MN- "Public nuisance" lawsuit to proceed, SNAP responds
For immediate release: Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)
A judge is letting a "public nuisance" lawsuit, charging clergy sex crimes and cover ups, proceed in the Twin Cities.
We are grateful to the brave Minnesota victim whose courage is now providing a new powerful legal tool that can help safeguard kids and expose those who commit and conceal heinous crimes.
This ruling is another encouraging sign that long-standing patterns of dangerous deference to powerful institutions is waning and that long-overdue practices of child protection are growing.
This decision should send alarm bells ringing among Minnesota employers: Endanger kids and you will suffer consequences. And alarm bells should be ringing among Minnesota child molesters: Your impunity is ever-so-slowly eroding.
We thank this judge. We thank this victim. And we hope that other victims across the U.S. are inspired by this ruling to try similar legal efforts in their states to use the courts to expose predators and prevent crimes.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])
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