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By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Sept. 8, 2009 1:48 p.m.
Two adult brothers who contend they were sexually assaulted by a Waukesha County Catholic priest when they were boys sued the Milwaukee Archdiocese on Tuesday, saying it knew Father David Hanser had a history of molesting children and failed to warn their family.
The lawsuit, filed by David and Peter Neels in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, is the 12th civil fraud case now pending against the archdiocese alleging sexual abuse by clergy.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said that the archdiocese acknowledged Hanser's history in 2002, and that he was laicized, or defrocked, in 2005. His name appears on the archdiocese's online list of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse.
Hanser, of Nashotah, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
David Neels, 40, said the abuse and cover-up had permeated every part of his life, from his personal and business relationships to his faith.
"After so long, I can almost forgive Hanser. But I can't forgive the fact that someone knew this was going on and covered it up," David Neels said.
According to the lawsuit, Hanser served in several area parishes before being assigned to St. Mary Catholic Church in Pewaukee in the early 1980s.
The Neels - David, of Hudson, and Peter, of Cottage Grove, Minn. - contend that Hanser sexually assaulted them over several years beginning in 1982 when they were about 10 and 13 years old.
The lawsuit contends that the archdiocese knew of Hanser's proclivities as early as the 1970s when a previous victim, who said he was molested by Hanser at St. Joseph Church in Waukesha, attempted to report it.
In that case, the lawsuit says, the victim reported the abuse to Father Bernard Sipple, who said he did not want to know the name of the offending priest. Sipple set up a meeting with the victim at the archdiocese, but when the victim arrived the church officials declined to meet with him, the lawsuit said.
Hanser, 77, is believed to have molested as many as a dozen boys beginning in the 1960s, according to a 2003 investigation by Waukesha County authorities. The cases were not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.
Hanser settled a civil lawsuit involving another set of siblings in 2003, paying an unspecified sum of money to the family and the Child Abuse Prevention Fund.
In that case, he was accused of molesting John Ramstack and three of his brothers in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Hanser was at Catholic Memorial High School and St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Brookfield.
The Ramstacks reported the abuse in 1988, after which Hanser was removed from St. Mary's parish in Pewaukee. He served from 1991 to 2002 as a chaplain at area hospitals - with the understanding that he would have no unsupervised contact with children - after a therapist assured the archdiocese that he was no longer a threat. He retired in May 2002, a month after a Journal Sentinel story raised questions about his supervision as chaplain.
Wisconsin law bars most lawsuits regarding older claims of sexual assault. But the state Supreme Court ruled last year that the church can be sued for fraud if victims show it was aware of misconduct and did not warn others. The Milwaukee Archdiocese has said it could be bankrupted by a judgment in the lawsuits after a 2008 ruling that it could not tap its insurance policies to cover intentional fraud.
Please see the video below from the Live Video Press Conference held September 8th, 2009.
http://www.andersonadvocates.com/ViewFile.aspx?ID=310
Showing posts with label Milwaukee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milwaukee. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Accountability for Archdiocese is Closer
By Michael Finnegan
Yesterday, the Honorable Judge Timothy Witkowiak, a circuit court judge in Milwaukee, denied the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s attempt to have a sexual abuse case thrown out on the time limits. James (Jim) Essenberg filed the case in June of 2008 alleging that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee defrauded him. The decision yesterday was a huge victory for Jim and for all those people that were sexually abused in Wisconsin by trusted authority figures.
Essenberg only learned of the Archdiocese’s fraud because of the settlement of a case in California where the Archdiocese was forced to turn over documents about the perpetrator, Franklyn Becker. Those documents contained numerous reports of abuse, admissions by Becker of sexually molesting kids, and Becker being diagnosed as a pedophile.
What is truly frightening is that Franklyn Becker is still in the Milwaukee community with access to children. Some of the documents and news reports about Becker are located at Jeff Anderson and Associates - http://www.andersonadvocates.com/CaseListing.aspx?ID=2, at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pages - http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29488339.html, and on Bishop Accountability - http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-B.html.
Jim Essenberg is a champion for children. He is a courageous man that stood up and spoke out about his abuse. His courage means that many terrible secrets about authority figures sexually abusing children will see the light of day. I encourage anyone that was harmed like Jim was to speak out in your own way. This does not mean filing a lawsuit or putting your name in the paper. Just telling a close friend, talking to a therapist, putting the horrors down on paper, can all help ease some of the pain you are carrying.
Yesterday, the Honorable Judge Timothy Witkowiak, a circuit court judge in Milwaukee, denied the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s attempt to have a sexual abuse case thrown out on the time limits. James (Jim) Essenberg filed the case in June of 2008 alleging that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee defrauded him. The decision yesterday was a huge victory for Jim and for all those people that were sexually abused in Wisconsin by trusted authority figures.
Essenberg only learned of the Archdiocese’s fraud because of the settlement of a case in California where the Archdiocese was forced to turn over documents about the perpetrator, Franklyn Becker. Those documents contained numerous reports of abuse, admissions by Becker of sexually molesting kids, and Becker being diagnosed as a pedophile.
What is truly frightening is that Franklyn Becker is still in the Milwaukee community with access to children. Some of the documents and news reports about Becker are located at Jeff Anderson and Associates - http://www.andersonadvocates.com/CaseListing.aspx?ID=2, at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pages - http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29488339.html, and on Bishop Accountability - http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-B.html.
Jim Essenberg is a champion for children. He is a courageous man that stood up and spoke out about his abuse. His courage means that many terrible secrets about authority figures sexually abusing children will see the light of day. I encourage anyone that was harmed like Jim was to speak out in your own way. This does not mean filing a lawsuit or putting your name in the paper. Just telling a close friend, talking to a therapist, putting the horrors down on paper, can all help ease some of the pain you are carrying.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Milwaukee judge green lights for trial another church child sex abuse fraud case
Milwaukee judge green lights for trial another church child sex abuse fraud case
Jury will be able to see documents, hear witnesses in Fr. Franklyn Becker cover-up
Statement by Mike Sneesby of SNAP Milwaukee
CONTACT
Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, 414.429.7259
--Link to church documents in Becker case below statement--
Judge Timothy Wikowiak ruling against Bishop Callahan and the Milwaukee archdiocese today sends another hopeful signal that clergy predators and church officials in Wisconsin who covered up their crimes are going to be held accountable to victims and citizens through our courts and the rule of law. Just as Judge Cooper ruled in another case last month in Milwaukee, Wikowiak dismissed motions today by the archdiocese to keep a jury from hearing the witnesses and seeing the evidence of decades of fraud by Milwaukee bishops concerning their priest child sex predators. Today’s ruling concerns Fr. Franklyn Becker of Mayville. Becker is one of the most prolific and well documented of the archdiocesan pedophile priests. For over thirty years, Becker was caught molesting children and transferred from parish to parish, including a transfer for one year to California and back, where he assaulted children there as well.
Criminal and civil law, which has for too long given special protection to the wrong class of citizens in Wisconsin—pedophile clergy and their bishops instead of children and their parents—is showing some clear signs of finally reforming, especially as judges and prosecutors learn more and more about the vast nature and extent of the sex abuse cover-up in Wisconsin. Last month in Waukesha County, prosecutors arrested the 19th clergy sex offender since the scandal reemerged. Victims have long argued that this is the solution to the problem of clergy sex crimes: put clergy and bishops and church officials under the same civil laws as every other person, profession and institution and prosecute crimes against children in churches, congregations and synagogues just as vigorously as you prosecute them wherever else they occur.
(To access previously secret church documents in the Becker case: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/01_02/2008_01_31_Rhode_DocumentsDetail.htm)
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest self help organization of clergy sex abuse survivors with over 8,000 members in 82 chapters (SNAPnetwork.org)
Jury will be able to see documents, hear witnesses in Fr. Franklyn Becker cover-up
Statement by Mike Sneesby of SNAP Milwaukee
CONTACT
Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, 414.429.7259
--Link to church documents in Becker case below statement--
Judge Timothy Wikowiak ruling against Bishop Callahan and the Milwaukee archdiocese today sends another hopeful signal that clergy predators and church officials in Wisconsin who covered up their crimes are going to be held accountable to victims and citizens through our courts and the rule of law. Just as Judge Cooper ruled in another case last month in Milwaukee, Wikowiak dismissed motions today by the archdiocese to keep a jury from hearing the witnesses and seeing the evidence of decades of fraud by Milwaukee bishops concerning their priest child sex predators. Today’s ruling concerns Fr. Franklyn Becker of Mayville. Becker is one of the most prolific and well documented of the archdiocesan pedophile priests. For over thirty years, Becker was caught molesting children and transferred from parish to parish, including a transfer for one year to California and back, where he assaulted children there as well.
Criminal and civil law, which has for too long given special protection to the wrong class of citizens in Wisconsin—pedophile clergy and their bishops instead of children and their parents—is showing some clear signs of finally reforming, especially as judges and prosecutors learn more and more about the vast nature and extent of the sex abuse cover-up in Wisconsin. Last month in Waukesha County, prosecutors arrested the 19th clergy sex offender since the scandal reemerged. Victims have long argued that this is the solution to the problem of clergy sex crimes: put clergy and bishops and church officials under the same civil laws as every other person, profession and institution and prosecute crimes against children in churches, congregations and synagogues just as vigorously as you prosecute them wherever else they occur.
(To access previously secret church documents in the Becker case: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/01_02/2008_01_31_Rhode_DocumentsDetail.htm)
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest self help organization of clergy sex abuse survivors with over 8,000 members in 82 chapters (SNAPnetwork.org)
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Deaf Abuse Survivor Sues
By Mike Finnegan
Today a deaf man who was raped as a child by a serial perpetrator in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is taking action. I applaud his courage and commitment to making sure that this doesn’t happen to other children. He can’t undue what happened to him as a child but his action today ensures that children will be safer. He is also reaching out to other survivors who are suffering in silence and shame.
Dean Weissmuller was a deaf child at St. John’s School for Deaf in Milwaukee when he met Fr. Lawrence Murphy. Murphy was the director of the school and a larger than life presence at the school. Dean was only a 9-12 year old child at the time. Murphy sexually abused Dean on numerous occasions at the school.
Documents recently uncovered from the Archdiocese show that Dean was not alone. A psychological professional did a three day evaluation of Murphy. In that evaluation there is an estimate that Murphy sexually molested at least 200 deaf children. My heart goes out to these survivors. These children were already silenced by their disability and then silenced even more through the horrendous acts of sexual abuse. These children were among the most vulnerable in our society. Children that already lacked a voice and had difficulty communicating were further silenced.
All of this begs the question - Could all of this abuse been prevented?
Shockingly, newly uncovered documents reveal that the answer is YES it could have been prevented. Secret documents show that in the late 1950’s a priest reported to the Archbishop that Murphy was molesting children at the school for the deaf. The Archdiocese left Murphy there for almost two decades after this report and countless deaf children were sexually abused by Murphy. More information about Murphy and some of these secret documents can be found on http://www.bishop-accountability.org/assign/Murphy_Lawrence_C.htm. There is also information about Murphy and other cases available on http://www.andersonadvocates.com/
Today a deaf man who was raped as a child by a serial perpetrator in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is taking action. I applaud his courage and commitment to making sure that this doesn’t happen to other children. He can’t undue what happened to him as a child but his action today ensures that children will be safer. He is also reaching out to other survivors who are suffering in silence and shame.
Dean Weissmuller was a deaf child at St. John’s School for Deaf in Milwaukee when he met Fr. Lawrence Murphy. Murphy was the director of the school and a larger than life presence at the school. Dean was only a 9-12 year old child at the time. Murphy sexually abused Dean on numerous occasions at the school.
Documents recently uncovered from the Archdiocese show that Dean was not alone. A psychological professional did a three day evaluation of Murphy. In that evaluation there is an estimate that Murphy sexually molested at least 200 deaf children. My heart goes out to these survivors. These children were already silenced by their disability and then silenced even more through the horrendous acts of sexual abuse. These children were among the most vulnerable in our society. Children that already lacked a voice and had difficulty communicating were further silenced.
All of this begs the question - Could all of this abuse been prevented?
Shockingly, newly uncovered documents reveal that the answer is YES it could have been prevented. Secret documents show that in the late 1950’s a priest reported to the Archbishop that Murphy was molesting children at the school for the deaf. The Archdiocese left Murphy there for almost two decades after this report and countless deaf children were sexually abused by Murphy. More information about Murphy and some of these secret documents can be found on http://www.bishop-accountability.org/assign/Murphy_Lawrence_C.htm. There is also information about Murphy and other cases available on http://www.andersonadvocates.com/
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