On Friday, June 22, 2012, the verdicts were announced in two important child molestation trials that had been going on simultaneously in Pennsylvania:
Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant football coach of Penn State University, was convicted of 45 of the 48 child molestation charges against him. And, Monsignor William J. Lynn was found guilty of essentially contributing to a cover-up of sexual predators among Catholic priests in the archdiocese of Philadelphia. The priests had been molesting children for years. Lynn was the first high-ranking church official to be prosecuted for failing to protect children.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported on both of these cases extensively. You can read more about them here:
Complete coverage: Scandal at Penn State
Complete coverage: Clergy abuse case
In both of these cases, sordid details of men using their positions of prestige and power to seduce and manipulate children were aired in public. The eight young men who testified in the Jerry Sandusky trial were incredibly brave, and prosecutors in the church trial were able to introduce into evidence decades worth of rape and molestation charges. For victims everywhere, many of whom probably thought they would never be believed or see any modicum of justice, the verdicts are great victories.
But here is the real change brought about by these trials: Big, powerful institutions are now on notice. They can no longer sacrifice the innocents in order to preserve their reputations and protect their treasuries. Whether it is the Holy Roman Catholic Church or Penn State Football, the hierarchies will be held responsible for the crimes of their representatives.
According to the Inquirer, since priest abuse allegations first started surfacing in the mid-1980s, more than 3,000 civil lawsuits have been filed, and the Catholic Church has paid out more than $3 billion in settlements. Dioceses have closed parishes and sold property to cover the costs. The Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, filed for bankruptcy.
Read Sex-abuse crisis is a watershed in the Roman Catholic Church’s history in America, on Philly.com.
Penn State University, with two officials already indicted for perjury related to the Sandusky case, anticipates more criminal proceedings and an onslaught of civil suits. The university has already embarked on damage control. As soon as Sandusky was declared guilty, the university announced a program to offer cash settlements to the victims.
Read: Bob Ford: In Sandusky case, Penn State tries to get ahead of civil actions, on Philly.com.
(By the way, more Sandusky victims, besides the 10 listed in the trial, have come forward. Read: Jerry Sandusky trial did not include all of his alleged victims, on ABCNews.go.com.)
So, for all of us at Lovefraud, all of us who have been manipulated, molested and abused, these verdicts are worth celebrating. Evil was exposed. Evildoers are going to prison. Enablers of evil are paying the price for averting their eyes, shutting their mouths and failing to act.
All of us who are fighting the good fight should feel encouraged. Perhaps the time is coming when we can go up against the rich and powerful—and win.
kim frederick
Yhanks, Hens. I am certain of many things. He was a jerk who didn’t care if he hurt me. He could have ridden off into the sun-set with his new supply source, and let me and the kids figure it out, alone.
I just want one more bit of closure. Juust so I know. I want to know if he got the neighbor girl pregnant. Just need to know if my perceptions are right.
MoonDancer
well Kim..I dont think knowing ‘that’ would make you feel any better would it? i mean after sooo much info about my x I just didnt want to know anymore. I have suspicions that he screwed my mother, but do I really want to know??….NO…I couldnt handle that if it were true, so I am gonna leave it alone…may they both get the fleas of a thousand camels in their armpits…I have a life to live..I am not gonna give em anymore of my mind….
kim frederick
The fleas of a thousand camels? LOL.
Hens, I can handle it. In fact, it would validate me. I am over the pain of what I believe he did. Now, I just want to have proof that all of those things that I told myself he could not possibly have done to me, he did. I’m ready. And, knowing the truth would be self-affirming.
MoonDancer
well ok then.
but for me I dont want to know what I dont know because what i do know is more than i needed to know. seriously I couldnt handle anymore truth’s, I confirmed my suspicions enough to stop looking for more pain. it doesnt matter anymore. they are both dead as far as I am concerned.
kim frederick
Thanks, Hens. I gotcha.
You’re the bomb. Gonna go and find a link, just for you.
MoonDancer
kim i didnt mean to run ya off with TMI about me..you do what you need to do.
kim frederick
No, no, Hens. You didn’t run me off. I went and googled VM moondance and wanted to post it, but it seemed inappropriate, and then googled, “I”m being followed by a moon shadow” by Cat Stevens, and that didn’t seem quite right either, so, was looking for a moon anthem to you. Am quite okay, Hens. You are aggod friend and I am not chased off in any way by you. You are one of the good guys.
MoonDancer
OK, well I am not sure being a bomb is a good thing or not lol…I would like any song you posted for me Kim..
skylar
Kim,
Hens is right. You know that the things I know about my exspath… there is no proof. If there was, he’d be on death row.
It might be good to have proof, but once I figured out he was a spath, that’s all the proof I needed.
So what if your ex didn’t get sexual addiction treatment in Maryland? He SHOULD HAVE!
Still, that story never made sense to me. Sex addiction treatment? spaths don’t do that. Maybe some people who are sex addicts but not spaths, might get treatment. Or court ordered spaths might get treatment.
On the other hand, just because the ship was really there for retrofit, doesn’t mean that ex-spath wasn’t ALSO sent to treatment.
The point is not what the individual details tell. It’s the overall pattern that screams SPATH!
After learning the red flags, we don’t need details. We know what they are capable of, what their propensity is, and that they have NO LIMITS.
There is still the question of whether they are primary or secondary spaths. But who cares?
Back_from_the_edge
skylar: here is an interesting link I found doing a criminal justice report of primary and secondary spaths in the prison population. It’s a good ‘temperature’ gauge of our society reading something like this report.
It was interesting enough I thought I would share it.
You are right, though: who cares?
The details are inconsequential at this point.
Right, if the proofs were truly exposed, death row would be very close for a few of them, I am afraid.
They are all sexually perverse. Sex to them is only another means to an end. There is no emotion but only gratification attached to it and another way to control emotions. Spaths don’t get any kind of treatment because there is nothing wrong with them. Just ask them, they will tell you. Over and over and over and over again. They even can charm the pants off of most authorities too, imagine that?
The details don’t matter anymore.
I too well know what they are capable of and that is why “IT” is no where around me and will never be again.
I pray for all those unsuspecting people who will definitely come after me….I had to fight the devil to get my soul and my life back. And that just ain’t whistlin’ dixie….