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.
Interesting that the predator himself only got 2-1/2 to 5 years. His sentence could be potentially less than the guy who covered up for him.
Too bad that people in the clergy should have to be scared into behaving morally and doing the right thing by threats of prison.
Yea, if you look at many federal sentencings, the crooks that “conspire” to do a crime seem to get more time than those that DO a crime. (head shaking here)
More news from Philadelphia: A former priest who had been accused of molesting grade school girls got a job for TSA patting down passengers. Read:
TSA hired defrocked Camden priest without background check on Philly.com.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-10-02/news/34199381_1_tsa-camden-diocese-peter-feuerherd
Story suggested by a Lovefraud reader.
Thank you for posting this article, Donna.
Um…………..yeah……………I was so worried that charges (later, dismissed) of domestic violence would make employment difficult. What a crock of sheeeyit.
Maybe, just maybe, “security” should encompass…….oh, say, ALL aspects of a person’s background?
Brightest blessings
Donna when the former park ranger/interpreter for Old Washington State Park near Hope, Arkansas, went to prison for child porno, it was “hushed up” by the Park, and when he got out he rejoined our living history group AND WHILE ON PAROLE got a job at Historical Arkansas Museum working with, guess what? KIDS!!!!!
Because some of my closer friends are parks department employees I knew what happened to this man when he “left” the parks department so when his photo appeared on one of our group newsletters showing him at HAM working with kids, I HIT THE CEILING.
First, I went to the group president and he blew me off “well, he’s served his time” DUHH??? Then went to the rest of the board of directors and raised such a fuss that the WOMEN and ONLY the women on the board backed me and he was expelled from our group.
Then I contacted his parole officer and had a conversation with him.
Then I called the director of the museum and informed him that he had a CRIMINAL on parole for kiddy porn working there with children. The Man immediately lost his job.
Since his wife was a school teacher, I also figured that the principals of the schools where she worked deserved to know thhat her husband was a criminal and what kind of criminal. So, I mailed them a copy of the PUBLIC RECORDS about his criminal case and sentencing.
Each time he got a new job, usually with 4-H or some other KID ORIENTED GROUP who apparently never did any criminal back ground checks, I would forward copies of his CRIMINAL PUBLIC RECORDS TO HIS EMPLOYERS.
On and on and on…for years several other women and I kept tabs on him. Made as sure as we could that he did not get a job working with children. Even then, he conned the new administrator of a small local museum in to letting him VOLUNTEER…until one day at some event she was showing photos of volunteers at work with kids and someone in the audience said OH, MY GOD, DON’T YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS MAN’S BACK GROUND? Well, no, she didn’t, and she hadn’t checked either. But she called the local cops and they came out and talked to her and verified that the man did indeed have a criminal conviction and for what. In fact, the cops went out to talk to the man about him NOT being one that the community wanted volunteering working with children.
I’m not really sorry to say that after the discussion with the cops, that he committed suicide that day after calling the cops and telling them where they could find his body.
Not any group that I know of that works with kids does a criminal back ground check on volunteers, though I think that they should. There was a time when a criminal back ground check took months and was extremely expensive in terms of man hours, but today with the web, it is easy and inexpensive and I think should be mandatory.
A guy accused of molesting girls is now groping….I mean…….patting down passengers for TSA? Wow, if it wasn’t so tragic, it would be comical. *face palm*
Oxy, you’ll be glad to know that all employees of the Children’s Hospital where I work are required to have a criminal background check. However, on the background check, they ask you for your last several addresses. Couldn’t a person just lie about where they lived? Or omit an address? I don’t know how that works.
Star, when they do a criminal BG check they use your social security # and date of birth. Your utility records and Drivers license as well which will tell where you lived, etc. and they generally do NOT go out and interview your neighbors.
Google your own name and you can get lots of information about yourself…and if you pay a small fee, you can get where you lived and your neighbors as well…a PI can find more, or the cops can find more as they have access to data bases that we do not.
Also if you are given a FULL criminal BG check they do finger prints as well. Some states require a thumb print for a DL, but not all do.
Good for your hospital. I think that is GREAT! It may only weed out those that have been CONVICTED but the cops can get records of all ARRESTS as well. Sometimes a series of ARRESTS even though there were no convictions can also give a clue of a person not being on the UP and UP.
And of course, we all know that NOT EVERY PSYCHOPATH has a conviction for any kind of crime…Bernie Maddof and others are good examples.
Star, there was a former TSA agent who got caught stealing–$800,000 in 4 years….and sent to prison for 3 years just got out and was interviewed and said that “everyone was doing it” and they all knew how to get around the security cameras that supposedly monitor them. He said it was the CULTURE of the TSA.
The pay is low and the agents felt it was their right to take things to make up for the bad working conditions and the low pay.
Talk about The TSA hiring TRASH!!!! Typical government Agency me thinks!
OxD, the place where I used to work employs a number of student workers and volunteers that trade “service” time for studio use. Some of these people have no business being in contact with anyone, much less children.
But, the administrator of this facility is convinced that “volunteers” are preferable to paid employees because of expense.
As for the TSA employees that stole? They should have to make little rocks out of big rocks for 25 cents as restitution to the victims that they robbed.
WTF is WRONG with people, anyway?!