Posted on 01/26/2011 2:22:44 AM PST by Cronos
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging it failed to prevent the sexual abuse of a teenager by an older teen at an African mission boarding house in 1988.
The Louisville-based denomination says the suit should be barred under the statute of limitations because it happened so long ago — a stance the plaintiff's lawyer calls "hypocritical," following a church commission's recommendation that the church lobby against such statutes.
Meanwhile, federal authorities in Florida have filed child-pornography charges against the alleged perpetrator in the lawsuit.
Samuel Shamba Warlick, 39, of Oviedo, Fla., was charged Jan. 14 with distributing and possessing images of child pornography, following an undercover computer sting conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaquilareport.com ...
Sounds like every day in a high school. Whom can I sue?
The suit says Coppedge was sexually abused when he was 14, and that mission officials allowed Warlick to return to the house after a temporary removal even though they knew of the alleged assaults on Coppedge and another . But in a motion to dismiss Coppedge’s suit filed on Tuesday, church lawyer Jon Fleischaker said Kentucky law bars lawsuits on child sexual abuse filed more than a year after the alleged victim turns 18 — which Coppedge did in 1992.
Kentucky law does allow certain exceptions to the statute of limitations — such as the victim being unaware of a cover-up of the abuse
WTH?
That didn’t stand before.
Well, technically, isn’t there a statute of limitations (I’m pretty hazy on that, I just know that murder has no statute of limitations (too many Grisham novels)).
Well it took me nearly 20 yrs to quit smoking dope and drinking everytime I could either afford to supply that habit or find someone stupid enough to pay for my medication. I do not believe any part of me will ever be what it might have been. I will never again allow anybody say they will give me a ride-anywhere unless I have a loaded gun in my hand—or have known them for a very long time.I do not become violent when some ignorant person defiles my body with their unwanted touch —but I still get very uneasy whenever someone gets closer than I am comfortable. Therefore I find no good reason the legal case ought be dismissed.
This will expose their obvious hypocrisy
None of them will mention it. This thread will die. Don’t you get it? It never happened.
Hopefully, there are no similar situations in the Catholic church. This is a rather different story from the typical Catholic Church abuse stories.
We have two kids who were in a mission in Africa. The older teen was alleged to have abused the younger boy. It sounds like they investigated the claim, and then let the older boy back into the mission house. It doesn’t say they knew the abuse allegations were true, only that they knew there were allegations of abuse.
This came to light because the church investigated, and published it’s findings, which included identifying the name of the perpetrator.
I’m not sure they should be able to get it dismissed, but it seems likely that they will win on the merits, as it’s going to be hard to show that they had enough evidence at the time to prove they KNEW the abuse was happening, much less that they covered it up.
In this case, the church is a 3rd party to the proceedings. The older boy wasn’t an employer of the church in a position of trust, the church was the caretaker. It would be like trying to sue the Boy Scouts of America because in the 1980s some older boy abused a younger boy at a campout, and the scoutmaster didn’t send the older boy home from the campout.
You’d have to first show that the allegations of abuse were true, second that the scoutmaster knew they were true, and then you’d still have to show the scoutmaster tried to hide the result, and then that the BSA organization was somehow involved in the scoutmaster coverup.
If he was trying to sue the head of the mission where this occured, that might make a little more sense.
There is a link at the source that gives a bit more information:
**Presbyterian Church (USA) seeks dismissal of sexual abuse lawsuit as it happened ‘so long ago’**
LOL! Are the victims going after other money here?
Is everyone aware that over 50 percent of the claims against Catholic priests were false? I agree that’s still too much. But people lie to get the money.
Greed
I really wonder how many people will read the full article, and the link.
Few, probably.
I am sure if this had been a case involving another church you would have felt the same need to distinguish.
THis case (abuse by non-employees while in the care of the church) certainly appears to be in between cases where the leaders of a church are commiting the crimes (like pastoral abuse scandals), and cases where it’s people who happen to belong to the church commit some crime unrelated to the church but people blame the church anyway (like last week’s child drinking-drowning torture thread).
I’ve seen all three. It’s the first that I think are most reasonably discussed as regards to a fundamental issue of the church itself. If there is a widespread pattern, I guess this type of case could rise to that level.
When I read these stories, I try to imagine myself as a leader of the organization, to think about what I would have or could have done to stop the incident for which the organization is being charged.
sounds like you have had a hard life.
No more so —and looking back on it—everytime I have my poor me pity party moments the Good Lord puts someone where I can’t ignore them who has had a much harder life. In everything I have brought onto myself-by some action or just plain stupidity I have always been aware that god has provided for me-and has helped me through. All my troubles have been a direct result of my reliance on my own imperfect abilities.But God has always been there.Praise Him.
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