Va. Man Awarded $41 Million for Priest Abuse Files Another Suit

August 9, 2007

  • August 9, 2007 at 7:05 am
    lastbat says:
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    I think I was at that party Anon, we should get a class action thing going on.

    I do not under any circumstances endorse, condone or defend any form of child abuse; but we need to get realistic here. It has been proven that so-called “repressed memories” are highly influenced by the person “extracting” the memory, by media, society and any number of factors. I can’t remember accurately what I had for lunch last Thursday, how are we supposed to believe that I forgot such a traumatic event for decades, then remembered it seemingly conveniently when the accused is dead and the money is flowing? There are court cases out there that have overturned murder convictions based on the falsity of “repressed memories”.

    I also realize that no amount of money can actually make up for the pain of true abuse – but let’s get real here. People do not need to be rocketed up to the top 5% because of these awards.

    There’s more on brainwashing in church, the truth of the deep Catholic pocket driving these awards, doctrine that encourages pedophiles to join the clergy and all sorts of other issues but I think I’ll stop here before I get lynched.

  • August 9, 2007 at 8:36 am
    Anon says:
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    I’m not making fun but this guy was molested 4 times… he’s already got $41 million for that abuse. That’s $10.25m per abuse… for that kind of money I could probably get Tara Reid.

    Who am I kidding? I could get her for half that then I’d send pictures to the priest along with a thank you letter.

    Seriously: lets assume this guy wasn’t a priest and just another loser pedophile living in a trailer somewhere. Let’s assume there’s repressed memories this guy “discovered”. He’d never see the $41m and would be happy that the guy who caused him so much pain was in prison. Instead this guy empties one Brink’s truck and backs up the second to the loading dock. I doubt it’s even the plantiff bringing suit… it’s another attorney who realized he could get rich (and Tara Reid) too.

  • August 9, 2007 at 2:15 am
    Hibbsey says:
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    Raped on 4 separate ski trips to Vermont? Abused more than 230 times over a 3 year period? Everything that happened is disgusting and the priest / catholic church need to pay, but damn, that kid must have been a wimp!!!

  • August 9, 2007 at 2:31 am
    oscar levetts says:
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    not one time did he tell his parents? he must like to ski

  • August 9, 2007 at 2:49 am
    KLS says:
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    I was trying to research the validity of “repressed memories” and came across this from Wikipedia… While it’s not the most reliable source, it seems like decent general information, enough to satisfy my curiosity anyway… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressed_memory

    I’m still skeptical of ‘repressed memories’, but if this guy was the victim of child abuse, I hope he uses his settlement (if he ever actually gets any of it) to educate parents and children on how to protect themselves from predators. Mostly, I hope the message is finally getting across to people that just because someone is associated with church doesn’t mean they’re holy or harmless.

    I wonder how many people join or have joined the priesthood for the express purpose of having unsupervised access to children? I hope they’re caught and beaten mercilessly in prison for the rest of their lives…

  • August 9, 2007 at 2:53 am
    Gloria says:
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    Shame on you two. How can you write those comments? Don’t you remember when you were a young teen? He was a child so of course an adult priest would influence him and only the Lord knows what he said to the boy to keep his mouth shut. Adults live with abusers for years and say nothing. Some die because they kept their mouths shut. What do you expect of a child?

  • August 9, 2007 at 3:00 am
    Not enough $$? says:
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    What happened to him is tragic, but $41 Million in the 1st go around isn’t enough? Damn!

  • August 9, 2007 at 3:55 am
    Creed says:
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    For openers, I don’t condone or excuse legitimate cases of abuse, particularly from priests. However, I find it ironic that after 25 years or more people come crawling out of the woodwork only AFTER the first case got publicity and money started being awarded. Whitewell was “normal” enough to make it through the Naval Academy, medical school, and become a practicing physician.

    Awarding ridiculous amounts of money to ALLEGED victims is absurd. No amount of money will erase what has been done. Unconscionable verdicts aren’t sending any message to the church, only it’s insurance carriers. The church got the message after the first incident was reported.

    The courts should direct churches to set-up educational programs to prevent future incidents. This is becoming the abestos of the 21st century. I also find it equally ironic that no other religions have had similar situations. Maybe they don’t carry as much insurance.

  • August 9, 2007 at 4:08 am
    clm mgr says:
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    No one has said whether the accused priest is now alive or if he has gone on to his eternal reward. In a series of acts that involve only two individuals with presumably no witnesses to the actual act, how can the Court determine the veracity of the claims? “Recovered memories” that crop up only while a person is arguing with his Wife? Is that a reliable source? The fact that others have come forward with the same allegations about the same individual? Does that infer that these “recovered memories” somehow are credible? Surely it could not be the large quantities of cash that are being spent in these quests for “justice” that motivate these people. I would never rise to defend a pedophile because the damages they cause are lifelong for their victims who carry guilt, fright, mental anguish and other injuries for the rest of their lives, but let’s get serious about the evidentiary trail that must be established to clearly prove up a claim. This guy was 14 years old when he was being abused; hardly the age when one is so innocent that the mere connivance by a priest would induce one to fail to report this sort of abuse. Not only that, but it appears that not once did he refuse to attend the annual ski trip even though the pattern and practice of abuse on these trips had been established in years past. I’m going to be roundly criticized, but I think that at that age, and with so many incidents, this character was a participant, not a victim.

  • August 9, 2007 at 4:38 am
    Anon says:
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    They don’t cary as much liability insurance but even more signifigant is that most of them operate as individual entities. The Catholic Church represents one of the largest global entities and has been in “business” for over a 1000 years.

    It would be like being raped by Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet at a party that got a little out of hand. You’d need a fleet of Brink’s trucks to make that deposit.

    Come to think of it… any attorneys out there want to help me out, I think I’m having some repressed memories about a party I went to that got a little out of hand.



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