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield and a Marine reservist who volun-
teered to go to Iraq convinced the hospital to donate $25,000 worth of medical supplies to the Iraqi people.
Yvonne Petit
The Carol Stream woman organized a second annual 5k run in honor of her teenage son, who drowned
last year in a retention pond after an underage drinking party. She's organized a local group to keep teens
away from alcohol.
Denise Hibbard
Hibbard, a junior at Lake Park High School in Roselle, became Roselle's 2006 Rose Queen in May. The
16-year-old from Roselle started flying airplanes in her early teens. She has been to Civil Air Patrol boot
camp and plans to attend the University of Illinois and major in Aviation Human Factors.
Robert Krilich Sr.
Krilich was released from prison after serving nine years for a federal racketeering and bribery convic-
tion. The courts found in 1995 that he rigged a hole-in-one contest at Krilich's Country Lakes Golf Course in
Naperville to deliver $40,000 to then-Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Richard Sarallo's son. The money was a bribe
to help secure $135 million in tax-exempt loans to finance the never- completed Royce Renaissance devel-
opment.
John Geils
Bensenville Village President John Geils racked up nearly $80,000 in legal bills for the libel lawsuit he
filed against his mayoral opponent, John Wassinger, the day before the April 2005 election. Some of those
bills were paid by the village itself until legal experts advised Bensenville officials that using public funds
might not hold up in court if challenged.
Kathie Pierce
The former special education teacher and the Bensenville high school's current principal accepted an of-
fer by the Fenton High School District 100 school board to replace superintendent Alf Logan at the end of the
school year.
Chris Kaucnik-Syphens
She opened Heidi's Brooklyn Deli this summer. It's Winfield's first new town center business in decades,
in the village's first town center building development in decades.
Rob Federighi
Lights, Camera, Fraction, a math game show featuring Addison Trail students, was created by Rob Fed-
erighi, an Addison Trail graduate, as a pilot show. The Jeopardy-style show featured former students Jae Tae
Lee, Greg Formosa and Katie Pope. Lee won. No word yet if the show aired on either the Discovery Chan-
nel, Learning Channel or the Game Show Network.
Allie Pleiter
The Villa Park mom released her seventh book, a Christian chick- lit novel called "My So-Called Love
Life."
Mike Wenz Jake Lindhorst
The two DuPage County men were cited in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records for visiting 30 Ma-
jor League ballparks in 29 days.
Casey and Fran Gaik
After claiming harassment by police and village officials, the Gaiks won a $2 million lawsuit settlement
with the village of Oak Brook after filing the suit in 2005. Named as defendants were Sgt. Randy Mucha,
former village prosecutor Joan Mullins, the police department and the village. Now the Gaiks, who even told
their story to Geraldo Rivera on Geraldo-at-Large, are trying to move out of town.
Kristina Pszotka
In January, Pszotka, of Glen Ellyn, didn't mind getting her hands clammy and dirty as she became the
Technology Center of DuPage's first female to compete in the Chi-Town Teardown Pit-Crew Competition in
Chicago. The school, located in Addison, had four other students place nineth in the competition. Pszotka
has dreams of becoming a mechanic.
Jerrod Goebel
The Carol Stream firefighter returned to work this spring nearly a year after a Memorial Day crash that
killed his wife and left him in a coma.
Kerin Motsinger
The Park View Elementary School teacher was speechless after she learned she won the $25,000
Milken National Educator Award at the Glen Ellyn school. One hundred teachers nationwide receive the
award. Motsinger was one of two in Illinois.
Rebekah Stathakis
Stathakis, an Addison resident, wished upon a star as she headed to Florida along with dozens of others
to vie for the Disney Teacher of the Year Award. Forty-four teachers nationwide were nominated for the
award. Stathakis, a Spanish teacher at Butler Junior High School in Oak Brook won $10,000 in cash and
$5,000 for the school.
Robert Mullany
Mullany, 37, an 11-year veteran of the Glendale Heights Police Department, was diagnosed with stom-
ach cancer in January and passed away in July. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie, and six children ages
3 to 14.
Gary Schira
Bloomingdale Police Chief Gary Schira retired after 26 years and took the top cop job in Batavia. Veteran
commander Tim Goergen was tapped to replace Schira in May.
Bruce Malkin
The West Chicago police commander led the DuPage County major crimes task force through its busiest
year while investigating murder and mayhem.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photo of each newsmaker included.
Copyright 2006 Paddock Publications, Inc.
58 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
ANATOMY OF A CONVICTION: In a teacher's child-sex case, legal

and child psychology experts question what the prosecution did and
the defense didn't. The next call is the judge's.
BYLINE: L.L. Brasier, John Wisely and Suzette Hackney, Detroit Free Press
LENGTH: 2031 words
Dec. 22--As an Oakland County judge ponders the fate of a kindergarten teacher found guilty of molest-
ing two boys, legal experts and child behavior specialists say the case raises serious questions about the
process that led to his conviction.
The debate over what happened or didn't happen in Classroom 101 at Key Elementary in Oak Park has
only intensified since a jury convicted James Perry in September of snatching two boys -- ages 4 and 5 --
from a lunch line, dragging them into the classroom and forcing them to perform oral sex. Oakland County
Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris is considering a request to grant Perry, 32, a new trial or toss out his
conviction since new witnesses recently came forward.
Experts interviewed by the Free Press cited several concerns. Among them:
--The case rested primarily on the children's accounts, which were not consistent during the investigation
and trial. Prosecutors contended that children seldom lie about sexual assaults, but several leading experts
on child behavior said extensive research in the last two decades has shown that small children can easily
be led to fabricate stories, even unintentionally. Perry's defense lawyer did not call any experts to tell that to
jurors.
--A legal expert said the boys' mothers may have testified beyond the limits of what the law allows as
they recounted what their children told them. That kind of testimony is known as hearsay evidence and has
limits on what jurors may hear.
--A former FBI profiler who specializes in child-sex cases said Perry doesn't match the profile of a pedo-
phile who snatches and assaults children he doesn't know. No experts testified at Perry's trial about the char-
acteristics of sexual predators.
It is impossible to know whether such evidence would have changed the jury's verdict. Prosecutors and
police stand by the conviction, saying the boys' core testimony about being forced to perform oral sex on the
teacher was consistent and found credible by the 12 jurors.
"This guy's a freak," Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca said in a November interview with a
Free Press editor, noting that Perry had a collection of photographs of children and youth-oriented videos.
The photos and videos were never introduced at trial, and Perry contends they were innocent.
The Perry case has been marked by unusual turns from the outset.
Prosecutors initially declined to charge him in October 2005, citing lack of evidence, before reopening
the case more than three months later. Then last month, two months after Perry's conviction, the trial judge
took the unusual step of delaying sentencing to reconsider the jury's verdict after witnesses at the school --
never interviewed by police -- disputed the prosecutors' account.
The judge is considering defense motions claiming Perry, who is jailed in Oakland County, was denied a
fair trial because his original attorney, Ray Correll, performed poorly and because the attorney allowed him to
wear an electronic tether visible to jurors. The device might have implied guilt to jurors, Perry's appellate law-
yers say.
Langford Morris is expected to rule in January. Perry faces up to life in prison.
Children's testimony
Perry's march through the legal system began with the events of Oct. 12, 2005. Two hours after arriving
for his first day of school, a 5-year-old would insist that Perry pulled him from a supervised lunch line and
forced him to perform oral sex in a vacant room. Later the child alleged a 4-year-old was assaulted as well.
The 4-year-old initially denied being attacked. Over the next several months, during the investigation and
at trial, the children's statements proved inconsistent on several issues, including whether they were together
or alone when they said they were attacked.
The seven-day trial was built almost entirely around the testimony of the children and their mothers. Ex-
perts in child sex-abuse cases say this is common because the assaults are "crimes of privacy," and corrob-
orating evidence is often difficult to establish unless there are signs of physical trauma, which were not
present in this case.
Dr. Melvin Guyer, a legal expert and professor in the University of Michigan's department of psychiatry,
said that although child witnesses are often truthful, their testimony must be handled with care, particularly
when there is evidence that parents or other adults may have repeatedly interrogated the children.
"The allegations here are as bizarre as those in the 1980s day-care cases," he said, referring to prosecu-
tions of preschool workers -- most notably at the McMartin Preschool in California -- that were discredited
when it was found that repetitive, leading questions may have caused the children to invent accounts.Young
witnesses are not inherently untrustworthy. Researchers have found that children as young as 3 can accur-
ately recount experiences.
But Guyer said even graphic sexual descriptions by children don't guarantee that an attack occurred.
Studies indicate that children, especially those younger than 6, can embrace false scenarios under repeated,
leading questioning, he said.
One study by Central Michigan University, published in 2001 and involving 114 children, found that up to
40% of children under age 8 will add false details, including about unpleasant physical contact, to recollec-
tions if they're coached or questioned repeatedly.
The hearsay exception
Because there is often little to corroborate a child's account in criminal cases, prosecutors often seek
testimony from the parents or other adults in whom a child confided. Courts usually restrict hearsay testi-
mony, which includes secondhand accounts, but often make an exception in cases involving young wit-
nesses, who may have limited memories or find it difficult to describe their abuse in court.
But this exception is limited: In Michigan, the child must be under 10 and his or her statements to the
adult must have been made spontaneously and, in most cases, shortly after the reported incident.
"That's because after a while, it loses its trustworthiness," said Lawrence Dubin, a professor at the Uni-
versity of Detroit Mercy Law School and an expert on rules of evidence.
At Perry's trial, both mothers testified not only to what their children said in the immediate aftermath of
the alleged assaults, but also about what the boys said weeks and months later. Both acknowledged re-
peatedly questioning the boys at length, including on one occasion questioning them together months after
the allegations were made.
Experts say children's memories can be easily contaminated under continual questioning.
"After that, it becomes a lot harder to tell what's false and what's not," said Dr. Kamala London, a pro-
fessor and researcher of children's testimony at the University of Toledo, who has served as an expert wit-
ness in numerous trials.
"Kids, especially young ones, come to believe the event took place, and will even begin to supply de-
tails."
Gorcyca remains steadfast that the boys' accounts were believable, as the verdict reflected.
The rape shield law
Yale Kamisar, a law professor at the University of Michigan whose books are staples in law schools na-
tionally, said another key trial issue was how the rape shield law was used.
The law was created so rape victims would not have to fear having their sex lives gratuitously used
against them in court, Kamisar said.
At Perry's trial, the law may have been misapplied, Kamisar said, when the jury was prevented from
hearing testimony about whether the 5-year-old boy had been exposed to sexual contact previously.
The judge ruled that jurors could not see a portion of a transcript in which the child told sexual-abuse
counselors -- who interviewed him on behalf of police -- that he was previously molested by a "kid named
Naz."
Jurors also never learned that the boy's mother had reportedly confided to a teacher that she was angry
after hearing her son say he was "tea-bagged." The word is slang for forced oral sex. The teacher, Lynn
Duncan, said the mother also suggested that something similar happened to the boy while they lived in
Chicago.
The mother declined to comment on the boy's past.
Kamisar said of the shield law's use in the Perry case: "I don't think those who drafted this law could
have begun to contemplate it being used any way like this. Technically ... this law may apply. But the people
who drafted this never had anything this oddball in mind."
Lawyers who specialize in sexual assault cases said it is important to call experts who can explain the
limitations of children's testimony, which didn't happen in Perry's case.
"These are very difficult cases to try," said Southfield attorney Gail Benson, whose practice centers on
defending sexual assault suspects. "You really need a specialist."
Perry's trial lawyer, Correll, disagreed.
A profiler's view
Kenneth Lanning, a retired FBI behavioral analyst who spent much of his 33-year career at the bureau
studying people who prey on children, said pedophiles generally fall into categories, and those who turn to
teaching, coaching or other activities that bring them close to children usually befriend victims over time to
gain their trust.
In this case, the 5-year-old boy was attending his first class at Key Elementary. He and the 4-year-old
had never been in Perry's class.
While acknowledging there are exceptions, Lanning, who is not involved in the Perry case, said the idea
that a veteran teacher would suddenly abduct two boys he didn't know was inconsistent with how most pedo-
philes operate.
"Generally, people who go into teaching, or coaching, or scouting because they are looking for their vic-
tims there will groom the children for a period of time, and develop a relationship," he said, adding: "It seems
here they are saying a 'groomer' suddenly became a 'snatcher.' That's not consistent with the patterns we
know. It appears that what you have being put forth in this case is the urban legend of what people think of
when it comes to child molesters: some creepy guy leaping out of a dark corner."
Lanning said he was troubled that some witnesses -- such as teachers in or near the room where the
boys said they were attacked -- were not questioned by police before trial.
Oak Park Public Safety Director John McNeilance said his department was at a disadvantage because
prosecutors initially declined to pursue the case and it remained closed for four months before Gorcyca's of-
fice charged Perry.
"We lost the momentum in the investigation," McNeilance said. He conceded, however, that detectives
should have interviewed witnesses assigned to the special-education room where prosecutors said the at-
tacks took place, "well before the trial."
Some of those school employees have told the Free Press, and Perry's new defense team, that the room
was occupied throughout the school day and the assaults could not have happened as described.
Erik Dolan, the detective in charge, relied on a statement by the school principal that special-ed children
were assigned a different room for lunch, meaning the room could have been empty. Dolan has since sought
to interview the new witnesses.
Correll wept when the verdict was announced Sept. 20 after the jury deliberated five hours.
"I was devastated," he said. "The facts in this case are incontrovertible -- two small children say they are
pulled from a supervised lunch line, taken into a room that happens to be full of people, and sexually assaul-
ted, all in eight minutes. It couldn't have happened."
Gorcyca, who has criticized Free Press coverage of the case and refused to talk to reporters in recent
weeks, said in October:
"Somebody is trying to escape responsibility for poor performance in his own work. It's not our job to do
his defense."
Contact L.L. BRASIER at 248-858-2262 or brasier@freepress.com, JOHN WISELY at 248-351-3696 or
jwisely@freepress.com, and
SUZETTE HACKNEY at 313-222-6614 or shackney@freepress.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints,
email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968,
or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20061222-DE-1222-ANATOMY-OF-A-CONVICTION-In-a-teacher-s-child-sex-case-legal-and-child-
psychology-experts-question-what-the-prosecution-did-and-the-defense-didn-t-The-next-call-is-the-judge-s
JOURNAL-CODE: DE
Copyright 2006 Detroit Free Press
59 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Irish Times
FG opposes lowering age of sexual consent

BYLINE: Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent
SECTION: FRONT PAGE; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 457 words
Fine Gael has strongly opposed a key finding of an Oireachtas child protection inquiry, which has recom-
mended that the age of sexual consent be cut from 17 to 16 years.
The all-party Committee on Child Protection, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Peter Power, also recommends
that a constitutional referendum be held to stop adults claiming they did not know the age of a person under
16 with whom they had sex.
People in authority over children, such as teachers and scout leaders, should face life imprisonment if
they have sex with one of their charges aged under 18, the committee also says.
Cutting the age of consent by a year was difficult, Mr Power acknowledged, though research indicated
that most people believed 16 was already the legally permissible threshold.
Calling for a "very vigorous" sex education programme, Labour TD Brendan Howlin emphasised "that the
age of consent is not the age of acceptability. It is whether or not it is criminal". However, Fine Gael leader
Enda Kenny, speaking in Cork last night, said a reduced age of consent would send "a wrong signal to our
children about values and standards.
"This decision is out of touch with the values and aspirations of the vast majority of parents in Ireland," he
said. "Parents who want to live up to their responsibilities to nurture and protect their children."
Fine Gael Cork South West TD, Jim O'Keeffe, who represented the party on the committee, said he
"wasn't convinced by the case made" for the new 16-year threshold.
Mr Power said the Supreme Court ruling in May that a man should be allowed to argue he did not know
that a girl with whom he had sex was only 13 "had undermined the child protection system that had worked
for 70 years and that had not given rise to a miscarriage of justice for 70 years". Minister for Justice, Equality
and Law Reform Michael McDowell and the Minister of State for Children, Brian Lenihan, were ex-officio
members of the committee, which began work after the summer.
Cautioning against the prospect of a speedy referendum, Mr McDowell said he would bring the commit-
tee's conclusions to the Cabinet as a matter of priority.
The committee also recommends that people found guilty of raping or attempting to rape a child under
16 should face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while first offenders should get no automatic re-
duction in sentence.
Mandatory sentences should not be introduced, it says, though they could be considered for authority fig-
ures found to have abused their relationship with under-18s.
Vetting rules should be tightened so that full details about an individual's past - including if they had been
charged but not convicted of sex abuse offences - can be gathered and passed on to schools before they re-
cruit staff.
LOAD-DATE: December 1, 2006
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Irish Times

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November 25, 2006 Saturday

Sunrise Edition
Local News - briefly

BYLINE: Gosia Wozniacka, Bill Stewart, Maya Blackman, Elizabeth Suh, The Oregonian
LENGTH: 625 words
Sandy
1 adult, 3 youths
arrested, accused
of slashing tires
Three youths and one adult were arrested Thursday on accusations of slashing vehicle tires in Sandy.
Residents reported the tires of 14 vehicles, including a Sandy police patrol car, were punctured with a
knife or similar instrument this week. Total damage exceeded $1,500, according to the Sandy Police Depart-
ment.
Sandy police arrested the three youths, ages 13 to 16, and one adult, 20-year-old Richard A. Cruikshank
of Sandy, after a witness saw four people slashing tires and called police. The slashings took place in the
neighborhoods surrounding Meinig Park.
The four were charged with criminal mischief. Cruikshank was lodged at the Clackamas County Jail but
released on bail.
-- Gosia Wozniacka
Vancouver
Residents lock suspect
in garage, call police
A 21-year-old Vancouver man was detained by several relatives of alleged victims, then arrested by po-
lice Friday on accusations of indecent exposure involving two girls.
Vancouver police found Kevin Bauersfeld locked alone in a garage in the Fourth Plain Village neighbor-
hood.
Sgt. Craig Lanwehr said the girls, both younger than 10, apparently were acquaintances of Bauersfeld.
There was no indication the girls had been assaulted, but at least one incident occurred in the past two
weeks.
Lanwehr said the investigation was in its early stages and he had no further details.
-- Bill Stewart
Tigard
Police seek information
on sex abuse suspect
Tigard police are asking people to call if they know of children inappropriately touched by William Volz, a
longtime youth program volunteer and former foster parent recently arrested on allegations of sexually abus-
ing a young relative.
Police arrested Volz, 41, of Tigard, on Wednesday after a recent report of inappropriately touching a
then-10-year-old boy in 2001, said Jim Wolf, the Tigard Police Department's public information officer.
The initial investigation has not revealed any other possible cases of child sex abuse. However, Wolf
said, police are concerned about the possibility, noting Volz's extensive contact with children.
From 2000 to 2004, Wolf said, Volz was a volunteer coach with the Tigard Youth Football Association. In
2003, he was a volunteer coach for basketball at St. Anthony School in Tigard. Since 2003, he has been a
Cub Scouts pack leader in the Tigard area.
Volz was a foster parent through the Oregon Youth Authority, but Wolf didn't have specific times.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Kevin Dresser at 503-718-2576.
-- Maya Blackmun
Portland
Group's trailer stolen
from Christmas tree lot
John Jefferies and his students in Teen Challenge opened up their Christmas tree lot Friday as planned,
but with little more than trees and rope.
The group's trailer with signs and supplies had been stolen overnight from outside the Kmart at 12350
N.E. Sandy Blvd., said Jefferies, the Portland substance-abuse ministry's executive director.
The trailer cost between $4,000 and $5,000 and was crucial to the ministry's everyday activities, he said,
including street outreach and donation pickups.
Jefferies said he didn't know how the program would work without it, but he and his students still will run
their modest tree lot at the Kmart's parking lot daily for the next month. Proceeds will go toward the ministry's
operating expenses, he said.
Jefferies expressed hope the thief would have a change of heart and return the trailer. "My students are
more than willing to forgive," he said.
The trailer is white with the "Teen Challenge" name and logo --a blue, star-shaped figure --on its sides
and back. It is Wells Cargo brand with license plate U242811, and it hitches to the back of vehicles.
-- Elizabeth Suh
ILLUSTRATION: Cruikshank Arrested after
witness calls police
LOAD-DATE: November 28, 2006
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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The San Luis Obispo Tribune (California)
November 15, 2006 Wednesday
One man's fatal mistake is Boy Scouts' life lesson;

As a Navy commander, Scott Waddle took responsibility for a sub-
marine accident that killed nine people in 2001
BYLINE: Larissa Van Beurden-Doust, ldoust@thetribunenews.com
LENGTH: 861 words
Two nights after Scott Waddle learned that nine people -- including four teenagers -- died because of his
actions, he briefly considered using a ceremonial dagger in his home to stab his 13-year-old daughter, his
wife and then himself.
That would have been the easy way out.
Instead, Waddle dealt head-on with the international fallout that occurred after the nuclear submarine he
was in charge of surfaced into a Japanese fishing boat near Hawaii on Feb. 9, 2001.
The now-retired Navy commander recalled that night while in San Luis Obispo on Tuesday to speak at
an annual dinner for the Boy Scouts of America Los Padres Council.
By telling the story of that day and the choices he made afterward, Waddle hopes others will learn that
failure is not final. Setbacks will be made, and there will be a price to pay, he said, but it's better to be upfront
and completely honest when a mistake is made.
A deadly error
In early 2001, three months before his 20th anniversary with the Navy, Waddle was captain of the USS
Greeneville, stationed in Pearl Harbor.
That fateful day, several civilians were onboard. Waddle ordered that the submarine perform a maneuver
that brings it to the surface rapidly. But the crew did not do a thorough job making sure there was no ship
above.
"Complacency had kind of set into the crew," Waddle said. "The team that day, myself included, we
erred."
The massive submarine hit the Ehime Maru, a fishing and high school training vessel operated by a Ja-
panese school.
The submarine's massive rudders tore through the boat. It sank within 10 minutes.
At first, Waddle heard someone say that all those on the boat had been saved. He didn't realize that
meant just those who had made it into life rafts.
In the end, nine people died. Four were 17 years old. Eight of the bodies were recovered; Waddle still re-
members the name of the one who was never found.
"There was a time when I thought, 'There's no way I could have screwed up; there's no way I could have
made a mistake. We're too good,' " Waddle said. "It became evident that, yeah, I did make mistakes as cap-
tain."
Waddle chose not to hide from the incident.
He had dark periods. The murder/suicide thought came after his wife, Jill, said she had kissed their
daughter, Ashley, goodnight -- something he realized four other families couldn't do.
But sitting in his front yard that night, after he decided not to kill them all, looking into the dark waters of
Pearl Harbor, Waddle said, he prayed and heard a voice say that he needed to do what's right.
One boy at his daughter's school told her that her dad was a murderer. People posted messages online
calling Waddle a killer and even Satan. Editorial cartoons showed that he let the 140 members of his crew
party instead of work.
Newly elected President George W. Bush had to apologize to Japan. Relations between the countries
were strained.
A military court of inquiry decided not to court-martial Waddle. It found there was no criminal intent. He
was instead allowed to retire with full pension and an honorable discharge.
The one thing Waddle said he would do differently is apologize in person to the Japanese families soon-
er. The Navy had asked him to keep quiet, he said.
"I know the families suffered a lot," he said. "I honor those who lost their lives, and there isn't a day that I
don't reflect on it."
A lesson in accountability
Though the incident has faded from the minds of most Americans, Waddle chooses to travel the country
as a paid speaker. He hopes it can serve as a lesson for other leaders.
"The tendency it seems today is for parents to cover up for their kids, make excuses," Waddle said. "Few
people are held accountable."
People who make excuses and try to hide their mistakes are rampant in America's business and political
world, Waddle said, citing examples: Former Rep. Mark Foley blamed alcohol and childhood sex abuse after
a sex scandal involving congressional pages surfaced; Kenneth Lay of Enron and Bernard Ebbers of World-
Com denied wrongdoings but were convicted.
"There are choices that we have in our life," Waddle said. "You can either be accountable and respons-
ible for your actions, or you could try to hide behind an excuse and place blame elsewhere. But people see
through that."
Take it from him

Advice from Scott Waddle:
o Failure is not final. You can have setbacks. Let it be a defining time in your life and nothing more than
that. Learn from it, but keep your character, integrity intact. Tell the truth. The American public is very forgiv-
ing when you're honest. There's a penalty and a price to pay, but in the end you are forgiven when you atone
for those acts, and you can move on.
o There are choices that we have in our life. You can either be accountable and responsible for your ac-
tions, or you could try to hide behind an excuse and place blame elsewhere. But people see through that.
o Disclose as much as possible as quickly as possible. If you're direct and you shoot straight, it's hard for
the media to spin anything other than truth.
o Don't give excuses. It doesn't excuse your actions. What you did was wrong. You knowingly did
something wrong.
Go to sanluisobispo.com to post a comment on this story.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The San Luis Obispo Tribune

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The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, California)

One man's fatal mistake is Boy Scouts' life lesson

BYLINE: Larissa Van Beurden-Doust, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
LENGTH: 916 words
Nov. 15--Two nights after Scott Waddle learned that nine people -- including four teenagers -- died be-
cause of his actions, he briefly considered using a ceremonial dagger in his home to stab his 13-year-old
daughter, his wife and then himself.
A deadly error
above.
erred."
panese school.
tain."
were strained.
through that."
Take it from him
--Failure is not final. You can have setbacks. Let it be a defining time in your life and nothing more than
--There are choices that we have in our life. You can either be accountable and responsible for your ac-
--Disclose as much as possible as quickly as possible. If you're direct and you shoot straight, it's hard for
--Don't give excuses. It doesn't excuse your actions. What you did was wrong. You knowingly did
something wrong.
Go to sanluisobispo.com to post a comment on this story.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business
News. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a
fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL
60025, USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20061115-SO-1115-One-man-s-fatal-mistake-is-Boy-Scouts-life-lesson
JOURNAL-CODE: SO
Copyright 2006 The Tribune
68 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, California)
One man's fatal mistake is Boy Scouts' life lesson

BYLINE: Larissa Van Beurden-Doust, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
LENGTH: 906 words
Nov. 15--Two nights after Scott Waddle learned that nine people -- including four teenagers -- died be-
cause of his actions, he briefly considered using a ceremonial dagger in his home to stab his 13-year-old
daughter, his wife and then himself.
A deadly error
above.
erred."
panese school.
tain."
were strained.
through that."
Take it from him
--Failure is not final. You can have setbacks. Let it be a defining time in your life and nothing more than
--There are choices that we have in our life. You can either be accountable and responsible for your ac-
--Disclose as much as possible as quickly as possible. If you're direct and you shoot straight, it's hard for
--Don't give excuses. It doesn't excuse your actions. What you did was wrong. You knowingly did
something wrong.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business
News. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a
fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL
60025, USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20061115-SO-1115-One-man-s-fatal-mistake-is-Boy-Scouts-life-lesson
JOURNAL-CODE: SO
Copyright 2006 The Tribune
69 of 265 DOCUMENTS
November 14, 2006 Tuesday

Idaho Edition
Spokane County may settle Hahn suit;

$325,000 would go to two men who say deputy molested them;
BYLINE: Jonathan Brunt and Bill Morlin Staff writers
SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 599 words
Spokane County commissioners today will consider paying $325,000 to two men who say they were mo-
lested by a county sheriff's deputy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The men filed a lawsuit in 2004 that alleges the county was negligent for the actions of Deputy David
Hahn, in part because Hahn was allowed to keep his job even after his commanders were told that he ab-
used boys.
Under the deal being considered, Robert Galliher, now 37, would receive $225,000 and Douglas Chickl-
insky, 41, would be paid $100,000, county documents say. The money would come from the county's risk
pool, a fund dedicated to paying claims against the county.
Hahn committed suicide Aug. 28, 1981, at age 36 after he was confronted at least a second time about
the allegations.
According to the resolution that will be voted on today, the law firm representing Spokane County recom-
mended the payments.
Commissioner Todd Mielke said the county and attorneys representing the men came to a preliminary
agreement within the past two weeks.
"The thought is we're probably going to come out the same if we negotiate a settlement," Mielke said.
The lawsuit that prompted the proposed settlement was filed after a news story in which Chicklinsky,
Galliher and his brother, Brett, all alleged they had been sexually abused as teenagers - more than 20 years
ago - by Hahn.
They said the sheriff's deputy abused them while he was on duty, in uniform, and off duty when he would
take them on outings after befriending their families.
"Every time I see a cop in uniform, my heart really just starts pounding," Chicklinsky said in a series of
interviews for the article.
Chicklinsky and Galliher both declined to comment Monday on the proposed settlement.
Their attorney, John Allison, was out of town and couldn't be reached for comment.
The proposed settlement comes five months after Terry Lackie, a private attorney hired to represent the
county, attempted to have the entire lawsuit dismissed as insufficient.
Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly dismissed two of four plaintiffs and left intact a claim that the county,
through the Sheriff's Office, was negligent in retaining Hahn after senior commanders were told Hahn was
sexually abusing boys.
The judge dismissed claims from Brett Galliher and another from a fourth defendant from Oklahoma who
happened to be visiting Spokane when the June 2003 newspaper article about Hahn was published. The Ok-
lahoma man alleged that Hahn had abused him, too, when he was a teenager living in Spokane.
The judge ruled that the abuse against Chicklinsky and Robert Galliher occurred on separate occasions
after the county and the Sheriff's Office knew or should have known about it.
At the time of the abuse, Hahn's partner at the Sheriff's Office was Deputy Jim West. The two men also
were co-leaders of a Boy Scout troop based on Spokane's South Hill.
After the lawsuit was filed, Galliher said in a January 2004 letter to a counselor and in a April 2005 sworn
deposition that he also was sexually abused in the late 1970s or early 1980s by West.
That allegation and similar ones from former Boy Scouts who were in the Hahn-West troop in the late
1970s and early 1980s led to a lengthy investigation by The Spokesman-Review.
That investigation resulted in a series of news stories, beginning May 5, 2005, after West had left his
post as state Senate majority leader and been elected mayor of Spokane.
West denied knowing that his friend Hahn had molested boys when the two served as deputies and Boy
Scout leaders. West also emphatically denied he had ever molested anyone himself.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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Metro Edition
County may settle Hahn suit;

$325,000 would go to two men who say deputy molested them;
BYLINE: Jonathan Brunt and Bill Morlin Staff writers
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 690 words
Spokane County commissioners today will consider paying $325,000 to two men who say they were mo-
lested by a county sheriff's deputy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The men filed a lawsuit in 2004 that alleges the county was negligent for the actions of Deputy David
Hahn, in part because Hahn was allowed to keep his job even after his commanders were told that he ab-
used boys.
Under the deal being considered, Robert Galliher, now 37, would receive $225,000 and Douglas Chickl-
insky, 41, would be paid $100,000, county documents say. The money would come from the county's risk
pool, a fund dedicated to paying claims against the county.
Hahn committed suicide Aug. 28, 1981, at age 36 after he was confronted at least a second time about
the allegations.
According to the resolution that will be voted on today, the law firm representing Spokane County recom-
mended the payments.
Commissioner Todd Mielke said the county and attorneys representing the men came to a preliminary
agreement within the past two weeks.
"The thought is we're probably going to come out the same if we negotiate a settlement," Mielke said.
The lawsuit that prompted the proposed settlement was filed after a news story in which Chicklinsky,
Galliher and his brother, Brett, all alleged they had been sexually abused as teenagers - more than 20 years
ago - by Hahn.
They said the sheriff's deputy abused them while he was on duty, in uniform, and off duty when he would
take them on outings after befriending their families.
"Every time I see a cop in uniform, my heart really just starts pounding," Chicklinsky said in a series of
interviews for the article.
Chicklinsky and Galliher both declined to comment Monday on the proposed settlement.
Their attorney, John Allison, was out of town and couldn't be reached for comment.
The proposed settlement comes five months after Terry Lackie, a private attorney hired to represent the
county, attempted to have the entire lawsuit dismissed as insufficient.
Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly dismissed two of four plaintiffs and left intact a claim that the county,
through the Sheriff's Office, was negligent in retaining Hahn after senior commanders were told Hahn was
The judge dismissed claims from Brett Galliher and another from a fourth defendant from Oklahoma who
happened to be visiting Spokane when the June 2003 newspaper article about Hahn was published. The Ok-
lahoma man alleged that Hahn had abused him, too, when he was a teenager living in Spokane.
The judge ruled that the abuse against Chicklinsky and Robert Galliher occurred on separate occasions
after the county and the Sheriff's Office knew or should have known about it.
At the time of the abuse, Hahn's partner at the Sheriff's Office was Deputy Jim West. The two men also
were co-leaders of a Boy Scout troop based on Spokane's South Hill.
After the lawsuit was filed, Galliher said in a January 2004 letter to a counselor and in a April 2005 sworn
deposition that he also was sexually abused in the late 1970s or early 1980s by West.
That allegation and similar ones from former Boy Scouts who were in the Hahn-West troop in the late
1970s and early 1980s led to a lengthy investigation by The Spokesman-Review.
That investigation resulted in a series of news stories, beginning May 5, 2005, after West had left his
post as state Senate majority leader and been elected mayor of Spokane.
West denied knowing that his friend Hahn had molested boys when the two served as deputies and Boy
Scout leaders. West also emphatically denied he had ever molested anyone himself.
West publicly said he would sue The Spokesman-Review - something he never did before dying of can-
cer 15 months later.
West's conduct, including his use of City Hall computers to contact dates on a gay Web site and offers of
city jobs and appointments, led to the lifelong Republican's recall.
The City Council subsequently adopted a new ethics code and a streamlined process to recall a mayor.
SIDEBAR:
DEPUTY DAVID HAHN
The sheriff's deputy and Scout leader committed suicide in 1981 at age 36 after he was confronted
about sexual abuse allegations.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
72 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Baltimore Sun (Maryland)
October 31, 2006 Tuesday

Fair or not, blame rises to the top
BYLINE: Jonathan Pitts, The Baltimore Sun
SECTION: LIFESTYLE
LENGTH: 1933 words
Oct. 31--Patricia Dunn is out. Joe Torre stays in. Dennis Hastert, for now, is hanging on.
The high-profile jobs of chairing Hewlett-Packard's board of directors, managing the New York Yankees
and running the U.S. House of Representatives could hardly differ more in their scope and meaning, but
events of recent months have brought leaders of those institutions, and others, face-to-face with a law of hu-
man behavior older and more formidable than American corporate life itself.
When crisis hits an organization, someone's going to pay the price.
Few in ancient Jerusalem probably really believed that a hoofed mammal had caused their troubles for
the previous 12 months, but that didn't keep the author of Leviticus from calling for a high priest to place his
hands on a "scapegoat's" head once a year, confess upon it the sins of the Israelites, and drive the beast
away to "bear upon [it] all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited" (16:22).
To Ben Dattner, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at New York University, little has
changed.
"How does the saying go?" he says. "'Heads are gonna roll?' or 'Somebody's gonna have to take the
fall?' Sometimes it's justified and sometimes it's not, but when there's a major failure, lapse in judgment or
some perceived lapse in ethics, people do want to see a single human agent held responsible."
Bosses try to hang on too long. Top dogs only too happy to benefit from group success deny knowledge
of what went on below them. Low-level managers might jump first or get pushed out. Responsibility and culp-
ability don't always mesh. And leaders and those near them get caught up in organizational dynamics that,
rational or not, might as well be stamped on our behavioral DNA.
Harry Truman set the standard for accountability with that famous sign on his desk: "The buck stops
here." But when failure strikes a group, be it corporation, sports team or branch of government, responsibility
can seem as elusive as a greased football.
President Bush accepted responsibility in September 2005 for what he termed the federal government's
flawed response to Hurricane Katrina -- just about the time Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency whom Bush had just commended, resigned in disgrace. Ravens football coach
Brian Billick admitted to arrogance that had cost the team wins last year but remains boss. He let go his of-
fensive coordinator recently, taking over that job after his team kept struggling to score points.
Then there's Patricia C. Dunn. Two years ago, Hewlett-Packard Co., the Silicon Valley computer giant
and the nation's 11th largest company, made her chairwoman of its board of directors. One of her first acts
was to write a confidential document meant for board members only. A week later, to her dismay, an account
of it appeared in The Wall Street Journal. She had a leaker on her hands. Dunn hired a team of private in-
vestigators to find the turncoat.
To John Collard, an Annapolis-based corporate turnaround specialist, Dunn was only protecting her con-
stituents' interests. "Boards report to stockholders," he says. "If there's any sort of wrongdoing that's going to
hurt the company, she should take action."
But, according to prosecutors, investigators behaved badly, setting up sting operations, rooting through
trash and using false identities to obtain the phone records of board members and journalists. The California
attorney general brought fraud and conspiracy charges against Dunn, another HP boss and three investigat-
ors. The scandal stunned Wall Street and triggered a purge of the company's upper ranks.
Was Dunn responsible? She says no. "At no time in this investigation was I responsible for designing its
methods," she told a congressional panel looking into the matter. "I do not accept personal responsibility for
what happened."
"It's her best defense," said Jonathan Turley, a prominent commentator on legal issues. "Not ignorance
of the laws [in question], but ignorance of the act."
It's not the first time a business leader has offered such a rationale when something goes badly awry.
Jeffrey K. Skilling, recently sentenced to more than 24 years, and the late Kenneth L. Lay argued vainly to a
jury that they were unaware of underlings' actions that unraveled Enron Corp. Bernard J. Ebbers, the ex-
chief executive of the former WorldCom Inc., sought to portray himself as a "country boy" intimidated by the
workings of the global telecom giant he led -- before he, too, was sent to prison. And, in Maryland, William L.
Jews, CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, called himself a mere "potted plant" as the company sought
to make changes that would net him and others millions in bonuses.
At HP, however, as early as last February, an officer in the company's own security department had
warned higher-ups that the private eyes were using methods that would damage the company's reputation
and might be illegal.
Dunn quit HP in late September at the urging of attorneys. She and the others could face up to 12 years
each in prison.
An ouster at the top can relieve pressure from within and without, create a symbolic fresh start or re-es-
tablish a sense of fairness. "Sometimes, whatever the facts prove to be," says Collard, president of Strategic
Management Partners Inc., "if you're sufficiently damaged by events that you can't do your job, [resignation]
is often the best choice."
Under Mark Hurd, the new CEO, who is widely perceived as untouched by the scandal, HP's stock price
has risen. In the harsh calculus of organizations, that may be all that matters.
"As long as your company is doing very well," said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group, a tech research
firm in San Jose, Calif., "you are given an almost unlimited amount of latitude."
If you're the owner of the New York Yankees and you've spent millions on your team, you believe that
"Yankee fans, like Americans expect a winner." So when the Detroit Tigers, with their $82 million payroll,
bounced George Steinbrenner's $198 million juggernaut from the American League playoffs this month, the
Boss' wrath was all but biblical.
The words weren't etched on tablets, but their meaning was clear. "I am deeply disappointed about our
loss this year," he thundered in a statement. "We have to do better. And I deeply want a championship. It's
about time." For days, he made it clear he was prepared to sacrifice his manager, fan favorite Joe Torre.
Within the scope of his duties, Torre's 11 straight playoff finishes and four World Series wins were far
above the norm. His kindly demeanor had calmed many an organizational storm and given a famously arrog-
ant franchise a likable face. And don't players, not managers, win or lose ballgames? Torre "didn't get any at-
bats; he didn't throw any pitches" in the playoffs, pitcher Jaret Wright said in an interview. "We did."
To Michael J. Burke, a professor of organizational behavior at Tulane University, bosses under fire should
keep such a reasoned perspective. "You want [them] to branch out to gather more information, to examine
the facts as others see them, to consider the meaning of [their] decisions to various constituent groups," he
says.
Too often, though, a bunker-style mentality kicks in. Dattner calls it "going with your dominant response,
keeping your loyalists close, engaging in what's known in organizational psych as 'groupthink.'" Yankee fans
recall the 1970s-era Steinbrenner, raging at his hapless "baseball people" and sacking manager Billy Martin
just about whenever the mood hit.
The 21st-century Steinbrenner calmed down long enough to consult other stakeholders -- loyal custom-
ers (most of whom love Torre), players such as Derek Jeter (another vote of confidence)and more, and with-
held his sacrifice to baseball's gods.
"You're back for another year," he told Torre on Oct. 10. "I expect a great deal from you. The responsibil-
ity is yours, Joe, and all of the Yankees.'"
Well, almost all the Yankees: Three days later, he sacked the team's two advance scouts.
New scandals recycle images we've seen. "We have before us witnesses from Hewlett-Packard to dis-
cuss a plumbers operation that would make Richard Nixon blush," Michigan Democratic Rep. John D. Dingell
told a congressional hearing last month.
As he faced impeachment in 1974, Nixon faced a question that has become a benchmark of postmortem
reassessment: "What did he know, and when did he know it?"
As next week's elections loom, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is dogged by the same query -- one
that also has been aimed at authority figures from President Ronald Reagan (Iran-Contra) and Cardinal
Bernard Law (the priest sex-abuse scandal) to newsman Dan Rather (CBS' disgraced report on President
Bush's military record), New York Times boss Howell Raines (Jayson Blair's fabrications) and Secretary of
Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld (prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib).
Several witnesses have testified that Hastert, or at least members of his staff, were made aware long
ago of inappropriate e-mails to teenage pages sent by Mark Foley, a former six-term Republican congress-
man from Florida.
"I don't know enough yet to say if this is just another case of Democrats stirring a dirty pot," says Collard,
whose "turnaround" clients have included Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush and
former President Bill Clinton. "Certainly, with an election coming, the Democrats would love nothing more
than to have Denny Hastert's head on a stick so they can parade it around and say, 'See? [Republicans] are
like this guy. Vote for us.'"
Unless Hastert knew of specifically actionable offenses and did nothing, he adds, the speaker shouldn't
be on the hook. "How many people report to him? Hundreds. If some midlevel manager is caught embezz-
ling, does the CEO resign? The answer is no."
But in the post-Enron environment, Dattner takes a broader view. "Even if he or she isn't directly aware of
those [offenses]," he says, "has a leader sent a clear message about ... what will or will not be tolerated? Did
he or she have a chance to correct this kind of lapse before? It comes down to the kind of culture the leader
established."
Organizations redefine themselves at moments of crisis: An ouster at the top can signal a divorce from
the past, a reckoning with error, a change in direction. It can rally, depress or divide the stakeholders. It can
trigger a new search for truth or short-circuit the process altogether.
"If a leader steps down, it may lessen the pressure for a root-cause analysis of what really happened,"
Dattner says.
"Have you ever heard the [business] joke, 'The Six Phases of a Project?'" he asks with a laugh. "They
are: Enthusiasm, Disillusionment, Panic, Search for the Guilty, Punishment of the Innocent and Rewards for
Those Who Had Nothing to Do With It."
Eons ago, long before congressional hearings, corporate trials and sports playoffs, an Old Testament
prophet found hope in a similar absurdity.
"Surely [the Messiah] took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows," said Isaiah (53: 4-5) in the book
that bears his name. "Yet we [saw him as] stricken by God. ... The punishment that brought us peace was
upon him. By his wounds, we are healed."
To see more of The Baltimore Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.baltimoresun.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Baltimore Sun Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or
write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Copyright 2006 The Baltimore Sun
73 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Sarnia Observer (Ontario)
October 28, 2006 Saturday
Puzzle to help keep kids safe

BYLINE: LINDSEY COAD, The Observer
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 482 words
She bottled up her emotion after being sexually assaulted at age five.
Wendy Smith-Reeve was "scared, lost, confused and lonely," but she didn't speak out.
Her male abuser was a friend of the family. "He told me no one would ever believe me because I was a
kid," she recalled.
Now a grown woman, Smith-Reeve is sharing her experience and building her self-esteem in the pro-
cess.
For the past 12 weeks, she joined nine other local abuse survivors for a collective goal to educate and
safety train today's youth in a bid to reduce their vulnerability.
It's a recovery model based on the premise that survivors have a wealth of wisdom to offer despite their
trauma and it will be used by other local service agencies in the future.
On Friday, she unveiled the end result of their hard and sometimes emotional work: a giant, colourful
puzzle designed to boost kids' awareness.
It prompts discussion about building body boundaries, feeling safe and how to approach trusted adults.
"When I saw it unravel, I almost started to cry," Smith-Reeve said. "If I can help one child through these
projects, I will be so gratified. I know we can never stop the abuse but if we can put a dent in it, that's import-
ant to me."
The pilot project was one of three funded by a $200,000 grant from the Ministry of the Attorney General
in 2004. It was sparked by a service gap for sex abuse survivors who live with a mental illness, said Michelle
Batty, executive director of Sarnia-Lambton's Sexual Assault Survivors' Centre.
"It truly is something to be proud of," Batty told the group. Her centre will use the prototype when it visits
schools during its public education campaign, and distribute accompanying guides for teachers and parents.
Batty plans to apply for another grant in order to reproduce the prototype, so it can be used by counsel-
lors and groups like Scouts and Guides throughout the city. She also wants to share the idea with other sexu-
al assault centres in the province.
The Knowledge is Power - Putting all the Pieces Togetherpuzzle was decided upon after social worker
Denise McKinlay talked with agencies and clients about the biggest local needs. One of her top three recom-
mendations was a pilot "social action project" that would create awareness.
It also built the self-confidence of survivors who took part. Some were scared or anxious at first, but
warmed to the idea when they realized they weren't alone.
"I think it's really empowering to have a voice," said Gloria Large, 58, who was physically and sexually
abused and has multiple personalities.
"As a child, I was silenced. Silence is golden only for the perpetrators," Large said.
She was excited to be part of the puzzle team because she wants hurting kids to reach out. "If that's all
they live, that's normal. This is a puzzle that can teach them it's not OK to live that way. They don't deserve
it."
To contact the writer: lcoad@theobserver.ca
LOAD-DATE: October 28, 2006
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Denise McKinlay, left, Michelle Batty and Gloria Large unveil the risk reduction resource puzzle.
Copyright 2006 Sarnia Observer

All Rights Reserved
74 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
12-year Scout derby helper a registered sex offender

BYLINE: Jeremy Twitchell Deseret Morning News
LENGTH: 411 words
SPANISH FORK -- A situation in Spanish Fork is casting a shadow over a childhood favorite -- the
Pinewood Derby.
For the past 12 years, Chester Milburn and his imaginative racetracks have been a welcome addition to
Pinewood Derby races held by local Cub Scout packs.
Parents became upset last week after finding out Milburn is a registered sex offender -- and Milburn has
found himself haunted by a past he's tried to put behind him.
"These parents that are upset, I think, are good LDS people," Milburn told the Deseret Morning News.
"But they need to go back and study more about forgiveness and repentance."
Shauna Warnick, a local Scouting committee leader, found out about Milburn's past in a committee meet-
ing last Thursday and, like other parents, was immediately worried.
"I was surprised and disappointed," said Warnick, from Spanish Fork. "The people who are supposed to
communicate to us need to let us know things like this more quickly."
In 1996, Milburn pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted sex abuse of a child and one count of at-
tempted forcible sex abuse -- all third-degree felonies.
Milburn paid a $2,000 fine and served 275 days in jail and three years of probation. Upon his success-
fully completing his probation in 1999, all four charges were amended to Class A misdemeanors.
Milburn's victims were girls, and his probation did not include a ban on being around young men.
For the past 12 years, Milburn and his family have operated Milburn Raceways, a small business that
provides racetracks for Pinewood Derby competitions. Last week, Milburn received a letter from an attorney
representing the Boy Scouts of America informing him that he could no longer for business purposes use the
names "Pinewood Derby," "Raingutter Regatta" or "Space Derby," all of which are BSA-sponsored events.
Milburn canceled all his scheduled races and considered selling his equipment, but after a potential buy-
er withdrew, he decided to investigate the matter and see if his family can continue to run the racing events
under different names.
Most of the races Milburn supplies are sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(Mormon), from which Milburn was excommunicated for his criminal offenses. Milburn said he has since
been rebaptized and worked his way back to full activity in the church, and while he understands the con-
cerns of parents, said he wishes they would be more supportive of his efforts to atone. E-mail: jt-
witchell@desnews.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Deseret News Publishing Co.
75 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Modesto Bee

ALL EDITION
BISHOP BLAIRE
BYLINE: BY SUE NOWICKI, BEE STAFF WRITER
SECTION: LIFESTYLES; Pg. G1
LENGTH: 2100 words
DATELINE: STOCKTON
The leader of the Catholic Diocese of Stockton shares his thoughts on the pope, the priest shortage, pe-
dophiles and much more, but stays mum on one subject -- his favorite meal
***
The Most Rev. Stephen E. Blaire, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Stockton for more than five years, re-
cently sat down with The Bee. In a wide-ranging interview, the 64-year-old discussed everything from his
childhood to Santa Claus to pedophile priests to Pope Benedict XVI.
Here, edited for space, are his comments:
Q: Describe your childhood.
A: My father had been married twice before he married my mother. The first family -- he had one child,
and that whole family died out. Then he married the second Mrs. Blaire. They had 10 children and then she
died. Then he married my mother. He was 59 years old at the time. I think she was 39. It was her first mar-
riage.
My mother was not able to conceive. We had a Chinese doctor, and he said, "I've got to give you some
herbal treatments." By golly, she did conceive.
I was the oldest of this last family of three children. We played a lot of games. In those days, your lives
were not regulated as children. We were very creative -- one day, we'd create a store, and the next, we'd cre-
ate a little travel agency. We played school. I'd have a magic show and used to have a little neighborhood
newspaper. We were very imaginative as kids.
Q: What kind of trouble did you get into as a child?
A: I suppose one of the worst things I did is that I had a paper route, and one day I didn't feel like deliver-
ing them, so I took them down to the L.A. River and dumped
all my papers in the river. I remember it caused so much trouble, I would never do it again.
Q: What is one of your favorite family memories?
A: The excitement of Christmas Eve, when I had to stay out of the kitchen as my parents were wrapping
gifts. In those days, they didn't have midnight Mass, so we'd always go to the first Mass on Christmas morn-
ing. There was the excitement of the Mass and then getting home to open the gifts; we'd have to wait until we
had breakfast!(laughs)
Q: Did you believe in Santa Claus?
A: Oh, yeah. I remember the day I said to my mother, "Is there really a Santa Claus?" And she hemmed-
hawed around. I think she didn't want my younger brother and sister to hear the answer.
Q: Do you think it's a bad thing today for Catholic parents to let their children believe in Santa Claus?
A: I don't think so. Probably it's a good thing growing up to realize that the magical things of childhood
are just exactly that. I wonder if that isn't the first point in life when you begin dealing with reality and that all
dreams don't come true.
Q: Before becoming bishop, you lived all your life in Southern California. What do you like and dislike
about living in the Central Valley?
A: I do like living up here. I like the friendliness. When I lived in Los Angeles, I never knew my neighbors.
I wasn't here a day and I met all my neighbors. So I like the atmosphere much better.
There's nothing I don't like, but what I miss is that from where I lived in Los Angeles, I could be anywhere
in 20 minutes -- to downtown L.A., west L.A., Hollywood, all the theaters, the wide variety of options that you
don't have in a smaller town. And I miss my friends, of course.
Q: You said at one point that you'd like to double the number of priests in the diocese. How are you doing
with that goal?
A: Not very well. I think what I actually said was that we need to double the priests to staff new parishes
and meet all the needs that exist. We have about 70 priests working in the parishes. We're going to ordain
four more this next year. We have 11 seminarians that are associated with our diocese.
Q: How will you address the priest shortage?
A: There are two things we'll be paying more attention to. I think we'll be taking a new look at how we dis-
tribute priests. We're going to look more holistically -- are the priests fairly distributed around the diocese?
The second thing we're going to spend some time looking at is developing more lay leadership. We'll be
looking at maybe even lay pastoral associates. It's like at a doctor's office. Often now, you may or may not
see the doctor. Even if you see the doctor, someone else will take your temperature and so forth beforehand.
It's the same thing in the parish -- maybe someone will come in with a need and it may be that a trained lay
person will be able to take care of that need. But if people want to see a priest, I think we have to make that
option available.
Q: How do you decide which priest to send to a parish?
A: Our policy now is you apply to be pastor of the parish and a personnel board reviews the application.
Then they generally send two representatives out to see what the needs of the parish are. It's not working
well because the people of the parish don't tell you their needs; they tell you what they want. And nobody can
measure up -- Jesus himself probably couldn't measure up. So we need a better system of identifying the
needs of the parish.
And we're talking about a new form of training for priests who want to be pastors, so when an opening
occurs, only priests who have been through the program could apply. Not every priest wants to be a pastor or
is capable of being a pastor.
Q: Describe your typical day:
A: I get up at 5 o'clock every morning. The first hour, I do my exercises. Then I clean up and have my
breakfast. I read four papers every day -- The New York Times, The Modesto Bee, The Stockton Record and
the San Francisco Chronicle.
Then I spend an hour in prayer, and by then, it's
9 o'clock and I consider my workday beginning. I try not to interrupt that early-morning routine, except
that I may have a Mass somewhere.
There is no such thing as a standard day. Every day is very different. A lot of meetings. Today, I came in
at 9 and got caught up on some paperwork. Then our administrative team met from 10 to 12. I went home for
a bite to eat for lunch and put my laundry in the washer. Came back about a quarter to 1. Tried to catch up on
phone calls and other things hanging fire. Then there was this appointment. At 2:30, I will meet with the vicar
for the priests to go over all the personnel issues. I will try then to make some phone calls and leave about 5
to drive to Danville, where the deacons are having their retreat. I'll have dinner with the deacons and give
them an hour update on what's going on in the diocese.
Then in the morning (Saturday), I'll have Mass for them at 9:15 and will drive back here, come into the of-
fice and try to catch up on my work. I have a Mass at 4 o'clock with the charismatic youth. On Sunday, I have
Mass at the cathedral at 9 o'clock. Then I have a Mass at noon at St. Linus, where we're dedicating a new
rectory. Then we have awards for all the Scouts at
4 o'clock.
But the following weekend would be very different. You never get caught up on work.
Q: Where do you live?
A: I have a home in Stockton that belongs to the diocese.
Q: Do you have someone who cooks for you?
A: No. The cathedral is across the street, and I like eating dinner there. There are other priests there, and
there are people. I like breakfast alone because I read four newspapers. But I like company at dinner.
Q: What's your favorite meal?
A: I will never tell you because if it appeared in the paper, every time I went to eat at someone's home, it
would be served. I love food. I love Mexican food; I love Italian food.
Q: When you get a day off, what do you do?
A: Yesterday, I went to the doctor first. Then I had to stop at a parish for something that had to be done.
Then I went home and wrote my homily for this weekend. But about
3 o'clock, I had a friend who came from Los Angeles who I haven't seen for quite a while, and we had a
nice dinner and a nice visit. Every time, it's different. Sometimes I work in the yard, and sometimes I play
golf.
Q: What do you do when you get a week off?
A: I have a priest friend in Los Angeles. We usually go away for two or three days to play a little golf.
Then I spend another three days catching up with other people there. I still have friends from my first assign-
ment.
Q: Besides the Bible, do you have one or two other books that you enjoy, fiction or nonfiction? Have you
read "The Da Vinci Code"?
A: I have read it. I didn't care for it. I like to read theology. I'm studying a commentary on the relationship
between Scripture and tradition. Interestingly enough, this is a commentary on the Vatican Council document
on divine revelation, and it was written by a man named Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) (laughs).
I like to read theology, and I like to study the Scriptures. I try to work my way through a couple of books
of the Bible every year, where I study it in depth. I'm currently studying Acts of the Apostles.
Q: You've spoken about meeting the new pope a few times and called him a gentle and very organized
man who has a solid theology. Now that he's been pope for a few months, what do you think of him?
A: I met him in Rome a few weeks ago. He's very, very cordial, and he takes a few moments to chat with
you, and he asked about the diocese. He had been to San Francisco several years ago, so I explained
where we were located.
When he was Cardinal Ratzinger, I always found that when we visited Rome -- you visit every five years
on an official visit and you visit the congregations there -- I always found his was the best organized, and he
would always have important points to go over. Then he always wanted to hear from you, and he would listen
carefully. I was always impressed by that.
Q: Is there anything you would like to see him do or address?
A: I think there are issues the church has to address, but for him, personally, I think his talks and homilies
are very profound. It's said that people used to go to Rome to see Pope John Paul II, but they go to listen to
Ratzinger. I like reading his little addresses to people because they're usually very well thought out and
based on scholarship.
I'd like to see him create some better structures for the universal church to dialogue.
Q: How do you feel the diocese is doing regarding the priest sex abuse issue?
A: I think our diocese has done well in addressing the issue. I'm part of a national committee to see what
kind of education we should provide for children. We don't want to put any burden on children as if it's their
fault to protect themselves against abuse. So how much information do you give children? What kind of train-
ing do you give parents?
There are some dioceses that have not settled their cases, like Los Angeles. But we've settled our cases
here. We've just got a couple that we have to work out the technicalities. Of course, you don't know who will
come forward tomorrow.
Q: Are there other steps you think need to be taken?
A: I think the most important thing is to protect children. That's the No. 1 responsibility we have. I think
we've taken the right steps. Do we need to improve the quality of what we're doing? Oh, yes. We still have to
keep working at it, supervising it, training teachers, training parents. We'll never stop training.
Q: What's your greatest challenge as bishop?
A: I think it's to meet the pastoral needs of the people. You have this ever-growing Catholic population
and fewer number of priests available, so how do we meet the pastoral needs of the people?
Q: What's your greatest joy?
A: I like going out to the parishes, celebrating Mass in the community and meeting the people.
Q: Pastors are appointed for six-year renewable terms. Do bishops have terms, or is it for life?
A: We're appointed forever (laughs). Actually, now bishops are asked to submit their resignations at the
age of 75. That's not to say you can't submit it sooner. (laughs again)
Q: Do you have something else that you'd like to do before you retire?
A: No. I like being bishop. I like what we're involved in. But does it have headaches? Indeed it does.
Does it have frustrating days? Indeed it does. But on the other hand, it gives you an opportunity to do some
wonderful things.
Q: What's your greatest passion? What would you like to see done or do yourself if you could?
A: I enjoy preaching and teaching. What I'd like to see are parishes that are functioning well and alive --
where the liturgy is well-celebrated, where people are involved, where people feel at home in their parishes,
where they can go to get their needs met. To me, the infallible sign of a good parish is that if someone is hurt-
ing, the first place they think of going is to their parish. If that's happening, I am happy.
Bee staff writer Sue Nowicki can be reached at 578-2012 or snowicki@modbee.com.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: (JOAN BARNETT LEE / THE BEE)

It's hard to assess parish needs, Blaire says. Ask about needs and you often hear about wants. 'And nobody
can measure up -- Jesus himself probably couldn't measure up.' Bishop Blaire says he has no such thing as
a typical day, though most days have one thing in common -- a lot of meetings.
Copyright 2006 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
76 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Salt Lake Tribune

Repentant sex offender complies, ends association with Scouts

BYLINE: By Jason Bergreen The Salt Lake Tribune
SECTION: LOCAL
LENGTH: 497 words
For more than 12 years, Chester Milburn helped organize pinewood derby races for Boy Scout troops,
church groups and other Utah organizations.
But last week, the 60-year-old Spanish Fork man received a letter from a lawyer with the Boy Scouts of
America informing him he was not welcome at their events because he is a registered sex offender.
A former Boy Scout himself, Milburn was convicted in 1996 on three class A misdemeanor charges of at-
tempted sexual abuse of a child and one class A misdemeanor charge of attempted forcible sex abuse.
The children involved were former neighborhood girls between the ages of seven and 14, Milburn said
during a phone interview with the Salt Lake Tribune.
For his crimes, Milburn said he served nine months in jail, completed three years of probation, paid a
$2,000 fine and underwent therapy for about two years.
Afterwards, he returned to his hobby of renting and setting up pinewood derby courses for youth groups.
He advertised his pinewood derby services on his Web site at http://www .milburnraceways.com.
On Oct. 13, Milburn posted a message on his Web site stating he was disposing of his equipment and
had cancelled all scheduled racing events. Quitting was his response to the BSA lawyer's cease and desist
letter he had received two days earlier.
"They really don't want me at the Scout events," Milburn said.
John Gailey, a spokesman for the Utah National Parks Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said before
the lawyer's letter was sent, Milburn was verbally warned several times to stop attending Boy Scout events.
"The safety of our youth members and participants is our highest priority," Gailey said. "We choose to err
on the side of caution when determining who has access to our members. Registered sex offenders are not
allowed to register as a volunteer, nor participate in scouting events or functions."
Once the BSA discovered Milburn was renting tracks to troops, another letter was sent to the 36 Boy
Scout districts stretching from Draper to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon warning members about Mil-
burn, Gailey said.
Though disappointed, Milburn said he understands BSA's point of view and those expressed by others
who feel it's not appropriate for him to be around minors.
Milburn said he continued promoting the pinewood derby events because he enjoyed watching others
have fun. He said his job consisted of setting up the race track and taking it down. During the races he stood
near the head of the track.
"I always tried to make myself visible," he said. "I've never done anything wrong at events . . .. I'm not
looking for other victims."
No complaints were ever filed against Milburn accusing him of abusing Boy Scouts, Gailey said.
And though Milburn's Web site is now closing down, his past record and mug shot still hangs prominently
on another Internet Web site: The official state of Utah sex offender registry.
"I'm sorry about what I did years ago and I'm sorry about this now," Milburn said.
jbergreen@sltrib.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Chester MilburnShuts down site
Copyright 2006 The Salt Lake Tribune

All Rights Reserved
77 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
October 20, 2006 Friday
Scout helper an abuser

BYLINE: Jeremy Twitchell Deseret Morning News
LENGTH: 557 words
SPANISH FORK -- A situation in Spanish Fork is casting a shadow over a childhood favorite -- the
Pinewood Derby.
For the past 12 years, Chester Milburn and his imaginative racetracks have been a welcome addition to
Pinewood Derby races held by local Cub Scout packs.
Parents became upset last week after finding out Milburn is a registered sex offender -- and Milburn has
found himself haunted by a past he's tried to put behind him.
"These parents that are upset, I think, are good LDS people," Milburn told the Deseret Morning News.
"But they need to go back and study more about forgiveness and repentance."
Shauna Warnick, a local Scouting committee leader, found out about Milburn's past in a committee meet-
ing last Thursday and, like other parents, was immediately worried.
"I was surprised and disappointed," said Warnick, from Spanish Fork. "The people who are supposed to
communicate to us need to let us know things like this more quickly."
In 1996, Milburn pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted sex abuse of a child and one count of at-
tempted forcible sex abuse -- all third-degree felonies.
Milburn paid a $2,000 fine and served 275 days in jail and three years of probation. Upon his success-
fully completing his probation in 1999, all four charges were amended to Class A misdemeanors.
Milburn's victims were girls, and his probation did not include a ban on being around young men.
For the past 12 years, Milburn and his family have operated Milburn Raceways, a small business that
provides racetracks for Pinewood Derby competitions. Their tracks were also used in the film "Down and
Derby," a comedy about Pinewood Derbies that was released last year by local media distributor Excel Enter-
tainment Group. Last week, Milburn received a letter from an attorney representing the Boy Scouts of Amer-
ica informing him that he could no longer for business purposes use the names "Pinewood Derby," "Raingut-
ter Regatta" or "Space Derby," all of which are BSA-sponsored events.
Milburn canceled all his scheduled races and considered selling his equipment, but after a potential buy-
er withdrew, he decided to investigate the matter and see if his family can continue to run the racing events
under different names.
Most of the races Milburn supplies are sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(Mormon), from which Milburn was excommunicated for his criminal offenses. Milburn said he has since
been rebaptized and worked his way back to full activity in the church, and while he understands the con-
cerns of parents, said he wishes they would be more supportive of his efforts to atone.
Warnick said the reaction to Milburn is not meant to be an attack on him.
"I don't want to be inflammatory or accusatory of him at all," she said. "I just want to protect our children."
Milburn said he is sorry for what he did and willing to accept any personal consequences, but he is wor-
ried about the effect this situation will have on his family.
"My past -- I think about it every day," he said. "I think of what I've done to mess up my life."
Warnick said Milburn is good at what he does, but she was pleased to hear that local leaders asked him
to stop. "He runs a good operation ... I just think that if he's on the sex offender registry, he ought not to have
any dealings with children," she said. E-mail: jtwitchell@desnews.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Deseret News Publishing Co.
82 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Ottawa Citizen
October 12, 2006 Thursday

Final Edition
The Best of CanWest: Online extras available for seven-day sub-

scribers
BYLINE: The Ottawa Citizen
LENGTH: 328 words

These stories, from CanWest papers across the country, are available exclusively online for seven-day
subscribers at www.ottawacitizen.com.
Hard to Believe
In an age of globalization and the erosion of religious values, it's difficult for young people to develop be-
liefs. Sometimes they have a tougher time because they have no religious background at all. A recent
Montreal conference discussed matters of belief, ranging from figuring out their spiritual values to the dull-
ness of traditional religion. By the Montreal Gazette's Donna Nebenzahl.
Searching for Bobby Orr
How might things have turned out differently had Montreal Canadiens scout Scotty Bowman lured a 13-
year-old Bobby Orr from his Parry Sound home, or if the Leafs hadn't turned up their noses at the prodigious
young talent? In his new book Searching for Bobby Orr, author Stephen Brunt looks at the career of one of
the most talented players to lace on skates. By the Montreal Gazette's Dave Stubbs.
Fingering Out Talent
Superior athletic ability and love of exercise may, literally, be at your fingertips. British researchers have
found women whose ring fingers are longer than their index fingers achieve higher levels in sports, particu-
larly running, soccer and tennis, and that sporting potential may be the product not of random hormones, but
inherited genes. By the Edmonton Journal's Chris Zdeb.
Also on the Web for Seven-Day Subscribers
Risky Treatment: Study suggests anti-psychotic drugs aren't worth the risk for Alzheimer's patients.
Socialist in the Senate: For 30 years a party of one, Congressman Bernie Sanders seems likely to as-
cend to the U.S. Senate.
How Bankrupt? A fourth Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. tries to dodge liability for sex abuse.
Baby Shopping: Whose interests are really served when rich westerners adopt Third World children?
Democrats Pony Up: But Republican senators are stingy in donations to colleagues seeking re-election.
To subscribe to The Citizen, call 613-596-1950
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC:
Photo: (See hard copy for photo description.)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: General
Copyright 2006 Ottawa Citizen, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publication Inc.

All Rights Reserved
84 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Tulsa World (Oklahoma)

September 27, 2006 Wednesday
Final Home Edition
Gala benefits tuition assistance program in Catholic schools

BYLINE: DANNA SUE WALKER World Scene Writer
SECTION: Social; Pg. D2
LENGTH: 584 words
An Italian feast awaits those attending the third annual St. Francis of Assisi Tuition Assistance Gala at 6
p.m. Oct. 4 at Holy Family Cathedral, 122 W. Eighth St.
The evening will begin with a prayer service followed by a gourmet dinner and program in a huge tent
located on the Holy Family grounds.
Julie M. Fenster, co-author of the best selling autobiography "Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney
and American Catholicism," is the keynote speaker. Because of the priest sex abuse scandal, the author
says she was compelled to give a fresh perspective on the history of the priesthood. The book's subject, Mc-
Givney, was a beloved 19th century American-born priest who founded the Knights of Columbus. He was a
dedicated parish priest who worked tirelessly to overcome the barriers brought on by poverty and prejudice.
Her additional works include "Race of the Century" and "Ether Day."
Gala chairs are Tom and Karen Nally, and Steve and Mary Kevin McNamara.
Team leaders include John Johnson, Todd Goldsmith, Ken Brune, the Rev. Matt Gerlach, John Condon,
Janet Pagano, Bob and Margie Huffman, John and Linda Vestring, Kip and Pat Leikam, Mike and Claudia
Harveth, and Doug and Debbie Tally.
The original sponsors of the St. Francis of Assisi Tuition Assistance Trust are PennWell Corp., and the
P.C. and Frances Lauinger Catholic Education Endowment established by their children.
Major donors for the event are Alan R. Staab and Sharon D. Voskuhl, Joseph and Kathy Craft, Randy
and Jean Foutch, Steve and Mary Kevin McNamara, Tom and Karen Nally, and Mrs. Robert J. Stanton.
Additional sponsors are Nick and Barbara Allen, Ken Brune, F&M Bank and Trust, Judith Smith, Jack
and Jane Charon, John W. Condon Family, Mr. and Mrs. W.K. Dunbar, Marge and John Gaberino Jr., Mike
and Claudia Harveth, Mary Kathleen Keith, Mike and Gina Lodes, Moran Family Foundation, Bob LaFortune,
Mag Sullivan, Janet Pagano, Pat and Kip Leikam, Lloyd Whitley, Bill and Cathrine Sheehan, Bishop Kelley
High School and Cascia Hall Preparatory School.
Also, Apache Corp., Ken and Pat Fike, Tim and Margaret Clark, Bob and Jeanne Sullivan, and Amy and
Mike Westbrook.
DeWayne Crawl is the evening's designer and event planner. Chef Drew Flatt of the Doubletree Hotel at
Warren Place is in charge of the menu. Pianist Donald Ryan will play.
Monsignor Gregory Gier and the Rev. Matt Gerlach are in charge of the prayer service. The Most Rev.
Edward J. Slattery, bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, will preside during the prayer service.
The presentation of colors will be provided by Indian Nations Council of Boy Scouts Pack and Troop 173,
School of St. Mary's. Chorale ensembles from Cascia Hall and Bishop Kelley will perform.
Proceeds from the event will benefit students attending 12 Catholic schools in Tulsa, including Bishop
Kelley and Cascia Hall.
The gala has raised more than $150,000 in the past and has helped boost tuition assistance.
For the school year 2006-2007, 496 students applied for assistance, and $242,250 has been distributed.
Historically, some 93 percent of the students who are awarded a scholarship complete their enrollment in the
Catholic school of their choice.
For tickets to the gala, call Paula Coyne at the chancery at 294-1904, or e-mail sfoa.gala@-
dioceseoftulsa.org.
Cost is $100 per person, and dress is business casual. Donations can also be mailed to Diocese of
Tulsa, St. Francis Gala, P.O. Box 690240, Tulsa, OK 74169-0240.
Danna Sue Walker 581-8342
dannasue.walker@tulsaworld.com
LOAD-DATE: September 28, 2006
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Tulsa World
85 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Tulsa World (Oklahoma)
September 27, 2006 Wednesday
Tulsa World, Okla., Danna Sue Walker column: Gala benefits tuition
assistance program in Catholic schools
BYLINE: Danna Sue Walker, Tulsa World, Okla.
SECTION: LIFESTYLE
LENGTH: 622 words
Sep. 27--An Italian feast awaits those attending the third annual St. Francis of Assisi Tuition Assistance
Gala at 6 p.m. Oct. 4 at Holy Family Cathedral, 122 W. Eighth St.
The evening will begin with a prayer service followed by a gourmet dinner and program in a huge tent
located on the Holy Family grounds.
Julie M. Fenster, co-author of the best selling autobiography "Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney
and American Catholicism," is the keynote speaker. Because of the priest sex abuse scandal, the author
says she was compelled to give a fresh perspective on the history of the priesthood. The book's subject, Mc-
Givney, was a beloved 19th century American-born priest who founded the Knights of Columbus. He was a
dedicated parish priest who worked tirelessly to overcome the barriers brought on by poverty and prejudice.
Her additional works include "Race of the Century" and "Ether Day."
Gala chairs are Tom and Karen Nally, and Steve and Mary Kevin McNamara.
Team leaders include John Johnson, Todd Goldsmith, Ken Brune, the Rev. Matt Gerlach, John Condon,
Janet Pagano, Bob and Margie Huffman, John and Linda Vestring, Kip and Pat Leikam, Mike and Claudia
Harveth, and Doug and Debbie Tally.
The original sponsors of the St. Francis of Assisi Tuition Assistance Trust are PennWell Corp., and the
P.C. and Frances Lauinger Catholic Education Endowment established by their children.
Major donors for the event are Alan R. Staab and Sharon D. Voskuhl, Joseph and Kathy Craft, Randy
and Jean Foutch, Steve and Mary Kevin McNamara, Tom and Karen Nally, and Mrs. Robert J. Stanton.
Additional sponsors are Nick and Barbara Allen, Ken Brune, F&M Bank and Trust, Judith Smith, Jack
and Jane Charon, John W. Condon Family, Mr. and Mrs. W.K. Dunbar, Marge and John Gaberino Jr., Mike
and Claudia Harveth, Mary Kathleen Keith, Mike and Gina Lodes, Moran Family Foundation, Bob LaFortune,
Mag Sullivan, Janet Pagano, Pat and Kip Leikam, Lloyd Whitley, Bill and Cathrine Sheehan, Bishop Kelley
High School and Cascia Hall Preparatory School.
Also, Apache Corp., Ken and Pat Fike, Tim and Margaret Clark, Bob and Jeanne Sullivan, and Amy and
Mike Westbrook.
DeWayne Crawl is the evening's designer and event planner. Chef Drew Flatt of the Doubletree Hotel at
Warren Place is in charge of the menu. Pianist Donald Ryan will play.
Monsignor Gregory Gier and the Rev. Matt Gerlach are in charge of the prayer service. The Most Rev.
Edward J. Slattery, bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, will preside during the prayer service.
The presentation of colors will be provided by Indian Nations Council of Boy Scouts Pack and Troop 173,
School of St. Mary's. Chorale ensembles from Cascia Hall and Bishop Kelley will perform.
Proceeds from the event will benefit students attending 12 Catholic schools in Tulsa, including Bishop
Kelley and Cascia Hall.
The gala has raised more than $150,000 in the past and has helped boost tuition assistance.
For the school year 2006-2007, 496 students applied for assistance, and $242,250 has been distributed.
Historically, some 93 percent of the students who are awarded a scholarship complete their enrollment in the
Catholic school of their choice.
For tickets to the gala, call Paula Coyne at the chancery at 294-1904, or e-mail sfoa.gala@-
dioceseoftulsa.org.
Cost is $100 per person, and dress is business casual. Donations can also be mailed to Diocese of
Tulsa, St. Francis Gala, P.O. Box 690240, Tulsa, OK 74169-0240.
Copyright (c) 2006, Tulsa World, Okla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints,
email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968,
or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20060927-TU-0927-Tulsa-World-Okla-Danna-Sue-Walker-column
JOURNAL-CODE: TU
Copyright 2006 Tulsa World

86 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The New York Post
September 22, 2006 Friday
NO BLARNEY: JACKO EYES LEPRECHAUN PARK

BYLINE: Lukas I. Alpert
SECTION: All Editions; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 167 words
Michael Jackson's love for little people knows no bounds.

The Gloved One is reportedly scouting around Ireland for an estate where he can open an amusement
park with - no joke - a possible leprechaun theme.
"Michael is deadly serious about this idea," an anonymous source told The Irish Daily Mirror. "He loves
the whole idea of leprechauns and the magic and myths of Ireland."
The source, who estimated the park would cost around $635 million, added that Jacko has "always
wanted to open his own theme park and he thinks Ireland is the perfect place and it will be built around the
leprechaun theme."
The paper says the cash-strapped, globetrotting singer has been meeting with Irish businessmen to raise
the money.
Jackson - who owns a child-theme park built around his Neverland Ranch in California - has not been
seen much in the United States since he was acquitted on kid sex-abuse charges in 2005.
Instead, His Weirdness has been spotted primarily in the Middle Eastern nation of Bahrain.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
87 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Sunday Mail
September 10, 2006, Sunday

WE'RE NO 1 IN SCOTLAND 488,650 UP 17875
LENGTH: 145 words
ONCE again your support has made us the biggest-selling newspaper in Scotland.
Official figures show we sold an average of 488,650 every week in August - an increase of 17,875 on the
previous month.
And that's just at home - we sold 533,776 including sales outside Scotland.
It proves you love our exclusive news and sports stories, witty columnists and our sevendays and Right
at Home mags.
(The London-based News of the World limped in 180,000 behind us with sales of 307,903, according to
the Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for August 2006.)
NO. 1 FOR NEWS
Tragedy of troops dead in plane crash
Scout leader's kid sex abuse shame
Sweet Sixteen star gets gunned down
Teen football star held in shooter rap
NO. 1 FOR SPORT
Neil Lennon opens his heart to Mail
Arsenal's bid for Killie star Naismith
NO. 1 FOR COLUMNS
Comic and actress Elaine C. Smith
Writer and radio host Alison Craig
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd.
88 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Gold Coast Bulletin (Australia)
September 9, 2006 Saturday

Main Edition
GOLD COAST HONOURS NOMINEES
SECTION: Pg. 127
LENGTH: 10721 words
The fourth Gold Coast Honours awards will be held at the Marriott Surfers Paradise on Wednesday,
September 20. It's a five-star night at a bargain price. Call the Marriott direct to book your ticket. On these
five pages we detail the nominees in each category
COMMUNITY
SALLY JACOBS:
A director of Breastscreen Queensland's Gold Coast service, she is described as a passionate, compas-
sionate and dedicated person who goes above the call of duty and is a role model for the service. She also
supports sexual assault victims and is a Schoolies volunteer.
LOIS LEVY:
She has protested, campaigned and rallied, and will do everything to protect her beloved Gold Coast. In
1989, she co-founded the Gold Coast and Hinterland Environment Council (Gecko) to help protect the re-
gion's natural wonders.
MARION YORK:
Head co-ordinator with Sport and Recreation for disabled athletes and president of the Queensland Spe-
cial Olympics, she is now organising the Special Olympics national games and has worked for disabled ath-
letes for 16 years.
JOHN KNIGHT:
As Dr James Wright is Australia's best-known GP. In
1973 he set up Medi-Aid, a foundation to help elderly battlers find comfortable homes, bought dozens of
units on the Gold Coast and houses up to 600 people at half-price rent.
BOB NANCARROW:
A retired volunteer worker, he has spent hundreds of volunteer hours restoring and arranging displays of
artefacts for the Gold Coast Historical Museum at Bundall. His carpentry skills have proved invaluable to the
society. He delights in hosting school groups and in 2005 was elected president.
NATASHA EDWARDS:
A director of the Swell Sculpture Festival, she was determined to build art and culture on the Gold Coast
by providing a free outdoor sculpture festival.
BILL HOYER
The chairman of the Gold Coast Project for Homeless Youth, he has worked for the welfare of disadvant-
aged Aboriginal youth since 1971, is on the community advisory committee for the Numinbah Correctional
Centre, and is now working to house homeless young people in the city.
JULIA WILKINS:
She has raised more than $100,000 for the Leukaemia Foundation, speaks at schools and clubs and
mentors less experienced charity ambassadors. She runs sausage sizzles, sells raffle tickets and does
whatever she can to
raise funds.
SUSIE CHRISTIE:
She works for charities including Rosies as a street worker; works for the Hear and Say Centre; organ-
ises volunteers to work at the Bridge to Brisbane fun run; works for Opportunity International to help poverty-
stricken Timor; helps the Sujit Foundation organise supplies for Fiji to house orphaned boys;
and helps the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
FRANCIS HICKMAN-SMITH:
He created the seniors golf club at the Merrimac Seniors Golf Club, where he has been captain, secret-
ary and sponsor for 14 years. He provides his home for functions and provides great pleasure to more than
40 members.
JOY CONEYBEAR:
In 2004, she had a stroke that paralysed her left side. She underwent an emergency stent procedure that
had not been performed in Australia before and went on to amaze doctors with her recovery, being released
from hospital a month after the stroke.
MICHELLE GABRIEL:
The outgoing president of the Gold Coast branch of the Queensland Association for Gifted and Talented
Children, an organisation to support the families of gifted children, she works tirelessly to gain better out-
comes for these children.
DARRYL GREGOR:
The founding partner of Southport's The Eye Centre, he is an internationally recognised cataract and re-
fractive surgeon, a benefactor of the Bond University Medical School and one of the first ophthalmologists in
Australia to perform laser eye surgery.
BRAD HOLMES:
He teaches disabled children to surf, including deaf and blind children, and teaches tai chi and Qigong to
children, all for free.
He teaches students aged four to
66, using a special craft to work
with paraplegics and sign language to communicate with the
hearing-impaired.
RON DICKSON:
He was the man who had a large role in securing the Champ Car
race on the streets of Surfers Paradise in 1991, which became Indy and helped introduce motor sport to
the Gold Coast.
JOAN REED:
She provides tea and coffee every morning for early-morning walkers at Burleigh Beach, a daily ritual for
the past 15 years.
LIONEL BARDEN:
He established the Gold Coast Abused Child Trust in 1997,
and secured land from the Gold Coast City Council and raised
funds to build a centre for the children at Labrador.
BILL FRY:
A sports massage therapist who is known as 'Singing Fingers', he was trainer and masseuse for the
Seagulls Rugby League Club during the 1970s and now operates from the Tugun Surf Lifesaving Club, help-
ing many lifesaving stars.
LARRY DAWSON:
He founded the ManKind Project in Australia which offers training and support to men to develop lives of
integrity, accountability, and connection
to feeling. It challenges men to develop their abilities as leaders, fathers and elders.
LAURIE KELLY:
He started Chevron After Hours medical service in 1981, makes himself available to the community 24
hours a day, is practice principal of three surgeries and believes everyone should be entitled to good health
care.
JEANNIE WALLACE:
A 'chronic volunteer', she works for Queensland Swimming and has represented the Gold Coast in
Sydney and Melbourne at national events at her own expense. She is a volunteer guest speaker for com-
munity groups.
ALAN MCFARLANE:
President of Coomera Soccer Club, he also coaches, runs the club, works full-time and puts together a
golf charity day to raise thousands for Queensland skin cancer.
ANGELA DRISCOLL:
She has been involved in youth forums and community consultation forums; co-ordinates the Chill Out
zones in Surfers Paradise; started Expressive Ground, a safe place for young people to hang out; and is a
foster mum to troubled teens.
NOEL REYNOLDS:
He cares for two elderly residents and looks after his elderly neighbours. He paints, mows,
shops and phones to check they are all right.
FIONA MCCARTHY:
The 28-year-old works for AFL Queensland, referees junior games, runs programs all over southeast
Queensland, volunteers with the Nobby Beach Surf Lifesaving Club and is a volunteer crew member with the
Westpac Rescue helicopter.
KAREN SMITH:
An exercise physiologist, she started as program co-ordinator for the late Dr Geoff Cornish in a walking
program for people with cardiac, lung or circulatory problems. She runs two early-morning walking programs.
BRUCE CURTIS:
He co-ordinates the largest junior hockey club in Australia and introduced junior Minkey hockey, an in-
novative hockey coaching program, to 16 local schools. He was a key driver of the development of hockey
fields at Labrador and is president of the Labrador Junior Hockey Club.
BETTE BEARD:
She was involved with the first shopping centre to provide a free Justice of the Peace service at Ashmore
City Shopping Centre. Is dedicated to the service and turns up every week without fail.
PAUL STEVENS:
He is the chairman of the VIII Nation Games Organising Committee and is responsible for organising the
2006 Special Olympics Games on the Gold Coast. The former chief executive of the Gold Coast City Council
has devoted himself to community service in his retirement.
RAYLEE TAYLOR:
A retired TAFE hairdressing teacher, she has devoted the past 12 years to youth suicide prevention and
is chairperson and founder of Care for Life. She is associated with Compassionate Friends bereaved by sui-
cide and with a Rotary suicide prevention committee.
LILLY KEY:
The 71-year-old is always helping her elderly neighbours, walking an 80-year-old neighbour's dog, while
cooking meals for another neighbour, organising him to attend lunches with a community group and mending
his clothes. She also drives around many neighbours who need transport.
STEVE GRATION:
The Save Our Spit alliance president, he led the fight and organised rallies to prevent a cruise ship ter-
minal at the Spit and is involved with the Main Beach Progress Association.
HELEN PURVIS:
A community nurse who provides home visits, she has cared for, listened to, treated, loved, washed,
cleaned for and looked after patients all over the Gold Coast for 15 years and is on call 24 hours a day and
weekends.
KYLIE MITCHELL-SMITH:
The creative director of the Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin, her motto is getting art to the people
and she has turned an idea for an inspiring outdoor public arts festival into a unique cultural event that at-
tracts the world's best artists.
JAMES PARK:
The employment consultant for the House With No Steps, a facility for people with physical disabilities,
he has guided and encouraged many of the service's clients and nothing is ever too much trouble.
JULIANA TING:
A Carrara pharmacist who makes all her customers feel special, she provides old-fashioned service and
is a respected businesswoman.
DEBBIE TAYLOR:
The manager of the St Vincent de Paul shop in Southport, she is caring, compassionate and goes the
extra mile for everyone, treating her customers as VIPs.
SALLY GREGORY:
The national vice-president (Queensland) of the Australian Bravery Association, she supports bravery
medal-holders who have suffered personal loss or extreme trauma due to their heroism.
JUNE JONES:
She is a volunteer at the Red Cross in Surfers Paradise despite no longer driving and having difficulty
walking. She makes arts and crafts to sell in the shop.
MOYRA GALTON:
She has raised more than $40,000 in the past four years for the Queensland Cancer Fund. She has
helped many local cancer patients and their families.
COLIN PERINI:
A local seascape artist, he tries to bring beauty into people's lives and his 10.5m seascape at Gold Coast
Airport at Coolangatta called The Sea Sings to My Heart greets tourists to the city.
KIRI STINSON:
Through the Gold Coast Gives campaign, a program initiated by the Gold Coast City Council, she has
strengthened the support of local government with community organisations including the donation of hun-
dreds of pieces of ex-council furniture.
PAUL GALE:
He rallies donations from local businesses and residents via Radio station Sea FM and has taken part in
charity fundraisers like a gruelling run from Coolangatta to Southport and up the Q1 building.
ROBERT MARKS:
For 11 years he has printed
a Carrara, Southport and Hinterland community newsletter, covering information on local council issues,
and has often delivered them himself.
PAUL TAYLOR:
The volunteer chairman of the Kurrawa Surf Lifesaving Supporters Association board of directors
has performed countless volunteer hours spearheading the direction of community involvement with the
club and has helped it achieve
many awards.
TRISH WAGHORN:
The manager of the St Vincent de Paul shop at Nerang, she also attends university to obtain her chap-
laincy qualifications and
looks after the poor, sick, elderly and prisoners.
MOIRA MORRISON:
She donates her original oil paintings to charities including the Queensland Cancer Fund, Barnardos,
local surf clubs, the Leukaemia Foundation, police social clubs, Volunteer Marine Rescue and Coast Guards,
and World Vision.
BOB PANTER:
He has been involved in cycling since 1975. The prominent cycling trainer has been a mentor to riders
like Robbie McEwen and encourages and helps young sportspeople. He has also been associated with the
Southport
High School P and C Association for 15 years.
BILL HECK:
He has been involved with numerous organisations including the Beenleigh Historical Society, Opera in
the Cane Fields, Beenleigh PCYC, Cantabile Singers, Cane Quest, Trinder Park Aged Home, Woongoolba
State School, Woongoolba Bowls Club and Beenleigh-Yatala Chamber
of Commerce.
MARIANNE GEVERS:
She volunteers her time on the reference committee on elderly abuse prevention in Queensland and on
the Gold Coast, is secretary of the Committee on the Ageing, secretary of Toastmasters, president of
Alzheimers Australia Gold Coast, and vice-president of Alzheimers Australia Queensland.
KEITH TAYLOR:
He is a committed teacher of first aid and few have his skills, experience, knowledge and dedication. He
has taught more than 20,000 students since 1997 for the Queensland Ambulance Service.
JENNIFER PURDY:
She runs Gold Coast Panache magazine, Australia's longest running city magazine, and her People's
Choice awards contribute to the colour and image of the
Gold Coast.
CARLITA KEENE:
With her husband Brian, she performs for many retirement villages and musical clubs from Brisbane to
Murwillumbah and anywhere their music can be appreciated by older people.
COMMUNITY
(Cont'd)
RICHARD ANDERSON:
He has planted many trees and bushes and made bush tracks in a plantation in Nerang which provide
joy to locals, He also keeps the area tidy, weeded and sprayed.
LANCE FOLEY:
He has worked with youth, especially at-risk youth, and disadvantaged families since 1987. He has been
the area co-ordinator of the Neighbourhood Watch group in Palm Beach since 1991 and is the chaplain at
Miami High School and Caningeraba State School.
BILL AUSTIN:
An opthalmologist for 26 years, he is described as a beautiful, gentle man with an old-fashioned and
caring bedside manner. In 1976, he started the Western Queensland Eye Service, travelling to care for
people in remote areas and despite his own ill health, practises three days a week and as a volunteer with
the Gold Coast Palliative Care Group.
PETER LINNELL:
For many years, he volunteered with the Gold Coast branch of the State Emergency Service and sacri-
ficed much family time to help in crisis situations. Now the SES controller for Gold Coast City Council, his
dedication ensures
the service is one of the most effective voluntary emergency services in the state.
JOAN RACKLEY:
She started the Burleigh Heads Amateur Swimming Club in 1954 before building and running the existing
pool, was on the inaugural Burleigh Heads Kindergarten committee and worked tirelessly to buy the land
where the kindergarten was completed. She was also on the inaugural committee of the Burleigh Heads Golf
Club and remains a member 51 years later.
MAX CHRISTMAS:
He has a history of community service of more than 30 years, including being involved with the Gold
Coast Tourism Bureau, surf lifesaving, the Surfers Paradise Outrigger Canoe Association, Neighbourhood
Watch, the
Gold Coast Homeless Youth organisation, and Gold Coast
Arts Centre.
JASON MURAKAMI:
He is the co-founder of the Innocence Project, designed to help people who have been wrongly con-
victed. The Griffith University-based project has been an innovation in education and he provides his time
freely to it.
SEAMUS BRADLEY:
A chauffeur with Kingscliff Coast Limousines, his bubbly personality brightens all who come in contact
with him and he is always willing to help elderly people in moving house or with emergencies, day or night.
BURTONE LEYSHON:
He has a doctorate in theology, has held Pentecostal training assembly meetings, offers pastoral care,
and preaches on Sundays, at times without payment. His ministry touches those on the streets of Surfers
Paradise and he is known for his humility, integrity and diligence..
ROCHELLE SMITH:
She is the instructor of the Surfers Paradise Physical Culture Dance Club, coached the team to a state
title, and has won the individual national title, despite last year undergoing numerous operations and having
rheumatoid arthritis.
EDNA YORSTON:
For 11 years she has cared for cancer patients at John Flynn Hospital and Pindara Hospital
and provides home visits,
helping people get to doctor's appointments and do their
household chores. She is a tireless fundraiser for cancer research.
BEV HAMMOND:
She has volunteered since 1971, as secretary of the Currumbin State School P and C; organising the
school art show and the Palm Beach Springfest and Art Show; and formed the Currumbin Central Netball
Club.
ASHLEY EBSWORTH:
A retired chiropractor, he is a member of the Gold Coast and Queensland Accordion clubs, organising
concerts annually and monthly meetings in Burleigh Waters.
COLIN NEIL:
A dedicated lifesaver of 14 years, he has received 25 lifesaving awards, helped to create the rescue wa-
tercraft service on the Gold and Sunshine coasts, and started the early-morning patrols. He trains water po-
lice, and lifesavers overseas.
ANN-MARIE COOK:
SPORT
Affectionately known as 'Cookie' to her team, she is the world's only female manager of a powerboat
race team. She is in charge of the Maritimo racing fleet of three 40ft catamarans, each with fighter-jet cock-
pits which can travel almost 300 km/h. She is making waves in the male-dominated sport.
SARAH CHALMERS:
She is on the executive committee of the Calisthenics Association of Queensland, is a coach with the
Queensland Calisthenics Coaches Council, is in the Australian federation for the discipline, and is considered
a role model and mentor to the young coaches.
PETER OPPERMANN:
For more than 40 years he has been associated with the district and regional cricket association in Been-
leigh and with Beenleigh
Tennis Club administration. He
has been on the executive of
the Beenleigh Sports Club since
its inception and given a lifelong commitment to sport and
sports administration.
MATTHEW BELCHER:
He is ranked fifth in the elite 470 Olympic sailing world circuit, has won state, national and world titles,
and is regularly named Queensland sailor of the year. He acts as a mentor to young Gold Coast sailors, and
volunteers coaching at local yacht clubs and his old school, The Southport School.
JON NORTON:
The president of the Gold Coast District Golf Association, Pappy,
as he is known, has devoted his
life to helping junior golfers on the Gold Coast. More than 60 of his pupils, including Adam Scott, have
turned professional.
ROD PATISON:
He is the head of department of Palm Beach Currumbin High School's nationally recognised sports ex-
cellence program, has been a state and national schoolboy rugby league coach, and has guided many stu-
dents to NRL clubs, including Ben Ikin, Darius Boyd, Ben Hannant and Steven Michaels of
the Broncos.
SELWYN APANUI:
He takes pride in his Aboriginal heritage; is a founder of Aboriginal rugby league team the Wollumbin
Warriors; organising sponsorship; coaches a 13s rugby league team and a senior team at Tugun; and helps
local Aboriginals deal with drug, alcohol, legal and housing issues.
PAUL BROUGHTON:
The man who was given a football when he was six years old went on to develop a passion for rugby
league into a career as a professional rugby league player, then chairman of the Gold Coast NRL bid team
and now chairman of the Titans. He worked tirelessly to get the Gold Coast Titans accepted in the NRL com-
petition.
ETHAN ROLFF:
The Kingscliff backstroker who trains under coach Greg Salter and has a never-say-die attitude to his
chosen sport of swimming. He is a former Commonwealth Games representative and competed in the Pan
Pacific championships in Vancouver in August. He is training for the world championship trials in Brisbane in
December.
LYNSEY ARMITAGE:
At only 22, she is already a lawn bowls veteran. Having started playing when she was 11, the Common-
wealth Games gold medallist has had wins at club, state, national and international level and has been
named Queensland Lady Bowler of the Year and Queensland Representative Bowler of the Year.
ANNA-LOUISE KASSULKE:
A Special Olympics National Sports and Training Team member, she has volunteered with the Special
Olympics for 16 years; held positions at regional, state, national and international level; and has shown an
extraordinary commitment to people with disabilities in sport.
LAWRIE MCPHEE:
He has coached basketball teams in various competitions at Runaway Bay, including representative
teams, three evenings a week and weekends for the past 10 years, despite having health problems and
working full-time. He was recently awarded life membership of the Runaway Bay Basketball Club.
KELVIN KERKOW:
The Australian indoor bowls champion and Commonwealth Games bowls champion, his shirt-stripping
efforts have placed his sport in the spotlight. He has represented Australia at national and international com-
petitions and won two world titles, achievements that came after he spent two years in a wheelchair due to
an injury which paralysed him at age eight.
REG FREE:
He has won numerous state and national rowing championships, been international oarsman three
times, and coached internationally, including his sons Marcus and Duncan, who competed at the world row-
ing championships. He has also coached rowing at surf clubs and The Southport School, and has taken sev-
eral crews to state and national championships.
BRIAN FULLER:
He takes part in long-distance bike rides for charities, including the Make a Wish Foundation, and for a
family whose son suffered
from leukaemia. He is an endurance athlete who competes for Australia in ironman long-course races
and is competing in the world ironman championships in Hawaii in October.
MATTHEW COLE:
A 25-year-old with cerebral palsy, he is a second dan black belt in Hapkido, and a dual world champion,
and his Ashmore club where he teaches has won back-to-back world championships at Seoul and Carrara.
DICK JOHNSON:
The owner of Dick Johnson Racing, he had five touring car championships and three Bathurst 1000 wins
and operates Australia's longest-established professional race team, including a successful driver-develop-
ment program. The business employs 50 staff.
ENTERTAINMENT
MAURIE SERVICE:
The news director at radio 4GG when the station opened in 1967, he was appointed news director of ra-
dio 4CRB-FM at Burleigh Heads where he has been for the past 11 years. He was an entertainer with music
groups at local hotels and restaurants through the 1970s.
PAULINE DAVIES:
The director, co-ordinator and driving force for the Spotlight Golden Girls, ladies who entertain at nursing
homes, senior citizens clubs, retirements villages and other organisations around the city, she joined Spot-
light Theatre as a founding member in 1958.
MATTHEW COULTER:
Called the Kangaroo Kid, he has entertained crowds in Australia, Europe, the UK and the US, performing
stunts on his quad bike. He has performed in front of the Queen and Prince Charles and always promotes
the Gold Coast when overseas, giving away Gold Coast hats and T-shirts.
RICKI-LEE COULTER:
The singing sensation and former Australian Idol star has had three top Aria singles and her self-titled al-
bum was nominated for album of the year at the Urban Music Awards in July. She has had success with the
Young Divas, and supports charities.
PHIL AVALON:
A leading light in the film community, he has written, produced and directed a diverse range of feature
films, casting Mel Gibson in his first feature film. He directed Liquid Bridge and is to produce Dark Island and
direct SWOOP. He volunteers time to film students, and at film festivals.
DEBBIE FITZSUMMONS:
The Kirra music teacher plays in an all-girl band called Delisch which often performs free for charity. She
toured Australia and America with The Four Kinsmen, playing keyboards and acting as the group's musical
director. She established a scholarship program for the historic organ at St Martin's Anglican Church in Mul-
lumbimby.
SIMON HEART:
He is an internationally acclaimed magician who gives his time to charities and was the only Australian
magician to be the opening act at the 2003 Prestigious Magic Convention in the UK and to be invited to per-
form at the World's Escapology Fair in the US. He performs Houdini's legendary suspended straightjacket
escape.
AMY THOMPSON:
The 18-year-old has studied jazz, tap and ballet since the age of four and has performed lead roles in
high school musicals and local musical theatre productions such as Rent, Brigadoon, Annie, Footloose and
I'm Sorry. She has a day job
at Dreamworld and teaches weekend dance classes at Merrimac High School.
PAUL ALLEN:
For 25 years, the man who started Melbas on the Park has shown the Gold Coast how to party with his
famous nightclub and restaurant. He has made a major contribution to the Gold Coast entertainment and din-
ing scene and given many young people a start in the industry.
ALAN WHITE:
The band master of the Gold Coast City Wind Orchestra, he
has been playing in bands for
more than 40 years and took the orchestra to the National Band Championship C Division in Brisbane
this year and was invited to represent Australia in Taiwan at the International Band Festival.
KATE PETERS:
She has a passion for high-quality theatre productions, has staged numerous pantomimes for children,
runs a weekly stage column in The Gold Coast Bulletin and is a driving force of the Gold Coast Theatre Alli-
ance, organising workshops for training local actors and drama students, as well as performing charity
shows.
LYN BRAIN:
The rock and roll dance lover has been dancing since she could walk and has 14 Australian dance titles
and an Asia Pacific Masters gold medal to her name. Lyn and husband Peter started the Coast to Coast
Rock 'n' Roll club at Helensvale and Runaway Bay three years ago to give free rock 'n' roll dance lessons..
BERNIE BROWN:
A singer, musician, compere, dancer, composer and event organiser, he has worked all over Australia
and at restaurants and clubs on the Gold Coast. He also teaches students privately and for Education
Queensland.
CARISSA WARREN:
The house captain at Somerset College, she has written and directed house plays. She starred in a
show she helped write, which won a Gold Coast Schools Drama Festival award.
TANIA EDMUNDS:
Principal soprano, music director and co-founder of Opera Eagle's Nest, she has performed more than
200 Opera Eagle's Nest concerts in six years, including for charity. She is also the singing teacher and choral
director at St Hilda's School.
NIGEL LONG:
He has toured the world with the Tap Dogs for more than a decade and brought joy to people from roy-
alty to the person in the street. He is an ambassador for the Gold Coast on his many overseas trips and
teaching young dancers in his Tap Pup classes.
FERNANDO ALVAREZ:
He toured the country for 15 years with the Dance of the
White Horses show, taking his Spanish dancing horse show to thousands of people. It was the highest
ticket-selling act to travel New Zealand. He has offered his horses at free shows for disabled and hospitalised
children.
CHRISTOPHER ERNST:
His band The Black Market Rhythm Show, which he manages and fronts as singer and main songwriter,
has national airplay with
ENTERTAINMENT
(Cont'd)
Radio Triple J and he has set up his own entertainment business called Black Duck Magic.
YOUTH
BROOKE MUIR:
She is a member of the Burleigh Surf Lifesaving Club and volunteers to help homeless people through
Rosie's Youth Mission at Burleigh. She has also written stories for The Gold Coast Bulletin's TXT4U as a stu-
dent reporter.
JAMES MCALLAN:
He has worked as a theatre technician, supporting artists such as James Morrison, since the age of 15
and at 19 has set up a crewing business to help the entertainment industry in Brisbane and on the Gold
Coast, employing other young people to develop technical production skills.
JESSICA LEKICH:
This five-year-old was determined to raise money for sick kids at the Gold Coast Hospital by using her
loose tooth to raise more than $3000. She fronted her school assembly and doorknocked in her quest to
raise funds.
BRONTE KELLY:
The young ballet dancer has been awarded a high distinction from the Royal Academy of Dance in Lon-
don for her Advanced Foundation examination and has scored a full-time place at the Australian Ballet
School next year.
REGAN SALTER:
While training for an AFL career, the 13-year-old achieves top marks, won his college athletic champion-
ship and is middle school sports captain, travelling from his home in Brisbane to the Gold Coast to school
and train. He plays in local Aussie rules teams, and will attend the Brisbane Lions academy.
MADELINE ARNOLD:
The Year 11 student is an actress and donated her time to do a film about child sex abuse to raise
awareness of the issue. She set up a Spirit committee at her school to help other students, puts out a Year
11 newsletter and is already doing university study, one subject at a time while still at school. Is a member of
Interact and Zenith.
CHANTELLE DAY:
The 17-year-old Robina High School student is a cook, cleaner and carer to her mother who suffers from
kidney disease. She is school captain and works at a local fish and chip shop.
TAMARA DORRINGTON:
The Year 11 St Stephen's College student is the 2006 Australian ambassador to the Arctic to track polar
bears. She completed the Kokoda Challenge on the Gold Coast this year.
MATTHEW GREEN:
The Year 12 student at Palm Beach Currumbin High School is dedicated to World Vision after attending a
leadership course. He co-ordinates the 40-hour Famine at the school, speaks at school assemblies and
sponsors a child. He is also school vice-captain.
KRISTEN DOWNS:
A Helensvale High School student, she is in the school band, is involved in equestrian competitions , and
hopes to become a youth ambassador for World Vision. She is also a student reporter for TXT4U.
MICHAEL BLAIR:
A Year 11 student from St Stephen's College, he is a representative baseball player
and has just returned from the Global Young Leaders Conference in the US.
JASMIN BELL:
A Year 12 student at Trinity Lutheran College, she was offered a job as a television presenter on Totally
Wild, which will involve researching, filming, interviewing and presenting two days each week. She also com-
bines modelling with her academic pursuits.
CLARE HOBLER:
The 15-year-old has achieved her dream of acceptance to the Australian Ballet School. She has won
classical ballet awards at eisteddfods, including best classical dancer, and was accepted to the junior exten-
sion program of the Queensland Ballet.
EMMI DIXON:
She dreams of playing in the Australian Olympic hockey team, and has represented the Gold Coast and
Queensland in the sport. She has just returned from an under-16 championship in Newcastle, where she was
selected to play for Australia at Beijing in 2007.
MICHAEL KELLY:
At only 11, this incredibly bright student, who aims to study at Cambridge University, has completed 12
years of schooling in just over four years. Education Queensland has given approval for him to jump six
years in the senior school system, from Year 6 to 11 and 12 in just 18 months. A student at Nerang State
School, his IQ is in the genius range with a list of academic achievements to match.
DANIEL GLAUBERT:
He organised a LiveAid charity concert which helped a Mozambique school which had
no school essentials. He hopes to hold another similar event, and takes part in public speaking for the
Smith Family.
RYAN BARNETT:
A Year 12 student at Helensvale State High School, he is also a student at the Showbiz Express Circus
and Dance School, where
he learns clown skills and voluntarily performing at Gold Coast events. Was recently nominated for an
award for AFL Gold Coast juniors in the Youth Umpire Development Award.
RHEA ROBERTSON:
A 15-year-old performing arts student who was chosen to attend the new Queensland Academy of Creat-
ive Industries, has performed in local productions and last year was awarded most outstanding actress at the
Gold Coast Secondary Schools Drama Festival.
HANNAH MCCOLL-WAYNE:
This 17-year-old scholarship student has given up afternoon activities such as dance classes to tend to
environmental or social issues like Clean Up Australia
Day, weekly visits to retirement homes, tree planting for Gecko, caring for animals or attending Save Our
Spit rallies.
PAUL BLEAKLEY:
He was the junior mayor of the Gold Coast for part of 2005, then went to North Carolina in the United
States to finish his studies. There, he became a member of the local Honour Society, was interviewed by
Princeton and Harvard universities, won a President's Scholarship for Pfeiffer University and worked as a vo-
lunteer with disadvantaged students. The 17-year-old is now at Griffith University, studying law.
BUSINESS
MICHAEL SEARLE:
The managing director of the Gold Coast NRL, he fought tirelessly to ensure the Gold Coast Titans
gained entry to the NRL and will oversee the management and implementation of the team's entry in 2007. A
top sports administrator, he is the managing director of International Sports Australia, a sports marketing
agency which represents some of Australia's leading professional surfers, and is changing the perception of
sport as a business.
ANGELA MCGREGOR-GOODWIN:
She runs a training company called Quality Training Solutions and in just three years has secured high-
profile contracts for it.
STACEY ROBERTS:
She is the owner of Sharkey's Healing Centre, a world-renowned natural therapies and fertility clinic
which has helped bring more than 4000 babies into the world for families who had given up hope.
DENNIS RICHTER:
He is the manager of Aussie Junk Recycle Shop, which provides recyclable goods to pensioners
and the under-privileged and is helping the environment by diverting goods away from waste landfill
sites. It also helps the homeless, schools and charities.
FIONA BRYANT:
A fashion designer and head designer in a local bridal salon, her designs are known for their attention to
detail. She provides many women with 'the gown of
their dreams'.
PETER HAMPTON:
He has been involved in the pharmaceutical industry since 1969, and built the Oxenford Medical Centre
building in 1996. Now in its 10th year of operation, it has six full-time general practitioners, and five dentists
and full-time radiation and pathology specialists.
JOHN NEUMANN:
The Currumbin businessman, at 18, with his brothers and an engine from a 1924 Chevy floated on 44-
gallon drums in the Currumbin Creek, created his first sand dredge and launched an empire. Fifty years on,
the Neumann Group has an annual turnover of more than $600 million and a staff of more than 650. He de-
signed and built his dredges, which he then exported. He is managing director of Neumann Petroleum, Neu-
mann Contractors and Neumann Steel.
MICK PIRIE:
The patriarch of one of the Gold Coast's longest-established businesses, Pirie Doors at Bundall, he is a
respected local business identity and quiet achiever who has supported the Gold Coast community for the
past 50 years. He is also a veteran athlete with many Australian and international athletics records.
PHILL GALE:
He is general manager of one of Australia's largest shed kit suppliers, Wide Span Sheds. He helped
those affected by Cyclone Larry, has supported charities and employs
25 people.
WINSON WOO:
He began his real estate career on the Gold Coast less than 10 years ago but is already well-known, fol-
lowing a successful export career in NSW where he achieved Exporter of the Year in Agriculture in 1995. He
is a committee member of the Gold Coast Chinese Society.
BRUCE NICHOLLS:
The managing director of Whale Watching Gold Coast, the pioneer whale-watching service on the Gold
Coast, he also runs the Tall Ships Cruises out of Marina Mirage for 18 years. He is a long-time member of
the Gold Coast Tourism Bureau Board and a tourism campaigner.
ELAINE HOLLINGSWORTH:
At 78, she has sold more than 100,000 copies of her publication Take Control of Your Health and Escape
the Sickness Industry. A former Hollywood actress known as Sara Shane in the '50s and '60s, she acted with
stars including Clark Gable, James Mason, Sean Connery and Fred Astaire. She is director of the Hippo-
crates Health Centre
at Mudgeeraba.
SHARYN PAYNE:
An accountant who started her business from home, she goes out of her way to make sure every client is
satisfied and is part of BNI, a business group, where she holds a leadership position.
LUKE MORGAN:
At just 21, has has registered his sixth business, and has worked full-time from the moment he was leg-
ally allowed to, at 14 years and 9 months. His businesses include landscaping and security, and he has com-
pleted a university degree.
LEE ANN HICKS:
A sales person at Mitre 10 at Runaway Bay, her customers say she is an example of the perfect sales
person; courteous, friendly and knowledgeable about all aspects
of hardware.
VIV LIPKE:
She runs the Yatala-based Ice Craft Internat-ional with her son and just one other staff member. The firm
is the internat-ional patent holder and sole manufacturer of reusable ice sculpture moulds, and exports to
more than 100 countries.
ROBERT and LAURIE FRASER-SCOTT:
The husband and wife team runs one of Queensland's fastest growing privately owned businesses
groups with an asset portfolio comprising hotels, childcare centres, retail and commercial centres, a super-
market, a wholesale nursery and commercial property development.
DARREN BELL and GEORGIE TERRY:
The two work for a company called Eventco-ordination at Mermaid Beach after meeting
at Movie World where they
both worked.
TALAN MILLER:
As an 18-year-old, he held his first team-building event and has since led his company, Sabre Corporate
Development, to be the largest team-building company in the Asia Pacific area. Last year
he held 140 events in Australia
and overseas.
TOM RAY:
As director of the Ray Group, he has rallied staff since the death of his parents Brian and Kathy in a
plane crash and carried on the business in a way in which his father would have been proud.
PETER GATES:
A self-employed engineer, he established a process for improving mineral separation and from his hinter-
land garage, set up a factory
to export his mineral-
separation machines.
DEBBIE BRUCE:
The director of the Linkcom Group, a marketing and event management company, she started small with
an online bridal directory and held her first bridal expo in 1999. The directory now boasts more than 3000
members and the expos have expanded throughout Queensland and southern states.
RAY MILTON:
He has made a major voluntary contribution to the real estate industry on the Gold Coast after beginning
his real estate career in Surfers Paradise in 1970. He led the Gold Coast Real Estate Institute branch, and is
the longest-serving member and a life member of the board of the Real Estate Institute
of Queensland.
NINO MIANO:
He opened a jewellery store in Surfers Paradise in 1974 and became a leading designer, was co-founder
of the Gold Coast Italo Australian Club in 1976, opened award-winning Volare Italian restaurant in 1992, and
is on numerous industry and business bodies.
JOHN LONGHURST:
He created Dreamworld after buying land in then unknown Coomera in 1974 with a mission statement for
it to be a place of 'fun, entertainment and escapism for all people of all ages'. He taught himself to drive a
bulldozer and worked 12-hour days to create the theme park. He has also worked as a truck operator, lawn
mower manufacturer and boat builder.
DAVID BROWN:
He is the general manager of the Crowne Plaza Hotel and has helped it become the No. 1Crowne Plaza
hotel in the South Pacific region. He is highly respected by his staff and is known for being able to motivate
and communicate with them.
He also organises charity fundraising events.
EDUCATION
FIONA MUNROE:
The artistic director of Gold Coast Dancers Company, she is dedicated to ensuring her charges become
ballet stars. Many of her students work professionally in London and perform regularly in local dance produc-
tions.
TERRY GIMPEL:
The principal of Guardian Angels School, he is an unsung hero of the school, who after Cyclone Larry
devastated Innisfail, the next
EDUCATION (Cont'd)
day began fundraising to help the Good Counsel Primary School and then billet 142 students from the
school on the Gold Coast. He achieved his aim and recently took long-service leave to travel to Innisfail and
check on staff and students.
KAY FLYNN:
She has dedicated more than 30 years to teaching, judging and developing classical ballerinas and is
considered ballet royalty on the Gold Coast. She represents the art of dance on the Gold Coast City Coun-
cil's cultural development committee and guides her students to the Australian Ballet Academy
in Melbourne.
KATHERINE BROWN:
A cello teacher who has helped her students in a variety of competitions, she teaches students at All
Saints and The Southport School and each year holds a free concert to give her students the chance to
shine.
MATT BEATTIE:
He is a Coombabah High School teacher who saved a student's life when the student convulsed and had
trouble breathing in the school grounds. Matt used his volunteer lifesaving training to get the unconscious
student breathing again before ambulance
crews arrived.
SHARON WICKING:
A teacher's aide at Southport State Preschool who for many years has worked with preschoolers, she is
loved by her charges and her colleagues and always puts the needs of the children first.
JAMES CASEY:
He is the longest-serving martial arts teacher on the Gold Coast, who has held executive positions in the
sport in Australia, been a top referee, trained more than 200
state and national champions
and 22 world champions, been Australian and Queensland karate coach and hosted national and world
championships.
BRENDAN CALLAGHAN:
A teacher at All Saints Anglican School and co-ordinator for Year 8, his students say he is enthusiastic,
encouraging, unique, inspiring and dedicated. He often quotes his role model Einstein during his science les-
sons and wants all his students to become little Einsteins.
JANE HELY:
Until recently the sole teacher at the Broadbeach Waters Kindergarten and Preschool,
'Miss Jane', as she is known,
puts in the extra effort to make sure her pre-school is a special place
for everyone.
ALISON KENNAN:
The head of the English department at Robina State High School, who teaches Years 11 and 12, she is
considered an inspiration to her students and other teachers, has a passion for her students' welfare and
education, and spends many hours out of work time helping students and staff.
STEPHEN MCGRATH:
Head of the Junior School at St Andrews Lutheran College at Tallebudgera, he is a devoted headmaster
who knows all 580 of his students by name and takes pleasure in honouring each child and presenting them
with a Freddo Frog on their birthday.
MATT EDWARDS:
A Year 3 teacher at Assisi Catholic College, he has a wonderful ability to get children laughing and learn-
ing, and is strict but fair. Children love going to school because Mr Edwards is their teacher, who goes the ex-
tra mile to help them and always makes himself available to parents.
SANDY BOURNE:
A Year 6 teacher at The Southport School, she adores teaching boys, makes school a fun place for her
students, and has turned her classroom into a mini zoo using her reptile licence. Her students say of her:
''She makes us all feel special and that we are all good at something.''
GEORGE EARL:
He established the Bond University Mirvac School of Sustainable Development, Australia's first tertiary
program formally recognising long-term sustainability as integral in urban planning, design development and
strategic asset management.
IVAN BRKICH:
His students say the senior teacher at Varsity College is dedicated, motivated and passionate, an out-
standing educator, role model and
disciplined mentor.
AMANDA BOLLINGER:
She has danced for royalty, as the principal dancer in some of Europe's best ballet companies and with
multi-million dollar Disney productions, and is now passing on her talents at her own professional studio in
Southport.
JOHN EAST:
A teacher at Gilston School, he is said by his students to be competent, caring and kind and he finishes
each day with a song while he plays guitar.
PETER FIELDER:
A trainer at the Boss Institute of Advanced Technology, he teaches an introductory program in bricklaying
at Gold Coast schools, has trained hundreds of young people in construction, and is considered a great
tradesman, teacher and mentor.
ALLEN WILLIAMS:
He started the College for Law and Justice Administration after working at TAFE managing the Diploma
of Justice Administration, where he designed the course and helps to mould students in policing and justice
administration.
DEL MCLEOD:
A teacher at Merrimac High School in the Special Education Unit, she is devoted to her
students, never wants to leave at the end of each day, and is loved by all her students.
SALLY FARRELL:
A teacher at Elanora State School, she is a motivated teacher who provides her students with interesting
and captivating programs and her class recently won the Beat the Bulletin competition. Her students are en-
couraged to be independent learners.
LYNN LLOYD:
She is the 'go to' person, the 'Mrs Fix it', when parents are having problems with their children at school,
when a tuckshop committee needs help running its business, or when a P&C committee is looking a little
lost. As the community participation officer for the entire Gold Coast school district, she helps solve problems
at more than 60 schools.
KULDEEP KUMAR:
An associate professor at Bond University, he is a winner of several teaching excellence awards and
many Indian students come to study at the Gold Coast because he is such a popular teacher. His work on
bankruptcy prediction and breast cancer detection is considered world class.
RICHARD JOHN:
His Science on the Go project at Griffith University has provided training and professional development
for more than 450 primary and secondary school science teachers and through science shows, camps, work-
shops, on campus tours and internships, he has introduced science to more than 20,000 Gold Coast stu-
dents.
HANK LEWERISSA:
A dedicated music teacher for more than 20 years, many of
his students have gone on to be music teachers themselves and he has a unique ability to teach children
to enjoy music. Many of
his students have won competitions and musicals.
MONIQUE MCMULLEN:
In more than 10 years' teaching at Palm Beach-Currumbin, she has spent many hours helping students
with the rock eisteddfod and school musicals, including many weekends and holidays.
CHARMAINE BUCHANAN:
She has worked with students of a Certificate III in Business Administration since 1998, and is devoted to
her students, working tirelessly with industry in their job placement. Her success rate is high and more than
5000 students have received her personal attention.
JOY WHEELER:
A teacher at Varsity Lakes College, she aims to nurture children, and has undertaken study at her own
cost and time to further her knowledge in education and literacy. She specialises in helping children with spe-
cial needs.
SHARYN STUBBS:
The deputy principal of Helensvale State High School
is regarded is an exceptional educator who leads by example and gets in and gets her hands dirty, sacri-
ficing her own time to help with musicals, the special needs unit and rock eisteddfods.
BILL BONDFIELD:
The principal of Palm Beach Currumbin State School since 1989, his vision has seen the school at the
forefront of education. He has designed nationally recognised programs in sport, academic and performing-
arts excellence, and vocational education. He is chairman of the Gold Coast Principals' Alliance which pro-
motes state schools.
MARIE HANSON:
A Guardian Angels teacher of 32 years, she has taught from Years 1 to 7 and has devoted her life to her
students, including going on school camps, learning another language, becoming a computer whiz, and help-
ing with swimming and athletics carnivals, drama presentations
and dances.
CHRIS TOBIN:
The principal of Merrimac State High School, and formerly the manager for education services at Educa-
tion Queensland's Robina office, he always shows enthusiasm and commitment to the job. He set up a Posit-
ive Learning Centre at Labrador to give students another pathway to complete their education, and is pas-
sionate about his students' needs.
NICHOLAS COUBROUGH:
He teaches music performance, production, screen and live theatre production courses at Gold Coast
TAFE's Ashmore and Coolangatta campuses, helps with amateur theatre locally, and consults on theatre pro-
ductions.
MATTHEW SMITH:
He teaches music performance and production, screen and live theatre production at Gold Coast TAFE's
Ashmore and Coolangatta campuses, owns a production business and works as a freelance audio and light-
ing technician, and is committed to inspiring students.
SHARRON STATON:
A teacher at All Saints Anglican School, she is the Nairn Theatre's manager and technical theatre teach-
er, training students in real work environments to continue further study or open businesses.
CHRISTINE MACKIE:
An exchange teacher from Canada based at St Brigid's Primary School, she has taught the students all
about Canada and has brought to life another country for the students.
DEBORAH HYDE:
The librarian/teacher at Robina High School, she is a pocket rocket with more than 20 years' teaching
experience and not even open heart surgery could suppress her dedication to her students.
SHARON CRONE:
She has been a teacher at Benowa High School for 25 years and head of the communication department
for 20 years. The success of the junior and senior debating teams is a result of her drive, her English exten-
sion class achieves outstanding results and she is a great staff mentor.
SUE PESCOT:
A school nurse at Kumbari Avenue Special School, she is a friend and comforter to all, someone who
listens, never judges and treats everyone as an equal.
TONY MCDONALD:
A Year 7 teacher at Broadbeach State School, he provides a balanced learning environment for his stu-
dents and is a role model, mentor and friend to them.
VANESSA REBGETZ:
A foundation staff member at Upper Coomera State College since it opened in 2002, she has been a
class teacher, head of department and the college dean. She is now deputy principal of Fensham Senior
School and displays a passion for teaching and great caring for all
her students.
VOLUNTEER
YVONNE CODY:
The founder of Pets for Therapy, she has been helping provide therapeutic love and caring visits with
pets to hospitals, hospices, nursing and aged care homes with the help of her volunteers for the past 16
years.
HELENE MCCOWAN:
A registered nurse who gave up her career to teach primary school children moral values through reli-
gious education in state schools, she now covers 27 state schools across the coast.
BRUCE HARDSTAFF:
The group leader of the Nerang Scout Group for the past eight years, he pours his heart and soul into
the movement and knows each child by name. He is also a member of the committee for his local church and
is on the committee for the Nerang Environment Council.
MAVIS CHAPMAN:
She has worked as a volunteer at St John's Drop-in Centre at Surfers Paradise for almost 25 years,
cooking meals for the homeless and lunch for at least 45 people once a week. In her 80s, she takes pride in
helping needy people.
ASHLEY EBSWORTH:
A retired chiropractor, he has devoted years to the Gold Coast and Queensland Accordion Clubs, organ-
ising 19 major concerts a year and monthly meetings at the Burleigh Waters Community Centre, sharing his
love of accordion music.
KERRY LARKIN:
He has been involved with the Queensland Cancer Fund since 1973 and is chairperson of the Southport
Volunteer Branch. He served on the medical and scientific committee of the fund from 1981 to 1993, taught
surgery in East Africa and is now retired, but still does community speaking and fundraising for the cancer
fund.
TRACIE HEATON:
She is the co-ordinator for the Swell Sculpture Festival, responsible for more than 100
VOLUNTEER
(Cont'd)
volunteers, and developed a program for local schools, Swell for Kids, which provides children with a
semester of visual arts and an excursion to Swell to build their own sculptures.
LARRY DAWSON:
He is the founder of the ManKind Project in Australia, a non-profit training organisation for men which
aims to support men develop lives of integrity, accountability, and connection
to feeling.
WENDY FAWNS:
She raises funds for the Queensland Cancer Fund, and has entered the Nurse of the Year quest while
working four days a week at Gold Coast hospital.
PAT WILLIAMS:
The volunteer co-ordinator for 21 years since its inception at the Citizens Advice Bureau, a community
legal centre in Southport, she gives of her time
two days a week and is motivated
by a desire to give back to
the community.
SUE HUTCHINSON:
The superintendent of the Mermaid Beach division of the St John Ambulance Volunteers, she is a quali-
fied first aid instructor and trains volunteers to the highest level of first aid practices.
ROSIE THOMPSON:
She started Chicks @ Lunch to raise money from her friends to help support the animals at the Coomba-
bah Animal Shelter. From four ladies, the group now regularly has grown to 180.
THOMAS ROLFE:
He is the inspiration and driving force of the Woodwork and Craft Club on the Gold Coast, a group of vo-
lunteers which offers tuition to the public, and makes and donates wooden toys to charity. He has built
churches and schools in South Pacific missions.
ALBERT SMALL:
He joined Lions International in 1961 and has a 100 per cent attendance record for 45 years. He is a
Lions Youth of the Year chairman, is active in drug programs in schools and in the Lions Hearing Dog pro-
gram, supplies air-conditioners to terminally ill
people, as well as wheelchairs and voice machines, and sells Lions Christmas cakes.
JOHN WISEMAN:
A tireless community worker and JP, he provides breakfast for the homeless, transport for elderly people
and makes himself available for medical students to practice their skills.
CLAUDETTE NEAVE:
She has volunteered with Rosie's Youth Mission since 1992 doing street, court and prison outreach, fun-
draising, administration, presentation and training. She built Rosie's court presence from one to four days
weekly, helps prisoners re-establish in the community, and works with the disabled and African refugees.
CAROLYN GROVES:
She volunteers her time at the Hopewell Hospice as a cook, care giver and counsellor often up to 50
hours a week. After beating cancer, she is donating her time to the hospice that helped her do it.
NORMA KOLKKA:
She has volunteered for more than 25 years at the Northcliffe Surf Club where she is a gold card life
member and volunteers at the ADCARE Charity shop in Southport.
GRAHAM DABELSTEIN:
He is a Meals on Wheels driver who works five days a week, often doing a double run involving 18
homes when there is a shortage of drivers.
PAM MCKELLAR:
She uses her skills as a hairdresser for the Queensland Cancer Fund, helping ladies who have cancer to
choose wigs and turbans from the fund's Wig and Turban Library. She helps sufferers at Young Women's
Network meetings where she is affectionately known as 'Mum'.
SALLY PAXTON:
If there is someone in her southern Gold Coast community who needs help, she is the first person to put
her hand up. She is the organiser of the Malfunction Longboard contest, a life member of the Super 8s Long-
board Club, and involved in the fight to save Kirra Hill and the historic Coolangatta State School.
RON BAGNALL:
He is a life member of the Palm Beach Surf Lifesaving Club, and every weekend he helps set up, clean
and store equipment.
LYNDEL WALTON:
She is the treasurer, secretary, canteen lady and referee organiser with the Robina City Soccer Club,
where she ensures the club
runs smoothly.
CAROLE GREEN:
She is known as 'the bird woman of Hope Island' and is a registered carer with the Gold Coast branch of
the Wildlife Preservation Society, spending the past 30 years caring for sick and injured wildlife.
CHRIS RYAN:
He has been a volunteer with the Southport Surf Life Saving Club for the past 10 years and gets enorm-
ous satisfaction out of helping and encouraging nippers. He helps raise funds and is always coming up with
new ideas to help.
JO RODGERS:
She is an active member of the North Kirra Surf Life Saving Club, trains and tests members, performed
380 hours last season and is the club captain for the third season in a row. She raised more than $20,000 in
the Conrad Jupiters Summer Surf
Girl competition.
BRIAN WOOD:
Every day without fail, for years, he has cleaned the streets of debris and rubbish around his Surfers
Paradise home, and sorted bins for apartment blocks, to keep his area clean.
SUE OLNEY:
She has been volunteering her time to the sick and needy at the Gold Coast Hospital for more than 25
years and clocks up about 300 hours every year. She was volunteer co-ordinator for 15 years.
WANDA HAMILL:
The president of the Coolangatta/Tweed Partners of Veterans Association and vice-president of the NSW
branch, she works tirelessly to help the partners of returned servicemen deal with depression, post traumatic
stress and alcoholism.
CATHERINE 'Kitty' CAMPBELL:
They call her 'The Motivator' because she manages to get people to a chilly walking track at 5.30am be-
fore sunrise and get them exercising. She co-ordinates the Just Walk It program for the Heart Foundation.
FRED WOODLEY:
The president of the Paradise Point and Northern Districts Progress Association is responsible for activit-
ies including Opera in the Park, dragonboat regattas, rock 'n' roll concerts and the suburb's great New Year's
Eve activities.
DICK and ANNE SAYER:
The couple volunteers with the Anglican Church at the Isle of Capri, helping organise services and public
concerts in which Anne
often performs.
MARGARET JARDEN:
She has been volunteering at the respite centre at Runaway Bay since 1998, despite being the same
age as many of her clients. She is the escort for bus trips, dresses up for theme days and models in fashion
parades.
STEVE JONES:
He is the longest-serving captain of the Surfers Paradise Surf Lifesaving Club and has performed more
than 4000 hours of voluntary patrols and more than 300 rescues. He lectures about lifesaving to universities
and schools.
DAVE NEAL:
He has volunteered at Kirra Haven, an aged-care centre, three days a week every day for five
years. He runs popular gentle exercise classes and a weekly art class, sings karaoke, holds singalongs
and looks after the budgie aviary. Staff and residents call him an 'absolute legend'.
BETH COOMBES:
In 1996 she started a volunteer service at a nursing home in Hope Island, organising bingo, indoor
bowls, exercises and outings. When the home closed, she volunteered at Allamanda Hospital, and is CPR for
Life co-ordinator.
RACHEL WHALEBONE:
She is a volunteer in the special care (dementia specific) unit in the Kirra Haven Aged Care Centre, six
hours a day, twice a week. She serves meals, helps residents to eat, reads to them, and makes sure the res-
idents feel special.
CHRIS ANDERSON:
A dedicated volunteer committee member of the Gold Coast Little Athletics Club, her passion for young
athletes has been a catalyst in her devotion to the sport for 15 years. She has been centre manager, secret-
ary, treasurer, canteen convenor, and state team selector. Members call her the club guru.
CHARLES BLAKE:
He has offered 50 years of service as a Justice of the Peace in Queensland and is devoted to helping
others through his many activities as a JP.
PETAR NOVAKOVIC:
He is an ophthalmic surgeon who flies his plane to isolated Aboriginal communities to provide free spe-
cialist medical services such as cataract eye operations.
RICHARD BURTON:
He leads an exercise group three mornings a week for the Gold Coast City Council Keep Active Cam-
paign, helping people of all ages keep fit, and teaches personal training at TAFE.
IRENE GREEN:
She volunteers at the Southport Endeavour Toastmasters Disability branch, the only disability Toastmas-
ters in the world, and works to promote the abilities and achievements of people with
a disability.
FAY HENDERSON:
She is president of Dragons Abreast Gold Coast, the Pink Ladies who help survivors of breast cancer re-
gain upper-body strength. She is a tireless breast cancer awareness advocate.
STEVE BAKER:
An accountant with more than 30 years' business experience, he is a volunteer member of the board and
treasurer of FSG Australia, a non-profit organisation which helps people with disabilities. He is also involved
with the Broadwater Netball Association, Holy Family Church at Runaway Bay, and Coomera Anglican Col-
lege, helping them gain grants and to hold sports events and other activities.
COURAGE
SEAN KEELER:
He risked his life for nearly half an hour to fight a crazed bull which was savagely mauling his neighbour.
Mr Keeler grabbed sticks and rocks and attacked the bull until he managed to chase it away.
ANDREW KNIGHT:
He helped save the lives of three trawlermen in a rescue off Ballina in May, 1983, when he and a fellow
Ballina surf club member got the men's stricken trawler towed to safety. Mr Knight was swept away from his
IRB and spent two hours swimming to shore.
JOSHUA ROUGHHEAD:
On May 24 this year, this Year 8 Varsity College student noticed a woman, who had been trapped by a
jammed door, waving her arms from a bathroom window. Joshua phoned the police for help while his mate
went inside to help the woman.
ZACHARY LAWRENCE:
On May 24 this year, this Year 8 Varsity College student noticed a woman, who had been trapped by a
jammed door, waving her arms from a bathroom window. While his mate phoned the police, Zachary went in-
side, comforting her until
police arrived.
GABE JOSE:
Working on a special traffic operation, Senior Constable Jose pulled over a vehicle on the M1 at Pim-
pama at night on June 24. He was struck in the face with his own baton and bitten 35 times in a frenzied at-
tack by two people and is recovering, but has vowed to be return to keep people safe on
the roads.
KEN LLOYD:
He saved the life of a 29-year-old surfer trapped on rocks in treacherous seas last April. The Surfers
Paradise surf club member, in pounding 6m swells at Burleigh, put his wave runner up on rocks several times
before grabbing the surfer and taking him to safety.
TONIA CHRISTENSEN:
In March 2002, she saved 23 elderly and disabled residents in her care at Hope Island After Care and
Respite Centre, which had caught on fire. She kept going back into the fire to save residents. She then
helped the residents find
new homes.
CHARLES TAYLOR:
In June 2000, the 70-year-old wrestled with a bank robber armed with a .22 calibre rifle, who had pointed
the gun at a female teller in a local bank. He was struck on the head and body with the bandit's rifle. He then
threw a rubbish bin at the robber and got his registration details for police.
JIMMY DAVIS:
Last April, the Tallebudgera 10-year-old was swimming with a fellow nipper in front of his local surf club
when he noticed a father and his son in trouble in a dangerous sweep. Jimmy took hold of the man's panick-
ing five-year-old son and swam him to safety while his mate went to get a lifeguard to save the father.
COLIN BROOKS:
The pilot of a light aircraft and three of his passengers owe their lives to this man and his trusty board-
shorts. The Surfers Paradise hero singlehandedly pulled the pilot and passengers from the wreck of a twin-
engine Piper Aztec, which crashed into the ocean off Cairns in November, 1996. He kept them afloat in
choppy conditions by getting them to hold on to
his boardshorts.
LIFETIME
BARBARA CRAIG:
Her achievements include being a medical officer with Breastscreen Queensland for 14 years, a palliat-
ive care physician at the Gold Coast Hospital, a Gold Coast Hospital Ethics Committee member and an eth-
ics lecturer at the Bond University Medical School.
LESLIE TAYLOR:
A former professional boxer and Surfers Paradise opal trader, he became an unofficial instructor with the
Gold Coast Police and Citizens club, led a gospel singing group which visited nursing homes once a week for
20 years, and was a pianist and singer.
KEITH FULTON:
He has dedicated his life to fundraising for the Leukaemia Foundation since its inception 31 years ago, in
memory of his son Warren. He attends all the foundation's events and is always happy to help, whether it be
selling raffle tickets or manning a barbecue.
FONDA FULTON:
Since losing her son Warren to leukaemia 31 years ago, has been tireless in her efforts to improve
the lives of leukaemia patients and their families. She is treasurer of the Gold Coast branch of the Leuk-
aemia Foundation, patient support person for the Gold Coast, and a life member.
EDWINA KEIDS:
She lost her husband to cancer in 2004. For the past 18 months, she has been full-time carer for an eld-
erly 90-year-old relative.
JIM SIMPSON:
He is a Nobby Beach local who has volunteered with Sea Rescue, Volunteer Coast Guard, Rotary and
Volunteering Queensland. He set up Retirees Australia, a service for seniors, is a member of five seniors
committees, and takes an active interest in researching and doing what he can to highlight issues for the eld-
erly on the Gold Coast.
DAWN and JOY RANSLEY:
The pair has been teaching dance for more than 50 years and been with the renowned Ransley Gold
Coast Dance Centre for more than 20 years.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
JOURNAL-CODE: GCB
Copyright 2006 Nationwide News Pty Limited

All Rights Reserved
90 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
August 15, 2006 Tuesday

State Edition
2-Minute T-D
SECTION: GENERAL; Pg. A-2
LENGTH: 618 words
IN THE NEWS
SNAP A PICTURE Tanner Lewis, 4, of St. Joseph, Mo., had his photo taken yesterday with an alligator
at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Mo. "He was brave till we got there," said Tracy Whorton, his grand-
mother. (Photo cutline)
A GERMAN CONNECTION Europe's longest wooden bridge, which is 787 feet long, spans an area of
the 2007 Bundesgartenschau, or German Federal Garden Show, near Gera, Germany. (Photo cutline)
NATION
LOW-PATHOGENIC BIRD FLU? Scientists have discovered the possible presence of bird flu in the U.S.
in wild swans near the banks of Lake Erie. But it does not appear to be the worrisome strain that the govern-
ment has long feared. A6
RECRUITER MISCONDUCT RISING A report by the Government Accountability Office finds that military
recruiters have increasingly resorted to overly aggressive tactics and even criminal activity to attract young
troops to the battlefield. A12
NATIONAL BRIEFS A12
WORLD
BRITISH DROP THREAT LEVEL Britain lowered its terrorist-threat level, and a court granted a govern-
ment request for more time to interrogate the last of 23 people in an alleged plot to bomb passenger jets. A6
DIFFERENCES ON BOMBING CAUSE U.S. and Iraqi officials disagreed on what caused a deadly
series of explosions in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday. The number of casualties also was in
dispute. A3
WORLD BRIEFS A3
METRO
CONFEDERACY MUSEUM CUTS The Museum and White House of the Confederacy will reduce its op-
erating hours. The museum will close Wednesdays, from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Also, the White House
will be closed for public tours in January and February. C1
SEARCH FOR EGYPTIANS ENDS Two Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up for their col-
lege program in Montana were arrested Sunday in Richmond. Mohamed Saleh Ahmed Maray, 20, and Mo-
hamed Ibrahim Fouaad El Shenawy, 17, were the last of 11 Egyptian students to be apprehended. B1
MISSION CONVENTION The challenges facing missionaries, such as tribal conflicts and extreme
poverty, are being discussed at the 109th Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention. B1
VIRGINIA
CAMPAIGN ACCUSATIONS The campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb has accused Sen.
George Allen of making a racist slur against one of Webb's aides. B3
ELECTROCUTION PROBE Three witnesses to the electrocution of four National Scout Jamboree lead-
ers did not recall seeing signs warning of high-voltage power lines, according to documents the Army re-
leased this month. But a photograph included in the documents does show the presence of a sign. B2
HALIFAX SEX-ABUSE CASE A Halifax County man is facing 12 life sentences and 335 years in prison
after pleading guilty to 36 child-pornography and sex-abuse charges, the prosecutor said. B1
ORANGE DELAYS SUBDIVISION VOTE At the developer's request, the Orange Town Council deferred
voting on a proposal to build a subdivision that would boost the town's population by 40 percent. B2
BUSINESS
AVERAGE GAS PRICE DROPS The average U.S. retail price of regular gasoline fell for the first time in
seven weeks, dropping 3.8 cents to $3 a gallon in the week ended yesterday, the U.S. Energy Department
said. The price is 45 cents a gallon higher than a year ago. B7
ANTHEM LAYOFFS Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield has notified about 30 information-technology em-
ployees and managers in the Richmond area that they will be laid off. That represents about 1 percent of the
health insurer's local work force. B7
WALL STREET The Dow rose 9.84, and the Nasdaq gained 11.33. B8
SPORTS
GOOD NEWS FOR PORTIS Washington hopes to have running back Clinton Portis back in time for its
Sept. 11 regular-season opener. D1
EDITORIAL PAGE: Are high-speed chases appropiate law-enforcement tools? A10
LOAD-DATE: August 17, 2006
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: A head start on the headlines in today's Times-Dispatch
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
Copyright 2006 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
91 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)

Final Edition
2-Minute T-D
SECTION: GENERAL; Pg. A-2
LENGTH: 634 words
IN THE NEWS
SNAP A PICTURE Tanner Lewis, 4, of St. Joseph, Mo., had his photo taken yesterday with an alligator
at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Mo. "He was brave till we got there," said Tracy Whorton, his grand-
mother. (Photo cutline)
A GERMAN CONNECTION Europe's longest wooden bridge, which is 787 feet long, spans an area of
the 2007 Bundesgartenschau, or German Federal Garden Show, near Gera, Germany. (Photo cutline)
NATION
LOW-PATHOGENIC BIRD FLU? Scientists have discovered the possible presence of bird flu in the U.S.
in wild swans near the banks of Lake Erie. But it does not appear to be the worrisome strain that the govern-
ment has long feared. A6
RECRUITER MISCONDUCT RISING A report by the Government Accountability Office finds that military
recruiters have increasingly resorted to overly aggressive tactics and even criminal activity to attract young
troops to the battlefield. A12
NATIONAL BRIEFS A12
WORLD
BRITISH DROP THREAT LEVEL Britain lowered its terrorist-threat level, and a court granted a govern-
ment request for more time to interrogate the last of 23 people in an alleged plot to bomb passenger jets. A6
DIFFERENCES ON BOMBING CAUSE U.S. and Iraqi officials disagreed on what caused a deadly
series of explosions in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday. The number of casualties also was in
dispute. A3
WORLD BRIEFS A3
METRO
SEARCH FOR EGYPTIANS ENDS Two Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up for their col-
lege program in Montana were arrested Sunday in Richmond. Mohamed Saleh Ahmed Maray, 20, and Mo-
hamed Ibrahim Fouaad El Shenawy, 17, were the last of 11 Egyptian students to be apprehended. B1
POWHATAN RAISES CASH PROFFER Powhatan County's Board of Supervisors voted to raise the
county's maximum cash proffer to $12,344 per housing lot, a 70.6 percent increase from the previous amount
of $7,236. B1
MISSION CONVENTION The challenges facing missionaries are being discussed at the 109th Lott
Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention. About 5,000 are expected at the meeting at the Greater Rich-
mond Convention Center this week. B1
CONFEDERACY MUSEUM CUTS The Museum and White House of the Confederacy will reduce its op-
erating hours. The museum will close Wednesdays, from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Also, the White House
will be closed for public tours in January and February. C1
VIRGINIA
CAMPAIGN ACCUSATIONS The campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb has accused Sen.
George Allen of making a racist slur against one of Webb's aides. B1
ELECTROCUTION PROBE Three witnesses to the electrocution of four National Scout Jamboree lead-
ers did not recall seeing signs warning of high-voltage power lines, according to documents the Army re-
leased this month. But a photograph included in the documents does show the presence of a sign. B2
HALIFAX SEX-ABUSE CASE A Halifax County man is facing 12 life sentences and 335 years in prison
after pleading guilty to 36 child-pornography and sex-abuse charges, the prosecutor said. B2
FEDERAL PROSECUTIONS OF GANGS A state prosecutor who has led anti-gang investigations will be
able to take cases to federal court to punish members with stiffer penalties. B2
BUSINESS
DELL RECALLS BATTERIES Dell Inc. said it will recall 4.1 million notebook computer batteries because
they can overheat and catch fire. B7
ANTHEM LAYOFFS Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield notified about 30 information-technology employ-
ees and managers in the Richmond area that they will be laid off. That represents about 1 percent of the
health insurer's local work force. B7
WALL STREET The Dow rose 9.84; the Nasdaq rose 11.33. B8
SPORTS
GOOD NEWS FOR PORTIS Washington hoped to have running back Clinton Portis back in time for its
Sept. 11 regular-season opener. D1
EDITORIAL PAGE: Are high-speed chases appropiate law-enforcement tools? A10
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: A head start on the headlines in today's Times-Dispatch
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
Copyright 2006 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
93 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Nelson Mail (New Zealand)
Would you trust me with the kids?

BYLINE: CLARKE, Alan
SECTION: FEATURES; GENERAL; FOCUS; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 1039 words
Last week I did something my wife reckons confirms my impending senility. No, I didn't hop on the plane
for Auckland thinking I was heading home for tea.
I didn't park the car at the bottom of the Nelson Yacht Club's privately owned ramp at low tide and
wander off into work, or declare an intention to stand for the mayoralty.
No. I offered my services as a baby-sitter.
Though I've performed this pleasurable duty many times for my eldest grand-daughter (now aged six)
and we've both survived intact and perhaps even better for it, it was not my ability or suitability that sparked
my wife's concerns.
It was that I'd offered to do so for a young couple who live up the street a little and with whom I've struck
up the odd conversation without really knowing them that well, or them me.
``Just offering must seem weird,'' my wife said. ``There've been enough problems over the years already
with men being accused of things they'd never dream of doing. Why put yourself at risk?''
To be honest, that thought hadn't occurred to me for a moment.
I was simply chatting with the young couple and mentioned that, if they ever got stuck without a baby-sit-
ter for their two youngsters, we lived nearby and would be happy to help.
``We're pretty particular, we don't just trust anyone,'' the young mum said.
``Yep, well, I'm a paedophile,'' I joked.
``No ... but I mean, we're a bit wary about getting young teenagers in if we don't know them - they might
get their boyfriends in or get into alcohol or anything,'' she continued.
Young teen? She certainly wasn't referring to me. We turned the conversation to other matters and went
on our way.
About three the next morning, the conversation returned to haunt me. I suddenly realised what the orch-
ardist and taxi-driver, who two years back both made bomb jokes at Nelson Airport and got nabbed by the
law and handed hefty fines by an unamused judiciary, must have felt.
There are some things you just don't joke about in this overly sensitive age. Bombs at airports is one.
Paedophilia is another.
I figured, too, that the way we picture ourselves could easily be quite different from how others see us.
Any abuse of the innocent - particularly children - is despicable. How anyone could want to rob them of
the trust that is theirs as of right is beyond my comprehension.
Yet how might a parent know that a virtual stranger would mean no harm to their children? In the young
mum's eyes, I'd probably fit the bill as well as anyone for a potential abuser.
Forgive me, but I'm male, for starters. Middle-aged. My wife and I live alone, our children having grown
up and moved on.
I'm aware that despite the stranger-danger campaigns of a couple of decades back, most of the abuse of
children comes from family or friends.
There have been too many instances of people in positions of trust who've deliberately joined organisa-
tions - church groups, scouts, etc - so as to meet and prey on children.
How would anyone differentiate between me and some paedophile seeking to ingratiate himself into a
young family's circle of friends and acquaintances?
Indeed, the young couple - whom I like and admire - both work in social services fields and are probably
exposed to the reality of child abuse more than most of us.
So why, indeed, should they trust me? How can anyone tell the difference between a caring individual
who really does just love kids and genuinely enjoys helping others - as I consider myself to be - and an ap-
parently plausible, devious molester?
The answer, I guess, is that we can't. And much as I'd hate to be considered a potential risk to anyone, a
parent's first duty is to the safety of his or her children - and that simple rule has led in part to a much less
appealing and enjoyable society than the one I grew up in.
Consider the fact that now just 17 percent, or 4624 of the country's 26,305 primary school teachers, are
male.
Some recent research indicates that the most relevant parent as regards individual children's develop-
ment is the same-sex one. Too many children are denied that advantage, and then miss out on a suitable
substitute at such a vital, formative, age because men now consider primary teaching just too risky.
Then there's the airline seating policy of refusing to put men beside unaccompanied children. Wrong as it
might seen, it is also understandable.
Our roads illustrate another aspect of the safety-first approach to modern parenting. Compare the
volume of traffic during school holidays with the rest of the year, especially around school drop-off and pick-
up times.
Forty years ago I walked each day to school and back. It was a stroll of around 3km each way on an LSZ
road in a semi-rural area. Nothing exceptional there. I guess it taught road safety, self-reliance and helped
keep us fit.
Even so, I remember a man once stopping his car near the school and asking if we ``wanted a lollie''. We
ran back and reported the incident to the school, and a week or two later a policeman delivered the stranger-
danger message. I guess the issue's been around as long as we've had men.
In more recent times, media reports and greater emphasis on various types of abuse have contributed to
a loss of confidence and diminishing trust in others.
There's also been a palpable reduction in ``neighbourliness''. But I guess if that helps keep some kids
safer, then that's the price that has to be paid.
The office of the Children's Commissioner says figures it had gathered for the period 2000-2004 showed
there were 937 sex abuse convictions where the victim was under 12 years of age. Of these, all but six were
associated with male offenders.
However, it was unable to break the figures down into whether the offenders were strangers, relatives,
family ``friends'', babysitters or in some other relationship with their victims.
There is no statistic, of course, for those children whose abuse never makes it on to the crime sheets at
all. And I guess older children are also among the prime predators of younger siblings or kids in the neigh-
bourhood.
Incidentally, the young couple did call on our help for a few hours the next Saturday night. My wife and I
answered the call together - seemed the safest policy all round. And you know what? It is nice to feel both
useful and trusted.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Nelson Evening Mail Limited

All Rights Reserved
94 of 265 DOCUMENTS
July 29, 2006 Saturday
BOY SCOUTS MUST RELEASE RECORDS ON SEX ABUSE

CLAIMS INFORMATION WAS SOUGHT FOR LAWSUIT AGAINST
GROUP
BYLINE: P-I STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. B2
LENGTH: 928 words
Dozens of reports of alleged sexual abuse of Washington boys are included in the files that the Boy
Scouts of America must turn over to three men alleging years of molestation by a scoutmaster.
The reports are part of at least 1,000 such files compiled nationally by the Boy Scouts that can be used
in a lawsuit against the organization, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Proceedings in that suit, which stopped while the dispute over the redacted files was decided, might re-
sume early next year.
The plaintiffs, two of whom live in south King County, say the documents detailing alleged sexual abuse
and other misconduct by volunteers across the country since the 1940s show the Boy Scouts' system for
tracking and preventing abuse was ineffective.
While Boy Scouts officials promoted the organization as a safe place for children, they failed to disclose
to the public the scope of the abuse and "that the system didn't work very well," plaintiff attorney Mark Hon-
eywell said Friday.
Although volunteers were kicked out when a complaint was lodged against them, the "guys would
change their middle initial and re-up (as a scoutmaster in a different location) and abuse another Scout," he
said.
Plaintiffs' attorneys had previously gathered about 1,900 of the Boy Scouts' records, compiled from 1971
to 1991, from another attorney who obtained them in a separate court case. They won release of at least
1,000 more files - reports made before 1971 and after 1991 - in the Washington state lawsuit.
Overall, the number of reports filed in Washington number "in the dozens," Honeywell said.
"As a matter of public interest, this is probably the single largest compilation of known or suspected child
molesters anywhere," said Tim Kosnoff, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
D. Michael Reilly, an attorney representing the Boy Scouts, responded Friday that "the number of files
BSA (Boys Scouts of America) holds does not establish the existence of a problem; instead it's an example
of BSA's dedication going back decades in doing what BSA can to protect youth.
"The truth is," he said, "there is no fail-safe method to screen abusers. Unfortunately, child sexual abuse
is a societal problem that requires attention from all youth-serving organizations."
In a statement, Boy Scout officials said the organization has been a leader in "developing youth protec-
tion programs."
"BSA appealed to the Washington Supreme Court out of concern that the trial court's order in this case
risked undermining the effectiveness of those programs," the statement said.
Starting in the late 1980s, the Boy Scouts began training boys how to recognize, resist and report abuse
by the general public, Honeywell said.
The Irving, Texas-based organization also teaches parents and volunteers how to spot and report abuse,
and said it began background checks on new volunteers in 2003.
Supreme Court justices referred to the three plaintiffs as T.S., M.S. and K.S. in their opinions Thursday.
The underlying lawsuit claims the three were sexually abused by their scoutmaster, Bruce Phelps, 53, of
Seattle, from 1971 to 1983. The suit named Phelps, the national organization and its local branches as de-
fendants.
Kosnoff and Honeywell, the plaintiffs' attorneys, said Phelps had admitted to sexual abuse in a deposition
and settled his portion of the case several months ago.
Phelps' attorney, Kenneth Kagan, confirmed the settlement but said Phelps did not admit to all of the
plaintiffs' allegations.
Two of the plaintiffs - brothers Tom Stewart, 43, of Enumclaw, and Matt Stewart, 42, of San Diego - previ-
ously revealed their identities to the public. The third plaintiff, who is not related to the Stewarts and who lives
in south King County, has chosen to remain anonymous, Honeywell said.
In the case decided Thursday, Boy Scouts attorneys argued that King County Superior Court Judge Mi-
chael Fox should have used a more detailed legal test in deciding whether to release the files to the plaintiffs.
The Supreme Court's majority, however, said that three-part test was meant for cases of an organization
seeking to protect privileged communications with its members.
No such privilege exists in this case, Justice Susan Owens wrote for the majority.
"Indeed, the opposite is true: a society interested in protecting children from criminal assaults would not
reasonably leave to the discretion of a children's social club the disclosure of information regarding criminal
assaults on children," Owens wrote.
Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justices Barbara Madsen, Bobbe Bridge, Charles Johnson, Tom
Chambers and Mary Fairhurst also signed the majority opinion.
In their dissent, Justices Jim Johnson and Richard Sanders said the three-part test should have been ap-
plied because of broader privacy guarantees found in the state constitution.
Many of the more than 3,000 misconduct files in the case rely on news accounts and court records,
along with rumors and tips from parents and others, plaintiffs' attorneys said.
The Boy Scouts have been keeping such files since the group's inception in 1910, but had destroyed re-
cords when the alleged perpetrators either turned 75 or died, Honeywell said.
The files in Thursday's ruling have the names of alleged victims and perpetrators redacted, as well as
names of alleged victims' parents. Those files are shielded by a court order, but will be made public in any
eventual trial, Kosnoff said.
"They have thrown just an unbelievable amount of money and effort at preventing us from getting these
records and telling the world about them," he said of the Boy Scouts.
LOAD-DATE: July 31, 2006
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
98 of 265 DOCUMENTS
The Times Leader
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service
July 9, 2006 Sunday

A church re-educates itself
BYLINE: Mark Guydish, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader
LENGTH: 1504 words
Jul. 9--It's a sunny spring Saturday in a still sleepy Montrose and Gerard "Father Gerry" Safko flashes a
disarmingly warm smile in the chilly basement of the Holy Name of Mary Church rectory. He offers a few
quips about a failed turkey hunt before settling into serious business: Child sex abuse.
Safko comes across as easy going, but he has taken on the heavy task as facilitator, or trainer, for the
VIRTUS program, adopted by the Diocese of Scranton in the wake of the priest sex scandals. Every cleric,
every employee, every volunteer who deals regularly with children, throughout the 11 county diocese gets
some training to recognize suspicious behavior, prevent abuse and report concerns. There is a separate pro-
gram for Catholic school students.
This is not optional. It is a mandate promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as
part of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, enacted in 2002. That makes the Cathol-
ic Church a rarity.
By comparison, other organizations often make such training optional. The Boy Scouts of America, for
example, have a voluntary online course. The National YMCA provides manuals that local organizations can
incorporate into their training.
While the state Department of Education has many safeguards against abuse of minors by teachers --
spokesman Michael Storm cited mandatory background checks, mandatory abuse reporting, a ban on hiring
teachers convicted of abuse, and a strict teacher code of conduct -- the state doesn't expressly require train-
ing similar to what the church now calls for.
When the Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed to require the training, it left details up to each dio-
cese. The Scranton Diocese, like others including Philadelphia, opted for the VIRTUS program developed,
according to a press release, "by The National Catholic Risk Retention Group, Inc. of Lisle, Ill. a non-profit or-
ganization that provides risk control services to one-third of the Catholic dioceses in the U.S."
Though trademarked in all capital letters, "VIRTUS" is not an acronym. Rather, the company Web site
explains, it is a word that "derives from Latin, and means valor, moral strength, excellence, and worth. In an-
cient times, virtus denoted a way of life and manner of behavior that always aspired to the highest, most pos-
itive attributes of people and aspects of human interaction."
The diocese asks for volunteers, such as Safko, to become facilitators, who go through all-day sessions.
"Our goal is to have a broad range of individuals participating, in particular lay people," Diocese Spokesman
Bill Genello wrote. "Currently there are two priests, two deacons, several women religious, as well as teach-
ers, school principals, Diocesan personnel, etc." All told, there are 25 facilitators now.
The costs are adding up. In the three years since launching VIRTUS, The Diocese of Scranton has spent
more than $314,000 training roughly 13,000 people. That includes paying for about 7,000 of them to register
for more training and updates through an online component, and a companion program for children from
kindergarten to grade 10.
And there is no end in sight, Genello said. "The program will go on indefinitely."
Why? Safko summed it up to the four people attending the April 29 session, his third so far (a light crowd
because it was scheduled for those who had missed earlier sessions): "We are the eyes and ears of the dio-
cese, and of God."
This, he concedes, is a different attitude from the pre-scandal church.
"Years ago, we treated (abuse) like alcoholism, like an addiction," he said, trying to fix it by reprimanding
a priest and putting him in another assignment. "It didn't work. So the only option now is whoever is suspec-
ted is dismissed, temporarily at first while an investigation continues, then permanently" if the allegations
prove true.
"There have been very, very few false reports," Safko said. One study found 5 percent of all abuse re-
ports were falsely made, "And that was by adults. Only 1 percent were falsely made by kids.
"I do know of one case that was a lie. A priest, who was a friend of mine, was accused of fondling a girl,"
Safko said, adding that this occurred in different diocese. "He told me â[#x20ac][#x2dc]I have no attraction to
girls. I have no attraction to boys. I'm a gay man.' " Even so, the accused priest was put through "a barrage
of tests" before the charges were deemed unfounded. In the end, "he didn't leave the priesthood because of
that. He left the priesthood because he fell in love with another man."
Such straight talk peppered the three-hour session. Safko made it clear he believes the only way to pre-
vent abuse is to face its many ugly facets head on. The centerpiece of the training, two videos, reinforced
that attitude, featuring abusers discussing their tactics and experts giving stern advice and stark statistics
supplemented by Safko:
-- The abused often become abusers. "The cycle must stop," Safko said.
-- They might start abusing children when they are still children themselves.
-- One study of abusers found that 11 percent of all abusers were strangers, 29 percent were relatives,
and 60 percent were people known to the victim.
-- Of all church-related abuse, about half the cases were committed by volunteers.
-- Twenty-one percent of men who molested boys were gay. As Safko later noted, an abusers sexual ori-
entation isn't what compels the abuse. A lack of sexual maturity is the primary culprit for pedophilia.
-- Abuse rates in the general population are stark. Estimates run up to one in every 10 males being ab-
used before becoming an adult. For females, the top estimate is one in every five.
-- No one is sure how many people are attracted to minors, but estimates for the general population -- as
well as for priests -- range up to 7 percent. Relatively few will actually respond to those impulses and abuse a
child.
Abusers in the videos talked glibly of tactics, of how they hung around children, gained their confidence
and won the parents' trust. They not only groom the child, one expert warned, they groom the caregiver.
They can be personable, even charismatic.
Victims gave bleak accounts of their sagas. "I tried to kill myself when I was 15," one boy said.
"When our daughter was molested, it nearly destroyed our parish," a woman said. "And for a long, long
time I lost my faith."
After the first video, Safko sought reactions from his trainees.
"Powerful," replied Jeffrey Keyes from St. John the Evangelist in Susquehanna. "I thought it was very
powerful, but disturbing." Others echoed the sentiment.
Safko, who underwent a full day's training to become a facilitator, told them, "My first reaction was that I
was angry, and also a little guilty because of the role we all play with children. ... My biggest fear is that we
would be afraid to be with children. We can't be afraid to have feelings of love for children, but in a healthy
way.
"Children who are not touched develop problems, too."
Safko lost a bit of his ease when he explained the psychology that prompts an adult to molest a child. He
hesitated, looking for a clear way to explain a complex concept experts in the videotapes had only touched
on. "They are psychosexually ... slow ... their development has been arrested. They have not progressed into
a healthy adult sexuality." That means they are attracted to the lack of physical sexual development in chil-
dren: the smooth, hairless skin; the softer, younger features.
The second video outlined a five-step plan to prevent abuse.
-- Know the signs, including suspicious behavior by adults around kids: Giving inappropriate gifts, touch-
ing children excessively, showing more excitement when with children than with adults, ignoring basic rules
by inviting kids to their home or other private places, and letting the children do things their parents forbid.
-- Control access to children in church settings, starting with mandatory, standardized, written application
forms for volunteers and staff, background checks and face-to-face interviews.
-- Monitor programs for kids, making sure you know where the child is at all times, restricting access -- by
both children and adults -- to secluded areas. Parents should always feel free to visit a program their kids are
in.
-- Be aware of what is going on in your child's life. Talk to them and make sure they know they can talk to
you, and that you really listen.
-- If you suspect something, tell someone. "You don't need proof to give your observations," Safko said.
"You are not accusing, you are just pointing out.
"Let the authorities do their jobs. If there's nothing there, there's nothing there. If there is, you prevented
something worse. The most important thing is to admit our human frailty."
Copyright (c) 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to
847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025,
USA.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20060709-WB-0709-A-church-re-educates-itself
JOURNAL-CODE: WB
Copyright 2006 The Times Leader
99 of 265 DOCUMENTS
Wilkes Barre Times Leader (Pennsylvania)
July 9, 2006 Sunday
A church re-educates itself

BYLINE: MARK GUYDISH, mguydish@leader.net
SECTION: A; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 1549 words
It's a sunny spring Saturday in a still sleepy Montrose and Gerard "Father Gerry" Safko flashes a disarm-
ingly warm smile in the chilly basement of the Holy Name of Mary Church rectory. He offers a few quips
about a failed turkey hunt before settling into serious business: Child sex abuse.
Safko comes across as easy going, but he has taken on the heavy task as facilitator, or trainer, for the
VIRTUS program, adopted by the Diocese of Scranton in the wake of the priest sex scandals. Every cleric,
every employee, every volunteer who deals regularly with children, throughout the 11 county diocese gets
some training to recognize suspicious behavior, prevent abuse and report concerns. There is a separate pro-
gram for Catholic school students.
Martina Lingobardo and Jeffrey Keyes take part in a VIRTUS training session
held at Holy Name of Mary Parish in April. They agreed that segments of the
program about child sex abuse were 'powerful.'
Rev. Gerard Safko presides over a VIRTUS training session held at Holy Name of
Mary Parish in Montrose in April. While the group was small this time, the pro-
gram is vast, training most staff and volunteers in the 11-county Scranton Dio-
cese.
'Those abused as children can become abusers,' Father Gerard Safko tells his
trainees during a lesson about how to detect and prevent sex abuse. 'The cycle
has to stop.'
This is not optional. It is a mandate promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as
part of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, enacted in 2002. That makes the Cathol-
ic Church a rarity.
By comparison, other organizations often make such training optional. The Boy Scouts of America, for
example, have a voluntary online course. The National YMCA provides manuals that local organizations can
incorporate into their training.
While the state Department of Education has many safeguards against abuse of minors by teachers
spokesman Michael Storm cited mandatory background checks, mandatory abuse reporting, a ban on hiring
teachers convicted of abuse, and a strict teacher code of conduct the state doesn't expressly require train-
ing similar to what the church now calls for.
When the Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed to require the training, it left details up to each dio-
cese. The Scranton Diocese, like others including Philadelphia, opted for the VIRTUS program developed,
according to a press release, "by The National Catholic Risk Retention Group, Inc. of Lisle, Ill. a non-profit or-
ganization that provides risk control services to one-third of the Catholic dioceses in the U.S."
Though trademarked in all capital letters, "VIRTUS" is not an acronym. Rather, the company Web site
explains, it is a word that "derives from Latin, and means valor, moral strength, excellence, and worth. In an-
cient times, virtus denoted a way of life and manner of behavior that always aspired to the highest, most pos-
itive attributes of people and aspects of human interaction."
The diocese asks for volunteers, such as Safko, to become facilitators, who go through all-day sessions.
"Our goal is to have a broad range of individuals participating, in particular lay people," Diocese Spokesman
Bill Genello wrote. "Currently there are two priests, two deacons, several women religious, as well as teach-
ers, school principals, Diocesan personnel, etc." All told, there are 25 facilitators now.
The costs are adding up. In the three years since launching VIRTUS, The Diocese of Scranton has spent
more than $314,000 training roughly 13,000 people. That includes paying for about 7,000 of them to register
for more training and updates through an online component, and a companion program for children from
kindergarten to grade 10.
And there is no end in sight, Genello said. "The program will go on indefinitely."
Why? Safko summed it up to the four people attending the April 29 session, his third so far (a light crowd
because it was scheduled for those who had missed earlier sessions): "We are the eyes and ears of the dio-
cese, and of God."
This, he concedes, is a different attitude from the pre-scandal church.
"Years ago, we treated (abuse) like alcoholism, like an addiction," he said, trying to fix it by reprimanding
a priest and putting him in another assignment. "It didn't work. So the only option now is whoever is suspec-
ted is dismissed, temporarily at first while an investigation continues, then permanently" if the allegations
prove true.
"There have been very, very few false reports," Safko said. One study found 5 percent of all abuse re-
ports were falsely made, "And that was by adults. Only 1 percent were falsely made by kids.
"I do know of one case that was a lie. A priest, who was a friend of mine, was accused of fondling a girl,"
Safko said, adding that this occurred in different diocese. "He told me 'I have no attraction to girls. I have no
attraction to boys. I'm a gay man.' " Even so, the accused priest was put through "a barrage of tests" before
the charges were deemed unfounded. In the end, "he didn't leave the priesthood because of that. He left the
priesthood because he fell in love with another man."
Such straight talk peppered the three-hour session. Safko made it clear he believes the only way to pre-
vent abuse is to face its many ugly facets head on. The centerpiece of the training, two videos, reinforced
that attitude, featuring abusers discussing their tactics and experts giving stern advice and stark statistics
supplemented by Safko:
The abused often become abusers. "The cycle must stop," Safko said.
They might start abusing children when they are still children themselves.
One study of abusers found that 11 percent of all abusers were strangers, 29 percent were relatives,
and 60 percent were people known to the victim.
Of all church-related abuse, about half the cases were committed by volunteers.
Twenty-one percent of men who molested boys were gay. As Safko later noted, an abusers sexual ori-
entation isn't what compels the abuse. A lack of sexual maturity is the primary culprit for pedophilia.
Abuse rates in the general population are stark. Estimates run up to one in every 10 males being ab-
used before becoming an adult. For females, the top estimate is one in every five.
No one is sure how many people are attracted to minors, but estimates for the general population as
well as for priests range up to 7 percent. Relatively few will actually respond to those impulses and abuse a
child.
Abusers in the videos talked glibly of tactics, of how they hung around children, gained their confidence
and won the parents' trust. They not only groom the child, one expert warned, they groom the caregiver.
They can be personable, even charismatic.
Victims gave bleak accounts of their sagas. "I tried to kill myself when I was 15," one boy said.
"When our daughter was molested, it nearly destroyed our parish," a woman said. "And for a long, long
time I lost my faith."
After the first video, Safko sought reactions from his trainees.
"Powerful," replied Jeffrey Keyes from St. John the Evangelist in Susquehanna. "I thought it was very
powerful, but disturbing." Others echoed the sentiment.
Safko, who underwent a full day's training to become a facilitator, told them, "My first reaction was that I
was angry, and also a little guilty because of the role we all play with children. ... My biggest fear is that we
would be afraid to be with children. We can't be afraid to have feelings of love for children, but in a healthy
way.
"Children who are not touched develop problems, too."
Safko lost a bit of his ease when he explained the psychology that prompts an adult to molest a child. He
hesitated, looking for a clear way to explain a complex concept experts in the videotapes had only touched
on. "They are psychosexually slow their development has been arrested. They have not progressed into a
healthy adult sexuality." That means they are attracted to the lack of physical sexual development in children:
the smooth, hairless skin; the softer, younger features.
The second video outlined a five-step plan to prevent abuse.
Know the signs, including suspicious behavior by adults around kids: Giving inappropriate gifts, touch-
ing children excessively, showing more excitement when with children than with adults, ignoring basic rules
by inviting kids to their home or other private places, and letting the children do things their parents forbid.
Control access to children in church settings, starting with mandatory, standardized, written application
forms for volunteers and staff, background checks and face-to-face interviews.
Monitor programs for kids, making sure you know where the child is at all times, restricting access by
both children and adults to secluded areas. Parents should always feel free to visit a program their kids are
in.
Be aware of what is going on in your child's life. Talk to them and make sure they know they can talk to
you, and that you really listen.
If you suspect something, tell someone. "You don't need proof to give your observations," Safko said.
"You are not accusing, you are just pointing out.
"Let the authorities do their jobs. If there's nothing there, there's nothing there. If there is, you prevented
something worse. The most important thing is to admit our human frailty."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Wilkes Barre Times Leader

All Rights Reserved
101 of 265 DOCUMENTS
July 7, 2006 Friday

Sunrise Edition
EDITORIAL: Settling Tualatin's sex abuse case

SECTION: Editorial; Pg. D06
LENGTH: 539 words
SUMMARY: The city will pay only $28,750 and admit no wrongdoing after police officers have sexual
contact with a teenage girl
Tualatin got an easy out, probably too easy, in its settlement with a young woman who was sexually ab-
used as a girl by city police.
The victim, now 22, settled her potential lawsuit against the city for $75,000, far below the $1 million ori-
ginally sought. The city's actual share of that, after payments by its insurance carrier and others, is a mere
$28,750 --hardly enough to buy a traffic light.
The city offered the victim no counseling. It offered no formal apology, although she did at least receive a
heartfelt personal apology from the chief of police, according to her attorney.
Nor did the city admit any wrongdoing. Nor did it accept responsibility for any future claims stemming
from the abuse.
This is a sweet deal for Tualatin, which had a strong upper hand in this conflict. The young woman
dreaded the trauma of depositions and trial testimony. She was exhausted over the matter and in a hurry to
get on with her life. And, like so many sexual abuse victims, she may not have fully grasped the nature of
what happened to her and how the adverse effects of it may not become clear to her for years to come, ac-
cording to Portland attorney Dennis Steinman, who represented her.
Tualatin may not have to admit any wrongdoing, but we're bound by no such legal posture. We see
plenty of wrongdoing here.
For starters, it was wrong for male police officers to begin having sexual contact with a girl just turning
16. She was in the Tualatin Police Department's Explorer post, through a program run by a subsidiary of the
Boy Scouts of America, which is matching Tualatin's share of the settlement payout.
Adding to the shame, many officers in the department maintained an unholy code of silence. An inquiry
last year discovered that more than a dozen of the department's 36 sworn officers had heard about the ab-
use after it began in 1999, but none spoke out.
That was wrong, too.
The abuse got exposed only after gossip about it spread to Hillsboro police, who blew the whistle. After a
criminal investigation, three Tualatin officers and one Oregon State Police trooper resigned and gave up their
law enforcement certifications. All escaped charges when the victim refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
That's not an unusual response from young victims of sexual abuse. They often perceive themselves,
and not their abusers, to be the ones at fault. They often don't quite see how they've been harmed, and how
that harm can become manifest many years later in overpowering feelings of guilt, regret and self-loathing.
If such a fate awaits Tualatin's victim --and let's pray it does not --the city appears to be safely inoculated
against having to accept any responsibility for it. That's no doubt the result of some high-priced legal advice,
and it's a good outcome for the city of Tualatin.
In a more humane and fair world, however, the young woman --without even having to ask --would have
been offered intensive counseling. That and a formal published apology to her and every other girl and boy
who ever participated in Tualatin's Explorer program, which we're glad to hear has been indefinitely suspen-
ded.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
All Rights Reserved
The Mirror

Ulster Edition
I HEARD MY SON BUT NOT HIS 20-YEAR OLD VOICE.. IT WAS

LIKE HE WAS A CHILD AGAIN CRYING OUT FOR HELP;
EXCLUSIVE: MOTHER OF ABUSE SUICIDE VICTIM SPEAKS
OUT
BYLINE: BY ALLISON MORRIS
LENGTH: 1308 words
IT took years for sex abuse victim Paul Anthony Carson to learn to live with the nightmare of his child-
hood.
Just when he thought he had banished the bad dreams he had kept secret from his family they exploded
around him in a pet shop one Christmas Eve.
Paul had just bought a pet snake for a friend and standing before him as he turned from the counter was
the man who had tormented him as an altar boy.
He had helped put serial sex monster Martin Kerr behind bars just six months earlier with evidence he
told nobody but the police.
And there he was, browsing through a shopping centre among the decorations, the Santas - and the
kids. Kerr had been released from prison for his Christmas holidays.
Paul's first reaction to the cruel chance encounter was violence. Then came black despair. And then sui-
cide.
All that happened seven years ago and this Sunday the former altar boy would have celebrated his 28th
birthday.
For years he had kept the abuse hidden. Unknown to his family or friends he had gone to the police and
made a statement about the abuse he suffered after other frightened boys made claims against Kerr.
His mother says the two-year sentence handed down to Kerr was an insult and less than a shoplifter
would expect .
As her loving son skipped out the door on his way to serve on the altar at St Peter's Cathedral in West
Belfast his mother Jean could not have been more proud.
Paul Anthony Carson could light up a room in an instant, with a head of glossy curls he looked like a
cherub and had a generous and bubbly nature to match.
He had become an altar boy at the age of seven and along with several of his young friends his week-
ends would centre around church activities and football.
JEAN says she noticed a change in him as he grew from a boy to a young man.
His love of life diminished and a sadness replaced his once happy-go-lucky nature.
She added: "You couldn't put your finger on it, there was just something not right.
"It was probably something only a mother could see but it worried me terribly."
As the family tried to come to terms with Paul Anthony's depression Jean struggled to find answers to her
son's problems.
Then one day the local priest knocked on he door and told Jean there was something she needed to
know.
Two young boys who had served as altar boys in St Peter's parish had came forward to say they had
been sexually abused by church sacristan Martin Kerr.
Former scout master Kerr had ingratiated himself into the local community. He had been involved in sev-
eral roles that put him in direct contact with young boys for more than 20 years.
The Church believed there were more victims yet to come.
Jean remembers: "I asked Paul Anthony outright, 'Son, tell me, did he hurt you?'
"But he just said, 'Don't worry about me, pray for those other boys.'
"I had my suspicions, but there was little I could do. He just didn't feel ready at that time to share his hurt.
"I could only believe what he was telling me but I still had my suspicions."
Kerr appeared in court in June 1998 charged with 48 counts of sexual abuse against three boys span-
ning a decade.
Unknown to any of his family or friends Paul Anthony was one of those boys.
At the time, aged 19, he had gone to the police and made a statement helping secure a conviction
against the serial paedophile. Of the 48 charges of sexual abuse Kerr faced, 18 related to crimes committed
against Paul Anthony.
Despite the seriousness of the crimes Kerr was jailed for just two years.
The judge took into consideration his guilty plea and probation reports stating he had an unhappy child-
hood.
Jean said: "The first time my son tried to take his own life was on the night Martin Kerr was sentenced.
"The shock was horrendous, I couldn't understand what would drive my child to such lengths. "I could
see his pain, you just feel so helpless."
Paul Anthony attempted suicide twice more before finally confiding in his parents he had been sexually
abused by Kerr.
Jean added: "In some ways I naively thought, 'Right, now we know what's wrong we can help him'.
"But like all Kerr's victims he carried a degree of guilt. This monster had manipulated their young minds
to such a degree they were terrified. He made them think they were to blame.
"The only thing that kept us going was knowing that at least Martin Kerr was behind bars."
On Christmas Eve 1998 Paul Anthony Carson went to a pet shop close to Belfast city centre, to buy
presents for his friends.
JEAN was hopeful as it was one of the first times he had ventured across the door in more than six
months.
She said: "We thought he was on the mend and knowing that Kerr was behind bars gave him the cour-
age to go outside and face the world.
"He got up that morning and it was like someone switched on the light. He asked me did I need anything
in the shop, he went and got a few bits for me and then said he was going to buy presents for his friends."
But then, in the pet shop, he came face to face with his tormentor. Just six months into his sentence Kerr
had been released on Christmas parole.
As the law stands the family did not have to be informed that Kerr had been released.
Paul Anthony flew into a rage and lashed out at the man who had stolen his childhood, before running off
and phoning home.
Jean said she'll never forget the phone call: "I could hear Paul Anthony's voice but not his 20-year-old
voice, it was like he was a child again.
"He was whispering, 'Mummy please come and get me, Martin Kerr is here, help me'.
"I said, 'Son, it can't be, Martin Kerr is in jail you must be mistaken'.
"But he kept repeating, 'He's not, he's here please come and get me'. He was on the ground hiding in the
pet shop like a scared rabbit crying out for help.
"I phoned the police. I didn't know what else to do. When they phoned back, they said, 'Mr Kerr says he'll
let it drop he doesn't want to press charges, he doesn't know why the young man attacked him'.
"I said he may not know the man standing in front of him but he knows the boy all right."
FOLLOWING the meeting with his abuser, Paul Anthony sought help for his depression and tried to re-
build his life.
Jean recalled: "He went to football training again and started talking about university.
"I thought that maybe confronting Kerr had give him courage but the hurt was hidden so deep."
In July 1999, 21-year-old Paul Anthony Carson was found hanging in the bedroom of his family home.
She added: "There was this loud repetitive music coming from his room.
"I had a terrible headache and as I walked past his room I said, 'Son, I have never asked you to turn your
music off before but my head is splitting'.
"I walked into the bedroom and there he was. He had been doing so well. The day before he bought new
trainers and collected new glasses he said he'd need for studying.
"My son was planning for the future. I don't think it was premeditated. But whatever horrors that Wednes-
day night brought - my son just couldn't face waking up on Thursday morning."
Jean has since campaigned tirelessly for lengthy sentences for paedophiles.
Last year Kerr came before the courts again, this time charged with three counts of sexual abuse against
another former altar boy in the mid 90s.
Kerr was given just 12 months probation, increased to 12 months in prison on appeal. He was out within
six months and now lives in a Belfast city centre hostel, less than two miles from the Carson family home.
Jean said: "Had Martin Kerr been given a proper sentence and been made to serve the full term I'm sure
it would have helped Paul Anthony and his other victims.
"The message sent to those children was what he did requires no more time in jail than if he had been
caught shoplifting.
"There are many more victims of Martin Kerr out there who have yet to find the courage to come forward.
"The sentences handed down by the courts do nothing to encourage those young people to speak up."
ulster@mirror.co.uk
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: INNOCENCE: Paul and sister Susannah' PAIN: Jean Carson' HIDDEN TORMENT Paul Anthony
Carson
Copyright 2006 MGN Ltd.

All Rights Reserved
Daily Star
June 30, 2006 Friday

Scottish Edition
SEX ABUSE SHAME OF SCOUTS LEADER

BYLINE: by DAVE FINLAY
SECTION: NEWS; 35
LENGTH: 251 words
A SHAMED scoutmaster was jailed for eight years yesterday after committing sex crimes against boys.
Former teacher Paul Firth molested 13 boys, aged between eight and 16, over a 22-year period.
Lord Wheatley said there was a high risk he would re-offend and had his name added to the sex offend-
ers' register.
Bachelor Firth, 54, often took children on camping trips where he would prey on his victims and subject
them to abuse.
The paedophile was originally due to stand trial in 2000 but vanished and was later extradited from
Spain.
The former assistant head teacher at St Machar Academy in Aberdeen admitted a total of 13 indecency
offences against boys committed between 1974 and 1996.
Advocate depute Adrian Cottam earlier told the court that Firth was a leader with two Aberdeen Scout
groups and worked as a teacher at Hazlehead and St Machar Academies in the city.
Mr Cottam said: "It was well known that the accused preferred to share a tent with one or two of the boys
as opposed to sleeping in a tent with other leaders."
Firth has already been jailed for three years for other sex offences against children. The court heard that
Firth's first victim had joined the cubs in 1973 when he was aged seven or eight.
Another victim, who is now dead, was abused by Firth at camps and at Firth's then home in Holburn
Street, Aberdeen.
Other youngsters recalled being fondled by Firth on camping trips.
Defence counsel David Burns QC, said that Firth, who has been suspended since 1999, had expressed
"shame and regret".
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PAEDOPHILE: Paul Firth
Copyright 2006 EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS

All Rights Reserved
The Express

Scottish Edition
Scout leader jailed for child sex abuse

SECTION: NEWS; 17
LENGTH: 180 words
A SCOUTMASTER was yesterday jailed for eight years for a string of sex crimes against boys as young
as eight.
Paul Firth, 54, former assistant headteacher at St Machar Academy in Aberdeen, admitted 13 offences
against boys aged eight to 16, between 1974 and 1996.
Advocate depute Adrian Cottam told the High Court in Edinburgh that Firth's victims were abused during
camping trips in the north of Scotland.
Mr Cottam said: "The accused preferred to share a tent with boys as opposed to sleeping in a tent with
other leaders, which would be normal practice." Police were called in after one victim told his father.
Firth, formerly of Aberdeen, has already been jailed for three years for other sex offences against chil-
dren. After his release, he was arrested on further charges.
Lord Wheatley told Firth:"These children were often of a vulnerable age. The effect of what you did has
had significant consequences for many of them." Lord Wheatley also ordered that Firth should be put on the
sex offenders' register and a further register which would prevent him working with youngsters.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: REPEAT OFFENDER: Firth

All Rights Reserved
The Scotsman
June 30, 2006, Friday

1 Edition
Jail for pervert who abused boys at scout camp then fled
BYLINE: JOHN ROBERTSON Law Correspondent
SECTION: Pg. 22
LENGTH: 775 words
A FORMER teacher and scout leader who once fled Scotland and had to be extradited from Spain was
jailed for eight years yesterday on a catalogue of child sex abuse charges.
Paul Firth, 54, of Aberdeen, has already served three years for indecency offences against boys, and a
judge was warned that he posed a high risk of committing more crimes.
Lord Wheatley said the latest batch of charges, which happened mainly on camping trips, were not the
worst examples of their kind, but Firth's abuse of his position was particularly grave.
"You were a deputy headteacher and a scout master, and parents entrusted their children to you to be
looked after. These children were often vulnerable and the effect of what you did clearly has had significant
consequences for many of them," the judge said.
Firth pleaded guilty to 13 offences committed between 1974 and 1996, involving 13 boys aged between
eight and 16. Over the period, he was a scout leader in Aberdeen and a science teacher at the city's Hazle-
head Academy and St Machar Academy, where he was assistant head teacher.
He had been arrested in 1999 but he fled on a yacht days before he had been due to stand trial in 2000.
An extradition agreement was reached with the Spanish authorities and Firth was returned to Scotland.
However, the agreement restricted the charges he could face, and he was convicted in 2003 at Aberdeen
Sheriff Court of abusing two boys and sentenced to three years' jail.
The case attracted publicity and more victims were traced by police or came forward to make statements
against Firth, leading to the second prosecution.
The advocate-depute, Adrian Cottam, said: "In his position as scout leader and teacher, it was regular
practice for the accused to arrange camping trips to various locations, including Templar's Park, Aberdeen,
an official scout campsite, and Blairhillock Bothy at Tarland, which has since been demolished. Other loca-
tions were used, such as Glenelg, Kyle of Lochalsh and Elgin.
"It was a well-known fact that the accused preferred to share a tent with one or two of the boys as op-
posed to sleeping in a tent with the other leaders, which would be normal practice.
"The impression gained from most witnesses is that they appeared happy with the arrangements of shar-
ing a tent with the accused and most of the boys enjoyed his company as a whole as he was a very good
scout leader. "He was well respected by the boys and other leaders and, indeed, was seen as a 'father figure'
to a number of boys.
"The teachers and other scout leaders were also aware that the accused shared a tent with young boys.
None of them ever drew any conclusion or suspicions from this and it was their opinion that the accused felt
more comfortable with the relaxed atmosphere with the boys, rather than the more formal atmosphere with
the leaders.
"Given the respect he had gained from both the boys and the adults alike, nobody felt the need to ques-
tion him."
However, in the mid-1990s rumours began to circulate and boys feared sharing a tent with Firth. The
head teacher of St Machar, Leonard Taylor, spoke to Firth, who would not directly confirm or deny the ru-
mours. He was given a written warning.
The matter was brought to the attention of the police when one of Firth's victims, who was having diffi-
culties dealing with the memories of what had happened to him, sought help. He confided in his father and
then reported the abuse.
The court heard that many of the boys had told no-one until they were contacted by the police. Some
had been left so traumatised that they had required psychiatric treatment.
The defence counsel, David Burns, QC, said Firth had expressed deep shame and regret. A background
report had assessed him as at high risk of reoffending, but that was if he were not supervised or treated.
"His last offending was some years ago, which suggests he is capable of placing restraints on his beha-
viour, and he is willing to participate in programmes [for sex offenders] in prison," Mr Burns said.
Lord Wheatley said he would have imposed a ten-year sentence, but he was obliged to give Firth a dis-
count for pleading guilty and the term would be restricted to eight years.
Firth's name was also put on the sex offenders' register and on the child protection register which will
stop him working again with children.
Detective Superintendent Alan Smith, of Grampian Police, said: "From the day Paul Firth failed to turn up
at the High Court in Dundee in October 2000, he was pursued relentlessly. As a result of the public response
to a Crimewatch appeal, Grampian Police, working closely with the Crown Office, was able to bring Firth
back from Spain in June 2003."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.

All Rights Reserved
The Times (London)
June 30, 2006, Friday
Scout leader jailed over sex abuse at camp trips

BYLINE: Shirley English
SECTION: HOME NEWS; Scotland; Pg. 32
LENGTH: 679 words
A FORMER deputy head teacher and Scout master was jailed for eight years yesterday for molesting 13
boys over more than two decades.
Paul Firth, 54, from Aberdeen, preyed on children as young as eight between 1974 and 1996. He abused
them at his flat, in a church hall and during camping trips he organised.
It was his practice to share a tent with the Scouts rather than the other leaders and because he was so
well-known and respected no one had any suspicions. It was not until one boy, unable to cope with what had
happened, told his father of Firth's abuse that the catalogue of crimes over a 22-year period finally came to
light.
Yesterday Judge Lord Wheatley, sitting at the High Court in Edinburgh, told Firth that he had betrayed a
position of absolute trust. "In my view the seriousness of the breach of trust in this case is at the extreme end
of the scale. You were a deputy head teacher and Scout master and parents entrusted their children to you to
look after over a very long period," the judge said.
Some of the families of his victims, many of whom suffered psychological problems in later life, were in
court to see the former deputy head of St Machar Academy in Aberdeen sentenced.
David Burns, QC, for the defence, said that Firth felt "deep shame and regret for his actions". But Lord
Wheatley said: "These children were of a vulnerable age and the offences have clearly had significant con-
sequences for them. I am further concerned in this case by the terms of the psychiatric report which makes it
clear that you still present a high risk of reoffending should you be released and that you are to a significant
extent still in denial over what you have done."
Firth, a bachelor, has been placed on the sex offenders register and also on a register that will ban him
from ever working with children.
He was originally due to stand trial in 2000, but absconded to Spain and became a fugitive. Grampian
Police pursued him and after a Crimewatch appeal he was located and extradited in June 2003. In October
that year he was found guilty of child abuse charges and sentenced to three years in prison.
The publicity surrounding his trial resulted in further offences coming to light and on his release from
Craiginches Prison in January this year he was rearrested and charged with other crimes. That resulted in
Firth pleading guilty last month to 13 new charges of indecent assault and lewd, indecent and libidinous prac-
tices on boys aged 8 to 16 between 1974 and 1996.
The court was told that it was regular practice for Firth, who was originally charged with 27 offences, to
arrange Scout camping trips with boys to various locations in the north of Scotland. At other times he had
boys staying over at his house, sometimes on the night before camping trips, and plied them with alcohol be-
fore the indecent assaults.
His abuse left some of his victims needing treatment for depression and psychiatric problems.
Adrian Cottam, advocate depute, told the court that Firth's victims were subjected to abuse at various
sites, including Templars Park in Aberdeen, an official Scout campsite, a bothy in Tarland, Glenelg, Kyle of
Lochalsh and Elgin. He said it was well known that Firth preferred to share a tent with one or two of the boys,
but as most of the Scouts seemed to enjoy his company and some even viewed him as a father figure, other
teachers and Scout leaders had no suspicions.
But towards the middle of the 1990s some boys began to "fear sharing a tent" with Firth as rumours cir-
culated about what happened on camping trips. Police were called in after one victim confided in his father.
In 1998, Leonard Taylor, the head teacher at St Machar Academy, spoke to Firth about the rumours, which
the deputy head did not confirm or deny. He was given a written warning and then suspended in 1999.
The court was told that Firth's first victim had joined the Cubs in 1973 when he was aged seven or eight.
The abuse happened during a camping trip after the boy was frightened by Firth's ghost stories and was told
to move his sleeping bag nearer to the Scout leader.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Limited

All Rights Reserved
The Southland Times (New Zealand)
June 24, 2006 Saturday
Beware: It's not always a stranger

LENGTH: 2055 words
KIA MARAMA wKia Marama is a 60-bed special treatment unit for child-sex offenders at Rolleston Pris-
on.
wIts name means "let there be light and insight" .
wOpened in 1989, it was the first treatment facility of its kind in the world.
wAuckland's Te Piriti unit (1994) was modelled on Kia Marama.
wA 1998 evaluation found the programme reduced graduate reoffending risk by 50 percent in its first five
years.
wRecent figures show those treated after 1994 have a reconviction rate of less than 5 percent over an
average follow-up period of five years.
Continued from page C1 Kia Marama: The exterior of the Kia Marama unit (Rolleston Prison), where up
to 40 rehabilitating paedophiles are treated each year.
Christopher Zaal Michael Gray 77524 BARRY HARCOURT On the case: Detective Stephen Dalton, of
Invercargill, has spent the past 10 years gathering evidence against Southland's child sex offenders.
COURT CONVICTIONS Convictions entered in southern (Dunedin included) courts for sex offences
against children between 2003 and 2005.
wChild abuse offenders sent to jail -- 24 (2003), 13 (2004), 13 (2005).
wChild abuse offenders not jailed -- 10 (2003), 6 (2004), 10 (2005).
wChild abuse offenders granted final name suppression -- 5 (2004), 3 (2005).
(NOTE: Each case may have multiple victims associated with it.) w158 charges for the 34 cases in 2003.
w46 charges for 19 cases in 2004.
w77 charges for 23 cases in 2005.
I TS index screamed offenders' names by area and occupation and each entry carried a brief summary
of their offence.
"Heterogenous" takes on new meaning when 38 religious affiliates, 27 caregivers, eight public servants
(including military and police), 14 scout leaders and 10 healthcare paedophiles dirty the book's pages, with
other sections including educators, pensioners, students and unemployed.Thirty of those names are associ-
ated to Southland.
Rutherford says there's no single pathway to child sex abuse but it's widely agreed the nurture rather
than nature argument holds sway.
"It is learned but in so many different ways." Some had been victims, others were never abused and
came from backgrounds where they were over-indulged.
She says it's clear, though, that most offenders took their first offensive step during adolescence and into
their early 20s.
The key moment was when a "cognitive distortion" overcame any inhibition, sometimes aided by earlier
abuse, drugs and alcohol or watching child pornography.That distortion, combined with a "sexual preoccupa-
tion" (a common trait) normalised the behaviour and, as it increased, empathy for victims dropped and ration-
alisation took control.
This is where offenders often saw the abuse as a romance or an educational period for the child.
"There is a whole range of things they tell themselves that allows them to do what they do. (But) it's not
an addiction ...
it's not a chemical change in the brain ...
it's a behaviour -- not a high," Rutherford says.
Detective Stephen Dalton, of the Invercargill Police child abuse investigation team, has been almost ex-
clusively involved in bringing abusers like Matheson, Zaal and Gray to court since 1996 and agrees most
men begin offending in their late teens.
Many would be without partners, but not always, and victims in "many cases" were well known to them.
"These people will ingratiate themselves in some way with a family where they've identified a likely child
target," he says.
"This family association will often increase in intensity, with the offender visiting more frequently until he
becomes a trusted family friend whom the child's parents would never suspect of being an abuser.
"This, of course, makes it more difficult for the child to disclose any abuse. It also gives the abuser priv-
ileges of contact with the child he would not otherwise get or receive." This most common method of offend-
ing is known as "grooming" .
Rochelle Walker, who has counselled paedophile victims for six years, says grooming includes bribery,
coercion and trickery to get children alone.
"They may look for opportunities to fulfill the child's need for attention or take advantage of the way the
child responds to family rules, structures and consequences," she says.
Children became confused when the abuse was minimised by words like ìts OK to watch this (porn)' --
breaking down normal responses, reactions and barriers.
Incorrect messages of what would happen if they talked would be fed to the child, as well as gifts and
items to keep them quiet.
"This ... (causes) confusion that, because they enjoyed and took gifts, they will be in trouble." Some of-
fenders would also threaten to hurt loved ones, Walker says.
Rutherford says offenders tend to get good at spotting successful targets -- those having difficulties at
home or with friends or those who have already been abused.
However, while the children are being groomed, often the parents are too.
"They may do things that are helpful to the parents ... helping with debt, babysitting ... helping out around
the house.
They become trusted." Grooming timelines varied between offenders and could be as low as about five
minutes (offering lollies in the park) or as long as five years in a bid to isolate the child. "Children are taught
to comply to adults," Rutherford explains.
Both Dalton and Rutherford said it's important adults trust their gut instincts and act if they think they're
being groomed.
Watching the adult-child interaction could be revealing because there were tell-tale signs to grooming,
Rutherford says.
"Spending more time with the child than the adult friends ... touching the child more than normal, offering
to take the child away a lot or offering to take just one of the children away." Subtle, flirtatious behaviour more
suited to adult romance or the introduction of sexual talk around children were also indicators.
"That's not normal (and) if you put that all together over time there's a lot going on. When parents are be-
ing groomed they get that gut feeling but often dismiss it. By the time it gets (to that) stop, it's gone too far."
Rutherford says one of the reasons paedophiles get away with it is that asking people about their sexual in-
tentions is not the social norm.
"In this context it's entirely appropriate to ask ... that's how you protect people ...
that's being a parent -- trust your gut and do something about it." Walker says alarming statistics indic-
ated one in three girls and one in four boys will be sexually abused.
Many victims believed it was their fault, which continues into adulthood.
"Because the perpetrator is often known and has hurt them in this way -- it affects their ability to trust oth-
ers ... changing the child's belief of who are reliable and safe in their lives." Loss of confidence and self-es-
teem could lead to regressive behaviour and withdrawal, and ways to aid memory suppression was sought
through drugs and alcohol.
Dalton says any disclosure from children should be treated as true until proved otherwise -- not dis-
missed out of hand.
"Children who make disclosures of abuse and are not believed often grow up harbouring feelings of bit-
terness and rejection ... the simple act of listening to the victim and accepting their complaint as valid is often
all that's required to begin the healing process." Parents should listen to what the child says and record de-
tails but resist the temptation to carry out their own questioning of the child, which could later be criticised in
court as suggestive or leading.
Parents should contact Child Youth and Family or the police to discuss disclosure and take advice.
Walker agrees the initial disclosure period is crucial for the child's healing process. "The reaction of signi-
ficant others is critical. It's important the children feel they're believed ... protected, and for the abuse to stop."
Parents should also get support to help them help the child through it.
"They're also coming to terms with the fact that someone they've known, and been part of their family re-
lationships, has destroyed and betrayed their trust (and) can feel guilty they did not recognise what oc-
curred." Educating children about their bodies and sexual abuse while allowing open and honest communica-
tion can prevent children being victimised, Walker says.
"Help them understand its their body and no one else can tell them what to do with it, that sometimes
people try and trick them into doing things and (the child) is not to blame because its wrong.
Let them know you want to know about their worries (and they) have help." R UTHERFORD says up to
40 men are treated at the Kia Marama treatment unit every year. More than 800 have been since 1989.
Because the offending was "basically a behavioural and thinking disorder over time" , treatment was pos-
sible.
"If it's learned, they can learn something else." She confirms anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of offend-
ers had once been a victim but was quick to point out "the other half have no history" .
She also says of every 100 victims, only one of those would become an abuser.
"It's a distortion to say Ì did this because I was abused as a child'." Rutherford says that's "passing the
blame," -- a practice also treated.
Abusers enter Rolleston prison's Kia Marama unit in the final year of their sentence.
The first three months adapts them to the "therapeutic community" , where "the norm" for inmates was to
challenge inappropriate behaviour, before the nine-month therapy and change phase begins.
The men are assisted to develop honest insight into what they do, the choices they made during the of-
fending and the impact of those choices.
This includes a "demanding" victim empathy period where they're required to assume the identity of the
victim in a group and talk from that perspective.
A "change" period then introduces self-monitoring, where personal and relationship skills, previously
lacking, are learned and a safety plan in preparation for release is designed.
This reintegration with support and monitoring includes help from government agencies such as proba-
tion services and the police.
Rutherford says New Zealand rehab for child abusers is world leading, with graduates having a recidiv-
ism rate of less than 5 percent over an average monitoring time of five years, compared to 25 percent re-
cidivism for untreated prisoners.
Those men who refuse treatment still had to be released at the end of their sentence, but if considered a
"high risk" could be closely monitored by probation for up to 10 years.
But for some people that's understandably not enough.
The Sensible Sentencing Trust takes a cynical view of paedophile rehabilitation and on its website sug-
gests chemical castration for men like Zaal, who reoffended even after completing the Kia Marama pro-
gramme.
The trust took Coddington's lead by posting its own sex offender registry page, challenging the Govern-
ment to follow other countries by making an "open-to-the-public" register.
Coddington's proposed Sex Offenders Registry Bill was first called before Parliament in 2003 and is due
for its next select committee hearing on August 31.
She says her book and proposed registry were meant "to send a clear message" to offenders they would
be monitored for much longer after conviction or prison release.
Rutherford agreed secrecy of any sort bred abuse and lists could be positive, if treated realistically.
"We don't expect the community to welcome them with open arms (but) keep in mind it's unhelpful and
unsafe to react and revictimise them." In the West Coast town of Blackball in 2005, residents drove a recently
relocated recidivist paedophile out of town when they learned of his whereabouts.
Dalton said parents needed to be aware there were "predators" living and working in the community.
Scenarios like Blackball often led offenders to live transient lives, not being able to settle for any lengthy
periods before having to move on again.
Rutherford says offenders who hide and change their names don't rehabilitate as well as offenders who
are around people who know their offending, their treatment plan and can respectfully challenge them.
"That's the best scenario for a person whose been through treatment to stay safe (for the community)."
She also advised against becoming complacent to the warning signs by relying on conviction lists; summed
up best by the Invercargill cop that catches them.
"There will always be child abusers in the community," Dalton says.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Southland Times Company Limited

All Rights Reserved
June 24, 2006 Saturday
Robbers of Innocence Robbers of innocence

BYLINE: ROBINSON Jeremy
SECTION: FEATURES; GENERAL; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 2736 words
They walk the same streets, eat in the same restaurants. They're contributing members of decent society
but are also the perpetrators of the most evil acts a parent can think of. They target and use our children for
sexual gratification. Jeremy Robinson investigates paedophiliac behaviour through the eyes of professionals
who deal with the fallout.
A MIDDLE-AGED man wearing a suit and tie, face twisting, stumbles against the varnished framing of
the Invercargill District Court dock.
He'd been a valuable scout leader throughout the 80s and 90s, in charge of boys at camps and field
trips.
Now he was a convicted paedophile.
He looked as if he couldn't believe it, but the jury was convinced.
Perhaps it still had vivid recollections of a similar, emotionally charged moment in the courtroom a couple
of days earlier.
A strong young man of 28 had told the jury what had been done to him more than 18 years before.
He had looked at the man and wept.
He spoke of early memories of scouts, of being sexually assaulted while being driven home, and again in
his tent while camping.
The man denied it.
No one but the judge and lawyers could have known that, a few months ago, another jury had found the
same 40-year-old scout leader, Kenneth John Matheson, guilty of sexually violating a 10-year-old boy in late
1986, early 1987.
Three alleged victims had given evidence at that trial. They had all been aged under 16, living near the
man in Yarrow St.
They told how they came to be alone with the man when he let them into his room to watch TV or listen
to music.
After the 28-year-old had told his story and left the jury told his abuser, through its guilty verdict, that he
couldn't get away with it any more.
It had taken just two hours to decide whom to believe, and the 40-year-old scout leader stood shaking
his head.
It's a scenario played out in Invercargill and New Zealand courtrooms over and over again.
In 2002, Christopher Peter Zaal, 45, a married Invercargill man, was convicted. He had lured his victims
under the guise of martial arts training. He had himself been a paedophile victim and abused 16 children,
mostly boys, over a 12-year period.
In 2004, Michael William Gray, a 51-year-old water treatment plant operator, was convicted. He invited
boys aged 9 to 14 to his workplace, where he would let them look at porn. He was also abused as a child but
chose to groom at least eight boys for his own sexual gratification.
There are many, many more stories that all pose the same question.
Why? Who are these people, what were their backgrounds and how did their social boundaries get so
distorted? Bronwyn Rutherford spends most of her time exploring those issues.
The principal psychologist of Kia Marama, the nation's leading custodial rehabilitative centre for child sex
offenders at Rolleston Prison, she has been treating the problem for eight years.
She says one of the biggest misconceptions people have to realise about child abusers is that the prob-
lem is closer to home than most people think.
Consider the New Zealand stereotype, she says: "The dirty old man in a raincoat and the stranger, that
somehow the monster is visible (is wrong). (Paedophiles) are very different to all other offenders.
"They come from all socio-economic groups, white collar, blue collar, low socio-economic and all ranges
of mental ability.
They are a very heterogenous group." In 2004 journalist and former Act MP Deborah Coddington pub-
lished her latest edition of The New Zealand Paedophile and Sex Offender, a book that took "almost" every
newspaper court clipping in the country between 1990 and 2003 and bound it in a register of convicted of-
fenders. Continued page C2 Continued from page C1 ITS index screamed offenders' names by area and oc-
cupation and each entry carried a brief summary of their offence.
"Heterogenous" takes on new meaning when 38 religious affiliates, 27 caregivers, eight public servants
(including military and police), 14 scout leaders and 10 healthcare paedophiles dirty the book's pages, with
other sections including educators, pensioners, students and unemployed.Thirty of those names are associ-
ated to Southland.
Rutherford says there's no single pathway to child sex abuse but it's widely agreed the nurture rather
than nature argument holds sway.
"It is learned but in so many different ways." Some had been victims, others were never abused and
came from backgrounds where they were over-indulged.
She says it's clear, though, that most offenders took their first offensive step during adolescence and into
their early 20s.
The key moment was when a "cognitive distortion" overcame any inhibition, sometimes aided by earlier
abuse, drugs and alcohol or watching child pornography.That distortion, combined with a "sexual preoccupa-
tion" (a common trait) normalised the behaviour and, as it increased, empathy for victims dropped and ration-
alisation took control.
This is where offenders often saw the abuse as a romance or an educational period for the child.
"There is a whole range of things they tell themselves that allows them to do what they do. (But) it's not
an addiction ...
it's not a chemical change in the brain ...
it's a behaviour -- not a high," Rutherford says.
Detective Stephen Dalton, of the Invercargill Police child abuse investigation team, has been almost ex-
clusively involved in bringing abusers like Matheson, Zaal and Gray to court since 1996 and agrees most
men begin offending in their late teens.
Many would be without partners, but not always, and victims in "many cases" were well known to them.
"These people will ingratiate themselves in some way with a family where they've identified a likely child
target," he says.
"This family association will often increase in intensity, with the offender visiting more frequently until he
becomes a trusted family friend whom the child's parents would never suspect of being an abuser.
"This, of course, makes it more difficult for the child to disclose any abuse. It also gives the abuser priv-
ileges of contact with the child he would not otherwise get or receive." This most common method of offend-
ing is known as "grooming" .
Rochelle Walker, who has counselled paedophile victims for six years, says grooming includes bribery,
coercion and trickery to get children alone.
"They may look for opportunities to fulfill the child's need for attention or take advantage of the way the
child responds to family rules, structures and consequences," she says.
Children became confused when the abuse was minimised by words like ìts OK to watch this (porn)' --
breaking down normal responses, reactions and barriers.
Incorrect messages of what would happen if they talked would be fed to the child, as well as gifts and
items to keep them quiet.
"This ... (causes) confusion that, because they enjoyed and took gifts, they will be in trouble." Some of-
fenders would also threaten to hurt loved ones, Walker says.
Rutherford says offenders tend to get good at spotting successful targets -- those having difficulties at
home or with friends or those who have already been abused.
However, while the children are being groomed, often the parents are too.
"They may do things that are helpful to the parents ... helping with debt, babysitting ... helping out around
the house.
They become trusted." Grooming timelines varied between offenders and could be as low as about five
minutes (offering lollies in the park) or as long as five years in a bid to isolate the child. "Children are taught
to comply to adults," Rutherford explains.
Both Dalton and Rutherford said it's important adults trust their gut instincts and act if they think they're
being groomed.
Watching the adult-child interaction could be revealing because there were tell-tale signs to grooming,
Rutherford says.
"Spending more time with the child than the adult friends ... touching the child more than normal, offering
to take the child away a lot or offering to take just one of the children away." Subtle, flirtatious behaviour more
suited to adult romance or the introduction of sexual talk around children were also indicators.
"That's not normal (and) if you put that all together over time there's a lot going on. When parents are be-
ing groomed they get that gut feeling but often dismiss it. By the time it gets (to that) stop, it's gone too far."
Rutherford says one of the reasons paedophiles get away with it is that asking people about their sexual in-
tentions is not the social norm.
"In this context it's entirely appropriate to ask ... that's how you protect people ...
that's being a parent -- trust your gut and do something about it." Walker says alarming statistics indic-
ated one in three girls and one in four boys will be sexually abused.
Many victims believed it was their fault, which continues into adulthood.
"Because the perpetrator is often known and has hurt them in this way -- it affects their ability to trust oth-
ers ... changing the child's belief of who are reliable and safe in their lives." Loss of confidence and self-es-
teem could lead to regressive behaviour and withdrawal, and ways to aid memory suppression was sought
through drugs and alcohol.
Dalton says any disclosure from children should be treated as true until proved otherwise -- not dis-
missed out of hand.
"Children who make disclosures of abuse and are not believed often grow up harbouring feelings of bit-
terness and rejection ... the simple act of listening to the victim and accepting their complaint as valid is often
all that's required to begin the healing process." Parents should listen to what the child says and record de-
tails but resist the temptation to carry out their own questioning of the child, which could later be criticised in
court as suggestive or leading.
Parents should contact Child Youth and Family or the police to discuss disclosure and take advice.
Walker agrees the initial disclosure period is crucial for the child's healing process. "The reaction of signi-
ficant others is critical. It's important the children feel they're believed ... protected, and for the abuse to stop."
Parents should also get support to help them help the child through it.
"They're also coming to terms with the fact that someone they've known, and been part of their family re-
lationships, has destroyed and betrayed their trust (and) can feel guilty they did not recognise what oc-
curred." Educating children about their bodies and sexual abuse while allowing open and honest communica-
tion can prevent children being victimised, Walker says.
"Help them understand its their body and no one else can tell them what to do with it, that sometimes
people try and trick them into doing things and (the child) is not to blame because its wrong.
Let them know you want to know about their worries (and they) have help." RUTHERFORD says up to
40 men are treated at the Kia Marama treatment unit every year. More than 800 have been since 1989.
Because the offending was "basically a behavioural and thinking disorder over time" , treatment was pos-
sible.
"If it's learned, they can learn something else." She confirms anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of offend-
ers had once been a victim but was quick to point out "the other half have no history" .
She also says of every 100 victims, only one of those would become an abuser.
"It's a distortion to say Ì did this because I was abused as a child'." Rutherford says that's "passing the
blame," -- a practice also treated.
Abusers enter Rolleston prison's Kia Marama unit in the final year of their sentence.
The first three months adapts them to the "therapeutic community" , where "the norm" for inmates was to
challenge inappropriate behaviour, before the nine-month therapy and change phase begins.
The men are assisted to develop honest insight into what they do, the choices they made during the of-
fending and the impact of those choices.
This includes a "demanding" victim empathy period where they're required to assume the identity of the
victim in a group and talk from that perspective.
A "change" period then introduces self-monitoring, where personal and relationship skills, previously
lacking, are learned and a safety plan in preparation for release is designed.
This reintegration with support and monitoring includes help from government agencies such as proba-
tion services and the police.
Rutherford says New Zealand rehab for child abusers is world leading, with graduates having a recidiv-
ism rate of less than 5 percent over an average monitoring time of five years, compared to 25 percent re-
cidivism for untreated prisoners.
Those men who refuse treatment still had to be released at the end of their sentence, but if considered a
"high risk" could be closely monitored by probation for up to 10 years.
But for some people that's understandably not enough.
The Sensible Sentencing Trust takes a cynical view of paedophile rehabilitation and on its website sug-
gests chemical castration for men like Zaal, who reoffended even after completing the Kia Marama pro-
gramme.
The trust took Coddington's lead by posting its own sex offender registry page, challenging the Govern-
ment to follow other countries by making an "open-to-the-public" register.
Coddington's proposed Sex Offenders Registry Bill was first called before Parliament in 2003 and is due
for its next select committee hearing on August 31.
She says her book and proposed registry were meant "to send a clear message" to offenders they would
be monitored for much longer after conviction or prison release.
Rutherford agreed secrecy of any sort bred abuse and lists could be positive, if treated realistically.
"We don't expect the community to welcome them with open arms (but) keep in mind it's unhelpful and
unsafe to react and revictimise them." In the West Coast town of Blackball in 2005, residents drove a recently
relocated recidivist paedophile out of town when they learned of his whereabouts.
Dalton said parents needed to be aware there were "predators" living and working in the community.
Scenarios like Blackball often led offenders to live transient lives, not being able to settle for any lengthy
periods before having to move on again.
Rutherford says offenders who hide and change their names don't rehabilitate as well as offenders who
are around people who know their offending, their treatment plan and can respectfully challenge them.
"That's the best scenario for a person whose been through treatment to stay safe (for the community)."
She also advised against becoming complacent to the warning signs by relying on conviction lists; summed
up best by the Invercargill cop that catches them.
"There will always be child abusers in the community," Dalton says. INFORMATION LINKS The Sensible
Sentencing Trust website provides links to several lists of convicted child abusers, national and international,
through its article "Information wants to be free" .
Deborah Coddington's book The New Zealand Paedophile and Sex Offender can be ordered through Al-
ister Taylor Publishers, Auckland.
The Sex Offender Registry Bill is before a Government select committee in August. COURT CONVIC-
TIONS Convictions entered in southern (Dunedin included) courts for sex offences against children between
2003 and 2005.
Child abuse offenders sent to jail -- 24 (2003), 13 (2004), 13 (2005).
Child abuse offenders not jailed -- 10 (2003), 6 (2004), 10 (2005).
Child abuse offenders granted final name suppression -- 5 (2004), 3 (2005).
(NOTE: Each case may have multiple victims associated with it.) w158 charges for the 34 cases in 2003.
46 charges for 19 cases in 2004.
77 charges for 23 cases in 2005. KIA MARAMA Kia Marama is a 60-bed special treatment unit for child-
sex offenders at Rolleston Prison.
Its name means "let there be light and insight" .
Opened in 1989, it was the first treatment facility of its kind in the world.
Auckland's Te Piriti unit (1994) was modelled on Kia Marama.
A 1998 evaluation found the programme reduced graduate reoffending risk by 50 percent in its first five
years.
Recent figures show those treated after 1994 have a reconviction rate of less than 5 percent over an av-
erage follow-up period of five years.
--------------------
CAPTION:
On the case: Detective Stephen Dalton, of Invercargill, has spent the past 10 years gathering evidence
against Southland's child sex offenders.
Photo: 77524 BARRY HARCOURT
Kia Marama: The exterior of the Kia Marama unit (Rolleston Prison), where up to 40 rehabilitating paedo-
philes are treated each year.
Christopher Zaal Michael Gray
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
Metropolitan News Enterprise (Los Angeles, California)

June 22, 2006, Thursday
S.C. to Decide Whether City Liable for Alleged Sex Abuse by Offi-
cial Justices Also Grant Review in Dispute Over Sierra Club Elec-
tion Procedures
BYLINE: By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
SECTION: Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1379 words
The California Supreme Court yesterday agreed to decide whether the City of Los Angeles and/or the
Boy Scouts of America may be held liable to a pair of former Explorer scouts who claim they were abused by
an officer who later became a top LAPD official.
The justices, at their weekly conference in San Francisco, unanimously granted review in Doe v. City of
Los Angeles, B178689. The Court of Appeal for this district, Div. Four, ruled Feb. 24 that the plaintiffs, identi-
fied only as John Doe and John Doe 2, cannot show that the city or the BSA knew, or had reason to know, of
any unlawful sexual conduct by David J. Kalish and that their claims against those defendants were barred
by the statute of limitations.
Justice Daniel Curry, who has since retired, wrote the opinion.
Deputy Chief
The plaintiffs are among six men who claimed to have been molested by Kalish in the 1970s when he
was an Explorer troop supervisor. He later rose through the ranks to become an LAPD deputy chief before a
five-month criminal investigation into the molestation allegations ended his career.
He was not charged-prosecutors cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a statute extending the limita-
tions period for child molestation cases could not be applied to cases in which the original limitations period
had expired-but was relieved of his duties and retired in 2003.
In dismissing the suits, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert L. Hess said neither the city nor the
Boy Scouts could have predicted that Kalish might have sexually abused teenage boys. The plaintiff did not
identify "any person whose knowledge could create liability on the part of either the city or the Boy Scouts, or
what they knew and when," Hess said.
Curry, writing for the Court of Appeal, agreed.
Suit Time-Barred
The justice explained that under Code of Civil Procedure Sec. 340.1, a plaintiff claiming to have been
sexually abused as a minor generally may sue the molester's employer or principal prior to the plaintiff's 26th
birthday. After that, claims are time-barred unless filed during a one-year revival period that expired at the
end of 2003, as the suit against Kalish was.
An otherwise-barred suit against an employer or principal that was filed during the revival period,
however, is timely only if the defendant "knew or had reason to know, or was otherwise on notice, of any un-
lawful sexual conduct by an employee, volunteer, representative, or agent," and failed to take reasonable
steps to prevent such misconduct from recurring.
The plaintiffs, Curry noted, had conceded that there was no evidence the Boy Scouts or the city had ac-
tual knowledge of any molestations by Kalish, so dismissal was required absent a sufficient showing of con-
structive knowledge.
No such showing was made, the justice said.
"[A]ppellants may not merely allege that respondents knew facts that raised a generalized prospect or
possibility of sexual abuse by Kalish," the jurist wrote. "Rather, appellants were obliged to allege in specific
terms that respondents knew facts that-if acted upon in a reasonable manner-would have prompted them to
investigate Kalish with a thoroughness likely to establish that he had engaged in unlawful sexual abuse."
Claims Deficient
The justice noted that as to the Boy Scouts, the only allegations related to constructive knowledge were
that the LAPD acted as the organization's agent and that the BSA was thus chargeable with the same know-
ledge that the LAPD had. Assuming that to be true, however, the claims fail because the claims against the
LAPD were deficient, Curry said.
The plaintiffs, Curry explained, merely alleged that the LAPD was aware that incidents of sexual abuse
had occurred within its Explorer program, and that various officers, including possibly Kalish, were involved in
non-sexual misconduct, including having program participants work on improvements to his home and
providing beer to underage scouts.
"[T]hese facts reasonably support the conclusion that LAPD should have made a general inquiry into al-
cohol- and chore-related misconduct by LAPD officers within the programs, but not that LAPD should have
launched an investigation focused on Kalish that would uncovered his sexual misconduct," the jurist wrote.
In other conference action, the justices:
-Agreed to decide whether a group of Sierra Club members who are opposed to the conservation organ-
ization's leadership and want a change in its policies may sue for alleged unfair treatment during the organiz-
ation's 2004 board election.
The First District Court of Appeal ruled in March that the bulk of a suit by a group calling itself Club Mem-
bers for an Honest Election falls under the "public interest" exemption from the anti-SLAPP statute.
The dispute has its roots in efforts to change the leadership and focus of the club, whose 750,000 mem-
bers and $ 95 million budget make it the largest environmental group in the country. Among other things, the
dissidents want the group-which has never taken a position on the issue-support stricter immigration con-
trols.
Supporters of the current leadership have accused the dissidents of promoting racism and claim to rep-
resent the views of the majority of members. They say the dissidents are seeking to take advantage of the
fact that 90 percent or so of the members do not vote in the annual board elections.
The board consists of 15 members, five of whom are elected each year. The board elects the president,
who is the only board member to draw a salary.
Board candidates are nominated by a committee appointed by the board, or by petition. Dissidents won
one seat in the 2002 election and two in 2003.
Prior to the 2004 election, the board circulated to its chapters an article concerning what the author
called the "narrow, personal, one issue agendas" that were being pursued by unnamed "people and parties"
as a result of the low participation numbers in the club's elections.
The board also voted to approve an "urgent election notice" informing members of "an unprecedented
level of outside involvement" in the election and the fact that certain outside groups "may be attempting to in-
tervene" in the election.
Following the board meeting, the dissident group and one of the candidates nominated by petition filed
suit in San Francisco Superior Court.
They claimed that the actions taken by the board, including allowing three "fake candidates" to circulate
ballot statements in which they disclaimed any desire to be elected and asked members to vote for other
candidates aligned with the incumbent leadership, violated fairness requirements in the California Corpora-
tions Code and the club by-laws.
The plaintiffs asked for a preliminary injunction barring the winners of the 2004 election-which resulted in
a sharp increase in turnout and victory for candidates backed by the nominating committee-from taking of-
fice. They also sought to mandate changes in procedures for future elections.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren, who has since retired, held that to the extent the
suit sought to correct allegedly unfair procedures, it was in the public interest and fell under Code of Civil
Procedure Sec. 425.17(b)'s exception to the anti-SLAPP law and the Court of Appeal agreed.
The case is Club Members for an Honest Election v. Sierra Club, A110069.
-Denied review of a ruling by this district's Court of Appeal that the Los Angeles County Civil Service
Commission cannot hear a claim for back pay by a former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who retired
under threat of prosecution four years ago.
Jesse Zuniga was among several defendants indicted in connection with an alleged scam in which in-
mates and department employees supposedly conspired to use stolen credit cards to withdraw cash from
automated teller machines. Zuniga agreed to retire from the Sheriff's Department in exchange for dismissal
of all charges, but then claimed a right to be paid for the 10 months that elapsed between his being relieved
of duty and the date of his official retirement.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the Civil Service Commission had no jurisdiction in the matter because
Zuniga was no longer a county employee.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Metropolitan News Company
Burnley Express
June 16, 2006
Scoutmaster's Sex Abuse

SOURCE: Burnley Express
LENGTH: 795 words
A MAN who sexually abused eight boys in his role as a Scoutmaster has been sentenced to four years
in prison.
Kenneth Allan Fawcett was told by a judge he had carried out a serious catalogue of crime.
The offences were committed at Scout camps, at his home and also in the changing rooms of Nelson
swimming baths.
Judge Anthony Russell told the 61-year-old defendant: "You abused your position as a Scoutmaster to
indecently assault boys entrusted into your care by their parents.
"It was a gross breach of trust, repeated on many occasions and which has had a marked effect on your
victims".
Fawcett, of Fife Street, Barrowford, had earlier pleaded guilty to 26 charges of indecent assault and
three of indecency with a child.
The offences spanned periods between 1974 and 1990.
As well as being involved with the Scouts, the defendant had been a keen train spotter and would take
boys on train spotting outings that would involve them being away from home overnight.
Miss Janet Ironfield (prosecuting) told Preston Crown Court that one of the victims came forward after
becoming concerned, in the summer of 2004, that Fawcett was still acting as a Scout leader and that he
might possibly take the opportunity to abuse children.
As a result of his formal complaint, other males came forward with information.
Seven of the charges concerned a boy who was abused while under 15 years. This took place in the
changing room at Nelson swimming baths, as well as at Scout camp. One night at camp, the defendant
asked the boy to take all his clothes off and share a double sleeping bag.
Abuse also took place at Fawcett's then home in Barnoldswick.
One boy was described as having felt "dirty" after an offence was carried out against him.
Fawcett was interviewed three times in all by police and, at that stage, denied the allegations against
him.
Miss Ironfield added: "Many of the individuals have tried to put the matter behind them and to move on
with their lives.
"Having seen press articles about the defendant, and having been approached by police officers, seven
of the complainants came forward, telling of very similar acts over a number of years while the defendant
was holding a position of Scout leader".
Fawcett had no previous convictions.
Mr Kevin Donnelly (defending) said Fawcett had earlier been unable to recall the offences and had
therefore found it very difficult to accept committing them. But he recognised the sheer weight of evidence
against him, the unlikelihood of eight independent individuals concocting allegations against him.
His lawyer said: "He admits he committed these offences, he remembers committing these offences.
"The acts have unquestionably had serious consequences for those subjected to the abuse.
"The degree of sexual activity, although serious, is not of the most serious kind that courts sometimes
hears. Fifteen or sixteen years ago the offending came to an end and there has been nothing since."
The court heard from Barrowford vicar the Rev. John Hallows, who had known the defendant since
2001. Fawcett was a member of St Thomas's Church's congregation and a member of the Parochial Church
Council and Mr Hallows described him as an open, friendly and caring person, very willing to be involved in
anything happening in the church.
In passing sentence, the judge told Fawcett : "It is very sad to see you in the dock of this court, having
heard all the good things I have read about you. But there are some bad things as well.
The judge said that only a custodial sentence was appropriate for the offences. There were six month
sentences to run consecutively, regarding each of the victims.
"I recognise the sentence will be very hard for you and very hard for you and your family and friends to
come to terms with."
The defendant will be on the sex offenders' list indefinitely. A 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order
was made. That bars him from associating or contacting anyone under the age of 17 unless directly super-
vised by someone approved by social services.
And he must not undertake any activity which might bring him into contact with under-17s.
l Fawcett was awarded a top Scout honour, the Silver Acorn, in recognition of his work for the movement
in 1998. He became involved with the Scouts in 1970 when he was appointed pack leader in Barrowford.
Later, he moved to the 1st West Craven Pack in Barnoldswick and over the next decade moved backward
and forward between the two groups.
He became Assistant District Commissioner for the Pendle area, and then for the whole county.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Johnston Press Plc
Sunday Star
June 11, 2006 Sunday

U.K. 1st Edition
JACKO BOY'S NEW FIGHT FOR LIFE;

Cancer blow for bullied Gav
BYLINE: EXCLUSIVE by MIKE PARKER in L.A.
SECTION: NEWS; 35
LENGTH: 518 words
THE boy who accused Michael Jackson of molesting him is in a living hell as he faces a new cancer
battle.
Gavin Arvizo, 16, who has already lost a kidney, has been told the chances of making a 100% recovery
are slim.
On top of that Gavin has had to endure. . .
Being bullied unmercifully at school.
Bombarded with internet hate mail.
Having his dreams of becoming a professional footballer shattered.
All this is despite the fact that the family are in a witness protection programme.
A close friend told the Daily Star Sunday last night: "They are really in the doldrums and Gavin couldn't
be more miserable. Life has taken a terrible downward turn for him after things had been looking up.
"He thought he had beaten the cancer but he has been told his hell isn't over yet."
On Tuesday, Gavin and his mother Janet, stepdad Jay, brother Starr and sister Davellin will be treated to
a slap-up "anniversary dinner" paid for by sympathetic staff at the Santa Barbara District Attorney's Office in
California.
But there will be few smiles around the table exactly a year to the day since Jackson, 47, was acquitted
of ten charges of molesting Gavin and plying him with booze with intent to seduce him when he was 13. The
family's current "safe house" is in a leafy Los Angeles suburb close to Gavin's school.
But the friend added: "Janet and Jay are talking about trying to relocate the family.
"They are in the witness scheme but Gavin's face is so well known that he's picked on all the time at high
school.
"Some kids who have his e-mail address have been sending him really vicious, nasty, hurtful messages.
"He's a handsome young man and he'd love to meet a girl and date but he's treated like a pariah.
"They have virtually no money of their own and while they remain in the protection plan it's up to the fed-
eral authorities where they stay."
High school coaches declared him a highly-talented footballer with huge prospects. But professional
scouts have been put off by the gloomy verdict on his health.
And the friend continued: "After the world media circus surrounding the trial, it's been very difficult for
them.
"Don't forget, a jury returned verdicts which indicated they didn't believe the testimony of Gavin, his
brother and his mom.
"They will be forever stigmatised by that. Gavin has been on the receiving end of some terrible taunts at
school but he's a brave kid.
"The family thought - Gavin especially - that they could build bright new lives once the Jackson fuss died
down. But it just hasn't worked out that way."
Bar him from kids
MICHAEL Jackson's biggest critic has warned Japanese orphanage chiefs not to let the star adopt kids
from the country.
The star has sparked fresh outrage from Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred over claims he wants
to adopt more children.
Allred was formerly a lawyer for Jordy Chandler, who received GBP 16million from Jackson, right, for
withdrawing sex abuse allegations in 1993. The singer toured three orphanages in Japan two weeks ago.
But Allred said: "I would be extremely concerned for the safety of any child living with Mr Jackson consid-
ering abuse allegations."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: BIG BUDDIES: Jackson with Gavin at Neverland. The superstar was cleared of molesting the
boy, then 13
AGONY: Gavin after court verdict a year ago. He had hopes of making it as a pro footballer. But his dreams
have been shattered

All Rights Reserved
June 9, 2006 Friday

Idaho Edition
Sex abuse suit avoids dismissal;

But judge drops two plaintiffs who say sheriff's deputy molested
them;
BYLINE: Bill Morlin Staff writer
SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 607 words
A Superior Court judge refused a request from Spokane County to dismiss a lawsuit brought by men who
allege they were sexually abused more than two decades ago by former sheriff's Deputy David Hahn.
Judge Neal Rielly, however, did dismiss two of the four plaintiffs from the suit, agreeing the county could-
n't have known about Hahn's abusive behavior when they were sexually abused.
The judge, in an order filed last week, also dismissed claims that the county was negligent in hiring
Hahn in the mid-1970s and in investigating claims that he was sexually abusing boys.
But Rielly left intact a claim that the county, through the Sheriff's Office, was negligent in retaining Hahn
after senior commanders were told about the abuse allegations.
Rielly also said he was "satisfied under a liberal interpretation" that the men's claims were being brought
within the statute of limitations, even though the abuse occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
After being confronted at least a second time about the allegations, Hahn took his own life Aug. 28,
1981, at age 36.
The plaintiffs who remain in the suit are Douglas Chicklinsky and Robert Galliher, who described their al-
legations of abuse in a June 2003 story in The Spokesman-Review.
Galliher and another man, Michael Grant, also told the newspaper last year that they were sexually ab-
used in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Hahn's partner in the Sheriff's Office, former Deputy Jim West.
Galliher made the same allegations against West in a sworn deposition taken last year by Terry Lackie,
the private attorney hired to defend Spokane County in the case.
Hahn and West were friends and co-Scoutmasters for a Boy Scout troop on Spokane's South Hill.
Before he was recalled from office last year as Spokane's mayor, West emphatically denied ever molest-
ing boys or knowing that Hahn was allegedly involved in such activity.
Chicklinsky and Galliher "remained absolutely ready to go to court to press their claims," their attorney,
John Allison, said Wednesday.
Allison said he was still reviewing Judge Rielly's ruling and hadn't decided whether he would ask him to
reconsider his dismissal of two of the four plaintiffs. "We certainly expect that at least two of the claims would
remain," he said.
"We're disappointed that two of these plaintiffs' claims have been dismissed, but all four of these men re-
main very dedicated to seeing that the truth of this sad history be told and that future tragedies of this type be
avoided," Allison said.
Even though the two other men are no longer plaintiffs, Allison said he expects to call them as witnesses
at trial.
"There are other victims we have learned about and spoken with who would be called as witnesses to
establish a pattern of outrageous conduct on Hahn's behalf while a sheriff's deputy, a church youth counselor
and a Boy Scout leader," Allison said.
A trial date set for this spring was stricken. Allison said he expects to return to court within 30 to 45 days
to get a new trial date, possibly later this year.
Lackie said Wednesday he was pleased with the court's ruling dismissing two of the plaintiffs.
"I'm not shocked that he didn't dismiss the entire action," Lackie said.
Lackie said he will schedule a private meeting within a month with Spokane County commissioners to
discuss whether to attempt to settle the case out of court or prepare for trial. The county has spent approxim-
ately $200,000 so far in the defense of the suit, filed in 2003.
"I will present the facts and the status of the case, but it will be up to my clients, the commissioners, to
decide whether to proceed to trial or resolve this," Lackie said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Bill Morlin can be reached at (509) 459-5444 or by e-mail at billm@spokesman.com.
June 9, 2006 Friday

Metro Edition
Judge won't drop sex abuse suit;

But he dismisses two plaintiffs who say deputy molested them;
SECTION: B; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 606 words
A Superior Court judge refused a request from Spokane County to dismiss a lawsuit brought by men who
allege they were sexually abused more than two decades ago by former sheriff's Deputy David Hahn.
The judge, in an order filed last week, also dismissed claims that the county was negligent in hiring
Hahn in the mid-1970s and in investigating claims that he was sexually abusing boys.
After being confronted at least a second time about the allegations, Hahn took his own life Aug. 28,
1981, at age 36.
Allison said he was still reviewing Rielly's ruling and hadn't decided whether he would ask him to recon-
sider his dismissal of two of the four plaintiffs. "We certainly expect that at least two of the claims would re-
main," he said.
at trial.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Bill Morlin can be reached at (509) 459-5444 or by e-mail at billm@spokesman.com.
Distributed by Knight/Ridder Tribune News Service
June 9, 2006 Friday
Sex abuse suit avoids dismissal: But judge drops two plaintiffs who
say sheriff's deputy molested them
BYLINE: Bill Morlin, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
LENGTH: 658 words
Jun. 9--A Superior Court judge refused a request from Spokane County to dismiss a lawsuit brought by
men who allege they were sexually abused more than two decades ago by former sheriff's Deputy David
Hahn.
The judge, in an order filed last week, also dismissed claims that the county was negligent in hiring Hahn
in the mid-1970s and in investigating claims that he was sexually abusing boys.
After being confronted at least a second time about the allegations, Hahn took his own life Aug. 28, 1981,
at age 36.
Allison said he was still reviewing Judge Rielly's ruling and hadn't decided whether he would ask him to
reconsider his dismissal of two of the four plaintiffs. "We certainly expect that at least two of the claims would
remain," he said.
at trial.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Busi-
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20060609-SR-0609-Sex-abuse-suit-avoids-dismissal
JOURNAL-CODE: SR

June 9, 2006 Friday
Judge won't drop sex abuse suit: But he dismisses two plaintiffs
who say deputy molested them
BYLINE: Bill Morlin, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
LENGTH: 657 words
Jun. 9--A Superior Court judge refused a request from Spokane County to dismiss a lawsuit brought by
men who allege they were sexually abused more than two decades ago by former sheriff's Deputy David
Hahn.
The judge, in an order filed last week, also dismissed claims that the county was negligent in hiring Hahn
in the mid-1970s and in investigating claims that he was sexually abusing boys.
After being confronted at least a second time about the allegations, Hahn took his own life Aug. 28, 1981,
at age 36.
Allison said he was still reviewing Rielly's ruling and hadn't decided whether he would ask him to recon-
sider his dismissal of two of the four plaintiffs. "We certainly expect that at least two of the claims would re-
main," he said.
at trial.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20060609-SR-0609-Judge-won-t-drop-sex-abuse-suit
JOURNAL-CODE: SR
June 7, 2006 Wednesday Main Edition
Former Post Register reporter praised by news anchor while receiving Livingston Award
BYLINE: By DEAN MILLER,
SECTION: THE WESTPg. C1
LENGTH: 520 words
NEW YORK - Charles Gibson of ABC News on Tuesday praised former Post Register reporter Peter
Zuckerman's courage for investigating pedophile Boy Scouts camp staffers of eastern Idaho's Grand Teton
Council.
Gibson made the remarks as he presented Zuckerman the $10,000 Livingston Award for young journal-
ists. Gibson noted that Zuckerman and the Post Register
persevered even after defenders of
the Grand Teton Council outed him as gay in a community that is not considered gay-friendly.
No one named in the Scouts' Honor series, published 17 months ago, has requested a correction or cla-
rification of the story, which detailed the contents of court files sealed by Boy Scouts attorneys after leaders
were caught abusing Scouts.
Three Livingston Awards are given annually to the best American reporters for international, national and
local reporting. The Scouts' Honor investigation also won the Scripps Howard Foundation's national award
for distinguished service to the First Amendment.
In a brief speech at the podium of the Yale Club ballroom, across the street from Grand Central Station in
Manhattan, Zuckerman, 26, said the bravest people involved in the story were the victims of Scout leader pe-
dophiles. They risked shame and public attacks by the Grand Teton Council and its defenders in order to
warn the public of the Grand Teton Council's actions, he said.
Despite the controversy, Zuckerman said, the Post Register's readers thought about the story and acted,
pushing for tougher child sex abuse laws and tougher rules against judges hiding case files. In doing that, he
said, Idaho Falls proved that small towns can be big.
Christiane Amanpour of CNN International presented the international prize to Edward Wong, 33, of the
New York Times for his reporting on the Iraq war, and New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson
presented the national reporting award to CNN reporter Robin Mejia, 32, for an investigation that demon-
strated the fallibility of ballistics, fingerprint and DNA evidence.
The Livingston Awards are judged by Tom Brokaw of NBC News, Los Angeles Times Editor Dean
Baquet, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, former Newsweek
editor Osborn Elliott, plus Gibson, Amanpour and Abramson.
Past winners include William F. Buckley, Jr.; Amanpour; New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman,
the author of the best-selling books ""Freakonomics"" and ""The Lexus and the Olive Tree""; Gregg Easter-
brook of the Atlantic Monthly; and other reporters now working for top national publications.
Zuckerman is tied for the youngest person to win a Livingston Award.
Zuckerman lives in Los Angeles, where he works for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a trade paper for
lawyers.
Post Register Executive Editor Dean Miller can be reached at 542-6766.
On the
INTERNET
For more information:
n www.livawards.org/ awards/2005winners.html
For a list of past Livingston Award winners:
n www.livawards.org/past/
To read the Scouts'
Honor stories:
n www.postregister.com/ scouts_honor/index.php
n Many well-known journalists are past recipients of the Livingston Award
Livingston, Continued on Page C7
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
The Boston Globe
May 25, 2006 Thursday

THIRD EDITION
A HEALING PILGRIMAGE FOR CARDINAL

BYLINE: BY KATHY MCCABE, GLOBE STAFF
SECTION: GLOBE NORTH; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1141 words
MIDDLETON - A simple country church, St. Agnes Catholic Parish is a place where folks feel at home.
Most parishioners sit in the same pew each week. It's not unusual for someone to get up and open a stained
glass window to let in some fresh air on a warm day.
Babies receive baptismal robes, embroidered by a group of women dubbed "The Holy Stitchers." People
make shepherd's pie and egg-salad sandwiches for a local soup kitchen. "You feel love here," said Helen
Yebba , 79, a member of the church for two years.
Yet St. Agnes also aches for the victims of convicted child molester Christopher Reardon , the parish's
former religious education director. Reardon, a lay worker arrested at the parish picnic in 2000, is serving a
40- to 50-year sentence in state prison for sexually abusing 29 boys.
On Saturday , Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley will visit St. Agnes to apologize for the scandal, one of the
largest child sex-abuse cases in state history. O'Malley will celebrate the 5 p.m. Mass as part of a nine-day
pilgrimage he is making to parishes affected by sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston.
"He will acknowledge the sin of abuse," said Barbara Thorp , head of the victim outreach office for the
archdiocese.
"Cardinal Sean realizes we are a suffering church. He hopes his personal presence will lead to healing."
The Rev. Michael A. Hobson , the pastor at St. Agnes, said O'Malley will find a resilient parish. "We are
deeply wounded," said Hobson, who came to the parish three years ago. "At the same time, we are still op-
timistic and moving forward."
O'Malley will start his nine-church pilgrimage today, with Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Bo-
ston. Victims or their representative have agreed to speak in each parish. His other stops will be in Stone-
ham, Brockton, Lowell, Needham, Weston, Hingham, and Bellingham, with the novena ending June 3 with a
procession from the Boston archdiocese's chancery to St. Columbkille parish in Brighton.
"He has been profoundly impacted by the tremendous spiritual suffering of victims," said Thorp, who ad-
ded that O'Malley has met privately with victims since his appointment as archbishop in 2003. "He recog-
nizes our focus must now be on the emotional damage, and its aftermath, on people."
St. Agnes differs from the eight other parishes O'Malley will visit. Abuse victims at the other parishes
came forward as adults, saying priests abused them decades ago. Most of St. Agnes' victims are now in their
early 20s and were teenagers or younger when they reported Reardon.
"They are a much younger group of victims and families," said Thorp, who declined to say if any are still
receiving therapy or other support from the archdiocese's Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach. "The ab-
use is especially raw and painful" at St. Agnes.
Reardon also was found to have abused boys at the Danvers YMCA, where he worked as a swim coach.
He was indicted on 125 counts of abuse, including child rape, and pleaded guilty to 75 counts. The 29 victims
received money from an $85 million settlement the archdiocese reached with a total of 550 victims who filed
civil lawsuits. Reardon also was an aide in the Middleton schools, and a volunteer with the Boy Scouts.
Thorp said she would not be surprised if more Reardon victims emerge. The 29 were identified from a list
of more than 200 children's names that police reported finding on Reardon's computer.
"When victims are young, especially, there is often a delay in their ability to feel safe enough to come for-
ward," Thorp said. "It's entirely possible that some day more victims could come forward . . . If they do, I can't
stress enough that we will provide whatever help we can."
The Reardon victims were never publicly identified, and it was never disclosed how many of the 29 vic-
tims were from the St. Agnes congregation, according to the Essex district attorney's office. Alan Grenier, a
Danvers lawyer who represented six of them, said some have gone to college or gotten married.
"Time heals a lot," Grenier said.
St. Agnes has spent the last six years trying to heal as well.
"As soon as I got here," said Hobson, 43, the affable pastor known to many as Father Mike, "I was im-
pressed by the faith of the people. Certainly, a lot of people left the parish, and the Catholic faith altogether,
and that pains us . . . We want people to come back."
Some never thought about quitting St. Agnes. "I just felt so connected to that church, I needed to be
there to see it through," said Jodi Sampson , 38, a mother of three who leads a faith-based reading group at
the parish. "I think what has come of this, is we are much more open and aware of what's going on."
Working with the archdiocese, the parish adopted new rules to keep children safe. At least two teachers
are assigned to religious education classes. Staff and volunteers, including religious education teachers,
Eucharistic ministers, and others who may have contact with children, must take a child safety course re-
quired by the archdiocese. Criminal background checks are run annually on staff and volunteers at all par-
ishes, as required by the archdiocese.
First Holy Communion class this year at St. Agnes was one of the largest, with 75 students. Attendance
at Christmas and Easter services has swelled to 1,100, from about 750 three years ago. A Knights of Colum-
bus chapter is starting again, after disbanding for several years. Religious education draws more than 500
children, and a summer Vacation Bible School has a waiting list.
"I don't think anyone hesitates to bring their kids here," said Michelle Carroll , a mother of three from
West Peabody who joined St. Agnes two years ago. "You can't judge a parish by one very bad incident.
When you step inside this church, there is a holy feeling."
Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com.
SIDEBAR:
TRACING AFTERMATH OF A TRAGEDY
Figures related to the Archdiocese of Boston's response to its child sex-abuse scandal since 2002:
299 Survivors who have received therapy, at a cost of $1.16 million*
600 Approximate number of survivors or family members who have contacted the Office of Pastoral Sup-
port and Outreach
626 Personal letters of apology and invitation to meet sent by Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley
2,000 People who have volunteered to serve on teams to prevent child abuse
60,000 Criminal background checks ordered by the archdiocese on priests, staff members and volun-
teers who work with children
119,000 Approximate number of children trained in personal safety and abuse prevention
135,000 Approximate number of clergy, employees, and volunteers trained in child-abuse prevention as
part of their training to work with children
* Valid through June 30, 2005, as outlined in the document, "Financial Disclosure of the Archdiocese of
Boston Regarding Sexual Abuse Settlements and Related Costs," April 19, 2006.
SOURCE: ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: GLOBE NORTH 3
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company
Aberdeen Press and Journal
Firth used position of power to molest boys

BYLINE: Angela Taylor
SECTION: Pg. 12
LENGTH: 433 words
Paul Firth spent decades using his position of power and respect to molest boys left in his care.
Despite previously being convicted of sex crimes against children, the former scout master remained de-
fiant and protested his innocence.
His plea of guilty yesterday, to half of the 26 child abuse charges he faced, came as a remarkable about-
turn.
When he first faced being brought to justice for the catalogue of sickening abuse against his male pupils
and scouts, he secretly sold his house at Cushnie, near Alford, for less than £80,000. On the eve of his High
Court trial he fled the country in his 32ft yacht Romalo, which he bought with the proceeds. He claimed he
had fled because he was in fear for his life.
Firth spent time in the Moroccan port of Tangier, but he was eventually tracked down in the Spanish en-
clave of Cueta. He was then flown back to Aberdeen by Grampian Police officers, following an extradition
battle.
When the 54-year-old was initially prosecuted in 1999, he had faced 19 sex abuse charges and was to
stand trial at the High Court in Dundee.
But under the extradition process 17 charges had to be dropped by the Crown.
He went to trial on the remaining two at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, and was jailed for the maximum three
years after being found guilty by a jury in October 2003, of abusing two scouts, aged 10 and 11, on hiking
and camping trips.
Sheriff Annella Cowan, who put Firth on the sex offenders register indefinitely, branded him "evil and
selfish".
He was released from prison after serving half his sentence and remained defiant, protesting his inno-
cence, and lodged an appeal against his conviction. The appeal was later abandoned.
Earlier this year, many of the cases which had to be dropped under the extradition process were re-
raised. Detectives arrested him at his Victoria Road home at about 7.30pm on January 23 this year.
He was charged with 19 child abuse offences, some dating back to the 1970s. Eight further charges
were later added, after more of his victims came forward after publicity about the case.
The former scout leader, who joined the Scout Association in 1972 and left it in 1994, was elevated to the
position of assistant district commissioner.
He was born in Fareham, Hampshire, and went to school at Elgin Academy. He studied science at
Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology in Aberdeen in the early 1970s. Firth took up his first teaching post at
Hazlehead Academy, Aberdeen, where he taught physics. He remained at that school until about 1980, then
moved to Powis Academy, which later merged with Hilton Academy to form St Machar Academy.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Aberdeen Press and Journal

All Rights Reserved
The Mirror

Scots Edition
SEX ABUSE TEACHER PREYED ON SCOUTS

BYLINE: BY RON MOORE
LENGTH: 175 words
A FORMER Scoutmaster and teacher yesterday admitted a string of sex crimes against boys in his care.
Convicted sex offender Paul Firth, 54, confessed to 13 indecency offences between 1974 and 1996.
The ex-assistant head would organise camping trips to prey on Scouts and pupils, the High Court in Ed-
inburgh heard. His victims were aged from eight to 16.
Firth shared tents with boys instead of other adults, the court heard.
Advocate depute Adrian Cottam said other teachers and Scout leaders did not suspect foul play. He said:
"It was their opinion he obviously felt more comfortable with the relaxed atmosphere with the boys."
Firth, formerly of Alford, Aberdeenshire, is already serving a three-year sentence for lewd behaviour to-
wards two boys aged 10.
Judge Lord Wheatley yesterday called for reports before sentencing. He also placed Firth, who taught at
St Machar and Hazlehead Academies in Aberdeen, on the Sex Offenders Register.
He said: "Your pleas demonstrate an appalling litany of abuse of children when you had a position of ab-
solute trust."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: BEAST: Firth

All Rights Reserved

Metro Edition
In brief
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 519 words
SPOKANE
KALLAS DROPS OUT OF SHERIFF'S RACE
Former Tukwila, Wash. police Detective John Kallas said Friday he is ending his candidacy to become
Spokane County sheriff.
Kallas, who planned to run as a Democrat, made the decision one day after he announced he was run-
ning. He attributed the move to a Spokesman-Review article, which he said had done a "hatchet job" on him.
When announcing his candidacy, Kallas said he wanted Democrats to vote for Republican Ozzie
Knezovich for sheriff in the Republican primary, a strategy that concerned county Democratic leaders be-
cause anyone who votes in the GOP primary can't vote in Democratic races.
Kallas said Friday he will continue to campaign for Knezovich.
- Jonathan Brunt
POST FALLS
ARMED FORCES PARADE TO HONOR GUARD UNIT
Post Falls salutes present and former members of the military today with an Armed Forces Day parade
at 10 a.m.
Mayor Clay Larkin will make good on his 2004 promise to the soldiers of the 116th Engineer Battalion of
the Idaho Army National Guard before they deployed to Iraq. Larkin told them they would be welcomed home
in a manner befitting their heroism and service.
The parade will include about 100 soldiers and some of the equipment of the 116th. Also appearing will
be Brig. Gen. Alan Gayhart of the Idaho Army National Guard.
All veterans organizations in Kootenai County have been invited to take part with their color and rifle
guards.
The parade is expected to last about half an hour. It will travel east on Seltice Way between Frederick
and Idaho streets.
Saturday is the 56th anniversary of President Truman proclaiming Armed Forces Day, created to honor
all men and women in all branches of the services.
- Staff reports
SPOKANE
CONVICTED RAPIST MOVES DOWNTOWN
Police warned Friday that a level 3 sex offender, the kind considered most likely to commit new sex
crimes, has moved to downtown Spokane.
Tony L. Colville, 53, was convicted in 1991 in Island County, Wash., of first-degree rape and first-degree
burglary, both with a deadly weapon.
Colville didn't know the 51-year-old woman he raped. He was a suspect in other sex-abuse cases in
which he wasn't charged, police said.
Colville refused sex-offender treatment in prison, and is not under supervision, according to police.
- John Craig
ATHOL
CRAFT SHOW TO BENEFIT KIDS OF FALLEN TROOPS
More than 20 vendors will sell everything from jams and jellies to handmade clothes and yard orna-
ments from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. today at the Athol Community Center in honor of Armed Forces Day.
Athol American Legion Post 149 is sponsoring the craft show and flea market, known as the Blue Star
Salute. Vendors paid $15 to reserve space at the center, with the proceeds going to the Legacy Scholarship
Fund, a scholarship fund for children of military personnel killed on active duty since 9/11.
The community center is located at 30355 N. 3rd St. Booths will be outside and inside.
The Legion will be conducting a flag retirement ceremony with the local Boy Scouts. Anyone with a worn
or damaged United States flag is invited to bring it for proper disposal.
- Staff reports
TYPE: Briefs
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
May 16, 2006 Tuesday
Scout boss found guilty of sex abuse

SECTION: NEWS; NATIONAL; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 375 words
A MAN entrusted with the care of young Invercargill scouts in the 1980s and 90s was found guilty for the
second time, of abusing a boy after a trial ended in the Invercargill District Court yesterday.
Ken John Matheson, 40, wearing a suit and tie, stumbled in the dock as he shook his head in disbelief at
the jury's verdict, his second failed trial defence in a year for allegations of sexual ahbuse.
Matheson, a sentenced inmate, was jailed for three years by Judge Peter Butler in November last year
on charges of sexually violating and assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 1987.
He was granted interim name suppression so this most recent trial would not be prejucided.
This week Judge Kevin Phillips presided over seven allegations that Matheson sexually assaulted one of
his scouts between November 1989 and November 1993 in Te Anau, Invercargill, Wellington, Waihola and
Bluff.
Five of those charges were dismissed on Friday. The court heard Matheson had responsibility over boys
at Jellicoe Sea Scouts from November 1985 until 1997.
He was also involved in the scouts again in 2002 between March and June.
Crown solicitor Mary-Jane Thomas said at the trial opening last Wednesday the case would come down
to whom the jury believed, the victim or Matheson.
The victim, now 28, gave an emotional account of how he would wake to find Matheson sexually assault-
ing him at scout regattas in Waihola and Wellington in late 1990, despite being in a shared tent.
Matheson elected to give evidence in his defence, again strongly denying the accusations.
Ms Thomas told the jury she was confident in calling Matheson a 'plausible' liar who had pulled the wool
over the eyes of a lot of people for many years.
"He was a fine strapping man ... the boss in charge of kids. Was it risky, yes, impossible, no, could he
cover it up if discovered, yes, is he an idiot, no.
'Let today be the day you people, the community, say he can't do it anymore."
Defence counsel Bill Dawkins said the danger of such emotion should be left out of jury reasoning as sex
trials, especially man against child, "cut to the core'.
Judge Phillips agreed jurors had to put emotions aside. It took them just two hours to return the verdict.
Matheson was remanded in custody until June 23 for sentencing.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
May 15, 2006 Monday

Street Final Edition
Explorer posts take on abuse

BYLINE: LUCIANA LOPEZ, The Oregonian
SECTION: Local News; Pg. A04
LENGTH: 1029 words
SUMMARY: Reforms | Tighter rules and other changes are studied after sex scandals in Tualatin, else-
where
Police-based Explorer posts from Oregon to Texas to New York are restricting ride-along hours and re-
quiring more thorough background checks in part to prevent sex abuse of teen participants.
Such changes follow numerous high-profile cases nationwide.
In Oregon, three Tualatin police officers and a state trooper resigned last year after investigators found
the men had sexual contact with a teenage female Explorer several years ago. In 1997, a 15-year-old girl
from North Bend won $80,500 in a city lawsuit after she accused a police sergeant of kissing, fondling and
harassing her. And last year, a former Oregon state trooper pleaded no contest to charges of official miscon-
duct stemming from on-duty sex in his patrol car with a 20-year-old Explorer.
As a result, some posts have closed, and officials are weighing additional reforms, from re-examining the
program's checks and balances to the culture in police agencies, where silence --like that which kept Tualatin
officers from reporting misconduct by their own --can be the rule.
Exploring programs, which include professions besides police, are coordinated by the Learning for Life
subsidiary of Boy Scouts of America.
Abuse in law enforcement posts is "certainly a lot more prevalent than any other Exploring program that
we have," said Kevin Patterson with Learning for Life of the Cascade Pacific Council in Portland.
Learning for Life annually reviews the rules for Exploring programs, he said, and immediate changes are
often sent out apart from the yearly updates. For example, last year the program began instituting criminal
background checks for all adults working with Explorer posts. Some of those rule changes --such as the pro-
hibition against police ride-alongs after midnight --have led police agencies to leave the Exploring program,
Patterson said.
Learning for Life also has the option of pulling a post's charter, though Patterson could not remember
that happening in the six years of his involvement with the program. And, he added, the law-enforcement
posts have more rules to follow than other posts, such as those in medicine and sports.
Yet Learning for Life officials remain unsure about why law enforcement posts have the most sex-abuse
cases. "We do have guidelines that programs are supposed to follow, so your guess is as good as mine as to
why it happens more there than anywhere else," Patterson said.
Abuse cases have led to the dissolution of some posts. Tualatin's program remains suspended almost a
year after the allegations of sex abuse came to light.
The Dalles suspended and later closed its program after learning that a male police officer had abused a
former Explorer. "The city came to the conclusion that for the time being it would be best if we didn't have
one," said Jay Waterbury, The Dalles police chief.
Police department culture can exacerbate the problem, such as when internal misdeeds go unreported
by fellow officers.
Two university professors cite the damage caused by such silence in an article for the journal Public In-
tegrity. "(L)ittle or no discipline is imposed when police officers witness fellow officers engaging in miscon-
duct," wrote Terrance Johnson of Lincoln University and Raymond Cox of the University of Akron. "As a res-
ult, public safety officers believe that it is acceptable to break the law or the rules of the department."
Limits on loyalty
The two recommended that agencies work with professional organizations to help create broadly recog-
nized guidelines, comparable to efforts by the American Bar Association and the American Medical Associ-
ation. Such partnerships could contribute to a shift in police culture and organization, which often works more
to protect the status quo than to encourage change, they wrote.
And though officers are often loyal to one another for the right reasons, those ties should have a limit,
said Dan Carlson, director of the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration, which runs the Center for Law
Enforcement Ethics. "One of the things I always try to make clear is there's a big difference between loyalty
and blind loyalty."
The center emphasizes decision-making as an independent skill because simply lecturing on right and
wrong does not necessarily lead to a grasp of ethics, Carlson said. He tells people to take a broader view of
their actions, such as weighing who else might be affected.
"Can you stand in front of the 10 o'clock news crew with a microphone in front of your face, and can you
take pride in explaining your actions?" Carlson said.
One way to address police cultures of silence and make Explorer posts safer could be to bring in outside
adults, such as parents, said Samuel Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska at
Omaha who has studied abuse at law enforcement Explorer posts. If other people know what's going on, he
said, it can reduce the risk of abuse.
Authority figures
The imbalance of power in the Exploring program needs scrutiny as well, said Judy Cohen, medical dir-
ector of the Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents at Allegheny General Hospital in Pitts-
burgh.
Police officers already have status as authority figures; becoming mentors sways power further to their
side, she said.
Buddying up the Explorers, two to an officer, could diminish the likelihood of abuse, Cohen said. And
forming closer peer friendships also could make the teens less vulnerable.
Parents can prepare children at home by making clear the limits of authority figures, said Alvin Rosen-
feld, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in New York who has studied abuse. Parents can send the message
that "I think it's important that you respect authority, but even people in authority have no right to intrude" in
your personal space.
But Rosenfeld said young people still need adult mentoring programs.
"One of the great things that's missing in the culture is this sort of mentorship" so that teens can find
adult models, he said. "Those programs I think are terrific."
Luciana Lopez: 503-294-5976; lucianalopez@news.oregonian.com
ILLUSTRATION: Sidebar text -- EXPLORERS
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
The Denver Post

FINAL EDITION
Foes wrap sex-abuse bill in distortions

BYLINE: Jim Spencer Denver Post Staff Columnist
SECTION: DENVER & THE WEST; Pg. B-01
LENGTH: 708 words
After a few of her colleagues finished bashing personal-injury lawyers, after those same folks talked of
bankrupting the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, after they reminisced fondly of being smacked by nuns
back in the day, state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald told me bluntly why Colorado should make it easier
for child sexual-abuse victims to sue pedophiles and institutions that cover up their crimes.
"If there's any organization out there that doesn't feel (the effect of) civil justice and civil penalties for al-
lowing perpetrators near children, they should," Fitz-
Gerald said. After three days of emotional debate and a one-vote victory, Fitz-Gerald was not dismissive
of opponents. The Democrat from Jefferson County merely emphasized the reality that propels one of the
ugliest fights of this legislative session:
Liability versus accountability.
Sexually assaulting a child "was wrong in 1860," said Fitz-Gerald. "It was wrong in 1960. It (is) going to
be wrong in 2060."
Accusations of religious discrimination and money-grubbing ambulance chasers do not change that.
Neither do limits on monetary damages in civil suits.
The sex-abuse bill passed by the Senate must still pass the House in its revised form and dodge Gov.
Bill Owens' veto. "This will be a fight to the very last day of the session," Fitz-Gerald said.
Let's make the risks clear. Cases since 1971 can be brought under a one-year suspension of the statute
of limitations for old acts of pedophilia. But damages in each of those cases are capped at $150,000. New
cases have caps on damages of $150,000 for public institutions and $366,000 to $732,000 for private.
Unless they routinely cover up for child molesters, it will be darn difficult for any institution to go bankrupt
under these restrictions. Yet Centennial Republican Sen. Jim Dyer claimed the one-year suspension of the
statute of limitations was "a naked attack" on the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts. Victims, said Dyer,
could damage organizations whose current staff had nothing to do with victims' suffering.
Should that happen, it will be because the proposed law is about naked attacks - naked attacks on kids
by adults never held accountable by public and private institutions. The suggestion that the bill will entice
Coloradans to make or be manipulated into fraudulent allegations of child sexual abuse is not just absurd, it's
offensive.
Think about it like this: As Colorado's legislature wrestles with a law expanding civil liability for child sexu-
al abuse, South Carolina's legislature debates a bill to make repeated rape of a child a death- penalty of-
fense.
Fitz-Gerald folded her sex-abuse bill into the amended House bill that the Senate adopted Thursday. But
from the beginning, Fitz-Gerald, who is Catholic, led the charge. For that, she came under withering personal
attacks by her own church.
The Catholic hierarchy blasted the sex-abuse bill as an attempt to ruin the church. Last week, the Color-
ado Catholic Conference ran a newspaper ad urging people to call legislators in opposition.
It was hard, Fitz-Gerald said, "sitting at Mass on Sunday and having the work you're doing to protect chil-
dren mischaracterized. ... This is about children ... who were shamed by the acts done to them. ... They went
through life wondering what they did to deserve either rape or sodomy or both. ... This whole thing started
with The (Denver) Post" and "relentless digging into victims and who their predators were. ... Meanwhile, the
church was attacking, attacking, attacking."
Attacking so hard that the final Senate vote had 14 Democrats and four Republicans barely prevailing
over four Democrats and 13 Republicans. The most disappointing moment came when Democratic Sen. Abel
Tapia of Pueblo spoke against the sex-abuse bill. Tapia, who is Catholic, talked of parochial-school nuns
breaking rulers over knuckles. Standards were different 40 years ago, Tapia explained.
"He missed the point by a yardstick," Fitz-Gerald said. "He thinks that corporal punishment that might
have been acceptable in the past ... is similar to criminal acts of sexual abuse on a child."
Never was. Never will be.
Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or
jspencer@denverpost.com.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Column
Copyright 2006 The Denver Post

All Rights Reserved
Irish News
Sex-abuse victim haunted by a past of turmoil and living hell - Dami-

an McAleenan was just 13 years old when he was sexually assaul-
ted by notorious paedophile Fr Sean Fortune. A quarter of a century
later he is still looking for answers from the Catholic Church and
struggling to come to terms with his traumatic experience. Southern
correspondent Valerie Robinson reports
SECTION: Pg. 14
LENGTH: 979 words
When Fr Sean Fortune was sent to Belfast as a young Catholic priest there was already concern among
Church leaders about his paedophilic tendencies.
The cleric, who died by suicide in March 1999 while facing 66 charges of child sex-abuse and rape, had
been accused of raping a boy while still a seminarian at St Peter's College in Wexford. The victim told the
school principal but was not believed.
Damian McAleenan (40) had just entered his teens when he came into Fortune's sights.
The 13-year-old, who grew up on Belfast's Ormeau Road, was in the scouts and Youth Encounter when
he was abused by Fortunes after being lured to the priest's home in the city.
It later emerged that Fortune had already been banned from scout activities in the Republic but had suc-
cessfully concealed his past from the northern authorities.
"I didn't tell anyone. I thought I was protecting my parents because if I'd said anything my father might
have killed Fortune.
"It was Belfast and can you imagine hearing that a local father had gone smacking a priest who was
really respected among all the parents, with all the mothers?"
The youngster steered clear of his abuser, avoiding being alone with him during trips to Gorey in Co
Wexford and the Isle of Man, but he remained alert: "When we were in Gorey on a scouts trip I saw him play-
ing his games with two young fellas and I told him I'd tell what he'd done if he didn't keep away from them."
As a child, Mr McAleenan felt his only option was to remain silent and keep away from Fortune.
He once told a priest from the Republic that he had never had any problems with the cleric - because his
friend was standing within earshot.
As an adult, the self-employed Belfast man now remains convinced that he could have saved other boys
if he had spoken up in 1979.
Fortune did not remain long in Belfast where the Church authorities quickly found that he was "unman-
ageable" and the then bishop of Down and Connor, Dr William Philbin, had him removed after hearing allega-
tions that he had sexually propositioned a student.
Once back across the border, the priest would go on to target boys while serving in Dundalk and Wexford
- and the Church continued to turn a blind eye to his activities.
In the 1990s, Mr McAleenan, with the demons of his past buried deep inside, moved to Wexford and was
horrified to hear his abuser regularly celebrating Mass on a local radio station.
"One day a friend mentioned that a local priest was up for sexual abuse. I was wondering if it was him. I
went to the gardai and said I'd been abused while in Belfast.
"They told me this priest had never been to Belfast but when I mentioned Fortune it all came out. It was
the same priest."
Mr McAleenan made an official complaint to the Garda in 1995, hoping that his attacker would finally be
brought to justice. Other victims, like One In Four founder Colm O'Gorman, revealed that they had been re-
peatedly assaulted by Fortune in Wexford and Dundalk.
The revelations rocked the Catholic Church but the greatest shock came when Bishop of Ferns Brendan
Comiskey admitted knowledge of allegations of child abuse surrounding a number of priests in his diocese
when he was first appointed in 1984.
However, during the following 15 years he failed to protect children from priests like Fortune.
Instead, the bishop sent Fortune for treatment to London and later put him in charge of a media and
journalism school.
Facing charges of abuse against 29 boys, the priest died by suicide during the first week of his trial in
1999, leaving his victims angry and with many unanswered questions.
Mr McAleenan was among four victims who went public about their ordeal in a 2002 BBC documentary
Suing the Pope, investigating the Church's unwillingness to bring paedophiles to book.
"The Church had stuck a wolf among lambs. Fortune was left free to abuse kids wherever he went and
they did nothing to stop him." Mr McAleenan said.
"I think my parents thought when I did the documentary that I'd be played by an actor or I'd be silhouet-
ted and my voice would be disguised but I had to go public to ease my own conscience.
"I believed that if I'd only spoken up sooner I could have saved other people.
"People needed to know what had been going on."
After the documentary Bishop Comiskey fled the diocese, reemerging at a US alcohol-treatment clinic.
He later resigned, without ever answering the question posed by Fortune's victims - why was the priest
allowed access to children when his sick compulsion was known?
At the time, Mr McAleenan's solicitor hand-delivered a letter to the Vatican, seeking its files on Fortune -
four years later he is still awaiting a reply.
Last October, the report of the government-appointed Ferns Inquiry detailed more than 20 allegations of
abuse against the priest.
Church leaders had ignored repeated warnings that the priest was a danger to children. In two cases
families claimed that young people died by suicide because of Fortune's abuse.
Mr McAleenan said: "I've been eaten up with guilt because people's lives could have been saved if I'd
spoken up sooner."
"I went through counselling for a while after the documentary but some feelings don't go away. I know I
was only a child but if I'd told someone maybe Fortune would have been stopped."
Twenty-seven years after Mr McAleenan was attacked, some old wounds still open easily and Bishop
Comiskey's recent comment that he had "found peace" particularly stung.
"There are people who (died by) suicide because of what happened," he said.
"Their parents are still trying to come to terms with that loss, while other people like myself are trying to
get on with their lives, but we do not feel fulfilled or at peace.
"I can't believe that Comiskey has found it so easy to move on when there's so much suffering.
"It came too soon and there are still too many people out there hurting. We will never get all the answers
we want."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Irish News Limited

All Rights Reserved
Aberdeen Evening Express
Child porn case due to resume

SECTION: Pg. 12
LENGTH: 308 words
A Former city cub leader accused of a child porn charge is due back in court tomorrow.
Richard Carroll, who was also a nursery worker, denies downloading indecent images of young boys.
His long-running trial, which has been adjourned several times, is due to resume at Aberdeen Sheriff
Court tomorrow.
Carroll, 34, has lodged a special defence of incrimination claiming that if the crime was committed it was
by an unknown person or another man known only as Tom.
The offence, involving 41 pornographic pictures of youngsters, was allegedly committed at his home at
11 Donbank Terrace between November 2, 2001 and May 23, 2003.
Carroll spent several years in charge of the 27th Aberdeen cub scout group and was responsible for the
care of boys between eight and 11. He also worked at the Timber Kinder nursery in Seaton and at a home for
the disabled.
The court has previously heard that Grampian Police was told that Carroll's credit card was used to ac-
cess Russian child porn sites.
Officers searched Carroll's home and seized his computer. Det Insp Campbell Thomson said websites
were discovered that involved the abuse of young boys.
Pictures of boys from Carroll's cub pack were also found in his room. Some of the computer images had
boys' names on them and at least half of the Christian names matched a list of Carroll's cubs.
Carroll allegedly told police he was being blackmailed and sexually abused by a man known only as
Tom. He said he was scared of him and that he would sometimes borrow his computer.
He gave a vague description of Tom, could give no details of the alleged sex abuse and repeatedly said
he had no idea how the images got on to his computer.
The court heard police were unable to trace Tom and DI Thomson said he was surprised Carroll, who
thought child porn was "disgusting", could not give a better description.
ashaw@ajl.co.uk
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Aberdeen Evening Express

All Rights Reserved
Aberdeen Evening Express

Child porn case due to resume
SECTION: Pg. 12
LENGTH: 308 words
A Former city cub leader accused of a child porn charge is due back in court tomorrow.
Richard Carroll, who was also a nursery worker, denies downloading indecent images of young boys.
His long-running trial, which has been adjourned several times, is due to resume at Aberdeen Sheriff
Court tomorrow.
Carroll, 34, has lodged a special defence of incrimination claiming that if the crime was committed it was
by an unknown person or another man known only as Tom.
The offence, involving 41 pornographic pictures of youngsters, was allegedly committed at his home at
11 Donbank Terrace between November 2, 2001 and May 23, 2003.
Carroll spent several years in charge of the 27th Aberdeen cub scout group and was responsible for the
care of boys between eight and 11. He also worked at the Timber Kinder nursery in Seaton and at a home for
the disabled.
The court has previously heard that Grampian Police was told that Carroll's credit card was used to ac-
cess Russian child porn sites.
Officers searched Carroll's home and seized his computer. Det Insp Campbell Thomson said websites
were discovered that involved the abuse of young boys.
Pictures of boys from Carroll's cub pack were also found in his room. Some of the computer images had
boys' names on them and at least half of the Christian names matched a list of Carroll's cubs.
Carroll allegedly told police he was being blackmailed and sexually abused by a man known only as
Tom. He said he was scared of him and that he would sometimes borrow his computer.
He gave a vague description of Tom, could give no details of the alleged sex abuse and repeatedly said
he had no idea how the images got on to his computer.
The court heard police were unable to trace Tom and DI Thomson said he was surprised Carroll, who
thought child porn was "disgusting", could not give a better description.
ashaw@ajl.co.uk
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Aberdeen Evening Express

All Rights Reserved

Chicago Daily Herald

C1 Edition; C5 Edition; C10 Edition; D1 Edition; D7 Edition
Untraditional path to priesthood Man feels call to serve God after

career, marriage
BYLINE: Eric Peterson, Daily Herald Staff Writer
SECTION: NEIGHBOR; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 685 words
The Rev. Phil Henseler, the new parish administrator of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Schaumburg,
has hardly followed the traditional career path of a Roman Catholic priest.
Nearly 50 years old, the first half-century of his life has included careers in the U.S. Navy, the American
oil industry and the insurance field as well as a decade-long marriage. But Henseler believes his experience
in uniting a spiritual search with the cares and concerns of an ordinary working life does more to connect him
with the members of his congregation than divide him from them.
"We respond in our own time, in God's time," he said of his later calling to the priesthood.
Ordained in May 2000, Henseler has spent the past six years as an associate priest at St. Raymond
Catholic Church in Mount Prospect. "It was a great place for me to start," Henseler said.
There he was in charge of the parish's Human Concerns Commission which helps look after ailing mem-
bers of the church, as well as the scouting programs and the 150-strong altar server program.
But his time at St. Raymond unexpectedly came to an end several weeks ago because of the sudden
resignation of St. Matthew's long- serving pastor, the Rev. Joe Wilk.
Henseler was told he was being considered as a good candidate to succeed Wilk, but would be immedi-
ately assigned to St. Matthew as parish administrator.
The weeks and months to come are generally considered a honeymoon period in which both Henseler
and the parish community will get to know one another and determine if they're "a good fit." If they are,
Henseler may eventually receive the title of pastor his predecessor had. The early years of Henseler's life
were in Springfield, but he's since become familiar with many different parts of Illinois and the United States.
He attended high school at Benet Academy in Lisle and majored in engineering at the University of Notre
Dame.
His Navy service started out as repayment of his obligation for an ROTC scholarship, but ended up as
something he wished to pursue as a career. He served for three years aboard the USS Ingersoll but was dis-
charged for a medical problem. "I greatly enjoyed the Navy," he said. "Thanks be to God, it was a time of
peace." He married in 1982, shortly after leaving the Navy, and was led by his earlier engineering degree to
Texas for a job as an oilfield engineer at Schlumberger Well Services.
Within a few years the bottom fell out of what had been a prosperous time for the oil industry, but it was
nevertheless the start of Henseler's transformation into an honorary Texan. He received an MBA from the
University of Texas, which led via a connection there to a job as a financial and marketing analyst for Liberty
Mutual Insurance in Boston.
The early '90s proved to be an especially trying time for Henseler. His marriage ended, he came home to
Illinois to look after his ailing mother and he found himself temporarily out of work. Though he found some
satisfaction in a job he took at Mercy Hospital, his decision to join a seminary in Texas in 1995 was a culmin-
ation of many things he'd been reflecting on in his life.
"I was dealing with those 'What am I going to with the rest of my life?' kind of questions," he said.
His first three years in the seminary were spent in San Antonio, but he finished the last two in Mundelein.
Aside from being a part of the best and worst moments of people's lives through his presiding at wed-
dings, baptisms and funerals, Henseler sees part of his role as leading the parish through trying times for
both the Catholic Church and the nation.
Between the church's sex abuse scandals and the war on terrorism going on overseas, Henseler sees
the parish community as a place where people can come together for comfort in a time of trouble.
"The main thing you can do is point people to timeless wisdom," he said of his leadership role.
Though business administration is not why he or anyone else generally seeks the priesthood, he feels
his experience in the business world may have better prepared him for that part of his new position's tasks
than someone who entered the seminary in early adulthood.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: schhenseler_2na032306bc The Rev. Phil Henseler has found himself in a busy, getting-to-know-
you period with his new congregation since being named parish administrator of St. Matthew Catholic Church
several weeks ago. Bob Chwedyk/Daily Herald schhenseler_1na032306bc The Rev. Phil Henseler is the
new parish administrator of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Schaumburg. Bob Chwedyk/Daily Herald
Copyright 2006 Paddock Publications, Inc.
The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, MA)
March 27, 2006 Monday

ROP Edition
OUR OPINION;
Lift time limits on sex abuse cases
BYLINE: Joann Fitzpatrick
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 494 words
The hurdles confronting victims of sex abuse crimes who want to bring their perpetrators to justice are
many: financial, emotional, psychological, legal.
One of the biggest barriers is the statute of limitations, the time limit on when a person can be charged
with rape or other abuse crimes, including incest, using children for pornography, indecent assault on a re-
tarded person. Itâ[#x20ac][TM]s a long list.
As was demonstrated repeatedly in recent sex abuse cases involving Catholic priests, it can take dec-
ades for a person to acknowledge what happened to them as a child or adolescent and then try to have the
perpetrator answer for the crime.
A set of bills before the Legislature would eliminate the statute of limitations for bringing either a criminal
or civil case against a person accused of rape or other, specific sex abuse crimes. The current statute of lim-
itations is 15 years for rape, 10 years for incest, and six years for indecent assault and other sex abuse
crimes.
Removing the statute of limitations is the right thing to do. These crimes are among
societyâ[#x20ac][TM]s worst, and what sets them apart from other crimes is that they are usually committed
by a person close to the victim â[#x20ac]" a parent, uncle, cousin, a camp counselor, scout leader, a priest.
The perpetrators are almost always authority figures and the crimes still have a stigma attached to them,
which is why it is easy, or necessary, for so many victims to erase them from memory. Itâ[#x20ac][TM]s a
survival mechanism.
The incident can be buried, but not its effects. And the evidence is incontrovertible: Victims of sex abuse
crimes suffer in varying degrees from the inability to trust or to have satisfying relationships, guilt, addiction,
and worse. Imagine the moment of awakening and then learning that the monster who abused you two dec-
ades ago is beyond the reach of the law. The damage is then compounded.
The principal opposition to removing the statute is the fear that men and women will falsely accuse a per-
son of doing something decades ago that may be impossible to prove. In reality, law enforcement proceeds
with just 20 percent of sex abuse allegations; thatâ[#x20ac][TM]s the number in which district attorneys be-
lieve a conviction can be obtained. In other words, the bar is high. District attorneys cannot waste precious
time on cases that have little chance of succeeding.
Despite all the publicity around the priest sex abuse scandal, abuse by clergy represents just a fraction
of sex abuse cases in Massachusetts and nationwide. The church scandal has helped to bring this subject
into the open, where it belongs. Changing the statute of limitations is one aspect of reform. But education is
the first step in addressing this scourge. Children must be taught to know when touching is inappropriate and
to tell an adult about it. Adults must emphasize that the victim has no reason to be ashamed.
When this crime in no longer kept secret, it will be easier to bring the perpetrators to justice.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger
Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)

March 24, 2006 Friday
Diocese will have to pay damages

BYLINE: Susan Evans, The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat
SECTION: A; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 561 words
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown will decide in the next 30 days whether to pay $1
million in punitive damages in a sex-abuse case or appeal to the state Supreme Court.
The state Superior Court this week upheld the damages, first awarded 12 years ago by a Blair County
jury that found the diocese negligent in supervising Francis Luddy, an employee who was accused of sexu-
ally abusing Michael Hutchison Jr., formerly of Altoona.
"While the diocese is disappointed with the ruling and disagrees with it on a legal basis, it acknowledges
the suffering the Hutchison family has endured," said a diocese statement released Thursday.
"Our prayers for their healing continue," the statement said.
"The diocese will be reviewing the Superior Court's opinion within the next 30 days before deciding if it
will appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court."
The Luddy case was among the first to make public accusations of sexual abuse by priests. It gained na-
tional attention and motivated more victims to step forward and diocese nationwide to examine their policies.
The Blair County jury in 1994 found that the diocese had failed to rein in Luddy, now a defrocked priest.
Luddy had continued to serve parishes even though the diocese had complaints that he had abused several
children.
This week's ruling marks the third time the case has been before the Superior Court, most recently to de-
cide whether the Blair County jury's punitive damages award was properly supported by the evidence.
Richard Serbin, the Altoona lawyer who represents Hutchison, praised the newest ruling.
"There is a feeling of relief with the ruling," Serbin said, "but frankly there's a feeling of disappointment
that it has required so many appeals.
"It shouldn't have taken all of these years, and no amount of money is going to undo what Michael has
suffered, while Luddy never served a day in jail."
In the new ruling, the Superior Court says it is "outrageous" that the diocese ignored reports of child
sexual abuse.
"The court was critical of what it called the 'abysmal disregard for safety' shown by multiple leaders of the
diocese who knew what was going on," Serbin said.
Despite the delays, the Luddy case has changed society's attitudes and brought about positive changes,
he said.
"When I first filed these claims in 1987, the Hutchison family took a lot of abuse," Serbin said. "And I was
accused of acting in an outrageous manner as an attorney filing these claims.
"I knew there was a very strong basis, and I later learned that the problem was far greater than even I
realized. Look at what's been exposed in recent years, since 2002 and thereafter, and the information is still
coming out. The public now has an appreciation that this is real and that a pedophile can be a priest, a Scout
leader, or a community leader."
The diocese has already paid compensatory damages in the Luddy case totaling $1.4 million with in-
terest and $1.8 million in legal fees. It has argued that its insurance carriers should pay some of the dam-
ages.
Hutchison, who said the abuse began when he was about 10 or 11 and continued in the 1980s until he
was 17, has said that if he ever received money from the case, he would use it to help others.
Serbin still has other sex-abuse cases in court -- at one time as many as 150 -- but some were dismissed
because of statute of limitations rulings.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Centre Daily Times

All Rights Reserved
The Dallas Morning News (Texas)
The Dallas Morning News Steve Blow column: Sometimes parents

are seduced, too
BYLINE: Steve Blow, The Dallas Morning News
LENGTH: 688 words
Mar. 19--It is a seduction. That's the thing you have to remember.

Stomachs turn just thinking about a sexual predator's seduction of a child.
Grooming, they call it. Patiently. Sweetly. One tiny step at a time. Until the unthinkable somehow seems
normal.
But what we forget is that usually another seduction is taking place.
Patiently. Sweetly. One tiny step at a time, parents are seduced, too.
And the unthinkable somehow begins to seem normal -- like sending children to swim parties and sleep-
overs in a predator's home.
No doubt many of you read with horror last week how parents entrusted their little girls to the care of
Dennis Drummond, the Plano soccer coach charged with indecency with a child.
Our first reaction is to condemn such irresponsible parenting. That was certainly my first take.
But with a little more thought, I recalled a time when my children were young and little questions nagged
about an individual in their lives. Was it all as wholesome as it seemed? Or was I seduced as a parent?
So far as I know, nothing untoward ever happened. But sometimes I still wonder about intentions.
And I remember an incident from my own youth when a high school teacher took a special interest in me.
I can flatly say that nothing happened there.
But my parents had deep concerns and made it clear to the teacher that his attention was unwelcome. I
was furious. I liked him. I was flattered by his interest.
In hindsight, who knows? As an adult, I can see that my parents may have been exactly right.
The point is that these things are seldom as cut and dried as they appear in the newspaper afterward.
In fact, the expectation of such black-and-white clarity helps perpetuate sexual abuse, I'm told.
"I hear people say all the time, 'If I ever had any suspicion, I would take action,' " said Peter Pollard. He is
public education director for Stop It Now!, a national campaign to fight child sex abuse.
"That attitude creates a feeling of safety," he said. "There's a feeling that if it ever came into our family,
we would know it and we would do something about it."
Reality is usually very different, he said. "It's complicated. It's very complicated."
Consider all the angles: This almost always involves someone we like and trust. It is someone our child
loves and respects. Often our child's favorite sport or activity is involved. Do we disrupt that? We begin to
question our suspicions. And how would other parents react? Would our child be ostracized? Would we be
believed? After raising questions, how horrible would the fallout be?
All those factors work together to paralyze us, sometimes to actually blind us, Mr. Pollard said. "Only in
retrospect do people say: 'Oh, my God. Why didn't I understand what was going on?' "
Let's be clear that Mr. Drummond is only accused at this point, not convicted of anything.
But the allegations alone ought to prompt self-examination, both organizationally and personally.
Every youth organization should make sure it has the best possible safeguards in place. We can be
proud that locally based Boy Scouts of America has led the way in developing best practices.
Its multilayered approach starts with regular education of boys about the "3 R's" of sexual misconduct --
"recognize, resist and report."
The Boy Scouts also have a "two-deep" policy in which no adult is ever alone with an unrelated child.
Scouting spokesman Gregg Shields said local Scout councils are happy to share such policies with any
youth organization.
On a personal level, we need to thoroughly examine our attitudes and preconceptions. Have we been
seduced as parents?
Because the issue is complicated, the Stop It Now campaign operates a toll-free help line (1-888-773-
8368), where parents can confidentially ask questions or discuss suspicions.
Condemning other parents is easy. But it doesn't get us closer to protecting our children.
E-mail sblow@dallasnews.com
Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For
information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax
(213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20060319-DA-0319-The-Dallas-Morning-News-Steve-Blow-column
JOURNAL-CODE: DA
Copyright 2006 The Dallas Morning News
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
March 17, 2006 Friday
Stains in the fabric of trust

BYLINE: JOHN IBBITSON
SECTION: COLUMN; Pg. A4
LENGTH: 673 words
It now goes without saying in Ottawa that if a journalist has lunch with a politician or public servant, the
journalist - or, more precisely, the shareholders of the journalist's news organization - will pick up the cheque.
Neither side wants to see that cheque appearing in a publicly scrutinized expense account.
The Radwanski effect, named after the disgraced former privacy commissioner who loved a good meal,
has been bad for the restaurant trade, and for some newspaper profit margins. And it has been bad for
George Radwanski; this week, the RCMP charged him with fraud and breach of trust.
Mr. Radwanski's lawyer promises a vigorous defence. But, at the level of public trust, the damage has
already been done. Mr. Radwanski's contribution was to accelerate the decline of deference. Citizens are in-
creasingly suspicious of people in political or civil authority, who all too often justify that suspicion.
On gloomy days, you wonder how we're going to run the place, if this keeps up.
Before the Second World War, few people graduated from high school. After the war, most people did.
The spectacular rise in education levels created a generation of literate, restless citizens who weren't pre-
pared to defer to the judgments of their betters. The questioning poetry of the 1950s gave way to the demon-
strations of the 60s and the investigations of the 70s. Assorted scandals, Watergate being the granddaddy,
discredited the political class. Blatant sensationalism discredited the media. The police had long been under
suspicion; now judges were criticized for ideological bias.
In Canada, the Senate is a permanent object of ridicule. The House of Commons disgraces itself with
every Question Period.
With Parliament's integrity impugned, governments have turned to royal commissions and public inquir-
ies. The former routinely go over budget and report only after everyone involved is dead; the latter have
come under increasing attack, with judges/commissioners accused of conducting vendettas.
Parliament appointed independent officers to guard the guardians. But Mr. Radwanski brought public op-
probrium to the office of privacy commissioner; Ethics Commissioner Bernie Shapiro has been criticized for
bias and incompetence. Even Auditor-General Sheila Fraser has come under fire, for sensationalizing her
reports.
Somewhere along the way, people stopped going to Rotary, or sending their kids to Scouts. The Cathol-
ic Church was humiliated by allegations of sex abuse by priests that the church hierarchy conspired to cover
up. Other denominations were discredited by a revisionist theology that seemed to believe in not much of
anything.
As Fareed Zakaria has warned in The Future of Freedom, democracy only lasts one election, unless
majority will is constrained by institutions that protect civil order from the rule of the mob. If those institutions
become too discredited, the centre may not hold.
Populists argue that citizens themselves can fill in the void: referendums, recall and the like can sweep
away mediating elites, so government truly reflects the will of the people. And who needs Rotary when we're
on the Internet?
But the people show little interest in direct government. Voter turnout is declining, referendums in U.S.
elections often produce contradictory results, with citizens demanding lower taxes, increased services and
balanced budgets. And whatever the Internet is, it is not collegial.
At this point, the pundit is expected to propose a sweeping solution, preferably in ringing tones. But
there is no sweeping solution. There are reforms - citizens assemblies, proportional representation, mandat-
ory voting - that might be encouraged.
Probably all we can do is muddle along, hoping that not many Radwanskis await us down the road, to
further strain and stain the fabric of trust.
And on less gloomy days, we can remind ourselves that nothing is going on today that wasn't going on
before, except that at least now we're hearing about it.
For what it's worth.
jibbitson@globeandmail.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. and its licensors

All Rights Reserved
The Boston Herald

ALL EDITIONS
Op-Ed;
Time mustn't be on the side of pedophiles
BYLINE: By JOSEPH E. GALLAGHER JR.
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 029
LENGTH: 520 words
When a child is raped by a trusted authority figure, he or she often is not able to come forward for dec-
ades.
At this point, in Massachusetts the sexual predator is difficult to prosecute because our state still imposes
archaic statutes of limitations on prosecuting sex crimes against minors.
A child who has been raped must prosecute within 15 years of his or her 16th birthday. A minor who
suffered incest must press charges within 10 years. If the child `ònly'' was sexually abused but no penetra-
tion occurred, he has even less time: He must take legal action within six years. Civil cases allow a three-
year time frame.
The result is an ignored public safety crisis in our state. Credibly accused child molesters are living in our
neighborhoods.
On March 14 two bills to eliminate the statute of limitations on all child sexual assault cases involving
criminal or civil prosecution have a hearing before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.
These bills were principally crafted in response to the profoundly disturbing crisis not only in the Catholic
Church, but in society as a whole, namely, family members, Boys' Club leaders and Scout leaders.
Victims of clergy sex abuse and their advocates have worked tirelessly to convince a reluctant Legis-
lature, attorney general and governor to support the repeal of these statutes. More than 98 percent of all
priests accused of sexual abuse of a minor have never been involved in any legal proceedings. The primary
reason and line of defense is the statute of limitations.
Three years ago when the focus of the crisis shifted from changing the church to working with the Legis-
lature, there was little support or interest among lawmakers for the repeal of the statutes. Many of the law-
makers are lawyers and defense attorneys who were determined to resist surrendering their principal line of
defense in the name of justice.
Now, three years later after exhaustive efforts to educate and lobby our politicians about the appropriate-
ness of such legislation, the bills' support is widespread.
The governor supports lifting the statutes. Attorney General Tom Reilly said he will support the repeal,
stating, `À predator of a child should never be out of reach of the law.'' And most district attorneys now agree
that these statutes tie the hands of prosecutors.
Most importantly, there are 72 legislators, Democrats and Republicans, who have signed on to these
bills.
The elimination of the statute of limitations for criminal and civil statutes is, by far, the most effective tool
for the prevention of childhood sexual abuse.
Homicide is currently the only crime without a statute of limitations in Massachusetts. Why should it be
any different for those who leave a child alive, but kill his spirit? Victims hauntingly call it ``soul murder.''
With passage of the repeal, prosecutors' hands will be untied, sexual predators of children would be held
accountable and victims of soul murder might finally experience the redemptive effect of justice.
Joseph E. Gallagher Jr. is co-founder of the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors, an advocacy group for
victims of clergy sexual abuse.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Boston Herald Inc.
Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA)
Evaluation intense;
Screeners look for risk factors
BYLINE: ERIK HOGSTROM
SECTION: OTHER; Pg. a1
LENGTH: 653 words
Church officials rely on a battery of screenings to filter out potentially abusive priests.
"I'm not sure you could find a screening process that is more extensive than this one," said the Rev.
Scott Bullock, director of seminarians for the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
Prospective priests face several tests, psychological analyses and questions about their sexual history -
all before gaining admittance to the seminary.
"That is not to say the process is perfect," Bullock said, "but it has improved dramatically."
In past generations, a parish priest's recommendation ushered in a relatively uncomplicated acceptance
process into the seminary.
Bullock described the current process as a four- to eight-year period of "very intense evaluation."
"It requires a man to meet with two psychologists - one is not sufficient," Bullock said. "We need the ex-
perts to tell us."
Those psychologists use a variety of tools to judge a candidate's suitability to a priest's role, including the
celibacy requirements.
"Screening is very helpful because we can identify risk factors," said Thomas G. Plante, professor and
chairman of the psychology department at Santa Clara University in California.
The author of "Psychological Patterns Among Roman Catholic Clergy Accused of Sexual Misconduct,"
Plante has helped screen prospective priests for 18 years.
Screeners consider a variety of risk factors that can point toward a possibility for sexual abuse.
Initially, screeners attempt to identify psychological problems that commonly occur in conjunction with ab-
use, including hints of personality disorders, substance abuse or anxiety disorders.
"Another risk factor is a history of sexual violation themselves," Plante said. "A third risk factor is impulse-
control problems in general."
Prospective priests who exhibit problems controlling anger, food intake, alcohol consumption or gambling
present a "red flag."
"A fourth risk factor would be a history of unsuccessful adult relationships - sexual or not," Plante said.
An inability to forge or maintain healthy adult relationships could signal a potential for problems.
"If a man never dated, there is probably a part of that man that is not fully developed," Bullock said.
Such a situation might not automatically disqualify a seminary candidate, "But it could call for further
evaluation," Bullock said.
Plante said the changing profile of newly ordained priests assists the screening process.
"In the old days, priests entered religious life at a younger age - often in their teens," Plante said.
Current seminarians face as many as eight years of religious training before ordination.
"People are entering the priesthood so much later; the average age is 29," Plante said. "And a person
doesn't wake up at age 40 and decide to become a sex offender."
Instead, that proclivity can begin at a relatively youthful age.
The current age of applicants and length of time before ordination, Plante said, means "we can screen
those who have demonstrated their colors."
"It is so much easier to do that now than generations in the past," he said.
Other screenings occur at frequent intervals during a seminarian's career.
"These are the most evaluated men in the nation," Bullock said. "We are inviting more and more people
to comment on this man."
Those who might balk at such scrutiny are reminded of its result.
"We tell them what we are doing is for the good of the church," Bullock said.
Plante said current screening methods can greatly reduce the number of potentially abusive priests.
"You can't bring the number to zero," he said, just as efforts to root out all potentially abusive Scout lead-
ers and other youth workers have not been 100 percent successful.
"But we can sure try," he said, "using the best science we've got."
Publicity surrounding the clergy sex abuse scandal has tightened the screening process further, Bullock
said.
"The priesthood is no place to hide," he said. "Now everybody knows that."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Priests and deacons of the Archdiocese of Dubuque participate in a service of atonement at St.
Raphael Cathedral in 2003. Prospective priests face several tests before gaining admittance to the seminary.
Mug - Scott Bullock
Copyright 2006 Woodward Communications, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
Chicago Sun Times
March 4, 2006 Saturday

Final Edition
Remember, accused priests innocent until proved guilty

BYLINE: John Maher, Special to The Chicago Sun-Times
SECTION: EDITORIALS; Pg. 15
LENGTH: 671 words
At a news conference in Turin on Feb. 9, the day before speedskater Chris Witty was to lead the U.S.
Olympic team into the opening ceremony of the Turin Games, she described how a neighbor, a married man,
had sexually abused her as a child in a Milwaukee suburb.
A week earlier, the Rev. Daniel McCormack, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese, was charged with ag-
gravated sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy. He had earlier been charged with abusing two other children.
Witty, who won a gold medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, said the trusted neighbor had begun
abusing her when she was 4 years old and had continued until she was 11. In Witty's case, the offender ap-
parently was not sued civilly and made no payment of damages, as is true in most cases of sexual abuse of
children.
On the day of Witty's news conference, the 11-year-old boy claiming sexual abuse by McCormack and
his mother sued Cardinal Francis George and the Chicago Archdiocese for negligence in allowing the priest
to remain as pastor of a parish after allegations of sexual abuse had been made. McCormack has not been
convicted of any crime.
Cases of sexual abuse of children are not rare. Roughly 1.15 million cases were reported between 1990
and 2002. In 1990, there were 119,000; the number was down to 88,000 in 1999 and remained at about that
number up to 2002, the latest year of publication of government statistics for such offenses.
In April 2002, Time magazine cited studies indicating that half of child sexual abusers are the parents of
the victims, and 18 percent are other relatives of the victims. Pedophiles also include teachers, coaches,
Scout masters and others who work with youngsters.
Priests accused of sexual abuse of children are a fraction of 1 percent of all such abusers. Ideally, there
should be no priest who sexually abuses a child, but, ideally, no parent should sexually abuse a child.
To turn from the ideal to financial reality, while most sexual abusers of children are not sued for damages,
Catholic dioceses have been sued for negligence for not removing accused priests from ministry.
Since the 1950s, the Catholic Church in the United States has spent about $1 billion in costs related to
child sex abuse cases.
In January 2005, the diocese of Orange, Calif., agreed to a $100 million settlement in a suit involving
about 90 plaintiffs, who alleged abuse between 1936 and 1996 by 44 persons, including 31 priests and two
nuns. Payments to individuals ranged from about $500,000 to $4 million.
A report published by the Chicago Archdiocese in January 2003 said that, in the past 40 years, 55 allega-
tions of sexual abuse of children by 36 archdiocesan priests were determined to be founded. Other allega-
tions had been found to be foundless accusations of innocent priests. At the time the report was published,
there had been no allegations of sexual misconduct in the previous 12 years.
The archdiocese had spent $7.9 million on counseling, settlements, and other forms of assistance to vic-
tims. It had spent $4.3 million on legal fees, including $1.3 million to defend a priest and school principal
found not guilty by a jury.
The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was accused of sexual abuse by a former seminarian who later re-
canted.
Contrary to the traditional legal principle, priests accused of sexual abuse of children are apparently
deemed guilty until proved innocent. Moreover, while conviction in a criminal trial requires proof beyond a
reasonable doubt, the standard for finding liability in a civil suit for damages is less rigorous, and settlements
are sometimes made both to avoid the cost of the trial and the possibility of a jury finding that is more costly
than a settlement.
The pain experienced by sexual abuse victims is real and deserves compensation, but, as the latest
episode in the scandal unfolds, it should be remembered that false accusations have been made and that
very few priests have been found, in fact, to have sexually abused children.
John Maher is a free-lance writer from Jefferson Park.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Opinion; Crime
Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
Aberdeen Press and Journal
February 28, 2006 Tuesday
Inverbervie man on sex abuse charges

SECTION: Pg. 3
LENGTH: 494 words
Two boys were sexually abused by a man in a north-east town, it has been alleged. Nigel Innes, 42, ap-
peared on petition at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday in connection with the claims. He faces two charges -
one alleging that he indecently assaulted a youngster at an Inverbervie address and a second alleging that
he used lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards another boy at the same address.
The charges are understood to date from October 2002 to 2003. Innes, of 42 Hallgreen Cottages, Inverber-
vie, appeared from custody and made no plea during the brief private hearing before Sheriff Douglas Cusine.
He was released on bail.
No plea made
AN ALLEGED drug dealer, said to be concerned in the supply of more than £30,000-worth of illicit sub-
stances, appeared in court for a second time yesterday. Gordon Ferries, 34, of 25 Polinar Place, Inverurie, is
accused of being concerned in the supply of cannabis and amphetamine in Inverurie and elsewhere in Aber-
deenshire, on February 19. He made no plea and was granted bail, but the Crown appealed that decision
and he was remanded in custody.
Kintore spring fair
KINTORE Primary School PTA will be showing off the new village school with a spring fair on Saturday,
March 11. The fete, which runs between 10am and 1pm, will feature stalls selling pottery, cards, leather
goods, crafts, paintings and cosmetics, among others. Tickets cost £1.50 for adults and 50p for children. For
more information contact Bethany Carlier on 01467 633646.
Church meeting
KEMNAY Churches' Good Morning Group will meet at 10.15am today in the village's Church Centre,
with a World Day of Prayer discussion. Newcomers will be welcome.
Speed limit
ABERDEENSHIRE Council has this week brought in a 20mph speed limit at Baker Street in Old-
meldrum, with speed cushions now in place as part of the traffic-calming strategy.
Garden club
METHLICK Garden Club will meet at 7.30pm tonight in the village's Scout hut, when plans for the forth-
coming session will be reviewed. New members will be welcome.
Fundraising night
ELLON Ladies' Circle will hold a fundraising ladies' night in the town's Station Hotel from 7.30pm-9pm to-
night, with a range of stalls offering everything from Reiki to Fairtrade items and beauty and health tips. Pro-
ceeds from the event will go to PAGES - Parents Advisory group for Education and Socialisation - which runs
the Esslemont Rainbow Centre.
B993 diversion
ABERDEENSHIRE drivers will face diversions this week on the rural B993 Kemnay-Alford road, with es-
sential road repairs continuing at Tillyfourie until Friday. Diversions will be sign-posted.
Comedy contest
INVERURIE performers will be taking the stage tomorrow in an inaugural Laughter Forum at Aberdeen's
Club Snafu. Taking part in the 8.30pm comedy acts knockout show will be comedy magic-man Alan Innes -
with Allan Petrie and entertainer Sean Wilson. They will among six acts competing in what is planned as a
monthly showcase contest.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 Aberdeen Press and Journal

All Rights Reserved
The Seattle Times
February 27, 2006 Monday

Fourth Edition
Lawyers team up to take on abuse cases

BYLINE: Janet I. Tu, Seattle Times staff reporter
SECTION: ROP ZONE; Local News; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 1455 words
One is the product of a Catholic home, parochial schools and a Jesuit college. He's cool-headed and
analytical, speaking in measured tones.
The other is the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He's demonstrative, advocating for clients
in passionate torrents.
Together, Seattle-area attorneys Michael Pfau and Timothy Kosnoff represent the vast majority of sex-ab-
use victims who've sued the Roman Catholic Church in Seattle and in Spokane, where the diocese has filed
for bankruptcy.
Their work as a team began just three years ago but already has been highly successful, including a re-
cent settlement proposal from the Spokane Diocese that goes beyond a sizable dollar amount.
The nearly $46 million offer includes concessions victims considered crucial: from a written apology from
the church to forums for them to speak and write about their ordeals and a promise from Catholic officials to
stop calling them "alleged" victims.
Certainly, the two lawyers have detractors. Particularly in Spokane, there is resentment among some pa-
rishioners who believe the lawyers are profiting while the Catholics may lose their parishes and schools to
pay settlement costs.
But to their clients, Pfau and Kosnoff are driven by a larger cause.
"They're real advocates of sexual-abuse victims," said Cheryl Corrigan, widow of a Spokane man, Tim
Corrigan, who killed himself the same day he told her about being abused by former Spokane priest Patrick
O'Donnell. "They're personally committed to their clients."
Michael Corrigan, Tim's brother, has been particularly impressed by Pfau's tenacity. In taking depositions
from church officials, Pfau asked "the questions all of us wanted to ask," Corrigan said. "Go, Mike!"
And colleagues talk of Kosnoff's investigatory zeal in personally tracking down errant priests all the way
to Ireland in one case.
"He would just sort of show up on their doorsteps and say: Ì'd like to talk to you,' said bankruptcy attor-
ney James Stang, who worked with Kosnoff on the Spokane cases.
"And apparently some of them did."
Catholic education
Pfau, 41, grew up in a devout Catholic family in Milwaukee.
He attended a Catholic grade school, a Jesuit high school and the Jesuit-run Boston College. It was only
after college, when he came to Tacoma to work with abused children through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, that
he got to know many non-Catholics.
It was his Jesuit education, Pfau says, that instilled in him a sense of social justice and has helped him
empathize with abuse victims and their families.
"I understand what the religion taught, the tenets involving social justice and honesty. And I think that
helps me understand how badly betrayed the victims and their families feel."
Kosnoff, 52, says he developed a skepticism of organized religion at an early age.
It galls him, he says, when "powerful institutions are able to shield this kind of activity from the public eye
under the guise of freedom of religion."
Shortly after graduating from Indiana University, Kosnoff went to work for a farm-laborers organization,
where he saw the group's lawyers taking on big companies. That got him into law.
"I saw this David and Goliath play out," he said. "It inspired me."
But it wasn't until the mid-1990s, after stints as a criminal-defense lawyer and as a prosecutor, that he
and another attorney represented a man claiming abuse by a Mormon high priest. The case eventually
settled in Portland for $3 million.
"I became hooked on learning why this could happen in the religious culture."
By 2002, Kosnoff, a sole practitioner, was specializing in such cases, and Pfau had done such work
through his law firm, Gordon, Thomas, Honeywell, Malanca, Peterson & Daheim, where he is a partner.
The two lawyers met for the first time that year at a hearing involving James McGreal, a Seattle priest
who had been accused of molesting numerous boys.
Work together
At a coffeehouse across from the courthouse, Pfau and Kosnoff talked for hours.
The two agreed they wanted to avoid the acrimony that developed among some lawyers suing the Bo-
ston Archdiocese.
Now, it seems like "they've worked together forever," said Stang, the bankruptcy attorney. "They seem
very, very connected" in their thought process and strategy.
Both say they are risk takers. But where Kosnoff describes himself as optimistic and "excessively ex-
uberant" at times, Pfau is more cautious and skeptical. "I try to step back and remember that in addition to
emotion and passion, these people also need very clear thinking and lawyers to make good decisions."
Clients credit them both with being good listeners and communicators.
"Any time you need them, you can e-mail or call. I've never had them not call back within 24 hours,"
Cheryl Corrigan said.
Mark Mains, a plaintiff in the Spokane cases, credits Pfau and Kosnoff with understanding how strongly
victims felt about the parts of the proposed settlement that didn't involve money.
Those provisions from a written apology to victims and their families, to letting victims tell their stories in
the diocesan paper distinguish the proposed settlement from other such cases across the country.
The lawyers got that these terms were to be negotiated first even before the money, Mains said.
Critics
But there are some who believe they've gone too far.
Sharon Clizer, principal at the Spokane Diocese's Holy Family Catholic School, says she feels for those
who were abused. But she also believes parishioners and parochial students are being asked to pay dearly
for something that wasn't their fault.
"Money will not heal the victims. How much is enough to make them feel better? Oh, yes, we know who
will feel better the attorneys who will be smiling as they write out a check for their kids' college or that new
boat or car."
She is also afraid for her school. "We have lived with a shadow and threat over our head wondering how
much this will harm our schools," Clizer said. "It has been insane the kinds of paperwork the victim's attor-
neys have requested. ... Can't someone stop this insanity?"
Michael Patterson, an attorney for the Seattle Archdiocese, said that while Pfau and Kosnoff have settled
past cases for reasonable amounts, in some pending cases they "are asking for amounts that are substan-
tially higher than that. There's really no rational reason for it."
It's true that Pfau and Kosnoff are making good money from the cases, though neither will say exactly
how much. Together they represent 70 victims in Spokane and about 30 in Seattle; Pfau by himself has al-
most 90 others in Seattle, some of whom already have settled.
Typically, attorneys take such cases on contingency, earning between 30 and 40 percent of any final set-
tlement or jury award, if there is one. That's a relatively high cut because such cases are complex and risky,
said Jeff Anderson, an attorney in St. Paul, Minn., who has filed lawsuits against more than half of the coun-
try's Catholic dioceses. And they require emotional commitment, too, he said, because abuse victims can be
"so wounded that they become difficult to work with and difficult to protect."
When a diocese declares bankruptcy, the emotional stakes go even higher, said David Clohessy, nation-
al director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "In one fell swoop, when a bishop declares
bankruptcy, some Catholics move from sympathy to anger regarding victims."
Ramifications
For the attorneys, as well, such cases can get personally troubling.
Pfau used to attend St. Joseph Church near his home on Seattle's Capitol Hill. But at one point, "I just
said: Ì can't go into a Catholic church any more.'
"Thousands of kids have been sexually abused by priests. That caused me to question the faith I grew
up in. It caused me to withdraw from it."
He's begun to go back once in a while, but "with grave cynicism and lot of skepticism" about church lead-
ership. His children a 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter are baptized Presbyterian, his wife's religion.
Still, Pfau and Kosnoff said, they have witnessed positive moments: the bonds forged among abuse vic-
tims. The painful secrets some kept for decades finally being revealed to family and friends.
The two have taken on other institutions as well, including the Boy Scouts of America and the Mormon
Church, the latter case resulting in a recent $4.2 million jury award to two women abused by their stepfather,
a Mormon priest.
Their next big case will be against the Morning Star Boys' Ranch in Spokane, a Catholic home for boys
where allegations have surfaced of physical and sexual assaults dating back decades.
"There are so many victims who tell basically the same story," Pfau said. "We're looking forward to dig-
ging in and finding out what happened there."
Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: photo; Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times : Seattle-area attorneys Michael Pfau, left, and
Timothy Kosnoff represent most of the sex-abuse victims who've sued the Catholic Church in Seattle and
Spokane. (0397956442)
Copyright 2006 The Seattle Times Company

Idaho Edition
Child sex abuse bill clears Senate panel;

Measure would end statute of limitations
BYLINE: Meghann M. Cuniff Staff writer
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 359 words
DATELINE: BOISE
A bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases cleared a Senate com-
mittee Friday after testimony from just one of more than a dozen people who were there to speak in support.
"I don't have the heart to hear it," said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, after he made
a motion to send the House-passed bill, HB 534, to the full Senate.
Current law limits the length of time a victim has to report child sexual abuse to five years after the vic-
tim's 18th birthday, but Pocatello resident Paul Steed told the committee that many child victims are so
scarred by their experiences that they're unable to speak out before they turn 23.
Steed's two sons were sexually abused as Boy Scouts. One son reported the abuse within the statute of
limitations requirement and the family filed suit, but Steed said no other victims have come forward.
"Twenty-three years old is a very quick window," Steed said.
HB 534 would not apply retroactively.
The House unanimously approved the bill last week, and a House committee heard more than two hours
of emotional testimony from parents and abuse victims during the bill's hearing.
"I've never heard more powerful testimony than we heard in the House Judiciary and Rules committee,"
Rep. Debbie Field, R-Boise, told the Senate committee. Field is sponsoring the bill with Rep. Donna Boe, D-
Pocatello.
Many who testified in front of the House committee were signed up to speak at the Senate committee
meeting, but committee members said there was no need.
"I don't think there's any question in my mind about what the situation is in Idaho," said Sen. Mel
Richardson, R-Idaho Falls.
Committee Chairman Denton Darrington, R-Declo, had previously expressed concerns about the bill,
but he said its overwhelming support trumped those concerns.
Blackfoot Police Chief David Moore attended the meeting to give the testimony he gave to the House
committee about the sexual abuse he endured as a child. He said he was relieved the committee approved
the bill without asking for more testimony.
To become law, the bill needs passage in the full Senate and the governor's signature.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Meghann M. Cuniff can be reached toll-free at (866) 336-2854 or by e-mail at meghann.cuniff@g-
mail.com.
Child sex abuse bill clears Senate panel: Measure would end stat-
ute of limitations
BYLINE: Meghann M. Cuniff, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
LENGTH: 405 words
Feb. 25--BOISE â[#x20ac]" A bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse
cases cleared a Senate committee Friday after testimony from just one of more than a dozen people who
were there to speak in support.
"I don't have the heart to hear it," said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, after he made a
motion to send the House-passed bill, HB 534, to the full Senate.
Current law limits the length of time a victim has to report child sexual abuse to five years after the vic-
tim's 18th birthday, but Pocatello resident Paul Steed told the committee that many child victims are so
scarred by their experiences that they're unable to speak out before they turn 23.
Steed's two sons were sexually abused as Boy Scouts. One son reported the abuse within the statute of
limitations requirement and the family filed suit, but Steed said no other victims have come forward.
"Twenty-three years old is a very quick window," Steed said.
HB 534 would not apply retroactively.
The House unanimously approved the bill last week, and a House committee heard more than two hours
of emotional testimony from parents and abuse victims during the bill's hearing.
"I've never heard more powerful testimony than we heard in the House Judiciary and Rules committee,"
Rep. Debbie Field, R-Boise, told the Senate committee. Field is sponsoring the bill with Rep. Donna Boe, D-
Pocatello.
Many who testified in front of the House committee were signed up to speak at the Senate committee
meeting, but committee members said there was no need.
"I don't think there's any question in my mind about what the situation is in Idaho," said Sen. Mel Richard-
son, R-Idaho Falls.
Committee Chairman Denton Darrington, R-Declo, had previously expressed concerns about the bill, but
he said its overwhelming support trumped those concerns.
Blackfoot Police Chief David Moore attended the meeting to give the testimony he gave to the House
committee about the sexual abuse he endured as a child. He said he was relieved the committee approved
the bill without asking for more testimony.
To become law, the bill needs passage in the full Senate and the governor's signature.
ness News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914
(worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ACC-NO: 20060225-SR-0225-Child-sex-abuse-bill-clears-Senate-panel
JOURNAL-CODE: SR
North Devon Journal
February 16, 2006 Thursday
Sex abuse scout leader gets longer jail term

SECTION: Pg. 19
LENGTH: 367 words

A scout leader who sexually abused three boys, one of whom was sick beforehand after being plied with
alcohol, today had his "unduly lenient" jail term increased by top judges.
Keith Richard Taylor, 42, of Windsor Road, Northam, was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Exeter Crown
Court last October, after being found guilty of four counts of indecent assault.
Last Thursday London's Criminal Appeal Court agreed with submissions made on behalf of the Attorney
General, Lord Goldsmith QC, that the term was "unduly lenient".
Lord Justice Keene, sitting with Mr Justice Stanley Burnton and Sir Richard Curtis, said the appropriate
sentence in the Crown Court would have been five years, double that imposed.
But, because Taylor faced the stress of being sentenced a second time, he imposed one of four years.
Lord Justice Keene said the sentence had to reflect the fact the victims had been deeply troubled and
upset by the abuse they suffered, as well as the absence of any guilty pleas which meant they had to relive
"these unhappy experiences" at the trial.
Two victims were aged 11 when Taylor molested them, while the third was 14.
In one case, he plied a lad with lager and vodka before the boy vomited and went to sleep after being
cleaned up. He awoke to find himself being molested.
One victim was so affected by his ordeal that he could not verbally describe what had happened and had
to write the details in the form of a letter.
Lord Justice Keene said Taylor had a previous conviction for indecent assault on a 10-year-old boy, al-
though this happened in 1979 when he was aged 15.
He noted a probation officer report said Taylor now recognised his responsibility for the offences and had
asked to be assessed for a sex offenders treatment programme.
Aggravating features included the fact there were three victims and alcohol was administered to one boy,
"almost certainly to secure his sleeping compliance".
Lord Justice Keene also referred to victim impact statements, which were not seen by the sentencing
judge.
"They indicate one victim could not sleep after the offence," he said.
"Another refers to the offence as having a devastating effect on his relationship with girls and he feels
very insecure."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2006 North Devon Journal

All Rights Reserved
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)

February 15, 2006 Wednesday
Correction Appended
0 South Pinellas Edition
Cloud again over Explorer program

BYLINE: JACOB H. FRIES
SECTION: CITY & STATE; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 440 words
DATELINE: LARGO
A Boy Scout program aimed at exposing young people to law enforcement is once again at the center of
sex abuse allegations.
Pinellas detectives are investigating whether a former sheriff's dispatcher had inappropriate sexual con-
tact with a 15-year-old boy in the agency's Explorer program.
A second investigation is looking into whether the same 15-year-old had sexual contact with a 17-year-
old boy in the Explorer program. Under state law, a 15-year-old cannot consent to sex.
No one has been arrested in either case.
The Explorer program allows boys and girls of ages 14 to 21 to train alongside deputies in various units,
from forensics to the SWAT team.
Sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen released few details about the allegations, which concern events that
occurred two to three years ago.
"The investigation is still open," McMullen said. "Interviews are being conducted, and detectives are
working with the state attorney for a resolution."
The identities of the two teenagers and the former dispatcher, also a male, were not released because
the case is still under investigation.
This is not the first controversy involving a local Explorers program.
In 2000, Largo police began an internal investigation into allegations and found that three officers had
had sexual relationships with female Explorers and two officers knew or heard rumors about possible mis-
conduct but failed to report what they heard to supervisors.
The allegations involving the sheriff's program surfaced on Tuesday as the agency released records con-
cerning another employee, Deputy Jason O. Brown.
Brown, a 9-year veteran on patrol, received a 10-day suspension last week after an internal probe found
he did not report that the dispatcher may have committed a crime. He had also failed to be forthcoming when
detectives initially questioned him about the sex allegations, according to internal affairs investigators.
Brown could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
He told internal affairs detectives, however, that he suspected the dispatcher might be having a relation-
ship with the boy but was unable to confirm it. The teen had answered Brown's questions with conflicting
statements, and the dispatcher denied there was a relationship, Brown told detectives.
Brown also worried that his suspicions were based on his own jealousy; he had dated the dispatcher in
the past.
He cited another reason for his not coming forward: He said he was hoping to be transferred to the
agency's sexual predator and offender unit and thought the case might reflect poorly on him.
"Yes, I could have done more maybe and if I had to do it all over again, I would do it differently," he said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DISTRIBUTION: CITY & STATE; METRO & STATE; TAMPA & STATE
CORRECTION-DATE: February 16, 2006
CORRECTION: The Explorers program that is the subject of a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigation
is different from a program that was closed by the Largo Police Department several years ago. The headline
and first paragraph of a story Wednesday were unclear about the separateness of the programs.
Copyright 2006 Times Publishing Company

All Rights Reserved
Cornwall Standard Freeholder (Ontario)
February 14, 2006 Tuesday

Final Edition
Time for 'healing and closure': Judge lays out agenda for inquiry
BYLINE: Terri Saunders, Standard-Freeholder
LENGTH: 1323 words
DATELINE: CORNWALL
CORNWALL - Healing, closure and the chance to move forward.

In the opening moments of the Cornwall Public Inquiry Monday morning, Judge Normand Glaude estab-
lished the theme of hearings into decades of abuse of children and how a number of public institutions re-
sponded to hundreds of allegations leveled at dozens of men by just as many victims.
"This is an opportunity to find ways of supporting the community of Cornwall as it moves forward," said
Glaude. "It may be a lengthy and sometimes difficult process."
The first day of the Cornwall Public Inquiry got off to a quiet start with just one witness - a child sexual
abuse expert - taking the stand in an effort to educate the commission on abuse and how it affects victims
and the communities in which the abuse occurs.
But outside the inquiry, those who are most interested in the commission's outcome were vocal about
what they hope will happen over the course of the coming year.
With tears brimming in his eyes, Steve Parisien faced a veritable sea of cameras and microphones and
delivered his own message to victims of sexual abuse just like him.
"I think this inquiry will be vitally important for the victims in order to help them through the proper healing
process," he said. "We need that healing process and we need to get closure."
Glaude himself hit on the same sentiment several times in a 14-minute opening statement during which
he outlined his own hopes for what the inquiry will accomplish.
"The commission is mindful this has been a painful and difficult time in the community," said Glaude.
"There is a need for healing and closure."
In front of what amounted to just a handful of observers seated in the public gallery of the inquiry room at
The Weave Shed, the inquiry heard testimony from David Wolfe, a renowned expert on child sexual abuse
and the impact of the abuse on victims.
A professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, Wolfe has testified in 38 civil and criminal trials re-
garding sexual abuse, adult survivors of child sexual abuse, child welfare and effects of family violence on
children including the Mount Cashel court case which focused on the abuse of young boys at the hands of a
group of Christian brothers who ran a boys' home in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Wolfe said child sexual abuse is nothing new in organized society and its existence should not come as a
surprise to anyone.
"This has been going on since the dawn of time," he said. "It was always denied; accepted."
Wolfe said there are two types of abusers - pedophiles and hebephiles. In the case of the latter, perpet-
rators prey on children who have reached puberty, while pedophiles tend to victimize younger children, usu-
ally between the ages of seven and 13. He also said pedophiles tend to be men who often prey on young
boys.
"(Male victims) are more available to men. It's more acceptable in our society for men to be with young
boys than with young girls," said Wolfe, pointing out the likelihood of grown men being in close quarters with
boys through things such as sports coaching and boy scouts. "The offender sees them as sexually mature
enough to be attractive, but young enough to be lured."
Wolfe also shattered any illusions which might remain held in the community that a sexual predator is a
"dirty old man" unknown to a child who tries to entice his victim through the offering of gifts or candy,
something he defined as "stranger danger."
"We want to believe this is some evil force," said Wolfe. "It more likely occurs at the hands of an ac-
quaintance."
For many members of the community who have come forward in recent years with allegations of abuse,
that acquaintance was often a member of the clergy. Of the 15 men charged, several of them were Catholic
priests working within the Alexandria-Cornwall diocese.
Wolfe said victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy often results in delayed disclosure.
"These perpetrators were viewed by their victims as messengers of God," he said. "Victims often ask
themselves, 'Why would this messenger of God also do something I now see destroyed my life?'"
Wolfe said abusers often seduce or groom their victims by offering them things the children otherwise
might not have.
"They (abusers) look for what's missing in the victim's life - love, someone that's nice to them and doesn't
hit them, spending time with the child," he said. "Very often abusers actually become close family friends."
Wolfe said the tendency of abusers to become personally involved with a victim's family is one way of
maintaining contact with the child.
"The abuser will also seduce the caregiver through friendship," he said. "That way they can spend more
time with the victim with the approval of the caregiver, which often results in the caregiver also feeling victim-
ized when the abuse is disclosed."
The disclosure of abuse will likely be some of the most difficult testimony the inquiry will hear beginning
at the end of March when the first victims are expected to take the stand.
"It will be gut wrenching," said Paul Scott, spokesperson for Citizens for Community Renewal, one of the
more than a dozen groups which have received standing at the inquiry. "It will be very hard for many people
to hear."
Scott said he's optimistic the healing and closure which has already become a central theme of the in-
quiry will happen in time, but not before the community is forced to come to terms with the decades of abuse
suffered by the children of Cornwall and the surrounding area.
"We have to begin to prepare ourselves," he said.
"It will be a rude awakening, but an important one."
The inquiry continues today.
ON THE STAND THIS WEEK
NICHOLAS BALA
Nicholas Bala is an expert on the evolution of legislation, law, and legal processes involving children and,
in particular, child sexual abuse. Since 1980, he has been a professor at the Faculty of Law at Queen's Uni-
versity and a visiting professor at McGill, Duke and the University of Calgary. His primary area of teaching
and research interest is Family and Children's Law with a focus on child abuse and child witnesses; child
welfare law, family violence; best interests of children; and juvenile justice, among others. He has published
extensively and his work is regularly cited by the Supreme Court of Canada and Courts of Appeal in a num-
ber of provinces.
Bala is a member of the National Judicial Institute Program Planning Committees for Child Witnesses
and High Conflict Parental Separations and is editor of the N. J. I. Electronic Benchbook on Child Witness.
He is the principal investigator of an interdisciplinary research project on child witnesses funded by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
NICO TROCME
Nico Trocme is an expert in the reporting of child abuse and, in particular, child sexual abuse. Con-
sidered to be one of Canada's leading researchers in the field of child welfare, he recently joined McGill Uni-
versity as the Philip Fisher Chair in Social Work and as Director of the Centre for Research on Children and
Families. He was principal investigator for the 1998 and 2003 Canadian Incidence Studies of Reported Child
Abuse and Neglect, considered the most comprehensive source of data on victims of child abuse in Canada.
Dr. Trocme also directed the development of a framework for tracking child welfare service outcomes cur-
rently being implemented by governments across Canada.
As the founding Director of the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare at the University of Toronto, Dr.
Trocme spent the last five years developing a Canada-wide network of researchers and policy makers to pro-
mote and support evidence-based child welfare policy. In his current role of Director of the Centre for Re-
search on Children and Families, Dr. Trocme is focusing on developing a McGill-based interdisciplinary com-
munity-researcher partnership to conduct and disseminate research for effective programs and policies for
vulnerable children and youth and their families.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC:
Colour Photo: Labrecque, Standard-Freeholder; CENTRE OF THE STORM: Steve Parisien, centre, a victim
of sexual abuse, is questioned by national media. Monday was the first official day of the Cornwall Public In-
quiry.;
Photo: Labrecque, Standard-Freeholder / QUESTION SESSION: David Wolfe, an expert in child sex abuse,
left, speaks with lawyer Peter Engelmann, who is serving as lead counsel for inquiry. Monday was the first of-
ficial day of the Cornwall Public Inquiry.;
Photo: Nicholas Bala;
Photo: Nico Trocme
DOCUMENT-TYPE: News
Copyright 2006 Cornwall Standard Freeholder

All Rights Reserved
The Denver Post
February 13, 2006 Monday

FINAL EDITION
EDITORIAL Extend window of justice for sex abuse The legislature

should extend the statute of limitations for victims to sue over abuse
by priests and others whose assaults took place years ago.
SECTION: DENVER & THE WEST; Pg. B-07
LENGTH: 676 words
There is no question that public and private institutions should be subject to the same standard when it
comes to civil court procedures and penalties involving the victims of child sexual abuse. That said, the Den-
ver Catholic archdiocese is overreacting to legislation proposing to lift the statute of limitations for victims
seeking damages for the pain they suffered years - even decades - earlier at the hands of an adult.
Whether it was a pedophile priest, a school teacher or a Boy Scout official, responsible adults and their
institutions should not be able to avoid accountability for their acts.
The church is arguing that Colorado law makes it tougher to sue public schools under routine govern-
mental immunity laws and therefore it should be just as tough to sue the church for its pedophile priests.
Church officials say sexual misconduct in public schools is a more serious problem than it is in the Roman
Catholic Church. To prove its point, the church has come up with 85 cases of public school teachers in Color-
ado dating back to 1997 who had their licenses revoked or denied due to alleged sexual misconduct. Appar-
ently the church considers that far more serious than Colorado priests who allegedly repeatedly molested al-
tar boys and other young boys.
The numbers game is a blatant effort by the church to divert attention from its responsibility to com-
pensate priests' victims. The fact is, the church is under pressure because officials knew that priests were
abusing children in their own flock yet covered it up, quietly moving the priests from parish to parish. In Color-
ado, at least two priests have been accused in court by two dozen young men of abusing them as boys. The
number of victims might be even bigger, but their day in court has long ago passed, thanks to the statute of
limitations that some lawmakers want to relax or eliminate for future cases.
The statute of limitations for suing a church or other private institution is two years from the date of a vic-
tim's discovery of injury. The same is true for bringing a suit against a school or other public entity under gov-
ernmental immunity laws. The Denver archdiocese, in a letter read in each parish, questioned why the victim
of a priest can "wait a lifetime" before suing the church, while "the victim of exactly the same and even more
frequent abuse" in a public school loses their claim after 180 days. In fact, the window is two years, said Tom
Roberts, a lawyer representing clients suing the church.
Governmental immunity doesn't shield public employees from "willful and wanton" conduct, he said. A
school also could be sued under the Federal Civil Rights Act.
The church has every right to be wary of the potential embarrassment and financial pain that could result
if more lawsuits are filed because of the legislation. More important, though, is to do right by any victims and
set the church on a positive course in dealing with any future claims.
Up for debate today, Senate Bill 143 would open a window for lawsuits by those who have lost their day
in court because the statute of limitations ran out. A one-year window in California led to about 800 lawsuits.
Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said she has proposed two years for Colorado, aware that it can take
decades for a victim to come to terms with what was done to them.
In Ohio, lawmakers heard dramatic testimony while weighing a one-year window. Auxiliary Bishop
Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit, who was sexually abused by a priest when he was a boy and broke his si-
lence after 60 years, recently urged the legislature to pass the bill, knowing full well it would cause the church
pain. "It might seem easier to keep the evils hidden," Gumbleton said. "But I am convinced that a settlement
of every case by our court system is the only way to protect children and heal the brokenness within the
church."
Providing a temporary window for lawsuits is critical to giving sexual assault victims the opportunity to
have their day in court. As Gumbleton said, `Ì do believe that the abusers need to be exposed.''
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Editorial

All Rights Reserved
The Denver Post
February 10, 2006 Friday

FINAL EDITION
Standard for sex-abuse suits under fire Legislation could loosen

time limits for some abuse lawsuits, a change the Catholic Church
opposes.
BYLINE: Eric Gorski Denver Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A-01
LENGTH: 1230 words
Democratic lawmakers, victims' advocate groups, lawyers and the Roman Catholic Church are squaring
off in a high-stakes battle over whether it should be easier for victims of child sexual abuse to sue churches
and private institutions in Colorado.
The push to loosen or drop statutes of limitations for victims seeking justice decades later is a new front
in the national Catholic clergy sexual-abuse crisis.
Four years after the scandal erupted, legislators in a handful of states are considering such reforms - and
meeting resistance from the church.
But the church's argument in Colorado appears to be a novel one: that it's unfair to hold churches and
private nonprofits to a different standard than public schools, which under governmental immunity are difficult
to sue under state law.
"We are arguing that everyone should be held to a higher standard," said Tim Dore, executive director of
the Colorado Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm for the state's three dioceses. "Child abuse is child ab-
use. It should be treated the same, be it in a private or public institution. This is a societal issue."
Supporters of three statute-of-limitations bills in the legislature call that a red herring - an attempt to steer
attention away from the church's problems and muddy a debate over justice for the victims.
"It's unfortunate if what they're saying is that, 'Other people have gotten away with it, why aren't you go-
ing after them?"' said state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, sponsor of a bill that would open a two-year
window for lawsuits against private entities, no matter how old the incidents.
The church's strong public statements on the legislation are in keeping with Denver Archbishop Charles
Chaput's belief that Catholics are called to carry their faith into the public square.
In a letter read from pulpits last weekend, Chaput called the legislation "unfair, unequal and prejudicial" -
and anti-Catholic.
Chaput declined an interview request this week.
Under Colorado law, victims of child abuse in public schools must file notice to sue within 180 days of an
incident, and damages are capped at $150,000. Generally, victims have until they turn 24 to sue churches
and private groups, and caps on damages don't exist in most cases.
Fitz-Gerald, who is Catholic, said that she was motivated by allegations against Colorado Catholic clergy,
but her bill targets no one group. The legislation would apply to private child-care centers, churches and
groups such as the Boy Scouts.
"If the Catholic Church was so concerned about making changes in current laws, why haven't they been
lobbying for us to change it before this?" said House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, a co-sponsor
of Fitz-Gerald's bill. "I will not coddle pedophiles, no matter who they work for."
So far, no other church or private organization has publicly opposed the legislation.
Colorado law spells out the reasons for sovereign immunity: that public bodies provide essential public
functions that could be disrupted or made too expensive for the taxpayer if exposed to unlimited liability. The
doctrine does not shield public employees in cases of "willful and wanton conduct."
"We understand governmental immunity," lobbyist Dore said. "But the heart of the issue is for a child who
is abused in a public or a private institution: is that abuse any less or different?"
Other factors should be taken into consideration, said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network
of those Abused by Priests, a key player in pushing states to change their laws.
Any citizen can make a public records request to seek information on cases of abuse in public schools,
she said.
But because the church has not been forthcoming with details about accused priests, no one in Colorado
knew about the scope of the problem until victims came forward last summer, she said. Since then, more
than two dozen lawsuits have been filed accusing the archdiocese of protecting and reassigning priests
known to be offenders.
"In the public sector, there are checks and balances," Blaine said. "The schools operate in a democracy.
The bishops act like a monarchy. They are completely accountable to no one."
In testimony last week on one bill, the church tried to bolster its argument that sexual abuse and miscon-
duct in public schools is a more serious problem than it is in churches.
One of the witnesses was Patrick Chappell, a Holy Family High School junior who was a public school
student when he was molested. He wasn't molested in school; he was victimized in Estes Park by his em-
ployer, a well-known former member of the local school board, who later was convicted.
"I don't think it's a good idea to change our legal system," Chappell said in an interview. "I don't think true
healing comes from chasing around the person who molested you 30 years ago."
A 2004 federal study on sexual abuse in public schools found that 6.7 percent of students report being
physically abused by an educator, said Charol Shakeshaft, a Hofstra University professor who testified for
the church last week.
At the same time, Shakeshaft said in an interview, it's impossible to say whether abuse is more rampant
in one setting than another because so little reliable data exist from schools, churches and youth organiza-
tions.
She said she supports lifting barriers to suing private and public entities because research shows that
victims need years to find the strength to go public.
Experts say children are most frequently abused at home.
Public schools are not immune to lawsuits, however, said Tom Roberts, a lawyer representing plaintiffs
suing the archdiocese. Schools can be sued under the federal Civil Rights Act if a known offender was
moved from school to school, Roberts said.
"It's not like there is a cocoon around school districts that you can't recover damages under any circum-
stances," said Lauren Kingsbery, legal counsel for the Colorado Association of School Boards.
But Martin Nussbaum, a Colorado Springs lawyer working with the Catholic Conference, countered that
making a civil rights case would be a stretch legally, especially with old cases.
"We have a very large industry that is all geared up to make hundreds of millions of dollars suing entities
for failing to protect children," he said. "If there was that pool of potential plaintiffs, where are the lawsuits?"
Staff writer Eric Gorski can be reached at 303-820-1698 or egorski@denverpost.com.
----------------- Statute-of-limitations bills
SENATE BILL 143: Opens a two-year window for child sex-abuse lawsuits against churches and other
private entities no matter how old the incidents. Allows for actions against an institution even if the person ac-
cused is dead.
Sponsors: Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County; Rep. Alice Madden, D-Boulder
Status: Committee hearing scheduled for Monday
HOUSE BILL 1088: Removes statute of limitations for civil suits and criminal charges involving child-sex
abuse. Does not apply to old cases.
Sponsors: Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver; Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver
Status: Won committee approval. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, has filed an amendment expanding the
bill to cover public institutions.
HOUSE BILL 1090: Removes statute of limitations for civil suits and criminal charges involving child sex
abuse. Removes damage caps that apply in some cases.
Sponsor: Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden
Status: Held over - yet to reach committee
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved

Idaho Edition
Scandal may cost parishes;

Sale of churches possible in settlement
BYLINE: John Stucke and Virginia de Leon Staff writers
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1327 words
With a $45.75 million settlement offer on the table to pay victims of clergy sexual abuse, the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Spokane now faces a new dilemma: how to pay for it.
Bishop William Skylstad and his attorneys remain hopeful that six insurance carriers will put in tens of
millions of dollars toward the settlement. Anything less and the diocese confronts the difficult task of asking
parishioners to pay by selling churches and schools.
It remains a troublesome aspect of the scandal for some 97,000 Catholics in Eastern Washington. "Will
my church be sold?" asked attorney Ford Elsaesser, who represents the Association of Parishes.
Skylstad on Wednesday didn't offer an estimate of how much parishioners may need to give. Nor would
the bishop promise Catholics that schools and churches would not be sold to fund the settlement, saying only
that the diocese would "cross that bridge" later. The diocese has only $10 million in cash and property at its
disposal. The parishes are worth untold millions more.
"I call on the entire Catholic community to support the resolution I've proposed," Skylstad said during a
noon press conference at the chancery. "As we move hopefully toward a global settlement, we as a Catholic
community are willing to shoulder our fair share of the burden and to take responsibility for a significant por-
tion of the total anticipated expense of the settlement."
More than a year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the bishop offered a settlement this
past week to 75 victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Attorneys and a committee of five victims recommended approval of the deal Tuesday night. They plan
to meet individually with the rest of the victims to explain the offer's details and solicit approval during the
next four months.
No one will be forced to accept the claim, said James Stang, lawyer for the victims. If the 75 victims do
not unanimously approve the deal, negotiations will continue. The settlement offer also must be approved by
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Association of Parishes withheld support of the settlement offer. It was left
out of the negotiations.
"We can't say one way or the other until we can be assured parishes won't be liquidated and what
amount of money will be needed," said Elsaesser.
"At the end of the day, (the bishop) has to tell Catholics 'This is your target,' " he said. "There just simply
has to be protections from the outright sale of parish property, and we don't have that."
Parishioners anticipate making a "substantial and meaningful contribution," likely in the range of $6 mil-
lion to $10 million, Elsaesser said.
But selling parish property to settle diocese claims is an emotional and hotly contested issue within the
association, which aims to push ahead with its appeal of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams' ruling that
parish property is held in trust for the benefit of the diocese and thus available to settle claims.
The Rev. Steve Dublinski, the diocese's vicar general, said several Catholic entities in Spokane have
been "invited to participate" in the settlement agreement, but no commitments have been made.
"We want to be in solidarity with our church but we have to be careful to maintain our corporate separ-
ateness and the stewardship we've been given to help the poor," said Rob McCann, executive director of
Catholic Charities.
Any aid provided by Catholic Charities would have to come in the form of a loan with interest and must
be approved by the nonprofit's 12-member board, he said. Simply giving money to the diocese "would be a
misuse of our nonprofit status."
Yet Catholic Charities, Catholic Cemeteries and other church-associated groups are facing complex leg-
al challenges within the context of the diocese bankruptcy. Victims contend the nonprofits belong to the dio-
cese - much like the parishes. The issue is pending in the bankruptcy court, said Catholic Charities attorney
James King.
The bishop's settlement offer to victims averages $610,000 per person, though the victims committee
will set up its own method of assigning dollar amounts to claims. As important was a list of reforms and initiat-
ives designed to protect children and prevent future cases of abuse, Stang said during a Wednesday press
conference at the Davenport Hotel.
Those "noneconomic conditions" include:
Reporting the names of admitted and credibly accused perpetrators on the diocesan Web site;
Increasing the Diocesan Review Board by two members whose appointments must be approved by vic-
tims of clergy abuse;
Allowing victims to tell their stories of abuse each month in the Inland Register, the diocesan newspaper;
Eliminating the use of "alleged" each time diocesan officials and attorneys refer to victims of abuse.
During his press conference two hours later, Skylstad spoke with both humility and hope as he ad-
dressed victims of abuse and the broader Catholic community.
"First and foremost, I want to publicly apologize for and on behalf of myself and the Catholic Church in
this diocese for the terrible wrongs that were inflicted upon you in the past," Skylstad told victims, many of
whom were in the room. "I can only hope and pray that, with today's announcement, we can together begin
to take the first small steps toward reconciliation and forgiveness.
"I apologize for the fact that this day has been so long in coming."
The bishop also addressed those who have expressed their anger over the abuse, as well as the bank-
ruptcy proceedings. "I ask for your forgiveness and for your prayers," he implored. "For those who feel this
settlement will be a burden for the next several years, a burden we can't as a church afford, I would say that
this scandal is a burden we can no longer afford not to resolve."
The bishop noted that this proposed settlement is not the end, "but the beginning of the end."
The diocese still needs to reach a settlement with claimants who are not part of the group of 75 victims.
It's not clear how much more money that will require. In addition to the 75, the diocese is aware of another 15
claims. Joe Shickich, who represents many of those victims in the bankruptcy, said he expected Skylstad to
offer equal terms.
The settlement offer does not affect the March 10 deadline for victims of sex abuse to file claims against
the diocese.
Attorneys for the diocese also did not have a figure Wednesday for the total amount spent so far on the
bankruptcy proceedings. Skylstad said he has no regrets about filing for bankruptcy.
"This is, for me, a moment of hope," he said. "A moment to address healing and reconciliation ? a mo-
ment of gratitude."
The whole process has been even tougher for victims, said Mark Mains, one of three brothers sexually
abused by Patrick O'Donnell, a priest who has admitted to molesting more than a dozen boys
"There's no euphoria, no celebration for me," Mains said. "But I'm relieved to know that this is something
to promote healing and to help protect children in the future."
Mike Pfau and Tim Kosnoff, the two Seattle lawyers at the lead in the case, commended their clients'
courage to come forward and speak about the crimes committed against them.
Pfau said that victims believed the diocese attempted to divide them by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
"They wanted to wear them out," he said. "Ironically, the bankruptcy had the opposite effect."
He and Kosnoff have represented people throughout Eastern Washington who had been molested as
children by Catholic priests, Mormon church officials, Boy Scout leaders and others in power. "Looking at all
these cases globally reveals some very dark things," Pfau said.
The two now plan to focus on allegations of sex abuse surrounding Morning Star Boys' Ranch. "We will
leave no stone unturned finding out what happened at that place," Kosnoff said.
SIDEBAR:
WHAT'S NEXT
If the deal is not approved unanimously by all 75 alleged victims, negotiations will continue.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court must approve the settlement offer.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Metro Edition
Scandal may cost parishes;

Sale of churches possible in settlement
BYLINE: John Stucke and Virginia de Leon Staff writers
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1327 words
With a $45.75 million settlement offer on the table to pay victims of clergy sexual abuse, the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Spokane now faces a new dilemma: how to pay for it.
Bishop William Skylstad and his attorneys remain hopeful that six insurance carriers will put in tens of
millions of dollars toward the settlement. Anything less and the diocese confronts the difficult task of asking
parishioners to pay by selling churches and schools.
It remains a troublesome aspect of the scandal for some 97,000 Catholics in Eastern Washington. "Will
my church be sold?" asked attorney Ford Elsaesser, who represents the Association of Parishes.
Skylstad on Wednesday didn't offer an estimate of how much parishioners may need to give. Nor would
the bishop promise Catholics that schools and churches would not be sold to fund the settlement, saying only
that the diocese would "cross that bridge" later. The diocese has only $10 million in cash and property at its
disposal. The parishes are worth untold millions more.
"I call on the entire Catholic community to support the resolution I've proposed," Skylstad said during a
noon press conference at the chancery. "As we move hopefully toward a global settlement, we as a Catholic
community are willing to shoulder our fair share of the burden and to take responsibility for a significant por-
tion of the total anticipated expense of the settlement."
More than a year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the bishop offered a settlement this
past week to 75 victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Attorneys and a committee of five victims recommended approval of the deal Tuesday night. They plan
to meet individually with the rest of the victims to explain the offer's details and solicit approval during the
next four months.
No one will be forced to accept the claim, said James Stang, lawyer for the victims. If the 75 victims do
not unanimously approve the deal, negotiations will continue. The settlement offer also must be approved by
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Association of Parishes withheld support of the settlement offer. It was left
out of the negotiations.
"We can't say one way or the other until we can be assured parishes won't be liquidated and what
amount of money will be needed," said Elsaesser.
"At the end of the day, (the bishop) has to tell Catholics 'This is your target,' " he said. "There just simply
has to be protections from the outright sale of parish property, and we don't have that."
Parishioners anticipate making a "substantial and meaningful contribution," likely in the range of $6 mil-
lion to $10 million, Elsaesser said.
But selling parish property to settle diocese claims is an emotional and hotly contested issue within the
association, which aims to push ahead with its appeal of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams' ruling that
parish property is held in trust for the benefit of the diocese and thus available to settle claims.
The Rev. Steve Dublinski, the diocese's vicar general, said several Catholic entities in Spokane have
been "invited to participate" in the settlement agreement, but no commitments have been made.
"We want to be in solidarity with our church but we have to be careful to maintain our corporate separ-
ateness and the stewardship we've been given to help the poor," said Rob McCann, executive director of
Catholic Charities.
Any aid provided by Catholic Charities would have to come in the form of a loan with interest and must
be approved by the nonprofit's 12-member board, he said. Simply giving money to the diocese "would be a
misuse of our nonprofit status."
Yet Catholic Charities, Catholic Cemeteries and other church-associated groups are facing complex leg-
al challenges within the context of the diocese bankruptcy. Victims contend the nonprofits belong to the dio-
cese - much like the parishes. The issue is pending in the bankruptcy court, said Catholic Charities attorney
James King.
The bishop's settlement offer to victims averages $610,000 per person, though the victims committee
will set up its own method of assigning dollar amounts to claims. As important was a list of reforms and initiat-
ives designed to protect children and prevent future cases of abuse, Stang said during a Wednesday press
conference at the Davenport Hotel.
Those "noneconomic conditions" include:
Reporting the names of admitted and credibly accused perpetrators on the diocesan Web site;
Increasing the Diocesan Review Board by two members whose appointments must be approved by vic-
tims of clergy abuse;
Allowing victims to tell their stories of abuse each month in the Inland Register, the diocesan newspaper;
Eliminating the use of "alleged" each time diocesan officials and attorneys refer to victims of abuse.
During his press conference two hours later, Skylstad spoke with both humility and hope as he ad-
dressed victims of abuse and the broader Catholic community.
"First and foremost, I want to publicly apologize for and on behalf of myself and the Catholic Church in
this diocese for the terrible wrongs that were inflicted upon you in the past," Skylstad told victims, many of
whom were in the room. "I can only hope and pray that, with today's announcement, we can together begin
to take the first small steps toward reconciliation and forgiveness.
"I apologize for the fact that this day has been so long in coming."
The bishop also addressed those who have expressed their anger over the abuse, as well as the bank-
ruptcy proceedings. "I ask for your forgiveness and for your prayers," he implored. "For those who feel this
settlement will be a burden for the next several years, a burden we can't as a church afford, I would say that
this scandal is a burden we can no longer afford not to resolve."
The bishop noted that this proposed settlement is not the end, "but the beginning of the end."
The diocese still needs to reach a settlement with claimants who are not part of the group of 75 victims.
It's not clear how much more money that will require. In addition to the 75, the diocese is aware of another 15
claims. Joe Shickich, who represents many of those victims in the bankruptcy, said he expected Skylstad to
offer equal terms.
The settlement offer does not affect the March 10 deadline for victims of sex abuse to file claims against
the diocese.
Attorneys for the diocese also did not have a figure Wednesday for the total amount spent so far on the
bankruptcy proceedings. Skylstad said he has no regrets about filing for bankruptcy.
"This is, for me, a moment of hope," he said. "A moment to address healing and reconciliation ? a mo-
ment of gratitude."
The whole process has been even tougher for victims, said Mark Mains, one of three brothers sexually
abused by Patrick O'Donnell, a priest who has admitted to molesting more than a dozen boys
"There's no euphoria, no celebration for me," Mains said. "But I'm relieved to know that this is something
to promote healing and to help protect children in the future."
Mike Pfau and Tim Kosnoff, the two Seattle lawyers at the lead in the case, commended their clients'
courage to come forward and speak about the crimes committed against them.
Pfau said that victims believed the diocese attempted to divide them by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
"They wanted to wear them out," he said. "Ironically, the bankruptcy had the opposite effect."
He and Kosnoff have represented people throughout Eastern Washington who had been molested as
children by Catholic priests, Mormon church officials, Boy Scout leaders and others in power. "Looking at all
these cases globally reveals some very dark things," Pfau said.
The two now plan to focus on allegations of sex abuse surrounding Morning Star Boys' Ranch. "We will
leave no stone unturned finding out what happened at that place," Kosnoff said.
SIDEBAR:
WHAT'S NEXT
If the deal is not approved unanimously by all 75 alleged victims, negotiations will continue.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court must approve the settlement offer.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
January 6, 2006 Friday

Sunrise Edition
IN MY OPINION THE ARCHDIOCESE BANKRUPTCY Assets ruling

creates new class of victims
BYLINE: Robert Le Chevallier
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. B09
LENGTH: 565 words
Last week's decision by federal bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris against the Catholic Archdiocese of
Portland will lead to a new class of victims and cause more suffering among the children and the needy of
our state.
Perris ruled that the assets of Catholic parishes and schools are subject to the hundreds of millions of
dollars in claims of child sex-abuse plaintiffs (and their attorneys). Generations of Catholics contributed their
hard-earned salaries to build those parishes, schools and social service agencies. Irish, Italian, German,
Latino, Vietnamese and other working-class immigrants sacrificed so that their children could have a better
life. Catholics established endowment funds to enable those of modest means to attend Catholic schools.
These are now the funds, among others, that the plaintiffs seek to tap as a source of compensation.
More than 8,900 students attend Catholic elementary schools, and more than 5,000 students attend
Catholic high schools in the archdiocese each year. That saves the tax-paying public almost $100 million a
year.
But education is only part of the charitable services provided by the Catholic Church in this state. Cathol-
ics contribute millions of dollars a year in social services to the poor, to refugees, to the sick and the elderly
through Catholic Charities and through St. Vincent de Paul councils established in each parish. These pro-
grams, while independent of the archdiocese, are at risk if parishes and schools are burdened with excessive
debt in order to pay the claims against the archdiocese.
Case law in Oregon has created almost an unlimited liability for sex-abuse claims. Statutes of limitations
have been extended for claims that are up to 50 years old. The effect of these laws is wreaking serious hav-
oc on our charitable institutions. Legal reform is needed to protect both children from sex abuse and the
charities and social service agencies of our state that work primarily with children.
Reforms put in place in the archdiocese should reduce the potential for future claims. No one can work
or volunteer in any Catholic parish or school today without a criminal background check. Any priest today
with an incident of suspected child abuse is investigated. If the evidence is credible, the priest is removed
permanently.
Rightly or wrongly, bishops in the past saw priestly abuses as a moral issue that, upon proper repent-
ance, was a treatable condition and not an intractable psychological compulsion. No bishop in the country
follows that approach today.
The Catholic Church is not the only organization that has seen these types of claims. Boy Scout leaders,
soccer coaches, teachers, youth workers, probation officers and even ministers of other churches have been
accused.
We are now creating a new class of victims. With the claims now pending against the archdiocese, there
is a serious risk that some of today's children will be deprived of the excellent schools and services that so
many Catholic and non-Catholic youth have benefited from.
There are no shareholders in a charity. Only the beneficiaries of a charity are hurt when donations are
not used for their intended purpose. A reasonable settlement should be reached between the archdiocese
and the claimants. But legal reforms are needed so that today's children are not harmed by excessive finan-
cial claims.
-- Robert Le Chevallier is a lawyer in Lake Oswego.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey)
January 6, 2006 Friday

FINAL EDITION
Charities lose sex-lawsuit

BYLINE: DEBORAH HOWLETT, STAR-LEDGER STAFF
SECTION: NEW JERSEY; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 611 words
Acting Gov. Richard Codey yesterday signed into law a measure that will allow lawsuits against
churches, private schools and other nonprofit institutions for past negligent hirings of employees who sexu-
ally abused children.
In a flurry of bill-signings, Codey also gave his approval to a measure that permits local governments to
ban political donations by contractors.
Nonprofit organizations such as churches and private schools have long had ironclad immunity against
such lawsuits. The Charitable Immunity Act allows the victims of sexual abuse to sue nonprofit institutions for
negligence in the hiring or continued employment of a perpetrator. New Jersey is the 48th state to pass such
a law.
"This provides real justice for those who were sexually assaulted and abused," said Sen. Joseph Vitale
(D-Middlesex), who pushed to enact the law for six years. "This ensures that institutions, whether for profit or
not, are held accountable for their actions."
Prompted largely by the child sex abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church, the bill (S540)
applies across the board to private schools, Scout troops, Little Leagues and others.
It permits the organizations to be sued if they negligently hire or supervise someone who sexually ab-
used a child. It also resolves a question pending before the New Jersey Supreme Court on whether the char-
itable immunity shield should apply to the prestigious American Boychoir School in Princeton against a law-
suit by former student John Hardwicke.
Codey also signed a measure to permit municipalities, counties and school boards to enact stronger
bans on government contractors making donations to political candidates.
"Today we take another step forward toward real ethical reform in New Jersey," Codey said.
The ban on so-called "pay-to-play" (S1987) is part of an ethics package Codey has made a focus of his
14-month tenure.
Other bills Codey signed would:
Require stores to redeem gift cards at full value unless conditions and limitations are disclosed to the
original buyer and conspicuously printed on the card (A1079). Growing in popularity, gift cards are expected
to generate $85 billion in sales by 2007. They often have hidden fees or expire quickly, according to As-
semblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union).
Allow public school students to opt out of lessons requiring animal dissection when they have moral or
other objections to dissection (A2233). The law requires schools to provide an alternative project for pupils
who refuse to dissect, vivisect, incubate, capture or otherwise harm or destroy animals as part of their in-
struction.
Allows disabled athletes to join a sports team from the public school district in which they reside, re-
gardless of whether a parent enrolls the child in a special private school (A2381).
Gives law enforcement authorities greater legal power to obtain private information from an Internet ser-
vice provider about subscribers (A3786). The law, aimed at pedophiles who use the Internet to prey on chil-
dren, would require ISPs to tell police how long a subscriber stays online as well as how the service is paid
for, including any credit card or bank account numbers. Currently, ISPs served with a subpoena are required
to tell police only a customer's name, address, telephone number and the unique number assigned to a cus-
tomer's computer.
Allows cities and towns to increase to $2,000 the $1,250 maximum fine that can be imposed for the first
violation of a municipal ordinance (A3732). The law requires that prior to imposing a fine of more than $1,250
for violating housing or zoning codes, municipalities must allow 30 days for the property owner to fix the
problem.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
JOURNAL-CODE: nsl
Copyright 2006 Newark Morning Ledger Co.

All Rights Reserved
The Toronto Star
January 5, 2006 Thursday
Ontario vs. Gardens over sex abuse costs

BYLINE: Rick Westhead, Toronto Star
LENGTH: 602 words

Queen's Park has filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the parent company of the Toronto Maple Leafs, de-
manding it repay the costs to treat victims of the sex abuse scandal at Maple Leaf Gardens.
The lawsuit raises the prospect that Ontario will pursue claims against other organizations that have also
had numerous sex abuse-related judgments against them, such as the Catholic Church, and the Boy Scouts
of Canada, said William Blakeney, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in insurance claims.
"If OHIP has paid out money, they certainly have a right to go out and sue to get it back where there's
been a judgment," Blakeney said.
The sex scandal at the Gardens first surfaced in the mid-1990s when victim Martin Kruze, who later com-
mitted suicide, came forward with his story of repeatedly suffering sexual abuse there.
Some 90 other victims came forward after Kruze, and confidential settlements were reached in many
cases.
In the late 1990s, a mediator settled dozens of sexual abuse claims for what was believed to be more
than $5 million.
Yet in a statement of claim filed Dec. 23 in Ontario Superior Court, the province alleged Maple Leaf
Sports & Entertainment Ltd., which owns the Maple Leafs, basketball's Toronto Raptors and the Air Canada
Centre, remains responsible for the abuses that took place at Maple Leaf Gardens, the hockey team's former
home.
Holding up its hockey team as "a model of virtue to young male adults who were interested in hockey,
sports and sporting arenas, (Maple Leaf Sports) promoted its arena and hockey team with the intention of at-
tracting young male adults to its premises for the purpose of accumulating profit for itself and its hockey
team."
Maple Leaf Sports is "vicariously responsible for the illegal acts (and) negligence" of employees, the gov-
ernment's lawsuit alleges.
"The plaintiff therefore claims reimbursement from the defendant, MLSE, for all past and future OHIP in-
sured services incurred as a result of these incidents (of) assaults, abuse and harassment."
The government's case has not been proven in court and Maple Leaf Sports has not filed a statement of
defence.
A Maple Leaf Sports spokesperson yesterday said the company has not been served with the lawsuit
and declined to comment.
Under Ontario law, if a person is injured in an accident caused by someone else's negligence or wrong-
doing, and makes a claim for damages or initiates a lawsuit, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care can
recover its costs for health care treatment.
Each year, according to government statistics, the province recovers more than $12 million from insur-
ance companies through so-called subrogation, a term used to describe the ministry's right to recover costs
for an injury caused by the fault or negligence of another person.
The government, which was urged by the provincial auditor general last month to be more diligent in pur-
suing subrogation claims, spends about $2.5 million a year to pursue the 13,000 active cases it typically has
on file.
Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Co., the sports company's insurer, is also listed as a defendant.
A Royal spokesperson declined to comment.
In its 10-page claim, the government alleged that OHIP has covered the cost of counselling, psychother-
apy and other services for "various victims of the assaults" who have suffered from, among other things, hal-
lucinations, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, self-mutilation and bedwetting.
Dan Strasbourg, a spokesperson for the health ministry, wouldn't say whether the government plans to
pursue subrogation claims against other prominent agencies such as the Catholic Diocese or boy scouts.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: COLUMN
PUBLICATION-TYPE: NEWSPAPER
Copyright 2006 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
COURIER MAIL

First with the news Edition
Opinions & Letters

SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 30
LENGTH: 1522 words
Mail to: The CourierMail GPO Box 130 Brisbane 4001, fax 07 3666 6690, or email cmletters@qnp.news-
ltd.com.au
Stupidity, impatience
SOME people are blaming the condition of roads for fatal accidents.
A motor vehicle is a machine that is held together by bolts and nuts. The biggest nut in control of the
steering wheel causes accidents; poor roads make responsible drivers more careful upon the road.-- Colin J.
Farquhar, Holland Park.
December 29
* IMPATIENCE! This should be added to ''the big four'' causes of accidents. Sue Kenyon and Jan Woods
covered this subject well with their letters (C-M, Dec 28).
As for M. Scott's letter (Dec 27) about speed, if an accident does occur while the driver is speeding, the
damage to the vehicle and the occupants will be much greater and more likely to cause fatalities than if the
vehicle was moving at a reasonable speed.-- Don Graham, Kippa-Ring.
December 28
* TODAY, about 10.25am, an express train to the Gold Coast was approaching the railway level crossing
at Trinder Park. Red lights were flashing and the barriers were down.
The driver of a small red car ignored the red lights and drove around the barriers, just making it to the
other side of the crossing as the train bore down.
Speed does not kill people driving cars; people's stupidity kills them.-- Harry Gunhold, Logan Central.
December 28
Forfeit vehicles?
WE hear the same message every year about the deaths on our roads.
I have been a police officer for 17 years and operational police officers do everything they can to reduce
the road toll but no one cannot legislate against stupidity.
Let's forget about the civil libertarians; get serious and think about the rights of the innocent parties. The
media should stop criticising the police for hiding speed cameras and focus on the real issues. Contributing
to the state's revenue is voluntary. Perhaps automatic forfeiture to the state of vehicles driven by the offend-
ers might make them think twice. -- Scott Jenkin, Parkinson.
December 28
Questionnaire would be worthless
PREMIER Peter Beattie suggests making drivers caught speeding or drink-driving fill out a ''why I am
stupid'' questionnaire.
If he really believes that will help reduce the road carnage, he is living in a fantasy land.
There is only two ways to reduce the carnage: have roads and associated lighting improved or rebuilt to
today's needs; and adopt the philosophy that a driver's licence is a privilege, not a right.
Drivers with a 0.05 blood alcohol content or caught exceeding the speed limit by 20km/h should lose
their licence immediately for six months for a first offence. If we removed the court's discretion to issue spe-
cial drivers' licences, the penalty would hit home.
If they get caught driving while suspended, give them six weeks in jail and a further 12 months' licence
suspension.
Harsh? Well, what we have now is not working so how about getting these irresponsible idiots off our
roads?-- Geoff Daniels, Ayr.
December 29
* PREMIER Peter Beattie has suggested introducing a questionnaire for offending motorists to complete.
To what end? To bury police in yet more paperwork or to provide data for bureaucrats to create useless
reports?-- Roseanne Schneider, Yeronga.
December 29
Police cars, cameras as deterrent
D. CLEMENTS (Letters, Dec 29) hits the nail on the head in the debate about the road toll by calling for
''a constant visual deterrent on the roads''.
Rather than rolling out a handful of high-powered V8 coupes for police (I have yet to encounter anyone
who has seen one), why not spend the same amount on a considerably greater number of marked four-cylin-
der sedans?
No one will try to overtake a marked police vehicle, and the effect on tired or downright stupid drivers of
seeing one might just save a life or two. Subject to obvious concerns relating to safety, there should be no
real impediment to the smaller vehicles being operated by one police officer.-- John T. Tunn, Coorparoo.
December 29
* D. CLEMENTS, in his criticism of the use of speed cameras, says ''speed is a major factor in only a
minor percentage of accidents''. Doesn't this back up the State Government's stance that speed cameras do
work and they do act as a deterrent to the majority of road users and, therefore, reduce one cause of road
accidents -- speeding.
As for raising revenue, there is a consequence, financial or otherwise, for breaking any law. If the law in
question helps reduce death and injury, it is a law worth keeping.-- D. Forde, Kuraby.
December 29
Licences conditional on courses, tests
IN THE light of the appalling road toll and a serious accident in a suburban street in Bellbowrie yesterday,
I was prompted to add my thoughts to the many being expressed on this subject.
A driver's licence should be a privilege earned through extensive practical training. Defensive driving
courses and what are known as advanced driving courses should be mandatory before a licence is granted.
(The latter should be considered basic and not advanced.)
About a year after obtaining my licence, I won a defensive driving course in a contest. That was an eye-
opener for a teenager but not nearly as much as the advanced course I did some years later as a member of
a car club. With an experienced driver-trainer in the passenger's seat at Lakeside Raceway, I experienced
handling a car in a skid, safe braking in an emergency and many essential skills for safe, every-day driving.
There should be periodic practical tests for licence renewal after a certain number of years. Yes, it would
cost, but what price a life? It need not cost the taxpayers dearly; it should be on the basis of user-pays. It is
all a matter of priorities.-- Margaret de Wit, Bellbowrie.
December 29
'Good bloke' character reference for pedophile
I READ Bettina Arndt's column ''Sex abuse damage is relative'' (Perspectives, Dec 29) with mounting
fury. I read it again to make sure I had not misread her the first time. I hadn't.
Robert Potter, in his position as a Scout leader in NSW, sexually assaulted young boys in his care. He
was given eight years' jail.
Arndt, in effect, gives this man a good character reference. He earned the trust of boys and their parents
alike, she says, over 24 years of service to the Scouts, and we should not expect his friends to treat him like
something that has ''just crawled out from under
a rock''.
Yes, we should, Ms Arndt, because he has.
I have worked in the area of mental health for
28 years. I have come in contact with pedophiles and, in greater numbers, their victims. Pedophiles, in
most instances, are narcissists who see no wrong in what they have done. The victims, whom I see in a
mental health setting, are very damaged individuals who bounce backwards and forwards between courts
and hospitals. Those tough enough to stay out of this loop often suffer a lifetime of sexual dysfunction.
Yes, the majority of childhood sexual assault victims suffer at the hands of friends or relatives but what
the hell has that to do with this case? Arndt says: ''Apart from this aberrant sexual behaviour, the man ap-
pears to be a good bloke''. Most of them do appear this way. That's so they can ingratiate themselves into
families and organisations where they will have access to children.
I have compassion for people with mental and emotional problems but Arndt's short-sighted approach to
this man and his supporters at court makes me sick.-- Scott Ferguson, Haberfield, NSW.
December 29
Over and out until next year
I REFER to Hugh Leonard's letter about Christmas lights displays being turned off too soon (C-M, Dec
28).
We have been entering the 4KQ Christmas lights competition for 18 years and are fortunate to have
been winners. We started preparations in August, checking bulbs, repainting and making new items.
We decorated our home in October and spent most of November decorating our garden. Our lights were
on from 7pm to 10pm from December 1 to December 25 inclusive. After lights out each night, we spent an
hour putting away valuable items because of the threat of theft and vandalism (which we experienced in past
years). Three nights a week we hand-watered the garden. We rarely got to bed before 1am. We delayed
Christmas celebrations with our own family by one day so that the public could view our lights on Christmas
night.
From December 27, we spend four weeks dismantling our display in the heat and humidity. Many com-
petition entrants face a similar situation. Our advice to Leonard is to get moving early next year and view the
lights during the official viewing weeks before Christmas. -- Walter and Beverley Wood, Kenmore.
December 29
Health scare
PRIVATE health insurers are pushing the Federal Government for a rise in premiums. I feel ''bitter'' (not
better) now. -- Terry Marsden, Mansfield.
December 29
Letters and e-mail must be dated, carry the full address of the writer and a daytime telephone number for
verification. Letters should be concise, topical, not more than 300 words and are submitted on condition that
Queensland Newspapers,
as publisher of The Courier-Mail, may edit and has the right to, and license third parties to, reproduce in
electronic form and communicate these letters.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
JOURNAL-CODE: CML

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COURIER MAIL

Sexual assault destroys lives

BYLINE: Hetty Johnston
LENGTH: 934 words
Pedophiles are unlikely to get caught, writes child protection activist Hetty Johnston
The pedophile has a 90 per cent chance of avoiding detection
ATTEMPTS to minimise the effects and seriousness of sexual assault against children and vulnerable
young people should not go unchallenged.
The repercussions of sexual assault on our children have been well documented over many decades by
every leading agency and inquiry in Australia and internationally.
Effects such as suicide, substance abuse, mental disorders, eating disorders, family breakdowns, youth
homelessness, sexual dysfunction and confusion, crime, and anti-social behaviours are universally agreed
upon.
One in five Australian children will be sexually assaulted in some way before they reach the age of 18 --
not rich kids or poor kids, not black or white -- everyone's kids.
The facts are that child sexual assault has destroyed more lives than any other crisis ever to have faced
our nation's children.
And yet, despite this, otherwise intelligent individuals continue to downplay, ignore or remain ignorant of
the horror being perpetrated on our youth and, instead, choose to stand in defence or sympathy of this most
convincing of con-men, the child sex offender.
The truth is that the ''moral panic'' Bettina Arndt refers to in her Perspectives article (''Sex abuse damage
is relative'', C-M, Dec 29) is entirely justified and, in fact, the evidence is that we have not panicked enough.
Arndt makes some interesting observations about the court case where a Scout leader was convicted of
pedophilia, including that ''apart from his aberrant sexual behaviour, the man appears to a good bloke. The
court was crowded with people who came to support him, including former members of his Scout team and
other Scout leaders''.
What Arndt didn't tell us is that child sex offenders need to garner this absolute trust and friendship of
their victims, their work colleagues, their friends and the children's family to carry out their premeditated as-
sault.
The ''dirty old man in the black jacket'' or the nasty, sleazy character would not fare well in convincing
those around him to trust him (or her) with the care and protection of children, nor would the children them-
selves respond well to such a character.
The ''good bloke'' image is a means to an end.
This is not to say that all sex offenders are monsters but rather to serve as a modus operandi of the child
sex offender -- a necessary reality check for the unsuspecting.
Successful unfettered access to children demands that the pedophile must make many friends, win
many hearts, build enormous trust and engender confidence, credibility and a good reputation with the
people around them.
And, just like the best of con-artists, the victims don't understand that they are the victims until after the
''sting'' is felt.
Some people who, by their innocent involvement, based solely on their trust and friendship for the con-
man -- the offender -- will find it difficult to accept that they, too, have been conned -- they, too, were
groomed; that they, too, were a necessary step in the process of gaining access to the ultimate goal, the chil-
dren.
Those people are the ones who packed the courtroom in New South Wales to support former Scout lead-
er and convicted pedophile Robert Potter.
''Anti-pedophile fanaticism'' is necessary if we are to protect our children from these most masterful of
chameleons.
It is true that most children (about 85 per cent) will be offended against by someone known and trusted to
them and their family rather than the stranger.
However, in about 70 per cent of cases, the offender does not live in the house where the child resides.
The case of the former Scout leader that Arndt refers to in her article falls into that category.
This was not a stranger but someone known and trusted. It is worth noting that the child generally suffers
even more when the offender is a family member -- not less.
Tendencies to minimalise, marginalise or downplay sex crimes committed by family members against
their own children is dangerous.
Are we seriously suggesting these crimes are less abhorrent, less traumatic, less important or perhaps,
that they are a private family problem?
Arndt claims most convicted sex offenders do not re-offend. I do not agree but I acknowledge that the is-
sue of recidivism rates for pedophiles presents as a controversial topic. To the contrary, it is my view that
most sex offenders do not get caught once -- let alone a second time. If we consider that only 10 per cent of
child sex offenders ever come to the attention of the police and that only about 1 per cent of those are con-
victed we start to understand the detection ''black hole'' that exists.
The pedophile has a 90 per cent chance of avoiding detection altogether and a 99 per cent overall
chance of avoiding conviction -- pretty good odds for the pedophile.
No wonder, then, that even though the rising community awareness and the good work of the police fi-
nally is starting to close the gap on the pedophile, the recorded recidivism rates are so low at present.
Commentary or movies that depict the pedophile as the poor misunderstood character are necessary --
generally they are a sad lot with a woeful tale.
Feel sympathy for them if you can but do it by insisting they seek and receive real therapeutic help and
long-term monitoring for what is commonly accepted as a addictive compulsion to sexually interact with our
young.
Do it with not only your hearts open but, more importantly, with wide open eyes, ears and mind.
Hetty Johnston is the executive director of Bravehearts
hj@bravehearts.org.au
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
JOURNAL-CODE: CML

All Rights Reserved
COURIER MAIL
December 29, 2005 Thursday

Sex abuse damage is relative
BYLINE: Bettina Arndt
LENGTH: 759 words
Do we expect his friends to treat him like something that crawled out from under a rock?
THIS month Robert Potter, a New South Wales Scout leader, was convicted of pedophilia, having con-
fessed to sexual activity with four male teenagers in his troop.
Apart from his aberrant sexual behaviour, the man appears to be a good bloke. The court was crowded
with people who came to support him, including former members of his Scout team and other Scout leaders.
Scout Australia NSW is holding an inquiry to see whether the man's supporters had breached the Scout
code of conduct in attending the trial.
Yes, there were some appalling incidents, where victims apparently were teased by some of the support-
ers.
But for others, their sin was simply to be there as friends of the accused.
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper -- well-known for its ideological zeal -- printed the names of oth-
er Scout leaders who dared to be present, quoting the CEO of Scouts Australia NSW, as saying Scout lead-
ers who supported Potter do not represent the Scouts.
Come on! Yes, the man committed a crime and is being harshly punished for his actions -- eight years of
jail for mutual masturbation and oral sex.
But do we really expect his friends, the people who volunteered with him in the 24 years he gave to the
Scouting movement and the boys who feel they benefited from his leadership, to treat him like something
that crawled out from under a rock?
They are being subjected to a witch-hunt so the Scout movement can emerge squeaky clean by offering
up more fodder to anti-pedophile fanaticism.
Recently there have been hopeful signs that the moral panic over pedophilia was losing some of its grip.
Some sanity has returned following the madness of the 1980s and '90s when we saw tirades in Parlia-
ment about pedophile rings, kindergartens being investigated for satanic rituals, huge court cases over
repressed memories involving grotesque sexual rituals including mangled pets and enforced abortions --
cases which invariably failed to produce evidence any such events had occurred.
Thankfully we are now gaining some perspective on real risks to children, where abuse from family mem-
bers and particularly single mums' boyfriends poses a far greater threat than any stranger danger.
Yet the bizarre move by some airlines to ban men from sitting next to unaccompanied children shows we
still have a long way to go.
Reviewers and audiences alike have reacted well to new movies showing sex offenders in a sympathetic
light. Kevin Bacon in The Woodsman presents a sympathetic view of the convicted sex offender released
from prison who struggles with his demons and ultimately wins.
(Contrary to the claims of zealots, most convicted sex offenders do go straight -- recidivism rates of child
sex offenders are among the lowest in the criminal population.)
Then there was the extraordinary documentary, Capturing the Friedmans, which uses home videos to tell
the true story of retired teacher Arnold Friedman who was convicted, along with his teenage son Jesse, of
horrific abuse of children attending computer lessons in their home.
Friedman collected child pornography and confessed to some long-past sexual activity with children.
Yet the two accused still touched the heart strings -- the loving, intelligent father and his sweet, bumbling
son -- convicted of ludicrously implausible crimes through dubious evidence.
In March, Sydney audiences are to be treated to British playwright Alan Bennett's new smash hit, The
History Boys.
The play features a beloved history teacher, Mr Hector, who has his students lining up for a ride home on
his motor cycle, despite receiving regular fondles en route.
The boys take their teacher's groping in their stride and leap to his defence when the school attempts to
get rid of him.
The boys' response reflects common experience -- the latest research shows such minor abuse rarely
has lasting consequences.
One of Robert Potter's victims claimed Potter's groping led him to infidelity, a mental breakdown and at-
tempted suicide -- luckily the literature shows such extreme reactions to be highly unusual.
Many sex abusers are not cruel monsters. Yes, some do terrible things and children must be protected
from any adult behaviour which can cause them harm.
But the real question is why we take such a perverted, obsessive interest in these sexual crimes and fail
to show similar passion over the unspeakable cruelty -- emotional and physical abuse -- which so many chil-
dren regularly endure.
Bettina Arndt is a social commentator and writer
bettinaarndt@hotmail.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
JOURNAL-CODE: CML

All Rights Reserved
San Jose Mercury News (California)
December 29, 2005 Thursday
Scout leader enters plea;

NO CONTEST TO ABUSING 3 BOYS
BYLINE: Howard Mintz, Mercury News
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 552 words
A longtime Los Altos scoutmaster pleaded no contest Wednesday to felony charges of molesting three
Boy Scouts from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, a legal move that comes six months after one victim
came forward to investigators because of fears other children could be harmed.
Gregory Allen Wagner, 43, entered the pleas in Santa Clara County Superior Court to nine counts of sex
offenses against a child.
David Grewal, who came forward last summer with the initial allegations against Wagner, hopes the case
sends a message to victims reluctant to disclose their child abuse. Grewal, now 29, said Wednesday that he
kept the molestation secret for years until a conversation with his fiance persuaded him that other Boy
Scouts were in danger.
Grewal was as young as 12 when, he maintains, he was molested by Wagner, affiliated for 20 years with
the Peninsula-based Troop 31 of the Boy Scouts' Pacific Skyline Council. Grewal added that for years he jus-
tified his silence by trying to believe he was the only victim, but he finally reached the conclusion that was un-
likely.
`Ì felt other people were probably at risk,'' said Grewal, who has moved to the East Coast and is cur-
rently a graduate student at Harvard University. `Ì had a duty to do something.''
Until his arrest last August, Wagner had spent 20 years as a scoutmaster, putting him regularly in contact
with hundreds of boys 12 to 17 years old. He was dismissed from the troop when the allegations surfaced.
James Blackman, Wagner's lawyer, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Wagner's arrest last summer came amid a shocking string of revelations of sex-abuse allegations on the
Peninsula, where a popular Palo Alto middle school gym teacher and a prominent local girls' soccer coach
were also arrested in separate cases.
Prosecutors and sheriff's investigators alleged that Wagner molested his victims on camping trips, and
they suspect he may have molested others over the years who have yet to tell their stories. Sam Liccardo,
the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said other victims surfaced after Grewal presented his
evidence to Deborah Johnson, a detective in the sheriff's department.
Grewal said that Wagner violated Boy Scout policies which forbid a scoutmaster to be alone with a
youngster without another adult present, in part by befriending families. Grewal said Wagner once took him
on a camping trip alone and slept with him in a tent.
`Ì really don't want other kids to go through what I went through,'' said Grewal, who plans to address the
sentencing judge.
`Ì'm glad he spared our family and his family a trial. A lot remains to be seen and we don't know how the
sentencing will come down.''
Wagner faces a 27-year prison term when he is sentenced in March, but is likely to serve much less
time, according to Liccardo.
John Richers, scout executive for the Pacific Skyline Council, said there has been increasing emphasis
on training and education to protect Boy Scouts against abuse, and that a number of meetings have been
held with parents and children since Wagner's arrest.
``We're trying 100 percent,'' Richers said. ``But a person who wishes ill and is going to violate the law
makes it tough and we have to be tougher as an organization.''
Contact Howard Mintz at hmintz@mercurynews.com or (408) 286-0236.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 San Jose Mercury News

All Rights Reserved
The Village Voice (New York)
December 20, 2005 Tuesday
LAW AND DISORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT

BYLINE: Tom Robbins
SECTION: COVER STORY; Pg. 28
LENGTH: 2580 words
Back in 1997 police arrested a man named Ronald Taylor, who worked as an assistant public school
principal in Harlem. Taylor, 50 years old at the time, easily ranked as a parent's worst nightmare. His arrest
came after the mother of a student walked into a local police precinct and reported that Taylor had lured her
15-year-old son to his apartment with an offer to play with his video game collection. He then proceeded to
sexually molest him. When cops went to investigate they found Taylor had tricked up his West Harlem apart-
ment as a kids' game room. They also found some 400 X-rated videos.
Unlike a score of school-personnel sex-abuse cases from that era, Taylor's arrest got little news play. The
Times ran a short item on an inside page and the Daily News carried one as well, on page 79. The lack of at-
tention was partly because the arrest did not emanate from the efficient publicity machine of Edward Stancik,
the late special commissioner for investigation for city schools.
For 12 years until his death in 2002, Stancik's gaunt features were a staple on TV newscasts as he told
of corrupt bureaucrats and twisted sex abusers nailed by his office. Such cases made Stancik wildly unpopu-
lar in the teachers' union offices and the old Board of Education headquarters on Livingston Street in Brook-
lyn, where he was viewed as a merciless inquisitor, a publicity hound whose investigations were measured
mainly for their TV and news-ink potential.
On the other hand, many politicians, journalists, prosecutors, and parents adored him, viewing Stancik
as a valiant warrior against an intractable bureaucracy. So what if he knew how to use the media? What bet-
ter way to send a message to the public and bad guys alike that wrongdoing won't be tolerated? When Stan-
cik died at age 47 of heart failure in March 2002, there were some misgivings expressed about his occasion-
al overzealousness. But the editorial call was to make sure the watchdog office he'd led didn't lose its fangs.
But a few months after Stancik's death, something unusual in the world of law enforcement happened. A
former top investigator in his office, an ex-detective who had been a supervisor there for five years, sat down
and wrote two lengthy letters to city officials alleging that a top Stancik deputy named Regina Loughran had
dropped the ball in several important cases, either delaying arrests or letting the bad guys get away altogeth-
er. In some instances, it was alleged, Loughran had changed cases from being "substantiated" to "unsub-
stantiated."
The complaints were investigated by city attorneys, and several were confirmed. Yet Loughran today re-
mains as powerful as ever, serving as the $151,000 number two official in the special investigators' office.
Former and current investigators, both men and women, who spoke under condition of anonymity, told the
Voice they were puzzled by the inaction. "If we had caught someone in the education system behaving this
way, they'd be long gone," said one former investigator.
Among the cases the investigators cited was that of Ronald Taylor.
According to the former detective and others familiar with the case, nearly a year before Taylor's arrest
by police, investigators in Stancik's office had asked permission to launch a probe of the school official. The
request was made after a prison social worker contacted the investigations office to say that an inmate was
claiming to have been sexually abused by Taylor, his former teacher. Investigators initially dismissed the
charge as one more prisoner trying to reduce his sentence. But the details of the story were disturbingly pre-
cise: Taylor had asked the student, then 15 years old, to carry a crate of milk up to his apartment. Once he
got him inside, Taylor had sexually assaulted him. The inmate described the apartment in detail.
Investigators drove to upstate Green Haven Correctional Facility to interview the inmate, who convinced
them that a sexual predator was loose in the schools. The statute of limitations had expired on the earlier as-
sault, but the inmate said he was willing to wear a recording device to a meeting with Taylor to see if he could
get him talking about other victims. The investigators relayed that offer to Loughran, then the attorney-in-
charge of the child sexual-abuse unit and a key figure in the office. Loughran refused.
"The issue for her seemed to be, 'Why spend the time and money to get this kid out of jail and wire him
up for a case that's too old,' " a former investigator told the Voice. "We argued that if we have this one person
there are probably others out there at risk."
Loughran was adamant. But the investigators, most of them retired NYPD detectives who lived by chain
of command, declined to appeal the decision over her head. The case was closed. Nine months later, the
outraged mother of another victim filed her complaint with police. Taylor was immediately arrested and later
sentenced to serve up to three years in prison. Under questioning, he said something that chilled both cops
and school investigators. He said he was HIV-positive.
Ed Stancik's public posture was of a manager with a stern "the buck stops here" policy. But according to
the former detective and others, the often ailing commissioner ceded wide authority to Loughran, a hardwork-
ing former sex-crimes prosecutor whose ability to turn out clearly written reports was highly prized by Stancik
and his successor.
Investigators said Loughran was also often tempestuous, given to sudden rages and sulks. What made
their jobs most difficult, however, was her apparent skittishness about dealing directly with outside prosec-
utors who were needed for any criminal referrals. "She just seemed intimidated or something," said one vet-
eran ex-detective who worked in the office for years. "If we had a tape we needed to get to the D.A. she
would have you drop it off with the officer in the lobby, rather than make a call to the prosecutor personally."
As a result, the investigators said, the case of the predatory assistant principal was just one of the in-
stances in Stancik's old office where the system simply broke down.
There was the case of the art instructor accused of having displayed nude photos of himself to disabled
students, confiding that "what a girl wants is a big dick." (The photos weren't found, and Loughran decided
the students' testimony was "problematic," ordering investigators to change their findings from "substanti-
ated" to "unfounded." When Board of Ed administrators asked for investigators to testify against the teacher
to bar him from further employment, Loughran refused to allow it.)
There was the 48-year-old male teacher who admitted driving a 17-year-old female student to a funeral
home parking lot in the Bronx and asking her, "What if I told you I wanted to go down on you?" (The teacher
said he was trying to help her learn to fend off improper advances. The principal vouched for the teacher, and
the girl later admitted she'd neglected to say they were also drinking beer at the time. Loughran said her
testimony was inconsistent and ordered the case dropped.)
And there was Paul Kerner, a 61-year-old teacher at Sheepshead Bay High School who romanced an
11th-grade girl, taking her to Atlantic City casinos and a motel where he coerced her into performing fellatio
and other sex acts. The investigator on the case urged Loughran to make a quick criminal referral to prosec-
utors, but the deputy balked. "I don't know what to do, let's hold off," she said, according to a report of the in-
cident.
The office dithered so long that the victim called the investigator, complaining that Kerner was now stalk-
ing her, and asking why he hadn't been arrested yet. The investigator asked Loughran for permission to take
the case to a friend at the FBI. Loughran expressed skepticism that the bureau would be interested, but re-
luctantly agreed. But when the FBI came seeking the backup documents for the case, Loughran balked
again, forcing agents to get a grand jury subpoena. (Kerner was eventually convicted in federal court, where
he received a 33-month sentence. Annoyed at the investigator who had called the bureau, Loughran al-
legedly had him transferred out of the sex-crimes unit.)
Yet another disturbing case posed an investigative challenge, one that Stancik's former detectives readily
accepted, given the stakes, but which Loughran flat-out rejected. In that instance, a former city high school
student, now a grown man and a member of the Army Reserves, called the office to say that his former prin-
cipal had repeatedly sexually abused him a few years earlier. According to his story, he had been a fatherless
youngster whom the principal had taken under his wing, bringing him on camping trips to Lake George and
elsewhere where he had repeatedly molested him. On the advice of his therapist, the man had decided to
confront and report his abuser. Once he did, the principal immediately resigned.
The Stancik investigators were able to get a consensually recorded telephone conversation in which the
principal admitted his sexual abuse of the former student. Like the Ronald Taylor case, however, the acts
were too old to prosecute. But investigators said the ex-principal (a Boy Scout troop leader who still lived with
his mother) fit the profile of "a classic pedophile," and they believed he had to have preyed on others.
The next step, they proposed to Lough-ran, would be to wire up the ex-student and have him meet with
the former principal to see if they could pick up leads on other victims. They would also talk to teachers and
students at the principal's school to find out if other boys had been similarly "befriended." Loughran wouldn't
hear of it. According to two former investigators, she said, "He is out of the system. Shut it down." (Loughran
has denied using those words.)
In an effort to try to breathe new life into the case, one of the investigators reached out to a federal pro-
secutor he knew who was familiar with sex-crime statutes to ask if there was any other law the ex-principal
might have violated. Loughran later said she was "upset" and "embarrassed" by the call, which she said du-
plicated her own research and had been made without her permission. Investigators said it was much more
dramatic than that. "She was livid," said one of them. When the investigator was asked why the call had been
made, he responded: "Because I'm trying to catch the son of a bitch."
According to the investigators, Lough-ran retaliated by shifting one of the two probers who had worked
the case, considered one of the office's most productive teams, out of the sex unit. Loughran later insisted
the assignment change had been made by Stancik, not her.
But it still wasn't over. The former principal, concerned at possible civil liabilities, offered to purchase a
$250,000 house for the victim in exchange for a promise not to pursue further legal action. When Loughran
learned of the offer, she allegedly said that the victim might be arrested for extortion, a suggestion that ap-
palled the investigators. (As it happened, the deal fell through.)
"He had been a principal for 20 years, he had such power," said one of the investigators recently. "All he
had to do was find another weak kid. We felt there had to be other victims. It was so egregious to shut it
down. Pedophiles don't do it once and then go home. You don't have to be Columbo to figure that out."
The two letters detailing the complaints about the bungled past cases landed on the desk of city depart-
ment of investigations commissioner Rose Gill Hearn in early 2003.
Hearn technically oversees the schools investigation unit (its offices are located in the same Maiden
Lane building as DOI), but because of its sensitive mission it operates largely independently. Still, Hearn took
the complaints seriously, assigning a pair of senior attorneys to look into them. Over the course of several
months, the attorneys interviewed 10 current and former employees of Stancik's old special commissioner's
office, including Loughran. During the interviews, the attorneys turned up another instance, in which a com-
plaint about a Bronx teacher accused of sodomizing several young male students had been confirmed by the
Stancik office but had somehow never been referred to prosecutors.
Those findings were in turn forwarded to Stancik's successor, Richard J. Condon, a former police com-
missioner who in the past headed investigative squads for the Manhattan and Queens district attorneys.
When Condon took over in June 2002, he retained Loughran, bumping her up a notch to first deputy commis-
sioner. A DOI spokesperson, Emily Gest, said the office hadn't ordered any changes or discipline for
Loughran, but had "shared the facts and findings of its investigation, for Commissioner Condon to take any
necessary remedial actions."
Condon said that he too took the complaints seriously, spending hours wading through old investigative
files. "I was not a witness to this history," he said. "Most of these things happened years before I got here."
The standard he used in examining the cases, Condon said, was whether Loughran had had a "rational
basis" for her decisions. In two instances--that of the art instructor who had shown the nude photos, and the
teacher who had posed the obscene remarks to the student--Condon said he disagreed with Loughran's ac-
tions, but cautioned that even this conclusion was "probably unfair."
As for the failure to make a criminal referral in the Bronx sodomy case, Condon said the explanation was
simple. "She screwed up. It happens." He noted that the office had handled a total of 1,800 cases during the
period under review. Loughran also later told DOI's inquiry that she was "baffled" how she had failed to make
the referral, but said if she was to blame so were her former bosses, Stancik and Robert Brenner, who
served as Stancik's first deputy commissioner. (Brenner, now with the investigations firm Kroll Inc., did not re-
turn calls.)
At the end of the day, however, Condon said he chalked up the complaints to honest disagreements. "I
am used to investigators and prosecutors arguing over whether cases should be prosecuted," he said.
Condon told the Daily News' Kathleen Lucadamo, who asked about the probe last month, that he con-
sidered Loughran "one of the straightest, most hardworking prosecutors I have ever worked with."
He told the Voice that he'd encountered none of the erratic behavior by Loughran described by the in-
vestigators. "I have been here three and a half years working next door to this woman and I have never seen
the behavior these people describe," he said.
In a letter to DOI, however, Condon said he had changed office procedures to make sure he personally
reads all complaints that come into the office and examines "every substantiated and unsubstantiated case."
Loughran, who declined to speak to the Voice, wrote Condon a lengthy defense of her actions, insisting
that her decisions at the office had been "common-sense based and not capricious by any rational standard."
The investigators, past and current, remain unconvinced. "This isn't just disagreeing over cases," said
one. "Yeah, there's always tension [in other investigative offices] between the investigators and the prosec-
utors. But it's always motivated by respect, and everyone understands they're a team. Here, you don't get
that. And they're supposed to be about helping the kids."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: illustration: Glynis Sweeny
Copyright 2005 V V Publishing Corporation

All Rights Reserved
The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, MA)
December 17, 2005 Saturday

City Edition
FAITH;
"Awareness is the path of immortality; Thoughtlessness is the path
of death.";
- BUDDHA;
Our South Shore, home of the stark Pilgrims, has become an Amer-
ican tapestry, rich in religious diversity
BYLINE: Lane Lambert
LENGTH: 1884 words
PICTURES BY AMELIA KUNHARDT STORY BY LANE LAMBERT PART I OF III When Robert and Cath-
erine Berlo join friends and fellow parishioners for Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Quincy this week-
end, they'll be following the generations-old faith of their ancestors in Ireland and Germany.
Across town, Asian immigrants Johnson Tran and Sandy Wong-Ng will carry on their homeland tradi-
tions, too, at the Thousand Buddha Temple. So will lifelong Muslim Zaida Shaw, at the nearby Islamic Center
of New England.
Others will take a different path - among them, Ed Dann of Hanover, who grew up Catholic and now is
active at the evangelical North River Community Church in Pembroke.
From parish and mosque to storefront and synagogue, South Shore believers worship with a myriad of
rituals - stately Congregational hymns, Portuguese-language liturgies, praise songs, Arabic Quran recitations
and Chinese sutras.
Once the domain of the Calvinist Anglican dissenters like the Pilgrims and now among the most Catholic
areas of the country, the South Shore has become home to pilgrims of global diversity - a profusion that Bo-
ston University theology professor Nancy Ammerman says is a predominant feature of American religion in
the 21st century.
"This has been going on for a long time, and there is no reason to see that it will change," she said.
At the same time, she and Miami (Ohio) University professor Peter W. Williams says the religious land-
scape is the product of patterns of settlement and immigration, "almost a microclimate."
That trend can be seen most clearly in Quincy Point, where one of the city's oldest Congregational
churches shares the neighborhood with two Catholic churches, two Pentecostal congregations, New
England's oldest mosque and the South Shore's first Buddhist temple.
In Plymouth, the Pilgrim heritage is still claimed by a range of churches, from First Parish Unitarian to the
New Testament Church, Plymouth Rock Bible Church and even the ultra-orthodox Twelve Tribes Christian
movement.
The South Shore and Massachusetts were overwhelmingly Congregational until the mid- to late 1800s,
when Irish and Italian immigration transformed the state into Catholic strongholds. In the 1960s, federal im-
migration reform opened the doors to large numbers of Hispanics, Asians and Middle Easterners.
While those patterns have been felt across the nation, Ammerman and Williams said New England and
America's largest cities were most affected.
The Deep South, by contrast, remains heavily Baptist, with more black churches than any other part of
the country. Lutherans, Methodists and Catholics hold sway across the Midwest, while the Pacific Coast is
home to the largest percentage of "nones," who claim no religious affiliation.
New England was the original territory for the country's first evangelical movement, the "Great Awaken-
ing" of the mid-18th century, but evangelicals are noticeably fewer in number now. Beyond Boston, black
congregations are all but nonexistent. Bethel AME Church in Plymouth is an exception.
On the other hand, Jewish and Muslim populations are comparatively larger than in most of the country's
urban and suburban centers. Even so, Williams said the spread of evangelical churches like North River is
one of the most significant trends of the last two decades.
"What you're seeing might not look so dramatic, given the strong Catholic presence," he said. "But it's in
your area, too."
"More terror preached"
The Pilgrims' Calvinist faith wasn't the first to be planted here, of course. The Wampanoag tribe had
practiced their Great Spirit worship and healing ceremonies for centuries.
A few Wampanoags and members of other tribes adopted Christianity as "praying Indians" all through
the 1600s - some heard sermons at Ponkapoag Pond - but most resisted. As the Puritans of the Massachu-
setts Bay colony fought them and forced them out, they were equally unforgiving with dissenters in their own
ranks - among them, the Rev. Peter Lenthal in Weymouth, who was banished to Rhode Island in 1639 with
Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson.
The state's oldest Episcopal parish was established in Hanover without incident in 1727, but some move-
ments still stirred controversy. In 1744, according to an account in an old Kingston town history, the First Par-
ish congregation there was so incensed when their pastor invited the famous evangelist George Whitefield to
speak that they locked both men out of the church.
As late as the 1820s, the hellfire and brimstone theology of the Baptists and Methodists still provoked
scorn from orthodox Congregationalists like the Rev. Elijah Leonard of Marshfield, who wrote that some of
his members abandoned Second Parish because "they wanted more terror preached."
Other changes were already gathering force. South Shore congregations such as First Parish in Ply-
mouth and Old Ship Church in Hingham were Unitarian in spirit if not doctrine by the late 1700s. The Rev.
Leonard's church declared itself Unitarian in 1836, two years after his death.
Within a decade, however, the Unitarian controversy paled as the arrival of impoverished Irish immig-
rants grew from a trickle to a steady stream.
A handful of Catholics lived in Boston before the Revolutionary War. The first Mass was celebrated there
in 1788, but not on the South Shore until 1826, when a priest visited Quincy. (He got an informal, personal
welcome from President John Quincy Adams.)
The Boston diocese created the first local parish, St. Mary's in Quincy, in 1840. By the late 1870s the
South Shore had eight parishes. Catholic immigration was swamping the old Protestant order. "They felt
overwhelmed"
On the South Shore, as in Boston, most Yankee Protestants regarded these developments with alarm
and suspicion.
"They felt Catholicism was a blasphemous religion ... and they felt overwhelmed," said Boston College
historian Thomas O'Connor, who grew up in the Catholic enclave of South Boston and is a longtime Braintree
resident. "They really believed that these Papists would take over the New World as they had taken over so
much of Europe."
The first serious trouble erupted in 1834, when a mob of Boston workingmen burned an Ursuline board-
ing school in Charlestown. No such violence seems to have occurred south of Boston, although Quincy His-
torical Society director Ed Fitzgerald said the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party attracted a fair amount of
support in the Quincy area in the late 1840s and early 1850s.
After the Civil War, the storm gradually subsided as Catholics and Protestants became neighbors. The
once-exclusive Adams Academy enrolled Irish students. By the 1880s, Randolph and surrounding towns
were electing Irish selectmen.
At the same time, parishes were becoming ever-stronger centers of Catholic faith and life. This religious
separatism reached its apogee under Cardinal William O'Connell. From World War I into the 1940s he urged
families to send their children to Catholic schools and Catholic Boy Scout troops, and warned them against
even attending Protestant church services or weddings.
"His attitude was, they're nice people, but they're going to get you," O'Connor said.
Lifelong Congregational church member Betty DeCristofaro of Quincy had a few youthful encounters with
Cardinal O'Connell's doctrine. She sometimes attended novenas with a Catholic friend, "but she told me she
couldn't set foot inside our church," DeCristofaro recalled.
Cardinal O'Connell's successor, Cardinal Richard Cushing, reversed those practices. He made a point of
joining interfaith events.
"Like a mission field"
As Irish and Italian Catholic immigration peaked around the turn of the 20th century, the South Shore's
first Jewish community took root in Quincy.
The Grossmans, Litchmans and other families founded the Ahavath Achim synagogue in 1903. In 1918
the Beth Israel Synagogue opened in Quincy Point, near the Fore River shipyard. Two more were built in
Sharon and Milton during World War II, but the biggest burst of expansion came in the 1950s and '60s, with
post-war migration from Boston to the suburbs.
In those same years Quincy became home to New England's first mosque. A small Lebanese and Syrian
Muslim community of Fore River shipyard workers and shop owners formed in the 1920s. By the 1960s,
Zaida Hassan Shaw's family and others had collected enough money - some donated by Christian and Jew-
ish friends - to build a mosque with a proper prayer room. The Islamic Center was dedicated in 1964.
"It was so wonderful to finally be able to worship the way we're supposed to," Shaw said.
Through the 1960s, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council rippled through South Shore parishes, as
they did everywhere. Churchgoers like Robert and Catherine Berlo got used to hearing the Mass in English
instead of Latin, and seeing their priest face-to-face.
More change came in the late 1980s and '90s, as evangelical congregations like North River Community
Church multiplied and the Thousand Buddha Temple opened, to serve a swelling Asian immigrant com-
munity.
Johnson Tran and Sandy Wong-Ng were delighted when they heard by word-of-mouth that Sister Sik, a
Hong Kong master, had begun regular services in a Quincy house. Until then, they and their parents had to
drive to New York City a couple of times a year for special occasions.
"We were so happy," Tran said of the Thousand Buddha Temple's 1996 dedication. "We had found
something like family again."
So did Randolph native Lisa Goldstein, who grew up going to the synagogue, but converted to Buddhism
because it gave her a spiritual inspiration she'd never felt from Judaism.
Ed Dann of Hanover took a different leap, trading the Catholicism of his youth for a born-again faith at
the contemporary-style North River Church.
The construction contractor never imagined such a thing would happen. He was baptized, confirmed and
married at St. Paul's in Hingham, the church for which his great-grandfather had helped lay the foundation in
the 1870s.
He and his wife, a former United Methodist, visited North River not long after the Rev. Paul Atwater star-
ted it in 1989. At 42, Dann has been the drama-ministry leader there for 15 years. In a congregation of 600,
he is one of at least 300 former Catholics.
"I still have a love for the Catholic Church," he said. "But I feel that my spiritual gifts can be used better
where I am."
Evangelicals continue to make quiet inroads here - the area's newest congregation, Stoughton-based
Grace Church, has gathered at an area hotel function room for a couple of months. But converts like Dann
are well aware how Catholic the South Shore and the state still are.
In a place where more than half the population is at least nominally Catholic and a growing number claim
no faith tradition, "it's like being in a mission field" to be an evangelical, Dann said.
Catholics don't see it that way. While the last few years have been a trial for the Archdiocese of Boston
and local parishes, with priest sex-abuse scandals and parish closings that have driven some younger Cath-
olics away, devout members like the Berlos are clinging to their ancestral faith with renewed conviction.
"When I go to Mass and communion, I trace that back to St. Peter (in the first century)," Robert Berlo
said. "How could I have that, and give up what I have?" Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.-
com.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 The Patriot Ledger

FINAL EDITION
Charitable immunity nears end

BYLINE: ROBERT SCHWANEBERG, STAR-LEDGER STAFF
LENGTH: 315 words

A bill that would allow lawsuits against churches, private schools and other nonprofit institutions for past
negligent hirings of employees who sexually abused children gained final approval yesterday in the Senate.
The bill, which retroactively strips these charities of their long-held immunity against lawsuits, passed the
upper house, without debate, by a vote of 34-1. The Senate, which had previously passed such legislation,
agreed with Assembly changes to the bill and sent it to acting Gov. Richard Codey for his consideration.
Codey, as Senate president, was among those voting for it yesterday. Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen)
cast the only "no" vote.
"Today, we are one step closer to having true justice for the victims of sexual abuse," said Sen. Joseph
Vitale (D-Middlesex), the sponsor. Although prompted largely by the child sex abuse scandal that rocked the
Roman Catholic Church, the bill applies across the board to private schools, Scout troops, Little Leagues and
other charitable organizations.
They would lose what had been an ironclad immunity against lawsuits by the people they serve and
could be sued if they negligently hire or supervise someone who sexually abuses a child. That change would
apply retroactively to any lawsuits that have not already been resolved. Victims would still have to observe
the time limits for suing, but they are quite flexible in cases of childhood molestation.
Many of the cases against Roman Catholic dioceses that were pending when the bill was introduced five
years ago have since been settled. Phillipsburg lawyer Gregory Gianforcaro said he still has a dozen cases
"against various religious entities."
The bill would resolve a question, currently before the New Jersey Supreme Court, as to whether charit-
able immunity shields the prestigious American Boychoir School in Princeton against a lawsuit by former stu-
dent John Hardwicke.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
JOURNAL-CODE: nsl

All Rights Reserved

FINAL EDITION
Charities could face sex-molester lawsuits

BYLINE: ROBERT SCHWANEBERG, STAR-LEDGER STAFF

LENGTH: 665 words
Churches, private schools and other charities that negligently hire employees who sexually abuse chil-
dren would retroactively lose their immunity against lawsuits under a bill that passed the Senate last night 63-
5.
The bill, one of the most emotional considered this term, passed as more than a dozen victims of child-
hood sexual abuse and their relatives and supporters watched from the Senate gallery. They broke into ap-
plause as the running vote tally showed it would pass.
"Justice is coming for the children in New Jersey, and it is a great day," said Mark Crawford of Wood-
bridge, who was molested as a teenager by a parish priest. Several victims hugged Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-
Middlesex) and Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Union), who have worked to change the law for more than five
years.
"It's been a long time coming," Cohen said.
The vote followed a half-hour of debate that was at times emotional, and centered on the bill's retroactiv-
ity. Several opponents said they could support legislation that removed charitable immunity for future cases
of child molestation but not a bill that could open the door to lawsuits over abuse that occurred decades ago.
Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex) urged his colleagues "not to change the rules after the fact" and
announced he would vote against the measure.
"Shame on you," someone yelled from the gallery.
Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris) said that allowing charities to be sued will mean they
have less money to educate children and to aid the poor, hungry and homeless. He warned that some needy
people may go hungry, tuitions may rise and some schools might fail so that money can be paid to victims of
molestation and their lawyers.
"I don't care about lawyers making money. I care about the cavalier attitude of some institutions that just
moved people around," Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington) replied.
Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex) said that as a Catholic, he finds it "incomprehensible" that
the church is "seeking to hide behind a shield" of charitable immunity.
"Forget the technicalities; let us do what is right for these victims," Diegnan said. "Let us at least today
give them a voice; give them access to the courts."
Although prompted largely by the sex abuse scandal that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church, the bill
(S540) would apply across the board to private schools, churches, scout troops, Little Leagues and other
charitable organizations that negligently hire or supervise child molesters. Charities would still be protected
against lawsuits in other cases, such as a parishioner slipping on the church steps.
The bill had passed the Senate in May 2004 and now goes back to the upper house for approval of
minor changes made in the Assembly. Vitale predicted that would be done and the bill sent to acting Gov.
Richard Codey, who is expected to sign it.
The legislation would retroactively carve out an exception to a 1958 law that shields New Jersey charities
from lawsuits by people receiving their services. That protection had been ironclad, but was weakened in
March 2004 when a state appeals court ruled the prestigious American Boychoir School in Princeton could
be sued for allegedly allowing a choirmaster to repeatedly molest a student, John Hardwicke, more than
three decades ago.
That case went to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which heard arguments more than a year ago but has
yet to rule. "I'm very surprised," Vitale said. "I don't know whether the Supremes were waiting for us or we
were waiting for them. It's really a very long time."
While enactment of the bill would remove the issue of charitable immunity from Hardwicke's case, other
questions about his lawsuit would still have to be resolved by the Supreme Court.
The bill would not abolish the time limits for filing lawsuits, but those limits can be rather flexible in cases
of childhood sexual abuse. Some victims in their 50s have been allowed to sue.
Hardwicke said, "I'm just looking forward to having a day in court."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Correction Appended
Sunrise Edition
Abused girl, telltale clues point to killers

BYLINE: STEVE DUIN, The Oregonian
LENGTH: 2388 words
SERIES: RANDY GUZEK (THIRD OF FIVE PARTS)

Author's note: On the night of June 28, 1987, Rod and Lois Houser are murdered in their Terrebonne
home by two Redmond teenagers, Randy Guzek and Mark Wilson, and a disgraced Marine named Donald
Ross Cathay. A major crimes team quickly mobilizes to pursue the killers.
Tammy and the tablecloth.
On that simple axis --a 14-year-old girl and a family's blue "everyday" linen tablecloth --the investigation
into the brutal murders of Rod and Lois Houser would turn.
Fate would work its magic. Innocence would have its revenge.
But before we pull one teenage girl from the wreckage of several Oregon families, we must first catch up
to the Houser daughters. The daughters found the shattered bodies of their parents. And only one would
eventually decide she could live with the vision she carried away with her that night.
Rod and Lois Houser had been dead for 42 hours when Sue Shirley and Maryanne Christman drove up
to the lonely house on the ridge above the Deschutes. It was dusk on that Tuesday night; they'd heard noth-
ing from their parents since Sunday. The house was dark, the cars in the driveway, the front door unlocked.
Because neither had ever stumbled onto a crime scene, they didn't recognize the thick odor when they
opened the door. The bodies and the family dog, Shady, had been locked in the house for two hot summer
days.
They quickly realized the house had been ransacked. Maryanne headed toward the living room, while
Sue crept up the stairs to her parents' bedroom. Because her father's body was wrapped in a quilt, Maryanne
hadn't found him in the darkness downstairs before her sister began to scream. She was staring at the table
her mother had refinished, wondering where the tablecloth had gone, when Sue wailed, "Oh, my God, it's the
worst! It's the worst!"
Sue ran down the stairs and pulled her sister from the house. They drove to the nearest neighbor's, Jack
Linden's place, a half-mile away. Ken Berg and Glen Wood were working outside on a tractor and they stood,
transfixed, as the two women stumbled from the car, Sue screaming, "Our parents need help," Maryanne fall-
ing to the ground and crawling across the gravel toward them.
Berg and Wood drove Maryanne back to the house while Sue called the police. The two men recognized
the smell; they wouldn't let Maryanne inside. When Berg finally told Maryanne her father was dead, she
staggered into the backyard and threw up. In a daze, she looked out into the bleak darkness of the river val-
ley. "I could see across the river this convoy of law enforcement cars," she recalled in 1997, "with their lights
flashing and their sirens going."
The first officers on the scene were Senior Trooper Gerry Miller, then an 18-year veteran with the Oregon
State Police, and Sgt. Michael Lee Johnston, a Deschutes County sheriff working the graveyard shift.
Miller and Johnston went through the house, room by room, guns drawn, gingerly approaching the body
in the living room where the dog kept its vigil. When they'd seen enough, and told the daughters both parents
were dead, Maryanne sprinted for the house. It was all Miller and Johnston could do to stop her. "I literally
had to tackle her," Miller said.
"The officers had to handcuff her and haul her off in an ambulance," prosecutor Josh Marquis said. "But
can you imagine anything more horrific than going to check on your parents and finding their mutilated, rot-
ting bodies?"
Invaluable investigator
Anything? Lynn Fredrickson can. He was an Oregon State Police investigator for 27 years, majoring in
sex abuse cases. "I was so used to living in the sewer," he said.
Molested by a junior Boy Scout leader when he was 14, Fredrickson developed a unique empathy for
sex abuse victims. He knew which questions to ask. He never winced. "I was good at talking to people," he
said, "and gaining their confidence."
Fredrickson talked to far too many in the Redmond of the 1980s. What he saw and heard got Fredrick-
son and his wife started on 20-year careers as foster parents. And it gave Fredrickson --"the cop who really
broke the case," Marquis says --an incredible running start on the investigation into the murders of Rod and
Lois Houser.
On June 4, 1987, almost four weeks before the murders, Fredrickson got a call from Children's Services
Division in Redmond. A CSD staffer needed Fredrickson to check out complaints by a high school freshman
that she was being sexually abused by her father and two of her brothers.
Abandoned by everyone who shared her name, Tammy Guzek had finally come forward. "I can still see
her that day in my mind," Fredrickson said. "She was wearing this knit hat. I didn't get everything the first
time; you rarely do. But the abuse, the way she described it, was horrific."
For the next several weeks, after Tammy was removed from her home, Fredrickson gained her confid-
ence and investigated her accusations. He was all over the Guzek family, conducting interviews, collecting
evidence, preparing for the indictments that would roll out in July.
All the while, Tammy was sharing the sordid secrets of her family. About the insurance scam involving the
motor home and Lake Billy Chinook. About her brother Randy and his tempestuous relationship with Anne
Houser.
It was inevitable, then, even as the major crimes team came together in the hours after the Housers' bod-
ies were discovered, that two members of the team would look immediately for a link with the Guzeks:
One was Redmond Police Detective Richard "Dick" Little, an old Navy man, solid and soft-spoken, a fix-
ture on the force, a guy the high school kids ribbed over his name. Little still remembered the phony rape
charge Anne unloaded on Randy in February.
The other was Fredrickson, an exceedingly private man who'd worked with Little on several ugly sex ab-
use cases. The OSP detective was armed with Tammy's frightening stories about her family and Randy's
connection with Anne.
On the night of June 30, as Maryanne Christman and Sue Shirley were winding their way up to their par-
ents' home, Randy Guzek and Mark Wilson took two girls to see "The Secret of My Success" at Redmond
Cinemas. Wilson wore Rod Houser's Nike Airbreakers. In his wallet was the $60 Randy Guzek gave him as
his share of the take from the Housers' place.
When they brought their dates back to Joel Guzek's house on Jackson Street, Jill Armstrong pulled
Randy and Mark into the back room.
Listening to the police scanner, she'd heard the news about the double murders in Terrebonne. Even as
they spoke, Joel was burning the Housers' credit cards and checks in a burn barrel in the backyard.
One night later, Deschutes County Detective Marvin Combs and Brian Mikkelborg, an OSP arson invest-
igator, arrived at Jackson Street to interview the Guzeks about their relationship with Anne Houser.
From Mikkelborg's police report:
During the course of the interview while sitting in the living room, writer noticed the television set
matched the description of the one given by victim William Morgan. Writer also noticed that the men's dress-
er shown in the photographs provided by Mr. Morgan was located in the hallway between the living room and
the kitchen of the Guzek residence.
That wasn't all. There was a coffee table and end table, a lamp, couch and chair, all a perfect match for
the furniture stolen from the Morgans' place at Crooked River Ranch, a burglary and arson Mikkelborg was
still investigating.
He filed the information away. When the major crimes team wrapped up the Houser case, Mikkelborg
would pay the Guzeks another visit. All things in their time.
More pieces of the puzzle
On July 2, Joel, Jill, Randy and Mark Wilson drove to Reno, Nev. Near La Pine, Wilson later testified,
Joel Guzek turned around "and asked if we really thought it was worth it. The defendant looked at me and
got a big grin on his face and said, 'Yes, it was.' "
Hold that thought, Randy.
They returned from Reno on July 5. For the next several days, Fredrickson said, "Tammy is calling me al-
most every day during the homicide investigation. She was calling me to make sure I was still alive because
she knew her family. She said she knew her family was going to kill me."
But Tammy had other things to share. A federally licensed firearms dealer, Fredrickson knew exactly
what kind of rifle had been used in the murder of Rod Houser. "It wasn't popular at the time to have these
high-cap magazines, so there was only one gun capable of doing that: the Ruger 10/22," Fredrickson said.
Not only did Tammy describe seeing that rifle in the family war chest, but she led detectives to the wood-
pile on the Walnut Street lot where Randy and her dad did their target shooting.
Tammy, curiously enough, wasn't the only adolescent girl moving the investigation along. Another was
parked at Fredrickson's dinner table.
"In an incredible coincidence, we had a girl placed in our home for foster care," said Fredrickson, who re-
tired in 1999. And one July night over dinner, after hearing the state trooper mention Guzek and Wilson, she
sat up in her chair and offered a curious twist: She'd seen the boys on that fateful Sunday, hours before the
murder, she said, and made plans to meet them at Lake Billy Chinook.
Somehow, they got their wires crossed. They never hooked up. Determined to see them, "she sneaks
out of her bedroom window on the morning of the homicide and goes over to the Guzeks' house," Fredrick-
son said. "And as she walks over there, she sees the Guzeks unloading property just before daylight.
"She's in my home telling me this. How wild is that? It was like a piece of the puzzle. How could that
piece of the puzzle fall into place at that time? Because their time was up. Someone was going to make sure
they paid for what they did."
The tablecloth
On July 9, George Roshak, an Oregon State Police detective, returned to Jackson Street with a search
warrant, checking on Mikkelborg's information about the furniture.
Roshak was 10 seconds inside the front door when he glanced into the dining room. "The first thing I no-
tice," he said, "is the dining table has the tablecloth from the murder scene. This was an unusual tablecloth. A
unique fabric. There were matching napkins, so I'd seen the fabric at briefings. There is absolutely no ques-
tion.
"I was going, 'Whoa! Timeout, everyone. Take a look.' "
The Guzeks, it seemed, had shut the burn barrel down far too soon.
Randy Guzek, Roshak remembers, looked like he was going to be sick. That afternoon, perhaps feeling
a tightening of the noose, Guzek unloaded on Fredrickson. "He said the rumor on the street was Anne was
definitely the murderer," Fredrickson said. "He told me he'd read in the Redmond newspaper that the House-
rs had been shot 20 times each. . . . (And) he told me that his sister and Anne Houser were really good
friends and that someone should check on Tammy's whereabouts on the night of the homicide."
The police had never released any information about the manner of death, much less the number of
shots.
Randy Guzek wasn't the only member of the clan shooting his mouth off. Sitting in the Deschutes County
jail on the sex abuse charges involving his daughter, Joel Guzek sent a note to Little, asking to talk. Little had
arrested Joel often enough that Guzek trusted him; that the Guzeks once burglarized Little's home in Lake
Park Estates, Joel apparently believed, was a stunt the detective never took personally.
When Little and Marvin Combs pulled Joel into the detective's room, Guzek said he was worried about
being charged with arson in the fire at the Morgans' ranch. "I don't want to be arrested for something I didn't
do," Joel told Combs. Just in case, Guzek said, he had information to trade.
That night, Joel Guzek took Little and Combs down to a Redmond storage unit, unlocked and opened
No. 208 and showed the detectives the booty from the Housers' home and 10 other local burglaries. The next
morning, July 10, he led them to the guns.
He was doing anything to save himself, Fredrickson said, "even selling out his kids."
"You're under arrest"
Mark Wilson was back at his parents' home, where members of the major crimes team found him. The
murder weapons in hand, they told Wilson he had to come to the police station.
"I asked them if I could follow them down in my car, so I could come back after," Wilson said. "That's how
outlandish my thoughts were."
Randy Guzek was nabbed later that day at Jackson Street. "I'm the one who stuck a gun under his chin
when he was fast asleep on the coach," Fredrickson recalled, "and said, 'Get up. You're under arrest.' "
I'm guessing Fredrickson was savoring the moment. I'm guessing he was thinking about Tammy.
Donald Ross Cathay was the first to confess; he would later tell the jury he decided to come clean "when
they (the cops) said that Randy's dad and Jill were pointing me and Mark out."
Cathay told police that Wilson killed Rod Houser and Guzek his wife. Investigators then confronted
Wilson and suggested he drop the self-serving lies. He did.
Gene Goff, a criminal investigator for the Deschutes County sheriff's office, served Randy Guzek with the
official warrant in jail.
"I read the warrant to him," Goff later said. "It was for two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of
burglary. And I read it to him in full. I asked him if he had any questions about it. He asked me, 'What's it
mean? What's aggravated murder?' And I said, 'That's the one that packs the death penalty.'
"He turned and said, 'Big (expletive) deal.' I asked him, I said, 'What did you say?' And he turned back
and stared at me and shook his head and turned around and walked back in his cell."
Eight months and eight days later, the state of Oregon sentenced Randy Lee Guzek to die by lethal in-
jection for the murders of Rod and Lois Houser. The sentence prompted a cake order at the bakery in Red-
mond where Guzek's mother, Kathleen, worked. The purchase requested icing that spelled out, "Bye-bye,
Randy," and included a hangman's noose.
Eighteen years, four months and 26 days later, Guzek had not yet exhausted the first of 10 steps for ap-
peal available to each and every lifer on Death Row.
Wednesday: Why Guzek gets another chance before a sentencing jury.
To read previous chapters, go to http://www.oregonlive.
com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/
Steve Duin: 503-221-8597;
Steveduin@aol.com; 1320 S.W. Broadway,
Portland, OR 97201
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
CORRECTION-DATE: December 9, 2005
CORRECTION: PUBLISHED CORRECTION RAN FRIDAY, :

* Donald Ross Cathey is serving a life sentence for the murders of Rod and Lois Houser. His surname
was misspelled in columnist Steve Duin's series this week about the crime.

All Rights Reserved
Seattle Times (Washington)
December 2, 2005, Friday
Even the mayor wonders: Who is the real Jim West?

BYLINE: By David Postman
SECTION: DOMESTIC NEWS
LENGTH: 4291 words
SPOKANE, Wash. _ Only one name appears on the ballot in this city's Dec. 6 recall election: Mayor Jim
West.
But which West will voters have in mind when they decide whether to dump the first-term mayor?
The professional politician who was leading the city to a long-overdue renaissance?
Or "therightbi-guy," one of the names the mayor used while cruising online for young men? Or darker
still, the former sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader who stands accused of molesting young boys decades
ago?
In this toughest campaign of a 25-year political career, West says he's pitted against a caricature of him-
self drawn by recall sponsors and The Spokesman-Review, the local newspaper that since May has pub-
lished nearly 150 stories about West, reporting allegations that he used his position as mayor to lure young
men and that West sexually abused boys decades ago.
"I have no opponent other than the person they created who is supposedly me," West said.
The mayor created his own "imaginary person" through which he lived a vast and secret online life. But
he says it would also be unfair for voters to judge him as that character. "What it really allows me to do is be
somebody I'm not," West said.
But even he has difficulty sorting out the real from the make-believe.
"And this is weird. This is incredibly weird for me. This is an imaginary person and this is a real person,"
he said, pointing with a finger on each hand. "And there are points in time where they cross over a little bit.
But few and far between."
Politicians in scandals of this proportion often quickly resign, go off to seek counseling or detoxification or
plow on with blanket denials. West, though, has been talking more and more about his conflicted sexuality
and self-doubt in ways almost unheard of for a candidate on the campaign trail.
He also follows one well-worn path: Blame the newspaper.
West's first campaign fundraising appeal focused on The Spokesman-Review _ which sparked contro-
versy by hiring someone to pose as an online teenager to expose West _ and its editor, Steven Smith:
"Are Steven Smith and The Spokesman-Review the ultimate authority in Spokane or is it the people?
The choice is ours."
For his part, Smith is surprised the scandal has burned so long. "There are days I feel Mayor West is just
making it too easy and that we are in a position of having to continue to write these stories," Smith said.
"Now I think that's his responsibility, not ours."
Smith says West could have saved himself further scrutiny by resigning.
"But nevertheless," Smith said, "you've got to ask yourself periodically, how do I feel about this? And
there are days I don't feel really great about it. Proud of our journalism. But I just feel like this guy is standing
up there and allowing us to whack away at him.
"And we're grinding him into dust."
That last sentence is said without boast. It's Smith's assessment of where the story has gone.
West has cancer. So many elements are at play in the West saga that it's easy to forget that. He was dia-
gnosed with colon cancer in 2003. It quickly spread to his liver. He has had four surgeries and is on his fourth
round of chemotherapy.
It's clear he's not well. He's regained much of the weight he originally lost, though he looks more bloated
than robust. There's a gray pallor to his skin, and his hair is clumped in thin patches.
There doesn't seem to be any loss of energy. He's as eager as ever to talk about backroom machina-
tions, political intrigue and how he most recently outsmarted the opposition.
His love for political gamesmanship helped make West one of the most powerful Republican figures in
Olympia. He spent 20 years in the Legislature, rising to chair the powerful Senate Ways and Means Commit-
tee and serving as the Senate majority leader.
But mayor of Spokane is the job he always dreamed of holding.
Early in his tenure, West was hailed by The Spokesman-Review and local leaders for bringing a profes-
sionalism to the office. Even after the sexual-misconduct allegations, he was named "Best Local Official" in
Spokane Coeur d'Alene Living magazine.
"Reprehensible actions aside, the guy can lead and readers still seem to respect him for all the good he
has done for the city," the magazine wrote.
Not a great review. But good enough for a mayor in trouble that the magazine sits outside West's office
on the fifth floor of City Hall with a Post-it on the page and the entry highlighted in yellow.
Looking out his office window, West points to where the Monroe Street Bridge and the city's refurbished
tramway crisscross the Spokane River.
The reopening of the 90-year-old bridge was a high point in the nascent West administration. After the
scandal broke, his staff asked West if he wanted to forgo the balloons and the band and instead have a
simple ribbon cutting or maybe no public appearance at all.
"I said, 'We're going to have a three-day party,'" West recalled. And they did.
But as quickly as he turns away from the window, he grabs a transcript of one of his online chats with
The Spokesman-Review's hired computer expert who was posing as a local high-school boy going by the
handle "motobrock34."
Nearby is a pile of letters and e-mails from supporters, including former Scouts, testifying to West's
soundness and wishing him well. There is an audio copy and a transcript of his interview with The Spokes-
man-Review that he pores over looking for discrepancies.
Battling the allegations gives him strength, he says, to fight cancer.
Last May, West's political world began unraveling after The Spokesman-Review reported on two men
who say West molested them in the 1970s when they were young boys in Spokane.
Both say they were also molested by West's good friend and fellow sheriff's deputy, David Hahn.
West has denied those charges. In one interview he offers a circumstantial argument against those
claims: If he were an abuser there'd be more victims coming forward. The newspaper, with its aggressive
search for more victims, would have found someone else.
"Where are they? Pedophiles don't abuse just one person," West said. "Maybe in a case of an uncle ab-
using or a father or something abusing a family member, but pedophiles who abuse strangers don't abuse
one person."
But there is mystery even to West about his past.
Can he understand how strange it looks to some that he worked with two men _ Hahn and another fellow
Scout leader, George Robey Jr. _ who both committed suicide after being suspected of sexually abusing chil-
dren? "And don't you think that maybe made me to question, 'What's wrong with me?'" West said.
Pressed to elaborate, West demurred, then said, "What was it about me that caused this to happen? Or
not to cause it to happen, but had these people lined up? Was it just being (in the) cosmic space in the wrong
place at the wrong time?"
Any crime committed in the 1970s would be beyond the statute of limitations. Because of that, law en-
forcement, government officials and sponsors of the recall against West have paid little attention to the sex-
abuse claims _ the worst accusations West faces. The newspaper, too, has done little to advance those al-
legations.
Instead, much of the public attention and the reporting has focused on a narrower legal question: Wheth-
er West misused his office by offering City Hall positions to entice young men into sexual relationships.
In one of the initial stories, The Spokesman-Review reported that West had offered an internship to
someone he thought was a high-school senior. After that, others came forward to say West had also offered
them city positions.
Last month, an investigator hired by the city concluded those actions had violated city and state laws.
West continues to deny the charges.
___
The allegations against West churn dark memories in Spokane. There have been child sex-abuse allega-
tions in the ranks of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, the Boy Scouts, a ranch for troubled boys and the
Catholic Church _ a diocese so battered by accusations of molestation it has filed for bankruptcy.
This scandal is about the mayor's actions, to be sure. But many people talk of what it says about
Spokane, its history, its newspaper; about the business community; and about how and why city residents
don't demand more from their leaders.
The city's power structure has been shaken. The mayor's former business backers and his own Repub-
lican Party want him to resign. The newspaper that endorsed West finds itself hailed by former critics as a
voice of the people.
Still, the city's most powerful groups stood on the sidelines in the days and weeks after The Spokesman-
Review expose. It was Shannon Sullivan, a self-described unemployed, uneducated, single mom from the
poor side of town, who organized the recall-petition drive that will culminate in the Dec. 6 election.
"It surprised me that we would sit down and take this as a community," Sullivan said. "This good-old-boy
thing is going to come to an end. It is the people who took back this city."
Some worry a recall will continue the civic unease that has given Spokane an unbroken chain of one-
term mayors since 1974.
At stake, they say, is the city's recent success and its efforts to head off life as a branch-office town.
Steve Eugster is a former city councilman, attorney and sponsor of the city-charter change that gave
Spokane a strong-mayor form of government. He has been one of West's most outspoken defenders _ a de-
fense that often centers on attacking The Spokesman-Review _ and says the mayor is being persecuted for
his personal life.
"You may not like the guy but he is the kind of strong mayor I had in mind when I advanced the strong-
mayor petition," Eugster said.
West's fate has taken on symbolic power in a city longing for change.
Spokane has a chronic inferiority complex. It's a complex so universally recognized it's become an icon.
Civic self-doubt is Spokane's Space Needle.
When Spokane was named an All-America City last fall, The Spokesman-Review editorialized that it was
time to get over the complex _ a complex so rooted here that the newspaper said the same thing when the
city first won the award in 1975.
"There was widespread abuse of children in this city for years by priests, by sheriff deputies, by Boy
Scout leaders _ some of them the same _ and you know, you want resolution to that. You do want a white
knight to come in and make the bad guys pay in some way," said Jess Walter, a Spokane born-and-bred nov-
elist and former Spokesman-Review reporter.
"I certainly know a lot of people for whom getting rid of Jim West will be a step in the right direction. It will
speak well of Spokane if we can do that."
The newspaper, too, has a past to overcome. Local critics have long been suspicious of power wielded
by the Cowles family, which owns the paper and other extensive business holdings.
Real-estate dealings have created the most questions for the Cowles family _ specifically, a downtown
shopping mall and parking-garage deal with the city that went sour, causing years of controversy and litiga-
tion.
The Spokesman-Review's stories have generated a host of rumors, including an unsubstantiated one
that the newspaper investigated West only because the mayor got the better of the Cowles family in a settle-
ment of that litigation.
"I've never seen conspiracy theorists like the people who have Cowles conspiracies," Walter said. "If they
get the weather wrong they say, 'Well, Stacey (Cowles, the publisher) clearly wanted everyone to come in-
side and shop so they predicted rain.' It's just insanity."
Smith, who worked at six other newspapers before becoming editor of The Spokesman-Review in 2003,
sees himself as the new sheriff in town. His Stetson is a fedora and he often wears a foreign correspondent-
issue trench coat.
He says there were compromises and ethical lapses under the old regime at the paper, when Cowles'
business interests trumped journalism. The paper has written about that since he took over.
Smith, 55, sees darker demons to exorcise from the paper's gothic building. He says the paper "failed to
actively pursue" stories about sex abuse in Spokane in the 1970s and 1980s, including allegations about the
local Catholic Church and church-run organizations.
"The result is we put children in danger because you allow situations to continue," Smith said.
The publisher of the paper, Stacey Cowles, the son of the man who was in charge of The Spokesman-
Review then, isn't so sure.
"I can't believe my father would ever have said, 'Look, we're not going to go there,' " Cowles said.
But after a moment of reflection, Cowles said, "Maybe it's possible." He said that decades ago there
were striking religious divisions in town between Catholics and Protestants that the paper may have wanted
to avoid stirring up.
___
Like so much about Spokane's past, doubts are just under the surface.
As West talks about his life, one pictures a blur of men in uniform. West's father was a postal worker.
Young Jim went from the Boy Scouts, where his troop leader was an Air Force man, to join the Army, then the
sheriff's department, then returning to the Boy Scouts as an adult leader.
West said the system of rules behind those uniforms "definitely makes life simpler." There also is a sense
of belonging and camaraderie, he said, that he felt particularly in the Army and the Scouts.
They can be tough on a young man, too.
West's first Scout leader was a tough disciplinarian. Infractions were dealt with by sending a Scout
through "the belt line," a column of Scouts using their belts to whip the offender as he ran down the line.
West was born in Oregon but raised in Spokane. As he was about to start his senior year of high school,
his father took a job in Reno, Nev., and West wanted to stay behind.
A family he didn't know agreed to take him for the year.
West attended the University of Nevada, Reno, but dropped out. He stayed behind, though, when his
family moved several months later, still living in a fraternity house, the place he had one of his earliest homo-
sexual experiences.
West was married from 1990 to 1995. He remains friendly with his ex-wife, who, along with her mother,
have donated to West's anti-recall campaign.
He said it wasn't until after his divorce that he admitted to himself that he was attracted to men.
He still professes to be unsure.
"It's hard for me to say this, but I'm curious about men. But you know, I have relationships with women,"
he said. "I'm basically an asexual. I'm not driven by sex. I mean, God, I could probably count on a couple of
hands _ besides my marriage itself _ how many sexual encounters I've had my entire life."
About five years ago West began to use the Internet to explore his homosexual attractions.
"It was just a curiosity thing," West said. "Then you get in there and you chat with people and they don't
know who you are and you don't know who they are. In some cases, you're just teasing them, razzing them."
When West talks about his online relationships, he speaks as if it is technology that draws him in; the
computer is the force he feels, not a magnetic pull to young men.
He said the Internet leads to isolation, reduces inhibitions and takes away a needed sense of shame. "It
just lowers all those social norms potentially," West said.
That's why he felt compelled to apologize to the citizens of Spokane.
"I think for many people I let them down," West said, "They knew me, but they didn't know everything _
sitting at home, being bored, getting online and chatting with people instead of watching TV or reading a
good book or whatever. You know, not very proud of it.
"So, that's wrong. And then chatting with 'motobrock' who was an 18-year-old _ started out fairly inno-
cent, but went where it shouldn't have. And that was wrong."
To repent, he says, he has sworn off the Internet and sex.
"It created this cleft, this fault, that this was like, wow, that is a place I can't go to anymore: the Internet or
any kind of sexual relationship with anybody."
The transcripts of West's online chats obtained by The Spokesman-Review are thick with sexual innuen-
does, explicit cybersex and ramblings about living a closeted and sexually confused life. "It's role-playing. I
mean, it's like a game," West said.
But the persona he chose wasn't vastly different from his real life. He described himself as middle-aged
and generally accurately described his interests and background. He said he worked in a business related to
marketing and traveled a lot and had occasion to meet famous people. He said his name was Jim.
"If you're going to role-play, why would you play someone just like yourself?" asked Ryan Oelrich, 24, a
Spokane man who chatted with "therightbi-guy" and "Cobra82nd," West's salute to his army division.
And as the case with other chats, "therightbi-guy" and "Cobra82nd" would bring up the mayor.
"He'd say, 'Did you see the mayor on the news today? He's a big, fat, ugly man, isn't he?'" Oelrich said.
Before Oelrich knew West's identity, the mayor went to a friend of the young man's and told him to have
Oelrich apply for a seat on the city Human Rights Commission. West initially offered Oelrich the chairman-
ship. Oelrich turned that down but accepted a position on the commission.
Eventually, Oelrich confronted West in his online persona and the mayor confirmed who he was. He
asked Oelrich to keep his identity secret.
After West admitted who he was, Oelrich says, the mayor's online behavior became more aggressive _
bordering on stalking. Oelrich, who sees his appointment now as part of a clumsy seduction, resigned and
filed a discrimination complaint with the commission.
The commission found West acted inappropriately but did not find that Oelrich had been discriminated
against. West denied any wrongdoing.
Oelrich said he urged West to quit hiding his homosexuality.
"I don't think he ever would come out," Oelrich said. "The answer was, 'No, there is no way I can achieve
the dreams I have if I was openly gay.'"
___
It's a Sunday afternoon in April and West is on his computer, chatting under the cover of one of his
screen names, jmselton.
jmselton: we trust each other right?
motobrock34: of course
After months of sporadic online chats, according to The Spokesman-Review transcript, West sent his
photograph to someone he thought was a Spokane high-school senior.
motobrock34: what is that?
jmselton: this is me
They were to meet for the first time the next day. The online and real-life Jim West were ready to merge.
The two were going to meet for a round of golf the next morning. Instead, West was watched by a photo-
grapher for The Spokesman-Review and the paper's computer consultant as he looked around for "moto-
brock."
The computer setup was a ruse _ a word Smith, The Spokesman-Review's editor, prefers to "sting" _ ar-
ranged by the newspaper.
That tactic has generated plenty of heat. Some journalists and academics criticized the paper for what
they saw as a form of entrapment.
West has also made much of the fact that one of the chat transcripts was clearly jumbled and incom-
plete. He was right, despite a column by the paper's online publisher jabbing hard at West for raising the is-
sue in June and stating the paper "won't always sit quietly when statements are being made about us that we
believe to be patently false."
The transcript was corrected last month, four months after West's complaint.
An editor's note was attached to another transcript July 2 saying that because of technical difficulties the
paper's computer expert lost the electronic record of the part of the chat where West first made the offer of
an internship to "motobrock." Instead, the expert had to rely on his notes for that allegation that has become
central to the recall.
Two sources of the most serious allegations also tell conflicting stories of how one of them says he came
to be molested by West.
The discrepancy is clear from interviews and a deposition with two men that The Spokesman-Review
posted on its Web site as part of its investigation of West.
Michael Grant says David Hahn, West's fellow sheriff's deputy and close friend, picked him up one day in
his departmental car, molested him, and later introduced him to West. Robert Galliher, who also alleges West
raped him, says that Grant told him it was West, not Hahn, who picked him up that day in a sheriff's car, in
uniform, and molested him.
The discrepancy has never been mentioned in any of the newspaper's stories.
Smith said he does not think that is a substantive conflict and that the newspaper has tried to be straight-
forward about how memories of events of 25 years ago can be hazy.
Smith did put one thing in the paper he's sorry for. In June he wrote a column _ under the headline "Civic
Response to West a Model of Timidity" _ scolding Spokane residents for a lack of appropriate outrage at
West.
He aimed this barb at the Catholic Church: "Are clergy embracing the mayor because this previously and
admittedly irreligious politician now has found Jesus and won the Lord's forgiveness?"
Smith believes what he wrote, but says that coming under his name it made the story too personal and
made things harder for his reporters.
Smith concedes that the tone of some of the news stories in the early coverage was over-amped. Also,
at one point, he asked columnist Doug Clark to back off the story a bit. (Clark made The Spokesman-Re-
view's crusade a multimedia _ and R-rated _ affair with a parody song posted on the paper's Web site, "I Did
It Bi Way.")
Smith says the West tale has followed an unpredictable arc: It started with shocking allegations of pedo-
philia and Internet cruising. Then the story went through a bizarre stage with stories, for example, about
whether West masturbated in his office and the like.
"I don't think anyone can argue on the absurd angle," Smith said.
West's story now, he said, is "just grindingly pathetic and sad and dismal."
On a recent Friday morning, West greeted a visitor at City Hall by saying what his looks hinted at.
"I pulled an all-nighter."
Why?
"Just doing stuff."
There's not even sleep to relieve his isolation. His father, Jack, is 80 and lives in town. They see each
other occasionally but have yet to talk about the scandal engulfing West.
After West's career in public office, many of his friends are political people. And political people run from
trouble. West has heard very little from those he served with in the Legislature. He understands that.
"I'm going to be protective of them. I'm a friend first," he said. "They haven't turned against me, said
things against me. But they don't need my baggage and I'm not going to give it to them."
Psychoanalysis, he says, "is not me."
That leaves his newfound religion.
"I've repented," he says. And that includes a relationship with God that began with the pre-scandal can-
cer diagnosis.
He joined Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a predominately black church in the neighborhood
where West grew up. West began attending after Pastor Lonnie Mitchell Sr. invited him during a mayor's
prayer breakfast.
West feels welcome there. On a recent Sunday he is greeted by first name, as "Mr. Mayor" and with the
occasional hug. His guest was pulled aside by an elderly woman and told firmly, "You pray for him."
The congregation is racially diverse. West claps to the gospel music with some self-consciousness. (He
points out a white man who, he says, "is the only white guy here with real rhythm.")
Mitchell announces his sermon by saying he wants to talk about something so powerful "sometimes we
even love it more than God. What is it that's so much fun? It's sin."
Specifically, Mitchell charts a course of sin from watching scantily clad women on MTV _ "a foothold to
the devil" _ to looking at dirty movies and becoming subsumed in the online world.
"The next thing you know you are looking at things on the Internet you had no idea existed. You better
stop peeking. Peeking will get you hurt," Mitchell bellowed in his full crescendo. "Peeking will mess your mind
up. Peeking will set you apart from everybody."
The pastor warns his congregation that if they are not in right standing with God only hell awaits.
And hell is "a real place," Mitchell promises. And, he warns, "it's hot."
There are lots of "amens" and heads nodding and parishioners urging Mitchell on. The mayor listens and
says quietly, "He's talking to me."
___
THE ALLEGATIONS IN THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Accusations of molestation: Two men told the newspaper they were molested by West decades ago,
when he was a deputy sheriff and Boy Scout leader. They say they also were molested by West's good friend
and fellow deputy David Hahn, who later committed suicide. The statue of limitations has expired on any po-
tential crime, and there is no police investigation.
Accusations of misuse of office: The Spokesman-Review stories have alleged that West used his mayor-
al powers to try to entice young men into sexual relationships, including offering an internship to the newspa-
per's hired computer expert who was posing as a Spokane high-school boy in online chats with West. The
stories also allege that West used his city computer to cruise for men online. An investigator hired by the City
Council says West violated city and state laws. The FBI also is investigating.
Accusations of hypocrisy: Newspaper articles have asserted West's political and private lives were hypo-
critical, since he voted against civil-rights protections for gays as a state legislator but had sex with men.
___
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Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

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Copyright 2005 The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
November 27, 2005 Sunday

Fourth Edition
Even the mayor wonders: Who is the real Jim West?

BYLINE: David Postman, Seattle Times chief political reporter
SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 4413 words
Spokane Mayor Jim West is fighting many battles, from accusations of sexual abuse to ravages of a life-
threatening illness. As he prepares for his recall election, he discusses how, much like his own city, he
struggles with self-doubt and an uncertain identity.
SPOKANE Only one name appears on the ballot in this city's Dec. 6 recall election: Mayor Jim West.
But which West will voters have in mind when they decide whether to dump the first-term mayor?
The professional politician who was leading the city to a long-overdue renaissance?
Or "therightbi-guy," one of the names the mayor used while cruising online for young men? Or darker
still, the former sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader who stands accused of molesting young boys decades
ago?
In this toughest campaign of a 25-year political career, West says he's pitted against a caricature of him-
self drawn by recall sponsors and The Spokesman-Review, the local newspaper that since May has pub-
lished nearly 150 stories about West, reporting allegations that he used his position as mayor to lure young
men and that West sexually abused boys decades ago.
"I have no opponent other than the person they created who is supposedly me," West said.
The mayor created his own "imaginary person" through which he lived a vast and secret online life. But
he says it would also be unfair for voters to judge him as that character. "What it really allows me to do is be
somebody I'm not," West said.
But even he has difficulty sorting out the real from the make-believe.
"And this is weird. This is incredibly weird for me. This is an imaginary person and this is a real person,"
he said, pointing with a finger on each hand. "And there are points in time where they cross over a little bit.
But few and far between."
Politicians in scandals of this proportion often quickly resign, go off to seek counseling or detoxification or
plow on with blanket denials. West, though, has been talking more and more about his conflicted sexuality
and self-doubt in ways almost unheard of for a candidate on the campaign trail.
He also follows one well-worn path: Blame the newspaper.
West's first campaign fundraising appeal focused on The Spokesman-Review which sparked controversy
by hiring someone to pose as an online teenager to expose West and its editor, Steven Smith:
"Are Steven Smith and The Spokesman-Review the ultimate authority in Spokane or is it the people?
The choice is ours."
For his part, Smith is surprised the scandal has burned so long. "There are days I feel Mayor West is just
making it too easy and that we are in a position of having to continue to write these stories," Smith said.
"Now I think that's his responsibility, not ours."
Smith says West could have saved himself further scrutiny by resigning.
"But nevertheless," Smith said, "you've got to ask yourself periodically, how do I feel about this? And
there are days I don't feel really great about it. Proud of our journalism. But I just feel like this guy is standing
up there and allowing us to whack away at him.
"And we're grinding him into dust."
That last sentence is said without boast. It's Smith's assessment of where the story has gone.
West has cancer. So many elements are at play in the West saga that it's easy to forget that. He was dia-
gnosed with colon cancer in 2003. It quickly spread to his liver. He has had four surgeries and is on his fourth
round of chemotherapy.
It's clear he's not well. He's regained much of the weight he originally lost, though he looks more bloated
than robust. There's a gray pallor to his skin, and his hair is clumped in thin patches.
There doesn't seem to be any loss of energy. He's as eager as ever to talk about backroom machina-
tions, political intrigue and how he most recently outsmarted the opposition.
His love for political gamesmanship helped make West one of the most powerful Republican figures in
Olympia. He spent 20 years in the Legislature, rising to chair the powerful Senate Ways and Means Commit-
tee and serving as the Senate majority leader.
But mayor of Spokane is the job he always dreamed of holding.
Early in his tenure, West was hailed by The Spokesman-Review and local leaders for bringing a profes-
sionalism to the office. Even after the sexual-misconduct allegations, he was named "Best Local Official" in
Spokane Coeur d'Alene Living magazine.
"Reprehensible actions aside, the guy can lead and readers still seem to respect him for all the good he
has done for the city," the magazine wrote.
Not a great review. But good enough for a mayor in trouble that the magazine sits outside West's office
on the fifth floor of City Hall with a Post-it on the page and the entry highlighted in yellow.
Looking out his office window, West points to where the Monroe Street Bridge and the city's refurbished
tramway crisscross the Spokane River.
The reopening of the 90-year-old bridge was a high point in the nascent West administration. After the
scandal broke, his staff asked West if he wanted to forgo the balloons and the band and instead have a
simple ribbon cutting or maybe no public appearance at all.
"I said, `We're going to have a three-day party,' " West recalled. And they did.
But as quickly as he turns away from the window, he grabs a transcript of one of his online chats with
The Spokesman-Review's hired computer expert who was posing as a local high-school boy going by the
handle "motobrock34."
Nearby is a pile of letters and e-mails from supporters, including former Scouts, testifying to West's
soundness and wishing him well. There is an audio copy and a transcript of his interview with The Spokes-
man-Review that he pores over looking for discrepancies.
Battling the allegations gives him strength, he says, to fight cancer.
Last May, West's political world began unraveling after The Spokesman-Review reported on two men
who say West molested them in the 1970s when they were young boys in Spokane.
Both say they were also molested by West's good friend and fellow sheriff's deputy, David Hahn.
West has denied those charges. In one interview he offers a circumstantial argument against those
claims: If he were an abuser there'd be more victims coming forward. The newspaper, with its aggressive
search for more victims, would have found someone else.
"Where are they? Pedophiles don't abuse just one person," West said. "Maybe in a case of an uncle ab-
using or a father or something abusing a family member, but pedophiles who abuse strangers don't abuse
one person."
But there is mystery even to West about his past.
Can he understand how strange it looks to some that he worked with two men Hahn and another fellow
Scout leader, George Robey Jr. who both committed suicide after being suspected of sexually abusing chil-
dren? "And don't you think that maybe made me to question, `What's wrong with me?' " West said.
Pressed to elaborate, West demurred, then said, "What was it about me that caused this to happen? Or
not to cause it to happen, but had these people lined up? Was it just being [in the] cosmic space in the wrong
place at the wrong time?"
Any crime committed in the 1970s would be beyond the statute of limitations. Because of that, law en-
forcement, government officials and sponsors of the recall against West have paid little attention to the sex-
abuse claims the worst accusations West faces. The newspaper, too, has done little to advance those allega-
tions.
Instead, much of the public attention and the reporting has focused on a narrower legal question: Wheth-
er West misused his office by offering City Hall positions to entice young men into sexual relationships.
In one of the initial stories, The Spokesman-Review reported that West had offered an internship to
someone he thought was a high-school senior. After that, others came forward to say West had also offered
them city positions.
Two weeks ago, an investigator hired by the city concluded those actions had violated city and state
laws.
West continues to deny the charges.
The allegations against West churn dark memories in Spokane. There have been child sex-abuse allega-
tions in the ranks of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, the Boy Scouts, a ranch for troubled boys and the
Catholic Church a diocese so battered by accusations of molestation it has filed for bankruptcy.
This scandal is about the mayor's actions, to be sure. But many people talk of what it says about
Spokane, its history, its newspaper; about the business community; and about how and why city residents
don't demand more from their leaders.
The city's power structure has been shaken. The mayor's former business backers and his own Repub-
lican Party want him to resign. The newspaper that endorsed West finds itself hailed by former critics as a
voice of the people.
Still, the city's most powerful groups stood on the sidelines in the days and weeks after The Spokesman-
Review exposé. It was Shannon Sullivan, a self-described unemployed, uneducated, single mom from the
poor side of town, who organized the recall-petition drive that will culminate in the Dec. 6 election.
"It surprised me that we would sit down and take this as a community," Sullivan said. "This good-old-boy
thing is going to come to an end. It is the people who took back this city."
Some worry a recall will continue the civic unease that has given Spokane an unbroken chain of one-
term mayors since 1974.
At stake, they say, is the city's recent success and its efforts to head off life as a branch-office town.
Steve Eugster is a former city councilman, attorney and sponsor of the city-charter change that gave
Spokane a strong-mayor form of government. He has been one of West's most outspoken defenders a de-
fense that often centers on attacking The Spokesman-Review and says the mayor is being persecuted for his
personal life.
"You may not like the guy but he is the kind of strong mayor I had in mind when I advanced the strong-
mayor petition," Eugster said.
West's fate has taken on symbolic power in a city longing for change.
Spokane has a chronic inferiority complex. It's a complex so universally recognized it's become an icon.
Civic self-doubt is Spokane's Space Needle.
When Spokane was named an All-America City last fall, The Spokesman-Review editorialized that it was
time to get over the complex a complex so rooted here that the newspaper said the same thing when the city
first won the award in 1975.
"There was widespread abuse of children in this city for years by priests, by sheriff deputies, by Boy
Scout leaders some of them the same and you know, you want resolution to that. You do want a white knight
to come in and make the bad guys pay in some way," said Jess Walter, a Spokane born-and-bred novelist
and former Spokesman-Review reporter.
"I certainly know a lot of people for whom getting rid of Jim West will be a step in the right direction. It will
speak well of Spokane if we can do that."
The newspaper, too, has a past to overcome. Local critics have long been suspicious of power wielded
by the Cowles family, which owns the paper and other extensive business holdings.
Real-estate dealings have created the most questions for the Cowles family specifically, a downtown
shopping mall and parking-garage deal with the city that went sour, causing years of controversy and litiga-
tion.
The Spokesman-Review's stories have generated a host of rumors, including an unsubstantiated one
that the newspaper investigated West only because the mayor got the better of the Cowles family in a settle-
ment of that litigation.
"I've never seen conspiracy theorists like the people who have Cowles conspiracies," Walter said. "If they
get the weather wrong they say, `Well, Stacey [Cowles, the publisher] clearly wanted everyone to come in-
side and shop so they predicted rain.' It's just insanity."
Smith, who worked at six other newspapers before becoming editor of The Spokesman-Review in 2003,
sees himself as the new sheriff in town. His Stetson is a fedora and he often wears a foreign corespondent-
issue trench coat.
He says there were compromises and ethical lapses under the old regime at the paper, when Cowles'
business interests trumped journalism. The paper has written about that since he took over.
Smith, 55, sees darker demons to exorcise from the paper's gothic building. He says the paper "failed to
actively pursue" stories about sex abuse in Spokane in the 1970s and 1980s, including allegations about the
local Catholic Church and church-run organizations.
"The result is we put children in danger because you allow situations to continue," Smith said.
The publisher of the paper, Stacey Cowles, the son of the man who was in charge of The Spokesman-
Review then, isn't so sure.
"I can't believe my father would ever have said, `Look, we're not going to go there,' " Cowles said.
But after a moment of reflection, Cowles said, "Maybe it's possible." He said that decades ago there
were striking religious divisions in town between Catholics and Protestants that the paper may have wanted
to avoid stirring up.
Like so much about Spokane's past, doubts are just under the surface.
As West talks about his life, one pictures a blur of men in uniform. West's father was a postal worker.
Young Jim went from the Boy Scouts, where his troop leader was an Air Force man, to join the Army, then the
sheriff's department, then returning to the Boy Scouts as an adult leader.
West said the system of rules behind those uniforms "definitely makes life simpler." There also is a sense
of belonging and camaraderie, he said, that he felt particularly in the Army and the Scouts.
They can be tough on a young man, too.
West's first Scout leader was a tough disciplinarian. Infractions were dealt with by sending a Scout
through "the belt line," a column of Scouts using their belts to whip the offender as he ran down the line.
West was born in Oregon but raised in Spokane. As he was about to start his senior year of high school,
his father took a job in Reno, Nev., and West wanted to stay behind.
A family he didn't know agreed to take him for the year.
West attended the University of Nevada, Reno, but dropped out. He stayed behind, though, when his
family moved several months later, still living in a fraternity house, the place he had one of his earliest homo-
sexual experiences.
West was married from 1990 to 1995. He remains friendly with his ex-wife, who, along with her mother,
have donated to West's anti-recall campaign.
He said it wasn't until after his divorce that he admitted to himself that he was attracted to men.
He still professes to be unsure.
"It's hard for me to say this, but I'm curious about men. But you know, I have relationships with women,"
he said. "I'm basically an asexual. I'm not driven by sex. I mean, God, I could probably count on a couple of
hands besides my marriage itself how many sexual encounters I've had my entire life."
About five years ago West began to use the Internet to explore his homosexual attractions.
"It was just a curiosity thing," West said. "Then you get in there and you chat with people and they don't
know who you are and you don't know who they are. In some cases, you're just teasing them, razzing them."
When West talks about his online relationships, he speaks as if it is technology that draws him in; the
computer is the force he feels, not a magnetic pull to young men.
He said the Internet leads to isolation, reduces inhibitions and takes away a needed sense of shame. "It
just lowers all those social norms potentially," West said.
That's why he felt compelled to apologize to the citizens of Spokane.
"I think for many people I let them down," West said, "They knew me, but they didn't know everything sit-
ting at home, being bored, getting online and chatting with people instead of watching TV or reading a good
book or whatever. You know, not very proud of it.
"So, that's wrong. And then chatting with `motobrock' who was an 18-year-old started out fairly innocent,
but went where it shouldn't have. And that was wrong."
To repent, he says, he has sworn off the Internet and sex.
"It created this cleft, this fault, that this was like, wow, that is a place I can't go to anymore: the Internet or
any kind of sexual relationship with anybody."
The transcripts of West's online chats obtained by The Spokesman-Review are thick with sexual innuen-
does, explicit cybersex and ramblings about living a closeted and sexually confused life. "It's role-playing. I
mean, it's like a game," West said.
But the persona he chose wasn't vastly different from his real life. He described himself as middle-aged
and generally accurately described his interests and background. He said he worked in a business related to
marketing and traveled a lot and had occasion to meet famous people. He said his name was Jim.
"If you're going to role-play, why would you play someone just like yourself?" asked Ryan Oelrich, 24, a
Spokane man who chatted with "therightbi-guy" and "Cobra82nd," West's salute to his army division.
And as the case with other chats, "therightbi-guy" and "Cobra82nd" would bring up the mayor.
"He'd say, `Did you see the mayor on the news today? He's a big, fat, ugly man, isn't he?' " Oelrich said.
Before Oelrich knew West's identity, the mayor went to a friend of the young man's and told him to have
Oelrich apply for a seat on the city Human Rights Commission. West initially offered Oelrich the chairman-
ship. Oelrich turned that down but accepted a position on the commission.
Eventually, Oelrich confronted West in his online persona and the mayor confirmed who he was. He
asked Oelrich to keep his identity secret.
After West admitted who he was, Oelrich says, the mayor's online behavior became more aggressive
bordering on stalking. Oelrich, who sees his appointment now as part of a clumsy seduction, resigned and
filed a discrimination complaint with the commission.
The commission found West acted inappropriately but did not find that Oelrich had been discriminated
against. West denied any wrongdoing.
Oelrich said he urged West to quit hiding his homosexuality.
"I don't think he ever would come out," Oelrich said. "The answer was, `No, there is no way I can achieve
the dreams I have if I was openly gay.' "
It's a Sunday afternoon in April and West is on his computer, chatting under the cover of one of his
screen names, jmselton.
jmselton: we trust each other right?
motobrock34: of course
After months of sporadic online chats, according to The Spokesman-Review transcript, West sent his
photograph to someone he thought was a Spokane high-school senior.
motobrock34: what is that?
jmselton: this is me
They were to meet for the first time the next day. The online and real-life Jim West were ready to merge.
The two were going to meet for a round of golf the next morning. Instead, West was watched by a photo-
grapher for The Spokesman-Review and the paper's computer consultant as he looked around for "moto-
brock."
The computer setup was a ruse a word Smith, The Spokesman-Review's editor, prefers to "sting" ar-
ranged by the newspaper.
That tactic has generated plenty of heat. Some journalists and academics criticized the paper for what
they saw as a form of entrapment.
West has also made much of the fact that one of the chat transcripts was clearly jumbled and incom-
plete. He was right, despite a column by the paper's online publisher jabbing hard at West for raising the is-
sue in June and stating the paper "won't always sit quietly when statements are being made about us that we
believe to be patently false."
The transcript was corrected early this month, four months after West's complaint.
An editor's note was attached to another transcript July 2 saying that because of technical difficulties the
paper's computer expert lost the electronic record of the part of the chat where West first made the offer of
an internship to "motobrock." Instead, the expert had to rely on his notes for that allegation that has become
central to the recall.
Two sources of the most serious allegations also tell conflicting stories of how one of them says he came
to be molested by West.
The discrepancy is clear from interviews and a deposition with two men that The Spokesman-Review
posted on its Web site as part of its investigation of West.
Michael Grant says David Hahn, West's fellow sheriff's deputy and close friend, picked him up one day in
his departmental car, molested him, and later introduced him to West. Robert Galliher, who also alleges West
raped him, says that Grant told him it was West, not Hahn, who picked him up that day in a sheriff's car, in
uniform, and molested him.
The discrepancy has never been mentioned in any of the newspaper's stories.
Smith said he does not think that is a substantive conflict and that the newspaper has tried to be straight-
forward about how memories of events of 25 years ago can be hazy.
Smith did put one thing in the paper he's sorry for. In June he wrote a column under the headline "Civic
Response to West a Model of Timidity" scolding Spokane residents for a lack of appropriate outrage at West.
He aimed this barb at the Catholic Church: "Are clergy embracing the mayor because this previously and
admittedly irreligious politician now has found Jesus and won the Lord's forgiveness?"
Smith believes what he wrote, but says that coming under his name it made the story too personal and
made things harder for his reporters.
Smith concedes that the tone of some of the news stories in the early coverage was over-amped. Also,
at one point, he asked columnist Doug Clark to back off the story a bit. (Clark made The Spokesman-Re-
view's crusade a multimedia and R-rated affair with a parody song posted on the paper's Web site, "I Did It Bi
Way.")
Smith says the West tale has followed an unpredictable arc: It started with shocking allegations of pedo-
philia and Internet cruising. Then the story went through a bizarre stage with stories, for example, about
whether West masturbated in his office and the like.
"I don't think anyone can argue on the absurd angle," Smith said.
West's story now, he said, is "just grindingly pathetic and sad and dismal."
On a recent Friday morning, West greeted a visitor at City Hall by saying what his looks hinted at.
"I pulled an all-nighter."
Why?
"Just doing stuff."
There's not even sleep to relieve his isolation. His father, Jack, is 80 and lives in town. They see each
other occasionally but have yet to talk about the scandal engulfing West.
After West's career in public office, many of his friends are political people. And political people run from
trouble. West has heard very little from those he served with in the Legislature. He understands that.
"I'm going to be protective of them. I'm a friend first," he said. "They haven't turned against me, said
things against me. But they don't need my baggage and I'm not going to give it to them."
Psychoanalysis, he says, "is not me."
That leaves his newfound religion.
"I've repented," he says. And that includes a relationship with God that began with the pre-scandal can-
cer diagnosis.
He joined Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a predominately black church in the neighborhood
where West grew up. West began attending after Pastor Lonnie Mitchell Sr. invited him during a mayor's
prayer breakfast.
West feels welcome there. On a recent Sunday he is greeted by first name, as "Mr. Mayor" and with the
occasional hug. His guest was pulled aside by an elderly woman and told firmly, "You pray for him."
The congregation is racially diverse. West claps to the gospel music with some self-consciousness. (He
points out a white man who, he says, "is the only white guy here with real rhythm.")
Mitchell announces his sermon by saying he wants to talk about something so powerful "sometimes we
even love it more than God. What is it that's so much fun? It's sin."
Specifically, Mitchell charts a course of sin from watching scantily clad women on MTV "a foothold to the
devil" to looking at dirty movies and becoming subsumed in the online world.
"The next thing you know you are looking at things on the Internet you had no idea existed. You better
stop peeking. Peeking will get you hurt," Mitchell bellowed in his full crescendo. "Peeking will mess your mind
up. Peeking will set you apart from everybody."
The pastor warns his congregation that if they are not in right standing with God only hell awaits.
And hell is "a real place," Mitchell promises. And, he warns, "it's hot."
There are lots of "amens" and heads nodding and parishioners urging Mitchell on. The mayor listens and
says quietly, "He's talking to me."
David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com
Spokane Mayor Jim West
Age: 54
Hometown: Spokane
Personal: divorced, no children
Education: attended University of Nevada, Reno; received bachelor's degree in criminal justice from
Gonzaga University
Work experience: deputy sheriff, Spokane County; Boy Scout camp director; scuba-shop operator
Military experience: joined U.S. Army in 1971, personnel specialist and paratrooper with the 82nd Air-
borne Division
Political experience
Mayor of Spokane: elected in 2003 after an unsuccessful attempt in 2000.
State Legislature: state senator, including stint as Senate majority leader, 1987-2003; state representat-
ive, 1983-86
First elected office: Spokane City Council, 1980-82
Party affiliation: Republican
Previous trouble: agreed to a plea bargain to get misdemeanor harassment charges dropped for a
threatening telephone message he left for the head of the state homebuilders association, 1998
The allegations in The Spokesman-Review
Accusations of molestation: Two men told the newspaper they were molested by West decades ago,
when he was a deputy sheriff and Boy Scout leader. They say they also were molested by West's good friend
and fellow deputy David Hahn, who later committed suicide. The statue of limitations has expired on any po-
tential crime, and there is no police investigation.
Accusations of misuse of office: The Spokesman-Review stories have alleged that West used his mayor-
al powers to try to entice young men into sexual relationships, including offering an internship to the newspa-
per's hired computer expert who was posing as a Spokane high-school boy in online chats with West. The
stories also allege that West used his city computer to cruise for men online. An investigator hired by the City
Council says West violated city and state laws. The FBI also is investigating.
Accusations of hypocrisy: Newspaper articles have asserted West's political and private lives were hypo-
critical, since he voted against civil-rights protections for gays as a state legislator but had sex with men.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: photo,map; Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times : Jim West's political career reached a pinnacle in
2003 when he was elected mayor of his hometown. Now he faces a recall election. (0397167140)
photo,map; Spokesman-Review Editor Steven Smith, right, prepares to talk about his newspaper's work on
The Mark Fuhrman Show. Fuhrman, at left, controversial for his police work in the O.J. Simpson case, is a
new fan of Smith's, telling the editor, You're on the curve of changing Spokane. There's no one with a spine in
this town. (0397167132)
photo,map; Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times : Spokesman-Review Editor Steven Smith says coverage of the
West story went from shocking, to bizarre and then moved to the point where it's just grindingly pathetic and
sad and dismal. West, Smith says, is standing up there and allowing us to whack away at him. (0397167137)
photo,map; Spokane Mayor Jim West (0397167155)
photo,map; Louie Balukoff / The Associated Press, 1993 : In 20 years in the Legislature, West, shown here in
1993, rose to be chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee and was chosen by fellow
Republicans to be Senate majority leader. (0397346615)
photo,map; Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times : Embroiled in scandal and fighting an aggressive cancer, West
puts in long days on the job. Above, he attends a night meeting at a branch library to discuss potential ser-
vice cuts, launching into a lengthy monologue about his agenda. He's a political machine, library patron
Cindy Hval said. (0397167153)
photo,map; Stacey Cowles, publisher of The Spokesman-Review, has long been a supporter of West's. I feel
very conflicted about Jim and the contrast between his record as a public official and these other allegations
and activities, Cowles said. He said it's an important debate for Spokane: We try to act like a real city, and I
think any other city would be doing the same. (0397167162)
photo,map; A bust of the late publisher William H. Cowles looks out toward the Review Building, which is re-
flected in windows of the production facility. (0397167168)
photo,map; The Seattle Times: Spokane (G0MVV2HN)
photo,map; Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times : Jim West, pausing in a discussion about his recall election,
says, I made a mistake. It was wrong, you know. I'm sorry for it; not doing it anymore. Let's move on and get
back to running the city. (0397167147)
Copyright 2005 The Seattle Times Company
November 20, 2005 Sunday

Idaho Edition
Evaluating the paper's coverage;

BYLINE: Richard Roesler Staff writer
SECTION: A; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 2975 words
To our readers: Mayor Jim West has made The Spokesman-Review his "opponent" in the upcoming re-
call election. The nature of his campaign puts the newspaper, its staff, journalism and news values in the un-
usual and uncomfortable position of being part of a major news story. That is a role news organizations strive
to avoid.
But failing to report the mayor's allegations against the newspaper and examining those allegations as
we would examine any politician's campaign issues would be irresponsible.
With mail-in ballots in the mail to Spokane voters, this is the appropriate time to report on the issues
raised by the newspaper's investigation of the mayor.
Olympia Bureau Chief Richard Roesler was assigned the difficult task. His report below was edited by
Assistant City Editor David Wasson. None of the principal reporters or editors involved in the West investiga-
tion reviewed this story prior to publication.
---
Tom Woodbury was shopping at Wal-Mart this spring when he saw the headline.
"West tied to sex abuse in the '70s, using office to lure young men," it read.
Six months and more than a hundred stories later, the 63-year-old retired factory worker still reads the
paper every morning. But his initial shock, he said, has given way to something else: distaste and story fa-
tigue.
"I think it has been fair," Woodbury said of the coverage. "But how much more do we need to know?"
In coffee shops, workplaces, homes and letters to the editor, similar questions have come up repeatedly
since May. Is Spokane Mayor Jim West the victim of his own misbehavior and indiscretions, or the victim of a
crusading newspaper's witch hunt? And even if the stories are fair, how much is enough?
A new poll, paid for by the newspaper and KREM 2 News, suggests that many readers are just as ambi-
valent as Woodbury. Out of more than 1,100 Spokane residents asked, 44 percent said they approve of the
paper's coverage of West, while 43 percent said they disapprove. Women and people over age 45 tended to
approve; men and younger people tended not to.
"He's fair game, but it's maybe a little too much overplayed," said Spokane's Marc Buckley, 33, working
downtown on a recent Thursday. "It's been overdone, like the Monica Lewinsky thing. It reminds you of a
tabloid."
"The coverage was necessary, valuable, and I'm glad they did it," said Paul Lindholdt, an Eastern Wash-
ington University English professor. "But as it continues, it gets to be overbearing. It's like they're beating a
drum - or using a club."
Others, even some of West's longtime fans, say the ongoing coverage and continuing revelations led
them to rethink their initial anger at the newspaper.
Back in July, for example, Dick Westerman wrote a letter to the editor comparing the reporters to vul-
tures, ambulance-chasing dogs and sharks attracted to blood. Now, after months of additional stories and
revelations, he's less sure.
"We thought we were supporting a guy as solid as the rock of Gibraltar," Westerman said, "and now we
find out that's not the case."
'EITHER SLOPPY OR MALICIOUS'
Among those who aren't ambivalent at all: Jim West.
"I think they thought they had a story," he said recently, sitting in his fifth-floor office at City Hall. "They
found out they didn't, so they had to embellish what they did have."
Since the first stories broke, the newspaper has published more than 145 stories about West, plus
columns, editorials and dozens of related documents. Humor columnist Doug Clark has repeatedly lam-
pooned the mayor, at one point recording for the paper's Web site a Frank Sinatra knockoff titled "I did it Bi-
Way."
Among the recurring themes:
*Allegations that West, as a sheriff's deputy in the 1970s, molested two boys.
*West, a longtime state lawmaker, repeatedly voted against gay-friendly bills.
*Mayor he used his city-owned laptop to visit a gay dating site - that included sexual images - while trav-
eling.
*West repeatedly offered city jobs or positions to young men in whom he was sexually interested. One,
purportedly a Spokane high school senior in a gay chat room, was in fact a computer expert hired by the
newspaper to confirm a real 19-year-old's report that he had met West in the same chat room and had con-
sensual sex.
"In my view, the story remains all about protecting young people, protecting children," said the paper's
top editor, Steve Smith. "? The issue is not dating sites. The issue is trying to date teenagers when you're the
54-year-old mayor of Spokane."
West adamantly denies ever molesting anyone. Gay or not, he said, he's a conservative, and voted like
one. He said that he has never abused his powers as mayor and that city policy allows banking, e-mailing
and other personal use of the computer while traveling on city business.
"I was told I could use it for personal use when I traveled," he said.
Shortly after the stories broke, West apologized to city employees for bringing shame and embarrass-
ment on the city.
But as the coverage mounted, West has said he's the victim of a personal vendetta by the paper, which
is printing stories that he asserts are thin on facts and thick on innuendo.
"They are either sloppy or malicious, and they're so close to their story they can't see it," he said.
'IF THEY CAN DO THIS TO ME ?'
In a recent interview, West pointed to a stack of printouts of the paper's stories and transcripts. Many
were marked up heavily with a red pen.
He pointed to the first sentence of the first story: "For a quarter century, the man who is now Spokane's
mayor has used positions of public trust - as a sheriff's deputy, Boy Scout leader and powerful politician - to
develop sexual relationships with boys and young men."
"Stated as fact! That's a blatant falsehood," West said. Not until seven paragraphs later does the story
mention that West, asked if he has ever abused a child, said, "Never. Never. Absolutely not."
West leafed through the newspaper's transcript of his Feb. 19 online chat with the "student." Parts of the
conversation are clearly not in the correct order.
"Your computer consultant presented this as accurate. But there are breaks," he told an S-R reporter.
"Your computer consultant is a ? liar. This is what's going to break you guys."
Initially, the paper insisted that all its transcripts were correct.
"I'm mystified as to why Mayor West would tell television reporters that the transcripts we've posted on-
line are in any way incomplete," S-R online publisher Ken Sands wrote in a note to readers in July. The pa-
per, he warned, would not sit quietly by in the face of "patently false" statements.
The newspaper's editors now say that nine out of 23 printed pages from the Feb. 19 chat were accident-
ally placed in the wrong order before the transcript was typed up for the paper's Web site, with some sen-
tences also left out. The inadvertent error, they said, had no bearing on the allegations against West.
Once the Dec. 6 election is over, West said, he'll sue the newspaper for invasion of privacy and com-
puter trespass.
"If they can do this to me," he said, "they can do this to anyone."
'THE FACTS HAVE BEEN THE FACTS'
The paper's coverage does have numerous defenders, some of them past critics.
"From what I've seen, it's been interesting, it's been pretty thorough, and it's been fair," said John Irby,
an associate professor who teaches news reporting and writing at Washington State University.
He and others said it's hard for West to claim invasion of privacy when the mayor allegedly used his city-
owned computer to look for young men to date while on city trips.
"How he could possibly imagine that his privacy had been invaded, as a public figure using public equip-
ment, is beyond me," said Steve Blewett, a journalism professor at Eastern Washington University.
"A lot of people think he's being picked on. I don't think so at all," said Ruth Fairline, 82, a temporary
worker for Spokane Transit.
"When we elect a public official, we elect them for what they are. And he had this little secret and wasn't
being honest with us."
"The facts have been the facts," said nurse's aide Kevin Boak. "Some people say he's being hounded,
but I think the public has a right to know what's going on in the mayor's office."
West probably didn't help himself in the public eye when he initially denied, according to an interview
transcript, using a city computer to visit the Gay.com Web site. He now admits it. And when the newspaper
requested a copy of his hard drive, West's lawyers argued against it. They said the city computer contained
images automatically saved while West was browsing on a gay Web site, images that would be "highly of-
fensive to a reasonable person."
"This is an issue about a public official who's using public resources to pursue private issues and gains,"
said Dave Demers, an associate professor at WSU's communications school and a vocal critic of the paper
in the past. "?You can't make a privacy argument if you're downloading sexual pictures of naked people onto
your computer."
'UNDERCOVER JOURNALISM'
The paper's decision to put a fake student in the chat room was criticized this spring by several promin-
ent editors at larger papers, who called it wrong for newspapers to deceive people.
"We are not private investigators, we are journalists," Philadelphia Inquirer editor Amanda Bennett told
the trade journal Editor & Publisher.
"This is a form of undercover journalism that, thankfully, went out of vogue in the early 1980s," Baltimore
Sun editor Tim Franklin told the magazine.
According to the newspaper's new poll, which was released Saturday, many readers also are uneasy
about the newspaper's tactic.
Asked when, if ever, a newspaper is justified in using deception, 40 percent of city residents said never.
Another 42 percent said such deception "might" be justified on rare occasions if there's no other way to con-
firm information. Just 1 percent of those polled said that a newspaper should use deception "whenever ne-
cessary."
Spokesman-Review Editor Steve Smith's response to critics: The paper needed positive proof that the
person online - who went by the name "RightBi-Guy" and "JMSElton" - was in fact Mayor West.
Under the circumstances, Smith said, "I knew of no alternative then, and I know of no alternative now."
"I think it fits into a long history of investigative journalism in the United States, which historically has
provided really useful information to the public," said Susan Ross, a media expert at WSU, "but often really
tiptoes on the line that makes most professional journalists feel squeamish."
"You already had evidence that he was doing it," said Jorma Knowles, a 21-year-old student skateboard-
ing near City Hall on a recent afternoon. "From my view, entrapment is trapping someone into doing
something they wouldn't have done."
'IT'S OVERKILL'
Still, even some of those who see the story as legitimate say they think the paper is overplaying its
hand. They object to the tone of the coverage and what they say is a steady cascade of loaded language and
headlines hammering West.
"A cloak of secrecy was placed Tuesday over the City Council's investigation of alleged 'workplace mis-
conduct' by Mayor Jim West," one story began.
"West denies sex act in City Hall," read one banner headline.
"Panel says West actions bad," read another.
One story aired critics' contention that West had launched a public-relations campaign, citing - among
other things - a boosterish annual speech and his presence at a ceremony for completion of a street project.
"Civic response to West a model of timidity," read the headline on one column, which described West's
attorneys as "hired-gun lawyers."
"Our reluctance to pass judgment mind-boggling," read another.
Ross, at WSU, considered canceling her subscription over a banner story that said West's city computer
contains sexual images.
"Computer records show Mayor Jim West's taxpayer-owned laptop contained links to images of men en-
gaged in sex acts with other men," the story began. The next sentence described the images as "close-ups
of male genitalia" and "sexually explicit poses by various men, many of them in their 20s."
To her, that's unnecessarily loaded language.
"I get the sense," she said, "that there's sort of a media vigilantism going on."
To Lindholdt, at Eastern, it's as if the paper is trying to compensate for lost credibility over thin early re-
porting on River Park Square - a controversial downtown project involving the newspaper's owners - by being
"overzealous" now.
"And it's overkill," he said.
CREDIBILITY AND TRANSPARENCY
Smith said the paper has toned down some of its coverage. An oft-repeated four-paragraph recitation of
the allegations against West, he said, was shortened to two sentences after reader complaints.
"I think there have been times, in all of the stories we've done, when we might have engaged in hyper-
bole," he said. "We tried very hard in the editing after the first few weeks to be aware of that."
And many of the stories, he said, have been coverage of West's reactions, not a rehashing of the allega-
tions. More than 20 of the stories have been largely about West's press conferences, statements, legal argu-
ments and accomplishments as mayor.
Still, Smith said, reporters are trained to provide detail. In the story cited by Ross, he said, it wouldn't
have been enough to simply say the images were sexually graphic.
"At some point you have to explain what those images are, and if you're going to do that, you might as
well put it in the lead," he said. "We're dealing with some pretty unpleasant stuff, and it's better to be specific
about it than be vague and leave it to people's imaginations."
The newspaper posted an unusual amount of its source materials - interview transcripts, depositions,
chat room conversations - on its Web site to let readers judge for themselves. Smith has written columns
and taken part repeatedly in online chats to explain the paper's coverage of West.
To Demers, a former reporter, the paper is being overly defensive.
"I think Smith feels like he has to defend everything all the time," he said. "Just let it go. It goes along
with the territory."
"I understand the argument; we've had those debates in-house," Smith said, citing a similar internal de-
bate over whether to report the story you're reading now. But today's readers expect to be more involved in
news and determinations of honesty than in the past, he said.
"The newspaper that just says, 'We stand by our story' and stops there," he said, "is not doing justice to
this interactive society that we live in - and does not help its credibility."
'THIS IS NOT THE FAMILY'
Some readers have theorized that the newspaper's coverage of West is linked to West's role in settling
the longstanding dispute between the city and the Cowles family, which owns the newspaper.
Not the case, according to Smith, publisher Stacey Cowles and West himself.
"On the one hand, you've got critics who say the family profited from the settlement," Smith said. "They
can't turn around and then say, 'They're out to get the mayor because of the settlement.'"
"Everyone wants to put this on the family," West said. "This is not the family. This is about Steve Smith
and (investigative reporters) Bill Morlin and Karen Dorn Steele."
Cowles said the story has put him in a difficult spot - he likes West, although he said he thinks what the
mayor's done has been "tragic."
"I guess my personal feeling is I wish we weren't having to cover something like this," Cowles said.
Personally, he said, he thinks the paper has positioned some of the stories too prominently in the paper.
But the stories themselves, he said, have been thorough and careful.
"I have no say in terms of what appears in the pages of the daily newspaper, with the exception of the
editorial column," Cowles said. Starting about a year ago, Smith periodically updated him on the brewing
story, he said, but he had no involvement in it.
"I respected the newsroom's independence and integrity in pursuing the story," he said.
'HE THOUGHT HE'D GET A PULITZER'
In a letter to supporters and in interviews, West has portayed the paper's coverage as a personal ven-
detta. Smith has made it personal, West said, by giving speeches and interviews about the coverage and by
writing a June 19 column criticizing local educators and the clergy for failing to take a public stance against
West.
"He thought this was probably a two-month story that he'd get a Pulitzer Prize for," West said about
Smith. "I pissed him off by staying here."
Smith said there's nothing personal about it. He and the paper, he said, are handy targets for an em-
battled politician. He now wishes someone else had written the column, he said, but stands by what he said.
"The whole thing is disappointing and distressing, and it breaks my heart to be involved in uncovering
his behavior," Smith said. He's disappointed and dismayed by the allegations, he said, "but there's no ven-
detta involved."
He said he doubts that West will ever file the lawsuit. For one thing, he said, courts have judged Internet
conversations to not be private. Secondly, he said, the state law that prohibits recording a phone conversa-
tion without all parties' consent doesn't apply to Internet chats.
The paper has lost about 40 to 50 subscribers over the West coverage, Smith said - a fairly small num-
ber given a newspaper's constant subscriber turnover.
West - who early on described the story as "a brutal outing" - said that the coverage would have a very
different tone if he weren't gay.
"If I had to go to match.com or eharmony.com, would this be the same story? No," he said.
Blewett, the Eastern professor, disagreed.
"I don't think that the story was, 'Is West gay?'" He said. "The story was, 'Is West a sexual predator?'
There was enough smoke there that it's the job of the newspaper to find out if there's any fire."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Richard Roesler can be reached at (360) 664-2598 or by e-mail at richr@spokanenews.net.

GRAPHIC: Using deception
The Salt Lake Tribune
November 18, 2005 Friday
Ex-Boy Scout leader is charged with abusing a teenage troop mem-

ber
SECTION: UTAH; Pg. B9
LENGTH: 140 words
A former Boy Scout leader has been charged with sodomizing one of the members of his Tooele County
troop.
Tooele County prosecutors on Nov. 4 charged Nicolas Kurtis Barnard, 22, with two-first degree felony
counts of sodomy on a child.
The counts stem from two occasions at Barnard's home when he was a Boy Scout leader, said Tooele
County sheriff's Detective Jim Dekanich.
Barnard, of Tooele, had befriended the 13-year-old Boy Scout and started to give him gifts.
The boy's mother became suspicious of what was going on and called the Sheriff's Office on Nov. 2,
Dekanich said.
Barnard was arrested Nov. 3.
He also worked at Hollywood Connection in West Valley City, where he was involved with a hockey team
and ran an overnight camp.
Dekanich asked people who believe their child may be a victim to call him at 435-843-3336.
-- Justin Hill
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 The Salt Lake Tribune

All Rights Reserved

FINAL EDITION
POLICE & COURTS - Final

LENGTH: 735 words
Two sought in robbery of Sunoco station

East Aurora police are looking for two armed robbers who took an undetermined amount of money from
a Main Street service station shortly after midnight.
The two thieves wielded a shotgun and handgun when they entered the Sunoco station at 175 Main St.,
police said.
Police are looking for a white male, about 5 foot 7 and 200-plus pounds with reddish sideburns, and a
black male, about 5 foot 11 and 160 pounds, according to Detective Lt. Steven Bierut.
The robbers were last seen running from the station at about 12:08 a.m.
-----
Sex abuse of Scouts gets 12 1/2-50 years
LITTLE VALLEY -- James Molyneaux, a retired Portville teacher, was sentenced Monday to 121/2 to 50
years in prison for sexually abusing five members of a Boy Scout troop he once led.
Cattaraugus County Judge Larry M. Himelein imposed the sentence on Molyneaux, 62, based on his
July 19 conviction on five child sodomy and sex abuse counts involving incidents in 1997 and 2000 at a
Franklinville camp and Molyneaux's Portville home.
Molyneaux retired in July 2000 as a sixth-grade English teacher at Portville Central School. He has been
jailed without bail since the jury verdict.
During a three-day trial, two of the victims, now 16 and 21, testified about the attacks. The two were 12
and 13 at the time of the crimes.
-----
Four counts of rape bring term of four to 12 years
ALBION -- A man who pleaded guilty to four counts of rape in a scheme in which his victims sold drugs
for him was sentenced Monday in Orleans County Court to four to 12 years in prison.
Ronald Nichols, 26, of Maple Road, Lyndonville, entered his guilty plea in August.
He was handed consecutive sentences of two to six years on two second-degree rape charges. Orleans
Judge James P. Punch also ordered that terms of one to three years for a third-degree rape charge and two
to six years on a second-degree rape charge be served concurrently.
Nichols committed the crimes in 2003 and 2004. His victims ranged in age from 13 to 15.
-----
Injured worker awarded $1.64 million by jury
Vincent Tronolone, a Buffalo-area construction worker who suffered permanent neck and shoulder injur-
ies when he fell off a scaffold during the renovation of the Praxair property in the Town of Tonawanda, has
been awarded $1.64 million by a Buffalo jury, court officials and his attorneys said Monday.
After a two-week negligence trial before State Supreme Court Justice Joseph R. Glownia, the jury
ordered Praxair to pay Tronolone, 50, for the injuries that ended his career as a unionized construction
laborer.
Mark H. Cantor, Marc C. Panepinto and Charles H. Cobb, Tronolone's attorneys, said he has been un-
able to work since he fell off a poorly installed scaffolding while working for a subcontractor at the site at East
Park Avenue at about 2 p.m. May 31, 2001.
Tronolone was on a crew doing remedial work and the removal of radioactive contaminants on the
Praxair property left over from the Manhattan Project during World II.
Currently, Tronolone is able to work only sedentary jobs because of his injuries, Cantor said.
Court officials said attorneys for Praxair are expected to appeal the jury verdict.
-----
School Board member denies confrontation
JAMESTOWN -- Jamestown School Board member Deann Nelson pleaded not guilty Monday to second-
degree unlawful imprisonment connected to an alleged confrontation with a district official in the Fourth
Street administration building.
School Superintendent Ray Fashano said that at about 11 a.m., Nelson stopped Human Resources Dir-
ector Karen Peterson from leaving her own office. Nelson was there to obtain some information she had re-
quested, said Fashano, who termed the confrontation "disturbing."
Nelson was released on her own recognizance Monday. She faces a pretrial conference Dec. 20.
-----
Girl, 12, charged in stabbing of other girl
A 12-year-old Buffalo girl was arrested Monday and charged with stabbing a 14-year-old girl in her left
chest on Sunday night, police said.
The victim, whose identity was not released, was treated in Women and Children's Hospital. Her injuries
are not believed to be life-threatening.
Ferry-Fillmore District Officer Paul Mullen arrested the girl, whose name was not released as a young of-
fender, and charged her with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
Ferry-Fillmore District police said the attack occurred at about 6:50 p.m. at the victim's home on Shepard
Street.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

NIAGARA EDITION
Sexual abuse of Scouts gets 12 1/2-50 years

BYLINE: By Matt Gryta - NEWS STAFF REPORTER
LENGTH: 209 words

James Molyneaux, a retired Portville teacher, was sentenced Monday to 121/2 to 50 years in prison for
sexually abusing five members of a Boy Scout troop he once led.
Cattaraugus County Judge Larry M. Himelein imposed the sentence on Molyneaux, 62, based on his
July 19 conviction on five child sodomy and sex abuse counts involving incidents in 1997 and 2000 at a
Franklinville camp and Molyneaux's Portville home.
Jailed without bail since the jury verdict, Molyneaux did not comment during the sentencing. He retired in
July 2000 as a sixth-grade English teacher at Portville Central School.
Jay D. Carr, the Olean lawyer who prosecuted the case as a special prosecutor after Cattaraugus
County District Attorney Edward Sharkey cited a conflict of interest, could not be reached to comment after
the sentencing.
During a three-day trial, two of the victims, now 16 and 21, testified about the attacks. The two were 12
and 13 at the time of the crimes.
A Little Valley jury deliberated less than three hours before finding Molyneaux guilty of first- and second-
degree sodomy in two 2000 incidents and of first- and second-degree sodomy and first-degree sex abuse in
three 1997 incidents. Court officials said an appeal is expected.
e-mail: mgryta@buffnews.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
The Guardian (London) - Final Edition
November 3, 2005
Correction Appended
G2: Saying it with flowers: Before 1997 they were almost unknown
in this country but Diana's death unleashed a flood of flowers and
since then floral tributes have popped up on lampposts, trees and
bridges across the country. What do they tell us about the changing
British way of death?
BYLINE: Blake Morrison and Rosie Anderson
SECTION: Guardian Features Pages, Pg. 8
LENGTH: 4197 words

You pass them on concrete urban highways or hedge-lined country roads, a fading bouquet tied to a
lamppost or a gaudy array of still- cellophaned blooms, and, however brief the glimpse, the heart always
sinks a little at the symbolism. Someone Died Here. And whoever it was didn't die peacefully, in the fullness
of age, but suddenly, violently, without warning.
Until 10 years ago, roadside floral tributes were virtually unknown in Britain. Now there are parts of the
country where you can't go half a mile without seeing them. In my part, south-east London, I recently passed
three new ones within a week and it wasn't as if I was looking out for them. That's how they work, by catching
you (just as those they commemorate were caught) unawares. Over time you can become almost immune to
the wayside shrines you know but then, out of nowhere, there will be a new one, attached to a railing or a
tree or (these are the worst) a B elisha beacon, and that shadow will pass over again: Someone Died Here.
The majority commemorate road-crash victims. But some are more exotic: on Upper Street, Islington, in
north London, outside a 24-hour supermarket, the spot where a young man collapsed after being stabbed; in
a park in Reading, the bench where a schoolgirl was murdered; on the Orwell Bridge in Suffolk, where a man
jumped to his death; and outside King's Cross, by Edgware Road and in Tavistock Square, the tributes to
those killed by terrorist bombs on 7/7. The who, when and how aren't always clear, even if you stop to look.
But the flowers sanctify the death-spot: whatever happened, this is where.
Lilies, roses, tulips, carnations, sunflowers, all varieties of flower can serve. Often the flowers have
withered and died, as they would at a graveside, adding to the sense of melancholy. But flowers are only part
of the tribute - the least personal part, in fact. There are also teddy bears and fluffy toys; T-shirts, team jer-
seys and football scarves; laminated photos of the victim or his/her celebrity idol; even favourite brands of
beer and cigarette packets, competing with the wind-blown litter. Beer cans seem in poor taste, where drink
has contributed to the fatality. But sometimes broken glass and smashed-up car parts are included, too. You
never quite know what you are going to find. Unlike grave slabs, the memorials change from day to day.
Then there are the words, insufficient to measure up to the calamity, but eloquent in their very inelo-
quence: here was a life - chances are, a young life - abruptly cut short; and here are mourners too young or
raw with grief to take that in. "Why?" usually features, with a range of different inflections, from the hysterical
to the existential: why my son/daughter/husband/wife? Why someone so young? So randomly? So cruelly
(an innocent killed by another's recklessness or malevolence)? Why at all, in a universe overseen by a sup-
posedly benevolent God? Verses are common, too, poorly rhymed, misspelled, unpunctuated and all the
more authentic for it ("Woke up to hear you past away/Who was to know your day is come so soon"). Who-
ever the victim, he or she is sure to have been "best" in some way, a peerless mother or saintly child or in-
comparable mate.
Unless the words are spelt out with flowers ("RIP Son") or spraypaint ("Sadly Missed"), reading them re-
quires the passer-by to stop and look. For most people, this is an awkward experience: we can feel intrusive,
voyeuristic, as though we've stumbled into a stranger's funeral or a private bedroom. But roadside tributes
are public displays. They aren't so much left there as curated. They demand we stop and snoop, so that the
anonymous deceased can be granted a posthumous celebrity, 15 minutes of floral fame. As Willie Loman's
widow says in Death of a Salesman, "Attention must be paid".
If you're a certain kind of person, you will find the clamour of this demand intensely annoying. Julian
Barnes described the public reaction to Princess Diana's death as "look-at-me grief"; the magazine Granta
spoke of "the fascism of flowers". Roadside memorials (RMs) come from the same school of emotional ex-
hibitionism: the escalation of grief. The young have grown up with them, and take them in their stride, but for
anyone whose memory goes back further than 1997 they are bewildering. When did death move out of the
cemetery like this? Are British RMs a passing fashion, imported from the continent or the US? Or do they an-
swer a deep spiritual need? What do they tell us about the kind of people we've become?
'I want people to know'
Sue Cini got the call every parent dreads one night in March 2003. Her son Lee, aged 20, had been out
celebrating Red Nose Day when the car in which he was a passenger was involved in an accident near the
north circular in London. Lee's car was moving at less than 20mph when a car came speeding down Bounds
Green Road - "a racetrack" Sue calls it - lost control, crossed the white line and smashed into it. Lee and two
fellow passengers, Alana Beck and Lisa Hulme, were killed; so were the two occupants of the other car - five
young people dead in a single incident.
Today, at the spot, a black metal plaque commemorates Lee, Alana and Lisa - there's no mention of the
two young men in the other car. That the plaque has been tastefully done, with a poem under the names ("No
farewell words were spoken/No time to say goodbye"), is partly down to Haringey council who were, says
Sue, "brilliant" about giving the bereaved families what they asked. But the plaque isn't enough for Sue. Nor,
though there are three of them at the site, is the image of a weeping or bleeding anemone and the words Re-
member Me, on the little sign that the charity RoadPeace puts up, whenever requested, to mark the deaths
of road accident victims. About once a month, Sue also brings fresh flowers.
Bounds Green Road isn't a congenial place for remembering the dead. The traffic's loud and angry,
there's a demolition site across the road, and as Sue, in spitting rain, ties white lilies to the railings, crisp
packets and Pepsi cups swirl about her feet. She admits that for a time after Lee's death, she found it im-
possible to come here without breaking down and that two of Lee's siblings will do anything to avoid the
place. But to Sue this anonymous patch of grass, metal and concrete is a sacred site. "Not that I'm religious,"
she explains, "but Lee took his last breath here and because he never came home that night I need to come
here, to understand."
On the face of it, Sue is a good example of the new breed of secularised mourner, someone for whom a
roadside memorial is more significant than a headstone in a churchyard. But the truth is more complex. Lee
was buried in a nearby cemetery, and, after she has finished paying her respects by the roadside, Sue drives
me there. Over the grave is a curved, elaborate headstone in black marble, inspired by the website of Bruce
Lee, the star after whom her son was named and with a photograph of Lee inscribed in the marble. She runs
her hands across it in the rain. This is where she comes to talk to Lee, she says. It's not that one site is more
important than the other. Some bereaved people keep a third site, a bedroom at home, which they tend like a
shrine. Each site serves its own purpose.
Not everyone responds to death as Sue and her family have done. Stern pragmatists would find it too
fetishistic: let go, they would say, move on. Yet Sue's demeanour suggests that she has moved on. Yes,
she's glad that the other driver, the one who killed Lee, did not survive ("That would have been unbearable,
Lee dead and him walking around"), but whatever bitterness she feels has been channelled into a worthwhile
cause. In the two years leading up to Lee's death, there were 16 other deaths and serious injuries on the
same stretch of road. Sue fought to get chevrons put in, campaigned to get speed cameras installed (there
have to be at least four deaths at a spot before the police consider it), and spends time lobbying for Road-
Peace so that others don't suffer Lee's fate. The roadside plaque in Bounds Green Road isn't just an act of
piety, it's there to serve as a warning. "I can't accept Lee had to die as he did," Sue says. "I want people to
know."
'You mark the spot. You own it'
Outside Britain, roadside memorials have a long history. In Mexico and the Hispanic south-west of the
US, they are called descansos , after the places where pallbearers would rest during a funeral procession -
the name denotes "the interrupted journey" of life. In Greece they are known as kandylakia , and you often
find them on hairpin bends, stone shrines designed like miniature churches, with a votive candle burning in-
side at night. Most cultures seem to have some version of them, to honour the dead or to banish the evil spir-
it that stole their lives.
No one seems certain when the first roadside floral tribute appeared in this country. There were none for
the little girl run over by the school bus in Skipton, when I was a child in the 1960s; and none for my friend
Nick Proctor when he died in a car accident one New Year's Eve. The ordinary dead had no memorials then,
except in graveyards and local papers. And in the era before grief and trauma counselling, the ordinary be-
reaved were expected to grin and bear it in the privacy of their own home. There wasn't such an abundance
of flowers available, either. Even if there had been, no one would have thought of tying their sorrow to a
lamppost.
With celebrity or highly publicised deaths, the story was different. The tree on Barnes common where
Marc Bolan was killed in 1977 became a shrine. And 20 years later came the death of Princess Diana, when
15,000 tonnes and 50m blooms were piled outside Buckingham and Kensington Palace. In between, in 1984,
flowers were laid for WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot dead during the siege of the Iranian embassy in St James's
Square. And in 1993, after the murder of James Bulger, the people of Liverpool laid flowers on the railway
embankment below where the little boy's body was found - among them a red rose from one of the killers,
Robert Thompson, who (investigators later claimed) took pains to be seen by television cameras in the hope
that his look-at-me-grief might serve as an alibi.
It's not surprising when people are impelled to lay flowers by seeing footage of others doing the same.
But it's remarkable to watch the vogue for ostentatious mourning taking hold in the private sphere. I've al-
ways assumed that those who create roadside memorials are closely related to the victim. But according to
Gerri Excell of the University of Reading, total strangers who just happen to live nearby sometimes bring
flowers too. She has thought about tying a flower to a lamppost at random, to see if others follow suit.
Excell is Britain's leading authority on roadside memorials: the phenomenon of RMs has not gone un-
noticed in academe. The first ever international symposium on them took place in New South Wales last
year, with papers such as Highway to Heaven: the Cosmology of the Road side Memorial and an exhibition
of photographs taken by Sergeant John Robinson of the New Zealand highway patrol. There has been at
least one academic study published - Holly Everett's Roadside Crosses in Contemporary Memorial Culture
(University of Texas Press, 2002). And needless to say, there are also websites, on which folklorists, semioti-
cians, sociologists and amateur collectors display their findings.
Excell noticed her first roadside memorial, by a tree, some 15 years ago. But the tradition has a long his-
tory here, she says, mentioning the crosses erected by Edward I in 1290 to mark the stages of the funeral
procession of his wife, Eleanor, from Nottinghamshire to London. "What's different now," she says, "is that it
isn't just stars and royals who get such treatment, but anyone who dies suddenly and tragically. The area of
an accident spot is usually sanitised within an hour or two, with nothing to show a person has gone. So you
mark the spot. You take possession and own it. You simultaneously mark your respects and declare your out-
rage."
What intrigues Excell about British RMs is "their lack of religious iconography". In Australia and much of
the US, road deaths are marked by white crosses and, although the Aussies sometimes supplement these
with macho regalia such as bike helmets and beer cans, the symbolism is mainstream Christian. Here, by
contrast, we go for flowers and personal effects. Some British RMs betray their Catholicism with sacred
hearts or rosary beds, but most are secular and individualistic, using icons intimately associated with the de-
ceased. "I remember one accident so recent I could see the skid marks and smell the oil," Excell says.
"There were bits of tyre on display among the flowers and even sweets from the glove compartment."
The pagan, do-it-yourself element in RMs appeals, Excell thinks. "Cemeteries have strict rules about
what you can and can't have: no soft toys, no putting "Daddy" (it has to be "Father") no candles, etc. With
roadside memorials you can do your own thing. It's not that people have no spiritual beliefs any more, but
those beliefs are often eclectic, a bit of Zen here, a bit of Christianity there. And when you've just lost
someone in an accident, you can also lose faith in God: how could He have allowed this? So the roadside
memorial becomes a better expression of how you feel than a gravestone.
"It can also be a way of unifying people. When someone young has died, you find the peer-group hold-
ing vigils or leaving notes, or maybe even pouring out a canned drink for their lost friend - "Here, have this
one on me". They could never do that in a cemetery."
Excell expects the phenomenon to keep growing. "When you've seen someone else create a memorial,
it's natural to think you can do it bigger and better. I agree there's an element of me-ism about it and I'm not
sure I'd want to do it myself, but how can you tell unless it happens to you?"
Though she admires the design of RoadPeace's "Remember Me" signs (now marking over 2,000 acci-
dent sites across Britain), she worries about them having a depersonalising or institutionalising effect. In
France, thanks to a campaign by the Ligue Contre la Violence Routiere, ghoulish full-size silhouettes or dum-
mies - black with a white surround and red seeping through the head - have recently been erected where
motorists died. But in Britain RMs have no official mandate. They are a "bottom-up" phenomenon, Excell
says, populism at its most brazen, and further evidence of how traditional hierarchy is losing its grip.
'They shove death in our faces'
The anarchic nature of roadside memorials is a worry to those in power. Some local authorities remove
them after a certain period (four weeks at most) and in a few cases offer to put up benches or plant cherry
trees instead. But there is no agreed nationwide policy, and most councils are confused as to how to react.
The worst feel positively threatened and become draconian in their efforts to ban them.
Eric Leeman knows this to his cost. Two years ago, his younger son, Michael, a schoolboy, was killed,
along with another passenger, on the A46 near Market Rasen, when the car in which they were travelling hit
a tree. It wasn't so much Eric and his wife, Susan, who created a roadside shrine but Michael's schoolfriends.
Many personal notes and inscriptions were left. But when Eric came to visit the site just two weeks after the
accident, the local council - West Lincolnshire - had already cleared it.
Eric wrote letters, argued, campaigned, "tried to remember Michael by doing something". His ambition
was to erect a permanent marker of some kind, partly for the purposes of road safety, since fatalities in Lin-
colnshire are among the highest in the country. The police were all in favour, he says, but the council argued
that a sign would distract passing drivers. So Eric took flowers and a crucifix, and put up a RoadPeace sign
on his own initiative. Next time he went back, these too were gone. Either the local farmer had removed them
or the council had done so on his behalf.
"We were told that there's an annual service for road victims in Lincoln cathedral, the Sunday after
Armistice Day," Eric says. "But I'm not religious and to me that's no way to remember Michael. Marking the
spot would be a solace to us. I'd like to put up a white pole but the council won't wear that, either. We've tried
all sorts. But they don't want to know."
The council argument that a memorial would be distracting to drivers is, Eric thinks, a feeble excuse:
"They allow signs and commercial billboards all over the place. What they don't want to admit is how many
road deaths there are on their roads." Brigitte Chaudhry, founder of RoadPeace, agrees: "It's total hypocrisy.
The authorities are happy to put up signs that make big money. But if we campaign to put up signs they treat
us as troublemakers, and expect us to keep quiet when our children have been slaughtered." Other families
around the country feel similarly aggrieved.
But it isn't just local authorities that object to roadside memorials. Many motorists hate them, and air
their road rage on local radio stations or websites. RMs are macabre, they say; they make the roads seem
like one long graveyard or blood-strewn alleyway: "They shove death in our faces and ram it down our
throats." Moreover, RMs are themselves a death trap, since they encourage drivers to "rubberneck" and ex-
pose pedestrians to undue risk. "I'd rather enjoy the scenery than be reminded of someone else's grief," one
man complained. "I've enough grief of my own."
In the US these arguments have been raging for years. One radio station in Florida offered listeners $
100 for every RM torn down and brought to its reception desk. Many states ban them altogether. Others al-
low them only where drugs or alcohol have been a contributory factor to the accident. Resistance to RMs
creates some strange bedfellows. American Christians oppose them because such shrines remove power
from the church; American atheists oppose them because of the use of crosses. The issue has become so
hotly contested that it has inspired a feature film, Descansos, now in post-production, which "tells the story of
opposing viewpoints when two people meet under unusual circumstances involving a roadside memorial".
On the basis that where America leads Britain follows, we can expect the issue to become hotter here, too.
'It's an old tradition'
"It isn't the English way of doing things', Eric Leeman was told when pushing for a memorial for his son.
He doesn't agree: "There are lots of standing stones down lanes, to mark where so-and-so died. It's an old
tradition." Eric is right. I remember one such stone, on the eroding sand-cliffs above Dunwich in Suffolk,
marking the death, by drowning, of one John Brinkley Easey. The stone has gone now, along with the ground
it stood on. But there has always been an urge to mark the byways of innocent deaths. Wordsworth writes
about it in his poem The Thorn, which describes a woman wailing, "Oh misery," next to the thorn tree where
her baby died. There are some griefs no conventional burial mound can contain.
The tradition of ostentatious grieving is an old one, too. In his book The Likes of Us: A Biography of the
White Working Class, Michael Collins describes the mourning of eight boy scouts from Walworth in 1912
after they drowned on an outing to Kent: flags flown at half-mast, all work in London docks brought to a halt,
the eight bodies brought back along the Thames in a naval vessel by order of the Lord of the Admiralty, Win-
ston Churchill, and a crowd close to a million gathering to watch. As Collins says, in those days the English
working class knew how to mourn. And they were mourning their own, not some fabled princess.
With our one-minute silences, Aids ribbons and flowing tears, we are said to have become a mawkish
culture, post-Diana. But perhaps, deep down, we always were mawkish and the sober rituals that most of us
grew up with (the black ties and pursed lips) were just a passing phase. In roadside memorials we have re-
discovered our garish heart *
Patricia Wilson
A22, Willingdon, Eastbourne, July 4 2004
Patricia Wilson was born profoundly deaf but she always got on well. "She was quick to learn and was a
little comedian," says her mother Viv Brooks.
When Patricia died, she was in the middle of divorcing her husband, with whom she had a daughter
Catherine and a son Leigh. "Pat was going through a very sad time. The night of her death, she had sat
alone getting into a state. She drove to a friend's, who tried to calm her down," says Viv. But at 12 she left
and at 12.30 she had crashed. "They reckon she lost control and the car hit a lamppost and swivelled round
to face the direction she came from." She was in hospital for a week, badly brain damaged. Her kidneys
failed and she caught pneumonia. In the end she had a massive heart attack.
"The first year is so hard. It's afterwards you question all these things. The police asked, 'Do you think
she could have done it deliberately?' and her sister, Jackie, said, 'She could have'. Why didn't she talk to us
about her problems?"
Patricia was very close to her sister Jackie, who "does most of the lamp-post. It's a way of keeping in
touch, and we're able to say we're 'just popping up to see Pat' still. I don't want the world to forget her, even
though I know it's nothing to do with them."
Sharmin Ahmed
London, N1, September 30 2005
Fifteen-year-old Sharmin Ahmed was knocked down by a number 19 bus on a zebra crossing in Isling-
ton, north London. Sharmin's elder sister Rakki says the family still aren't sure what happened.
"Sharmin was doing her first week of work experience at an old people's home in Islington," she says. It
was about 1.30pm and "we think she was coming back from lunch when she was hit by the bus. She was
dragged along quite a way before the bus stopped, and then taken to the Royal London Hospital in White-
chapel."
Police informed Sharmin's parents that their daughter had been seriously injured at around 3.15pm. She
died at 3.30pm, just after her father arrived at the hospital. Almost immediately people started laying flowers.
"We live in Holborn, but Sharmin was at school in Islington at Elizabeth Garrett," Rakki says. "She was really
popular, so the flowers have been left by friends at school and everyone who knew her."
Fresh flowers are laid almost every day on the crossing. "We've been a few times, and it's nice that
people show respect, so it does help to see them," Rakki says, "but in a way it makes it harder because it
makes things even more real."
Aiden Marley
London N1, July 16 2000
In the early hours of the morning on July 16 2000, police were called to Prebend Street, where the smart
houses of Islington meet the Packington estate. Residents had reported a fight.
Twenty-one-year-old Aiden Marley, a keen amateur boxer, was found lying unconscious on the pave-
ment, just a few minutes away from his own front door. "We think he was called out on his mobile," Father
Shaun Lennard, the family's parish priest explains. "He was attacked and hit his head on the curb. He died in
hospital."
Four men were arrested and bailed and another man went voluntarily to a police station. It is thought
that the dispute was over a girlfriend. In 2001, Christopher Bland, 21, was acquitted at the Old Bailey of man-
slaughter. "No one was held responsible in the end," Father Lennard says. "It was not seen as murderous in-
tent."
An abundance of flowers appeared almost immediately after the attack, followed by a candlelit vigil
every night throughout that summer.
Five years later, fresh flowers replace the old ones every couple of weeks. A memorial service for Aiden
was held in July this year at the nearby Roman Catholic Church of St John the Evangelist.
Rory Blackhall
Livingston, August 18 2005
Rory Blackhall disappeared after being dropped by his mother, Michelle, a short way away from his
primary school in Livingston, West Lothian. He was found three days later in nearby woodland. He had been
asphyxiated. The only suspect - Simon Harris, 37, a loner on bail awaiting trial on sex-abuse charges - was
later found hanged at his home.
Around 50 bouquets lie by the path that Rory walked to school. Marion Stewart, 53, also from Livingston,
is in tears as she places a bunch of purple flowers on the grass. On them, is a plain piece of card which
merely says: "WHY?"
"I lost my son. He was 25. He fell asleep and never woke up. He had no pain. And I know how I felt. I
couldn't even think how this woman and her husband and her whole family felt. I just can't imagine.
"I can't remember the name of the flower but I picked the colour purple because it's the highest colour in
the spiritual world. I hope it will help. I hope it will help everybody. Even if it's the slightest wee thing."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
CORRECTION-DATE: November 4, 2005
CORRECTION: * Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead during a protest outside the Libyan embassy in St James'
Square in 1984, and not at the Iranian embassy siege, which took place in 1980 at Princes Gate, Kensington
(Saying it with flowers, page 8, G2, yesterday). Mira Katbamna wrote the profiles for Sharmin Ahmed and
Aiden Marley in the feature. We said in error they were all done by Rosie Anderson.
Copyright 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Sunday Times (London)
October 30, 2005, Sunday
White collar criminals
BYLINE: Dearbhail McDonald
SECTION: Features; Eire News 15
LENGTH: 1810 words

In the wake of the Ferns report the government has promised to pass new laws to protect children, but
will the measures go far enough, asks Dearbhail McDonald
When the silver Renault 25 reversed at breakneck speed on the main road from Wexford town to Feth-
ard-on-Sea, Patrick Bennett knew that he was in trouble.
The 13-year-old was hitchhiking home from Wexford hospital where he had been treated for burns to his
face. The man who pulled over and offered him a lift home was Fr Sean Fortune, one of Ireland's most prolif-
ic clerical sex abusers.
It was 1980 and Bennett was all too aware of the rumours that surrounded Fortune.
Local children nicknamed him Batman because of the priest's penchant for appearing ominously out of
nowhere in his sweeping black cassock.
"Something inside me told me it was him. I didn't want to get into the car but it was late and you could
never say no to a priest," said Bennett, now a recovering alcoholic and drug addict.
On their journey Fortune asked Bennett about his sexuality and his burns, and offered him a cure, a
"magic cream". After masturbating himself, Fortune smeared his semen into the boy's wounds and then
dropped him off at home.
A week later the Wexford priest tracked down the teenager at a local hotel where he worked, isolated
him in a dry goods store, and buggered him. These "minor incidents", as Bennett now describes them,
marked the beginning of four years of serial rape.
"It was basically whenever and wherever he saw me after that," said Bennett, who now owns a restaur-
ant in Wexford. He estimates that he was raped up to three times a day, three times a week by Fortune.
"Three times a day, how can any man physically do that?" he wonders.
"I am 39 years old, and I have no control over my bowels. People might not want to read this, but I have
to confront the legacy of Sean Fortune every time I go to the toilet. If I do have a solid bowel movement, I feel
as if I am being raped again, because I can feel him. I can see him and I can hear him. That's not abuse, it is
evil."
Last week the diocese of Ferns was branded the most evil Roman Catholic diocese in the world after
publication of a report that unveiled a sickening catalogue of more than 100 incidents of child sex abuse by
21 priests over a period of 40 years.
The report, the first state inquiry into clerical sex abuse, detailed how predatory paedophiles, protected
by their superiors, went to great lengths to "groom" young victims. They set up boy scout movements, youth
clubs and introduced FAS schemes; they offered jobs and accommodation to their young targets.
The Catholic church provided a perfect haven for their crimes. Indeed many of these paedophiles were
attracted to the priesthood precisely because of the unfettered access it gave them to vulnerable children.
In the wake of the report, the government has promised enhanced vetting procedures to protect children
and vulnerable adults from abuse. But can paedophiles be kept out of the priesthood, and will children ever
be entirely safe from clerical abuse?
THE full horror of how children were systematically abused in the 100,000 strong diocese of Ferns was
unleashed last Tuesday. Much of the abuse was already in the public domain, but the devil lurked in the
minute details of new and even well-known allegations laid bare in the report.
By the early 1990s several Ferns priests were already household names because of their abuse of local
children. Fortune, whose reign of terror began in the 1970s during his days as a seminarian, was the dio-
cese's most prolific abuser. He continually raped boys, even after complaints were made about his beha-
viour, molesting them at boarding school, on youth retreats, at his home, in public toilets, even in a radio stu-
dio. When Ian, 16, asked the media-savvy priest to teach him how to operate a sound desk, Fortune pinned
him to the desk and buggered him.
Fortune, two of whose victims took their own lives, committed suicide in 1999 awaiting 66 charges of ab-
use against young boys.
Only two of his 20 abusing colleagues were convicted. Fr James Doyle, who also targeted teenage
hitchhikers and began abusing young boys when he was a seminarian, was jailed after sexually assaulting a
12-year-old boy in his family home. The assault was stopped after the boy's father heard his son's screams
from the bathroom.
Fr Donal Collins, a teacher at St Peter's College in Wexford, plied his victims with alcohol. Under the
guise of the young scientist of the year competition, the priest enticed young boys to his room where he ab-
used them. On one occasion, he molested 20 boys in one sitting.
Collins was given a three-month suspended sentence for his crimes.
Many of the abusers in Ferns died before their victims could secure justice. Canon Martin Clancy, a
school manager who used his music and sex education classes to abuse girls, died before his crimes were
exposed.
One child, Ciara, who was abused by the cleric from the age of 11, gave birth to his daughter Rachel at
the age of 14. In 1993, when he died, Clancy left Ciara £3,000 to be used for her "musical pursuits".
Fr James Grennan left behind a divided community when he died in 1994. Six years earlier the Mon-
ageer parish priest abused 10 young girls -all under the age of 13 -during confession on the altar. When he
returned to his church two weeks later to celebrate confirmation, several families walked out in protest.
Brendan Comiskey, the then bishop of Ferns, dismissed the complaints and joined Grennan on the altar
to celebrate "a very joyful, happy, sunny summer day".
Investigating gardai "lost" vital files containing the girls' complaints. Grennan continued to abuse. The
day after he died a teenage boy attempted suicide.
"I'm just living to die, in the hope that I will find happiness in the next life," said Rosemary, 42, who was
raped from the age of eight for four years by a Ferns priest who is now dead. Rosemary endured repeated
rapes in his presbytery to spare her younger sisters a similiar ordeal.
"They're still getting away with it. Even today there are miracles attributed to the beast who abused me,"
she said. "He is revered and even though he is dead he can't be named. What horrifies me most is that this
all could have been stopped years ago."
Indeed it could. Last week's report from the inquiry, led by Frank Murphy, a retired Supreme Court judge,
observed that several serial abusers, including Fortune, had already started abusing children during their
priestly formation.
No priests were screened or vetted prior to their training, and despite clear warnings about their suitabil-
ity for the priesthood, Fortune and Doyle were ordained.
The report even suggested that priests' propensity to abuse young boys was "striking" when compared
with the general population. Almost one in seven paedophiles, the inquiry was told, say gaining access to
children is the primary reason they join professions such as the priesthood.
"The majority of child sex offenders are aware of their sexual interest in children while they are still chil-
dren," said Joe Sullivan, a psychologist and child sex crime consultant who advised the Ferns inquiry.
Sullivan, who conducted a study of professionals who sexually abused the children with whom they
worked -more than half of whom were Roman Catholic priests said access is a prime attraction. "About 15%
said gaining access to children to abuse was their primary reason for choice of profession," he said. "A fur-
ther 42.5% said it was not the primary reason, but did play a part in their decision to work with children."
Sullivan's research confirms that many priests, when they make the final step into their vocation, are
aware of their attraction to children and this -coupled with unfettered access -is a motivating factor in their
choice of career.
"The priesthood attracts men who are attracted to children," agreed Fr Tom Doyle, an American priest
and canon lawyer who gave expert evidence to the inquiry.
Doyle, an outspoken defender of victims of clerical sex abuse, lost his job as a Vatican lawyer after writ-
ing a detailed report 20 years ago that warned American bishops of an imminent sexual abuse crisis. He said
the "seminary subculture" and the working conditions -including social isolation and forced celibacy -drive
many priests who are not previously sexually deviant to abuse children.
"The priesthood attracts men who have a predatory proclivity but it also attracts those who are emotion-
ally and psychologically immature," he said. "When they get into the seminary system, they stay immature.
"These young men are taught to devalue sexual relations, to denounce sexuality.
Enforced celibacy creates an atmosphere of repression, and the more these natural sexual urges are
repressed, the more attractive it becomes to them to abuse."
SINCE 1989, all candidates for the diocesan priesthood in Ireland must undergo a stringent interview
process and mandatory psychological assessment before being admitted. Prior sexual history is an integral
part of these rigorous tests, but there are concerns that determined child abusers can still slip through the
net.
"It is not a foolproof process," said Patrick Randall, a principal clinical psychologist at the Granada Insti-
tute in Dublin, who vets candidates for priesthood. "Many men try to join the priesthood to address a psycho-
logical deficit in themselves. Most priests who commit abuse are not paedophiles whose primary erotic out-
look is towards children. But the working conditions of the priesthood, the fact that they are isolated and don't
form meaningful relationships with adults and the ease with which they relate to children can lead them to ab-
use.
"The clerical collar still allows priests unparalleled access to children."
Only a handful of diocesan priests are now ordained each year. Vocations have declined, perhaps partly
because of the clerical sex abuse scandals, and priests ordained abroad are filling the diocescan gaps.
In the wake of the Ferns report, the government has promised to set up an inquiry into the Dublin arch-
diocese, where there have been allegations against almost 70 priests, and has ordered an audit of all dio-
ceses to check abuse allegations are being handled properly.
It has also promised to improve vetting procedures and to create new laws to strengthen child protec-
tion. Victims say the government must implement change immediately and not allow the church to run its
own affairs for much longer.
"I wake up some mornings angry that I am alive, but I decide to give it one more day," said Bennett.
"How hard is it for the government to get its act together? It is nothing compared to what we have to live
through every day."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Limited
Irish News
October 28, 2005
The Ferns Report - Deluge of sex abuse allegations;

BYLINE: Diana Rusk
SECTION: Pg. 6
LENGTH: 964 words
Although the spotlight has been shone on clerical sex abuse in Ferns, the Catholic Church's six northern
dioceses have also been at the centre of a series of sexual abuse convictions and allegations.
Archdiocese of Armagh
Eight priests have been suspended in the last five decades due to allegations of sexual abuse, accord-
ing to a diocesan spokesman.
He refused to say if any are currently suspended following allegations.
The one conviction within the diocese came in November 2004.
One of the longest sentences ever given to a clergyman for sexual abuse in Ireland was imposed on
Father Michael Gerard McQuillan.
The Armagh city priest was ordered to serve 12 years in prison after he was found guilty of 40 sexual
abuse charges against five children.
In a statement following the sentencing at Newry Crown Court, the Archbishop of Armagh, Sean Brady,
above left, personally apologised for the hurt caused to Fr McQuillan's young victims.
"To those who have suffered abuse in this case and who have been so gravely wronged, I offer my most
sincere sympathy," he said.
Diocese of Down and Connor
Four priests are suspended in the diocese following allegations of sexual abuse.
Spokesman Fr John McManus said the information was being given in order to remain "open and hon-
est" but warned parishioners not to make dangerous comparisons.
Nine Down and Connor priests have been suspended for allegations of sexual abuse over the last 50
years and there have been two convictions for abuse.
In 1994 the conviction of a priest who served in west Belfast brought down the Irish government and
opened the floodgates for hundreds of sexual abuse claims.
Fr Brendan Smyth, a priest from the Norbertine Community, was jailed for four years for sexually abus-
ing children over a 20-year period.
Following his release from Magilligan Prison, Fr Smyth was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court
after admitting 74 counts of sexual abuse in the Republic.
He was given a 12-year sentence but died a year later in prison.
Fr Sean Fortune, who had served in south Belfast, appeared before Wexford District Court in March
1999 on 29 charges of sexual abuse.
Fr Fortune, who had spent two years working at Holy Rosary parish in south Belfast, died by suicide
while on bail for the charges of serious sexual abuse against boys.
It later emerged that police had investigated at least three claims of abuse relating to Fr Fortune's time
in Belfast.
Last April Fr Daniel Curran was given a suspended 18-month sentence after admitting two counts of in-
decent assault against a boy while serving at St Paul's parish in west Belfast.
The court heard how the chaplain for a troop of scouts had plied a boy with alcohol before taking him to
a cottage near Tyrella beach in Co Down and sexually abusing him during the 1980s.
Last month Co Down priest Father John McCallum was found guilty of 25 charges of viewing porno-
graphic photographs of children between April 1999 and June 2004.
The former Kilcoo parish priest has been placed on the sex offenders' register and was sentenced yes-
terday to a year in jail.
Diocese of Derry
Two priests are "not in active ministry" following allegations of child sex abuse, a diocesan spokesman
said.
Fr Gerard John McCallion was jailed for two years at Derry Crown Court in January 1996 after pleading
guilty to nine charges of indecent assault of two girls aged nine and 10 in Derry's Creggan estate between
May 1987 and August 1988.
The diocese said six priests have been suspended or stood down following sex abuse allegations.
Fr Andy McCloskey made a five-figure payment without liability to a man who alleged the priest had
made a sexual approach to him in 1992, when he was aged 18.
Bishop of Derry Seamus Hegarty reinstated Fr McCloskey in 1993.
Diocese of Clogher
There has been one conviction relating to child sex abuse in the diocese, according to a spokesman.
Monsignor Liam McDaid said that a number of suspensions have been made over the last 20 years
arising from four allegations of child sex abuse.
He refused to be drawn on the total number of priests under investigation although it has been reported
that up to five cases were being examined.
"I don't think it is appropriate to give a name or number in this case because that would be encouraging
a manhunt," he said.
"However, they are either deceased or not in active service in the diocese."
Diocese of Raphoe
The diocese did not respond to queries yesterday about current suspensions or convictions.
Fr Eugene Greene was jailed for 12 years in 2000 for abusing children over a period of 30 years.
The Co Donegal-based priest served in several parishes across the county and from the 1960s raped or
sexually assaulted at least 26 boys.
In 2003 former diocesan secretary Paul McDaid was sentenced to two years in prison with the last six
months suspended after he was found guilty of possessing 3,000 images of child pornography.
He left the priesthood in 1996.
In June of this year Fr Patrick McGarvey was prosecuted following an incident in 2004 in Foyleside
Shopping Centre in Derry.
He was found guilty of observing a person in his twenties for sexual gratification in a public place.
Diocese of Dromore
Five priests have been suspended for allegations in the diocese in the last five decades, a spokesman
said.
Two were tried but were later acquitted.
Fr PATRICK MCCAFFERTY
In yesterday's coverage of the Ferns Report, a front page story incorrectly said Fr Patrick McCafferty
had been abused as a priest. In fact, Fr McCafferty was abused by a priest while a seminarian. We are
happy to make this clear.
Irish News
October 27, 2005
The Ferns Report - Priest's victim slams 'no allegations' claim;

BYLINE: Maeve Connolly
SECTION: Pg. 4
LENGTH: 490 words
The auxiliary bishop of Down and Connor has been criticised by a Belfast victim of Fr Sean Fortune for
claiming that no allegations of child sex abuse were made against the priest while he was in south Belfast.
Bishop Donal McKeown, right, yesterday angered Damien McAleenan, whose case is detailed in the
Ferns report.
Now living in Wexford, Mr McAleenan was sexually assaulted at 14 and made a complaint to gardai in
1995.
The report contains another allegation from a Belfast schoolboy which caused Fr Fortune's dismissal
from the diocese.
Speaking on Radio Ulster yesterday Bishop McKeown said he had "checked" and it was his understand-
ing that "there were no allegations of any misbehaviour by him of a criminal nature within Down and Connor"
during his time in the Holy Rosary Parish from August 1970 until May 1980.
However, Mr McAleenan said the Ferns report contradicts the bishop.
It states that during this time Fr Martin Kelly, spiritual director at St Malachy's College in Belfast, was ap-
proached by a student from St Mary's College who said he and a friend had been sexually propositioned.
It is understood the priest had tried to get into bed with the teenagers.
Fr Kelly reported this to the bishop and Fr Fortune was dismissed.
In September 1980 he moved to Dundalk and on the advice of a Down and Connor priest his plan to
have local schoolboys visit his home was forbidden by a senior cleric.
Mr McAleenan's complaint involved an altercation in the priest's house when he asked the teenager "to
play a game" of "tapping each other's private parts".
He said the priest then fondled him.
A month later the teenager was on a scouts' camping trip when he saw the priest engage two younger
boys - aged 11 or 12 - in the same "game" and so he "called them away" from Fr Fortune.
A priest visited Belfast to ask if there was any sexual abuse or lewd behaviour by Fr Fortune.
"I said no because I was standing beside a friend when he asked me."
The RUC and gardai later interviewed Mr McAleenan about the abuse.
Contacted last night, Bishop McKeown said he had not been "trying to be evasive or deny that it had
ever taken place".
"My understanding of child sexual abuse is that there is a genital dimension to it, that there is touching,
and that's what I was thinking when I was asked about child sex abuse in the radio interview," he said.
The St Mary's student had been 17 or 18 years old, he added, and the incident had concerned "inappro-
priate comments".
He added that Mr McAleenan's complaint had been made 15 years after Fr Fortune had been dismissed
from Down and Connor.
"There were no reports that he had abused any child or young persons during his time but there was a
report from the spiritual director of St Malachy's through the two sixth-form students and of other unusual be-
haviour and the bishop told him to leave," he said.
Irish News
October 27, 2005
The Ferns Report - Catalogue of abuse spreads throughout the

north;
BYLINE: Diana Rusk
SECTION: Pg. 8
LENGTH: 959 words
Although the spotlight has been shone on clerical sex abuse in Ferns, the Catholic Church's six northern
dioceses have also been at the centre of a series of sexual abuse convictions and allegations.
- Archdiocese of Armagh
Eight priests have been suspended in the last five decades due to allegations of sexual abuse, accord-
ing to a diocesan spokesman.
He refused to say if any are currently suspended following allegations.
The one conviction within the diocese came in November 2004.
One of the longest sentences ever given to a clergyman for sexual abuse in Ireland, it was imposed on
Father Michael Gerard McQuillan.
The Armagh city priest was ordered to serve 12 years in prison after he was found guilty of 40 sexual
abuse charges involving five children.
In a statement following the sentencing at Newry Crown Court, the Archbishop of Armagh, Sean Brady,
personally apologised for the hurt caused to Fr McQuillan's young victims.
"To those who have suffered abuse in this case and who have been so gravely wronged, I offer my most
sincere sympathy," he said.
- Diocese of Down and Connor
Four priests are currently suspended within the diocese following allegations of sexual abuse.
Spokesman Fr John McManus said the information was being given in order to remain "open and hon-
est" but warned parishioners not to make dangerous comparisons.
Nine Down and Connor priests have been suspended for allegations of sexual abuse over the last 50
years and there have been two abuse convictions.
In 1994 the conviction of a priest who served in west Belfast brought down the Irish government and
opened the floodgates for hundreds of sexual abuse claims.
Fr Brendan Smyth, a priest from the Norbertine Community, was jailed for four years for sexually abus-
ing children over a 20-year period.
Following his release from Magilligan Prison, Fr Smyth was later sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal
Court after admitting 74 counts of sexual abuse in the Republic.
One of his victims shouted "Rot in hell, Smyth" as the priest was led from the court to begin his 12-year
sentence.
He died a year later in prison.
Fr Sean Fortune, who had served in south Belfast, appeared before Wexford District Court in March
1999 on 29 charges of sexual abuse.
Fr Fortune, who had spent two years working at Holy Rosary parish, south Belfast, died by suicide while
on bail for the charges of serious sexual abuse against boys.
It later emerged that police had investigated at least three claims of abuse relating to Fr Fortune's time
in Belfast.
Last April Fr Daniel Curran was given a suspended 18 month sentence after admitting two counts of in-
decent assault against a boy while serving at St Paul's parish in west Belfast.
The court heard how the chaplain for a troop of scouts had plied a boy with alcohol before taking him to
a cottage near Tyrella beach in Co Down and sexually abusing him during the 1980s.
Last month Co Down priest Father John McCallum was found guilty of 25 charges of viewing porno-
graphic photographs of children between April 1999 and June 2004.
The former Kilcoo parish priest has been placed on the sex offenders register and is due to be sen-
tenced today.
- Diocese of Derry
Two priests are currently "not in active ministry" following allegations of child sex abuse, a diocesan
spokesman said.
Fr Gerard John McCallion was jailed for two years at Derry Crown Court in January 1996 after pleading
guilty to nine charges of indecent assault of two girls aged nine and 10 in Derry's Creggan estate between
May 1987 and August 1988.
The diocese said six priests have been suspended or stood down following sex abuse allegations.
Fr Andy McCloskey made a five-figure payment without liability to a man who alleged the priest had
made a sexual approach to him in 1992, when he was aged 18.
Bishop of Derry Seamus Hegarty reinstated Fr McCloskey in 1993.
Details of the incident emerged earlier this year.
- Diocese of Clogher
There has been one conviction relating to child sex abuse within the diocese, according to a spokes-
man.
Monsignor Liam McDaid said that a number of suspensions have been made over the last 20 years
arising from four allegations of child sex abuse.
He refused to be drawn on the total number of priests under investigation although it has been reported
that up to five cases are being examined.
"I don't think it is appropriate to give a name or number in this case because that would be encouraging
a manhunt," he said.
"However, they are either deceased or not in active service in the diocese."
- Diocese of Raphoe
The diocese did not respond to queries yesterday about current suspensions or convictions.
Fr Eugene Greene was jailed for 12 years in 2000 for abusing children, including altar boys, over a peri-
od of 30 years.
The Co Donegal-based priest served in several parishes across the county and from the 1960s raped or
sexually assaulted at least 26 boys.
In 2003 former diocesan secretary Paul McDaid was sentenced to two years in prison with the last six
months suspended after he was found guilty of posessing 3,000 images of child porn.
Some of the children were as young as three. He left the priesthood in 1996.
In June of this year Fr Patrick McGarvey, was prosecuted following an incident in 2004 in Foyleside
Shopping Centre in Derry.
He was found guilty of observing a person in his twenties for sexual gratification in a public place.
- Diocese of Dromore
Five priests have been suspended for allegations in the diocese within the last five decades, a spokes-
man said.
Two were tried but were later acquitted.
The Mirror
October 27, 2005, Thursday

DEVILS OF THE CHURCH: NEVER AGAIN;
- BERTIE AHERN YESTERDAY CHILDREN NOW AND FOR THE
FUTURE MUST BE ABLE
BYLINE: BY DAMIEN LANE
SECTION: Eire Edition; NEWS; Pg. 6,7
LENGTH: 1007 words
HIGHLIGHT: SHAME: The Ferns Report has revealed the Church's failure to deal with child sex abuse;
HORROR: Kenny was shocked by the report; ACTION: Ahern has promised further probes
EVERY diocese in Ireland WILL be investigated to root out paedophile priests, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
promised yesterday.
The horrific scale of systematic abuse uncovered in The Ferns Report means each parish in the country
will be probed for similar crimes.
The Government has also vowed to prosecute anyone who puts a child in danger by ignoring abuse al-
legations.
Mr Ahern told the Dail no child should have to endure such abuse ever again.
He said the inquiry into the violation of children by priests in the Dublin Archdiocese is next and from
there the probe will be rolled out nationwide.
Mr Ahern added: "It is my view to try to deal with Dublin.
"We have said all along that we will await this report and then see how best we can proceed into a na-
tional audit or some means of investigation.
"We will deal with it and I think the audit has to be national.
"It has to look at those who have been prosecuted and how these things were dealt with."
Mr Ahern said Attorney General Rory Brady was urgently examining how to investigate every diocese.
He added: "Whatever we do around the country, and I don't want to give some suggestion off the top of
my head, but I think we have to work that out and we will do that very quickly."
Mr Ahern said he had read a large part of the report last night and added: "It's shocking to everybody's
sense of how our children should be protected.
"We have built on our knowledge to ensure it never happens again.
"For the Catholic Church itself across the country, a national audit would be in everybody's interests be-
cause where abuse has gone on, it has to be cleared out once and for all and be dealt with.
"Children now and for the future must be able to grow up in an environment of trust and respect which
will not be broken to completely and utterly destroy lives."
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told the Dail a nationwide probe into church child abuse is vital.
He said: "Having read this report last night and as the father of young children myself the words used in
this House yesterday barely do justice to the horror suffered by so many people.
"There clearly is a national consensus that we have to deal with this suffering and institutional failure."
Mr Kenny pointed out that many of the Ferns abuse victims were not believed when they were children.
He added: "A climate existed in this country where it was not safe for children to disclose abuse and
where adults would not be empowered to respond.
"We would be failing in our duties for today's children and tomorrow's children if we do not admit or ac-
knowledge that abuse can occur everywhere at anytime."
Sinn Fein's Caoimhghin O Caolain told the Dail: "The Ferns Report is a grotesque catalogue of Church
and state delinquency that casts a dark shadow over not only the lives of those directly affected by the abuse
but also over the entire country. While those who were directly involved in this systematic abuse of young
children over many, many years are ultimately responsible for their own actions and should be punished ac-
cordingly there has been serious criminal neglect on behalf of both Church and state authorities, which al-
lowed this abuse go unchecked and unpunished, and which must be dealt with urgently and robustly.
"The cavalier and dismissive approach adopted by the Church and indeed gardai at senior management
level, indicates _ a mindset corrupted by its own sense of infallibility."
A spokeswoman for the One In Four organisation, set up for victims of child sex abuse, said: "What we
propose is the establishment of a Standing Commission of Investigation whose remit could be expanded to
facilitate inquiries or investigations into individual dioceses or other areas once a clear need for such an in-
quiry had been determined.
"In the first instance such an investigation should, as planned and committed to by Government, focus
on the Archdiocese of Dublin. Once that module is completed and reported upon it could then determine the
need for further modules whether nationally or locally.
"The implications of The Ferns Reports findings of glaring gaps in existing powers to respond to third
party, or extra-familial, child abuse must be properly considered in planning the need for further inquiries.
"What we must surely acknowledge is that there may well be a need for investigations and inquiries into
concerns that extend beyond clerical sexual abuse."
A new law to punish those who fail victims of abuse will be enacted, Justice Minister Michael McDowell
promised yesterday.
Mr McDowell said that anyone in a position to protect children, who fails in their duty to do so, would be
liable to criminal prosecution.
He added: "It means that if you are in a position to stop something happening and you have the means
at your disposal to prevent further damage to children and you fail wrongly to follow those steps... you com-
mit a criminal offence."
However, the law will not be retrospective, meaning charges could not be brought against shamed
former Ferns bishops, Brendan Comiskey and Donal Herlihy.
Minister McDowell did not rule out introducing "mandatory reporting" whereby anyone looking after chil-
dren MUST report allegations of abuse to the relevant authorities.
A VICTIM of Fr Sean Fortune said his reign of terror might have been cut short if his complaints had
been listened to.
Damian McAleenan, 39, was abused by Fortune while he was a priest on the Ormeau Road in South
Belfast.
Mr McAleenan, who was attacked by Fortune when he was an altar boy, said: "Fortune was a cause for
concern practically from the day he was ordained and nothing was done for more than 25 years.
"He could have been stopped a lot earlier."
However, Mr McAleenan claims the bishop said no formal complaints were made against Fortune.
He added: "It was his bizarre behaviour and pig headedness like trying to set up his own scout move-
ment that led to him [Fortune] being sent back to Ferns."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
The Sun
October 27, 2005
20ST BEAST'S REIGN OF EVIL KNEW NO LIMITS
BYLINE: Kim Kelly
LENGTH: 541 words
Scandal of Ferns
Full extent of Fr Fortune's abuse revealed
DEPRAVED Father Sean Fortune was the most notorious child abuser in the Ferns diocese, this week's
shocking report reveals.
The 20st beast began
raping and assaulting children before he was ordained - but he was still allowed to become a priest.
He continued his campaign of terror north and south of the border for 20 YEARS.
Fortune brazenly abused little boys in front of witnesses and even stalked his victims - chasing them
through the streets in his car.
He committed suicide with a
cocktail of drugs and drink shortly before he was due to stand trial for 66 charges of buggery and sex
abuse.
In his suicide note he protested his innocence, claiming his victims and the media were lying.
He even blamed Bishop Brendan Comiskey who he said was "responsible for all this as he raped and
buggered me". Dr Comiskey and the Ferns inquiry dismissed the allegations as "baseless".
The Ferns Report on child sex abuse in the diocese contains details of complaints from 25 boys who
said Fortune raped and abused them.
Statements were also made by other unnamed children from Belfast - where Fortune set up a Boy
Scouts troop.
Pranks
The vile pervert was just 23 and training to be a priest when the first complaint against him was made.
His victim was told he would be thrown out of the college if he continued to say he had been raped six
times by Fortune in the shower cubicles.
Fortune was ordained and became involved in the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland - where he had his
pick of vulnerable youngsters.
He regularly took young boys on camping trips where he fondled and abused them. He would pleasure
himself in front of the children - and tell them it was a prank.
Fortune also organised religious "retreats" where he climbed into bed with boys and forced them to com-
mit sex acts.
Once he even raped a young boy in a sound booth while taking a communications course at a hospital
radio station.
Some boys said they were subjected to years of brutal rapes, up to three times a week.
The Ferns report also outlines how the beast would offer youngsters large sums of cash to sleep with
him.
He would later blackmail them and tell them he would let their parents know about the depraved beha-
viour.
Despite his young victims making complaints to gardai, parents and other priests, nothing was done
about Fortune.
Rumours circulated around Wexford that he was gay and had abused children.
But many parents refused to believe their children's allegations of abuse.
And the diocese became split between those who supported Fortune and those who knew of his shock-
ing crimes.
Bishop Brendan Comiskey knew of the allegations when he was appointed to the diocese in 1983.
But Fortune was allowed to continue until 1993 before he was removed.
Comiskey sent Fortune to London to study media and communications and to seek therapy.
Just two years later Fortune was posted as curate in another parish.
That year, in 1995, he was arrested by gardai investigating allegations of abuse in the 1980s.
In 1999 Fortune locked himself away in his house and took an overdose rather than face trial.
LANGUAGE: English
PUB-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2005 NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD
Irish News
October 26, 2005
The Ferns Inquiry - Abuser was moved and promoted;

SECTION: Pg. 12
LENGTH: 211 words
Notorious child abuser Fr Sean Fortune was ordained as a priest in 1979 despite having being reported
for abusing a schoolboy and boy scouts during his training at St Peter's College in Co Wexford.
Fr Fortune, above, was posted to Holy Rosary parish in south Belfast as a curate for two years, after
which he returned to Ferns.
It later emerged that police in Belfast had investigated at least three claims of abuse alleged to have
taken place in the 1970s.
He continued to abuse boys in his new parish at Fethard-on-Sea in Co Wexford and was left there for
six years before the then Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, removed him.
However, Fr Fortune was sent to London to study media and communications and to seek therapy with
a number of psychiatrists.
Two years later he was brought back to Ireland and not only given another parish and curacy, but also
made the director of a Catholic media organisation, the National Association of Community Broadcasting.
Fr Fortune turned his role to his sexual advantage, raping a 15-year-old boy in a studio booth where he
recorded religious programmes.
He died, aged 45, by suicide at his home in New Ross, Co Wexford, after appearing in court charged
with sex abuse against boys.
The Irish Times
October 26, 2005
Fortune abused children while a seminarian

BYLINE: Martin Wall
SECTION: Ireland; Ferns Report; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 642 words
Fr Sean Fortune Fr Sean Fortune, who took his own life in March 1999 while facing 66 charges of child
sex abuse and rape, had abused children while a seminarian in Co Wexford, according to the Ferns inquiry.
The report sets out more than 20 allegations of abuse of young people from his time as a seminarian and
throughout his time working as a priest in Belfast, Dundalk and Wexford.
In two cases families claimed that young people had killed themselves because of Fr Fortune's abuse.
The first complaint about him was made by a student at St Peter's College, a seminary and a boys' sec-
ondary school in Wexford. The boy claimed he had been violently raped by the then seminarian in a shower.
The boy, identified as Stephen (real names of victims were not used in the report), told the inquiry that
the then principal of the college had reacted angrily to the complaint and did not believe him.
The inquiry says that an allegation of sexual abuse against boy scouts by Fr Fortune was passed to the
then bishop of Ferns, Dr Donal Herlihy, in 1979. But it was not clear if this was before or after Fr Fortune's or-
dination.
The inquiry says it is satisfied that Sean Fortune did engage in child sexual abuse during his years as a
seminarian and that despite clear warning signs, this did not prevent his ordination.
It says if guidelines on the "norms for priestly training" published by the Irish Episcopal Commission in
1973 had been properly applied by St Peter's College, Sean Fortune would not have been ordained.
It says that if Bishop Herlihy had been told of the allegations made against Fr Fortune of the abuse of
boy scouts and students, then it was "inexcusable" that he ordained and admitted him to a vocation that re-
quired and provided unsupervised access to young people.
The report tells of how on ordination Fr Fortune was sent to Belfast but was soon regarded as "unman-
ageable".
It says that the then bishop of Down and Connor Dr William Philbin had Fr Fortune removed from the
diocese within hours of hearing allegations that the priest had sexually propositioned a student.
It was "improbable" that Dr Philbin would not have told Dr Herlihy the reasons for the departure.
The report says Dr Herlihy had received reports from a psychologist at UCD, indicating the dangers of
giving Fr Fortune unsupervised access to young people. It criticises Dr Herlihy for still appointing Fr Fortune
to the parish of Poulfour.
"That a curate with Dr Fortune's history could open youth clubs and build reconciliation rooms for young
people in the basement of his house represented a serious lack of supervision and a failure to have regard of
the dangers posed by a man with his history."
The report says that Dr Herlihy's successor as Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, became con-
cerned in late 1985 about Fr Fortune's relationships with young men. However, it is critical of the fact that it
took the bishop two years to remove Fr Fortune from the parish. It says the decision of Bishop Comiskey to
later appoint Fr Fortune to another parish at Ballymurn was "ill-advised and dangerous".
"Bishop Comiskey failed to put in place any proper monitoring of supervision of Sean Fortune in Bal-
lymurn."
It also maintains that it is difficult to comprehend the bishop's failure to remove Fr Fortune from Bal-
lymurn, having received complaints about the sexual content of his classes at Bridgetown VEC.
"If the bishop was correct in believing that he could not remove a curate whose current conduct con-
firmed existing suspicions, children might be exposed indefinitely to grievous dangers."
The report says that Garda handling of Fr Fortune's case was professional and effective.
However, it expresses concern at the level of co-operation provided by Bishop Comiskey at the initial
stage of the investigation.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 The Irish Times

The Sun
October 26, 2005
GUILTY SINNERS
BYLINE: Petrina Vousden
LENGTH: 1467 words
Pervert priests terrorised kids for 40 years

Scandal of Ferns
THE evil of rampant child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the diocese of Ferns went on for FOUR DEC-
ADES.
ONE HUNDRED cases of sex attacks by TWENTY-ONE priests are catalogued in the 271-page inquiry
report.
It confirms COVER-UPS and INACTION that left children exposed to the perverted clerics.
And it expressed REVULSION at the "extent, severity and duration" of the abuse of children by priests.
The report reveals how Co Wexford cleric Canon Martin Clancy had a secret child by a 14-year-old girl
he RAPED.
Sex fiend Clancy began abusing her when she was just 11. He left money for his victim in his will.
Former Bishops of Ferns Brendan Comiskey and Donal Herlihy are slammed for their handling of the
scandal.
Torture
The Garda are also criticised for their response in some of the abuse cases.
Some officers were reluctant to investigate the clergy and adequate records of complaints were not
made before 1990.
One police probe was "neither appropriate or adequate".
The Health Board also come under fire for its "inconsistent" response.
The inquiry ordered in 2003 by the then Health Minister Micheal Martin and headed by retired Supreme
Court judge, Francis Murphy said the priests used their social standing to prey on children.
They left a legacy of torture and trauma in their wake.
Last night a Government source said: "The number of priests accused of sex abuse in Ferns is believed
to be among the highest uncovered, proportionally, in any Catholic diocese worldwide."
Bishop Herlihy failed to take "even basic precautions" to protect children from known abusers.
Two trainee priests were ordained in the mid-1970s despite allegations of child sex abuse against them.
Fr Donal Collins who was accused in 1966 was removed from his post and sent to the diocese of West-
minster.
Two years later the bishop returned him to his position as a teacher at St Peter's Secondary School in
the diocese of Ferns.
The priest was not treated or assessed.
The report said: "It does not appear that the Diocese of Westminster was alerted to the reasons for the
priest's transfer."
Virtually no restriction was placed on the priest after his return to St Peter's.
"The fact that no records were kept of these matters meant that no impediment to the appointment of
this priest as principal of St Peter's in 1998 was apparent," said the report.
Pupils at St Peter's reported in 1996 that Fr Collins measured the penises of up to 20 boys in the school
dormitory.
Fr Collins admitted "inappropriate behaviour" to the inquiry but denies that any sexual abuse occurred.
Sacked
In 1973, the Bishop became aware of a complaint against another priest who had allegedly abused a
young girl.
The priest was sent to the Diocese of Westminster which was told of the allegations.
The priest received no assessment or treatment and was later appointed to chaplaincy positions and
managerial roles in locals schools before being transferred abroad.
Bishop Herlihy sent two priests for assessment following complaints against them in the 1980s. Despite
"unfavourable" reports from a psychologist, both men were given curacies and went unmonitored.
The inquiry said the move was "inexplicable".
Comiskey received allegations against ten priests when he was Bishop of Ferns from 1984 to 2002.
None of the priests were stood aside from active ministry.
The report said no child protection measures were put in place in dioceses where pervert priests were
sent after complaints against them.
Ten of the priests in the report are now dead.
Sex abuse allegations against six of them were not made until after their deaths.
Three priests who are still alive have been sacked.
Damaged
Seven have stood aside from active ministry at the request of acting Bishop of Ferns Eamonn Walsh.
Another priest has retired.
Some of 21 priests in the report are identified only by letters of the Greek alphabet.
Among those names are Sean Fortune, who committed suicide, and and James Doyle who were de-
frocked last year.
Serial sex offender Fortune was sent to London for a year by Bishop Comiskey in 1987. He continued to
perform duties as a priest there and attended a media course.
He returned to Ireland the following year without the bishop's permission.
The abuse has seriously damaged the Catholic Church.
It paid out Euro 128million in compensation three years ago to victims of abuse in children's homes run
by religious orders.
The Dublin diocese is facing hundreds of legal actions over abuse.
The report said that it is satisfied that procedures adopted by the current acting Bishop of Ferns Eamonn
Walsh are "appropriate and adequate" to protect children.
*SEAN FORTUNE
TWENTY-stone pervert Fortune was one of the Church's most prolific sex abusers.
He committed suicide in 1999 shortly before he was due to stand trial for 66 charges of sexual abuse
and gross indecency against eight young men.
The 45-year-old left a note to his family blaming the media for spreading "lies" about him. Two of his vic-
tims abused in the 1980s received six-figure compensation settlements from the Church.
Fortune, above, served as a curate in Wexford where he abused children for years.
It is understood he drugged some of his young victims.
In the 1970s Fr Fortune raped a 13-year-old boarder at St Peter's College seminary in Wexford town as
he trained for the priesthood.
He also assaulted Boy Scouts. He attacked victims on camping trips and pretended sex abuse was a
game.
*JIM GRENNAN
GRENNAN was accused of abusing ten girls preparing for confirmation in the 80s.
The parish priest of Monageer, Co Wexford, would bring them up to the altar and get them to kneel on
red cushions before kissing and fondling them.
As he abused each victim, the rest of the class was forced to sit in their seats with their eyes shut. Fr
Grennan told them that by closing their eyes in God's house they were showing respect.
The case was probed by cops and the South Eastern Health Board. No charges were brought and the
Garda file went missing. Grennan died in 1994.
*MARTIN CLANCY
THE late Canon Martin Clancy was accused of abusing five young girls - and even fathered a child with
one.
In 1974 he raped a 14-year-old identified as Ciara who became pregnant.
The distressed girl went to England and gave birth to a daughter, Rachel. Two years later Clancy ac-
knowledged the tot as his own and gave Ciara two cheques for £500 each. The Ferns report states: "She
said that Canon Clancy threatened to have Rachel taken from her if Ciara told anybody he was the father."
Clancy died in 1993 and left £3,000 for Rachel in his will.
*DONAL HERIHY
HERLIHY was Bishop of the Ferns Diocese for 20 years from 1963.
He is accused of failing to respond to any of the abuse allegations that were on file by the time his suc-
cessor Brendan Comiskey became bishop.
Sex abuse victim Colm O'Gorman, who got a Euro 300,000 settlement in 2003 after suffering at the
hands of Fr Fortune, said Church leaders had to accept some blame.
He added: "The Church authorities were negligent in how they handled cases of clerical sexual abuse
and that led to the abuse of more and more children."
*JAMES DOYLE
SIXTY-year-old Doyle and his cohort
Collins were sacked last year after a plea to the Vatican by the acting Bishop of Ferns Eamonn Walsh.
It emerged that the perverts led boys through the red light district of Amsterdam and leered at the infam-
ous window displays of prostitutes.
They then primed their young victims with hash and booze before abusing them, the Ferns report stated.
In 1990, Doyle, who was a teacher at the college, was convicted of indecent assault on a teenage boy.
He received a one-year suspended jail term.
*DONAL COLLINS
DEPRAVED Collins and James Doyle were the first Irish priests to be sacked by Pope John Paul II for
vile abuse.
The pair both worked at St Peter's College in Wexford and lured innocent victims on school trips to Ams-
terdam - Europe's sex capital.
The Fern report said Collins, 64, regularly abused boys over 20 years.
He had been removed from the college by his bishop in 1966 for inspecting naked boys but was re-
appointed to a teaching position two years later. He eventually became principal.
No records of complaints against him were kept by the college.
In the years that followed, there were allegations that he fondled boys and forced them to commit sex
acts.
He was given a four-year sentence in 1998, with three years then suspended, for sexual abuse against
boys during the 1970s and 1980s.
LANGUAGE: English
PUB-TYPE: Newspaper
Copyright 2005 NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD
October 25, 2005 Tuesday Main Edition
Stowell abandons plea for sentence leniencyConvicted sex offender leaves prosecutor surprised
BYLINE: PHIL DAVIDSON, pdavidson@postregister.com
SECTION: THE WESTPg. C01
LENGTH: 248 words
Brad Stowell won't protest the sentence he received for molesting two boys.
Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins said he was ready to oppose Stowell's motion at a court
hearing Monday, but that wasn't necessary as Stowell's request for leniency was withdrawn.
Stowell pleaded guilty about seven years ago to two counts of sex abuse of a minor, but he was on pro-
bation until late April when 7th District Judge Richard T. St. Clair revoked the then-32-year-old's probation. St.
Clair's decision came after Stowell admitted he'd looked at Internet pornography, had fantasized about boys
he'd molested, had spent time alone with boys and had become aroused when a girl sat on his lap.
The judge sentenced Stowell to two to 14 years in prison, the original suspended sentence he received
after pleading guilty.
Stowell, a former Boy Scout leader, admitted to molesting at least 24 boys since the late 1980s.
Stowell originally filed an Idaho Criminal Rule 35 motion to correct or reconsider the judge's sentence.
Rule 35 allows defendants one last chance to ask the court for leniency or, in rare cases, to ask the judge to
correct an illegal sentence, Watkins said.
"Rule 35s get filed all the time," he said. "Most of the time, it's one more plea for leniency."
Watkins said he was prepared to object to the motion until he learned Monday that it was dropped. He
said he couldn't speculate why Stowell would take such action.
Efforts to reach Curtis Smith, Stowell's attorney, were unsuccessful.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky)
October 6, 2005 Thursday

Correction Appended
Woodford man gets five years in prison for sex abuse of boy;
BECAUSE HE'S APPEALING CONVICTION, HE MIGHT REMAIN
FREE UP TO A YEAR
BYLINE: By Greg Kocher; CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU
SECTION: CITY & REGION; Pg. B3
LENGTH: 511 words
DATELINE: VERSAILLES
A former Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentor convicted of sexual abuse was sentenced yesterday to five
years in prison, but he won't go to prison any time soon.
John "Tim" Jenkins is appealing his Aug. 19 conviction and has filed a motion for a new trial. The motion
is based on testimony heard at trial that never came up during pre-trial preparations, defense attorney Gu-
thrie True said.
If Woodford Circuit Judge Paul Isaacs turns down the motion for a new trial, the appeal will go to the
state Court of Appeals. That means Jenkins will remain free for possibly a year.
Jenkins was released from jail Sept. 12 on a $100,000 bond after Isaacs cited a rule allowing bail for a
defendant whose sentence has not begun.
Jenkins, 55, was a mentor to a boy through Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Bluegrass. He was accused
of sodomizing and abusing the child in 2003, when the boy was 8.
In 2001, Jenkins was paired with the boy. UK football games, baseball games and target shooting were
some activities they did together.
They also went swimming at Falling Springs Arts and Recreation Center. On Oct. 8, 2003, lifeguards be-
came alarmed while watching Jenkins play with his "little brother" and another boy, then 6.
Details the boys told on the stand had never been described before, True said.
"We can deal with changes in the story that we know about prior to trial," True said. "What we can't deal
with, and what I think the Constitution says a person charged with a crime shouldn't have to deal with, is be-
ing confronted with a new version of the facts for the first time at trial, without any opportunity to address
them."
True said Jenkins, a manager at one of the two Osram Sylvania plants in Versailles, is grateful that he
was acquitted on two counts of first-degree sodomy that might have led to a minimum 20-year sentence.
"He regrets ever having become involved in the (Big Brothers) program at all, but that's water under the
bridge," True said. "He probably made an error in not having another adult with him when he was with the
two boys at the swimming pool."
Isaacs also ordered Jenkins to pay a $250 fine for indecent exposure.
The judge warned Jenkins not to violate the conditions of his appeal bond, or he would risk going to jail.
Those conditions say Jenkins is not to leave Woodford County without written consent of the court, ex-
cept to consult with his attorney in Frankfort. Jenkins was to surrender any passport to the Woodford County
sheriff, according to the judge's Sept. 9 order.
In addition, the order prohibited Jenkins from "any activity which would put him in contact with any child
under the age of 18 without the physical supervision of the child's parent or guardian."
No child younger than 18 is allowed to visit Jenkins' Versailles home unless the parent or guardian is
present.
Jenkins also is barred from activities such as Big Brothers, Boy Scouts of America or any athletic event
involving children.
Reach Greg Kocher in the Nicholasville bureau at (859) 885-5775 or gkocher1@herald-leader.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
CORRECTION-DATE: October 8, 2005
CORRECTION: A story on Page B3 Thursday incorrectly said that John "Tim" Jenkins, who was convicted of
sexual abuse and indecent exposure, is employed by Osram Sylvania in Versailles. Jenkins is no longer em-
ployed there, a company spokesman said.
Copyright 2005 The Lexington Herald Leader

All Rights Reserved
Centre Daily Times
September 29, 2005 Thursday
Official's sex-abuse case moves forward;

Harris Twp. supervisor, Boal Mansion CEO accused of inappropri-
ately touching two boys
BYLINE: lbrenckl@centredaily.com
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 583 words
By Lara Brenckle
BELLEFONTE -- Harris Township Supervisor and Boal Mansion CEO Christopher G. Lee was bound
over for trial following his preliminary hearing on sexual abuse charges in front of District Judge Allen Sinclair
on Wednesday.
Lee sat quietly and did not look at the two boys, ages 10 and 8, who testified about separate incidents in
which they allege that Lee touched them inappropriately.
Lee was arraigned Friday on three counts each of indecent assault, corruption of minors and harass-
ment, but Sinclair dropped one of those counts after agreeing with Lee's attorney, Joseph Amendola, that
prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to prove all of the counts.
Assistant District Attorney Lance Marshall began his questioning with the 10-year-old, asking him to re-
count what happened on the night of June 3, when the boy, his mother and younger brother spent the night
at the Boal Mansion with Lee.
The boy said that the four of them had been watching videos -- "Toy Story" and "The Mask" -- and that he
had put pajamas on for bed.
The boy said that his mother and younger brother went to bed in another room, and that he and Lee
were on the pull-out sofa in the TV room. Lee, the boy said, kept asking him if he was hot and tried to take off
the boy's pajamas.
The 10-year-old said he was "on-and-off asleep" when he detected Lee first touching his genital area.
The boy said he took Lee's hand and pulled it out of his pants.
The boy said he then wandered through the mansion, eventually finding his mother's room. He said he
woke her up and told her, "I think Chris is one of those child abusers."
On cross-examination, Amendola asked the boy what made him say that he thought Lee was a child ab-
user.
"I watched this movie because of Cub Scouts about sexual abuse, and I'm not one of those sure-sure
guys, I usually say I think, and I thought it might be like that, but I wasn't sure," the 10-year-old said.
The boy then recounted an earlier time when Lee had allegedly put two of his fingers in the boy's mouth
while they were wrestling. The boy said he had told his mother about the incident because he felt uncomfort-
able.
Amendola asked why his mother continued to see Lee with them, and the boy replied, "She didn't see
some of the red flags."
The boy's 8-year-old brother also took the stand and said that Lee touched him three to four times, stick-
ing his hand down his pants, but that he didn't know the touch was bad until after his brother told their mother
about his experiences.
After the hearing, Amendola said Lee steadfastly maintains his innocence and thinks the situation is a
terrible misunderstanding.
Amendola said that on the night of the alleged incident, Lee had discovered that the boy was a bed-wet-
ter and slept in diapers.
"Chris was concerned that he might wet the bed," his attorney said. "He checked on him one time during
the night to see if he was wet."
Amendola said that he will immediately start filing motions to get a second charge dismissed and that he
fully intends Lee to take the stand during the trial.
When asked if Lee plans to resign as a Harris Township supervisor, Amendola said he did not think he
should.
Harris Township Manager Amy Farkas said the board takes no position on Lee's case and considers it a
personal matter.
"He can legally remain a supervisor, and he will do so until he tells us otherwise," she said.
Lee remains free on his own recognizance.
Lara Brenckle can be reached at 235-3902.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)

All Rights Reserved
Herald News (Passaic County, NJ)
September 29, 2005 Thursday

All Editions
Man gets time for child sex abuse;

Former scoutmaster in custody since '04
SECTION: OUR TOWNS; Pg. E06
LENGTH: 326 words
DATELINE: NEWARK
NEWARK - A former assistant scoutmaster was sentenced to 8 years and a month in federal prison for
traveling from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to fondle a 7-year-old boy. He also awaits sentencing in state
court on charges he sexually assaulted and endangered a child.
Kevin W. Hildreth, 36, who had lived in Nutley, received the maximum term suggested by federal senten-
cing guidelines from U.S. District Judge William H. Walls.
Hildreth pleaded guilty in both cases. He has been in custody since June 2004, when he was among
hundreds snared following a global investigation into child pornography Web sites.
At sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Walsh said Hildreth told Nutley police after his arrest that he
had raped and sexually assaulted at least nine children in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over the course of
16 years.
"I have an illness and I am a sexual predator," Hildreth said, according to the police report read in court.
On the federal charges, Hildreth said he went to Scranton, Pa., in May 2004 to commit sexual acts with
the boy. He also pleaded guilty in April to a separate count of possessing child pornography on his personal
computer.
In state Superior Court in June, Hildreth pleaded guilty to sexual assault and endangering the welfare of
a child, which were among the sexual abuse and kidnapping charges he faced from the Essex County pro-
secutor's office.
The charges stem from two towns. Hildreth had been a caretaker for three children in Nutley, where he
fondled them and videotaped one in a sexually explicit act, the Essex County prosecutor's office said in Octo-
ber when he was charged.
He also was charged with committing similar acts upon three children in Belleville, police say.
Hildreth committed the acts while supervising children at the Wesley Methodist Church in Belleville,
where he was a volunteer and assistant scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 301 at the church until about six
years ago, the prosecutor's office said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 North Jersey Media Group Inc.,

All Rights Reserved
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 25, 2005 Sunday CITY-D EDITION
Those who are named in the grand jury report

SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A24
LENGTH: 3431 words
Edward V. Avery
Ordained: 1970
Allegations:He abused a 12-year-old boy in the late 1970s.
Post:St. Philip Neri Church, Montgomery County.
Church response:After receiving a complaint about the abuse in 1992, the church made Avery a chap-
lain at Nazareth Hospital for a decade.
In 2003, a new archdiocesan review board, which considers allegations of abuse, found that the accusa-
tion made against Avery 11 years earlier was credible.
Status:Avery, now 63, was placed on administrative leave in 2003 pending his removal from the priest-
hood.
Michael C. Bolesta
Ordained: 1989
Allegations:He abused 11 teenage boys, mostly 16 and 17, in 1990 and 1991.
Post:SS. Philip and James Church, Chester County.
Church response:After the church received a complaint in 1991, Bolesta was given a psychological
evaluation in 1991 and reassigned to parishes in Philadelphia.
From 1992 to 1994, he was vicar at St. Agatha and St. James Church and a chaplain at Children's Hos-
pital. He later was a hospital chaplain.
Status:Bolesta died at 62 last year.
Robert L. Brennan
Ordained: 1964
Allegations:The report said he engaged in inappropriate or suspicious behavior with more than 20 boys
from 1988 to 2004.
Posts:St. Ignatius, Bucks County; St. Mary, Montgomery County, Resurrection of Our Lord, Philadelphia.
Church response:He was given repeated psychological evaluations and transferred from one parish to
another. He was advised by archdiocesan leaders to "keep a low profile" - but he was not barred from con-
tact with young people. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua testified before the grand jury that he considered Bren-
nan's problems "innocuous-sounding boundary issues."
Status:Brennan, now 67, was appointed a chaplain at Camilla Hall, a retirement home for nuns, last
year.
Leonard W. Broughan
Ordained:1955
Allegations:Broughan, a member of the Carmelite order who worked in the Philadelphia Archdiocese,
abused a male student at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia beginning in 1972.
Posts:Roman Catholic High School and residence at St. Philip Neri.
Church response:When the former student disclosed the abuse in 1993, the archdiocese directed the
man to take his complaint to the Carmelite order. The grand jury report has no information on how the order
handled the matter.
Status:Broughan died at 69 in 1998.
Craig R. Brugger
Ordained:1973
Allegations:He abused a 15-year-old boy in 1974 and received pornographic material in 1989.
Posts:St. Ann Church, Chester County (1974 case; principal of St. James Catholic High School for Boys
in Chester (1989 case).
Church response:When the national scandal broke in 2002, the church placed him on leave.
Status:Brugger, now 58, was removed from active ministry in 2004. Removal from the priesthood is
pending, according to information on the archdiocese Web site.
James J. Brzyski
Ordained:1977
Allegations:He was described in the grand jury report as one of the archdiocese's "most brutal abusers -
emotionally as well as physically." His confirmed victim count was 17, and the grand jury said it could have
been far higher. In one case, he is alleged to have repeatedly anally raped a 12-year-old boy after falsely
convincing the boy that his mother approved the sex acts.
Posts:St. John the Evangelist, Bucks County; St. Cecilia, Philadelphia.
Church response:After a complaint was filed in 1984, Brzyski admitted to a church official that he was a
child molester. He was removed from his duties, but parishioners were told nothing. As a result, he kept visit-
ing the family of one accuser, who says the abuse continued for four more years.
A priest who knew of the abuse told The Inquirer that he was instructed not to tell anyone. "This comes
from the highest authority. You're to keep your mouth shut," he was told.
Brzyski left active ministry and took a teaching job in Metuchen, N.J. Later, he moved to Chesapeake,
Va., where he remained a priest with restrictions on his ministry. He was arrested in Virginia in 2002 on
charges of molesting a teenager, but the charge was dismissed.
Status:He was defrocked this year.
John A. Cannon
Ordained:1948
Allegations:He abused eight male teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s.
Posts:Roman Catholic High School and residence at St. Monica, Philadelphia.
Church response:He was ordered in 1964 to "desist" and transferred to St. Eugene, in Delaware
County as an assistant pastor. He taught for two decades at Cardinal O'Hara High School, Delaware County.
The church barred him from priestly duties in 2004.
Status:Cannon, now 83, agreed last year to accept church supervision.
Pasquale R. Catullo
Ordained:1963
Allegations:He abused a female student on a date not specified in the report.
Posts:Archbishop Kennedy High School and his residence at SS. Cosmas and Damian, both in Mont-
gomery County.
Church response:Notified of the abuse in 1969, the church took no action for 15 years.
Status:Catullo, now 75, also agreed last year to church supervision.
Gerard W. Chambers
Ordained:1934
Allegations:He molested six altar boys in the 1950s, and anally and orally raped at least one victim. The
jury said he was suspected of widespread sexual abuse in a 29-year career of active priesthood. One victim
attempted suicide and was institutionalized at a state mental hospital.
Posts:Four victims described sexual abuse by Chambers at St. Gregory in West Philadelphia and Seven
Dolors in Montgomery County.
Church response:The archdiocese repeatedly reassigned Chambers to parishes where he had access
to children, making him, at one point, chaplain to an orphanage for boys. He repeatedly was placed on health
leave between reassignments. In 1963, he was placed on permanent health leave.
Status:Chambers died in 1974 at 67.
Richard J. Cochrane
Ordained:1972
Allegations:He sexually assaulted a 14-year-old male student in 1991.
Post:Malvern Preparatory School, Chester County.
Church response:He was arrested in 1999 and charged with sexual assault after the victim filed a crim-
inal complaint.
Status:Cochrane, now 60, was sentenced in 2003 to 11/2 to four years in prison.
John P. Connor
Ordained:1962
Allegations:He was arrested in 1984 on charges of molesting a 14-year-old male student while on a
weekend trip to Cape May. Connor, who admitted the attack, was permitted to undergo treatment at a
church-affiliated institution in Toronto.
Post:Theology teacher at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School, Camden County.
Church response:After Connor's arrest, Bevilacqua accepted his transfer to Pittsburgh, when Bevilac-
qua headed that diocese, and then to Philadelphia. This was done, the jury said, under a policy of "bishops
helping bishops."
Bevilacqua told the pastor supervising Connor in Philadelphia that he had transferred there to be near
his sick mother - saying nothing about his sex abuse. At the parish, Connor showered attention and gifts on
one boy, the grand jury said.
The jury also said that Bevilacqua's testimony about his knowledge of Connor's sex abuse was "untruth-
ful."
Status:Connor, now 73, retired in 2002.
James J. Coonan
Ordained:1965
Allegations:He was involved with a 14-year-old male and a 15-year-old male in 1966 or 1967.
Post:Queen of the Universe, Bucks County.
Church response:After the complaint was made in 2002, the church limited Coonan's duties to saying
private Masses and further restricted him in 2004.
Status:Coonan, now 68, retired in 2002 and agreed last year to live under church supervision.
Nicholas V. Cudemo
Ordained:1963
Allegations:A church official called him "one of the sickest people I ever knew." He had a pattern of mo-
lesting and sexually assaulting grade-school and teenage girls in parishes and Catholic schools in the arch-
diocese from 1964 to 1985.
The grand jury said Cudemo raped an 11-year-old and later helped her get an abortion; molested a fifth
grader in the confessional; invoked God to seduce and shame his victims; and maintained sexually abusive
relationships with several girls simultaneously.
Posts:St. Stanislaus and Archbishop Kennedy High School in Montgomery County; Cardinal Dougherty
High School and St. John Neumann High School in Philadelphia; and residences at SS. Cosmas and Dami-
an and St. Titus, Montgomery County, and St. Helena, Center Square.
Church response:The diocese transferred him from residence to residence, parish to parish, and school
to school. Cudemo refused to undergo inpatient hospitalization.
After the national scandal erupted, his duties as a priest were curtailed.
Status:Cudemo, now 69, was defrocked this year.
John J. Delli Carpini
Ordained:1976
Allegations:He molested a 13-year-old boy from the time the victim was an eighth grader in 1977 until
1983.
Posts:St. Luke the Evangelist, Montgomery County; St. John the Evangelist, Philadelphia; Roman Cath-
olic High School, Philadelphia; and residence at St. Monica, Philadelphia.
Church response:He was placed on six-month leave in 1998. Therapists diagnosed him as having "a
sexual disorder." He was reassigned as a chaplain to a home for retired nuns and then placed on adminis-
trative leave in 2002. He was removed from ministry in 2004.
Status:Delli Carpini, now 56, was defrocked this month.
Edward M. DePaoli
Ordained:1970
Allegations:While a teacher of morals and ethics at an archdiocese high school in 1985, he was arres-
ted on child pornography charges when porn worth $15,000 was found in his room at Holy Martyrs rectory in
Montgomery County. He was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to one year on probation. On three later occa-
sions, child pornography and "inappropriate magazines" were found in his possession.
Posts:Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Bucks County; Bishop McDevitt High School, Montgomery County; St.
John the Baptist, Philadelphia; and St. Gabriel Rectory, Montgomery County.
Church response:After the conviction, Bevilacqua advised in the memo that "for the present time, it
might to more advisable for [Father DePaoli] to return to the active ministry in another diocese."
This would "put a sufficient period between the publicity and the reinstatement in the active ministry of
the archdiocese," Bevilacqua wrote.
The report said a New Jersey diocese then took in DePaoli, just as Bevilacqua had accepted Connor
after his conviction.
After his stay in New Jersey, DePaoli returned to a Philadelphia parish. A nun then complained that his
behavior there made her worry about the safety of children. She was fired from her position, the jury said.
Status:DePaoli, now 60, was defrocked this year.
Michael J. Donofrio
Ordained:1976
Allegations:He abused a male teenage parish worker in 1982 and 1983, the report said. In a separate
filing with the grand jury, Donofrio said there was "absolutely no truth" to the allegation.
Post:St. Thomas Aquinas, Philadelphia.
Church response:The archdiocese sought in 2003 to have him relieved of his duties.
Status:Despite archdiocese efforts, Donofrio, now 55, is working as a missionary in Peru.
William J. Dougherty
Ordained:1969
Allegations:He abused a female high school student at a time and place not specified in the report.
Church response:Restrictions were imposed on his ministry in 2004.
Status:Dougherty, now 62, requested the permission of the Vatican last year to leave the priesthood.
Philip J. Dowling
Ordained:1956
Allegations:He abused two sisters, 10 and 11, in the 1960s, the grand jury said.
Posts:Corpus Christi, Philadelphia; and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Montgomery County.
Church response:The church barred Dowling from ministry this year after The Inquirer published an art-
icle in which he admitted abusing one of the sisters.
Status:Dowling, now 76, is retired and living under church supervision according to information on the
archdiocese Web site.
Peter J. Dunne
Ordained:1954
Allegations:He sexually abused a 14-year-old male beginning in 1958 and at least three others over an
unspecified period. He was diagnosed as an "untreatable pedophile."
Posts:Cardinal Dougherty High School, Philadelphia; residence, St. Bartholomew, Philadelphia. He was
assistant director of the archdiocese scouting program.
Church response:The church permitted him to remain an active priest for seven years after receiving in-
formation in 1986 about his sexual abuse of an altar boy.
Status:Dunne, now 79, retired in 1995 to Kintnersville, Pa., where, according to the grand jury, he "was
known to take boys for sleepovers" at his rural cabin. He agreed last year to live under church supervision.
Thomas J. Durkin
Ordained:1964
Allegations:He molested eight boys, most between 11 and 14, from 1964 to 1966.
Posts:St. Charles Borromeo, Bucks County; Holy Savior, Linwood; and Holy Spirit, Delaware County.
Church response:The diocese transferred him from parish to parish. Durkin left active ministry in 1968.
Status:Durkin, now 67, was defrocked this year.
James M. Dux
Ordained:1948
Allegations:He abused at least 13 boys and girls from the 1960s to the 1980s. Among other acts, he is
accused of molesting a 9-year-old boy while a summer guest at the boy's family home in Michigan.
Posts:St. Anthony of Padua, Montgomery County; St. John the Baptist, Philadelphia; St. Philip Neri and
St. Eugene, Delaware County.
Church response:The church, after transferring him among parishes, directed him in 1995 to have no
contact with children.
Status:Dux, now 82, retired in 1994. He agreed last year to live under church supervision.
Leonard A. Furmanski
Ordained:1959
Allegations:Furmanski abused children throughout his 44 years as a teacher, principal and pastor.
Among other offenses, he molested a Catholic high school student in Delaware County after the student
came to him for help after being raped by another teacher there. He lay on top of a 12-year-old girl, rubbing
his penis against her on the pretense of sex education. He arranged for sexual encounters between this girl
and an altar boy, asking about their sex later.
Posts:Cardinal O'Hara High School in Delaware County; St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Bucks County; Sacred
Heart, Bridgeport.
Church response:In part by providing therapists with inadequate information about Furmanski's con-
duct, the archdiocese twice cleared the priest of being an abuser, the grand jury said. It also bullied one vic-
tim, accusing him of seeking money and telling his wife she might lose her job if her husband persisted with
his complaint.
In 2003, in a new round of interrogation by church officials, Furmanski admitted to "fondling boys" and
was removed from any church assignments.
Status:Furmanski, now 73, lives under supervision at a church retirement home in Darby.
Francis J. Gallagher
Ordained:1973
Allegations:Gallagher was arrested in 1989 on charges of soliciting sex in Sea Isle City, N.J., from two
young men, age 18 and 20. Shortly after the arrest, he admitted to church officials that he had abused two
teenage brothers at an unspecified time and place.
Post:Cardinal Dougherty High School, Philadelphia, at time of arrest.
Church response:After Gallagher received therapy, he was assigned to Immaculate Conception Church
in Jenkintown. He worked there for nine years, with no restrictions on access to children, then at another par-
ish with a school.
Status:After the national clergy scandal broke in 2002, the church fired Gallagher as a priest, but told
him his education degree might help him find a new job. Gallagher, now 60, became a teacher of students at
colleges left unidentified in the grand jury report. Removal from the priesthood is pending, according to in-
formation on the archdiocese Web site.
Joseph P. Gallagher
Ordained:1973
Allegations:While assigned to the large St. Monica's parish in South Philadelphia, he abused a 12-year-
old boy at an unspecified location.
Post:St. Monica's, Philadelphia.
Church response:After the church received the complaint about the boy in 1974, Gallagher underwent
therapy, then was sent to a new parish.
Status:In 2002, he was put on leave. Gallagher, now 58, was barred last year from any priestly service,
but was left in a church facility to live under supervision.
Stanley M. Gana
Ordained:1970
Allegations:Gana sexually abused "countless" boys, the grand jury report said, some for years.
Posts:Our Lady of Calvary and Ascension parishes, Philadelphia.
Church response:When a seminarian came forward in 1991 to say Gana had abused him, the report
says, the archdiocese launched an investigation of the seminarian, kicking him out.
Mgsr. William J. Lynn, the chief investigator of abuse, told the seminarian that Gana had not only abused
children, but slept with women, stolen church money and abused alcohol. "You see," Lynn was quoted as
saying, "he's not a pure pedophile."
Status:Gana, now 63, was removed from ministry in 2002, after the scandal broke. He is now living un-
der church supervision in Philadelphia, according to information on the archdiocese Web site.
Joseph P. Gausch
Ordained:1945
Allegations:Gausch abused young boys - continuing to do so even after victims had come forward. The
abuse included fondling, masturbation, oral sex and attempted anal rape. He told one victim no one would
believe him because he was black.
Posts:St Joseph, Carbon County; Our Lady of Peace, Delaware County; Queen of the Universe, Bucks
County; Good Shepherd, Philadelphia; St. Stanislaus, Montgomery County; and St. Bridget, Philadelphia.
Church response:In 1974, after Gausch admitted he was a molester, the church's chancellor wrote: "be-
cause of the possible future scandal, we will transfer him in the near future."
Status:Gausch died in 1999 at 83.
Francis A. Giliberti
Ordained:1970
Allegations:In the 1970s, Giliberti was said by students to run a so-called anti-masturbation "boot camp"
and would walk in on students while they were masturbating.
One victim was so traumatized by sexual acts with Giliberti that he later set his penis on fire with lighter
fluid.
Posts:He taught at Cardinal O'Hara High School and lived at Nativity B.V.M., both in Delaware County.
Church response:After two victims came forward in 2002, the church obtained a psychological evalu-
ation that found Giliberti no threat. Two years later, a third victim surfaced. That year, the church deemed
charges against him credible and removed him from ministry.
Status:Giliberti, now 68, is living under church supervision.
John E. Gillespie
Ordained:1953
Allegations:In 1994, two brothers alleged abuse by Gillespie. In 1997, the mother of another boy com-
plained that Gillespie had asked in the confessional, "Do you touch yourself? Did you ever sexually hurt your-
self?" The church said the seal of the confessional barred any investigation. After another complaint, in 2000,
Gillespie admitted being a molester.
Posts:Immaculate Conception, Bucks County; Our Lady of Calvary, Philadelphia; Mother of Divine
Providence, Montgomery County.
Church response:Therapists warned the church in 2000 that Gillespie wanted to apologize to victims,
warning: "If he pursues making amends, he could bring forth more difficulty for himself and legal jeopardy."
Status:After his admission, Gillespie was ordered to resign as pastor of Our Lady of Calvary, but was
named emeritus pastor. In 2004, Gillespie, now 77, was ordered to be in a supervised church facility.
Thomas J. Grumm
Ordained:1975
Allegations:Grumm abused a 15-year-old boy in about 1976 and another teenage boy in the late 1980s.
Post:Cardinal Dougherty High School, Philadelphia.
Church response:After complaints were made in 2001, Grumm was told to retire.
Status:Grumm, now 56, was barred from priestly service in 2004 and told to live under church supervi-
sion.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer

All Rights Reserved
Centre Daily Times
Advocates urge lifting limits on child sex-abuse cases

BYLINE: By Joann Loviglio
SECTION: A; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 545 words
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- Even if Pennsylvania lengthens its statute of limitations for child sex abuse lawsuits,
as recommended by a grand jury in the Philadelphia archdiocese probe, advocates also urge that the statute
be lifted entirely for at least a year to allow even older cases to move forward.
Passing a law to abolish the statute of limitations would "protect our grandkids from that day forward, but
it doesn't address past abuse," David Clohessy, national director of the Survival Network of Those Abused by
Priests and Other Clergy, said Thursday. "And abusive priests get a free pass and access to a current crop of
victims."
Clohessy said that states should look at what California has done. The state lifted the statute of limita-
tions for civil lawsuits in sex-abuse cases for all of 2003.
The Philadelphia grand jury on Wednesday released a scathing report documenting assaults on minors
by more than 60 priests since 1967 and alleged that church leaders covered up the abuse, a claim the arch-
diocese denied. Among its recommendations on combating the molestation of children by priests, the grand
jury recommended lengthening or abolishing the statute of limitations for sexual abuse.
Amid the clergy abuse scandal nationwide, the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania for victims to lodge
sexual abuse allegations was extended in 2002 to a victim's 30th birthday; victims previously had only two
years after their 18th birthday.
"Victims ... are simply not in a position emotionally and psychologically to come forward ... until well into
adulthood," said Deputy District Attorney Ronald Eisenberg. "So even the somewhat longer statutes applic-
able to child sexual abuse weren't long enough."
John Salveson, of the Survival Network's Philadelphia chapter, said that in several weeks the group will
present its suggestions to change the laws, including a one-year window in which people with cases beyond
the statute of limitations can file civil suits.
After California abolished its statute of limitations, hundreds of victims of abusive clergy, coaches, teach-
ers, Scout leaders and others "were able to seek justice in the courts, expose their persecutors, warn parents
and protect children," Clohessy said.
He said that about a dozen other states are considering similar measures, including Ohio and New York,
where similar bills have passed one chamber of the legislature and are awaiting debate in the other.
In Illinois, a law was passed that suspends the statute of limitations when an abuser uses "coercion,
duress or deceit to intimidate a victim, which covers most cases of molestation," Clohessy said.
However, he and others said that convincing lawmakers to support such measures can be a tough sell.
Some states have seen lobbyists from the church rise in opposition to such bills, saying they could harm
many religious and children's institutions that have nothing to do with abuse scandals.
"I have spoken to the legislature before and looked at the notes of the legislative history of the statute of
limitations (legislative proposals), and one of the impediments is the objection of the Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference ... to enlarging the statute of limitations," District Attorney Lynne Abraham said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)

All Rights Reserved
Lincolnshire Echo
September 20, 2005
My sex abuse ordeal at hands of my evil dad
SECTION: News; Courts; CrownCourt; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 565 words
Brave Duncan Fairhurst helped jail his father - 30 years after being a victim of his evil sex assaults. The
35-year-old was raped by his dad during a 10-year ordeal which began when he was just four years old.
The abuse only ended when Duncan tried to kill himself with an overdose, aged 14.
Today, 69-year-old Clifford Fairhurst was beginning an 11-year prison sentence.
A judge at Lincoln Crown Court called him an "unmitigatedly wicked" man after he was found guilty of
systematic indecent assault and rape against two young boys.
And now Duncan has waived his right to anonymity to reveal how his father's attacks almost cost him his
life.
"The abuse started when I was very young, so at the time I thought everything that he did was normal,"
he said.
"It was only when I got to puberty and started fancying girls that I realised that there was something
wrong with what he was doing." Duncan began drinking and taking drugs to try to numb his emotional pain.
He was eventually admitted to hospital after taking an overdose of paracetamol.
Although the abuse ended shortly after, he barely spoke to his father and moved out at 18.
In fact, it wasn't until 2003 when he saw his dad walking hand in hand with a five-year-old boy that he
decided to report the abuse to police.
He said: "That was the moment when I realised that if I didn't speak out other children could suffer like I
did." Yesterday, Fairhurst, formerly of St Michael's Close, Billinghay, but now living in Julian Road, Leicester,
was jailed by Judge John Machin.
Judge Machin said Fairhurst was "concerned only with satisfying his perverted and constant lust." A
week-long trial heard how he began abusing his son when he was six. In the 1980s he then began abusing
another boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
A jury found him guilty of 14 counts of indecent assault, indecency with a child and serious sexual as-
sault, dating from between 1976 and 1989.
At an earlier hearing, Fairhurst had pleaded guilty to four charges of indecent assault and four charges
of indecency with a child. These pleas were reflected in his sentence.
After hearing the sentence Duncan said he was delighted and relieved to see his father finally brought to
justice.
But he also warned that there could be dozens more of his father's victims in Lincolnshire.
He says his father, a poultry dealer, had been involved with youth football and Scout groups in Lin-
colnshire, and may have been using them to lure victims.
"I think there could be many more victims out there needing help, people who have never spoken out,"
he warned.
"It was only once I reported him to the police that I started to think about it, and I realised that my father
had always been involved in various children's groups.
"He was involved in other youth groups, church groups and boys football clubs in Sleaford, Ruskington
and Billinghay." He also thinks his father may have been part of a paedophile ring, who swapped images of
abused children, as he was photographed and videoed being raped by Fairhurst.
Duncan believes these fears have not been fully investigated by Lincolnshire Police and is planning to
complain to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
The jury at Lincoln Crown Court cleared Fairhurst of two charges, one of sexual assault and one of at-
tempted sexual assault.
LANGUAGE: English
© Copyright 2005 Lincolnshire Echo

The Mirror
September 19, 2005, Monday
250 KIDS IN SOCCER 'ABUSED'

BYLINE: BY JUSTINE SMITH
SECTION: Eire Edition; NEWS; Pg. 17
LENGTH: 156 words
HIGHLIGHT: VICTIM: Star Brazil
250 suspected cases of child abuse at British soccer clubs are being probed by FA chiefs, it was re-
vealed yesterday.
And two other cases are being examined at Premiership clubs.
Most incidents are of bullying, an Independent Football Commission report out this week says.
But some involve paedophiles posing as talent scouts. Coaches, adult players, refs and parents also
pose a risk, it adds.
In the past five years the FA has banned around 70 people from the game.
IFC chief Prof Derek Fraser said: "Children playing football must be protected from abuse."
His report makes 23 suggestions, including curbs on identifying youngsters in matchday programmes.
In 1998 Celtic Boys' Club coach Jim Torbett was convicted of sex abuse. His victims included ex-Man
United star Alan Brazil.
This year Christopher Norris, youth coach at Scottish side Morton, was found guilty of having lewd pho-
tos of children.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
The Mirror
September 19, 2005, Monday

250 KIDS IN SOCCER 'ABUSED'
SECTION: Scots Edition; NEWS; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 156 words
HIGHLIGHT: VICTIM: Star Brazil
SOME 250 suspected cases of child abuse at soccer clubs are being probed by FA chiefs, it was re-
vealed yesterday.
And two other cases are being examined at Premiership clubs.
Most incidents are of bullying, an Independent Football Commission report out this week says.
But some involve paedophiles posing as talent scouts. Coaches, adult players, refs and parents also
pose a risk, it adds.
In the past five years the FA has banned around 70 people from the game.
IFC chief Prof Derek Fraser said: "Children playing football must be protected from abuse."
His report makes 23 suggestions, including curbs on identifying youngsters in matchday programmes.
In 1998 Celtic Boys' Club coach Jim Torbett was convicted of sex abuse. His victims included ex-Man
United star Alan Brazil.
This year Christopher Norris, youth coach at Scottish side Morton, was found guilty of having lewd pho-
tos of children.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
September 15, 2005
Making Charities Accountable

BYLINE: Ben Gose
SECTION: MANAGING; Pg. 29
LENGTH: 2287 words
John Hardwicke Jr. says he was molested almost daily during his second year at the American Boychoir
School, in Princeton, N.J., in 1970 and 1971.
Donald B. Edwards, president of the prestigious private school, says he has no reason to doubt that at
least some sexual abuse occurred.
But whether Mr. Hardwicke can sue the boarding school for the abuse he endured is a question that is
now under consideration by the New Jersey Supreme Court. New Jersey is one of only a handful of states
that provide total immunity for charities from lawsuits that charge them with negligence, the legal term for the
failure to provide adequate care for others.
A handful of other states allow such lawsuits, but place limits on how much money charities have to pay
for harm they caused. In Massachusetts, for example, people who can prove they were hurt by a charity can
obtain no more than $20,000. Corporations do not get similar protections in the states.
State measures shielding charities from lawsuits were established to ensure that donations went to char-
itable activities rather than to legal payments, and they were common throughout the United States roughly a
century ago. But most states have eliminated or sharply pared such protections since the 1940s, largely due
to court rulings that found that the immunity was unfair to people who suffered at the hands of a charitable or-
ganization.
New Jersey's Battle
The immunity statutes are now under assault in some of the states in which they remain, including New
Jersey and Massachusetts, where critics are arguing that the laws are archaic and unjust.
While Mr. Hardwicke tests the strength of New Jersey's Charitable Immunity Act in court -- he is attempt-
ing to argue that the school's involvement in the abuse was intentional, rather than an act of negligence -- a
bill in the state Legislature would exempt sexual abuse from the act's protections. The bill has passed the
Senate, and advocates think they have enough votes in the General Assembly. Albio Sires, a Democrat who
is the speaker of the General Assembly, has not yet scheduled it for a vote.
Only one charity -- the New Jersey Catholic Conference -- has publicly lobbied to preserve the act
without changes.
Critics of charitable-immunity laws say that when the vast majority of the very organizations that theoret-
ically benefit from the laws are reluctant to defend them, it is time for such laws to go.
"It is very much in the interest of charities to oppose charitable immunity," says Harvey P. Dale, director
of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at New York University. "In the competition for donations,
and fees for service, enlightened charities would want to say, 'We give you as good or better care than in the
for-profit world.' I don't think they can do that by saying, "By the way, if you get hurt, screw you.'"
Defenders of immunity statutes argue that they are necessary because charities are far more financially
vulnerable than for-profit corporations.
Mr. Edwards, who arrived at American Boychoir in 1999 and has not personally been accused of abuse,
says that the school has made a good-faith effort to reach a financial settlement with Mr. Hardwicke. Mr. Ed-
wards says that Mr. Hardwicke told the school's former president that his real goal was to shut the school
down. Keith E. Smith, a lawyer for Mr. Hardwicke, says the settlement offer -- reportedly $200,000, although
Mr. Smith declined to confirm -- was inadequate, and that his client has no ambitions of forcing the school to
close. "If a plaintiff's goal is to put a legitimate charity out of business, I think the school's attorneys really
don't have any choice but to take advantage of what the law says," says Mr. Edwards.
Legal Challenge
The Hardwicke case centers on whether New Jersey's immunity law protects charities from any civil law-
suit, or only from lawsuits in which the charity was charged with negligence, rather than with acting intention-
ally to cause harm. Mr. Hardwicke, who now lives in rural Maryland, says that his abuse at American
Boychoir was coordinated by Donald Hanson, who was the choirmaster, but that he was also attacked by at
least three other staff members, including the headmaster, Anthony Edward Battaglia, according to court doc-
uments.
Mr. Hanson, who is accused of molesting several students during his 12 years at the school, was not im-
mediately fired when the school learned of the abuse of a student in 1981, some 10 years after Mr. Hard-
wicke left the school. However, Mr. Hanson was required to move off campus and his contact with students
was restricted. The school's board kept Mr. Hanson on for several more months because firing him would
have forced the cancellation of a major tour by the choir, and it believed the financial fallout might have
forced the school to close, according to court testimony by school officials.
In March 1982, five months after learning about the sexual abuse, the board accepted Mr. Hanson's
resignation for reasons of "personal health." The board's chairman, Stephen N. Howard, wrote a letter to par-
ents praising Mr. Hanson, saying: "His story at the Boychoir School is one of total devotion to the boys and
dedication to the best interests of the School."
Mr. Hanson, who has not responded to the lawsuit or spoken to the news media, apparently lives north of
Toronto (he's a native of Canada), but may have left the country. Mr. Battaglia, the former headmaster, who
lives in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., has denied molesting any students.
The school's actions go beyond mere negligence to reckless indifference to the welfare of students, Mr.
Smith says. "Charities should not be permitted to put dollars ahead of the children, particularly when we're
talking about the sexual abuse of our children," he says.
But Jay H. Greenblatt, the school's lawyer, says the Hardwicke camp is making a seman-tics argument,
and that the Charitable Immunity Act was clearly intended to cover cases like this one.
"If there is fault by the school, it's in negligently hiring, supervising, and maintaining the staff," Mr. Green-
blatt says. "You're back to negligence again. It's a matter of how you want to use the words."
In January 2003, Judge Jack Sabatino of New Jersey Superior Court sided with the school, writing that
the immunity law "insulates charitable organizations from liability for any degree of tortious conduct, no mat-
ter how flagrant."
Following that ruling, Mr. Hardwicke persuaded Lawrence Lessig, a former classmate at American
Boychoir, to join his legal team. Mr. Lessig, a well-known Stanford University law professor, argued before a
three-judge appellate-court panel that granting immunity to American Boychoir in this case would turn New
Jersey into "a haven for sex abuse by charitable institutions."
In February 2004, the appellate court sided 2-1 in favor of Mr. Hardwicke. "A child's fundamental right to
bodily integrity cannot be found secondary to a charity's well-being," the court said.
Legislation Pending
The case was heard by the state's Supreme Court last November, but the court has not yet issued a rul-
ing. Both sides in the Hardwicke case think the court may be waiting to see whether the Legislature makes
changes to the Charitable Immunity Act.
The New Jersey bill would void immunity for churches and charities when negligent hiring or manage-
ment allowed pedophiles to sexually abuse children.
"These laws were intended to protect institutions from frivolous lawsuits, but certainly not from cases of
gross negligence," says Mark Crawford, who says he was sexually abused by a Catholic clergy member as a
boy in New Jersey, is lobbying for the change in the immunity law.
William F. Bolan Jr., executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, which opposes the bill,
notes that under current legislation, people who say they were abused can still sue the individual perpetrat-
ors. He believes it is unfair to saddle charities and churches with liability for sexual abuse.
"The fault that gives rise to the sexual abuse is not discernable to the employer, since there is no psycho-
logical test that would uncover an individual with a proclivity to child sexual abuse," he says.
Mr. Bolan says he has urged other charities in New Jersey to join him in opposing the legislation, but
their executives either "don't want to stick their heads about the foxhole, or they say, 'It's your problem.'"
Such a stance is shortsighted, he believes, because any number of organizations could face the kinds of
lawsuits over sexual abuse that now confront the Catholic Church in parishes throughout the country. "Every
day that I open a newspaper, I see stories about sexual abuse by someone -- cops, teachers, Scout leaders,"
Mr. Bolan says.
Mr. Sires, the New Jersey speaker of the Assembly, has waited nearly a year to schedule the immunity
legislation for a vote. Joe Donnelly, a spokesman for Mr. Sires, says the bill "is still very much alive" but that
some lawmakers want to add a provision that would, after a certain date, prevent people from coming for-
ward with new abuse charges when the abuse occurred decades earlier.
"Everyone is in agreement that all victims that we currently are aware of will be able to have their day in
court," Mr. Donnelly says.
Massachusetts Cases
In Massachusetts, the charitable-immunity law dates to 1876, and was modified by the legislature in
1971 to permit damage awards against charities of no more than $20,000. Bills that would raise the ceiling
have failed in recent years, though many legal observers in the state believe the cap is far too low.
"It should be re-examined," says Marc G. Perlin, associate dean of Suffolk University Law School, in Bo-
ston. "There's no reason that a charitable organization or any other organization should not be liable for its
negligence."
Trial lawyers in Massachusetts have tried to find ways around the cap. Lawyers for the family of Howard
Reid, who died in January 2004 after obesity surgery at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, are
trying to circumvent the cap by arguing that the hospital falsely advertised on the radio and in newspapers
that the procedure was safe and effective.
Mr. Reid's heart stopped beating following a gastric-banding operation, his family says in a lawsuit in
which it is asking the hospital to pay $8.5-million in damages. The state's consumer-protection statute allows
people to sue businesses for unfair and deceptive trade practices, and the case is expected to make clear
whether individuals can sue nonprofit hospitals under the statute.
David W. White-Lief, a personal-injury lawyer in Boston, says a 2004 decision by the state's Supreme Ju-
dicial Court in another case may have opened the door for consumer-protection claims, but he says it would
be a mistake to underestimate the staying power of the law capping damages against charities. "The Mas-
sachusetts courts have consistently and vigilantly guarded this immunity, even though they've criticized it for
being out of touch with the costs of mistakes," he says.
A year ago, a Superior Court judge in Hampden County, Mass., upheld the $20,000 cap in a case
brought by a woman who was abused at age 10 by a former priest in the Catholic Diocese of Worcester. "It is
well established that charitable immunity and charitable limitation of damages apply to cases involving negli-
gent hiring and retention," Judge John A. Agostini wrote.
Mr. Perlin, the law-school dean, says the limits of charitable-immunity penalties are generally more prob-
lematic with sexual-abuse cases than with medical malpractice. "The issue becomes a starker one," Mr. Per-
lin says. "Unlike a hospital, where doctors have funds, the parties that have been negligent in the sex-abuse
cases often don't have funds."
Lost Medical Records
The state's highest court has upheld the damages cap even in some extreme cases. In one closely fol-
lowed case, the family of a newborn who suffered severe brain damage shortly after birth at Brigham and
Women's Hospital, in 1986, was unable to skirt the cap after the hospital lost medical records during the cru-
cial period when the boy, Dylan Keene, went into septic shock.
The family's lawyer, Chris A. Milne, had argued that the charitable-immunity cap should be struck in
Dylan Keene's case because the missing records prevented his client from being able to sue the individual
doctors and nurses who may have committed malpractice.
Lower courts agreed, removing the cap and awarding the boy $4.1-million. In 2003, the state's Supreme
Judicial Court found the hospital liable for the damage, but ruled that the cap on damages was a mandatory
limitation, and reduced the award to $20,000.
When Mr. Keene turned 17, his family decided to place him in a facility, rather than keep him at home,
because they feared they could not continue to provide in-home care, in part due to reasons of cost, accord-
ing to Mr. Milne.
"Why we can't find some common ground in providing for these families when we have this horrible result
is really a tragedy," Mr. Milne says.
Mr. Dale of New York University says that doing away with the immunity laws would end the negative at-
tention that all nonprofit groups get when people hear about cases like Mr. Keene's and Mr. Hardwicke's.
What's more, he says, the abolition of immunity laws would give charities more incentive to put in place
systems that prevent harm in the first place.
"When you create a system that gives you immunity regardless of fault," Mr. Dale says, "you create a
system in which there's no particular incentive to avoid fault."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 The Chronicle of Philanthropy
The Boston Herald

ALL EDITIONS
Jury finds former pro hockey scout not guilty of rape

BYLINE: By DAVE WEDGE
LENGTH: 206 words
A respected pro hockey scout from Dorchester has been cleared of rape charges and will now try to re-
build his ``ruined'' life, his attorney said last night.
Robert Richardson lost his job with the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames and had to shut down
his successful International Hockey Academy, which he ran at Boston University for years, after being ac-
cused of rape by a former player.
After a two-week trial, a Suffolk Superior Court jury deliberated for seven hours before finding Richard-
son not guilty yesterday of rape and indecent assault charges.
``The tragedy is that so much damage has been done to all he's accomplished over the years,'' said
Richardson's attorney, Robert George. ``He has been ruined by these unfounded allegations. He has to fig-
ure out if he even wants to go back (to coaching).''
Richardson's accuser, now 22, testified that he became a drug addict after being raped by Richardson in
1998 as a teen at the BU hockey camp. The man reported the alleged sex crimes to a therapist in 2002 and
hired attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented victims of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
In a statement, Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley said he was ``disappointed'' by the verdict but stood
by the charges.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
August 27, 2005 Saturday MO1 EDITION
What's a parent to do when kids' coaches arrested?

BYLINE: By Patty Fisher; Mercury News
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 678 words
I'm shell-shocked.
Just a week after my younger daughter's middle-school volleyball coach was jailed on charges of sedu-
cing a 14-year-old student, I learn that my older daughter's high-school soccer coach has been charged with
serving liquor to 18-year-old girls during a wild party that included streaking and group sex.
People I trusted with my kids. Two of them in the same week. What's going on here?
Lately there has been a steady flow of allegations of sexual abuse by local coaches, Scout leaders and
teachers. I don't think there's more abuse going on; I think there's just more willingness to report it.
Something opened the flood gates. Maybe it was the priest sex abuse. Maybe it was Megan's Law.
But with each new report, we wonder:
Are our kids safe?
Why didn't we see this coming? And what could we have done to prevent it?
''The questions you're asking are the kind of questions we're asking ourselves right now,'' said Marilyn
Cook, associate superintendent at the Palo Alto Unified School District. ''Good Lord, something like this
shakes us all up. Everything we do we're going to re-examine.''
Cook plans to bring coaches, students and parents together to make sure everyone is clear about the
boundaries. Good plan. It should have been in place years ago.
When I heard that Jordan Middle School gym teacher Bill Giordano was in jail on charges of having a
sexual relationship with a student years ago, my first thought was: Not Mr. G. He's such a great coach. He
encouraged my daughter, stood up for her, helped her build self-confidence. Besides, I liked the guy. I was
heartbroken -- and angry. How could he -- if he did -- do something so incredibly stupid? How could he let us
all down? My second thought was: Maybe.
Mr. G. was always driving around with a bunch of girls in his Jeep. He took them to Jamba Juice on the
way home from games. He let them hang out in his office off the gym. They joked with him, confided in him.
Did we parents think this fraternizing might be out of bounds? Maybe. How many of us knew that the state in-
terscholastic sports organization says coaches shouldn't give players rides? Did we do anything? No.
When I heard the news about Jeff van Gastel, who coached the Palo Alto varsity girls soccer team to
three conference championships in a row, I had a very different reaction. No heartbreak.
Van Gastel was not particularly popular -- with the girls or the parents. He yelled at the team during
games, played favorites, broke promises. Girls on the Paly team often complained to parents about him. We
winced. But did we try to get him fired? No.
Neither of these guys has been convicted. Even so, it's pretty clear their coaching days are over.
What about other coaches? Palo Alto has some great ones, dedicated people who know the boundaries,
who appreciate the important role sports can play in developing strong, self-confident girls. How do we sup-
port those coaches and keep our kids safe?
Dick Held, a retired FBI special agent and a basketball dad who has coached at Jordan and Palo Alto
High, has a unique perspective on the problem. For the past couple of years he's been consulting with the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on its child sex abuse policy.
''Sports provide a unique opportunity for people who are not parents to have an effect on our children,''
he said. ''But we have to get people engaged in the notion that the safety of kids is everybody's responsibil-
ity.''
That means more folks who care about kids need to volunteer to coach. Parents have to show up to
watch practices, and pick up their kids on time so coaches aren't left alone with them. It means we have to
talk to our kids about what's OK and what's not, get to know the coaches and follow our instincts. That's the
only way to keep our kids, and everyone else's kids, safe. As rough as this week has been for my family,
there are families going through a kind of hell I never want to know.
Patty Fisher writes about the Peninsula on Wednesday and Saturday. Contact her at pfisher@mer-
curynews.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
August 27, 2005 Saturday
A trusting relationship broken;

AS ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE IN LOCAL SCHOOLS
COME OUT, DID PARENTS MISS EARLY SIGNS?
BYLINE: By Patty Fisher; Mercury News
LENGTH: 685 words
I'm shell shocked.

Just a week after my younger daughter's middle-school volleyball coach was jailed on charges of sedu-
cing a 14-year-old student, I learn that my older daughter's high-school soccer coach had been charged with
serving liquor to 18-year-old girls during a wild party that included streaking and group sex.
People I trusted with my kids. Two of them in the same week. What's going on here?
Lately there has been a steady flow of allegations of sexual abuse by local coaches, scout leaders and
teachers. I don't think there's more abuse going on; I think there's just more willingness to report it.
Something opened the flood gates. Maybe it was the priest sex abuse. Maybe it was Megan's law.
But with each new report, we wonder:
Are our kids safe?
Why didn't we see this coming? And what could we have done to prevent it?
''The questions you're asking are the kind of questions we're asking ourselves right now,'' said Marilyn
Cook, associate superintendent at the Palo Alto Unified School District.
''Good Lord, something like this shakes us all up. Everything we do we're going to re-examine.''
Cook plans to bring coaches, students and parents together to make sure everyone is clear about the
boundaries. Good plan. It should have been in place years ago.
When I heard that Jordan Middle School gym teacher Bill Giordano was in jail on charges of having a
sexual relationship with a student years ago, my first thought was: Oh no!
Not Mr. G. He's such a great coach. He encouraged my daughter, stood up for her, helped her build self-
confidence. Besides, I liked the guy. I was heartbroken -- and angry. How could he -- if he did -- do
something so incredibly stupid? How could he let us all down?
My second thought was: Oh yes!
We should have seen it coming. Mr. G. was always driving around with a bunch of girls in his Jeep. He
took them to Jamba Juice on the way home from games. He let them hang out in his office off the gym. They
joked with him, confided in him. Did we parents think this fraternizing might be out of bounds? Maybe. How
many of us knew that the state interscholastic sports organization says coaches shouldn't give players rides.
Did we do anything? No.
When I heard the news about Jeff van Gastel, who coached the Palo Alto varsity girls soccer team to
three conference championships in a row, I had a very different reaction. No heartbreak.
Van Gastel was not particularly popular -- with the girls or the parents. He yelled at the team during
games, played favorites, broke promises. Girls on the Paly team often complained to parents about him. We
winced. But did we try to get him fired? No.
Neither of these guys has been convicted. Even so, it's pretty clear their coaching days are over.
What about other coaches? Palo Alto has some great ones, dedicated people who know the boundaries,
who appreciate the important role sports can play in developing strong, self-confident girls. How do we sup-
port those coaches and keep our kids safe?
Dick Held, a retired FBI special agent and a basketball dad who has coached at Jordan and Palo Alto
High, has a unique perspective on the problem. For the past couple of years he's been consulting with the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on its child sex abuse policy.
''Sports provide a unique opportunity for people who are not parents to have an effect on our children,''
he said. ''But we have to get people engaged in the notion that the safety of kids is everybody's responsibil-
ity.''
That means more folks who care about kids need to volunteer to coach. Parents have to show up to
watch practices, and pick up their kids on time so coaches aren't left alone with them. It means we have to
talk to our kids about what's OK and what's not, get to know the coaches and follow our instincts.
That's the only way to keep our kids, and everyone else's kids, safe. As rough as this week has been for
my family, there are families going through a kind of hell I never want to know.
Patty Fisher writes about the Peninsula on Wednesday and Saturday. Contact her at pfisher@mer-
curynews.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
The Denver Post
August 26, 2005 Friday

FINAL EDITION
A QUESTION OF TRUST - Colorado priest accused of abuse Giv-

ing justice time Legislators seek looser statutes of limitations BILLS
IN THE WORKS One option is a one-year window for child sex-ab-
use suits regardless of when the incidents occurred.
BYLINE: Eric Gorski Denver Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A-01
LENGTH: 955 words
As allegations of child sex abuse build against a former priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Denver, at least two Colorado legislators are crafting bills that would loosen or do away with statutes of limit-
ations for child sexual abuse.
Democratic State Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, the Senate president and a Catholic, has filed paperwork to in-
troduce a bill in 2006 that would give adults victimized as minors more time to file civil lawsuits. One strong
possibility, she said, is legislation mirroring a California law that opened a one-year window for child sex-ab-
use lawsuits regardless of how long ago the incidents took place.
State Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, said she will introduce a bill that would eliminate the statute of
limitations for criminal charges involving sexual offenses against children. Courts have held that such laws
can apply only to future cases and not be retroactive, so victims from decades ago would not be able to bring
charges.
Both legislators said they were motivated by the clergy sexual-abuse scandal that has plagued U.S.
Catholic dioceses since 2002. In Colorado, 17 men have told The Denver Post in recent weeks that former
priest Harold Robert White molested them over a 20-year period beginning in the 1960s. Evidence has sur-
faced showing the Denver archdiocese knew about complaints and continued to move him from parish to
parish.
Five men have filed lawsuits against the archdiocese claiming negligence for how it handled White, who
left public ministry in 1993 and was defrocked last year.
White has refused to say whether he has ever been accused of child abuse. In a brief TV interview Wed-
nesday, White said the allegations against him contained "half-truths."
The statute of limitations for negligence is generally two years, but the plaintiffs are arguing that the law
allows for exemptions that apply to them.
Fitz-Gerald proposes re-examining a Colorado law that states victims of child sexual abuse must take
civil action by the time they are 24, except in rare circumstances, including cases of repressed memory.
"Despite the archdiocese saying they are doing everything they can to create a safe atmosphere now,
these victims were once little boys," she said. "There is some sense of justice not being satisfied, especially
because there might be other offenders and the archdiocese is not willing to come forward with who they
are."
Fran Maier, chancellor of the Denver archdiocese, would not respond to Fitz-Gerald.
Since the allegations against White surfaced, the archdiocese has stressed that it takes all allegations
seriously, acts promptly and is committed to helping all involved heal.
In California, hundreds of lawsuits were filed after the state, prompted by the clergy abuse crisis, abol-
ished time-limit restrictions on civil suits for a year. Legislatures in New York and Ohio have pending legisla-
tion that would take the same step.
"Let's see the extent of the problem," Fitz-Gerald said. "It might be something that allows victims to say
that despite what they would have to go through to dredge this up again, there is justice to be had."
Fitz-Gerald said any legislation dealing with the time limits would allow lawsuits against any individual or
institution. Day-care centers, schools and groups such as the Boy Scouts could be sued. The Catholic
Church strongly opposed the California law, arguing it was unconstitutional.
Both Maier and Tim Dore, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, the public-policy arm
of the state's three dioceses, said it is premature to comment on the proposal. "Truthfully, we haven't even
thought enough about it to know what we're going to do," Dore said.
Already allied with Fitz-Gerald is the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national support
group that is advocating legislative fixes.
"It's the best thing that could happen because that's what this is about - to change laws so victims of
clergy abuse and any kind of child sex abuse can come forward, be heard and have some justice, closure
and healing," said Colorado SNAP leader Troy Gray, who won a settlement in a lawsuit filed using Californi-
a's one-year window.
Marshall is proposing adding child sex abuse to the list of crimes that have no time restrictions for crimin-
al prosecution: murder, kidnapping, forgery and treason. Under current state law governing child sex abuse,
in most cases criminal charges cannot be pursued beyond the victim's 28th birthday.
"These victims (accusing White) may not be helped by a new law," said Marshall, who was raised Cathol-
ic but is no longer practicing. "But it may be helpful for them to know Colorado is moving forward and that if it
were to happen to other victims, there would be an ability to prosecute."
Alaska and Maine have done away with criminal statutes of limitations for child sex assaults.
Marshall said she has the support of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault but has yet to talk to
law enforcement or district attorneys. At this stage, the proposal is getting a mixed response.
"I can see why a legislator might want to do that," said Cliff Riedel, Larimer County assistant district attor-
ney. "But in practice, the age of the cases and the loss of evidence is almost going to build in a statute of lim-
itations because you're not going to be able to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt very likely."
But Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert supports dropping time restrictions on criminal cases,
noting that the clergy abuse scandal has illustrated how difficult it can be for victims to come forward, even
years later.
"This might bring a prosecution and maybe get justice," Hurlbert said.
Staff writer Eric Gorski can be reached at 303-820-1698 or egorski@denverpost.com.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved

Idaho Edition
Boys' ranch closure urged;

Former resident says worker;
sexually abused him in 1980s
SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 836 words
A former Morning Star Boys' Ranch resident who alleges he was sexually abused there called for its
closure at a news conference Thursday.
Michael Gray, a 37-year-old Spokane graphic designer, said he lived in fear of the ranch's counselors in
the early 1980s. In a lawsuit filed by two former residents this week, Gray alleged that a Morning Star coun-
selor named James Clarke repeatedly molested and sodomized him at the ranch in 1981.
"At the time, I just wanted someone to be my friend," Gray said at the news conference near the en-
trance to the 225-acre Catholic boys' ranch south of Spokane. "I did whatever he wanted me to."
Spokeswoman P.J. Watters said Morning Star was "shocked" and "deeply saddened" by the accusa-
tions, and said the ranch remains dedicated to serving boys in need.
"None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven," Watters said. "Anyone can say anything."
Watters said ranch policy prohibited her from disclosing whether Clarke worked at the ranch.
The 12-page court file details allegations of physical and sexual assault stretching back to the 1950s. It
accuses Morning Star officials of permitting the abuse and concealing it from state investigators at the De-
partment of Social and Health Services.
Seattle attorney Timothy Kosnoff, who represents 150 victims of clergy sexual abuse, said the two
former residents, who came from troubled homes, were "perhaps the most vulnerable of any of the sex ab-
use victims I've represented in the past 10 years."
"When men come forward and report similar kinds of acts, one has to ask what is Morning Star Boys'
Ranch really about? What really went on here?" asked Kosnoff, who is representing the men along with
Seattle attorney Michael Pfau.
A second former resident, identified in court documents as W.K., alleges that in the 1960s two coun-
selors forced several Morning Star boys to pose for photographs with flowers protruding from their rectums.
Late Thursday, another former resident of Morning Star agreed to talk to the newspaper and corrobor-
ated W.K's account that the counselors penetrated them with the flowers as a punishment when the boys
were ill.
"I don't know why they did it," he said. "Because they could. They were adults and we were kids."
The Spokane man provided his name to The Spokesman-Review, but asked not to be identified be-
cause he does not want to be involved in the pending lawsuit.
Founded by the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, the boys' ranch gained renown for caring for nearly 1,300
troubled boys, ages 10 to 18, since it opened in 1956. Several former residents have contacted The Spokes-
man-Review to report that Morning Star and the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner turned around their lives.
Weitensteiner, a 73-year-old Catholic priest, went on temporary leave last month because of stress-re-
lated health problems.
Mike Tornquist, administrator of the state's Division of Licensed Resources, said his staff has made sev-
eral visits to Morning Star in recent months.
"We have focused our efforts on doing health and safety inspections on the kids who are currently
there," Tornquist said. "We're not finding any reason to be concerned about the current situation."
Tornquist said it is "very unlikely we'd be able to do anything with something that far back unless it in-
volves current staff."
"Billy," identified in court documents as W.K., said he was unable to attend Thursday's news conference
because of anxiety.
"I'm broke down," he said. "I just couldn't stand in front of those cameras."
W.K., now 50, said Morning Star used him in a promotional video for the ranch. He said his photograph
was also used in promotional mailings. Written underneath the photo, he said, were the words, "Who can he
turn to?"
The Spokesman-Review obtained a copy of the eight-minute video "Billy of Morning Star Boys Ranch." It
can be viewed at spokesmanreview.com.
In the film, Billy and another boy start to fight during a football game. A staff member - apparently
Weitensteiner - appears and grabs the boys by the arm. The boys are then taken into a boxing ring to fight as
the narrator states, "In some cases, trial by fire can get more promising attention."
The film later shows Billy with a black eye - he said it was makeup - as a man who appears to be
Weitensteiner counsels him. The film ends with Billy underneath a tree, dreaming of his future.
SIDEBAR:
ABUSE LITIGATOR
In the past decade, Seattle attorney Timothy Kosnoff has emerged as one of the most aggressive litigat-
ors of child-sexual abuse cases in the Pacific Northwest.
Kosnoff, 51, has sued the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church and the Boy Scouts of America, among
others, and he has worked with hundreds of alleged sexual abuse victims.
"I am appalled by how many cases I've come across," Kosnoff said. "It's a far greater problem than soci-
ety wants to acknowledge."
Kosnoff said the institutions that allegedly allowed the abuse to occur "must be held accountable.
"Abuse is a devastating experience," Kosnoff said. "It is the murder of the soul of a child."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Idaho Edition
Boys' ranch closure urged;

Former resident says worker;
sexually abused him in 1980s
SECTION: B; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 836 words
ated W.K's account that the counselors penetrated them with the flowers as a punishment when the boys
were ill.
The Spokane man provided his name to The Spokesman-Review, but asked not to be identified be-
cause he does not want to be involved in the pending lawsuit.
because of anxiety.
turn to?"
can be viewed at spokesmanreview.com.
SIDEBAR:
ABUSE LITIGATOR
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Metro Edition
Closure of boys' ranch urged;

Former resident alleges sexual abuse
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 878 words
ated W.K.'s account that the counselors penetrated them with the flowers as a punishment when the boys
were ill.
The Spokane man provided his name to The Spokesman-Review but asked not to be identified because
he does not want to be involved in the pending lawsuit.
In May, The Spokesman-Review requested the agency's investigative files on Morning Star, but the
agency has not yet produced the records. It is not clear whether DSHS previously received reports on the al-
leged abuse referenced in the lawsuit.
because of anxiety.
turn to?"
can be viewed at www.spokesmanreview. com.
SIDEBAR:
SEX-ABUSE LITIGATOR
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Metro Edition
Closure of boys' ranch urged;

Former resident alleges sexual abuse
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 878 words
ated W.K.'s account that the counselors penetrated them with the flowers as a punishment when the boys
were ill.
The Spokane man provided his name to The Spokesman-Review but asked not to be identified because
he does not want to be involved in the pending lawsuit.
In May, The Spokesman-Review requested the agency's investigative files on Morning Star, but the
agency has not yet produced the records. It is not clear whether DSHS previously received reports on the al-
leged abuse referenced in the lawsuit.
because of anxiety.
turn to?"
can be viewed at www.spokesmanreview. com.
SIDEBAR:
SEX-ABUSE LITIGATOR
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
August 25, 2005 Thursday

Idaho Edition
FORMER BOYS' RANCH RESIDENTS ALLEGE SEX ABUSE;

In lawsuit, pair say they were molested by Morning Star counselors;
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1671 words
Two former residents of Morning Star Boys' Ranch, including one who served as its 'poster boy,' sued the
Spokane boys' home on Wednesday, alleging that they were sexually abused by counselors in separate in-
cidents in the 1960s and 1980s.
The lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court details a bizarre punishment in the '60s in which two
counselors forced several Morning Star residents to pose for photographs with flowers protruding from their
rectums.
According to the lawsuit, those photographs were circulated among the staff and residents at Morning
Star, and were kept in the desk of Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, the ranch's revered director.
"It was a joke to them," the former resident, identified in court documents as W.K., said in an interview
last month.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Morning Star said, "The Ranch has never knowingly al-
lowed or condoned abuse of any kind. Our mission has always been to serve boys in need and we have
done everything in our power to fulfill that mission."
The lawsuit alleges the photos "served to stigmatize, control and silence W.K. and other boys regarding
the abusive conduct they were made to endure."
"Why does a middle-aged priest keep photos in his desk of boys with flowers sticking out of their ass?"
said Timothy Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney representing the two men. "I don't know. I don't see the humor in it."
The allegations are the most recent in a string of physical and sexual accusations from former residents
and their families that have surfaced in the past several months.
Weitensteiner, who has been accused of physical abuse by some former residents and counselors,
went on medical leave last month.
The Spokesman-Review in June reported the allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the ranch, in-
cluding accusations of physical abuse against Weitensteiner, a 73-year-old Catholic priest.
In its statement, Morning Star said the newspaper's reporting "has largely been biased" and said it "has
let down its readers and our community through its one-sided coverage."
In the 12-page court complaint, a second former resident, Michael Gray, alleged that a counselor at
Morning Star repeatedly molested and sodomized him at the ranch in 1981.
In an interview on Wednesday, Gray, a 37-year-old Spokane graphic designer, said counselor James
Clarke assaulted him between 10 and 15 times - both in the counselor's apartment and in a laundry room at
the boys' home.
"Blind eyes were turned to it," Gray said. "I want to see (Morning Star) shut down."
Clarke could not be reached for comment.
Gray, who served three years in a federal prison for manufacturing marijuana, said he turned to drugs to
ease the pain of the abuse, but said he is now sober. In 1995, federal authorities identified Gray as the focus
of an investigation into an alleged plot to blow up a federal building, but he was never charged in the case.
The court documents filed on Wednesday allege he was also physically assaulted by counselors at the
ranch.
"There were guys you looked up to who beat the hell out of you, and then there were guys just standing
around watching," Gray said.
Since it opened in 1956, the group home south of Spokane has cared for nearly 1,300 boys, including
both private-pay residents and state-placed boys whose care was subsidized by taxpayer dollars. Last year,
the state's Department of Social and Health Services paid the ranch more than $500,000 to care for resid-
ents. In May, The Spokesman-Review requested DSHS investigative files on Morning Star, but the agency
has yet to produce them.
In its statement, Morning Star said its license is in "good standing" with the agency, and that the license
has never been suspended. Morning Star has "rigorous safety policies ? to keep kids safe." Those include
background checks on employees and volunteers, and increased staffing to work with "boys with special
needs," the statement said.
"We take allegations of abuse seriously and immediately take action to follow proper reporting proced-
ures whenever a Ranch resident is hurt, or alleges he is hurt, in any way," the statement read.
The court filing lists a series of alleged sexual and physical assaults dating back to the 1950s. Included
is the allegation that the Rev. Marvin LaVoy, who served as the founding director of Morning Star, repeatedly
sodomized and molested a young boy at the ranch in the 1950s. LaVoy died in 1994.
In addition to the sexual allegations, the lawsuit details several occasions where Weitensteiner allegedly
beat the boys at Morning Star - breaking a dinner plate over the head of one boy and beating W.K. "over the
head and face" and grabbing him by his hair.
"You don't have to brutalize kids to turn them around," Kosnoff said. "There were a lot of kids who have
been helped with kindness and gentleness."
According to court documents, the Social Security Administration determined in 1995 that W.K. was
"fully, mentally disabled" as a result of his time at the boys' ranch.
Now 50 years old, W.K. suffers from "anxiety and affective" disorders, according to the court filing.
In the 1960s, W.K. starred in a promotional video titled, "Billy of Morning Star." The grainy black-and-
white film tells the story of "Billy," a 12-year-old resident who benefits from the structure and discipline at one
of the oldest boys' homes in Washington state. The court documents say "the reality of daily life for boys at
Morningstar (sic) was very different than what was depicted in the film."
"It does bother me to be the poster boy and have this happen," W.K. said. "I'm a Christian person and I
feel bad. But they chose me, I didn't go to them."
W.K., whose parents were deaf and mute, arrived at Morning Star at age 9. He was the youngest boy at
the ranch, he said, and Morning Star officials tried to return him to his parents because of his age.
But W.K.'s parents said they were unable to care for him and entrusted him to the care of the boys'
ranch. Though he is unclear about exact dates, he believes he lived at Morning Star from 1964 to '68.
According to the court document, at age 12, W.K. and several other boys were sick and confined to their
beds. After the boys were warned several times not to leave their beds, counselor William Condon and an-
other counselor entered the room with a handful of irises and a jar of Vaseline, the documents said.
"They told us to drop our drawers and lay down on the bed and spread open, greased our butt and stuck
the flower in us, and stuck them straight up," W.K. said in an interview. "And then they said the first boy that ?
the first flower that falls over gets hacked. That's what happened."
Condon died last month, but in an interview this spring denied he ever sexually abused a child.
W.K. alleged that one of the counselors recorded the scene with a camera.
"I have no doubt that (Weitensteiner) saw (the photos). They were in his desk," he said.
W.K. said he feared Weitensteiner and other counselors. According to the court filing, W.K. once
"watched in horror as Father Weitensteiner attacked a boy so savagely that Weitensteiner and the boy
crashed through the door of his office, ripping the door off its hinges." The documents say staff members
"had to wrestle Weitensteiner off the boy."
W.K. said he left the boys' ranch in 1968. He raised a family in Spokane, and worked as a landscaper
but said he did not report the alleged abuse.
"We didn't dare say anything," W.K. said. "My goodness, who would believe us? Who would believe us
at that time? Nobody."
Forty years after the alleged abuse, W.K. said he is terrified of Weitensteiner.
W.K. said that he had struggled to discuss the events but gained courage after reading reports of other
incidents involving Weitensteiner.
In an interview last month, the priest widely known as "Father Joe," acknowledged striking a boy in the
face with an open hand, and hitting boys with a paddle hard enough to leave bruises. But he denied several
other, more serious allegations from former counselors and residents.
W.K. said he had not previously come forward because he "didn't want to be the only one standing
there, saying, 'You're a liar.' "
In a separate interview, Gray said he too struggled to confront the alleged abuse.
Gray said the former counselor Clarke lived in an apartment at Morning Star in the early '80s and had a
stash of Star Wars toys. He said the counselor also showed him adult magazines.
He said he submitted to the abuse out of loneliness.
"I just wanted someone to be my friend so I was willing to sacrifice myself," he said.
Another former counselor who worked at Morning Star in the '80s said the ranch was warned about
Clarke and his inappropriate behavior.
"Morning Star had a way of turning a deaf ear to those types of issues," the former counselor said.
He asked not to be identified, saying he feared Weitensteiner.
The former counselor said that after Clarke left Morning Star, another boy told him that Clarke would in-
vite boys into his room and show them adult magazines. The resident said Clarke would also wrestle with the
boys in their underwear, the former counselor said.
In an interview, Gray said he has never received counseling for the alleged abuse at Morning Star. He
said he has struggled with anger and depression for years.
"I couldn't trust anyone," Gray said. "I think about it now and it makes me sick."
Kosnoff, 51, has sued the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, and the Boy Scouts of America, among
others, and has worked with hundreds of alleged sexual abuse victims.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Staff writer Benjamin Shors can be reached at (509) 459-5484 or by e-mail at benjamins@spokes-
man.com.

Idaho Edition
FORMER BOYS' RANCH RESIDENTS ALLEGE SEX ABUSE;
In lawsuit, pair say they were molested by Morning Star counselors;
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1671 words
Two former residents of Morning Star Boys' Ranch, including one who served as its 'poster boy,' sued the
Spokane boys' home on Wednesday, alleging that they were sexually abused by counselors in separate in-
cidents in the 1960s and 1980s.
The lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court details a bizarre punishment in the '60s in which two
counselors forced several Morning Star residents to pose for photographs with flowers protruding from their
rectums.
According to the lawsuit, those photographs were circulated among the staff and residents at Morning
Star, and were kept in the desk of Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, the ranch's revered director.
"It was a joke to them," the former resident, identified in court documents as W.K., said in an interview
last month.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Morning Star said, "The Ranch has never knowingly al-
lowed or condoned abuse of any kind. Our mission has always been to serve boys in need and we have
done everything in our power to fulfill that mission."
The lawsuit alleges the photos "served to stigmatize, control and silence W.K. and other boys regarding
the abusive conduct they were made to endure."
"Why does a middle-aged priest keep photos in his desk of boys with flowers sticking out of their ass?"
said Timothy Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney representing the two men. "I don't know. I don't see the humor in it."
The allegations are the most recent in a string of physical and sexual accusations from former residents
and their families that have surfaced in the past several months.
Weitensteiner, who has been accused of physical abuse by some former residents and counselors,
went on medical leave last month.
The Spokesman-Review in June reported the allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the ranch, in-
cluding accusations of physical abuse against Weitensteiner, a 73-year-old Catholic priest.
In its statement, Morning Star said the newspaper's reporting "has largely been biased" and said it "has
let down its readers and our community through its one-sided coverage."
In the 12-page court complaint, a second former resident, Michael Gray, alleged that a counselor at
Morning Star repeatedly molested and sodomized him at the ranch in 1981.
In an interview on Wednesday, Gray, a 37-year-old Spokane graphic designer, said counselor James
Clarke assaulted him between 10 and 15 times - both in the counselor's apartment and in a laundry room at
the boys' home.
"Blind eyes were turned to it," Gray said. "I want to see (Morning Star) shut down."
Clarke could not be reached for comment.
Gray, who served three years in a federal prison for manufacturing marijuana, said he turned to drugs to
ease the pain of the abuse, but said he is now sober. In 1995, federal authorities identified Gray as the focus
of an investigation into an alleged plot to blow up a federal building, but he was never charged in the case.
The court documents filed on Wednesday allege he was also physically assaulted by counselors at the
ranch.
"There were guys you looked up to who beat the hell out of you, and then there were guys just standing
around watching," Gray said.
Since it opened in 1956, the group home south of Spokane has cared for nearly 1,300 boys, including
both private-pay residents and state-placed boys whose care was subsidized by taxpayer dollars. Last year,
the state's Department of Social and Health Services paid the ranch more than $500,000 to care for resid-
ents. In May, The Spokesman-Review requested DSHS investigative files on Morning Star, but the agency
has yet to produce them.
In its statement, Morning Star said its license is in "good standing" with the agency, and that the license
has never been suspended. Morning Star has "rigorous safety policies ? to keep kids safe." Those include
background checks on employees and volunteers, and increased staffing to work with "boys with special
needs," the statement said.
"We take allegations of abuse seriously and immediately take action to follow proper reporting proced-
ures whenever a Ranch resident is hurt, or alleges he is hurt, in any way," the statement read.
The court filing lists a series of alleged sexual and physical assaults dating back to the 1950s. Included
is the allegation that the Rev. Marvin LaVoy, who served as the founding director of Morning Star, repeatedly
sodomized and molested a young boy at the ranch in the 1950s. LaVoy died in 1994.
In addition to the sexual allegations, the lawsuit details several occasions where Weitensteiner allegedly
beat the boys at Morning Star - breaking a dinner plate over the head of one boy and beating W.K. "over the
head and face" and grabbing him by his hair.
"You don't have to brutalize kids to turn them around," Kosnoff said. "There were a lot of kids who have
been helped with kindness and gentleness."
According to court documents, the Social Security Administration determined in 1995 that W.K. was
"fully, mentally disabled" as a result of his time at the boys' ranch.
Now 50 years old, W.K. suffers from "anxiety and affective" disorders, according to the court filing.
In the 1960s, W.K. starred in a promotional video titled, "Billy of Morning Star." The grainy black-and-
white film tells the story of "Billy," a 12-year-old resident who benefits from the structure and discipline at one
of the oldest boys' homes in Washington state. The court documents say "the reality of daily life for boys at
Morningstar (sic) was very different than what was depicted in the film."
"It does bother me to be the poster boy and have this happen," W.K. said. "I'm a Christian person and I
feel bad. But they chose me, I didn't go to them."
W.K., whose parents were deaf and mute, arrived at Morning Star at age 9. He was the youngest boy at
the ranch, he said, and Morning Star officials tried to return him to his parents because of his age.
But W.K.'s parents said they were unable to care for him and entrusted him to the care of the boys'
ranch. Though he is unclear about exact dates, he believes he lived at Morning Star from 1964 to '68.
According to the court document, at age 12, W.K. and several other boys were sick and confined to their
beds. After the boys were warned several times not to leave their beds, counselor William Condon and an-
other counselor entered the room with a handful of irises and a jar of Vaseline, the documents said.
"They told us to drop our drawers and lay down on the bed and spread open, greased our butt and stuck
the flower in us, and stuck them straight up," W.K. said in an interview. "And then they said the first boy that ?
the first flower that falls over gets hacked. That's what happened."
Condon died last month, but in an interview this spring denied he ever sexually abused a child.
W.K. alleged that one of the counselors recorded the scene with a camera.
"I have no doubt that (Weitensteiner) saw (the photos). They were in his desk," he said.
W.K. said he feared Weitensteiner and other counselors. According to the court filing, W.K. once
"watched in horror as Father Weitensteiner attacked a boy so savagely that Weitensteiner and the boy
crashed through the door of his office, ripping the door off its hinges." The documents say staff members
"had to wrestle Weitensteiner off the boy."
W.K. said he left the boys' ranch in 1968. He raised a family in Spokane, and worked as a landscaper
but said he did not report the alleged abuse.
"We didn't dare say anything," W.K. said. "My goodness, who would believe us? Who would believe us
at that time? Nobody."
Forty years after the alleged abuse, W.K. said he is terrified of Weitensteiner.
W.K. said that he had struggled to discuss the events but gained courage after reading reports of other
incidents involving Weitensteiner.
In an interview last month, the priest widely known as "Father Joe," acknowledged striking a boy in the
face with an open hand, and hitting boys with a paddle hard enough to leave bruises. But he denied several
other, more serious allegations from former counselors and residents.
W.K. said he had not previously come forward because he "didn't want to be the only one standing
there, saying, 'You're a liar.' "
In a separate interview, Gray said he too struggled to confront the alleged abuse.
Gray said the former counselor Clarke lived in an apartment at Morning Star in the early '80s and had a
stash of Star Wars toys. He said the counselor also showed him adult magazines.
He said he submitted to the abuse out of loneliness.
"I just wanted someone to be my friend so I was willing to sacrifice myself," he said.
Another former counselor who worked at Morning Star in the '80s said the ranch was warned about
Clarke and his inappropriate behavior.
"Morning Star had a way of turning a deaf ear to those types of issues," the former counselor said.
He asked not to be identified, saying he feared Weitensteiner.
The former counselor said that after Clarke left Morning Star, another boy told him that Clarke would in-
vite boys into his room and show them adult magazines. The resident said Clarke would also wrestle with the
boys in their underwear, the former counselor said.
In an interview, Gray said he has never received counseling for the alleged abuse at Morning Star. He
said he has struggled with anger and depression for years.
"I couldn't trust anyone," Gray said. "I think about it now and it makes me sick."
Kosnoff, 51, has sued the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, and the Boy Scouts of America, among
others, and has worked with hundreds of alleged sexual abuse victims.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Staff writer Benjamin Shors can be reached at (509) 459-5484 or by e-mail at benjamins@spokes-
man.com.
Daily News (New York)

SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SCOUT PERV KEPT BOYS' UNDIES: COPS

BYLINE: BY ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
LENGTH: 293 words
A BOY SCOUT volunteer leader accused of molesting a troop member preyed on at least four other chil-
dren and kept as trophies the underwear of his young victims, police sources said last night.
Ronald Occhipinti was so obsessed with his victims that he took the children's underwear as sick
mementos, sources said.
Investigators found pairs of boys' underwear neatly wrapped in plastic bags in the home Occhipinti
shared with his mother in Bayside, Queens. Many bore a note with the child's name and date of the sexual
assault, law enforcement sources said.
"He kept them as trophies. He's beyond sick," a police source said.
Along with the trophies, investigators found hundreds of pornographic videos and thousands of obscene
photos of children. Many of the photos, taken off the scoutmaster's home and work computers, were of his
victims, according to cops.
Occhipinti, a volunteer with Troop 183 in Great Neck, L.I., was arrested at his home Friday and charged
with sexually molesting a member of his troop between 2003 and August 2005.
He was accused of bringing the boy to his East Hampton Blvd. home numerous times. There he would
force the boy to undress, pose in lewd positions for snapshots and occasionally perform sexual acts.
Occhipinti's mother said her son had been involved with scouting for 30 years and would never hurt a
child. "My Ron would never do that," Jorginia Occhipinti told The News.
But an Internet photo of the victim - clearly wearing a Boy Scout troop number - led cops to Occhipinti.
Investigators are interviewing every member of Occhipinti's troop, and fear other troop members may
have been abused during camping trips and overnight events.
Occhipinti's abuse could date back more than 15 years, a source said.
agendar@nydailynews.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Daily News, L.P.
The Boston Herald
August 21, 2005 Sunday

ALL EDITIONS
Bish dad: Parents must be armed with info on thugs

BYLINE: By O'RYAN JOHNSON
LENGTH: 160 words
John Bish is praising a new Web site that shows parents where sex offenders live.
``Parents have to be armed with information,'' said Bish, whose murdered 16-year-old daughter Molly
Bish was abducted from a Warren pond in 2000.
`Ì know prior to Molly's disappearance we never thought this would happen to us.''
The Web site, mapsexoffenders.com, combines a mapping program with 38 states' data on sex offend-
ers. Type in an address and a map pops up with sex offenders identified with red dots.
Two brothers, each with children of their own, hit on the idea while helping out in a Utah search for a
missing Boy Scout.
``We were out there and we were like, what can we do to help with the sex offender problem?'' said Mark
Olsen, one of the site's developers.
It launched in July, and has gained national attention, Olsen said, due to the growing number of high-pro-
file child sex abuse and abduction crimes and the lack of accessible information about sex offenders.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
August 21, 2005 Sunday

FINAL EDITION
AROUND THE STATE

SECTION: NEWS; Around the State; Pg. A16
LENGTH: 475 words
Sliwa to testify on alleged hit by Gotti

NEW YORK (AP) -- For years, radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa routinely denigrated late mob boss John
Gotti and his cohorts as murderers, drug dealers, degenerates. His tone was so strident, prosecutors say,
that Gotti's son ordered an attack on the founder of the Guardian Angels.
Make it personal, the younger Gotti allegedly told gunsels.
Thirteen years after Sliwa took two bullets in a botched hit, he will finally get face-to-face with John "Juni-
or" Gotti in a Manhattan courtroom. Sliwa, who is rarely at a loss for words, was expected to testify Monday
in Gotti's federal racketeering trial.
"I've been waiting 13 years for justice," Sliwa said just before the start of the trial last month. The
courtroom showdown was expected to provide the trial's most drama: the head Angel testifying against the
ex-head of the Gambino crime family.
Gotti, whose father died in prison in 2002, is accused of a conspiracy to kidnap Sliwa as part of racket-
eering charges that could jail him for 30 years. He was indicted on the new charges in July 2004, just two
months before his scheduled release on a separate 1999 racketeering conviction.
-----
Boy charged as adult in mother's slaying
SYRACUSE (AP) -- A 13-year-old boy was charged as an adult with second-degree murder Friday after
his mother died of injuries police said she suffered in a beating at her home.
Joshua Brown was being held without bail in a juvenile detention facility after his arraignment. His moth-
er, 30-year-old Rebecca Perth, died Friday morning at the hospital.
Police said Brown struck his mother and when she fell to the floor, he stomped with both feet on her
head and body. The incident happened Tuesday around 10:25 p.m. after Perth told him to come inside be-
cause it was past his curfew, police said.
Brown was arrested shortly afterward at a friend's house.
Prosecutors said witnesses and statements Brown made to police after the incident support the charge,
but the judge ordered court documents sealed. Teenagers typically can be charged as adults at age 16, but
the law allows for exceptions in more serious cases.
If convicted, Brown faces a maximum sentence of nine years to life.
-----
Scoutmaster charged in sex abuse of boy
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Boy Scout leader from Queens pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he sexu-
ally abused a boy who was a member of his troop.
Ronald E. Occhipinti, a scoutmaster from Bayside, Queens, is accused of bringing the boy to his home
on several occasions dating back to the summer of 2003, when the child was 11.
The Queens District Attorney said Occhipinti took explicit photographs of the boy and sexually abused
him.
Occhipinti, an employee of a burglar alarm company, was arrested at his home early Friday morning. He
was arraigned on multiple charges during the night. A judge set bail at $250,0000.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
The Myrtle Beach Sun-News
August 11, 2005 Thursday TSN EDITION
Thursday Globe
SECTION: A; BRIEF; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 743 words
ACROSS THE COUNTRY
TEXAS Discovery astronauts welcomed home

Houston/ Discovery's astronauts arrived to a rousing celebration Wednesday as nearly 700 people
crowded an airplane hangar, waving flags and holding signs that read: "Welcome Home, Astronauts!"
The seven-person crew returned to Earth on Tuesday.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Army meets recruiting goal for second month

Washington/ The active-duty Army made its recruiting goal for the second-straight month in July, accord-
ing to Pentagon figures released Wednesday, but the boost still may not be enough for the service to meet its
annual target by the time the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, officials said.
OHIO
Suspects in courthouse shooting arrested

Columbus/ A fugitive inmate and his wife, wanted in a courthouse escape and shooting in Tennessee,
were captured Wednesday night at an Ohio motel, authorities said. On Tuesday, authorities say Jennifer For-
syth Hyatte, 31, ambushed two guards as they were leading her husband George Hyatte, 34, from a court-
house hearing in Kingston, Tenn.
PUERTO RICO
Guantanamo detainees may see some luxuries

San Juan/ The U.S. military plans to ease conditions for some detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -
housing them in a renovated section with televisions, stereos and a view of the Caribbean, the detention
center's commanding officer said in court papers.
FLORIDA
Hurricane aid wrongly paid for 203 funerals

Fort Lauderdale/ The federal government used hurricane aid money to pay funeral expenses for at least
203 Floridians whose deaths were not caused by last year's storms, the state's coroners have concluded.
UTAH
Truck full of explosives crashes, blows up

Salt Lake City/ A truck carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives crashed and exploded Wednesday, leaving
a huge crater in a Utah highway and injuring at least four people.
OREGON
Church official agrees to speak on sex abuse

Portland/ Archbishop William Levada agreed Wednesday to waive diplomatic immunity and answer ques-
tions about sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests after he takes over as the church's guardian on doctrine,
the Vatican post held by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope.
NEW JERSEY
Girl dies, 3 hurt when tree falls at Scout camp

Ocean Township/ An 8-year-old girl died and three others were injured Wednesday when a tree fell on
them during a first-aid class at a Boy Scout camp, authorities said.
NEW MEXICO
Police: Pedal saved helicopter pilot from bullet

Albuquerque/ A sheriff's department helicopter that crash-landed during a burglary investigation was
brought down by a bullet that likely would have hit the pilot had it not struck the control pedal first, authorities
said.
AROUND THE WORLD
AFGHANISTAN
Fifth U.S. troop dies in violence this week

Kabul/ A U.S. service member was killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, the military said
Wednesday, raising to five the number of Americans killed in less than a week as violence escalates ahead
of next month's parliamentary elections.
ISRAEL
Soldiers prepare for worst pullout scenarios

Kerem Shalom/ In a final drill, thousands of Israeli troops prepared Wednesday for some of the worst
scenarios in next week's Gaza pullout, including Palestinian mortar fire, settler violence and equipment fail-
ure.
In a small West Bank settlement also slated for evacuation, residents began turning in their weapons to
help ward off violence during the withdrawal.
BRAZIL
Officials seek thieves who stole $67.8 million

Sao Paulo/ Police on Wednesday in northeastern Brazil examined fingerprints and scoured through evid-
ence left behind by thieves who stole $67.8 million from a Central Bank vault in one of the world's biggest
heists ever.
Authorities said they were able to identify some of the thieves and were searching for them in surround-
ing states.
CHILE
Ex-dictator Pinochet's wife, son arrested

Santiago/ Gen. Augusto Pinochet's wife and younger son were arrested Wednesday and charged as ac-
complices in a tax-evasion case linked to an investigation into the former dictator's multimillion-dollar fortune
overseas.
ESTONIA
14 people thought dead in helicopter crash
Tallinn/ A helicopter carrying 14 people, including two Americans, crashed in the Baltic Sea off the Estoni-
an coast on Wednesday and all aboard were thought killed.
From wire reports
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 The Myrtle Beach Sun-News

All Rights Reserved
The Washington Post

Final Edition
NATION IN BRIEF
SECTION: A Section; A15
LENGTH: 482 words
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Archbishop William J. Levada agreed Wednesday to waive diplomatic immunity
and answer questions about sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests after he takes over as the church's guardi-
an on doctrine -- the Vatican post formerly held by Pope Benedict XVI.
Levada, 69, who will officially step down as archbishop of San Francisco next week, is heading to Rome
to take over as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The former Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger held the post for 24 years before he became pope in April; he appointed Levada to his previous
job a month later.
During a farewell Mass last Sunday in San Francisco, Levada was served with a subpoena to be de-
posed on Friday. But with his agreement to waive diplomatic immunity, Levada will now be deposed in Janu-
ary; he had previously refused the waiver.
Abuse victims' attorneys want to question Levada regarding the bankruptcy case of the Archdiocese of
Portland, which he led from 1986 until 1995, when he came to San Francisco. Last year, Portland became
the first Catholic diocese in the nation to declare bankruptcy, citing sex abuse lawsuits seeking $155 million
in damages.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The federal emergency agency paid for hundreds of funerals last year of
Floridians whose deaths had nothing to do with the four hurricanes that hit the state, the South Florida Sun-
Sentinel reported.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved 319 hurricane funeral claims in Florida at a cost
of $1.3 million.
Several families told the newspaper that they gave FEMA letters from doctors saying stress caused by
the hurricanes possibly contributed to the deaths -- even though medical examiners had blamed natural
causes for the deaths.
* HOUSTON -- Discovery's astronauts arrived to a rousing celebration as nearly 700 people crowded
into a hangar, waving flags and holding signs that said: "Welcome Home, Astronauts!" The seven-person
crew returned to Earth on Tuesday after being the first to take a space shuttle into orbit since the 2003
Columbia disaster.
* ROMULUS, Mich. -- Hundreds of people were advised to stay away from their homes as a fire at a
chemical plant sent acrid smoke over their neighborhoods. At least 32 people, including firefighters, were
treated for breathing difficulties.
* OCEAN TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- An 8-year-old girl died and three others were injured when an oak tree
crashed down on them during a first-aid class at a Boy Scout camp.
* ATLANTA -- U.S. District Judge Beverly B. Martin has upheld a ruling ordering Georgia to turn over
records related to its investigation of the Ku Klux Klan's possible ties to the Atlanta child killings. The state
has been asked to turn over the file so the court can determine what documents, if any, to give Wayne Willi-
ams, the man convicted of two of the murders.
-- From News Services
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 The Washington Post
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
August 8, 2005
N.C. Court of Appeals

BYLINE: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff
SECTION:
LENGTH: 16365 words
Arbitration
Construction Contract - Tort/Negligence - Interference With Prospective Business Advantage - Unfair
Trade Practices
Where the plaintiffs are not seeking a direct benefit from the provisions of their company's contracts with
the defendant-general contractor, the doctrine of equitable estoppel cannot be used to force the plaintiffs to
arbitrate their individual claims.
We affirm the trial court's denial of the defendants' motions to compel arbitration.
The plaintiffs own Atlantic Coast Construction & Utility, Inc. (ACCU), a construction company specializing
in water and sewer utilities work. ACCU entered into several subcontracts with the defendant-general con-
tractor. Each subcontract contained an arbitration clause: "Any controversy or claim between the Contractor
and the Subcontractor arising out of or related to this Subcontract, or the breach thereof, shall be settled by
arbitration.... "
According to the plaintiffs, one of the general contractor's principals was attracted to plaintiff Angela Ellen
and attempted to pursue an adulterous relationship with her. After Angela's rejections finally sank in, the de-
fendants allegedly set out to destroy ACCU in retaliation. The plaintiffs' claims—unfair trade practices
and tortious interference with prospective business advantages—arise out of these alleged acts of re-
taliation.
Plaintiffs Angela and Rebecca Ellen signed the subcontracts only in their capacity as officers of ACCU.
Although the subcontracts provide part of the factual foundation for the complaint, the plaintiffs are not
seeking any direct benefits from the contracts containing the relevant arbitration clause, nor are they assert-
ing any rights arising under the contracts. Neither the plaintiffs' allegations of unfair trade practices nor their
allegations of tortious interference depend upon the contracts. Both of the claims are dependent upon legal
duties imposed by N.C. statutory or common law rather than contract law.
Thus, the defendants' liability will be determined by their duties under N.C. statutory and common law,
not by their duties under the subcontracts. Because the plaintiffs are not seeking a direct benefit from the
provisions of the subcontracts, the doctrine of equitable estoppel cannot be used to force the plaintiffs to ar-
bitrate their individual claims.
Affirmed.
Ellen v. A.C. Schultes of Maryland, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0945, 10 pp.) (Patricia Timmons-
Goodson, J.) Appealed from Onslow County Superior Court. (John B. Lewis Jr, J.) N.C. App.
(See accompanying story on page one.)
Contract
Surety - Construction Project - Payment Bond - Claims Limitation
Where the defendant-surety's payment bond explicitly prohibited any claims filed more than a year after
the general contractor ceased work on the construction project, and where the plaintiff-subcontractor did not
file its claim within that year, the subcontractor's claim was time-barred.
We affirm the trial court's order granting the surety's motion to dismiss under N.C. R. Civ. P. 12(c).
Even though the subcontractor was not a party to the payment bond, the bond's express terms allowed
the subcontractor to institute an action against the surety if the subcontractor was not paid by the general
contractor. However, the bond's terms also placed explicit limitations on the subcontractor's right to seek pay-
ment from the surety. The subcontractor, seeking the benefit of the payment bond, must also accept its bur-
dens.
Beachcrete, Inc. v. Water Street Center Associates, L.L.C. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0944, 7 pp.)
(Sanford L. Steelman Jr., J.) Appealed from New Hanover County Superior Court. (Charles H. Henry, J.) N.C.
App.
Criminal Practice
Indecent Liberties - Continuance - Video Evidence - No Proper Foundation - Blakely Issue - Resenten-
cing Required
Where defense counsel moved for a continuance because he had "just been provided" with two new let-
ters written by his client that the state planned to introduce at trial, but where counsel did not explain why he
needed a continuance other than "to discuss this damaging new evidence," then the defendant has failed to
show that he was materially prejudiced or that he would have been better prepared had the continuance
been granted.
No error in the defendant's conviction of statutory rape and one count of taking indecent liberties with a
child. The other count of taking indecent liberties with a child is vacated. Remanded for resentencing.
The defendant failed to lay a proper foundation for admission of a videotape in which the victim denied
having sex with the defendant. The trial court correctly excluded the tape.
None of the witnesses offered testimony about the operation or testing of the recording equipment. The
victim testified that the defendant and her mother set up videotaping equipment before leaving her alone to
make a recording. She did not know if the tape offered in court was the original or one of some six copies
that were made. She did not testify that she viewed the tape right after it was made, and she did not testify
that the tape proffered by the defendant accurately depicted what she had filmed. The defendant's mother
testified only that the victim's mother gave her a videotape, but she had no first-hand knowledge pertaining to
the contents of the tape or to the chain of custody. Finally, the defendant was absent during most of the film-
ing and did not watch the tape after it was made.
Where the statute defining the offense of taking indecent liberties with a minor sets out alternative acts
that might establish an element of the offense, the defendant should not have been convicted of two separ-
ate violations of the statute arising out of a single act.
Where an aggravating factor was not found beyond a reasonable doubt by the jury and was not admitted
by the defendant, we must remand for resentencing.
State v. Jones. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0962, 12 pp.) (Eric L. Levinson, J.) Appealed from Wayne
County Superior Court. (W. Russell Duke Jr., J.) N.C. App.
Multiple Counts - One Continuous Act - Blakely Issue - Resentencing Required
Where, as part of one continuous act, the defendant came into possession of several items at the same
time and place, only one count of possession of stolen goods may be sustained; the trial court erred in sen-
tencing the defendant on five counts of possession of stolen goods rather than one count.
We arrest judgment on four of the five convictions and remand the remaining conviction for resentencing.
Where the aggravating factors were not found beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury and were not admit-
ted by the defendant, we remand for resentencing.
State v. Phillips. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0958, 10 pp.) (Eric L. Levinson, J.) Appealed from Rich-
mond County Superior Court. (Mark E. Klass, J.) N.C. App.
Juror Qualifications - Murder & Assault - Sufficiency of Evidence - Blakely Issue - Resentencing Required
Where the record shows that the trial court carefully questioned juror Williams as to her views about the
death penalty versus life imprisonment and ensured that Williams understood, inter alia, the difference
between the guilt and sentencing phases of trial, the burden of proof on the state, and her duty as a juror to
listen to and fully consider both sides' arguments and evidence, then the trial court's determined to its satis-
faction that Williams was capable thereof was not an abuse of discretion.
No error in the defendant's conviction of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and two
counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. Remanded for resentencing.
Where the state provided substantial evidence as to all the elements of the assault with a deadly weapon
offense, the assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury offenses, and the first-degree murder
offense, then it was not error for the trial court to deny the defendant's motions to dismiss these charges for
the state's failure to present sufficient evidence as to every element of he charged offenses.
But where the trial court found impermissible aggravating factors and sentenced the defendant in the ag-
gravated range, this was reversible error.
No error in part, remanded for resentencing in part.
State v. Yarrell. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0957, 10 pp.) (James A. Wynn Jr., J.) Appealed from Ran-
dolph County Superior Court. (Jerry Cash Martin, J.) N.C. App.
Shooting Into Occupied Premises - Sufficiency of Evidence - Blakely Issue - Resentencing Required
Where there was substantial evidence from which a jury could find that the defendant had reasonable
grounds to believe the Flying Salsa was occupied, the trial court did not err in denying the defendant's motion
to dismiss the charges of discharging a firearm into occupied property.
No error in the defendant's conviction of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious in-
jury, assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer, and discharging a firearm into occupied property.
There was evidence that, prior to this incident, the Flying Salsa had stayed open until 3:00 a.m. It was
located in downtown Greenville, an area described as typically "pretty crowded" at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday
mornings. The restaurant and a nightclub were both located in downtown Greenville in close proximity to the
Flying Salsa. The fact that the Flying Salsa was located in an area where other establishments were open
until the early morning hours shows that it was reasonable to believe that the Flying Salsa was also open and
occupied at the time of the shooting. Finally, the Flying Salsa was not completely dark when the shooting oc-
curred.
But the trial court erred when it found aggravating factors without submitting them to a jury.
However, where the trial court found that each aggravating factor alone outweighed the mitigating factor
in this case, the trial court did not abuse its discretion.
Dissent
(Timmons-Goodson, J.) I am unable to conclude that a reasonable inference of defendant's guilt may be
drawn from the circumstances. Instead, I conclude that evidence tending to show that the Flying Salsa was
dimly lit at a time and in an area that is typically crowded creates only a suspicion or conjecture that the de-
fendant had reasonable grounds to believe it was occupied. Therefore, because I am not convinced that the
state satisfied its burden of demonstrating that the defendant had reasonable grounds to believe that the res-
taurant was occupied at the time of the shooting, I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion holding
that the trial court did not err by denying the defendant's motion to dismiss.
State v. Everette. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-09556, 18 pp.) (Linda M. McGee, J.) Appealed from Pitt
County Superior Court. (Jerry B. Tillett, J.) N.C. App.
Basis of Objection Switched - No Motion to Dismiss - No Plain Error - Blakely Issue - Resentencing Re-
quired
Where the defendant objected to the investigator's testimony based on hearsay, he cannot now raise a
different rationale for his objection—that his testimony amounted to an impermissible opinion concern-
ing the defendant's guilt—as it is an improper advancement of a theory on appeal which was not first
argued at trial.
No error in the defendant's conviction of robbery with a dangerous weapon. Remanded for a new senten-
cing hearing.
Where the defendant did not move to dismiss the criminal charge in the trial court, he cannot now con-
tend that the trial judge committed plain error in entering judgment because insufficient evidence existed to
support his conviction.
But where the defendant's sentence was enhanced beyond the prescribed presumptive range based
upon a factor which was not submitted to the jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt, he is entitled to a
new sentencing hearing.
State v. Battle. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0955, 7 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch. J.) Appealed from Pitt
County Superior Court. (W. Russell Duke, J.) N.C. App.
Admission of Evidence - Expert Testimony - Right to Remain Silent - No Plain Error
Even though the crime lab chemist (Rose) who performed the analyses was unavailable to testify, the lab
report could be admitted into evidence upon the expert testimony of the crime lab supervising chemist whose
opinion was based on the analysis of the non-testifying chemist.
No error in the defendant's conviction of two counts of trafficking in cocaine.
The expert testified that the methods employed by Rose were those reasonably relied upon by other
forensic chemists, that the expert had actually calibrated Rose's machines, used the same machines for sim-
ilar experiments, and reviewed Rose's work after the analysis was completed. Inherently reliable information
is admissible to show the basis of an expert's opinion, even if the information would otherwise be inadmiss-
ible hearsay, and there is no evidence suggesting the information contained in Rose's test results was not in-
herently reliable.
Where the expert was available for cross-examination, there is no Confrontation Clause violation. The
defendant's entire cross-examination centered on the fact that the expert reviewed the test results of another
analyst and did not perform the tests himself. As a result, any credibility issues regarding the basis of the ex-
pert's opinion testimony were thoroughly explored before the jury.
Where a detective testified that, after waiving his Miranda rights, the defendant was never upset during
questioning but only quiet and slightly unresponsive, this did not amount to an impermissible comment on the
defendant/s right to remain silent. Moreover, given the evidence before the jury, we cannot say they jury
would likely have reached a different result had the detective's testimony and the prosecutors closing state-
ments regarding the defendant's demeanor not been allowed.
State v. Lyles. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0954, 10 pp.) (Wanda G. Bryant, J.) Appealed from Mecklen-
burg County Superior Court. (Robert P. Johnston, J.) N.C. App.
Indecent Liberties - Priest- Penitent - Aggravated Range - Blakely Issue - Resentencing Required
Where the defendant neither attempted to cross examine the priest to whom the sexual assault victim
made a confessional, nor requested a voir dire or made an offer of proof as to what he would have asked the
priest, or what the priest would have revealed, the defendant's constitutional right to confront witnesses
against him was not violated.
No error in the defendant's conviction of taking indecent liberties with a child. Sentence vacated. Re-
manded for resentencing.
Based on the transcript before us, we find that no testimony was erroneously admitted or excluded. Fath-
er Elzi did not testify to the contents of any statements the minor made to him. Presuming error in admitting
Father Elzi's testimony, other overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt based on the testimony by Of-
ficers Navarez and Mendoza, the victim, and Sanchez renders any error harmless beyond a reasonable
doubt. This assignment of error is overruled.
But where the defendant was sentenced in the aggravated range without the aggravating factors being
submitted to the jury, this was reversible error.
State v. Sanchez. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0953, 7 pp.) (John M. Tyson, J.) Appealed from Mecklen-
burg County Superior Court. (Richard D. Boner, J.) N.C. App.
Deadly Weapon - Weapon Declared Deadly - No Lesser Included Offense Charge - Sentencing - Aggrav-
ated Range - Blakely Issue - Resentencing Required
Where the alleged deadly weapon (a knife with a six-inch blade) and the manner of its use were of such
character as to admit of but one conclusion, the question as to whether or not the knife was deadly was one
of law, and the trial court correctly took the responsibility for so declaring and correctly instructed the jury that
a knife with a six-inch blade is a deadly weapon.
No error in the defendant's conviction of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting werious injury. Re-
Even though the only evidence of the knife's length was that it was "about four inches," the trial court's
mischaracterization of the knife's length was not an error so fundamental as to amount to a miscarriage of
justice or which probably resulted in the jury reaching a different verdict than it otherwise would have
reached.
However, where the defendant was sentenced in the aggravated range without the aggravating factors
being submitted to the jury, this was reversible error.
State v. Caudle. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0952, 15 pp.) (Patricia Timmons-Goodson, J.) Appealed
from Halifax County Superior Court. (W. Russell Duke Jr., J.) N.C. App.
Child Sex Abuse - Expert Testimony - No Physical Evidence - Opinion of Child's Credibility - 23- Year-Old
Abuse Incident - Extreme Time Lapse
Where the trial court admitted the expert's conclusion that the defendant had abused the child based
solely on the victim's own testimony without any other physical evidence of abuse, this amounted to an im-
permissible opinion of the child's credibility.
The defendant is entitled to a new trial.
Upon plain error analysis, this court concludes that, had the jury not heard the inadmissible opinion of the
expert, there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury would have reached a different result; therefore, we find
plain error.
Where the trial court admitted evidence of another instance of abuse to show a "scheme, plan, system or
design," and where that instance occurred 23 years prior to the one alleged here, in light of the extreme time
lapse, the trial court erred in admitting this evidence.
Where the state was allowed to present evidence that the defendant possessed pornographic magazines
and women's underwear without any showing that these played any part in the alleged offense, this was im-
permissible character evidence, but its admission was not plain error. Nevertheless, the admission of the
testimony for the purpose of showing defendant's propensity to commit the crime should not be presented at
the defendant's new trial for this same purpose.
New trial.
Dissent
(Bryant, J.) I disagree that the trial court committed any error by admitting the testimony of the expert,
and I strongly disagree that plain error was committed. This case is factually similar to many child sexual as-
sault cases where the nature of the assault, a sexual touching, is such that one would not expect physical
evidence of abuse. Therefore, in those cases where the clinical evidence of sexual abuse is based on expert
medical testimony that the acts of sexual abuse alleged are unlikely to leave physical evidence, that testi-
mony is valid and states the basis for the expert's opinion. For these reasons, I would hold Dr. Russo's testi-
mony to be permissible medical opinion from an expert in child abuse, and would find no error in its admis-
sion.
State v. Delsanto. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0951, 21 pp.) (Linda M. McGee, J.) (Wanda G. Bryant, J.,
concurring in part & dissenting in part) Appealed from David County Superior Court. (Mark. E. Klass, J.) N.C.
App.
Jury & Jurors - Unanimity - Sexual Offenses - Child Victim
Where the state failed to relate the charges in the indictment and verdict to specific instances of abuse,
and where the trial court did not adequately instruct the jury on the requirement of unanimity, we cannot be
sure that each juror had in mind the same six instances of abuse when voting to convict the defendant of
first-degree sexual offense.
The defendant is entitled to a new trial on his convictions of six counts of first-degree sexual offense and
seven counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor. No error in the defendant's conviction of two counts of
attempted first-degree statutory sexual offense. These two judgments are remanded for resentencing.
Our case law does not require victims of child sexual abuse to allege dates with specificity. Here
however, the problem lies not in the lack of specificity with respect to time but in the ambiguity created by the
failure to relate the charges in the indictment and verdict sheet to specific instances of abuse. Although the
indictments and verdict sheets were validly drawn, they did not remove the ambiguity in the jury's verdict.
None of the verdict sheets associated the offense number with a given incident or separate criminal offense.
Nor did the trial court adequately instruct the jury on the requirement of unanimity. The trial court stated
that the defendant was charged with 11 counts of first-degree sexual offense and gave the pattern jury in-
struction for that crime. It instructed the jury regarding the requirement of unanimity only as follows: "You may
not return a verdict until all 12 jurors agree unanimously as to each charge. You may not render a verdict by
majority vote. "
Thus, the trial court did not explain the need for unanimity on each specific sexual incident. The trial court
should have submitted a specific instruction with respect to unanimity of verdict as to each indictment and
also assigned correlating specific alleged acts of sexual offense to each indictment.
Because the trial court failed to ensure that each juror had in mind the same six instances of abuse when
voting to convict the defendant of first-degree sexual offense, the defendant's right to a unanimous jury ver-
dict was jeopardized.
Where evidence is presented at trial showing a greater number of separate criminal offenses than the
defendant is charged with, a risk of a lack of jury unanimity is created. The defendant was charged with 10
counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor, and he was convicted of seven of these charges. Because in-
decent liberties does not merge with and is not a lesser included offense of first-degree sexual offense, the
evidence presented on the charges of first-degree sexual offense may also support a conviction for indecent
liberties. Thus, again, it is impossible to tell which particular acts correspond with which charges and convic-
tions for indecent liberties.
Even though the defendant was also charged with six counts of lewd and lascivious conduct, apparently
under the indecent liberties statute, he was not prejudiced because judgment was arrested on each of the six
convictions of lewd and lascivious conduct. The defendant did not receive multiple sentences for a single of-
fense, which is the principal danger in multiplicitous indictments, and his protection against double jeopardy
was not violated.
Where only two instances of attempted first-degree sexual offense were presented to the jury, and where
the jury convicted the defendant on both charges, there was no risk of a lack of unanimity.
New trial in part, no error and remanded for resentencing in part.
State v. Bates. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0963, 24 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch.J.) Appealed from Wayne
County Superior Court. (W. Allen Cobb Jr., J.) N.C. App.
Indecent Liberties - Evidence - Hearsay - Medical Exam - Constitutional - Sentencing - Aggravating
Factor
Where the child complainants were eight and nine years old, respectively, they were old enough to un-
derstand that their interviews with registered nurses had a medical purpose and they indicated as such, and
where the interviews took place in a medical center immediately prior to a physical examination, the record
indicates the children had the requisite intent to make their statements for a medical purpose.
No error in the defendant's conviction of two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor child. Re-
The evidence also indicates that the children's statements were made at their first visit to a doctor after
discovery of their allegations of sexual abuse. The statements were pertinent to medical diagnosis or treat-
ment and were properly admitted into evidence.
Where the trial court found as an aggravating factor that the defendant "took advantage of a position of
trust or confidence to commit the offense," the trial court's aggravation of the defendant's sentence violated
the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. Because a jury did not find beyond a reasonable doubt
that the defendant "took advantage of a position of trust or confidence" to commit indecent liberties, such er-
ror is structural error, and we must grant the defendant a new sentencing hearing.
State v. Lewis. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0950, 16 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch.J.) Appealed from Cabar-
rus County Superior Court. (W. Erwin Spainhour, J.) N.C. App.
Sentencing - Aggravating Factor - Constitutional - Jury Trial - Indecent Liberties
Where the trial judge found as an aggravating factor, without submitting the issue to a jury, that the de-
fendant took advantage of a position of trust and confidence to commit the offenses, and where the defend-
ant did not admit to this factor, the trial court's finding of the aggravating factor was in error under Blakely v.
Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004), and State v. Allen, ___ N.C. ___ (July 1, 2005).
Remanded for a new sentencing proceeding.
Since neither Blakely nor Allen had been decided at the time of the defendant's sentencing hearing, the
defendant was not aware of his right to have a jury determine the existence of the aggravating factor. There-
fore, the defendant's stipulation to the factual basis for his plea was not a knowing and intelligent act done
with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences. We hold that the defendant
did not knowingly and effectively stipulate to the aggravating factor, nor waive his right to a jury trial on the is-
sue of the aggravating factor.
The harmless-error rule does not apply to sentencing errors which violate a defendant's Sixth Amend-
ment right to jury trial pursuant to Blakely.
Moreover, Blakely errors arising under the N.C. Structured Sentencing Act are structural and, therefore,
reversible per se. We grant the defendant's motion for appropriate relief and remand this case for resenten-
cing in accordance with Blakely and Allen.
The trial court failed to find the statutory mitigating factor that the defendant accepted responsibility for
his criminal conduct. At the sentencing hearing, the defendant failed to ask that the trial court find this factor.
The defendant is now asking the court to conclude that the evidence so clearly established the mitigating
factor that no reasonable inferences to the contrary could be drawn, and that the credibility of the evidence
was manifest as a matter of law.
The defendant's apology at the sentencing hearing did not lead to the sole inference that he accepted re-
sponsibility for his criminal conduct. In addition, the defendant's Alford plea indicates a reluctance to take full
responsibility for his criminal conduct. Finally, the defendant's confession and psychiatric treatment do not
necessarily lead to the conclusion that he has taken responsibility for his conduct. Therefore, we cannot find
that the trial court erred in failing to find in mitigation that the defendant took responsibility for his criminal
conduct.
Affirmed, remanded for resentencing.
State v. Meynardie. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0948, 11 pp.) (Linda M. McGee, J.) Appealed from
Beaufort County Superior Court. (William C. Griffin Jr., J.) N.C. App.
Expunction - Multiple Charges - Unrelated
Even though the petitioner had no prior expunction and had no felony convictions, since the charges he
sought to have expunged ranged over several years and were unrelated, the trial court should not have ex-
punged them.
We reverse the order of expunction.
Pursuant to G.S. 15A-146, a person charged with a crime which is later dismissed, or who is found to be
not guilty or not responsible, may apply for an order of expungement for that charge. The purpose of the stat-
ute is to clear the public record of entries so that a person who is entitled to expunction may omit reference to
the charges to potential employers and others, and so that a records check for prior arrests and convictions
will not disclose the expunged entries. Notably, expungement is only available where the trial court finds that
the person has not previously received an expungement.
The plain language of G.S. 15A-146 does not allow for the expunction of multiple unrelated offenses oc-
curring over a number of years. On the contrary, the plain language of the statute expressly prohibits more
than one expunction. The trial court's interpretation of the statute would allow an individual who has numer-
ous unrelated charges over a number of years to wait for an appropriate time to obtain a single expunction
for unlimited numbers of arrests and charges occurring over the course of many years. If the legislature
wished to provide for the expungement of multiple offenses occurring over a number of years, there would be
no reason to limit expunction to a one-time event.
Reversed.
Dissent
(Tyson, J.) The petitioner was charged with six separate crimes in Anson County between December
1994 and May 2000. Two of them were interrelated charges stemming from "the same transaction or occur-
rence. " Neither the state's argument on appeal nor the majority's opinion considers these two charges as eli-
gible for expungement under their interpretation of G.S. 15A- 146. Even if the majority's opinion is otherwise
affirmed, the two related charges should remain expunged as multiple offenses arising out of the "same
transaction or occurrence. "
Nothing in the statute limits expunction to a single charge or multiple charges arising from "one transac-
tion or occurrence" or where multiple charges were consolidated for judgment.
A qualified individual is entitled to one grant of expunction under this statute, but the expunction order
may address or include more than one charge.
While an individual charged with, but not convicted of, a crime legally retains a clean criminal record and
history, the stigma of being arrested and charged without being proved to be guilty carries significant impacts
on decisions of employment, licensure, educational opportunities, or military service and denies the applicant
the presumption of innocence. Expunction allows the petitioner's presumption of innocence to remain and re-
moves the stigma of unsubstantiated and dismissed charges.
The state's argument of one expunction for one charge on appeal varies significantly from the stated
opinion by the Attorney General and that asserted in its petition for writ of certiorari.
I further note the inherent prejudice in the state's arguments on appeal to seek reversal of the petitioner's
order for expunction. The trial court granted the expungement on Nov. 25, 2002. The state failed to appeal.
Following entry of the order and the state's failure to appeal, the petitioner was allowed to represent his
background without disclosing the six expunged charges. Now, the state seeks reversal over two and one-
half years after the expungement order was entered and on grounds different from those asserted in its peti-
tion for writ of certiorari. Adopting the state's position, the petitioner is now liable for potential "misrepresenta-
tions" and non-disclosure of the six charges in reliance on the order entered and not appealed from.
I would affirm.
In re Robinson. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0937, 15 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch.J.) (John M. Tyson, J.,
dissenting) Appealed from Anson County District Court. (Joseph Williams, J.) N.C. App.
Embezzlement - Public Officer - Local ABC Board Employee - Wrong Statute - Subject Matter Jurisdic-
tion
Where, as a local ABC Board employee, the defendant should have been charged with embezzlement
under G.S. 14-90, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to hear this case because the defendant was instead
charged under G.S. 14-92.
The defendant's conviction is vacated.
Each indictment before us specifically charges the defendant for violations of G.S. 14-92. The Asheville
ABC is not a political subdivision of a city, county, or the ABC Commission. G.S. 18B-101.
It is undisputed that the defendant is an employee of a local ABC board and is subject to statutes that are
applicable to a local ABC board's employees. The defendant is not a public officer of any county, unit or
agency of local government, or local board of education.
As a local ABC Board employee, the defendant should have been charged under G.S. 14- 90. The trial
court lacked jurisdiction to hear this case where the defendant was charged with violation of G.S. 14-92.
State v. Jones. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0949, 6 pp.) (John M. Tyson, J.) Appealed from Buncombe
County Superior Court. (J. Marlene Hyatt, J.) N.C. App.
DNA Evidence - Population Statistics - Expert - Test Done by Colleague - Blakely Issue - Resentencing
Required
Where our case law evidences the admissibility of testimony on population statistics by forensic DNA
analysis experts, and where the defendant presents no authority to support his argument to the contrary, it
was not error for the trial court to admit this testimony.
No error in the defendant's conviction of statutory rape. Remanded for resentencing.
Where this court has stated that it is well established that an expert may base an opinion on tests per-
formed by others in the field, and where the defendant was given an opportunity to cross-examine the expert
on the basis of his opinion, there has been no violation of the defendant's right of confrontation.
But where the trial court found an aggravating factor that was not a prior conviction, and not admitted by
the defendant, and where the facts for the aggravating factor were not presented to a jury and proved bey-
ond a reasonable doubt, we must remand for resentencing.
State v. Watts. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0961, 22 pp.) (James A. Wynn Jr., J.) Appealed from Scot-
land County Superior Court. (B. Craig Ellis, J.) N.C. App.
Second- Degree Rape & Incest - Evidence - Hearsay - Corroborating Testimony - Prior Bad Acts
Where our review of the record reveals that substantial evidence supports each element of the charges
against the defendant—second-degree rape and incest—the trial court did not err in denying
the defendant's motion to dismiss the charges.
No error in the defendant's convictions of two counts of second-degree rape and five counts of felony in-
cest.
The trial court correctly allowed a detective to read the statements of two witnesses to corroborate their
testimony at trial; any inconsistencies were for the jury to consider and weigh.
The trial court properly overruled the defendant's objection to evidence of his prior bad acts. This is be-
cause the older daughter's testimony concerning the defendant's actions towards her when she was a child
illustrates a continuing pattern of sexual abuse and an intent to commit incest with the older sister during the
same approximate age that the defendant began to molest the victim.
State v. Locklear. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0960, 17 pp.) (John M. Tyson, J.) Appealed from Robeson
County Superior Court. (Ola M. Lewis, J.) N.C. App.
Kidnapping - False Imprisonment - Cross- Examination Limited - Juror Contact - Deferred Evidentiary
Ruling - Attorney's Fees - Inadequate Notice - Blakely Issues
Where the state introduced sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the defendant restrained his victim for
the purpose of terrorizing her, and where we are unpersuaded that the defendant's continued threats, re-
straint and blows upon the victim advanced his asserted goal of forcing her to drop the restraining order
against him, we overrule the defendant's argument that the court should have charged the jury on the lesser
included offense of false imprisonment.
No error in the defendant's conviction of second-degree kidnapping. We vacate the trial court's imposi-
tion of attorney's fees, and we remand for resentencing.
Where the trial court allowed the state's objection and cut off the defendant's line of recross-examination
of the victim-witness, this was not an abuse of discretion. There is no indication that the witness was offered
leniency or favorable treatment from the state in exchange for her testimony. The reasons for her unwilling-
ness to testify and the possibility of her being held in contempt do not bear on her credibility or bias toward
the defendant. Whether she believed the defendant had been tried "enough" is not relevant to any matter at
issue in the trial. Moreover, the defendant has failed to demonstrate how the trial court's ruling regarding the
witness' initial hesitation to testify improperly influenced the jury's verdict.
Where (1) alleged inappropriate contact with a juror occurred in the courtroom and in the presence of the
trial court; (2) the trial court noted that it could not hear what was discussed between the assistant district at-
torney and the clerk, and it was the same distance away as the juror; and (3) defense counsel was not cer-
tain what was discussed and could only state that he "thought" he overheard the assistant district attorney
mention "something" about "a statement," which defense counsel "assume[d]" was related to the case, then
there is no indication that the alleged inappropriate communication had any influence on the juror or on the
verdict of the entire jury. The trial court did not abuse its discretion either in investigating or ruling upon the al-
leged inappropriate communication.
We reject the defendant's assertion that the trial court chilled his right to present evidence by refusing to
rule on the issue of whether he would open the door for the state to introduce evidence of his other bad acts.
The trial court merely deferred its ruling on whether the state would be allowed to cross-examine the poten-
tial witness about the defendant's bad acts following the incident. The defendant recognized the risk at trial
and decided that he did not want to take that chance. The defendant's decision not to introduce the evidence
in question was a purely tactical one based on the possibility that the questioning might open the door to un-
desired cross-examination. The defendant's choice of tactics in this instance did not implicate any of his
rights.
But where the trial court sentenced the defendant in the aggravated range without submitting the aggrav-
ating factor to the jury for proof beyond a reasonable doubt, this was reversible error.
While the transcript clearly demonstrates that the defendant was given notice of the court's intention to
impose attorney's fees upon him, there is no indication in the record that the defendant was notified of and
given an opportunity to be heard regarding the appointed attorney's total hours or the total amount of fees
imposed. Therefore, we vacate the trial court's imposition of attorney's fees in this matter, and on remand the
state may apply for a judgment provided the defendant is given notice and an opportunity to be heard.
State v. Jacobs. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0959, 24 pp.) (Patricia Timmons-Goodson, J.) Appealed
from Robeson County Superior Court. (Donald Jacobs, J.) N.C. App.
Domestic Relations
Parent & Child - Parental Rights - Termination - Constitutional - Sixth Amendment - Confrontation Right -
30- Day Limit
Where a termination of parental rights proceeding is a civil action, the Sixth Amendment right to confront
opposing witnesses does not apply.
We affirm the trial court's order terminating the respondents' parental rights.
Even though the trial court's order terminating the respondents' parental rights was not entered until 69
days after the completion of the termination hearing, the respondents failed to argue how they or the other
parties were prejudiced by the 39-day delay.
In re D.R. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0939, 12 pp.) (John M. Tyson, J.) Appealed from Buncombe
County District Court. (Shirley H. Brown, J.) N.C. App.
Parent & Child - Parental Rights - Termination - Constitutional - Due Process - Exclusion From
Courtroom
Where the child's counselor believed that the respondent-mother could easily manipulate the child and
that she had asked him to lie to investigators, and where the mother was allowed to monitor the child's testi-
mony on a television monitor and had telephone access to her attorneys during the child's testimony, the trial
court did not err in excluding the mother from the courtroom during the child's testimony.
We affirm the trial court's order terminating the respondent's parental rights.
The nature of process due in parental rights termination proceedings turns on a balancing of three
factors specified in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976): (1) the private interests affected by the pro-
ceeding, (2) the risk of error created by the state's chosen procedure, and (3) the countervailing government-
al interest supporting use of the challenged procedure.
A parent's interest in the accuracy and justice of the decision to terminate her parental status is a com-
manding one. In light of this interest, the first Eldridge factor weighs in favor of the respondent.
In considering the third Eldridge factor, we note that the right to be present, to testify, and to confront wit-
nesses at a termination hearing is subject to limitations.
A licensed professional counselor who worked directly with the child regarding his relationship with the
respondent testified that the child "is very influenced by" the respondent. The counselor testified that the re-
spondent was "very manipulative" and that she believed "that there were stories constructed that [the child]
was asked to corroborate.... " The counselor testified that she believed the respondent had told the child to
lie to investigators and that his testifying to the truth in front of her would have a very negative impact on him.
The trial court was aware that the respondent had been charged with kidnapping the child and abscond-
ing to Oregon, and the counselor testified that the child was "reluctant about testifying" and had requested
"that he not testify in front of his mother.... "
In light of the circumstances, the third Eldridge factor weighs as equally in favor of the petitioner as the
first Eldridge factor weighs in favor of the respondent.
When the child testified, the respondent was placed in an adjacent room with a television monitor, and
she had telephone access to her attorneys. During his cross-examination, the child was instructed that the
respondent was "in another room and can hear the conversation," and respondent's counsel indicated that
he was "conferring with" the respondent during the child's testimony. We conclude that the risk of error from
the procedure employed at trial was slight. Because the trial court preserved the respondent's opportunity to
cross-examine the child through counsel, we also conclude that the respondent suffered no prejudice as a
result of her exclusion from the courtroom during the child's testimony.
The trial court did not err by excluding the respondent from the courtroom during the child's testimony.
Even though the summons required by G.S. 7B-1106(a)(5) was served upon the child's guardian ad
litem's attorney advocate rather than the child's guardian ad litem, and even if this was error, the guardian ad
litem did not object to the sufficiency of service, nor does the guardian ad litem argue on appeal that the trial
court lacked jurisdiction over the child. The respondent has failed to demonstrate any prejudice to her result-
ing from the alleged failure to properly serve the child. Thus, we are unable to conclude that the respondent
was directly and injuriously affected by the alleged error.
Where the respondent's incarceration in Oregon was the result of her own actions in abducting the child,
and where the trial court had granted the respondent a continuance more than a month before her incarcera-
tion—a continuance sought by the respondent for the express purpose of allowing her to gather the
documents she now asserts she was unable to obtain—the trial court did not abuse its discretion by
denying the respondent's third motion to continue.
Even though the trial court admitted orders from the underlying juvenile court action, the respondent cites
no authority for her contention that "judicial notice is inappropriate where the other orders have a lower evid-
entiary standard. " Moreover, she is unable to overcome the well- established supposition that the trial court
in a bench trial is presumed to have disregarded any incompetent evidence.
Affirmed.
In re J.B. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0938, 33 pp.) (Patricia Timmons-Goodson, J.) Appealed from
Buncombe County District Court. (Marvin P. Pope Jr., J.) N.C. App.
Insurance
Auto - Liability - Passenger - No Judgment Against Driver - Bad Faith & Unfair Trade Practices
Where the plaintiff-passenger has not obtained a judicial determination of the insured driver's liability, no
set of facts would entitle the plaintiff to relief on claims of either bad faith or unfair trade practices against the
insurer.
We affirm the trial court's order granting the insurer's motion to dismiss with prejudice.
The plaintiff-passenger was injured when the driver of the car in which he was riding tried to make a left
turn and was struck by an oncoming car. The passenger sought benefits from the driver's insurer. When the
insurer failed to proffer its liability limit, the passenger filed suit, alleging bad faith refusal to settle and unfair
and deceptive trade practices.
North Carolina does not recognize a cause of action for third-party claimants against the insurance com-
pany of an adverse party based on unfair trade practices under G.S. 75-1.1. Nothing in the complaint asserts
that there is any privity between the plaintiff-passenger and the driver's insurer; therefore, even liberally con-
struing the complaint and taking it as true, the plaintiff cannot set forth any set of facts which would entitle
him to relief.
Even though we have said the injured party in an automobile accident is an intended third- party benefi-
ciary to the insurance contract between the insurer and the tortfeasor/insured party, in those cases, the third-
party plaintiff had already obtained a judgment against the defendant insurance company's insured. In fact,
we said, "It is settled law that where the liability of the insured has been established by judgment," the injured
person may maintain an action as a third-party beneficiary on the insured's policy of liability insurance. The
plaintiff brought his claim against the insurer prior to the driver's liability having been established judicially.
Affirmed.
Craven v. Demidovich. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0941, 5 pp.) (Barbara Jackson, J.) Appealed from
Guilford County Superior Court. (W. Douglas Albright, J.) N.C. App.
Labor & Employment
Unemployment Compensation - Disqualification - Substantial Fault - No Warnings
Where the Employment Security Commission failed to find specifically that the employer expressly
warned the petitioner that failure to submit log notes was a violation of the employer's rules or that the peti-
tioner continued to violate this requirement after being warned, the ESC's findings of fact do not support its
conclusion that the petitioner was substantially at fault under G.S. 96-14(2a) for failing to timely submit log
notes.
We affirm the superior court's reversal of the ESC's ruling that the petitioner was disqualified from receiv-
ing unemployment compensation for nine weeks.
An employee may be disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits if there is substantial fault con-
nected with the employee's work. Under G.S. 96-14(2a), "Substantial fault is defined to include those acts or
omissions of employees over which they exercised reasonable control and which violate reasonable require-
ments of the job but shall not include (1) minor infractions of rules unless such infractions are repeated after
a warning was received by the employee, (2) inadvertent mistakes made by the employee, nor (3) failures to
perform work because of insufficient skill, ability, or equipment. "
If an employer establishes a reasonable job policy to which an employee can conform, failure to conform
constitutes substantial fault. Where there is no formal set of rules to use as a reference, we rely on the ESC's
findings as to the employer's policy.
The employer's directive that the petitioner keep a daily log was a reasonable requirement of the job, and
we recognize that the petitioner's failure to timely submit log notes constitutes a violation of this requirement.
However, the ESC failed to enter specific findings of fact that (1) the employer expressly warned the petition-
er that failure to submit log notes was a violation of the employer's rules, and (2) the petitioner continued to
violate this requirement after being warned.
Finding of fact 13 indicates that the employer asked the petitioner several times to submit log notes after
the petitioner failed to do so. However, it is not clear that those requests constituted a warning.
The substantial fault statute is to be strictly construed in the employee's favor. Where the employer does
not have an employee handbook, a list of rules and regulations, or a formal system of reprimand, it is espe-
cially important to construe the statute in the employee's favor because the rules and method of reprimand
are at the complete discretion of the employee's supervisor. Thus, construing the statute strictly in the peti-
tioner's favor, we hold that the findings of fact do not support the conclusion that the petitioner was substan-
tially at fault under G.S. 96-14(2a) for failing to timely submit log notes.
The employer's requirement that the petitioner call in his absences was a reasonable requirement, and
we recognize that the petitioner's failure to call in constitutes a violation of this rule. However, the ESC failed
to enter specific findings of fact that (1) the employer expressly warned the petitioner that failure to call in
was a violation of the employer's rules, and (2) continued violation of the rule would result in discharge. We
are not convinced that the act of advising an employee about the employer's absence policy constitutes a
warning. Again, construing the statute strictly in the petitioner's favor, we hold that the findings of fact do not
support the conclusion that the petitioner was substantially at fault under G.S. 96-14(2a) for failing to call in
sick.
The ESC made general findings that referenced the petitioner's behavior and indicated that the employer
told the petitioner that his behavior must change. However, the ESC failed to make specific findings that the
employer warned the petitioner that his behavior was in violation of certain rules, and that the petitioner con-
tinued the behavior after being warned such behavior could lead to discharge. Therefore, we hold that the
findings of fact do not support the conclusion that the petitioner was substantially at fault under G.S. 96-
14(2a) for failure to follow up on his duties, failure to follow directions, or for his poor attitude.
Affirmed.
Dissent
(Steelman, J.) The majority holds it is unclear whether the employer's multiple requests to the petitioner
to turn in his notes constituted a warning. Such a holding would require the employer to have told the em-
ployee that failure to turn in the notes was a violation of the employer's rules and this was a "warning. " I
would not read the requirements of G.S. 96-14(2a) so narrowly.
Where an employer makes repeated requests to an employee to perform a task that was clearly as-
signed to him and the employee continues to ignore the requests, this constitutes a warning for purposes of
"substantial fault" under G.S. 96-14(2a). Whether the employer gave a warning should be determined on the
facts of each case and should not be determined by whether the employer used the magic word "warning. "
As to finding of fact 14 dealing with the employee's failure to call in sick, the ESC specifically found,
"Claimant was out again due to the flu and failed to call despite having been warned. " The ESC found that
the employer issued employee a warning. It is not the role of the appellate courts to twist the plain meaning
of the ESC's findings to achieve a particular result.
Boyland v. Southern Structures, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0942, 15 pp.) (Patricia Timmons-Good-
son, J.) (Sanford L. Steelman Jr., J., dissenting) Appealed from Guilford County Superior Court. (Todd Burke,
J.) N.C. App.
Municipal
Involuntary Annexation - Extension of Services - Administrative - Information Meeting
Where the respondent-village provides independent administrative, engineering, auditing, legal and plan-
ning services to its residents, and where the village is exploring options for obtaining additional police patrol
services and has committed itself to providing its current and future levels of such services to its residents in
a nondiscriminatory manner, the village will provide some additional services to the area to be annexed.
We affirm the superior court's order upholding the involuntary annexation.
G.S. 160A-33 and -35(3) do not require the village to provide additional services that the current resid-
ents of the village do not enjoy, or to duplicate services already provided to the area to be annexed. Rather,
under the plain statutory language, a municipality must provide to the annexed area "each major municipal
service performed within the municipality at the time of annexation ... on substantially the same basis and in
the same manner as such services are provided within the rest of the municipality prior to annexation. " G.S.
160A-35(3) does not command municipalities to provide certain specific services but ensures that, whatever
services are provided, are provided in a nondiscriminatory fashion to those areas to be annexed.
The superior court found that, "after annexation, the Annexation Area will receive services on substan-
tially the same basis and in the same manner as services received elsewhere in the [village]" and that the vil-
lage "has committed to providing its current and future levels of such services to its residents in a nondis-
criminatory manner. " Thus, the superior court properly concluded that the village had satisfied all statutory
requirements regarding the provision of services to the annexed area.
We are not unsympathetic to the petitioners' contention that they will receive very few additional services
despite additional taxation. However, we are bound by the plain language of the statute and case precedent.
The petitioners must look to the General Assembly and not the courts for relief in such matters.
The village conducted the informational meeting required by G.S. 160A-37(c1) and answered all ques-
tions except those concerning its motivations for annexing the territory. In order to invalidate an annexation
based on procedural violations, the petitioners must demonstrate material injury. The petitioners have failed
to demonstrate how they have suffered material injury as a result of the village's failure to answer one ques-
tion, the answer to which could have no effect on the validity of the proposed annexation.
Affirmed.
Dissent
(Tyson, J.) The village does not offer police, fire, streetlight, solid waste, street maintenance, water and
sewer, animal control, or parks and recreation services to its residents. Three administrators work part-time
for 12 hours per week. The village contracts for planning services, engineering services, an auditor and an
attorney. While the village will not discriminate between "services" provided to current residents and those
located in the annexed area, the petitioners already pay for and receive all such "services" from other
sources. The only new "service" the village will provide residents in the annexed area is an additional annual
tax bill.
There is no evidence the annexation is intended to spur and foster economic growth and development or
to provide urban services not currently available to the affected residents. The village has not shown any be-
nefit the petitioners will receive that is not currently provided in return for the extra tax burden.
The village's purported involuntary annexation is a flagrant violation of the plain language, intent and pur-
pose of the statute and supporting case law. The village's plan gives new meaning to the phrase "taxation
without representation" and adds to that phrase "or anything else. " The village's illegal conduct is exacer-
bated by its refusal to answer the petitioners' questions at a statutorily required public hearing and denial to
the petitioners of minimal due process.
Nolan v. Village of Marvin. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0946, 18 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch.J.) (John M.
Tyson, J., dissenting) Appealed from Union County Superior Court. (Albert Diaz, J.) N.C. App.
Taxation
Sales & Use - Building Materials - Assembly Into Components - N.C. Houses
Where the petitioner buys lumber, steel and other materials out of state and then assembles these ma-
terials into trusses, columns and other building components out of state before bringing the components into
North Carolina and incorporating them into houses, the petitioner is liable for use tax on the lumber, steel and
other materials.
We affirm the superior court's order upholding the respondent's denial of the petitioner's refund claim.
G.S. 105-164.6(b) provides, "An excise tax at the general rate of tax set in G.S. 105-164.4 is imposed on
the purchase price of tangible personal property purchased inside or outside the State that becomes a part of
a building or other structure in the State. The purchaser of the property is liable for the tax. "
The petitioner argues that the materials did not become "part of a building or other structure in the State.
" The petitioner further argues that the materials were "consumed" and "transformed" into building compon-
ents outside of North Carolina, and thus it was the building components that became "part of a building or
other structure in the State. "
Inherent in the petitioner's argument is its belief that the statute only taxes items of tangible personal
property that are used in the form in which they were purchased. Thus, the petitioner argues that since the
materials purchased by the petitioner were not incorporated into a building or structure in their unaltered
state, the petitioner is not subject to the excise tax set forth in G.S. 105-164.6(b).
Contrary to the petitioner's argument, the statute does not contain the limitation that the tangible personal
property must be in the form in which it was purchased to be taxable. We do not agree with the petitioner that
the materials "cease to exist" when they are assembled into trusses, columns, purlins, and metal panels.
However, even assuming arguendo that the materials "cease to exist" when they become part of the
building components, the materials as incorporated into building components are still tangible personal prop-
erty. Therefore, the statute applies to the materials purchased by the petitioner because the materials, which
are tangible personal property, became "part of a building or other structure in the State. "
The trial court properly concluded, "The Legislature enacted the use tax so that builders could not gain
an advantage by purchasing materials outside the state. The law thus requires that [the petitioner] pay tax on
all tangible materials, wherever purchased, which are ultimately used in North Carolina buildings. "
Since the use taxes in sections (a) and (b) of G.S. 105-164.6 are alternative stand alone provisions, and
since the petitioner is subject to the use tax in section (b), we need not review the petitioner's argument that
it is not subject to the use tax set forth in section (a). Nevertheless, we note that the petitioner is also subject
to the use tax under section (a) because the materials purchased by the petitioner were used in North Caro-
lina.
By incorporating the lumber and other materials the petitioner purchased into the buildings the petitioner
constructed in North Carolina, the petitioner exercised a right, power, and dominion over, and therefore used
the lumber and other materials. The petitioner is subject to the use tax under both sections (a) and (b) of
G.S. 105-164.6.
Even though the parties stipulated that the materials were "consumed and transformed by [the petitioner]
in the manufacture of finished building components," stipulations as to questions of law are generally held in-
valid and ineffective and not binding on the courts. Whether the materials purchased by the petitioner were
"manufactured" into building components is a question of law. Similarly, whether the materials were "con-
sumed and transformed" is a question of law, and the parties' stipulations as to these words are not binding.
Even though the petitioner claims that it transforms the lumber, steel and other materials into a different
article by a different name—"building components"—we are not persuaded that these building
components have a distinct character or use. It is difficult to discern how the building components are a dif-
ferent article with a distinctive character and use. The trial court did not err in noting that, although the parties
had stipulated to the word "manufacture", the term "assembly" was more descriptive.
Affirmed.
Morton Buildings, Inc. v. Tolson. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0947, 12 pp.) (Linda M. McGee, J.) Ap-
pealed from Wake County Superior Court. (Wade Barber, J.) N.C. App.
Tort/Negligence
Corporate - Subsidiary - Limitation of Liability - Unfair Trade Practices - Civil Practice - Discovery - Re-
quest for Admissions - Breach of Contract
Even though the defendant-parent corporation admitted that it established the defendant-subsidiary in or-
der to deprive creditors such as the plaintiff of any source of recovery in the event the parent corporation de-
cided to cease operating the subsidiary, this does not show that the parent corporation engaged in unfair
trade practices.
We affirm summary judgment for the plaintiff except as to its unfair trade practices claim. That claim is re-
manded for trial.
The complaint alleges that the defendant-subsidiary owes the plaintiff a stated sum. In an unverified an-
swer, the defendants admitted that the subsidiary had failed to pay the plaintiff but generally denied the
amount allegedly owed. The defendants failed to respond to a request for an admission that the subsidiary
was a mere instrumentality of the defendant-parent corporation, and the trial court deemed the fact admitted.
Contrary to the defendants' argument, an answer to allegations in a complaint does not serve as a re-
sponse to a request for admission, even if the matters addressed in both are identical. The trial court did not
err in determining that the defendants had failed to respond to the plaintiff's request for admissions.
The request for admissions established that the subsidiary was a mere instrumentality and/or alter ego of
the parent corporation and had no separate mind, will or existence of its own. Where a corporation is found
to be the mere instrumentality of another, the two are treated as one for purposes of assessing liability for the
alleged wrong and are jointly and severally liable. The alter ego doctrine applies to contractual debts as well
as to tort claims.
The defendants' answer admitted to the breach of contract, and the deemed admissions demonstrated
that the subsidiary was a mere instrumentality of the parent corporation.
However, there were no admissions which established any conduct on the part of the defendants that
would permit the trial court to determine they committed an unfair or deceptive act or practice.
Admission 7 provides that the subsidiary was a mere instrumentality and/or alter ego of the parent cor-
poration used to deprive creditors such as the plaintiff of any source of recovery in the event the parent cor-
poration decided to cease operating the subsidiary.
One of the primary motivations for the incorporation of a business is to limit the liability of the corpora-
tion's shareholders. This is true whether the shareholders are individuals or another corporation. Further, it is
clearly not illegal for a corporation to establish a subsidiary corporation. One of the reasons for doing so is to
insulate the parent corporation from liability for particularly risky business ventures.
Request for Admission 7 merely establishes that the defendants set up the subsidiary for the purpose of
limiting their liability. To hold as a matter of law that this constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice
would be to expose every parent corporation or holding company in this state to liability under G.S. Ch. 75 for
organizing their business in a manner that has heretofore been held to be legal.
We hold as a matter of law that the mere establishment of a subsidiary corporation for the purpose of lim-
iting the parent corporation's liability is not per se an unfair and deceptive trade practice under Chapter 75.
This portion of the trial court's judgment finding such a violation and awarding treble damages is reversed.
Affirmed in part, reversed and remanded in part.
Excel Staffing Service, Inc. v. HP Reidsville, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07- 0940, 14 pp.) (Sanford L.
Steelman Jr., J.) Appealed from Guilford County Superior Court. (Michael E. Helms & W. Douglas Albright,
JJ.) N.C. App.
Workers Compensation
Credit - Severance Package - Due & Payable - Years of Service
Where the plaintiff's severance pay was calculated based upon his years of service and was paid both
before and after surgery on a compensable injury left the plaintiff disabled, the plaintiff's severance pay was
not compensation for his disability.
We reverse the Industrial Commission's decision to award the defendant credit for the severance pay.
In 1999, the plaintiff suffered an injury to his right knee, which the defendant accepted as compensable.
In March 2001, the defendant eliminated the plaintiff's job and began paying him 10 months of severance
based on his 29 years of service.
In June 2001, the plaintiff underwent knee surgery. He became disabled as a result of the surgery and
associated complications. The plaintiff sought workers' compensation benefits, and the Commission gave the
defendant credit for the severance package.
This court has held that the general intent of G.S. 97-42 is to encourage voluntary payments by the em-
ployer while the worker's claim is being litigated and he is receiving no wages. Further, the phrase "due and
payable" should not be analyzed in isolation, but in the context of G.S. 97-42 overall, which refers to "pay-
ments made by the employer ... which by the terms of this Article were not due and payable when made. "
The Industrial Commission may credit an employer for payments that were not due or payable under the
terms of the Workers' Compensation Act at the time they were made, thus restricting credits to payments for
workers' compensation benefits and monies that were not due or payable.
Because the Commission may credit an employer only for payments not due or payable under the terms
of the Act, an employer is not automatically entitled to a credit for any and every payment to a claimant.
Payments are due and payable if made after an employer admits the compensability of a claim.
Further, G.S. 97-42 does not authorize a credit for payment of benefits that have nothing to do with the
Act and are not analogous to payments under a disability and sickness plan.
The defendant's human resources manager testified that his decision to award the plaintiff severance
pay was based on the plaintiff's position as a district manager. The benefit amount was a function only of the
plaintiff's years of service.
The record contains no evidence that the plaintiff's severance pay was in any way associated with his in-
jury, disability, or workers' compensation claim. The plaintiff's severance pay began several months before
his disabling surgery and was calculated on the basis of his years of service to the company. The record
evidence all suggests that the plaintiff's severance pay had nothing to do with workers' compensation and
that he would have received the same amount of severance pay for the same duration if he had not been dis-
abled.
The job classification, or the number, of other employees receiving severance pay is not germane to
whether the plaintiff's severance pay was tantamount to workers' compensation disability compensation and
could properly be credited against the defendants' workers' compensation obligation.
Further, the enforceability of the severance agreement as a contract was not before the Commission.
Moreover, G.S. 97-42 has been held not to apply to fringe benefits or to insurance proceeds that are of a
contractual nature rather than proceeds that are grounded in workers' compensation law. The plaintiff's sev-
erance pay clearly was "of a contractual nature"; it was paid pursuant to a written severance agreement and
was calculated solely by reference to his years of employment with the defendant. Payments are due and
payable when made if they have been earned by the employee and are not solely under the control of the
employer.
Reversed in part and remanded.
Meares v. Dana Corp./Wix Division. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0934, 13 pp.) (Eric L. Levinson, J.) Ap-
pealed from the Industrial Commission. N.C. App.
Credit - Professional Football Player - Player Contract - Dollar-for- Dollar - First Impression - Injury by Ac-
cident - Temporary Partial Disability
Where the standard Player Contract provides that injury grievance payments entitle the defendant-team
to a dollar-for-dollar credit towards any workers' compensation award, and where none of the plaintiff-player's
salary was put into the fund to pay for injury grievance payments, the Industrial Commission could award the
team a dollar-for-dollar credit for the player's injury grievance settlement.
We affirm the Industrial Commission's award of benefits and of a dollar-for-dollar credit.
The plaintiff suffered a wrist injury during a pre-season practice. By the time the injury healed, he had lost
27 pounds and was not in football-playing shape. He got a job as a real estate agent.
The Commission awarded the plaintiff partial disability compensation at the maximum rate of $620 per
week for 300 weeks. The defendants were awarded a dollar-for-dollar credit for the parties' $35,294 injury
grievance settlement, to be deducted from the end of the 300-week period.
The defendants argue the plaintiff did not suffer an accidental injury.
The Commission found, "It was unexpected and unusual for the offensive player to block plaintiff with an
impact that [forced] his left hand and wrist into an awkward position. At the time of injury, plaintiff was en-
gaged in an activity within the scope of his employment contract and was taking reasonable measures to pro-
tect himself from injury, given the nature of the game. Plaintiff was required to do what he was doing at the
time of injury and had no choice but to perform his job as best he could, notwithstanding the risk of injury. "
The plaintiff's testimony indicates that, although he was engaging in his normal work duty of blocking an
offensive lineman, he was injured because he was forced by another player into utilizing an unusual and
awkward blocking or work technique that was not normally used in the plaintiff's work routine. Therefore, the
plaintiff suffered a compensable injury by accident.
The defendants dispute the Commission's calculation of the plaintiff's average weekly wage.
The plaintiff earned $1100 each week for 10 weeks while playing in NFL Europe in the spring and early
summer of 2001. The plaintiff also earned $4929 during the six weeks he was in the Panthers's training
camp. These amounts equal $15,929.00 for 16 weeks of work during the 52 weeks prior to his injury.
In contrast, the plaintiff would have been entitled to an annual salary of $193,000 if he had made the
Panthers's team and would have been entitled to $111,000 if he were placed on the Panthers's injured re-
serve list. Given the fact that the plaintiff only worked 16 weeks out of the 52 weeks prior to his injury and
only earned approximately $16,000, the Commission's finding that exceptional reasons existed for using the
plaintiff's future earnings under the contract to determine the average weekly wage is supported by some
competent evidence.
The defendants also argue it was uncertain whether the plaintiff would have made the team. The plaintiff
had never made the roster of any NFL team; he had been cut during the training camp of the Buffalo Bills,
the Carolina Panthers, and an XFL football team; and all of his earnings as a professional football player
were made while playing on two NFL Europe teams or in training camps.
However, the plaintiff had been informed that the Panthers's deep snapper position was vacant and that
the backup linebacker position was available. The plaintiff testified that he believed he was performing better
than the other deep snappers during training camp prior to his injury. He also testified that Sam Mills ("Mills"),
a position coach, informed him that he was progressing well and to "keep up the good work. " Mills also told
the plaintiff it was good that he was watching film because that was the kind of thing that helped a player
make the team. This testimony provided a basis upon which the Commission could determine whether or not
the plaintiff would have been placed on the Panthers' roster.
We decline to substitute our judgment for that of the Commission.
The defendants also contend the Commission erred in awarding the plaintiff 300 weeks of temporary par-
tial disability benefits.
Under the Workers' Compensation Act, disability is defined by a diminished capacity to earn wages, not
by physical infirmity.
Even though the plaintiff did not seek further medical treatment after Nov. 29, 2001, he has demonstrated
his diminished wage-earning capacity by presenting evidence that he has obtained other employment at a
wage less than that he earned prior to his injury.
The defendants argue the plaintiff could have sought employment with other NFL teams. However, his
doctor told him that his wrist pain should subside early in 2002 and that he should return if it did not. The
plaintiff testified that his wrist began feeling better during January and February 2002. He then began training
again.
At the May 2002 hearing, the plaintiff weighed 27 pounds less than when he signed with the defendant,
and he could not lift the same amount of weight as he could pre-injury. Nonetheless, the plaintiff's agent had
sent the plaintiff's bio and current weight information to every NFL team, but he had not received any inquir-
ies or tryout requests regarding the plaintiff.
Competent evidence supports the Commission's findings and conclusion that the plaintiff was partially
disabled.
The defendants have not demonstrated that the plaintiff is capable of earning the same pre- injury wages
post-injury. The defendants only argue that he has not tried out for any NFL teams.
However, as previously stated, the plaintiff was not in professional football player condition due to his in-
jury. When the plaintiff was capable of training, his agent contacted all of the NFL teams, but none of the
teams were interested in the plaintiff's services due to his weight and strength at that time. Therefore, the de-
fendants have not shown the plaintiff is capable of earning his pre-injury wages post-injury. If the defendants
can make this showing in the future, they are entitled to file a motion with the Commission pursuant to G.S.
97-47 for a modification of the plaintiff's award.
Finally, the defendants argue the Commission should not have admitted hearsay testimony about state-
ments made by team employees.
Based upon the Panthers's general manager's testimony that the final roster would be determined by the
head coach with input from all of the assistant coaches, the personnel department (which includes scouts),
and the general manager, and (plaintiff's agent) Nelson's testimony that it was industry practice to rely upon
the representations made by scouts and coaches regarding a player's chances of making a team, the testi-
mony regarding what the coaches and scouts stated regarding the team's needs and the plaintiff's perform-
ance was admissible. Indeed, these individuals had authority to discuss the team's needs and a player's per-
formance as their opinion would be considered in determining the team's final roster.
Moreover, Koncz, the director of pro scouting, handled all of the communication between the plaintiff and
the Panthers regarding vacancies on the team roster, a tryout, and termination. Mills, as the position coach,
also had the authority to tell a player that it was good he was watching film and to give an assessment about
how a player was progressing in practice. Accordingly, the plaintiff's and Nelson's testimony regarding the
statements made by Koncz, assistant special teams coach Simmons, and Mills regarding the plaintiff's per-
formance and the open deep snapper position was admissible.
The plaintiff argues the Commission erred in awarding the defendants a dollar-for-dollar credit for the in-
jury grievance settlement.
The application of G.S. 97-42 in the context of a highly paid professional athlete presents an issue of first
impression. Upon the injury to the plaintiff that occurred during the performance of his contractual duties, he
was entitled to medical care and his yearly salary during the 2001 NFL football season pursuant to his con-
tract with the Panthers. Unlike some other states with professional teams, North Carolina does not have a
statute specifically addressing highly paid professional athletes and workers' compensation.
Typically, under G.S. 97-42, any credit an employer receives for payments made pursuant to an employ-
er-funded salary continuation, disability, or other income replacement plan is awarded by reducing the num-
ber of weeks of workers' compensation awarded to the claimant by the number of weeks in which an employ-
er made payments under the plan. However, the language "unless otherwise provided by the plan" indicates
an employer may include language in the wage-replacement plan that modifies G.S. 97-42 to allow for a dol-
lar-for-dollar credit.
The Standard Player Contract unambiguously provides for a dollar-for-dollar credit.
The injury grievance money paid to the plaintiff came from the gross revenue earned by the Panthers
from professional football games. The parties disputed whether the money came from the owners' or the
players' percentage. Nevertheless, the Commission found, "No percentage of [the plaintiff's] salary was put
into the fund to pay for benefits. Therefore, defendants are entitled to a credit for payments 'made by the em-
ployer' pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. 97-42. "
The Commission's findings are supported by competent evidence.
Affirmed.
Renfro v. Richardson Sports Ltd. Partners. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0936, 33 pp.) (Robert Hunter, J.)
Appealed from the Industrial Commission. N.C. App.
Credit - Professional Football Player - Collective Bargaining Agreement - Dollar- for- Dollar - Due & Pay-
able - Earnings - First Impression
Where $5,210,370.72 of the payments the plaintiff received after his injury was money he had already
earned or that he earned after his injury, the defendants are not entitled to workers' compensation credit for
such payments.
We affirm the Industrial Commission's refusal to grant the defendants a credit for the plaintiff's roster bo-
nus, signing bonus, salary for the Sep. 17, 2000 game, and mini-camp, workout and appearance fees. We
affirm the Commission's finding that the plaintiff was entitled to 300 weeks of temporary partial disability be-
nefits. However, we remand for further findings as to the $750,000 payments to be received by the plaintiff in
2002, the $225,000 in injury protection payments, and the $658,826 in injured reserve pay.
The plaintiff suffered a knee injury in the Panthers' Sep. 17, 2000 game. Although he was placed on the
2001 roster and participated in mini-camps, workout and training camps in April and May 2001, the plaintiff
was cut from the roster in July 2001.
The application of G.S. 97-42 in the context of a highly paid professional athlete presents an issue of first
impression. Unlike some other states with professional teams, North Carolina does not have a statute spe-
cifically addressing highly paid professional athletes and workers' compensation.
G.S. 97-42 provides that employers are not entitled to workers' compensation credit as to payments
which were "due and payable" when made. Our appellate courts have determined three instances where a
payment is "due and payable. "
First, a payment is due and payable when the Industrial Commission has entered an opinion awarding
benefits to a claimant. Second, a payment is due and payable after the employer has admitted the worker's
injury is compensable. In such a case, if the payments exceed the amount to which the claimant is entitled,
the employer will not have to pay any additional compensation. Third, a payment is due and payable when
made if the employee has earned the compensation or benefit.
Unless otherwise provided by an employer funded salary continuation, wage replacement, or disability
plan, when a credit is awarded, the deduction "shall be made by shortening the period during which com-
pensation must be paid, and not by reducing the amount of the weekly payment. " G.S. 97-42. If the payment
was made pursuant to an employer-funded salary continuation, disability, or other income replacement plan,
different rules apply
The statute's language "unless otherwise provided by the plan" indicates that an employer may include
language in a wage-replacement plan which modifies the application of G.S. 97-42.
The plaintiff was injured on Sep. 17, 2000. On Sep. 18, 2000, he received $47,059. The Commission
found, "The payment made on September 18, 2000, represented earnings for playing in the September 17,
2000, game in which plaintiff was injured, and was not paid as a disability payment. "
The plaintiff's payment history indicates he was receiving his salary weekly. As the NFL collective bar-
gaining agreement (CBA) indicates a player would begin receiving his salary weekly after the first regular
season game, the Commission's conclusion that the Sep. 18, 2000 payment reflected the plaintiff's earnings
for playing in the Sep. 17, 2000 game is supported by competent evidence, as the players were paid after the
weekly football game. Thus, the defendants cannot seek a credit for this payment because it was due and
payable when made
The plaintiff received a $1,000,000 roster bonus when the Panthers decided to place him on the roster
for the 2001 season.
The testimony of the Panthers' general manager indicates that the roster bonus was neither paid as a
result of the plaintiff's workers' compensation claim nor was it a part of a wage replacement plan for employ-
ees unable to work. Rather, the plaintiff was contractually entitled to the bonus because the Panthers de-
cided to place him on the roster. Thus, the Commission's finding that the bonus should be classified as earn-
ings is supported by competent evidence. As this bonus was due and payable when made, the defendants
cannot seek a credit for the roster bonus.
According to the plaintiff's contract, he was obligated to participate in mini-camps, workouts, and to make
appearances on behalf of the team. As the plaintiff's payment history indicates payments of $1985.72 and
$2500 between Apr. 2, and May 21, 2001 were for participating in these activities, the Commission's conclu-
sion that these were post-injury earnings is supported by competent evidence. As such, the defendants can-
not seek a credit for these payments because they were due and payable when made.
In finding of fact 14, the Commission found, "The payment of a deferred 3.5 million dollar signing bonus
on April 3, 2001, relates back as an amount plaintiff earned, though later paid, for signing with the Panthers
in February of 2000. "
According to the Panthers's general manager, the plaintiff would have received the remainder of his sign-
ing bonus even if he had not been placed on the 2001 roster. The plaintiff became entitled to the signing bo-
nus upon signing the contract, which occurred pre-injury. Therefore, finding of fact 14 is supported by com-
petent evidence. As such, the defendants may not seek a credit for the signing bonus because it was due
and payable when made.
Although NFL Players' Association staff counsel Tim English testified that the injury protection plan is fun-
ded out of the players' side of the NFL revenue used for the salary cap, he did not testify that 63 percent of
the defined gross revenue generated belonged to the players. Indeed, the CBA indicates the defined gross
revenue belongs to the NFL and the NFL teams.
According to English, all of the players' salary and benefits in 2000 were paid out of the 63 percent salary
cap. The salary and benefits included, among other things, the injury protection plan and the injured reserve
pay.
Thus, the $47,059.00 weekly injured reserve payments the plaintiff received were paid out of the 63 per-
cent salary cap. Similarly, the injury protection plan payments received by the plaintiff in 2001 would have
been paid out of the salary cap.
However, the Commission determined in finding of fact 16 that the injured reserve payments were made
pursuant to an employer totally funded disability plan. Then in finding of fact 17, the Commission determined
the injury protection plan was employee funded. These findings of fact are contradictory as the injured re-
serve pay and the injury protection plan payments were part of the salary cap.
We remand to the Commission for the hearing of additional evidence and further findings of fact as to
whether the injury protection plan is employee funded, employer funded, or both. The Commission shall con-
sider whether the injury protection plan provisions modify the terms of G.S. 97-42. As the plaintiff did not ap-
peal the Commission's determination in finding of fact 16, that the injured reserve pay was part of an employ-
er-funded disability plan, the Commission shall not address whether injured reserve pay was employer-fun-
ded or employee-funded on remand.
Although the parties stipulated that the plaintiff would receive $750,000.00 in 17 equal payments during
the 2002 football season, the Commission did not render any findings of fact or conclusions of law as to
whether it would award the defendants a credit for these payments. Thus, this case must be remanded to the
Commission for a determination of whether the defendants are entitled to a credit for these guarantee pay-
ments.
The Commission also did not render any findings of fact or conclusions of law as to whether the CBA
modifies G.S. 97-42. Therefore, on remand, the Commission may hear additional evidence and may make
further findings of fact as to whether the effect of G.S. 97-42 has been modified in this case.
Affirmed in part, remanded for further proceedings in part.
Smith v. Richardson Sports Ltd. Partners. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0932, 29 pp.) (Robert Hunter, J.)
Appealed from the Industrial Commission. N.C. App.
Insurance - Contract - Novation - Insolvency - Covered Claim
Where (1) the plaintiff suffered a compensable injury while the defendant-employer was insured by N.C.
Selective; (2) via a novation, Reliance National Insurance Co. assumed Selective's responsibilities; (3) Reli-
ance became insolvent and was ordered into liquidation by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court; and (4)
the N.C. Insurance Guaranty Association (IGA) became liable for Reliance's unpaid claims, IGA is respons-
ible for paying the plaintiff's workers' compensation benefits.
We affirm the Industrial Commission's opinion and award.
IGA failed to make exceptions to the Commission's findings of fact; thus, they are binding on appeal.
The Commission found as fact the assumption reinsurance agreement was a novation. It held the nova-
tion extinguished the contract between Selective and the employer and that Reliance expressly assumed 100
percent of Selective's obligations. The agreement did not create a new contract for insurance coverage but
solely substituted a new party, Reliance for Selective, to the contract.
Through novation, Reliance is deemed to have replaced Selective as if Reliance had issued the original
contract of insurance to the employer. The novation replaced the parties to the contract; it did not change the
obligations under the contract for insurance itself, and the agreement did not operate retroactively to cover
known or unknown losses.
The plaintiff's claim for injury occurred after the original contract for insurance was entered into by the
employer and Selective, now the employer and Reliance. Reliance, through novation, became the employer-
's insurance company beginning Nov. 1, 1994 to the time of the plaintiff's claim. The plaintiff's claim is a
"covered claim" within the coverage of the insurance policy issued by Reliance, a direct insurer as defined by
G.S. 58-48-20.
After Reliance became insolvent and was ordered into liquidation by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth
Court, IGA became liable for all covered claims issued by an insolvent direct insurer under G.S. 58-48-20
and G.S. 58-48-35(a)(1). The Commission correctly concluded that the plaintiff's claim met the definition of a
"covered claim" under G.S. 58-48-20 and holding IGA to be liable for the plaintiff's claim.
Under G.S. 58-48-35, IGA is liable for all claims on policies of direct insurance companies which have
been found insolvent. Reliance is a direct insurance company who is deemed to have issued an insurance
policy to the employer and is an active member of IGA. The plaintiff's claim is a "covered claim" in that it
arose out of Reliance's coverage of the employer.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court found Reliance insolvent and ordered it liquidated. After Reli-
ance was found to be insolvent, IGA stepped into the shoes of Reliance and must pay its claims. The Com-
mission properly concluded the plaintiff's claim is within the statutory obligations of IGA.
Affirmed.
Bowles v. BCJ Trucking Services, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0933, 9 pp.) (John M. Tyson, J.) Ap-
Civil Practice - Subject Matter Jurisdiction - Tort/Negligence - Personal Injury - Third- Party Tortfeasor -
Lien Reduction
Even though G.S. 97-10.2(f)(1) gives the Industrial Commission the power to distribute funds recovered
from a third-party tortfeasor, since G.S. 97-10.2(j) gives the superior court the authority to determine whether
to reduce the workers' compensation lien on the recovery from the third-party tortfeasor, the superior court
erred by applying subsection (f)(1) when it should have looked to subsection (j).
We reverse the superior court's order finding it lacked jurisdiction to consider the plaintiff's request for a
reduction of the workers' compensation lien. Remanded.
The superior court, in its discretion, determines whether to order any reduction in the lien (the amount
the workers' compensation carrier or employer may recover from the third party settlement), pursuant to G.S.
97-10.2(j). In a separate proceeding, pursuant to G.S. 97-10.2(f)(1), the Commission then issues an order
detailing to whom and in what amounts the funds will be distributed, including the amount of distribution to
satisfy the workers' compensation lien if any, once the worker's compensation award is final. G.S. 97-10.2
specifies that while the power to set the amount of the lien is in the superior (or federal) court pursuant to
G.S. 97-10.2(j), the Commission orders distribution under G.S. 97-10.2(f)(1). The court erred by applying the
latter provision, when it should have looked to G.S. 97-10.2(j), which explicitly gives it jurisdiction over setting
the amount of the lien.
Childress v. Fluor Daniel, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0943, 5 pp.) (Robin E. Hudson, J.) Appealed
from Haywood County Superior Court. (Zoro J. Guice Jr., J.) N.C. App.
Mental Injury - Disciplinary Action - Abrupt & Unexpected - Theft Allegation
Where the Industrial Commission found that the events giving rise to the plaintiff's mental injury were
sudden, abrupt and unexpected by the plaintiff, and where the Commission made no findings regarding
whether these events were ordinary, routine or in the course of normal business operations, the Commission
erred in concluding that the plaintiff failed to sustain an injury by accident.
We reverse insofar as the Commission found that the plaintiff was fired and concluded that he failed to
show an accidental injury. We affirm the Commission's conclusion that the plaintiff failed to show he suffers
from an occupational disease.
Facts
The plaintiff and other employees packed laptop computers for shipment as surplus. When the shipment
arrived at its destination, several computers were missing.
According to the Industrial Commission's findings, Andrea Hughes, a human resources manager for the
defendant-employer told the plaintiff she had interviewed the other employees who had packed the com-
puters; that "none of their stories matched;" and that she was therefore "firing" him. The plaintiff was then es-
corted to his locker by a security guard, who took the plaintiff's employee identification badge and escorted
him to the parking lot, where he removed the parking sticker from the plaintiff's vehicle. The plaintiff was "ex-
tremely surprised and upset that he had been fired. " The other employees were also fired.
The plaintiff was asked to return to work, and he was told he had been on "crisis suspension" because
he was observed away from his work area without permission, and he was cited for failing to secure property
under his control. The plaintiff appealed to a peer review committee. The peer review committee found no
evidence of theft but sent the plaintiff a letter reminding him of rules regarding breaks away from the work
station.
When the plaintiff returned to work, he was harassed and called "thief. " He was later diagnosed with "ad-
justment disorder with mixed features," "major depression with obsessions" and possible post-traumatic
stress disorder. The plaintiff's doctor considers him permanently and totally disabled.
The Industrial Commission rejected the plaintiff's claim of a compensable mental injury.
Analysis
An injury does not arise by accident if an employee is injured while carrying on his usual tasks in the usu-
al way. An accidental cause will be inferred, however, when an interruption of the work routine and the intro-
duction thereby of unusual conditions likely to result in unexpected consequences occurs. To be an accident,
the incident must have been for the employee an unlooked for and untoward event.
The Commission found that the "sudden meeting and abrupt firing of plaintiff due to accusations of steal-
ing were unexpected and not reasonably designed by plaintiff. " The Commission also found that "since
plaintiff did not steal the computers, he had no expectation of being accused of stealing and was extremely
surprised, upset and humiliated by his firing. " Notwithstanding these findings, the Commission also found
that the plaintiff had not shown that such "sudden" meetings and "abrupt" firings were "unusual workplace oc-
currences" and thus concluded that "the meeting with Ms. Hughes and [the plaintiff's] subsequent firing [did
not] constitute[] a compensable injury by accident. " The Commission's conclusion in this regard is unsuppor-
ted by its findings.
The Commission made no finding that the meeting with Hughes and the events following that meeting
were "routine" or "ordinary. " Indeed, the Commission specifically found that the meeting was "sudden," "un-
expected," and that the plaintiff did not initiate the meeting. Further, the Commission found the plaintiff's firing
was "abrupt. " Although the Commission did find that the plaintiff had "not shown that [the sudden meeting
and abrupt firing] were unusual workplace occurrences," this single, conclusory finding is contradicted by the
Commission's multiple other findings regarding the unexpected nature of the events leading to the plaintiff's
injury. The Commission's conclusion that the plaintiff failed to show he sustained an injury by accident is
therefore unsupported by its findings and must be reversed.
The defendants argue that the plaintiff's firing was a "legitimate personnel action" which did not interrupt
the normal work routine and thus could not give rise to any injury "by accident. " However, the Commission
made no findings regarding whether the disciplinary action was a "legitimate personnel action" or part of the
plaintiff's "normal work routine. " This Court may not substitute its own findings for those made by the Com-
mission.
We do not agree with the defendants that a "legitimate personnel action" can never involve the interrup-
tion of the work routine. Whether or not a particular personnel action is part of an "established sequence of
operations" is a factual matter which must be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Because the Commission failed to make sufficient findings regarding whether the personnel action lead-
ing to the plaintiff's injury was the "normal work routine" or part of an "established sequence of operations,"
we cannot determine whether the plaintiff sustained an injury by accident under the law.
Where the plaintiff presented no evidence that his depression was due to causes and conditions charac-
teristic of and peculiar to his job, he failed to prove an occupational disease.
Even though the employer may never have directly and explicitly informed the plaintiff that it believed he
had stolen the missing property, such an accusation was clearly implied in every way. The Commission's
findings that the plaintiff was "accused of theft" are supported by the evidence.
Where the plaintiff testified he was placed on "crisis suspension" and never testified that he was informed
he was fired or that he believed himself to have been terminated, the Commission erred in finding that the
plaintiff was "fired. " However, whether the plaintiff was fired or disciplined in some other way is not determin-
ative of the issue of whether he suffered an injury by accident.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded.
Bursell v. General Electric Co. (Lawyers Weekly No. 05-07-0935, 19 pp.) (John C. Martin, Ch.J.) Ap-
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
August 1, 2005 Monday

ALL EDITION
THE NATION
LENGTH: 573 words
Atkins Nutritionals files for bankruptcy

NEW YORK - Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company that promoted low-carb eating into a national craze,
filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday, a company spokesman said.
Atkins has been hurt by waning popularity of its namesake diet, which focuses on eliminating carbo-
hydrates as a way to shed weight. The diet quickly became one of the most popular in U.S. history, spawning
numerous derivatives and a virtual cottage industry of low-carb regimens - but also drew criticism for its focus
on fatty foods and low fruit and vegetable consumption.
A hearing on the prearranged, Chapter 11 filing is scheduled for today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, spokes-
man Richard Rothstein said. The privately held company, founded in 1989 by Dr. Robert C. Atkins, said it had
reached an agreement with the majority of its lenders to give them equity in exchange for lowered debt.
Atkins owes $300 million in outstanding principal and interest, Mr. Rothstein said.
The company said it had received $25 million in financing to operate during the bankruptcy proceedings,
which it said would not affect day-to-day operations.
Bush talks to bereaved Scouts
BOWLING GREEN, Va. - Succeeding on his third try to visit them, President Bush comforted thousands
of Boy Scouts on Sunday at a national jamboree marred by the electrocutions of four leaders and stifling heat
that sickened 300.
"The men you lost were models of good citizenship," Mr. Bush told the estimated 50,000 Scouts, leaders
and visitors attending the event near Bowling Green, Va.
"As Scout leaders, they devoted themselves to helping young men develop the character and skills they
need to realize their dreams. These men will always be remembered for their leadership and kindness, and
you Scouts honor them by living up to the ideals of the Scouting they served."
Study opposes ovary removal
WASHINGTON - Most women getting a hysterectomy should keep their ovaries because the common
extra step of removing them seems to do no good and might decrease their long-term survival, researchers
report.
The provocative study, being published today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, does not settle the
issue. It does not track actual patients, but uses other data to create a model of the surgery's effects.
In other news
POLICE HELPED THE Catholic Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, cover up sex abuse allegations for several dec-
ades, refusing to investigate or arrest priests suspected of molesting children, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The (Toledo) Blade, relying on interviews with former officers and a review of court and diocese records,
found at least five instances since the 1950s of police covering up allegations of abuse.
THE BLOOD-ALCOHOL LEVEL at which a Minnesota driver is considered intoxicated drops from 0.10
percent to 0.08 percent today, giving the United States a uniform measurement for drunken driving.
SEXUAL ASSAULTS and other illicit incidents of sexual contact are reported at juvenile prisons at 10
times the rate at adult lockups, a government study finds. Better reporting is one factor, said co-author Allen
J. Beck, who wrote the report for the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.
FLORIDA IS LAUNCHING a major assault on the crop-destroying citrus canker disease in central Flor-
ida, trying to remove infected trees before the next tropical storm or hurricane spreads the bacteria any
farther.
- Edited from wire reports by Jason Harmon
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: NATIONAL BRIEFS
Copyright 2005 Southeastern Newspapers Corporation
August 1, 2005 Monday MO1 EDITION
National and Washington news in brief

SECTION: A; BRIEF; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 445 words
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Senator lines up backers for research

Supporters of expanding federally funded stem-cell research expressed optimism Sunday that fresh sup-
port from the Senate's top Republican, Majority Leader Bill Frist, would help them build a veto-proof majority
in Congress.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a key proponent of stem-cell research, said at least 62 senators now support
the bill he is sponsoring to expand federal funding and he hoped to reach 67 -- the number needed to over-
ride a presidential veto.
Despite stiff opposition from President Bush and anti-abortion groups, a growing number of Republicans
have said they support expanding federal funding for the research.
NEW YORK
Atkins diet company in bankruptcy court

Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company that promoted low-carb eating into a national diet craze, filed for
bankruptcy court protection Sunday, a company spokesman said.
Atkins has been hurt by waning popularity of its namesake diet, which focuses on eliminating carbo-
hydrates such as bread and pasta as a way to shed weight.
A hearing on the prearranged, Chapter 11 filing was scheduled for today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, said
spokesman Richard Rothstein.
VIRGINIA
Bush finally visits Boy Scouts jamboree

Succeeding on his third try to visit them, President Bush comforted thousands of Boy Scouts on Sunday
at a national jamboree marred by the electrocutions of four leaders and stifling heat that sickened 300.
''The men you lost were models of good citizenship,'' Bush, a former Boy Scout, told the estimated
50,000 Scouts, leaders and visitors at Fort A.P. Hill.
''As Scout leaders, they devoted themselves to helping young men develop the character and skills they
need to realize their dreams. These men will always be remembered for their leadership and kindness, and
you Scouts honor them by living up to the ideals of the Scouting they served.''
OHIO
Police reportedly protected abusers

Police helped the Catholic Diocese of Toledo cover up sex abuse allegations for several decades, refus-
ing to investigate or arrest priests suspected of molesting children, a newspaper reported.
The (Toledo) Blade, relying on interviews with former officers and a review of court and diocese records,
found at least five instances since the 1950s of police covering up allegations of abuse.
Four former officers said Police Chief Anthony Bosch, a Catholic who headed the Toledo department
from 1956 to 1970, established an unwritten rule that priests could not be arrested.
Police say priests suspected of crimes no longer receive special favors.
From Mercury News wire services
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
July 31, 2005 Sunday

Idaho Edition
Disturbing connections emerge;

Sexual abuse allegations, cases hint at Spokane's shameful side;
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 5862 words
© The Spokesman-Review
Three decades ago, while Spokane reveled in its changing skyline and the limelight of hosting a World's
Fair, the city frequently was described as a great place to raise a family.
But beneath the surface lurked a dark secret - actually several of them.
Young boys - some from troubled backgrounds and others from prominent families - were being sexu-
ally abused by a group of men who were supposed to be role models and authority figures. Growing evid-
ence suggests that people who knew about the abuse did nothing to stop it or report it.
Two attorneys who represent several alleged victims from the era believe there was a pedophile ring op-
erating in Spokane.
Others blame a culture of secrecy, denial and ignorance for allowing revered, male-dominated institu-
tions like the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office to ignore abusers in
their midst.
"The people and institutions who helped keep these secrets are almost as guilty as the perpetrators,"
said Seattle attorney Tim Kosnoff, who represents two of at least four men who allege they were passed
around among abusers.
"There was definitely a sex ring operating in Spokane, preying on young boys," Kosnoff said, using the
FBI's definition of two or more individuals sharing information and victims to make his point.
Spokane attorney Duane Rasmussen, who also represents several alleged victims from the 1970s, be-
lieves people knew about the abuse and kept it quiet.
"There was an institutional cover-up going on, which extended from various parts of law enforcement to
the Catholic Church's Spokane diocese," Rasmussen said. "Institutions protect themselves. There's no ques-
tion some of the various perpetrators knew each other for some time and would cooperate with each other."
For most of the community, the first inkling of a systemic child abuse problem didn't come to light until
2002 when the Spokane Catholic Diocese was sued over the actions of the Rev. Patrick O'Donnell and at
least a half-dozen other priests accused of molesting boys.
In many ways, the crisis in Spokane mirrored clergy sex-abuse scandals in Boston, Los Angeles and
elsewhere. But the magnitude of the scandal here would eventually force the Spokane diocese to seek U.S.
bankruptcy protection in December 2004 - one of only two dioceses and one arch-diocese in the country to
do so.
To date, at least 60 victims are seeking a total of $76 million from the Spokane diocese.
But some of the abuse appears to have gone far beyond the Catholic church.
News reports about O'Donnell triggered a number of phone calls and letters to The Spokesman-Review
in 2002. There were reports that some of O'Donnell's victims also were abused by George E. Robey Jr., a
Spokane insurance executive and Boy Scout leader who killed himself in April 1982.
In 2003, the newspaper launched an investigation into Robey's suicide and the suicide eight months
earlier of another Boy Scout leader, David Hahn.
Hahn was a Spokane County sheriff's deputy who killed himself in August 1981 after being accused of
At the time of his death, Hahn was the assistant scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 345, which was
headed by his friend and fellow deputy Jim West, who is now Spokane's mayor.
Stories about Hahn eventually led to a newspaper investigation of West. On May 5, The Spokesman-
Review reported the allegations of two men who claimed they were molested as boys in the 1970s by West
and Hahn.
West has denied the allegations and said he was unaware of anyone abusing boys at that time.
Not all of the suspected victims from the era have come forward publicly or filed lawsuits.
Some said they are still coping with feelings of anger, shame and embarrassment, and have talked only
on the condition of anonymity.
Others have filed suits using only their initials or as "John Doe."
Still others have died, leaving behind families who believe they were victims of abuse.
A mother who asked not to be identified told the newspaper she believes her son killed himself in a
North Division Street motel room in August 2000 because he was abused as a Boy Scout and could not cope
with the memory.
Another man, Tim Corrigan of Spokane, was 39 and the father of three young children when he ended
his life in August 2002, several hours after seeing a newspaper photograph of O'Donnell. Family members
said Corrigan's suicide was the result of abuse he suffered when he was 12.
'POSTER BOY'
David Hahn was a decorated Vietnam War veteran, a triathlete, Boy Scout leader and a sheriff's deputy
who attended Messiah Lutheran Church, where he taught religion classes.
A retired deputy told the newspaper in 2003 that Hahn "was a poster boy" for the sheriff's department in
the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Nobody took these allegations about him seriously," the man said on condi-
tion of anonymity.
But at least five men - brothers Brett and Robert Galliher, Doug Chicklinsky and two others - have ac-
cused Hahn of sexually molesting them when they were boys in the 1970s.
In one instance, Chicklinsky told the newspaper Hahn checked him out of the county's Juvenile Deten-
tion Center for the day to molest him at a Boy Scout camp and later at the deputy's apartment.
Four men are suing Spokane County for the actions of Hahn, seeking unspecified monetary damages.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in November. Two weeks ago, private attorneys hired by the county were
unsuccessful in their request to have the trial moved elsewhere.
Still another man, now a cook in Spokane who asked not to be identified, said he was sexually molested
by Hahn after meeting him in a church class. The man, who contacted the newspaper this spring, said he
was too embarrassed to report the abuse to authorities at the time. He is not part of the lawsuit against the
county.
Complaints about Hahn's behavior finally prompted former Sheriff Larry Erickson to assign Inspector
Terry Snedden in 1980 to investigate the young deputy. Sheriff's records show Snedden dismissed the com-
plaints against Hahn and kept him working as a patrol deputy.
Weeks later, Hahn met two boys at a Spokane Valley swimming pool and took them to his South Hill
apartment to molest them, according to Sheriff's Office records. County officials will not identify the boys, cit-
ing a state law preventing the release of names of juvenile sex-crime victims.
When the boys' father later confronted Hahn, the deputy called the Sheriff's Office and confessed over
the phone that he was in trouble.
Told a few days later to resign or face a criminal investigation, Hahn went home and shot himself in the
head with his service revolver on Aug. 28, 1981. He was 36.
Law enforcement records on the allegations against Hahn and his subsequent suicide have been diffi-
cult to obtain using a state law that provides public access to government records.
The Spokesman-Review first sought access to Hahn's records in 2003 and was told that follow-up de-
tective reports were either destroyed or did not exist.
In April of this year, some of the documents the newspaper requested were found in a cardboard box in
a storage closet at the Spokane City-County Public Safety Building. But sheriff's officials said they still could
not locate reports that should have been written by two senior sheriff's officers who found Hahn's body in his
apartment.
Because Hahn's apartment at 3424 S. Regal was in the city limits, police officers were also called to the
scene. When the newspaper requested records from Spokane Police in 2003 and again in June, attorney
Jeanie Spiering said the department "does not have any further records" relating to Hahn.
This month, the police department's follow-up report, written in 1982 by Major Crimes Detective Charles
Staudinger, was included among more than 3,400 documents obtained from a private attorney defending
Spokane County.
Staudinger's one-page report concluded Hahn's death was a suicide. It did not mention the sexual ab-
use allegations against the deputy.
Another public document reveals that while The Spokesman-Review was seeking records on Hahn in
2003, the police department was conducting an internal investigation into "missing police records."
According to an internal affairs report, Assistant Police Chief Al Odenthal ordered the investigation in
2003. Although the report concludes there were no missing Hahn records, several officials are quoted as
saying there may have been a possible "cover-up" in the 1980s.
Spiering "believed that she had heard about a possible 'cover-up' in the 1980s involving the initial sexual
abuse allegations against Hahn," according to the report.
The same report also quotes now-retired sheriff's Lt. Ken Marshall and Sgt. Ron Ethridge, who said they
believed Hahn's involvement with boys "was covered up" by senior sheriff's officers.
'FLAT LIES'
One of the plaintiffs in the case against Hahn and Spokane County also has accused West of sexual ab-
use. West is not named in the suit but is on a list of potential witnesses.
In a sworn deposition, Robert J. Galliher said West molested him at least four times in the 1970s, twice
while West was on duty in uniform, driving a sheriff's car.
In an interview with the newspaper, Galliher said he was introduced to West by Hahn at Hahn's apart-
ment. At the time of the alleged abuse, West lived in an apartment about a block from Hahn.
"This one time Dave ended up leaving me in (his) apartment with Jim West," Galliher said. "Jim West
ended up molesting me."
Afterward, Galliher said he was warned by West not to say anything. "He just told me I better not tell
anyone about this. I mean, kind of the same threat that Dave Hahn had told me."
Like Galliher, Michael G. Grant, who is currently in jail for drug possession, also has accused West of
sexual abuse in the 1970s. Grant is not a plaintiff in the suit against the county.
West has called the allegations "flat lies." In previous interviews with the newspaper, West said he had
"no clue" Hahn may have been a pedophile. But a man now living in Seattle said he told West he was being
abused by Hahn during a camping trip around Mount Rainier in 1980.
"I told Jim West what had happened and asked if I could move to another tent," said the man named
Scott. "I think I was pretty clear about what I told him, and I remember him just dismissing me."
West has also been accused of pulling down the swimming trunks and pants of boys, some of them as
young as 8, at Camp Cowles, the Scout camp on Diamond Lake, in the late 1970s, according to two men
who said they were eyewitnesses.
"When it happened, I looked over at another adult and said, 'This doesn't seem appropriate,'" said a
Spokane businessman whose son was also present at Camp Cowles. "But we didn't do anything, and noth-
ing went beyond that in our presence."
"Jim West did, in fact, 'pants' the boys," said the man's wife, who asked that her family name not be di-
vulged. "I know this happened because my son, John, told me it happened, and my husband was present on
one of those occasions."
The woman said she and her husband are now guilt-ridden that they didn't report West's activities at the
time.
DAY TRIPS
In the 1970s and 80s, there were at least three ranches in the region for troubled boys: Those were
Morning Star in south Spokane, and J-Bar-D and Reynolds Creek in Pend Oreille County. All were licensed
by the state of Washington. Only Morning Star remains.
While many residents in the region share fond memories and success stories about the ranches, others
said they suspect pedophiles may have been drawn to the facilities.
Hahn, West, Robey and O'Donnell have all been identified as having contact with boys from the ranches
in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Hahn's brother-in-law, Dick Walters, said he clearly remembers that Hahn and West checked out boys
from Morning Star for recreational outings.
Morning Star officials initially denied that Hahn and West could have removed boys from the facility but
acknowledged recently that visitors were not required to register their names in ranch log books.
A former neighbor of Hahn's mother told the newspaper she remembers Hahn and West repeatedly
bringing boys under the age of 12 to the home of Hahn's mother on the North Side during the late 1970s. The
woman said Hahn told her the boys were from ranches north of Spokane.
The woman said she could not recall the specific names of the ranches but did not believe the boys
came from Morning Star. The retired Spokane businesswoman asked that she not be identified because she
did not want Hahn's survivors or West to know her name.
The two deputies were "joined at the hip," said the woman, who also was a friend of the Hahn family. In
1977, West and Hahn received a federal grant to supervise a camping program for troubled boys at Camp
Cowles. But the deputies also took boys from the state-licensed group homes, Walters and the woman said.
The deputies often arrived at Hahn's mother's home in a sports car, with the boys sitting in the back
seat, the woman said. Hahn instructed her not to tell the boys that he and West were sheriff's deputies, ac-
cording to the woman. "He said, 'Don't tell those kids what I do,'" she said. "We never said anything. He said
he was helping them."
Walters said he now believes his former brother-in-law was a pedophile.
Former Pend Oreille County Sheriff Tony Bamonte said he complained about sexual and physical abuse
at J-Bar-D and Reynolds Creek ranches in the early 1980s. Bamonte said he told Bernard O. Nelson, the
state's regional administrator in charge of child welfare, about the abuse, and eventually complained to offi-
cials at the Department of Social and Health Services in Olympia.
"I had to make a lot of noise to get anything done," Bamonte said recently.
Eventually, a Superior Court judge was named to head a secret inquiry into the reports of abuse at J-
Bar-D and Reynolds Creek. Nelson was subpoenaed to testify at the proceeding.
The inquiry resulted in closure of the two ranches in the mid-'80s. No criminal charges were filed, and
details of the inquiry remain sealed from public view.
"At that time, people with the power to do something, from the prosecutor's office on up to state officials,
just weren't interested in doing anything about these reports of abuse of young boys," Bamonte said.
"The people in charge - everybody covers for everybody else, and that's not right, particularly when chil-
dren suffer as a result of it," said the former sheriff, now a historian and author living in Spokane.
Nelson, the now-retired administrator, was a Boy Scout parent volunteer at the time and a neighbor and
relative of Robey, who lived at 1532 E. Pinecrest Road. Two of Nelson's sons were in Robey's Boy Scout
troop.
According to court records, Robey had an extensive pornography collection and individual pictures of
naked boys, but if those materials were discovered after his death they apparently were not turned over to
police.
Nelson said in a recent interview he didn't know Robey was an accused child molester at the time of his
death, or that a young Boy Scout had lived in Robey's home. That former Scout now claims he was molested
for more than four years by Robey.
"If something improper was occurring, I knew nothing about it," Nelson said. "Those were different times.
We look at these things differently now."
In 1978, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that 15-year-old Timothy D. Everts, a runaway from
Morning Star, fatally shot himself after learning he was about to be returned to the ranch. Before his death,
the boy told friends there was "homosexual" and physical abuse going on at the ranch - claims ranch director
Rev. Joe Weitensteiner has recently disputed.
Nelson also said he was unaware of any problems at Morning Star.
This past June, The Spokesman-Review reported that Everts killed himself after telling a friend that a
Catholic priest named Patrick O'Donnell sexually abused him at the ranch.
The state agency charged with licensing Morning Star said it can find no evidence that Everts' allega-
tions were investigated following the 1978 published report. At the time, the Spokane diocese had already
sent O'Donnell to Seattle for sexual deviancy counseling.
Earlier this month, Morning Star officials said O'Donnell did visit the ranch, but was never assigned any
duties. In a 2004 deposition, O'Donnell said he did "evaluations" at the ranch in the early to mid-1980s and
also took boys from parishes to play basketball and other activities at the ranch.
Ranch officials said they were unaware of records that support O'Donnell's testimony.
Dan Dennis, who lived at Morning Star in 1978, told the newspaper that Weitensteiner gathered boys
from the ranch together and told them that "Timmy Everts made allegations that there was molestation going
on up here. But it didn't happen. Forget about it."
Weitensteiner, interviewed earlier this month, denied that he knew of Everts' allegations in 1978.
"To the best of my knowledge, Timmy Everts never told anybody about anyone touching him inappropri-
ately," Weitensteiner said.
Asked if he believed there was a group of pedophiles preying on boys in the Spokane area three dec-
ades ago, Weitensteiner said, "Not to my knowledge."
'SERIAL PEDOPHILE'
O'Donnell, Robey and Hahn were allegedly abusing boys during the same time frame. The common de-
nominator among the three men appears to be the Boy Scouts.
O'Donnell, born in 1942, and Robey, born in 1933, both grew up on the South Hill and were Scouts as
boys.
Hahn, born in 1944, grew up on the North Side near Shadle Park and also was active in Boy Scouts as
a child.
Hahn and Robey became Scout leaders; O'Donnell became a chaplain to the Boy Scouts, the Spokane
County Sheriff's Office and the Spokane Police Department.
There are now at least four men who claim they were sexually abused by both Robey and O'Donnell in
the 1970s and 1980s.
O'Donnell is described in court documents as a "serial pedophile" who admitted sexually molesting
more than a dozen boys before being removed from ministry in 1986, six years after becoming a state-li-
censed child psychologist.
Over the years, O'Donnell's abuse was reported by victims and their families to church officials, includ-
ing two bishops, but apparently not directly to law enforcement.
By the time O'Donnell's victims came forward, too much time had elapsed, and the former priest was
never charged with a crime. After recently working at an Indian gaming casino in Western Washington, he re-
portedly traveled to Southeast Asia to help tsunami victims, according to attorneys tracking his whereabouts.
The saga of O'Donnell's abuse over three decades was spelled out in his own words one year ago when
he answered questions under oath in his deposition for the pending suit against the Spokane diocese, now
stalled because of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing.
O'Donnell graduated from seminary and was ordained a priest in 1971, the same year he met and be-
friended Robey at Camp Cowles on Diamond Lake.
While working as a Scout chaplain at the camp in the summer of 1971, O'Donnell molested a teenage
boy he met in seminary, he said in his deposition.
O'Donnell was assigned to St. Mary's parish in Spokane Valley in 1973 where he said he almost imme-
diately began molesting boys, including one who also was sexually assaulted by Robey at Robey's cabin on
Newman Lake.
When complaints about O'Donnell were forwarded to the diocese, he was transferred in 1974 to As-
sumption of the Blessed Virgin parish in northwest Spokane. He received therapy from the Rev. Marvin La-
voy, who had become a counselor after serving as the founding director of Morning Star Boys Ranch from
1957 to 1966.
By 1976, O'Donnell moved to St. Paul's parish in Seattle, where he started working on his doctorate in
psychology at the University of Washington. He wrote his dissertation on forming interpersonal trust between
children and adults.
In 1978, during a trip to North Idaho, O'Donnell said he abused three boys and then introduced them to
Robey.
The following year, according to his deposition, O'Donnell returned from treatment to Spokane and lived
at Our Lady of Lourdes rectory downtown where he did family counseling and post-doctoral studies.
In 1980, he was assigned to Holy Rosary parish in Rosalia and stayed there until 1985. While there, O'-
Donnell and a then-middle school coach abused a teenage boy during trips to a cabin at Lake Coeur d'Alene,
according to Kosnoff, the alleged victim's attorney. The former coach has not been charged criminally.
While in Rosalia, O'Donnell also was accused of molesting three other boys whose parents complained
to then-Spokane Bishop Lawrence Welsh.
While those complaints were being investigated, O'Donnell was transferred again, this time to St. John
Vianney in Spokane Valley, where parishioners immediately raised their concerns with Welsh.
But at the time, Welsh apparently was wrestling with his own sexual demons.
Kosnoff said he believes Welsh and O'Donnell "kept each other's secrets."
Welsh, who became bishop in 1978, was investigated in September 1986 for allegedly attempting to
strangle a male prostitute in a Chicago hotel room. When Spokane police detectives interviewed Welsh, he
acknowledged the encounter, but denied attempting to kill or harm the man, according to a report.
Detectives concluded Welsh "was truly embarrassed and regretful of the incident." When the victim de-
clined to pursue charges, Chicago police closed the case and Welsh was never charged with a crime.
Welsh was arrested for drunken driving three years later after being stopped, alone in his car, at 3:31
a.m. on March 11, 1989, in an area of East Sprague frequented by prostitutes.
Welsh resigned a short time later and died in 1999 at age 63.
BROTHERHOOD OF CAMPERS
George Robey, who was single and lived on the South Hill, was vice president of Rogers & Rogers, a
Spokane insurance company.
In 1973, the 40-year-old executive became scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 353, chartered through the
Hutton Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association.
During the World's Fair in 1974, Robey was the coordinator of Boy Scout troops that rotated through a
camp set up in what is now Riverfront Park.
The following year, he reportedly was the first non-Catholic to receive the St. George Medal, presented
by the Spokane diocese for his work with Catholic Scouts. He also was a member of the prestigious Boy
Scout Order of the Arrow, a select group of Scouts called the "brotherhood of honor campers."
In 1978, he received the "Silver Beaver" award for his contributions to Scouting.
Then in 1979, for reasons that are not clear, Robey assumed a lesser position as "assistant scoutmas-
ter," but remained active with Troop 353.
One of the boys in Robey's troop apparently lived with him, listing Robey's address as his own, accord-
ing to Scout records obtained by The Spokesman-Review.
Among Robey's accusers is Timothy J. Carlson, a former assistant Scout leader who told the newspaper
he was sexually abused by Robey in the mid-1970s.
Carlson, now a registered sex offender living in Seattle, was convicted in 1986 of molesting a 15-year-
old Boy Scout in Spokane County. In 1992, he was charged with molesting five other boys between the ages
of 9 and 12, and pleaded guilty in two of the cases.
For a time in the early 1980s, Carlson lived with West at a house on Spokane's South Hill. In a previous
interview with the newspaper, West said he'd heard Carlson had become an abuser, but did not know that
Carlson was abused by Robey. West also said he hardly knew Robey.
Spokane resident Pat McGowan attended Camp Cowles as a boy in the 1970s. While on a Catholic
Scout retreat in the fall of 1977 at Mount St. Michael's, McGowan said Robey talked with him and three other
boys about masturbation.
In a court affidavit, McGowan said he was told that Robey "had shaved the pubic hair" of another young
Scout "who had contracted crabs."
According to the affidavit, in 1978 McGowan told Richard Fullenwider, who was then executive director
of the Boy Scouts, and Phil Harris, now a Spokane County commissioner, about Robey's inappropriate sexu-
al comments.
"I reported incidents and concerns (about Robey) to Mr. Harris on several occasions," McGowan said in
the affidavit.
Fullenwider, now living in the Southwest, said he never heard of Robey until the suit against the Boy
Scouts was filed.
Harris said he could not talk about sexual abuse allegations against Robey, Hahn or West upon the ad-
vice of private attorneys involved in two separate, pending lawsuits - one against the Boy Scouts and the
Spokane diocese for Robey's conduct, and one against Spokane County for the actions of Hahn.
In the late 1970s, Harris was director at Camp Cowles and the field director - the No. 2 executive - for
the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts of America.
Harris, who could be called as a witness in the lawsuits, would only say that if "terrible things happened
to these kids back then, I certainly wasn't aware of it."
The suit against the diocese and the Scouts was filed by "John Doe," a former Spokane man who told
The Spokesman-Review he was molested by both O'Donnell and Robey. The two men would use their per-
sonal motorboats to meet in the middle of Lake Coeur d'Alene, sometimes exchanging boys for weekend
cruises, the man said.
Now a businessman living in Seattle, the man agreed to be interviewed in the office of his Seattle attor-
ney, Michael Withey.
John Doe said his family moved to Spokane in 1968 and shortly thereafter he got involved in Scouts and
met Robey at a Priest Lake home. Sometime later, he joined Robey's Troop 353.
In April 1973, Robey took several of his Scouts for an "overnight retreat" to his family cabin on Newman
Lake. While a teenager, John Doe said, he was stripped by other boys and "strung up" with rope between a
couple of trees while Robey took pictures. "I was humiliated," the man said.
Later that evening, John Doe said he was taken by Robey into a bedroom at the cabin.
"He molested me that night, and that was the first occasion of several hundred," said the man, who later
lived with Robey and saw several pictures of other naked boys in Robey's home.
The man said Robey liked to take individual pictures of naked boys who were frequently posed with a
large stuffed bunny. "I know he had those pictures in his home because I saw them there," the man said.
His name was on Robey's suicide note, obtained by The Spokesman-Review, but the man said he was
never contacted by Spokane Police detectives who investigated the death.
Robey, who shot himself in his garage after a sea cruise, requested in his suicide note that a motorcycle
be given to the man.
At the time of Robey's death in 1982 he was not only a Boy Scout leader, but also president of what was
then known as the Inland Empire Council of Camp Fire Boys and Girls.
Camp Fire Girls opened its ranks to boys in 1975; Robey became a director in 1978 and president in
1980.
Robey's survivors and friends collected donations in his memory for a Camp Fire lodge on Lake Coeur
d'Alene that still bears his name.
Lee Taylor, the current local director of Camp Fire USA, wouldn't allow The Spokesman-Review to see
or photograph the plaque with Robey's name at Camp Sweyolakan, where kids still go for summer fun.
The lodge was dedicated in Robey's memory in 1984 by his friend, a priest who also said he loved kids -
Patrick O'Donnell.
3 SIDEBARS:
1. AT A GLANCE
WHO'S WHO
DAVID D. HAHN - Spokane County sheriff's deputy, Vietnam veteran and leader of Boy Scout Troop 345
at Hamblen Elementary in the late 1970s with his good friend and fellow deputy Jim West. Born in Spokane,
Hahn had been repeatedly accused of molesting boys and was 36 when he took his own life at his South Hill
apartment on Aug. 28, 1981.
PATRICK G. O'DONNELL - A Catholic priest from 1971 to 1985, he was the church's chaplain to the Boy
Scouts, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and Spokane Police Department. Born in Illinois in 1942, O'Don-
nell was a close friend of George Robey Jr. After being forced out of the priesthood and losing his state li-
cense to be a therapist and counselor, he reportedly went to work in a casino and may now be in Southeast
Asia.
GEORGE E. ROBEY JR. - Spokane insurance executive, leader of Boy Scout Troop 353 at Hutton Ele-
mentary from 1972 to 1982, and coordinator of Boy Scout troops during Expo '74. Born in Spokane, Robey
was president of Camp Fire Boys and Girls and 48 years old when he took his own life at his Spokane home
on April 25, 1982.
JAMES E. WEST - A Spokane County sheriff's deputy from 1976 to 1978 after a year with the Medical
Lake Police Department. He and Hahn were deputies together, friends and co-scoutmasters of Boy Scout
Troop 345 at Hamblen Elementary. West later became a Spokane city councilman, state representative and
state senator before being elected Spokane's mayor in 2003. He is 54.
TIMOTHY J. CARLSON - Moved to Spokane as a teenager and joined Robey's Troop 353 in the early
1970s, eventually becoming an assistant troop leader. Carlson alleges he was molested by Robey while
spending the night at the Scout leader's home. After living for a time with West, Carlson was convicted in
1986 of molesting a 15-year-old Boy Scout in Spokane County. In 1992, he was charged with molesting five
additional boys between the ages of 9 and 12, and pleaded guilty in two of the cases. Now 49, he's a re-
gistered sex offender living in Seattle.
LAWRENCE WELSH - Former bishop who headed the Spokane diocese from 1978 to 1989, and fielded
parishioners' complaints about O'Donnell. Welsh was investigated in September 1986 but never charged for
allegedly attempting to strangle a male prostitute in a Chicago hotel room. The bishop stepped down shortly
after being arrested for drunken driving in Spokane in 1989. He died in 1999 at age 63.
ROBERT J. GALLIHER - A former Spokane man who alleges he was repeatedly abused by Hahn
between the ages of 9 and 12. Galliher also claims he was molested by West at least four times in the 1970s.
Now 36, Galliher alleges he was severely beaten in the Spokane County Jail in 2003 after speaking out
about the abuse he suffered.
MICHAEL G. GRANT JR. - Another former Spokane man who also alleges he was sexually abused as a
boy by Hahn and West. Grant, now in jail for his seventh felony drug arrest, hasn't filed suit, but could be a
witness in the lawsuit against Spokane County. Now 31, Grant claims he was molested at Hahn's Spokane
apartment and at Camp Cowles, the Boy Scout camp at Diamond Lake in Pend Oreille County.
DOUGLAS A. CHICKLINSKY - A 41-year-old Spokane Valley man who is one of four plaintiffs in a suit
against Spokane County. Chicklinsky, who has had run-ins with the law, alleges he was molested as a teen-
ager in the 1970s by Hahn. At one point, Chicklinsky said he was "checked out" of the Spokane County Ju-
venile Detention Center and molested by Hahn at Camp Cowles and later at the deputy's Spokane apart-
ment.
---
2. AT A GLANCE
PENDING SUITS
The alleged sexual abuse of boys by priests, Boy Scout leaders and a sheriff's deputy in the 1970s and
'80s has led to at least 21 pending lawsuits in Spokane County Superior Court.
The Spokane Catholic Diocese is a defendant in 19 lawsuits involving 60 plaintiffs.
The Inland Northwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America is a defendant in one suit.
Spokane County and the sheriff's office are defendants in another.
Here is a breakdown of some of the pending lawsuits:
Sept. 26, 2002: Ten former altar boys and Catholic students sue for unspecified damages against the
Spokane Catholic Diocese. The plaintiffs allege they were sexually abused by the Rev. Patrick G. O'Donnell.
The diocese's current bishop, William Skylstad, is accused of knowing about the abuse as early as 1974 and
failing to alert law enforcement authorities and restrict O'Donnell's access to children.
Oct. 17, 2002: "John Doe," a former Boy Scout, files suit against the diocese and the Boy Scouts for al-
leged abuse he suffered in the 1970s and '80s at the hands of O'Donnell and his friend George Robey Jr.,
who was a Boy Scout leader.
July 9, 2003: A plaintiff identifying himself only as "T.C." files suit against the diocese for alleged sexual
abuse over three decades by another priest, the Rev. James O'Malley, who retired in 1989.
Nov. 3, 2003: Four men who claim they were sexually abused in the 1970s and '80s by Spokane
County sheriff's deputy David Hahn file a claim seeking at least $2 million in damages from the county and
the sheriff's office. Their claims are rejected June 29, 2004, by attorneys for the county, and the men then file
a lawsuit for damages. A private attorney is hired to defend the county. Trial is scheduled for November.
July 1, 2004: Superior Court Judge Kathleen O'Connor refuses to dismiss pending suits against the dio-
cese, a month after Judge Maryann Moreno made the same ruling in a companion set of suits against the
church.
July and August 2004: In a court deposition, O'Donnell admits molesting at least a dozen boys and hav-
ing contact with many more, including some at Morning Star Boys Ranch.
Dec. 6, 2004: The Spokane Catholic Diocese files for U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection. The action, still
pending, puts the brakes on the 19 lawsuits.
POLICY CHANGES
In the decades since allegations of sexual abuse were leveled against several prominent Spokane insti-
tutions, the organizations have adopted more stringent policies.
*The Boy Scouts of America adopted its Youth Protection, Education and Training policies during the
1980s - among the first youth groups to adopt comprehensive guidelines for the problem. The Scouts em-
phasize background checks and training for all adult leaders and volunteers, and they offer programs encour-
aging Scouts and parents to recognize and report abuse. The group's rules prohibit one-on-one contact
between adults and Scouts, and it maintains a database of people who cannot serve in Boy Scout positions
for violating the rules.
*The Spokane diocese maintains a Web site listing priests who have been removed from the ministry
because of sexual abuse allegations, a chart listing claims against the diocese, and copies of church policies
on the matter.
The U.S. Conference of Bishops adopted a new policy in 2002 dealing with sexual abuse in response to
the abuse scandals of recent years. The policy requires each diocese to have a review board, with lay mem-
bers in the majority, to review claims of sexual abuse and advise the bishop. The policy bans from the min-
istry any priest who has ever abused a minor, calls for background checks of all church representatives who
have contact with children, and requires bishops to report allegations of abuse to police.
* Morning Star Boys Ranch officials conduct background checks on all employees and volunteers. The
ranch has changed accommodations to individual rooms with locked doors and separate showers, and ranch
officials say they emphasize to boys that they should report any molestation.
From staff reports
---
3. TALK TO US
E-mail tips: hotline@spokesman.com
By phone: (509) 459-5288
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Staff writers Benjamin Shors and Virginia de Leon contributed to this report. Bill Morlin can be
reached at (509) 459-5444 or e-mail: billm@spokesman.com
July 28, 2005 Thursday Main Edition
Courts will be more openIdaho Supreme Court orders records to be more available
BYLINE: PETER ZUCKERMAN, pzuckerman@postregister.com
LENGTH: 457 words
Idaho Supreme Court officials have decided to fix the computer system that keeps Idahoans from learn-
ing about criminals in their midst.
The way it works now, if you wanted to know why Robert Scott Price went to prison, you couldn't find out
by using the courts' public-access computers.
If Price got out of prison and applied to work at a day care, administrators or parents doing a diligent
background check would not find the records that show he was convicted of paying children to have sex with
him.
"Case not found" is all the court computer system says.
That also happens when people look for the Jeff Hardin pedophilia case, and it happened earlier this
year with two civil cases that involved Brad Stowell, another child molester.
The Post Register discovered the court computer's protection of criminals in January and sued for ac-
cess to files that show a series of pedophiles have taken cover in local Boy Scout troops and camps.
Idaho Supreme Court staff members have ordered the computer system fixed so more criminal and civil
records are visible to the public.
The update, scheduled for September, promises to make the workings of the court more transparent.
A Supreme Court panel learned court cases that probably should have been at least partially open were
"not found" in all 44 counties in Idaho.
"I think this should have been done six months ago," said Burt Butler, Bonneville County's Trial Court ad-
ministrator.
After the system is fixed, the public-access system will at least acknowledge the existence of sealed
cases. It also will tell the user "case sealed by court rule or judicial order," said John Peay, director of inform-
ation systems at the Idaho Supreme Court.
People wanting to know why the case was sealed can find out by asking to see a copy of the judge's or-
der. Just knowing there's a child sex-abuse case against someone would warn parents and administrators to
keep children away from a convicted criminal such as Price.
Before, the public was told there was no such case.
No organization has challenged the decision to seal adoptions and other ultra-private civil cases. But the
news that domestic violence and other cases were being hidden prompted calls for a change to the system
of secrecy.
Idaho Administrative Rule 32 says most court cases are open but parts of the cases can be sealed.
Earlier this year, the Post Register found that an unusually large number of cases -- 1 in 13 civil cases,
including all parts of domestic violence cases -- were completely hidden in Bonneville County.
Court officials said they hadn't realized there were so many hidden cases.
Supreme Court officials are debating what parts of cases that used to be totally sealed, such as civil pro-
tection orders, should be publicly available.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
July 28, 2005, Thursday FINAL
FRANCE: 62 CONVICTED IN MASSIVE CHILD SEX-ABUSE TRI-

AL
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A3
LENGTH: 550 words
A court convicted 62 defendants yesterday in a mass pedophilia trial and sentenced some of them to up
to 28 years in prison for their roles in a network that systematically raped and prostituted children in western
France.
In the harrowing case, prosecutors said 45 children between the ages of 6 months and 14 years were
raped and abused by their parents, grandparents or acquaintances in a working-class neighborhood of An-
gers from 1999 to 2002 - at times in exchange for small amounts of money, food, alcohol or cigarettes.
Three of the 65 defendants were acquitted.
WASHINGTON, D.C.: U.S. joins 5 other nations in clean-energy agreement
The United States and five Asian and Pacific nations, including China and India, agreed yesterday on a
partnership to use cleaner energy technologies in hopes of curtailing climate-changing pollution.
The agreement does not bind any country - Japan, Australia and South Korea are the others - to specific
emission reductions.
The six countries pledged to "enhance cooperation" to address the growth of climate-changing pollution
while still meeting their growing energy needs. They plan non-binding commitments to develop clean coal,
nuclear and hydroelectric technologies that are less carbon-intensive.
CHINA: N. Korea makes demands of U.S. at nuclear talks
North Korea took a tough stand yesterday in Beijing during talks with the United States, reportedly insist-
ing Washington normalize relations and remove all atomic threats before it would give up nuclear weapons.
For its part, the United States stood by an aid-for-disarmament offer the North rejects as unfair.
South Korea's envoy characterized it as a "useful talk, where it became clear what (the sides) had in
common and what (the) differences were."
But the stances suggested negotiators could have difficult work ahead despite vows to make progress in
talks that resumed Tuesday after a 13-month gap.
ZIMBABWE: Police round up last residents of doomed town
Riot police turned an urban township into a ghost town yesterday, rounding up the last residents in defi-
ance of a U.N. call to halt a demolition campaign that has left 700,000 without homes or jobs.
After emptying the Porta Farm township - where some 30,000 people lived just days ago - earthmovers
cleared debris from destroyed shacks as part of what the government calls Operation Drive Out Trash. Police
barred residents from entering.
The latest demolitions came as President Robert Mugabe paid a state visit to China, which is building a
track record of willingness to do business with African leaders others shun.
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Government looks into possible mad cow case
The government is investigating a possible new case of mad cow disease but says there is no threat to
the U.S. food supply.
Testing indicated the possible presence of the disease in a cow that died on the farm where it lived, John
Clifford, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, said yesterday. The animal was burned and buried.
The department knows the location of the farm but is not disclosing it, Clifford said. There currently is no
quarantine on the farm.
"It is important to note that this animal poses no threat to our food supply because it did not enter the hu-
man food or animal feed chains," he said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: THE WORLD IN 5 MINUTES
GRAPHIC: Photos
(1) NIGEL COOK/AP: ABOVE: Low-flying pelicans cast wide shadows on the sand near a sunbathing Suz
Shafner in Flagler Beach, Fla., yesterday.(2) HARAZ N. GHANBARI/AP: LEFT: A fire truck sprays water on
thousands of Boy Scouts during the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Bowling Green, Va. About 300 people
were sickened by temperatures in the upper 90s and high humidity. Half were treated at the Fort A.P. Hill
base hospital, and dozens more were treated elsewhere.(3) LEE HAE-RYOUNG/AP: RIGHT: South Korean
army soldiers remove Korean characters used for propaganda from metal frames near the demilitarized zone
between South and North Korea north of Seoul. Last year the two Koreas agreed to end propaganda broad-
casts along their heavily militarized border as part of their efforts to reduce tensions on the divided penin-
sula.(4) PAVEL RAHMAN/AP: ABOVE RIGHT: A Bangladeshi vendor carries ducks to sell them at a market in
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The Hill
July 26, 2005 Tuesday
Under the Dome

BYLINE: By Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour
SECTION: Pg. 24
LENGTH: 1366 words
Wooing the Hollywood vote for '08?

It's a no-brainer for two 2008 presidential front-runners: Show some support for a movie about patriotic
heroism, and maybe pick up some Hollywood backers at the same time.
Which might explain why Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will be hob-
nobbing on the red carpet Thursday night with the likes of Joseph Fiennes, Benjamin Bratt and James
Franco.
The pair is slated to attend the D.C. premiere of "The Great Raid" at the Uptown Theater, as well as co-
host the VIP after-party, along with Miramax and the yet-to-be-launched Capitol File magazine.
As of press time, it was still unclear whether Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein will show. If he does, it's
probably more helpful to Hillary than McCain: Weinstein donated $3,000 to Hillary in the past two years, as
well as copious cash to the Democratic Party, but Federal Election Commission records show no such lar-
gesse coming McCain's way from the burly Hollywood kingmaker.
The film tells the story of the 6th Ranger Battalion, which in 1945 undertook a daring mission behind en-
emy lines in the Philippines to rescue 500 American POWs.
Bratt has another Washington angle these days as well. This fall, he stars with Dennis Hopper in "E-
Ring," a new, Jerry Bruckheimer-produced series on NBC. As you might guess, the series takes the "West
Wing" formula across the Potomac to the Pentagon.
Cornyn: White House didn't interview me - yet
Although his name was discussed as a possible surprise pick to the Supreme Court from beyond the fed-
eral bench, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he was never contacted about the job. But his eyes aren't
closed to a future nod.
Speaking to reporters at the National Press Club, Cornyn, who served as Texas's attorney general and
on the state Supreme Court, said he didn't talk to the White House, which had him "relieved," he said, "be-
cause I'm enjoying the Senate a lot."
He added, however, that he believes the Supreme Court would benefit from some "diversity of back-
ground and experience. There is a concern about groupthink and how the court can really be out of touch."
As examples, he cited the recent eminent-domain decision in Kelo v. City of New London and Justice An-
thony Kennedy's recent opinion invalidating state laws that allow minors to be put to death.
He added that it would be helpful to have court members from other quarters than the "bubble" of the
federal judiciary.
"If it's any consolation to me," he said, "the president should have the opportunity to nominate more than
one" justice in his remaining term.
Tommy John: Put me in, skipper
If the Washington Nationals are looking for a little help with their hitting, especially against left-handers,
manager Frank Robinson should give Tommy John a call.
John, who won 288 games over a span of 26 seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox,
Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, says he thinks he can help the Nationals.
"They need a good left-handed batting practice pitcher, and I can still throw the ball on the outside the
plate," the 62-year-old left-hander told The Hill after he signed baseballs at the American Meat Institute's an-
nual hot-dog day on Capitol Hill last week.
John, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., made 700 starts and 60 relief appearances after his debut in Cleve-
land on Sept. 6, 1963. Ironically, it was against the old Washington Senators.
He pitched until he was 46, thanks to his pinpoint control, his sinker ball and the elbow surgery that now
bears his name. His best season was with the Yankees in 1979, when he won 22 games.
John said he's serious about helping the Nationals improve their batting skills against left-handers. And
maybe he can even give the Nats' pitching staff some helpful tips.
So what are you waiting for, Frank? Give him a call.
Not to be outdone, Halle Berry coming to testify
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is fast becoming a required stop for Hollywood's hottest star-
lets.
Chip Unruh, a spokesman for ranking member Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) confirmed that his office is "in
talks with Halle Berry and her folks" about appearing before the committee to testify on the Violence Against
Women Act.
Berry has spoken out on the issue before and has in fact been a victim of abuse by her father and in oth-
er relationships.
Unruh said the committee hoped to have her appear this week but, because of all the high-profile busi-
ness before the Senate, it likely won't happen until September.
Berry's appearance follows Ashley Judd's testimony before Foreign Relations last month on sex abuse
and AIDS in developing countries. Also in recent weeks, Angelina Jolie, the reigning high priestess of sexi-
ness, met with committee members regarding orphans.
And only last week, Mexican actress Salma Hayek also testified on the Violence Against Women Act.
She was escorted to the hearing by Biden himself.
But Unruh insisted that it's all bipartisan, that many of the ladies have met with Committee Chairman
Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) as well. "It's not like Biden is
just getting all these beautiful women to come to Washington," he said.
Perhaps Biden himself would be a bigger draw had he won the "Hottest U.S. Senator not Counting
Obama" contest, recently conducted online at www.hottest ussenator.com. Although he made it to the Final
Four, he couldn't top that looker Evan Bayh (D-Ind.).
Reading conservative blogs: At home with the Kennedys
It isn't just conservatives who are reading what the conservative blogs are saying these days about Su-
preme Court nominee Judge John Roberts, according to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Kennedy, who will be one of Roberts's principal interrogators when the Judiciary Committee takes up his
nomination in September, told a Christian Science Monitor breakfast last week that his wife, Vicki, also reads
them.
"My wife found out last night just going through the blogs," Kennedy said of the briefing points about
Roberts's judicial record and philosophy that conservative groups have prepared.
"All we want is the information that is relevant," Kennedy said of Democrats' demand that the Bush White
House delivers up every scrap of information that can be found about Roberts, which he said "is in the tradi-
tion of the Judiciary Committee, no more, no less."
Kennedy also made light of his speech this week to the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago, telling a report-
er, "You're missing a great speech. It's the same one I've been giving for 40 years."
Many members come to Boy Scouts' aid with the Support Our Scouts Act
The Boy Scouts' motto is "Be prepared," and the 40 former senators who were Boy Scouts definitely are
prepared when it comes to protecting the Scouts' right to hold their jamborees and go camping on federal
property, as they will next week when 40,000 Scouts gather for the quadrennial National Scouts Jamboree at
an Army base in Virginia.
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who was a Boy Scout and whose three sons were Scouts as well,
had plenty of help last week as he pushed for passage of his amendment to the Defense Authorization Act
for fiscal year 2006.
Frist's bill, the Support Our Scouts Act of 2005, is designed to overturn a recent federal court ruling that
the Pentagon cannot support the Jamboree because the Scouts are a religious organization, as members
are required to affirm a belief in God.
Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) said that he had a "rather inauspicious ca-
reer" in the Scouts but that "they did a lot more for me than I did for them."
And Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said scouting helped him "build some character. I can still stay the
words: 'Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind. There are 12 of them. I did not always live up to
them, but they were taught to me."
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) noted that he attended the 1957 National Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pa., and
that both he and his son are Eagle Scouts.
There are also 150 members of the House who were Boy Scouts. In other words, you mess with the
Scouts at your own risk.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp.
The Mirror
July 26, 2005, Tuesday
KERR TOOK US TO A CEMETERY AT NIGHT & TOLD US GHOST

STORIES..THEN ABUSED US;
EXCLUSIVE: MAN RELIVES CHILDHOOD HORROR
BYLINE: BY JILLY BEATTIE
SECTION: Ulster Edition; NEWS; Pg. 18,19
LENGTH: 1194 words
HIGHLIGHT: BEAST; Paedophile Martin Kerr; VICTIM; 'David' now has a future; SUICIDE; Paul Anthony
Carson
THIS is the chilling graveyard where pervert Martin Kerr tortured his victims before subjecting them to
sick sexual abuse.
Sordid Kerr, a church sacristan, took vulnerable young lads to Bonamargy Friary graveyard in Bal-
lycastle, Co Antrim, where he warned them the Devil would get them if they told tales.
But now, as he languishes in a cell in Maghaberry prison, one of Kerr's victims has revealed how he fell
victim to the evil predator.
David, not his real name, told the Mirror: "He used to take us to the Bonamargy Friary graveyard in Bal-
lycastle in the dead of night and scare us senseless with ghost stories about the 'Black Nun'.
"She was meant to have hanged herself there and he told us she haunted the place. We were terrified.
"One night Kerr threw me off the minibus and told me to stay in the cemetery. It was pitch-black and I
was terrified. But when he allowed me back on the bus I was so relieved and grateful to him.
"I still didn't tell anyone how terrified I was. Our parents didn't know Kerr touched and bullied us. We did-
n't realise we could tell on him and be safe."
Kerr, 40, chose his child sex abuse victims with great care. He targeted only the most vulnerable. Then
he abused them and scarred them for ever.
Sources say he is terrified of spending the next six months behind prison walls and has slipped into de-
pression. He has begged to be segregated from other prisoners who he claims may beat him up and perhaps
even kill him. David, whose appeal case this month sent Kerr away for a year, said: "Martin Kerr deserves to
spend the rest of his life in jail after what he did to us.
"He's only going to serve six months of a one-year term but at least we know that he's in prison, that
he's miserable and frightened.
"But he'll be released to get on with his life and we'll still have to live with what he did to us for ever."
David, 25, a driver who now lives in Co Armagh, was abused by the paedophile from the age of 10 to 16
while he was an altar boy and a cub scout under Kerr's supervision.
Kerr visited schools and asked if boys were interested in joining the cub scout troop he ran at St Peter's
in West Belfast. He patiently groomed his victims, meeting parents, building trust, friendship and familiarity.
He presented himself as a figure of authority, a man the children regarded as a bit "square", a rule-mak-
ing, law-abiding, straight guy. But his image hid a terrifying alter ego.
WHEN his sinister grooming was complete and Kerr felt safe, he would make his first subtle move on
the youngsters.
A touch here, a whisper there, a lewd suggestion with a cheeky smile, all actions he could shrug off as
affection or a bit of a joke.
David said: "The abuse was a gradual process that started with brushing against me to indecently as-
saulting me. He did it with all the boys he abused and he did it everywhere at any time of night or day.
"Even when we were in the swimming pool he'd grab our genitals, then laugh and say there were crabs
in the pool.
"It was embarrassing. He pretended he was only playing but we knew it was wrong and we were power-
less to do anything about it. Then because of my association with Kerr, I was beaten up by other lads who
said I was one of his boys, that he was 'doing' me.
"I'm still scarred from one of the beatings. I got a split lip and chin that took three months to heal."
Kerr used the attack to take David and another boy to a retired priests' home in Co Limerick on a trip to
collect a church worker.
David explained: "I was 14 years old. Kerr came to our house to ask my mum if she'd like him to take
me away for a few days while I was recovering from the beating.
"He appeared like he was trying to help. Of course I hadn't told anyone about Kerr's abuse so mum just
thought he was being kind."
When Kerr and his frightened charges reached the secluded retirement home, they walked the dark cor-
ridors, lit only by tiny red light bulbs, for an hour, while Kerr told creepy ghost stories. Then they walked
around the grounds until they were soaked by rain.
When Kerr eventually showed the boys to a bedroom David was almost sick at the sight of just two beds
for three people.
He explained: "There was a double and a single bed. My stomach was churning. I moved towards the
single bed to try to get away from Kerr, but the other lad and I were cold and he said we needed to warm up.
"He said we were all good friends and it was OK to lie together and cuddle up to get warm. He lay in the
middle of the double bed and we had to lie on each side of him. He spent the night rubbing himself against
me.
ANOTHER time I went back to the bedroom and he told me to nibble his ear. I was almost sick. I did it
and ran away.
"I told nobody about any of the abuse and the other abused boys never mentioned it. It was like having
an elephant sitting in the room which no one wanted to acknowledge."
Kerr chose quiet children whose parents wanted them off the streets, safe under the supervision of God-
fearing people.
Sacristan Kerr seemed the perfect candidate. Tragically, many of those parents who have discovered
what sort of man Martin Kerr really was, feel guilty that they let their youngsters walk into such a simple trap.
David said: "This has broken my mother. Both my parents feel guilty that they trusted that man."
David revealed the abuse to his wife and parents just two years ago.
They had no explanation for his depression or his three suicide attempts. His new wife tried to under-
stand why he swung between cowering nightmares, binge drinking and smashing their house up. David said:
" I was so engrossed in my own pain that I couldn't see how hurt she was.
"One of my friends, Paul Anthony Carson, who'd been abused by Kerr too, had hanged himself three
years earlier and I thought that would probably be my best option.
"Then one day I just blurted out that Kerr had abused me too and suddenly it was like I'd opened a dam
and everything came gushing out."
By that time Kerr had already been convicted of abusing five boys over a 10-year period to 1996.
In 1998 he admitted 48 charges of indecent assault, gross indecency and inciting children to commit
gross indecency and served one year in jail.
In 2002, David and his family began their fight to get Kerr back to court where he pleaded guilty to five
counts of indecent assault against David between 1990 and 1996.
He was given a three-year suspended sentence, later changed on appeal to a one-year jail term of
which he will serve six months.
David said: "It was very difficult. But my family was brilliant and Paul Anthony's mother, Jean, was a
huge help.
"She wrapped her arms around me and let me know it was OK. It was too late to save Paul Anthony but
not others hurt by Kerr.
"I still suffer flashbacks but I feel better than I have for years because I stood up to that man.
"I have a wonderful wife who helped me through this and we have a life ahead of us. Kerr can't hurt me
anymore."
David can be contacted through Jilly Beattie on 02890 568037 or email address below.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
July 23, 2005 Saturday Main Edition
Convicted pedophile isn't registeredDennis Empey moved here from Utah; Idaho was never told
BYLINE: PETER ZUCKERMAN, pzuckerman@postregister.com
LENGTH: 725 words

Idaho officials may file charges against a Driggs man convicted of raping young boys in Utah because he
has not registered with the state as they say sex offenders are required to.
Several records show Dennis Empey, 47, who was registered as a sex offender in Utah from Aug. 11,
1994, to Aug. 11, 2004, has lived in Idaho on and off since 1997.
But neither Empey nor the state of Utah ever notified Idaho authorities, who maintain a public list of pe-
dophiles and rapists to help residents protect themselves and their children.
Empey is one of four child molesters whom eastern Idaho Scouts have publicly said preyed on them at
Grand Teton Council camps or programs over the past 20 years. While Empey was not convicted of a Scout-
related rape, a Rexburg man has filed a sworn statement accusing Empey of raping him at Island Park Scout
Camp in 1983.
Idaho law requires registered sex offenders who have moved here from other states to notify the sheriff
of their new home county within 10 days.
"Based on what I know about the case, he should have registered with the sheriff when he moved," said
Dawn
Peck, manager of the Idaho State Police's bureau of criminal identification.
Teton County Prosecutor Bart Birch and Sheriff Ryan Kaufman agreed.
It's unclear why Empey isn't registered here.
Other states are supposed to notify Idaho if one of their registered sex offenders moves here, Peck said.
She has no record of Utah alerting the Idaho State Police of Empey, who was convicted in Utah in 1991 for
two counts of forcible sodomy on a child and one count of sex abuse of a child.
Officials with the Utah Department of Corrections aren't sure if Idaho was contacted when Empey
moved. According to their documents, Empey surrendered his Utah driver's license and applied for an Idaho
license in 1997.
Additional information shows Empey has lived in Idaho for several years:
* A Post Register article dated Dec 3, 1999 headlined "Driggs resident starts Web site for overweight
people" refers to Empey as a partner in the project.
* Empey went on an LDS mission to Sweden, and his name, e-mail, phone number and address in Drig-
gs are registered on a "Swedish Mission Alumni" Web site, www.swedishmission.com. The developer of the
Web site, Host Designs President Mark Koncurat, says that database records indicate that Empey registered
with the Driggs address just after the site launched in 2000.
* A 2002 photo copyrighted to Empey appeared earlier this year on the Web site of the Grand Teton
Council. Grand Teton Council President Dave Smith said Empey had recently worked for the local Boy Scout
organization doing graphic design work.
* A March 11, 2004 family tribute in the Post Register says Empey lives in Driggs. His family wrote and
paid for the tribute.
Empey dropped off Utah's sex offender registry in 2004.
Sex offenders stay on Idaho's registry for life but can petition a judge to let them off after a decade. In
Utah, sex offenders register for 10 years.
States often fail to notify each other when sex offenders move, said Charles Onley with the nonprofit
Center for Sex Offender Management.
Plus, he said, sex offenders -- especially if they're off probation or parole -- often shop for states that do a
poor job tracking rapists and pedophiles and have a short statute of limitations on sex crimes. He wasn't fa-
miliar with how well Idaho tracks offenders.
In Idaho, offenders are supposed to register with the local sheriff's office at least once a year. The state
sends letters to offenders' listed addresses. If the offender moves without telling, the letters are returned and
deputies are told to find them.
Failure to comply with Idaho's sex offender registration law carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Sheriff Kaufman, who recently learned that Empey wasn't registered in Idaho, sent a deputy to question
Empey on Thursday. Birch, Teton County's prosecutor, said he isn't familiar with the case but plans to look
into filing charges once he knows more.
Empey needs to be arrested, said Laurie Gaffney, the attorney representing the Boy Scout Empey al-
legedly raped in 1983. She said her client learned he can't press charges against Empey because male rape
wasn't a crime back then.
Still, she said, Empey needs to be stopped so her client and others will be safe from him.
"He's a dangerous predator who continues to be a threat," she said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
July 21, 2005 Thursday

FINAL EDITION
SCOUT LEADER CONVICTED OF SEXUALLY ABUSING BOYS

BYLINE: By Kathy Kellogg - CATTARAUGUS CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 308 words
DATELINE: LITTLE VALLEY
James Molyneaux, a 62-year-old retired teacher, has been convicted of five child sodomy and sex abuse
counts involving boys in the Boy Scout troop he led.
After Tuesday's jury verdict, Cattaraugus County Judge Larry M. Himelein ordered Molyneaux held
without bail in Cattaraugus County Jail pending sentencing Sept. 6.
The three-day trial included testimony last week from two victims, former Boy Scouts who are now 16
and 21, and testimony from Molyneaux; his wife, Carol; and a medical expert.
The victims provided separate accounts of sodomy in one 2000 episode and sodomy and sex abuse in
an episode in 1997. Molyneaux was a Boy Scout leader for both victims, who were 12 and 13 at the time of
the abuse.
They testified they were assaulted on separate occasions, one at a Franklinville camp and the other in
Molyneaux's home in Portville.
The verdict came less than three hours after deliberations began Tuesday. Jurors found Molyneaux guilty
of first- and second-degree sodomy in the 2000 incidents and of first- and second-degree sodomy and first-
degree sex abuse in the 1997 incidents.
Special prosecutor Jay D. Carr said the verdict "reflects the evidence, and, hopefully, this will encourage
other victims of sexual abuse to come forward."
Carr was assigned to the case after Cattaraugus County District Attorney Ed Sharkey cited a conflict.
Defense attorney Raymond Bulson was unavailable to comment.
Molyneaux retired in July 2000 as a sixth-grade English teacher in Portville Central School. Molyneaux's
personnel files, revealed in a school administrator's testimony about employment records, contained no black
marks, Carr said.
The first- and second-degree sodomy verdicts could bring Molyneaux a maximum prison sentence of 25
years or a minimum of five years, while the first-degree sex abuse penalty could be as much as seven years,
Carr said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
July 20, 2005 Wednesday

FINAL EDITION
A CRIME WITH NO SIMPLE SOLUTION;

SEX ABUSE AGAINST CHILDREN FUELS A FRENZY TO CON-
DEMN ALL WITHOUT DEEPER CONSIDERATION
BYLINE: By Gene Warner - NEWS STAFF REPORTER
LENGTH: 1024 words
Binghamton and Miami Beach passed laws restricting convicted sex offenders from living near schools,
day-care centers, parks or playgrounds.
The New York State Legislature considered bills that would have sent the most dangerous sex offenders
to mental facilities after prison or monitored them with satellite tracking systems.
One developer in Lubbock, Texas, planned a subdivision where no convicted sex offenders would be al-
lowed to live.
And from Elma to Amherst, local town boards expressed their support for laws restricting sex offenders
freed from prison.
A noose -- a figurative one, anyway -- is being tightened around convicted sex offenders, in Western New
York and across the nation.
The publicity over several national cases has fed the frenzy against those who commit society's most un-
speakable crime -- a sex offense against an innocent child.
Among them are the recent killings of 9-year-old Dylan Groene of Idaho and two Florida girls, Jessica
Lunsford, 9, and Sarah Lunde, 13. Registered sex offenders have been accused in all three crimes.
One of the most vocal local elected officials has been Shelly Schratz, an Amherst Town Board member
pushing for stricter laws governing convicted sex offenders.
"I want the worst offenders, the ones who specialists say cannot be cured, to stay in civil confinement,"
she said. "If they are released, they should wear a GPS band. But I don't believe the worst ones belong on
the streets."
These calls for stricter laws have left local professionals with what one called a "bittersweet" feeling.
They're pleased that a spotlight is shining on sex offenses. But they're concerned some people may be look-
ing for simple solutions to a more complex problem: how to reduce the chances of convicted sex offenders
committing more crimes.
The response includes bills designed to confine sex offenders longer, make them feel unwelcomed in
their hometown or restrict their movements.
Some of these approaches may be "Band-Aids" in attacking the larger problems, said Jessica Pirro, ad-
vocacy coordinator for Crisis Services.
"We can't make these decisions based on emotion," Pirro said. "We have to determine whether these
changes will have a profound impact."
"Who would you rather listen to?" asked Lt. David F. Mann Jr., commander of the Buffalo police Sex Of-
fense Squad. "The person who says he has the one solution that's going to solve the problem or the boring
professional like me who tells you about the 20 things we need to do day in and day out to make our com-
munity safer?"
Pirro and Mann have dealt with sex offense victims. They want to help reduce such crimes. But they re-
main leery of any "feel-good" measures that don't attack the real problems.
The problem, Mann believes, is in considering all sex offenders as the same.
"When we talk about these people in the community and in the media, we tend to lump them into one big
pile known as sex offenders," he said. "But as a matter of public safety, we have to be more sophisticated."
A distinction needs to be made between the convicted offenders who are in treatment and those who
have no interest in being helped, said Charles J. Sabatino, who counsels sex offenders.
Professionals are concerned about the public latching on to "stranger abductions," which may account
for less than 10 percent of the offenses.
"I don't think people want to know the real story of sex offenses," Sabatino said. "The real story is the
neighbor, the friend, the relative, the teacher or the Scout leader."
Schratz, the Amherst Town Board member, was watching coverage of the Jessica Lunsford case last
winter when she saw a photo of the slain girl, who looked a lot like her own 10-year-old daughter.
"It went right to my heart," she said. "
Since then, Schratz has become one of the most outspoken elected officials on the issue.
In late May, Schratz sponsored a community meeting in Amherst focusing on reforming state laws that
regulate sex offenders. She circulated petitions and got the Amherst Town Board to ask the state to pass
stricter laws against released offenders.
Schratz, who claims 147 such bills have been introduced in the State Legislature since 1993, remains
frustrated that legislators couldn't agree on any of them.
She blames the Democratic-controlled Assembly. "They don't have the courage to vote on these bills,"
she said.
While she proposed a local law putting GPS trackers on the most dangerous offenders, Schratz also be-
lieves parents have to do more to protect their children.
The professionals who deal with sex offenders and victims have mixed views about the three types of
proposed laws:
Forcing an offender to wear an ankle monitor or satellite tracker.
They can be effective for the person on parole who is not allowed anywhere near a school or park or for
the predator trolling for little kids, Mann said.
"But if you've got an offender whose crime was that he developed a relationship with a 13-year-old neigh-
bor known to him, it won't help," he said.
Civil confinement, in some type of mental facility, for the worst offenders after they're released from pris-
on.
That's an obvious constitutional issue, confining someone who has served his jail time.
Mann, though, believes it can be effective in some cases.
"When you're talking about a diagnosed sociopath who will offend again and who has done his state
time, then I would be all for it for that guy," he said.
Residency restrictions.
Mann called them a short-term symbolic gesture.
"That's not solving the problem," said Pirro, from Crisis Services. "It's just pushing it out of your com-
munity."
These experts propose a strong link between good supervision and mandated treatment of released sex
offenders; strengthening the team approach crafted by law enforcement, doctors and those who provide vic-
tims' services; and closer examination of treatment programs to determine which are most effective in keep-
ing these men from offending again. .
"There's no quick-fix solution," Mann said. "People get understandably upset when they know that a sex
offender is moving into their neighborhood. But until that happens, citizens don't come together around this
problem."
e-mail: gwarner@buffnews.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News Amherst Council Member Shelly Schratz is heading a push for
tougher laws and restrictions on convicted sex offenders.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
July 20, 2005 Wednesday

FIVE STAR LATE LIFT EDITION
Jefferson County man sues archdiocese, ex-Scout leader

BYLINE: BY ELIZABETHE HOLLAND Of the Post-Dispatch
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B2
LENGTH: 688 words
A Jefferson County man sued the St. Louis Archdiocese, Archbishop Raymond Burke and a former Boy
Scout leader Tuesday, claiming that a priest and the Boy Scout leader molested him during an outing in the
early 1970s.
The lawsuit, filed by a man identified as John Doe CT1, claims that the Rev. Norman Christian and
former Scout leader Robert E. Oberle of Festus sexually molested the man when he was 12 or 13. It says the
church covered up and concealed abuse of young parishioners by Christian, allowing for more abuse.
The archdiocese removed Christian from the ministry in 1995 after another allegation of sexual abuse.
The priest died in October at age 69.
Oberle, who was named as a witness to sexual abuse in two other recent lawsuits, would not comment
on the case when reached by phone Tuesday. Oberle, 70, lives in Festus.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, several members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
held a news conference and delivered a letter to the Boy Scouts of America's St. Louis office in the Central
West End. The letter expressed frustration with the organization's response to complaints involving Oberle.
The Boy Scouts revoked Oberle's membership in April following another lawsuit, according to Joe
Mueller, the organization's director of public relations. Mueller said Oberle had been a "unit commissioner" --
a coach of sorts who helps other adults put on Scout programs.
Oberle's revocation wasn't enough, argued SNAP's executive director, David Clohessy.
"We've spent two months patiently, quietly, hopefully talking with them about them taking some step to
warn other people about Robert Oberle, and they've apparently chosen not to do so," Clohessy said. "We be-
lieve that the Scouts and the church have a moral obligation to reach out to anybody else who might have
been a witness or might have experienced abuse, and especially anybody else who might be at risk today."
A statement from the Boy Scouts said the organization has taken reasonable and appropriate action.
"But they (SNAP) are asking the Boy Scouts to take steps that are neither reasonable nor appropriate under
these circumstances. The Boy Scouts of America is not a law enforcement or investigative body."
The statement added that the organization has a strong policy aimed at protecting the welfare of its
Scouts.
In John Doe's case, he and several other boys were invited to go swimming at a creek with Oberle and
Christian, according to the man's attorney, Ken Chackes. Christian -- a pastor at Sacred Heart Church in
Crystal City at the time -- and Oberle initiated skinny dipping, after which Oberle allegedly sexually molested
the plaintiff in a pickup truck, Chackes said. Christian then came along and molested the boy as well,
Chackes said.
The plaintiff, now 47, said he told his father of the incident but that his father didn't believe him. Years
later, when reports of abuse spilled out of the Boston Archdiocese, the man told other family members and
eventually decided to come forward, he said.
"I want him to admit what he did, I want him to pay for his crime, and I want to find out if there were any
victims in Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts, and I want them to come forward," he said Tuesday. "I have four grand-
children myself and I don't need anything like this happening to them."
Christian has been the subject of a handful of other lawsuits alleging sexual abuse. Oberle has been
named at least twice before.
In May, a man sued the archdiocese and Oberle, claiming that Christian had sexually abused him in the
early 1970s. Oberle was named because he allegedly witnessed some of the abuse and did nothing to help
the boy.
In April, two other men sued the archdiocese and Oberle over similar claims.
In December, the archdiocese settled a suit with a man who claimed to have been victimized 30 years
ago by Christian.
From 1961 until his removal from the church in 1995, Christian served at seven churches, according to
the archdiocese: Sacred Heart, St. George in Affton, St. Peter's in Kirkwood, Ascension in Normandy, Nativity
in St. Louis, St. Adalbert in St. Louis and St. William in Woodson Terrace.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
July 14, 2005 Thursday

Street Final Edition
Sex inquiry: 4 officers quit

BYLINE: LUCIANA LOPEZ, The Oregonian
SECTION: Local Stories; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 852 words

SUMMARY: Three Tualatin officers and a state trooper had been linked to a female teen Explorer
Three Tualatin police officers and one Oregon State Police trooper resigned Wednesday after investigat-
ors found "to a high degree of certainty" that the men had "illegal sexual conduct" with a female teen Explorer
about five years ago.
The resignations are effective Friday. The three Tualatin officers, according to the Washington County
district attorney's office, are Jared Roberts, 28; Robert "Skip" Raddle, 30; and Joseph Junk, 39. The state po-
lice trooper is Ian Morley, 39. They have been on administrative leave since June 17.
The four also will give up their Oregon law enforcement certifications from the Department of Public
Safety Standards and Training, which allows them to serve as sworn police officers in Oregon.
The Washington County district attorney's office decided not to press charges after the four men
resigned, said Jeff Lesowski, a senior deputy district attorney. That decision was reinforced by the lack of co-
operation from the former Explorer, now 21.
In the three resignation letters provided by the district attorney's office, the officers expressed regret for
their actions and any harm it might bring to their agencies' reputation.
"I regret my conduct," Morley wrote in his resignation letter, "and I apologize for casting a shadow on the
department's reputation."
Tualatin Police Chief Kent Barker said his department also would conduct an internal investigation, in-
cluding a review of the department's Explorer post. That investigation will help determine whether the depart-
ment continues its Explorer program, a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America, which has had similar prob-
lems in Oregon and nationwide.
The Explorer program is designed to allow young people a look into different careers, with posts working
with varied professions. For example, Explorer teams are sometimes used in search and rescue. At the Tual-
atin Police Department, which has about eight Explorers at any given time, members of the post must be
ages 16 through 20.
"We owe it to the community for us to take the appropriate actions," Barker said. "We just want to make
sure that when we're all done everyone will have confidence that we did this thoroughly."
Woman leaves The former Explorer resigned from the program just before her 21st birthday, the depart-
ment's age cutoff, Barker said.
The sexual contact appeared to be a short series of unforced encounters between the men and the teen,
said Lesowski, who is handling the case.
The incidents came to light when the former Explorer, in an unrelated investigation by another local
agency, "alluded to the fact that she may have had sexual contact with police officers," Lesowski said.
The detectives interviewing her followed up on her comments, Lesowski said. The context led them to
believe that the woman was a minor at the time of the sexual contact.
"She didn't come into the police station and report this," he said. "It just came up as an 'oops' in another
investigation."
However, the woman declined to speak further about the incidents, Lesowski said. "It was very
amicable," he said, but her cooperation "just wasn't going to happen."
Without her cooperation, said Sandy James, a spokeswoman for the Washington County Sheriff's Office,
investigators relied on interviews with more than a dozen people, including police and civilians.
Filling the slots The Tualatin Police Department, which has 36 sworn officers, already has four officers on
"light duty" because of injury or pregnancy. With the resignations, Barker said, "we can move forward and
plan a recruitment process" for the three slots.
It's impossible to tell how often this kind of thing happens, said Samuel Walker, a professor in the depart-
ment of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
A report he co-wrote in 2003 that generally examined police officer involvement in the sex abuse of teen-
age girls noted, "The majority of these cases, moreover, involve girls who are enrolled in police department-
sponsored Explorers programs designed to give teens an understanding of police work."
That report recommended tighter supervision of Explorer posts by police departments.
"These abuses are really the responsibility and fault of the individual police departments," Walker said.
"Every department that currently has an Explorer program, even if there are no problems, ought to take an
extra step to ensure that everything's OK."
In recent years, Oregon has had a few incidents involving Explorer programs. In 1999 a Milwaukie police
officer pleaded guilty to official misconduct for having sex with a 19-year-old female Explorer while on duty. In
2000, a former Bandon officer pleaded guilty to contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor and official
misconduct stemming from relations with a 17-year-old female Explorer. And a Multnomah County jury in
2004 awarded a former male Explorer $245,000 in a suit against The Dalles and a former officer who
pleaded guilty to third-degree sex abuse and witness tampering.
Luciana Lopez: 503-294-5976; lucianalopez@news.oregonian.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

All Rights Reserved
Express & Echo (Exeter)
July 13, 2005
Scout leader abused boys
LENGTH: 544 words
Judge to consider giving life sentence A scout leader could be jailed for life after being found guilty of 20
charges of sex abuse against young boys.
After deliberating for nearly nine hours, a jury at Exeter Crown Court returned guilty verdicts on all
charges faced by Antony Crouch, including the most serious kind of sexual assaults on boys.
Crouch, 32, of Amory Road, Tiverton, denied all the allegations against him. He stood emotionless in the
dock when the verdicts, on a majority of 10 to two, were read out.
Today his actions were condemned by the Scout Association, which said he had been suspended as
soon as the allegations had come to light.
The judge, Mr Justice Steel, adjourned the case for psychiatric and pre-sentence reports to be prepared.
He said he was considering an indeterminate sentence.
"I think it's a possibility that he is a serious risk to young adolescent boys and I would like to have a
greater understanding of the risk he presents," he said.
" I would like to have psychiatric reports and a pre-sentence report with particular focus on risk with the
view of deciding what the appropriate sentence is. It will inevitably be a substantial custodial term but the
only issue I need to be troubled with is whether he should face an indeterminate sentence so he is on licence
for the rest of his life." Crouch was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in around six weeks' time,
probably in London or Bristol where the judge is due to be sitting.
The court heard during his trial Crouch sexually assaulted three teenage boys after winning their and
their parents' trust in his role as a Scout leader.
The boy worst abused suffered regular sexual assaults over a two-year period while the victim's parents
thought Crouch was being an exemplary role model.
Crouch was found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault, four of a serious sexual offence and four
counts of gross indecency with a child.
After the case, the investigating officer Det Con Richard Luke from Tiverton CID praised the courage of
the victims who came forward and their parents who supported them throughout.
He said: "Crouch spent a number of years getting to know the families and has spent many weekends in
the company of these families getting to know the children.
"The parents held him in high regard and he has abused their trust. They have struggled to come to
terms with who Antony Crouch is. They didn't envisage him to be an abuser of children and found that difficult
to acknowledge.
"But when the disclosures were made the parents were fully supportive of their children.
"The police and the Crown Prosecution Service will continue to bring to court perpetrators of child abuse
to face justice." A spokeswoman for the Scout Association told the Echo after the case: "Action to suspend
him (Crouch) from the Scout movement was taken as soon as the allegation was reported.
"The Scout Association condemns Mr Crouch's action. He has betrayed the trust placed upon him by
parents and by the Scout movement.
"There is no place in the movement for anyone who abuses that trust or seeks to harm young people."
The spokeswoman added that all new volunteers underwent a stringent criminal records check.
LANGUAGE: English
© Copyright 2005 Express & Echo (Exeter)
July 12, 2005
Jury is out

LENGTH: 63 words
The jury in the case of a Scout leader accused of sexually abusing three boys was resuming its delibera-
tions today. Antony Crouch, 32, of Amory Road, Tiverton, denies 20 sex abuse charges.
The jury at Exeter Crown Court retired to consider its verdicts yesterday afternoon.
The Judge, Mr Justice Steel, was asking the jury to resume its deliberations this morning.
LANGUAGE: English
July 9, 2005
Teens back scout leader
LENGTH: 261 words
Teenagers have told a jury that a man never made sexual advances towards them, although he is on tri-
al for allegedly abusing three other boys. The youngsters added they had been on some of the trips with the
alleged victims and Scout leader Anthony Crouch and had not seen any signs of distress.
Crouch, 32, of Amory Road, Tiverton, denies 20 sex abuse charges including 12 of indecent assault,
four of a serious sexual offence and four counts of gross indecency with a child.
In each charge, the alleged victim was a boy aged under 16.
The alleged offences were said to have been committed in Tiverton and the Lake District in Cumbria
between 2000 and 2004.
An 18-year-old, giving evidence at Exeter Crown Court yesterday, said he knew one of the alleged vic-
tims and they had not shown any signs of distress on one of the trips.
The witness said: "He was messing around and being loud." Another man, now aged 19, said he had
known Crouch since he was 11 and the defendant had always behaved appropriately towards him, including
when they were alone.
Speaking about one alleged victim on a trip, he said: "To my mind if something had happened he would-
n't have been as happy as he was all the time." During cross-examination, he agreed with prosecutor Jonath-
an Barnes that his memory of the trips had become more hazy with the passing of time.
He also agreed with Mr Barnes that he had never seen anything to suggest that the alleged victims had
plotted to make up the claims nor had he been approached to join in.
The trial continues.
LANGUAGE: English

SUNRISE EDITION
EXPLORER INQUIRY MAY YIELD CHARGES

BYLINE: LUCIANA LOPEZ - The Oregonian
SECTION: LOCAL STORIES; Pg. D01
LENGTH: 622 words
Summary: Officers and a trooper are suspected of sexual misconduct with a teenage Explorer Scout
The investigation of three Tualatin police officers and an Oregon State Police trooper on suspicion of
sexual misconduct involving a teen Explorer Scout is in its final stages, with the case being reviewed by the
Washington County District Attorney's office for potential criminal charges.
The officers and the trooper, who once worked in the state police office in Tualatin, have been on paid
administrative leave since June 17, officials said.
"Hopefully, we'll have some answers fairly quickly," said Jeff Lesowski, the senior deputy district attorney
on the case.
A team comprising members of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Hillsboro police and Oregon
State Police are investigating allegations of sexual misconduct about five years ago with a teenage female
Explorer Scout. The Explorer Scout, now 21, left the program just before her 21st birthday.
The Explorers program, a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America, allows young people the chance to
explore different careers. But in a number of cases in Oregon and nationwide, teen Explorers have been
sexually abused by police officers. A 2003 national report by the University of Nebraska of police abuses
found the need for greater oversight of Explorer programs.
The future of the Tualatin Police Explorer Post, established in 1991, is in doubt, with a police review
slated to examine the policies around the program, said Tualatin Chief Kent Barker.
"I have to make sure that if we are going to continue it, that everything is done right," Barker said. "I'm
not saying that things haven't been done right, but we definitely need to review it."
About eight young people between the ages of 16 and 20 are enrolled in the program at any given time,
Barker said. Explorer activities range from police ride-alongs to helping with searches for missing persons.
The possible misconduct came to light when a witness in an unrelated investigation "mentioned
something that obviously piqued the interest of investigators," Lesowski said. He declined to identify the in-
vestigation that yielded the initial information.
Barker said he heard about the allegations June 7, the day Tualatin asked the Washington County Sher-
iff's Office to begin an outside investigation.
The Tualatin Police Department has reassigned officers to handle the temporary absence of the three of-
ficers under investigation, Barker said. The officers worked on patrol duty.
Officials would not release the names of those under investigation but said they include a 28-year-old
and a 30-year old officer, each with the department for more than six years, and a 39-year-old officer with the
department for eight years.
The Oregon State Police trooper, a 39-year-old with the OSP for more than seven years, has been on
modified duty status since June 17. The trooper had transferred to a Central Oregon office for unrelated
reasons, said OSP spokesman Lt. Gregg Hastings
Other Explorer programs in Oregon and nationwide have seen similar allegations. In 2004, a Multnomah
County jury awarded a former Explorer Scout $245,000 in a civil suit against The Dalles and a former police
officer for sex abuse. A Bandon police officer pleaded guilty in 2000 to contributing to the sexual delinquency
of a minor and official misconduct for a relationship with an Explorer Scout.
The June 2003 report from the University of Nebraska recommended that Explorer programs have tight-
er controls, such as increased attention from police chiefs, additional background checks of officers involved
in the programs, and possibly assigning male and female co-leaders of the programs. Luciana Lopez: 503-
294-5976; lucianalopez@news.oregonian.com
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Local
July 7, 2005
Dad trusted boys' leader
LENGTH: 337 words
A father has told a court how he completely trusted a Scout leader to spend time alone with his son. The
man told Exeter Crown Court he thought Antony Crouch was a "very committed" Scout leader who gave up
hundreds of hours to work with young boys.
He said he initially had no suspicions that Crouch's motives were sexual, but when allegations were
made he confronted Crouch who denied them.
Yesterday the father of the boy alleged to have been worst abused by Crouch gave evidence.
He said he first met Crouch in 1996. "Our impression of him was very favourable indeed. We saw him as
a committed Scout leader. He put in hundreds and hundreds of hours of work with these young boys.
"We were very impressed with him. He was always neat, tidy, clean and presentable. I would have said
he was a model Scout leader.
"At the time I think I would have had no doubt he spent a disproportionate amount of time on Scouting
activities and increasingly with the families of Scouts. But I did not have any cause to suspect sexual impro-
priety.
"We would not have let our children anywhere near him if we had not trusted him." The man said his son
spent a great deal of time with Crouch and the pair seemed "good friends".
He added: "He (Crouch) was teaching him things I couldn't teach him.
"We felt he would benefit from it. We thought if he was with Crouch he wouldn't be up to mischief any-
where else. At least he would not be in places where he might have access to drugs.
"They appeared to be good friends. They would be laughing and joking together." The father said when
his sister raised suspicions about Crouch he asked his son if anything sexual had happened between them,
but his son said "no".
He confronted Crouch who also denied it and said child abuse was "torturing children".
LANGUAGE: English
July 6, 2005
Sex abuse in tent claimed
BYLINE: E. MMA SLEE
LENGTH: 375 words
A teenager never told anyone he was sexually abused by a Scout leader because he wanted to pretend
it did not happen, a court heard. The boy told Exeter Crown Court yesterday how he awoke in a tent on a
camping trip to find Anthony Crouch fondling his private parts.
Speaking from the witness box, the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, described how
he pretended to be asleep and was later told by Crouch he must not tell anyone because he would get into
trouble.
The teenager, one of three alleged victims of Crouch, told the court he was only assaulted once.
He said Crouch often bought him birthday and Christmas presents, and for his 18th gave him £40.
The boy said he woke up in a tent he was sharing with Crouch on a camping trip in the North of England
to find his sleeping bag unzipped and his boxer shorts lowered to his knees. He claimed Crouch was touch-
ing him.
"I pretended to be still asleep. I was trying to pretend it didn't happen.
"He (Crouch) said, you do know you can't tell anyone about this, otherwise I will get into trouble." The
boy said he never told anyone so he could carry on pretending it never happened.
He claimed the following night he slept on his front instead of his back, but there was no further assault.
Mary McCarthy, defending, said the boy went on another camping trip with Crouch after the alleged in-
cident, and never would have done so had his allegation been true. But the boy said people would have no-
ticed something was wrong if he did not go.
Also giving evidence yesterday was a good friend of a boy alleged to have been the worst abused by
Crouch.
She told the court her friend confided in her about what happened, and she persuaded him to go to the
police last year.
He first told her when he was drunk at a New Year's Eve party, and afterwards was reluctant to go into
detail about what was happening.
The girl was accused by Miss McCarthy of forcing her friend to go to the police. But the girl said he was
willing to do it himself.
LANGUAGE: English
Western Daily Press
July 6, 2005
Mind control of scout sex abuse

SECTION: News; Other; Others; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 87 words
A Boy said to have been sexually abused by his Scout troop leader for over two years told a friend he
was "mentally controlled," a court heard yesterday. Anthony Crouch "groomed" the youngster with friendship,
camping trips and presents, and seduced him into a permanent homosexual relationship, prosecutor Jonath-
an Barnes told Exeter Crown Court.
Crouch, 31, has pleaded not guilty, in relation to the boy, to four charges of a serious sexual assault, 10
of indecent assault and three of indecency with a child.
LANGUAGE: English
PUB-TYPE: Newspaper
© Copyright 2005 Bristol United Press
Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada)
June 29, 2005 Wednesday Final Edition
Rising anger over church sales

SOURCE: The Washington Post
BYLINE: Doug Struck
SECTION: CANADA/WORLD; Pg. A13
LENGTH: 929 words
DATELINE: STEPHENVILLE, NFLD
In the hardscrabble fishing villages of this remote island, Rev. Kevin Bennett was "like a god. He was
more important than a cop," and more feared than parents, recalled a former altar boy, who was one of his
victims.
Dozens of boys kept Bennett's secret as he ordered each into his bed to fondle and rape them.
Now, 16 years after the priest was sent to prison, a settlement of $10.5-million reached last month over
the sexual abuse claims of 39 former altar boys is causing the Catholic diocese here to prepare to put
churches, parish halls and priests' homes up for sale.
"We always thought we owned the church," said Theresa LaCosta, 78, who lives down the hill from Our
Lady of Fatima Church in Piccadilly, a cluster of poor homes with rich views of emerald hills that plunge into
St. George's Bay. She said her husband, now deceased, badly hurt his back while helping to lay the church
foundation. "Now they are going to take the church away?"
As churches in Canada and the United States grapple with the aftermath of sex abuse claims, similar an-
guish might be felt by Catholics far and wide.
"This is a wake-up call for the entire church," said Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Washington attorney who has
counselled many victims and advised them on lawsuits.
Doyle said the Newfoundland case could be "potentially devastating" for dioceses in the United States.
Canada's Supreme Court ruled the Newfoundland diocese owned all of its parishes' property.
American dioceses are fighting against having parish churches and property included in settlements
against local priests and officials.
Claims paid by U.S. dioceses total more than $1 billion, according to a study of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops. Three dioceses have entered bankruptcy protection to satisfy sex-abuse claims.
"We don't have millions of dollars. This will be very difficult," said Bishop Douglas Crosby of St. George's
Diocese. "But we need a just, fair settlement for the victims. This has been delayed too long."
One man, 31, whose identity is protected by a court order, paced nervously as he told his experiences.
Beginning when he was 13, the man said, Bennett would summon him to his home. "It was, 'Wash my
feet. Rub my belly. Rub my groin. Lay on my stomach,' " the man recounted. But even as he prepared to
testify against the priest, he said, his father insisted nothing had happened.
Last year the man tried to hang himself and was in a coma for eight days. He hasn't been able to hold a
job or maintain a relationship, he said. He recoils at unexpected touches.
"I will never get over it," he said.
As a young priest in the 1960s, Bennett enticed altar boys by roaring around on a motorcycle, starting a
Boy Scout troop and inviting them to his cabin to swim or ride a Ski-Doo.
"If I told my grandparents, who raised me, that I was being abused by the priest, they would have
smacked me for lying," Randy Johnston, 48, the only victim publicly identified, said in a telephone interview
from Labrador City.
Church officials testified they learned in 1979 that Bennett was abusing children. They transferred him to
a more remote parish, St. Bernard's, where the list of his victims grew for another decade.
In 1989, Bennett was arrested, pleaded guilty and served four years in prison. Greg Stack, an attorney in
St. John's, filed suit on behalf of three dozen victims in 1991.
The church "fought it all the way," Stack said, unsuccessfully appealing to the Supreme Court. Privately,
church officials said lawyers for insurance companies dragged out the case. The diocese has yet to find out if
and how much insurers will pay.
Crosby, 55, came to Newfoundland in 2003. The bishop then offered the first public apology, met with vic-
tims and spoke to the news media.
For the settlement, he has taken $1.4 million in savings -- earned from activities ranging from land invest-
ments to Sunday bake sales -- from the 19 parishes in his diocese. He hopes to raise an additional $4.5 mil-
lion to save the larger churches and most active halls.
Still, Crosby estimates 100 of 150 properties will be sold. Auctioning off the cemeteries "would be a bit
much," he said. But his harbour-view office will go, and he has sold the Bishop's House in Corner Brook.
In congregations strung along nearly 500 miles, stunned parishioners learned the fate of their churches.
"We want to get it over with so we can start rebuilding," said Rev. Maurice O'Quinn, whose church serves
most of Stephenville, which has a population of 8,000. Others were furious. "It went from shock to raw
anger," said Rev. Terry Boland, another parish priest.
In Piccadilly, Alice Walsh, 76, a nun who has presided for 12 years over bingo and baptisms for her com-
munity of 1,200, said she broke down as she read properties to be sold: her church, the hall, the convent
house. Walsh said her congregation is devastated.
Neil Tourout, 60, said his father helped build the first church at Piccadilly. "One man devoured
everything," he said with disgust. To the astonishment of some, that man -- Bennett, now 72 -- moved near
Stephenville after his prison term and attended mass. He never expressed remorse, his victims say. Bennett
has given no interviews since his release.
The possible loss of the churches rekindled emotions, There were rumours of threats. "It was a tough
place for him to be, even dangerous," said O'Quinn. Last week, he said, Bennett left Newfoundland, leaving
his church and victims in turmoil. He declined to say where Bennett went.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
TYPE: News
Copyright 2005 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
The Washington Post
June 27, 2005 Monday

Final Edition
Chapels on the Auction Block;

Altar Boy Abuse Settlement in Canada Threatens Dioceses
BYLINE: Doug Struck, Washington Post Foreign Service
SECTION: A Section; A09
LENGTH: 1350 words
DATELINE: STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland
In the hardscrabble fishing villages of this remote island, the Rev. Kevin Bennett was "like a god. He was
more important than a cop," and more feared than parents, recalled a former altar boy, who was one of his
victims. Dozens of boys kept Bennett's secret as he ordered each into his bed to fondle and rape them.
Now, 16 years after the priest was publicly accused and sent to prison, a $10.5 million settlement
reached last month over the sexual abuse claims of 39 former altar boys is causing the Catholic diocese here
to prepare to put its churches, parish halls and priests' homes up for sale.
Catholic villagers across this huge, poor swath of western Newfoundland are learning the long reach of
these priestly abuses, some committed decades ago. They might lose the tiny parish chapels and meeting
halls where relatives and neighbors have long been christened, married, celebrated and buried.
"We always thought we owned the church," said Theresa LaCosta, 78, who lives down the hill from Our
Lady of Fatima Church in Piccadilly, a cluster of poor homes with rich views of the emerald hills that plunge
into St. George's Bay. She said her husband, now deceased, had badly hurt his back while helping to lay the
church foundation. "He had to stop fishing because of it. Now they are going to take the church away?"
As more churches in the United States and Canada grapple with the aftermath of sex abuse claims, an-
guish similar to that of St. George's diocese might be felt by Catholics far and wide.
"This is a wake-up call for the entire church," said the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Washington attorney who
has counseled many victims and advised them on lawsuits against the church.
Doyle said the Newfoundland case could be "potentially devastating" for dioceses in the United States
because Canada's Supreme Court ruled that the Newfoundland diocese owned all of its parishes' property.
American dioceses are fighting against having parish churches and property included in settlements against
local priests and officials.
"If I were a U.S. diocese, I would be very worried about the Newfoundland case," said Charles Zech, an
expert on church finances and a faculty member at Villanova University outside Philadelphia. "All of the par-
ishes are waiting for this issue to be settled."
Claims paid by U.S. dioceses total more than $1 billion, according to a study of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops and recent large settlements in Boston, Kentucky and California. Three other dioceses
have entered bankruptcy protection to satisfy sex-abuse claims.
"We don't have millions of dollars. This will be very difficult," said Bishop Douglas Crosby of St.
George's Diocese. "But we need a just, fair settlement for the victims. This has been delayed too long."
Bennett's victims, now middle-aged, are still wrestling with the personal demons of abuse. One man,
31, whose identity is protected by a court order, paced nervously as he recounted the ruined life he still
blames on the priest.
Beginning when he was 13, the man said, Bennett would summon him to his home and beckon him to
come close. "It was, 'Wash my feet. Rub my belly. Rub my groin. Lay on my stomach,' " the man recounted.
But even as he prepared to testify against the priest, he said, his own father insisted nothing had happened.
Last year the man tried to hang himself and ended up in a coma for eight days. He has never been able
hold a job or maintain a relationship, he said. He recoils at any unexpected touch.
"I will never get over it," he said.
As a young priest in the 1960s, Bennett enticed altar boys by roaring around on a motorcycle, starting a
Boy Scout troop and inviting them to his cabin to swim or ride a Skidoo, akin to a snowmobile. The boys did
not tell their parents or guardians that he also took them into his bed.
"If I told my grandparents, who raised me, that I was being abused by the priest, they would have
smacked me for lying," Randy Johnston, 48, the only victim publicly identified, said in a telephone interview
from Labrador City, Newfoundland.
Church officials testified that they learned in 1979 that Bennett was abusing children, but their response
was to transfer him to a more remote parish, St. Bernard's, where the list of his victims grew for another dec-
ade.
"The church just pushed the problem on," according to a 52-year-old Stephenville man whose identity is
also protected by court order. He said he reported Bennett's abuse to other priests. The man went on to a
successful business career and marriage, but he said the ordeal still haunts him.
"I think about it every day," he said. "And I never wanted to have kids because of it. That's my biggest
regret."
The ugly secret finally spilled into the open in 1989. Bennett was arrested, pleaded guilty and served
four years in prison. Meanwhile, Greg Stack, an attorney in St. John's, the Newfoundland provincial capital,
filed suit on behalf of three dozen victims in 1991.
But the church "fought it all the way," Stack said, unsuccessfully appealing to the Supreme Court to
avoid liability. Privately, church officials said lawyers for insurance companies dragged out the case. The dio-
cese has yet to find out if -- and how much -- its insurers will pay.
Crosby, 55, came to Newfoundland in 2003, hoping to end the lawsuits hanging over the diocese. He
offered the first public apology for the abuses, met with victims and spoke to the news media.
Now, he says, he will be scraping to find money for the settlement. He already has taken $1.4 million in
savings -- earned from activities ranging from land investments to Sunday bake sales -- from the 19 par-
ishes in his diocese. He hopes to raise an additional $4.5 million to save the larger churches and most active
halls.
Still, Crosby estimates that 100 of 150 properties will have to be sold. Auctioning off the cemeteries
"would be a bit much," he said. But his harbor-view office will go, and he has already sold the Bishop's House
in the town of Corner Brook.
At Sunday services last month, priests read a letter from Crosby and a list of which properties the par-
ishes would try to buy back from the diocese. In congregations strung along nearly 500 miles, stunned pa-
rishioners heard the fate of their churches. Some were relieved.
"We want to get it over with so we can start rebuilding," said the Rev. Maurice O'Quinn, whose church
serves most of Stephenville, a tidy town of 8,000.
Others were furious.
"It went from shock to raw anger," said the Rev. Terry Boland, another parish priest.
Crosby admits the settlement is forcing him to make overdue decisions to close churches that already
are emptying from declining populations and fewer, aging clergy.
In Piccadilly, Alice Walsh, 76, a nun who has presided for 12 years over bingo and baptisms for her
community of 1,200. Walsh said she broke down as she read the properties to be sold: her church, the hall
for catechism classes, even the convent house.
"They are devastated," Walsh said of members of her congregation. If the church closes, her parishion-
ers will have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest church. But many are too poor to own a car or too old to
drive.
Neil Tourout, 60, recalled that his father helped build the first church at Piccadilly out of plywood
salvaged from a former U.S. military base at Stephenville.
"One man devoured everything," he said with disgust.
To the astonishment of some, that man -- Bennett, now 72 -- moved back to a small house near
Stephenville after his prison term and began attending Mass. His victims encountered him in the supermar-
ket. He never expressed remorse, they say. Bennett has given no interviews since his release.
But the possible loss of the churches has rekindled passions. There were rumors of threats to Bennett,
of midnight prowlers banging on his door.
"It was a tough place for him to be, even dangerous," said O'Quinn. Last week, he said, Bennett finally
left Newfoundland, leaving behind his church and his victims in turmoil. He declined to say where Bennett
went.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 2005 The Washington Post

June 26, 2005 Sunday

Metro Edition
Ranch accused of abuse;

Boys' home allowed mistreatment;
for years, say residents, records
SECTION: A; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 3594 words
Fifteen-year-old Timothy Donald Everts swore he would never go back to Morning Star Boys' Ranch.
He alleged that he was physically and sexually abused in the months he spent at the boys' home south
of Spokane, according to his friends and family. When he ran away from the ranch in late 1977, bruises and
welts covered his backside, his sister and two close friends told The Spokesman-Review.
For weeks, Everts hid out in his friend Devin Bennett's basement and told her a secret that he made her
swear not to tell: At Morning Star, a Catholic priest named Patrick O'Donnell forced Everts to perform oral sex
on him.
"He was so ashamed," Bennett said in an interview this month, naming O'Donnell as Everts' abuser for
the first time. "He felt like he should have been able to defend himself."
In its nearly half-century of operation, Morning Star Boys' Ranch repeatedly allowed the physical and
sexual abuse of boys in its care, according to records from the Department of Social and Health Services,
court documents, and interviews with former counselors and residents.
The physical abuse allegedly came directly from the top - the ranch's revered director since 1966, the
Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner.
According to a 1978 Child Protective Services report, Weitensteiner admitted to striking a boy in the face
and pulling a 4-inch clump of hair from the back of his head. State officials refused to make the report public
in 1978, but recently released it in response to a request from The Spokesman-Review.
Weitensteiner, a 73-year-old Catholic priest, was in town but unavailable for interviews last week, ac-
cording to Morning Star officials.
Dan Kuhlmann, the ranch's assistant director, defended Weitensteiner.
"Father has always had the best interest of the boys at heart," said Kuhlmann, who joined the ranch in
1974. "Whatever actions he took, there was a reason for the action."
Kuhlmann said he saw bruises on some boys in the 1970s as a result of "hacks" - a corporal punish-
ment administered with a 2- to 3-foot board. He did not remember specific dates or incidents. He did not be-
lieve the paddling constituted physical abuse. In the aftermath of the 1978 investigation, Morning Star agreed
to make changes to its discipline policy, and it has since banned corporal punishment.
"I feel very confident today that our organization is a quality organization with staff who really want to
make a difference," Kuhlmann said.
Bernard O. Nelson, the state's regional administrator in 1978, said he did not recall why the state took
no action against Weitensteiner.
"In hindsight, if we looked at it today, he'd be out of there," said Nelson, who still serves on Spokane's
Human Services Advisory Board. "You have to look at it in the context of 30 years ago."
In the 1970s, the state's administrative rules allowed corporal punishment that did not "bruise or harm" a
child.
Timmy Everts told his friend Bennett that officials at the ranch knew about the beatings that left bruises
on his body but had done nothing to stop it - an allegation ranch officials denied last week. Everts told Ben-
nett that he would die before he would ever return to the ranch.
On Jan. 25, 1978, when police arrived at his family's home in north central Spokane to return him to the
ranch, Everts made good on his threat. He put a rifle to his head and shot himself in his sister's bedroom.
Everts' death marked a tragic moment for the ranch. Yet it passed with surprisingly little scrutiny.
Dan Dennis, a 42-year-old former Morning Star resident, said Weitensteiner spoke with the boys in the
ranch cafeteria after Everts' death.
Dennis said Weitensteiner told the boys that "Timmy Everts made allegations that there was molestation
going on up here. But it didn't happen. Forget about it."
Neither the Spokane Police Department, which responded to Everts' suicide, nor the state agency
charged with licensing Morning Star can find documents that show Everts' allegations were investigated. An
official with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, which had jurisdiction over the ranch, said a computer
search indicated the department had not investigated any allegation against O'Donnell in 1978.
"It is a failure by those social service agencies that have a duty to monitor the safety of those kids," said
Tim Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney who is preparing lawsuits for two former Morning Star boys who say they
were sexually abused at the ranch in the 1960s. "I think it is outrageous."
'EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT'
By the 1970s, Morning Star was one of the Northwest's most notable homes for boys. Founded by the
Catholic Diocese of Spokane, the boys' ranch has gained renown for counseling and caring for nearly 1,300
troubled boys, ages 10 to 18. In the 1970s as many as 50 boys lived at the ranch; today it has 18 boys.
This spring, all four high school seniors at the ranch graduated and are headed to college, spokeswo-
man P.J. Watters said.
Father Joe Weitensteiner, who joined the ranch in 1957, shortly after it opened, established an impec-
cable reputation. A former butcher, interior decorator, Boy Scout leader, and clothing salesman, Weitenstein-
er was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1966, the same year he became Morning Star's director.
Gonzaga Prep inducted him into its Hall of Fame, and in 1978, he was appointed as the Northwest rep-
resentative to a national accreditation board for group homes.
But even though Morning Star gained recognition, state documents and court files, as well as interviews
with former residents and counselors, portray a facility that allowed the physical and sexual abuse of boys.
After a story in The Spokesman-Review last month, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office opened a crim-
inal investigation into a former Morning Star counselor who allegedly molested a boy at the ranch in the
1990s.
While numerous men credit the ranch with turning around their lives, Weitensteiner leveled discipline
that injured several boys, according to interviews and the 1978 state records.
Many years later, some former staffers and residents are still reluctant to publicly criticize the ranch.
Several people spoke with The Spokesman-Review only on the condition of anonymity. They said they fear
angering Weitensteiner or getting pulled into a dispute with the ranch, the state or the diocese. They provided
their names to the newspaper, which verified that the former residents and employees were in fact at Morn-
ing Star.
In the 1978 state investigation, Weitensteiner and another staffer, Ron Mulvey, now a deputy with the
Spokane County Sheriff's Office, each admitted to striking a boy in the face at the ranch, according to the
state report. Mulvey was not at work Friday and did not return a phone message left at his home.
The mother of one of the boys said a ring worn by Weitensteiner left cuts on her son's face, according to
the report.
The investigation fell to two departments at the Department of Social and Health Services. A Child Pro-
tective Services investigator said that Weitensteiner and Mulvey each admitted to striking a boy, but she did
not find evidence of physical abuse.
The CPS worker sent her report to DSHS licensing specialist David Perkins.
In a memorandum to his superiors, Perkins, interpreting a new state policy that was soon to be adopted,
wrote that "neither the present administrator or the staff person involved in this incident can be employed by
the facility."
Yet state officials quickly retreated from that recommendation. The agency concluded that the investiga-
tion found "questionable discipline practices," but insufficient evidence of "extreme physical abuse which
would warrant prosecution," according to the state documents.
Weitensteiner was allowed to remain as director, and was not disciplined by the state agency, according
to the records.
Morning Star placed Mulvey on unpaid leave for three days; Perkins and his supervisor had recommen-
ded six months' probation. The Sheriff's Office determined there was "not sufficient evidence for criminal ac-
tion," according to the 1978 state report. One year later, Mulvey joined the Sheriff's Office as a deputy.
The state investigation came just months after the suicide of Timmy Everts, yet it made no mention of
his death or his allegations.
A former state social worker, who investigated child abuse throughout the 1970s, reviewed the state re-
port during an interview with the newspaper.
"If you are spanking hard enough to leave a bruise or using a belt, that becomes more than discipline,"
said the former social worker, who asked not to be identified. "If all this really went on, that's unusual. It's
hard to believe it happened."
Former staff members and residents said Weitensteiner's violent discipline often left marks.
One former staffer, a 65-year-old retired small-business owner in Spokane, said he watched, horrified,
as Weitensteiner swung a two-by-four at a boy as he walked away from him in the 1960s. The blow knocked
the boy to the ground.
"I'm surprised he didn't break the kid's back," said the Spokane man, who asked not to be identified. "My
feeling about Weitensteiner was he looked for excuses to hit the children."
Another former staffer at the ranch said he saw Weitensteiner punch a boy in the face in the late 1970s.
The man said he had seen "a couple horrendous black eyes from Father Joe, over silly things, like giggling in
Mass.
"Father Joe smacked the kids around quite a bit," he said. "I think we were all pretty appalled with it. If
everyone else is doing it, and your boss is doing it, then it must be all right." The former employee also said
he was afraid of Weitensteiner and asked not to be identified.
Kuhlmann said he never witnessed any abuse by Weitensteiner.
"I've allowed him to take my kids on outings," Kuhlmann said. "I trust him."
Other former residents defended the priest and Morning Star.
"I can tell you categorically that I never saw such abuse or was even in a compromising situation," said
Pete Ayers, a resident in the 1970s who is now an attorney in Austin, Texas. "(Morning Star) was instrument-
al in preventing me from spiraling down into oblivion."
'IT'S TIMMY'
Don Everts had trouble handling his son. After Timmy got in a fight in 1977, the state recommended
placement at Morning Star and agreed to pay for Everts' care at the ranch. Morning Star also took in private-
pay boys.
"I thought it'd do him some good," said Don Everts, now 66.
Small but rebellious, the junior high wrestler had a defiant personality. On at least two occasions, he ran
away from the boys' ranch, one of nearly two dozen runaways from Morning Star between July 1977 and
March 1978, according to newspaper archives.
Tammy Pawley, 42, remembered the bruises on her brother, as did two other close friends.
Fearing that his family would send him back to Morning Star, Everts stayed in the basement of the Ben-
nett family home, in the same north central Spokane neighborhood where his family lived.
Bennett said Everts told her that the ranch's director and others had beaten him. She believed the dir-
ector's name was "Father Joe." Kuhlmann said he was unaware of Everts' allegations.
"The second time was the worst," said Bennett, who was two years older than Everts and a close friend.
"He had whip marks on his butt. He told me he was being abused. All I cared about was getting him out of
there."
Everts told Bennett that O'Donnell, a pedophile who has since admitted molesting more than a dozen
boys, forced him to perform oral sex at Morning Star.
Morning Star officials said O'Donnell was never at the ranch in any official capacity, but verified that he
visited the ranch in the 1970s.
O'Donnell's attorney could not be reached for comment. O'Donnell has repeatedly denied requests for
media interviews.
In a 2004 deposition in a civil lawsuit against O'Donnell and the diocese, O'Donnell said that he did
"evaluations" at the ranch over the course of several months, and that he took boys from the Spokane Dio-
cese to Morning Star to play basketball. He also stated that in the early to mid-1980s, Catholic Bishop
Lawrence Welsh instructed him to cease consulting with Morning Star.
Carol Clausen, another close friend of Everts, said he told her he had been beaten and molested at the
ranch, but she could not recall names of the alleged abusers.
"He said there was no way in hell he was ever going back there because the people who ran the place
were molesting him," Clausen said. "He said that there was nobody that believed him. He wasn't going to let
it happen to him again."
Shortly after Everts' brothers picked him up, Bennett heard sirens pulsing through her neighborhood. As
she sprinted toward the Everts' home, she said to herself, "It's Timmy."
'COPS WEREN'T INTERESTED'
Police found Everts lying on the floor of his sister's bedroom, a shell casing near him. On his body, an of-
ficer found a suicide note and a business card of "Sheriff's detective O'dell," according to the police incident
report. Danny O'Dell investigated sex crimes for the Sheriff's Office.
Mike Busby, records manager for the Spokane Police Department, said this month he cannot locate
Everts' suicide note or O'Dell's card - both of which are referenced in the three-page police report. Busby re-
fused to release a section of the police report that included a statement from the suicide note, citing an ex-
emption in the Washington public records law that covers commission of a crime by a juvenile. Busby said he
could not find evidence that the department investigated Everts' claims.
Everts' family said they never received a copy of the suicide note.
O'Dell, who has retired from the department and lives in the Spokane area, declined to comment on why
Everts had his business card.
"I don't want to talk to anyone without the county attorney there," O'Dell said.
At the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, an official said he could not find any reference to a 1978 invest-
igation into O'Donnell.
"I told the police officers what was going on," Bennett said. "The cops weren't interested. They thought
Timmy was a hoodlum."
The state's Department of Social and Health Services, which licensed Morning Star to care for boys,
said this spring it can find no evidence that its employees investigated Everts' death, or the allegations he
made - despite newspaper coverage of his death at the time.
"Why it wasn't (investigated), I don't recall," said Nelson, the retired regional administrator. "I would think
that it should have been."
After Everts' death, Weitensteiner produced three pages of handwritten regulations on Morning Star's
disciplinary policy, according to a newspaper article from March 31, 1978. Some had been scratched out and
written over, the article said.
The regulations did not satisfy Everts' family and friends.
"I realize he was there because he was in trouble, and discipline is part of it," Bennett said. "But these
guys, you're supposed to be there for the good of the boys, not hurting them for the rest of their lives. He was
a little rebel, but he was a kid."
SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS SURFACE
Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney who specializes in sexual abuse cases, said three former Morning Star resid-
ents contacted him about alleged molestation at the ranch that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. He is pre-
paring civil claims for two of the men against Morning Star.
One man alleged that O'Donnell sexually assaulted him at Morning Star in the late 1960s. Kosnoff said
O'Donnell apparently used the ranch to prey on boys.
"He just kept going back to the well," Kosnoff said.
In 1982, a Catholic parishioner named Rita Flynn said she learned O'Donnell was working at Morning
Star. At that point, O'Donnell had already been sent to Seattle for sexual deviancy counseling.
Flynn, who was aware of previous allegations of sexual abuse against the priest, called the ranch and
asked for an appointment with O'Donnell, according to her 2003 deposition in a civil lawsuit against the
Spokane Diocese. The lawsuit was brought by alleged victims of O'Donnell, not by Flynn, now 79.
"The woman at the switchboard said, 'I'm sorry, he is not here today. I can give you an appointment with
him on Thursday,' " Flynn stated in her deposition.
Flynn contacted United Way and told the agency that "there is a pedophile priest there," according to her
deposition. Morning Star is not a United Way agency, but the public can earmark donations to the ranch
through United Way.
Flynn said the United Way person then handed the phone to a "Detective Corky of the Spokane Police
Department." The only "Corky" in Spokane law enforcement at the time apparently was Edmund "Corky"
Braune, who worked for the Sheriff's Office.
Braune served on Morning Star's board of directors in 1982 and continues to serve today. He said he
did not recall the phone conversation with Flynn.
"I never remember a call naming Patrick O'Donnell," Braune said last week.
Just minutes after the phone call ended, Flynn said she received a call from a parishioner who was do-
ing public relations work for the chancery, asking why she did not first inform church leaders before going to
law enforcement, according to the deposition.
In his deposition, O'Donnell said he was instructed to stop consulting with Morning Star some time after
Flynn's telephone call.
Other allegations against the ranch surfaced.
In the 1990s, at least one resident preyed on another boy at the ranch, forcing him to perform sexual
acts, according to a 1994 sheriff's report and a Spokane County Superior Court lawsuit against Morning Star.
Because identifying information was redacted from the sheriff's report, it is unclear if the report and the law-
suit refer to the same events.
In the sheriff's report, a Morning Star employee said that a resident forced another boy to fondle him as
they rode in a van with two other people. The perpetrator admitted the abuse, according to the report. The re-
port did not name the other people in the van, who were apparently not aware of the abuse.
The report stated there may have been as many as five incidents of sexual abuse from 1993 to 1994, in-
cluding an assault during a supervised Morning Star camping trip.
Last fall, Morning Star paid a former resident an undisclosed amount of money to settle a civil lawsuit
that alleged a counselor had repeatedly sexually assaulted him. The former resident, identified in court docu-
ments as "John G. Doe," also alleged another boy made him perform oral sex at the ranch and on a Morning
Star outing, according to his 2004 deposition.
Doe said the counselor, Dale A. Stearns, began molesting him at Morning Star in the 1990s and contin-
ued when they moved in together in 1994, in a foster placement agreed to by Morning Star and DSHS.
Stearns was never prosecuted in Washington, but the Sheriff's Office recently interviewed several
people after The Spokesman-Review identified other alleged victims of Stearns in Spokane. Stearns is now
in Kansas.
John G. Doe said in his deposition that Weitensteiner used threats to keep the allegations of abuse
secret after they were brought to his attention in 2003.
The former resident said after he told Weitensteiner about the alleged abuse by Stearns, the priest told
him that he knew another former resident "in the Mob or connected to the Mob, and if anybody messed with
the ranch that he would handle it."
An attorney for Morning Star denied last month that Weitensteiner ever threatened the former resident.
'ONE HELL OF A TEMPER'
The allegations of physical abuse at Morning Star exceeded the 15-year life span of Timmy Everts.
When the former employee from the 1960s was asked why he didn't report the abuse to law enforce-
ment, including an incident when he saw a staffer hit a boy in the face with a wooden paddle, he said: "Today
if you did something like that, I could take the kid to the police and file a report. Forty years ago, nothing
would have happened. Nobody would have believed me."
A 54-year-old man who lived at the ranch in the 1960s said he learned to avoid Weitensteiner.
"Any little excuse would set him off," said the man, a day laborer in Spokane. "I got my ass beat a time
or two. I was black and blue from the back of my knees up to my butt."
Dennis, a Morning Star resident in the 1970s, said he was one of the bigger boys at the ranch and that
he was never beaten. But he said he remembers a smaller boy with two black eyes who said that Weiten-
steiner had hit him.
"I know that the guy is a priest, but I also know he had one hell of a temper," said Dennis, a college stu-
dent in Spokane. "You didn't want to get that guy pissed at you. I saw the results of his physicality."
Kuhlmann, the ranch's assistant director, said, "Father may have a temper. As far as striking out and hit-
ting them, no."
The former counselor who allegedly witnessed physical abuse in the 1970s - and continues to work in
the social service field - said he was shocked by Weitensteiner's discipline.
"Those kids' butts would be black and blue," the man said. "I'm not just talking about a little bruise."
He said he was conflicted about speaking with the newspaper because he had "devoted a portion of my
life to that place.
"I used to think the world of Father Joe," he said. "I look back on it now, he was creepy. It hurt me."
Dennis said that he also felt conflicted discussing the abuse publicly because he believes that Morning
Star and Weitensteiner helped him.
"Without Father Joe, I probably would have spent my life in prison," Dennis said.
But he stood by his account.
"I'd like to see all the facts come out and let people decide," he said.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Idaho Edition
Spokane kids' safety definitely worth $18

BYLINE: Frank Sennett Correspondent
SECTION: W; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 587 words
Monte McConnell gave Mayor Jim West the pickle, and got the shaft in return.
When McConnell came to City Hall on April 7, he brought a jar of pickles purchased during a two-for-one
sale at a supermarket near his Hillyard home. He'd heard West had adopted a city customer-service program
with a pickle theme and thought the jar would make a nice ice-breaking gift.
McConnell knew the mayor once led a Boy Scout troop with a sheriff's deputy who likely molested local
children.
So the Spokane man suspected he might have a hard time selling West on his idea to require stringent
criminal background checks for anyone who regularly works with kids. The pickles didn't help his cause.
"It was like walking into a deep freeze," McConnell recalls. "The guy would not make eye contact with
me."
McConnell's family "has been visited by" child sexual abuse, as he puts it. I won't go into the horrific de-
tails, but they drove the man to press forward with his reasonable proposal.
He wants Washington to require anyone now working with children, or applying for a job caring for kids,
to submit their fingerprints for a federal criminal background check covering all 50 states. Such checks cost
$18, and results come back in two or three business days. Cash-strapped employers could even ask candid-
ates to pay the modest fee.
Currently, workers at most youth organizations in the state undergo much less stringent online back-
ground checks. The patchwork system can enable convicted sex criminals from outside Washington to prey
on children here from positions of authority.
Sitting with West in the chairs set out for visitors in front of the mayor's desk, McConnell asked for help
setting up a meeting with state legislators. Failing that, he hoped to get a letter of support from West on offi-
cial city letterhead.
As the brief presentation continued, West "got up and walked around," McConnell says. "I thought, 'This
guy seems awfully nervous.' " In the end, the mayor turned him down flat, calling the current system of volun-
tary checks good enough.
"I had to choose between cold-cocking that SOB and walking out," McConnell recounts. Although he's
56 and has a medical disability, the man's temper could still get him into trouble. Two decades ago, he was
convicted of bank robbery. He also has faced a misdemeanor assault charge. This time, McConnell kept his
cool and left in disgust.
The former truck driver and private investigator clearly is not the most effective spokesman for the
cause. But how could anyone be against forcing people who work with kids to undergo stringent nationwide
criminal background checks?
Less than a month after the meeting, West faced allegations of child molestation and offering city intern-
ships to young men with whom he wanted to have sex.
The mayor denies the sex-abuse accusations. But if they're true, it's easier to understand why McCon-
nell's pitch made him uncomfortable. Ironically, though, West wouldn't have been affected by a background
check requirement. He's never faced criminal molestation charges.
Yet this still seems a perfect moment for state and local leaders to show their support for children by
turning McConnell's proposal into law. He says he's e-mailed city council members three times and hasn't
heard back. State legislators have given him the brush-off as well.
When he met with West, McConnell quoted the mayor's campaign promise to "look out for the interests
of those most vulnerable."
We now know West isn't up to that task. But what's everyone else's excuse?
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
NOTES: Frank Sennett's weekly take on the nation's alternative press airs on Spokane Public Radio. Hard 7
covers the culture of local politics and the politics of local culture. Contact Frank at (509) 744-5700 or altsour-
ceradio@yahoo.com.

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Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA)

June 5, 2007 Tuesday

FOUR MORE MEN ALLEGE ABUSE AT BOYS' RANCH;

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Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA)

June 5, 2007 Tuesday

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Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA)

FOUR MORE MEN ALLEGE ABUSE AT BOYS' RANCH;

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London Free Press (Ontario)

June 1, 2007 Friday

Church adopts sex abuse policy;

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LENGTH: 316 words

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Copyright 2007 Sun Media Corporation

Daily Miner and News (Kenora, Ontario)

May 12, 2007 Saturday

Victims testify at sex abuse trial

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NOTES: Lake of the Woods Enterprise

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Lancashire Evening Post

Paedophile scout leader jailed

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Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)

May 9, 2007 Wednesday

Historical group sued over child sex abuse b;

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The Kansas City Star

April 30, 2007 Monday

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Sex abuse case

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April 20, 2007 Friday

Child safety elusive;

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April 19, 2007 Thursday