Catholic Crimes

Youth leader accused of abusing fourth girl

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:00:31 +1100

Police have identified a fourth girl who they say was sexually abused by an LDS Church youth leader in Farr West.

Cory C. Campbell, 37, faces sexual abuse charges for inappropriately touching and fondling three 14-and-15-year-old girls at his home.

Story Continues below

After information about the alleged abuse was released to the media Feb. 10, a fourth girl's parents came forward, said Weber County Sheriff's Capt. Klint Anderson. Campbell allegedly abused her during a sleepover, also at his home. It happened prior to fall 2009, Anderson said. The fourth victim is about the same age as the other victims.

"She told her parents, but they didn't come forward at the time," Anderson said. "Definitely the news coverage is what brought them forward."

According to charging documents, Campbell admitted some of the abuse to police, including abusing one of the girls at least 20 times starting in summer 2007 and continuing through October.

At the time, Campbell was a leader of teenage boys at his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ward. He was relieved of the position when the investigation began, though the abuse appears unrelated to his leadership role.

Weber County prosecutors have filed two counts of forcible sex abuse and two counts of sexual battery against him in the other cases. No new charges have been filed.

lwhiteurst@sltrib.com

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_14396944?sou...ost_viewed

Priest indicted on sex charges

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:53:21 +1100

By DAVID HEDGES

A Catholic priest from Cincinnati was indicted by a Roane grand jury last week on charges he molested a 10-year-old who traveled with him to Spencer almost 20 years ago.

Robert F. Poandl, 68, is named in a three-count indictment charging him with 1st degree sexual assault, 1st degree sexual abuse and sexual abuse by a custodian.

The charges stem from a complaint filed last year by a 28-year-old Cincinnati man who told State Police he was molested by Poandl in August 1991 at the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church rectory.

Story Continues below

Sgt. D.B. Swiger of the State Police Crimes Against Children unit said the trip was to allow Poandl to fill in for the regular priest.

“He came to Spencer to cover a mass for whoever was the assigned priest at that time,” Swiger said.

“They were in Spencer essentially just for hours,” he said. “It was an overnight trip.”

The charges allege Poandl had sexual intercourse with a 10-year-old under his temporary care.

The grand jury finished a two-day session Wednesday afternoon, and Poandl appeared before Roane Circuit Judge David Nibert the following day for arraignment. He is slated to return Friday, Feb. 12 for a preliminary hearing.

Poandl is part of the Glenmary Home Missioners, a religious society based in Cincinnati that serves rural communities.

Glenmary supplied priests to the Spencer church from its formation in the late 1950s until 2003, when the church went from a mission to one served by priests from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

According to the Glenmary Web site, Poandl has served in various leadership roles and also as pastor of churches in Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi since becoming a priest in 1968.

Father Dan Dorsey, president of Glemnary, said he learned of the allegations last June. He said that is when Poandl was removed as pastor in Georgia and relocated to the headquarters in Cincinnati.

“When we receive any allegations, until the matter is resolved they are taken out of active ministry,” he said.

“Having any allegations against any of our members is a serious thing,” Dorsey said. “Even one allegation or one instance is one too many.”

Dorsey said the alleged victim was not a member of the local church or community, but was someone that came with Poandl on his trip to Spencer.

“My understanding is he was in Spencer filling in for the priest for a weekend,” he said. “This was somebody that accompanied him.”

Dorsey said it would be up to the judicial system to determine the facts of the case.

“It’s a very painful situation for everyone involved,” he said. “It’s my hope and prayer that God’s loving guidance will help all of those affected in this situation.”

Spencer attorneys Anita Ashley and Dennis Curry represented Poandl at his arraignment last week. He was released on $15,000 bond set by Nibert while awaiting the preliminary hearing this week.

http://www.thetimesrecord.net/story10.shtml

'Abuse allegation' against Down and Connor priest

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:58:19 +1100

A Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland has confirmed that one of its priests has voluntarily stepped aside while police investigate an abuse allegation.

In a statement, Down and Connor Diocese said it was "aware of an allegation against a priest relating to the early 1970s".

Story Continues below

It added that the priest denies the allegation.

It is understood the priest who has stepped aside is Father Sean Cahill who had been working in Castlewellan.

The diocese said it was "cooperating fully with the police from the public protection unit and social services in accordance with the inter-agency forum for the sharing of information".

"The diocese, as is its practise in such cases, has put into effect child safeguarding measures approved by the inter-agency forum and with the full cooperation of the priest.

"Because the matter is being investigated by the civil authorities it would be inappropriate for the diocese to comment further," the statement said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/no...513334.stm

Down priest faces abuse claims

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:01:35 +1100

A Co Down priest has voluntarily stepped aside from his duties following an allegation of sexual abuse.

Father Sean Cahill is the parish priest at St Malachy's Church in Castlewellan.

Story Continues below

The alleged victim claimed he was abused by five priests while he was being cared for at the Nazareth House orphanage on the Ormeau Road in the 1970s.

Father Cahill has denied the allegation.

A spokesman for the diocese said: "We are aware of an allegation against a priest relating to the early 1970s.

http://www.u.tv/News/Down-priest-face...56c59269ab

Detroit Pastor Faces 6 Counts of Sexual Misconduct for Molesting Boy

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:08:53 +1100

By Clergy Abuse News

A pastor at a Detroit area Baptist church has been arrested for allegedly molesting an underage boy multiple times.

Russell Walter Schaller, senior pastor at the Greater St. John Missionary Baptist Church, has been charged with six counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He is currently being held in the Wayne County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Story Continues below

According to River Rouge Police Chief Robert Alderman, Schaller befriended the victim over the last couple of years, but the alleged misconduct has only been going on for the last six months.

Alderman said Schaller has history of taking in trouble teens, but it's not sure whether or not the victim in this case is one of them. According to Alderman, Schaller would bring the teens into his home and then collect Social Security for them.

Based on this information, police now believe there could be other victims.

If Schaller is convicted on the charges he could face 15 years in prison, thousands of dollars in fines, and mandatory registration as a sex offender, probably for life. His next court appearance is scheduled for February 19.

Sexual abuse by a pastor, priest, or any other any religious figure is one of the most traumatic experiences a child or teenager can face. If you or your loved has been sexually abused by a member of your church, an experienced clergy abuse lawyer at the Zalkin Law Firm can help. An attorney at the firm can help you file a lawsuit against the person who sexually abused you in an effort to recover compensation and get justice for the crimes that have been committed against you.

http://news.zalkin.com/2010/02/detroi...g-boy.html

Religion News in Brief

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:24:56 +1100

By The Associated Press (AP) – 9 hours ago

ST. LOUIS — A federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit filed against the state over a raid at a northeast Missouri Christian school for wayward youth may proceed to trial, allowing the nearly decade-long fight to continue.

Story Continues below

Missouri juvenile authorities sent a bus to Heartland Christian Academy in October 2001 and removed all but five of the 120 students living on campus at the time. The state cited concerns over child abuse related to the school's disciplinary methods.

Three days later, a judge allowed the children to return. Heartland, along with some parents and students, immediately sued. In 2004, a federal judge prohibited future removals from the school unless students were deemed in imminent danger, a ruling later upheld by the Eighth Circuit.

Heartland, its parent corporation and former students and parents sued again in 2006, seeking unspecified damages. A three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday allowed the lawsuit to proceed to trial. A court date has not been set.

When the students were removed from Heartland, the state cited concerns with the school's disciplinary methods, including spankings and allegations that misbehaving students were forced to stand in hip-deep manure. Sharpe said kids were made to shovel manure but never to stand in it.

___

Report: 94 members of the Catholic Church accused of sexual abuse in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — The German news magazine Der Spiegel reports that the number of suspected sexual abuse cases in Germany by Roman Catholic clergy and laymen is much higher than was previously thought.

According to a poll by Spiegel, answered by 27 Catholic dioceses in Germany, more than 94 clerics and laymen have been suspected of sexual abuse since 1995. Only 30 have been prosecuted, due to the statute of limitations.

Ten employees of the Catholic church are currently accused of sexual abuse in Germany.

Germany has been shocked by revelations of serial sex abuse by Catholic priests in recent weeks. More than 20 alumni of Berlin's prestigious Canisius Kolleg have reported abuse by their former Jesuit teachers. Other students have also reported cases in cities across Germany where the priests also taught.

___

Claim: Instructor in public college class quotes Bible to condemn abortion, homosexuality

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An instructor at a public community college in Fresno has been presenting his religious views on homosexuality, abortion and global warming as fact to students in an introductory health science class, the American Civil Liberties Union claims.

Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney for the ACLU, said at least two students at Fresno City College have complained that health science instructor Bradley Lopez quoted the Bible as proof that human life begins at conception, characterized homosexuality as a mental illness, and discussed apocalyptic Christian prophesies during a lesson on climate change.

If the students' descriptions are correct, Lopez's teaching methods would violate California laws protecting gays from discrimination and prohibiting religious indoctrination at public schools, Gill said. She sent a letter to college president Cynthia Azaria asking the school "to act immediately to ensure that all its health classes provide only accurate and unbiased information."

An e-mail to Lopez and a telephone message left at his office were not returned.

Azaria said in a statement that confidentiality rules bar the school from comment on the case, but said the college enforces its nondiscrimination policy.

___

McCain, Lieberman urge Bosnians to overcome ethnic, religious divisions

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A U.S. delegation led by Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman has urged Bosnia's leaders to overcome ethnic and religious differences that prevent the nation from progressing toward EU and NATO membership.

During a brief visit to Sarajevo last Friday, the delegation met with Bosnia's three-member presidency and defense minister.

McCain and Lieberman told reporters they hope Bosnians will use this year's election to choose leaders who can take the country toward unity and membership in those alliances.

However, that requires a stronger national government, and since the 1992-95 war Muslim Bosniak and Catholic Croat leaders have had little luck persuading Christian Orthodox Serbs to overcome the country's ethnic divisions.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/a...AD9DPE6O80

Former Christ the King basketball coach Bob Oliva tightens up defense in sex abuse case

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:22:51 +1100

BY Michael O'Keeffe DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Former Christ the King boys basketball coach Bob Oliva, the target of a Boston sex abuse investigation, has been quietly preparing his defense in case a grand jury reviewing evidence hands down an indictment.

Story Continues below

Oliva, the legendary high school coach who resigned last year amid sex-abuse allegations, has retained Michael Doolin, a Boston-area attorney who, according to his Web site, specializes in rape and drug cases. Oliva has also asked acquaintances to write letters attesting to his good character.

As the Daily News first reported last month, Boston police and Suffolk County (Mass.) prosecutors appear to be wrapping up their investigation into allegations that Oliva sexually molested family friend Jimmy Carlino during a trip to Boston more than 30 years ago.

Officials at Christ the King Regional High School have already provided employment records of Oliva and assistant basketball coach Nick Sanchez to investigators, said Thomas Ognibene, the former city councilman who serves on the CTK board of trustees.

Ognibene said the school received a subpoena from prosecutors a few months ago. Out-of-state prosecutors seeking records or testimony from New York witnesses are required to file those requests through New York courts, and school officials asked prosecutors to follow proper procedures. "We wanted to avoid privacy issues," Ognibene said.

The subpoena was again sent directly to Christ the King, but Ognibene said school officials received permission from Oliva and Sanchez to ship the records to Boston.

"We did not want people to believe we were not willing to comply," Ognibene said. "We voluntarily turned the documents over."

Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, declined comment.

Carlino, a former Queens resident who now lives in Florida, and two other men who were allegedly abused by Oliva have received subpoenas ordering them to appear before a Suffolk County grand jury on Feb. 23 and 24. The two other men have requested anonymity.

"They want me to corroborate what I already told the investigators about what Bob did," one of the men said.

Doolin said Oliva has an "impeccable reputation" and the abuse allegations are not true. He said the coach has received calls of support from numerous friends and colleagues.

Sources have also told the Daily News that Sam Albano, a sports television producer and a one-time Oliva friend, has also received a subpoena to testify before the grand jury. So has Allen Watson, a former pitcher with the Mets and Yankees who served as CTK's baseball coach. Boston police are also interested in interviewing basketball recruiting guru Tom Konchalski and Carey High School boys basketball coach Marty Kelly. Albano declined comment. Watson, Konchalski and Kelly could not be reached.

Carlino told the Daily News last year that Oliva, his coach at the St. Teresa of Avila youth basketball program in Queens, had molested him for several years during the 1970s, when Carlino was a teen.

Sources told The News that most of the alleged abuse took place in New York, but Carlino has said there was an incident in Boston when Carlino accompanied Oliva to a Yankees-Red Sox doubleheader at Fenway Park in 1976.

It would be difficult for authorities in New York to prosecute Oliva because of statute of limitation issues, but Massachusetts officials wouldn't face such hurdles if they found evidence that Oliva had abused Carlino: the statute of limitations there stops ticking when a suspect leaves the state.

In April of 2008, a law firm representing Carlino sent a letter to Oliva outlining the pain the coach had allegedly caused his former friend and asked for $750,000 and Oliva's resignation from Christ the King.

Oliva refused, and Christ the King called the letter a shakedown attempt. Oliva took a leave of absence from the Royals, citing heart problems caused by stress, and resigned in January of 2009.

Oliva led Christ the King, a perennial city basketball power, for 27 years and won five city championships. Dozens of his players graduated to Division I programs, and several, including Lakers star Lamar Odom and former Nets center Jayson Williams, played in the NBA.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hig...x_abu.html

Priest accused of molestation gets new judge, date

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:15:40 +1100

By Hal Conick, hconick@mysuburbanlife.com
St. Charles Republican

St. Charles, IL —Sporting a beard after nearly three weeks in jail, Alejandro Flores received a new judge and court date on accusations of molesting a young St. Charles child over a five-year span.

Flores, 37, of the 600 block of Brook Forest Avenue in Shorewood, has been charged with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault, which could carry up to 30 years in jail; two counts of sexual assault, which could carry up to 15 years in jail; and four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, which each carry up to seven years in jail.

Story Continues below

Flores, a member of the Diocese of Joliet, will appear at 9 a.m. on Feb. 18 in front of Judge Allen M. Anderson in courtroom 311. He was assigned to Anderson on Wednesday morning by Judge Thomas E. Mueller.

In addition to Glen Sowa, a Geneva lawyer, Flores will also be represented by Patricia Magana, a Lisle lawyer.

Authorities allege that between Jan. 1, 2005, and Jan. 1, 2010, Flores had sexual contact with a St. Charles minor, now 13, who is his godson.

Kane County Assistant State’s Attorney Debra Bree said in court Jan. 21 that the victim told the Kane County Child Advocacy Center Jan. 5 that he had been abused by Flores. The boy told authorities Flores had put his hand and mouth on the victim’s genitals in the boy’s house and in Flores’ car, prosecutors said. The boy told his mother he had been sexually assaulted by Flores, while the victim’s mother’s boyfriend allegedly witnessed what he believed to be sexual abuse, according to prosecutors.

A warrant for Flores’ arrest was issued Jan. 15. Flores, who had attempted suicide by jumping off of the 20-foot balcony of a Joliet church earlier this month, was picked up on that warrant from the hospital by Joliet police and transferred to the custody of the Kane County Sheriff’s Department Jan. 20.

Bree said while Flores was in the hospital, he told a fellow Diocese of Joliet priest about an incident in which he went over to the victim’s family’s house, and was served tequila by the victim’s mother. Flores told the priest he passed out, and woke up in the middle of a sex act with the victim, prosecutors said.

Flores was a seminarian assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in West Chicago. He later was assigned to Holy Family Parish in Shorewood, and ordained a priest last summer.

Flores, a native of Bolivia, has his bail set at $1 million. He is being held in the Kane County Jail and has already surrendered his passport to authorities. If he bonds out, he is prohibited from having contact with the victim, the victim’s family and anyone younger than 17.

If convicted, Flores faces up to 67 years in jail.

http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/batavia...judge-date

Opinion: Haiti missionaries deserve jail

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:08:37 +1100

By Todd Seabrook

Let's get one thing straight: the 10 missionaries who are locked in a Haitian jail deserve to be there.

Although there is a miasma of politics and circumstances clouding the facts of this fiasco, the one thing that seems undisputed is that the missionaries tried to take 33 Haitian children across the Dominican Republic border without the proper documents.

Story Continues below

That's what we know. They have been charged with kidnapping and criminal association. On the political side, the Haitian government threw the book at these missionaries to show that they still have a ruling law and a working government. This is ironic, since the Haitian government has been in shambles since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a military coup in 2004 (more than likely orchestrated by the U.S.). So in a show of misplaced power, Haiti made an example of these 10 missionaries.

A backlash came from the Haitian people, who thought that a governmental power-play should come in the form of helping a country that was just leveled, instead of using 10 piddling Americans as a diversion.

On the circumstantial side of this story, the missionaries claim to be taking orphans they found on the streets to orphanages in the Dominican Republic. However, it was learned that many of the children's parents were still alive, and some of them even handed their children over in hope that they would have a better life. But not in the DR. Make no mistake: the plan was to get these children into the United States. And the missionaries knew exactly what they were doing.

I have no doubt that these 10 missionaries are moral people and thought they were doing a noble deed. Hell, they even fired their lawyer, Edwin Coq, for trying to bribe them out of jail, a charge he denies. I think most of the world just assumed that's how one gets out of a Haitian prison, but the families of the Idaho missionaries believe in the system, apparently.

What I am saying is that these missionaries, like most Americans, have a deeply ingrained ethnocentrism and global classism that lets them believe (along with God's will) that we have a moral right to take children from their homes.

Imagine if China sent a rescue team to New Orleans after Katrina, and decided that China was a better place for a poor orphan to grow up and shipped a handful of them off to China by way of Cuba.

They do not have the right to think that, and neither do we. These missionaries revealed their ethnocentrism in its highest and most destructive degree. Just because we think we have the best country on the planet, does not mean that we do. Just because we believe that Christian doctrine gives us the moral authority to take kids away from their parents, does not make it true.

Don't blame the Haitian parents either, who were willing to give up their children in hopes of a better life for them. Haiti looks like a war zone right now, and for those parents in the moment, it probably looked like a viable option to give their kids away to Americans. It is the Americans' responsibility to say, "No, you will want your children with you when the disaster is over." Instead, the missionaries took the opportunity to be saviors to the poor, indigenous savages who live in a country that is prone to earthquakes. Missionaries to the highest degree. Such sacrifice. Such morality.

They should be locked up until they realize that it is not okay to force your class, culture and religion onto a foreign country, no matter how just you deem it. "We trust in God," the missionaries said while in jail. You are going to be in a foreign jail for a long time, maybe you should start trusting in Haiti.

http://uweekly.com/newsmag/02-10-2010...serve-jail

Young German ends it all under a train

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:55:27 +1100

It is an all too familiar story.

Again, what did the Vatican official say some weeks ago?

Hopefully a story such as this will spur on leaders of church institutions in Ireland to become actively engaged in taking an active role in searching out victims of abuse.

Unfortunately, the days of secrets are not over. They need to be.

Story Continues below

The now familiar narrative of systematic abuse of children by priests has scandalised Germans, but campaigners fear the church’s perceived lack of will to change will deny victims justice, writes DEREK SCALLY in Berlin

IT IS 23 YEARS since Adam threw himself in front of a train. His family never knew why. Nor did they know until this week that, months before his death, the 24-year-old had tracked down Fr Peter, a former teacher who had abused him at Berlin’s elite Canisius College.

Adam found the Jesuit priest in the western city of Hildesheim in 1986, confronted him with a knife and stabbed him several times in the chest before fleeing. The priest was seriously injured and was rushed to hospital for treatment, but never pressed charges.

“It seems like others knew earlier what went on in Canisius College, but only now does it seem to concern us,” said Adam’s mother this week to German television. “Abuse seems to be everywhere.”

After years of watching Ireland’s unfolding clerical abuse drama, Germany now has its own home-grown scandal. What started at Berlin’s top Catholic school has, within a week, exploded into a familiar, depressing narrative. Physical violence against children; the sickening abuse of trust by priests; and the cowardly decision to move the abusers on to new pastures and new victims rather than dealing with the problem.

Germany’s Catholic church has not been immune to abuse allegations over the years but, until now, abusing priests were portrayed as isolated black sheep.

But that has changed with revelations of systematic abuse at Canisius College, founded in 1925 and still one of Berlin’s most exclusive schools.

Last month the principal, Fr Klaus Mertes, wrote, in an open letter to former pupils, of his shock and shame at the abuse allegations he had heard after being approached by former pupils. Worse, he said, was how an internal investigation revealed its systematic nature, encouraged by the school’s “culture of looking the other way”.

The Canisius allegations concern three Jesuit priests now in their 60s, all of whom are no longer in the order.

The first, Fr Wolfgang Stab, taught German, religion and physical education at the Berlin school from 1975 to 1979, and later at schools in Hamburg and in the Black Forest. Today, former pupils at all three schools tell of “excessive physical punishment rituals”.

“If we got bad grades, we were forced to lie naked across his lap for a spanking,” said one former student.

The priest moved to Chile in 1985 and left the order in 1992. He has admitted abuse and, last week, asked his victims for forgiveness.

More serious claims surround Fr Peter Riedel – the priest stabbed by a former pupil – who taught at Canisius College from 1971 to 1981.

“He would ask us if we had thought about girls and, if we admitted masturbating, had to show him how. We had to let ourselves be touched,” recalled another victim.

Fr Peter continued to work as a priest after leaving the Jesuits in 1995. In every posting – in Göttingen, Hanover and even Mexico – he faced allegations of sexual abuse of young girls. Letters of complaint were found this week in his file – unanswered.

Colleagues who asked why the priest was moved around so frequently were told a vague story about “financial irregularities” in his previous parish. Fr Peter lives in an upmarket neighbourhood of Berlin and denies all charges.

A third abusing priest who worked as a religion teacher in Canisius College in 1970-71 has since been identified as Bernhard Ehlert, head of a leading Catholic Third World charity. He resigned on Wednesday after he admitted abusing boys early in his career at the school.

Cardinal Georg Sterzinski, archbishop of Berlin, has weighed into the scandal, calling an emergency meeting on Tuesday of all Catholic school heads in the archdiocese. Already Fr Mertes of Canisius College is convinced he has gone public with just “the tip of the iceberg”.

“What has become visible with us happened at other schools,” he told Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper. “But it is a disaster for the Jesuits because the heart of our order is the teacher-pupil relationship. What has happened here is the worst possible betrayal of our spirituality.” Former victims have few legal options: most child abuse offences in Germany can no longer be prosecuted after the victim turns 18; other abuse crimes fall outside the statute of limitations after five years.

Seasoned child welfare campaigners are doubtful that the Canisius College revelations will have a long-term effect.

“This scandal will end with the usual empty phrases and the church will sit it out until the next time,” says Johannes Heibel, founder of Germany’s Initiative Against Child Abuse.

“The church has to show from its side that is anxious to clear this up, to admit that this is not about individual cases, but I don’t see any indication of that willingness yet and we don’t have the means in Germany to exert real pressure.”

http://michaelcommane.blogspot.com/20...train.html