June 3, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Catholic Church Sexual Abuse
106 childhood victims of Catholic Church sexual abuse in the Buffalo, NY area have been paid $17.5 million in compensation. The Buffalo, NY diocese has offered a total of 127 settlements with an average award of $158,622 to the sexual abuse victims. The largest settlement offer is $650,000 and due to increasing offers, the diocese’s total cost could end up north of $18 million. The trend is up. In January 2019, Buffalo News reported that the diocese had offered more than $8 million to nearly four dozen people, according to victims and lawyers. That total settlement amount has more than doubled in less than six months.
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The Catholic Church is Not Alone
June 26, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Catholic Church Sexual Abuse
Nearly 20 years ago, The Boston Globe lifted the curtain on the Boston Archdiocese exposing their coordinated plan to help pedophile priests avoid detection from the public and the law. Sickening and self-serving, their plan allowed those same priests and clergy to continually sexually abuse hundreds of children in Massachusetts. And as time passed, it became clear that Boston and the state of Massachusetts were not the only areas housing sexual predators embedded in the Catholic Church.
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Gilead tries—and fails—to dodge lawsuit claiming it delayed safer HIV meds
June 24, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / TDF Lawsuits
After years of allegations directed towards Gilead Sciences regarding their decision to hold back the release of improved next-gen HIV drugs in order to maximize profits from their older generation drugs, a federal judge has finally allowed a key lawsuit to proceed. 140 patients in 31 states have claimed in the lawsuit that Gilead shelved their newly developed tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF) drugs in 2004 to protect the profits from their existing and older franchise drugs tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). All the while knowing the TAF-based drugs were safer and better for patients.
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The Southern Baptist Convention must enact tough reform on its sexual abuse crisis
June 20, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Religious Institutions Sexual Abuse & Assault
With 15 million members and more than 47,000 churches, Baptists make up the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. And ten years ago, Southern Baptists cried out to denominational leaders to create a registry of sexual abusers within the church. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) did not listen. Instead, they insisted that individual churches were autonomous and therefore sexual abuse crimes within the church were not their responsibility.
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Woman can sue Catholic Church in Pa. over alleged priest abuse 40 years ago, court says
June 17, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Catholic Church Sexual Abuse
With an important victory for sexual abuse victims, a Pennsylvania court has recently ruled that a woman can pursue her lawsuit claiming clergy in the Altoona-Johnstown, PA Roman Catholic Diocese covered up her alleged molestation by a priest. The lawsuit was initially dismissed by a county judge in 2017 because the statute of limitations had expired. However, a three-judge Superior Court panel reinstated the woman’s lawsuit which claims that two bishops illegally tried to cover up her sexual abuse by a priest to protect their reputations. The ruling may allow more sexual abuse victims whose abuse occurred long ago, to file claims.
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Police seized 57 items from Saginaw Diocese during raid, including ‘victim list’
June 11, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Catholic Church Sexual Abuse
Police in Saginaw, MI recently executed search warrants on three Catholic Diocese properties while investigating claims of sexual abuse done to minors by clergy. Public documents show that police seized nearly 60 items of evidence including what was found in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet at the diocese headquarters, a file titled “victim list”. Additional items from seize included: computers, flash drives, expense accounts, internal memos, and the personal files of convicted sexual-abuser Rev. Robert J. DeLand Jr., three other priests, and one deacon.
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The U.S. Catholic Church spent more than $300M on abuse-related costs in 12 months
June 10, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Catholic Church Sexual Abuse
According to a recent report released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, from June 2017 to June 2018 the U.S. Catholic Church spent a whopping $301.6 million on clergy sexual abuse costs. Two-thirds of the clergy sexual abuse costs, or nearly $200 million, were spent on legal settlements. Additionally, the report revealed that during the same 12-month period, the Catholic Church fielded nearly 1,100 new “credible allegations” of sexual abuse committed on a minor by priests and other clergy.
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House panel OKs bill to extend statute of limitations for sex-abuse lawsuits
June 4, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Catholic Church Sexual Abuse
The Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee has voted by unanimous decision to give victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers and the institutions that shielded these criminal predators. This bill is a welcome relief for sexual abuse victims and their families. Jim Scanlan, a Rhode Island man whose account of sex abuse by a Boston College High School priest in the late 1970s that was highlighted in the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight had this to say during testimony, “This bill is important in that it allows a vehicle for more victims and survivors to come forward and really expose who the predators are, and partially to expose, those who protect them.”
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Buffalo Diocese pays $17.5M to 106 clergy sex abuse victims
June 3, 2019 / by Brett Katsma / Catholic Church Sexual Abuse
106 childhood victims of Catholic Church sexual abuse in the Buffalo, NY area have been paid $17.5 million in compensation. The Buffalo, NY diocese has offered a total of 127 settlements with an average award of $158,622 to the sexual abuse victims. The largest settlement offer is $650,000 and due to increasing offers, the diocese’s total cost could end up north of $18 million. The trend is up. In January 2019, Buffalo News reported that the diocese had offered more than $8 million to nearly four dozen people, according to victims and lawyers. That total settlement amount has more than doubled in less than six months.
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