Two new legal moves in clergy sex cases

• Two new legal moves in clergy sex cases
• KC bishop “is being dishonest,” group says
• In unusual move, victim seeks punitive damages vs. diocese
• SNAP: Finn deceives flock about when cleric was first accused
• And group announces that a case vs. a different predator can move ahead
• A western MO judge rejects church officials' claim that victim is “too late”
• Both molesters are still priests and not being supervised, self-help group believes

WHAT:

Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims will announce that a recent and pending child sex abuse and cover-up lawsuit against a KC area predator priest is being amended to include

---new charges that KC’s Catholic bishop is, even now, deceiving parishioners and the public about a predator, &

---a request for punitive damages because of the on-going deceit.

They will also disclose that a Western Missouri judge has just ruled that another recent clergy child sex case can proceed, even though church officials claim it’s been filed too late.

Finally, they will prod citizens and Catholics – especially current and former church employees – to share what they know about clergy sex crimes with prosecutors who have convened two grand juries.

WHEN:

TODAY, Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE:

Outside the Kansas City diocesan headquarters, 20 West Ninth Street (at Baltimore) in Kansas City, MO.

WHO:

Three child sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org),

WHY:

In a clear victory for child sex abuse victims, a Nodaway County judge has just ruled that a civil child sex abuse lawsuit against Conception Abbey in northwest Missouri can proceed. Catholic officials tried to have the suit tossed out because of the statute of limitations.

The case involves a cleric named Fr. Bede Parry who reportedly molested a boy at the Abbey. Parry is now in Las Vegas and was affiliated with an Episcopal church there a few months ago (until he was sued for the first time).

And a new legal filing has happened in another clergy sex case.

Earlier this month, a woman sued Fr. Francis McGlynn for molesting her when she was about 12 & 13 (in 1963-64) at St. Catherine’s Catholic school in Kansas City, MO. In an unusual move, she is now amending that lawsuit to seek punitive damages, because she says that KC Catholic officials are - even now - deceiving parishioners and the public by claiming and implying that they first learned of McGlynn’s wrongdoing long after they really did.

In response to her suit, the diocese “said it received the first complaint of sexual misconduct against McGlynn in April 2002,” (according to the 10/20 KC Star). But her new legal filing says that diocesan records show that church officials knew of McGlynn's “sexual propensities” long before them.

The diocese also repeated its “deceptive” claim that McGlynn had been “retired” years earlier, even though he was actually still working at a church in Sugar Creek in 2002.

Such on-going deceit, SNAP says “rubs even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of this victim and others while also leading parishioners and the public to complacently assume that church officials promptly removed suspected child predators when in fact they do not.” 

Today, McGlynn’s victim  is filing a formal “Motion to Amend to Add Punitive Damages” claim, the first one like this that SNAP knows of in Missouri in a clergy case

The KC diocese has also done little or nothing to disclose other relevant information about McGlynn, including:

--In a 2008 deposition, McGlynn admitted in a deposition that he had molested several girls and that his church supervisors sent him to a now-deceased KC therapist named Kermit Phelps because of abuse allegations.

--While McGlynn was at Sacred Heart parish in Hamilton MO, a parishioner who learned of his crimes threatened him. A parish council member called the diocese, urged McGlynn’s speedy removal, and it happened suddenly. (But few, if any, church members were told about his crimes.)

--In late in the 1970s, when McGlynn was at St. Mary's parish in Independence, a young man beat up the priest when he learned that the cleric was molesting the boy’s sister.

--According to one website, McGlynn was also known “to publicly snap girls’ bra straps and engage in other actions that crossed the bounds of appropriate behavior.” These actions “were sufficiently well known,” the suit says, “that others knew or should have known of (McGlynn’s) impropriety.”

The first of four abuse suits against McGlynn was filed in 2003. All are being handled by KC attorney Rebecca Randles (816 931 9901). The Abbey case involving Fr. Parry is being handled by Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson (651 227 9990).

CONTACT: