'Victims back reform bill & seek predators' names'

(For Immediate Release January 19, 2023) 

Victims back reform bill & seek predators' names

They blast ex-Kansas AG for 'weak, vague' report

Group files "Open Records Act" request to publicly ID abusers

Survivors want more time to 'seek justice & expose molesters.’

WHAT

Holding signs at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will ask the Kansas attorney general to protect kids by:

--publicly naming dozens of unknown child molesting clerics recently investigated by the KBI, and
--releasing the full abuse report, not just a 21-page summary.

They will also give out copies of an Open Records Act request they're sending to the new AG to learn the identities of those 'who committed or concealed child sex crimes' and blast his predecessor for issuing a "weak, vague and short abuse report" that "protects wrongdoers, not children."

WHEN

Friday, Jan. 20 at 1:15 p.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside the Johnson County Courthouse on Santa Fe Street (north of the administration building and west of city hall) in Olathe Kansas

WHO

One-two Kansas state legislators, a former Kansas cleric, a Kansas abuse survivor who testified before a panel in Topeka, and three-four abuse survivors (some who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

WHY

1) Earlier this month, then-AG Derek Schmidt refused to publicly name even one proven, admitted, or credibly accused child molesting Catholic cleric when he released what SNAP calls a "short, weak and vague" report into the church's ongoing abuse crisis. (Other state AGs across the country have done far more thorough reports and disclosed names of abusers.)

SNAP is asking Schmidt's successor Kris Kobach to voluntarily reveal the names of dozens of Kansas Catholic clergy who have perpetrated, ignored, or hid child sex crimes and release a longer, more detailed report that 'will deter other institutions from similar cover-ups.'
And the group is filing a formal Open Records Act request for the names.

2) The victims strongly support a measure, now pending in the Kansas legislature, that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to "expose those who commit or conceal crimes against kids" in civil courts. It is sponsored by Sen. Cindy Holscher (D-Overland Park) and Rep. Bob Lewis (R-Garden City) and relaxes the state's "archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly" statute of limitations, SNAP says, which both "helps protect vulnerable children and heal wounded adults."

CONTACT: David Clohessy 314 566 9790, [email protected], Tom White  913 927 2859, [email protected]

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)