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The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

SNAP Press Release
Giving Voice to Victims

 

For immediate release:
Thursday, September 25, 2008

Sex Abuse Cases Against Catholic Nun & Religious Order Are Settled

For Decades, She Molested Girls & Worked In Minnesota, Nebraska & Illinois

Three Victims Filed Civil Lawsuits in 2005 and 2006; Predator is Now Deceased

It May Be the First Time Several Victims Have Sued for Crimes by One Pedophile Nun

WHAT

At a news conference, three women will speak publicly for the first time. They were sexually abused by a Catholic nun and just settled their civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against her Minnesota-based religious order.

WHEN

Thursday, Sept. 25, 1:00 p.m.

WHERE

At the law offices of Jeff Anderson, 366 Jackson Street, Suite 100, in downtown St. Paul

WHO

Three victims and a prominent Minnesota attorney who represents hundreds of other men and women who were abused as kids by teachers, coaches, ministers, and other authority figures.

WHY

Sr. Benen Kent, a nun with Rochester-based religious order called the Sisters of St. Francis, was sued for repeatedly sexually abusing three girls in the mid-1960s at St. Juliana’s Catholic School in Chicago and elsewhere. According to the lawsuits, Kent’s supervisors knew Kent suffered from mental illness and had behaved questionably with children. Yet they moved her and let her continue to work around kids.

The victims, now in their 40s and 50s, include two sisters who are letting their names be used publicly: Christine Bertrand of Sierra Madre CA, Karen Britten of Highland Park IL. The third woman is anonymous.

The lawsuits were filed 2005 and 2006 in Olmsted County District Court. A judge tossed out Britten’s case because of the statute of limitations, and last year the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld that decision.

Kent, who was a music and piano teacher, died in 2003 at the age of 85.

Bertrand and the anonymous woman report that they were also abused at the order’s headquarters in Rochester MN.

CONTACT:
Attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul 651 227 9990, 612 817 8665 cell


Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org