sex abuse

The Connecticut Supreme Court has upheld a 2002 state law that expanded the statute of limitations for bringing sex abuse claims, the Associated Press reports. The court also upheld a $1 million jury verdict against the Archdiocse of Hartford, ruling that the retroactive application of the law did not violate the archdiocese's due process rights.

A jury determined that the archdiocese was reckless and negligent in letting a priest work with children again after getting treatment for abusing other boys. The plaintiff in the case sued the archdiocese, saying he was sexually abused by that priest around 20 times.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reinstated the conviction of the first Catholic Church official to be convicted criminally for the sexual abuse of children for whose welfare he was responsible for but who he did not directly abuse, The Legal Intelligencer's Gina Passarella and Lizzy McLellan report.

The intermediate appellate court found that Monsignor William Lynn could not have been convicted for endangering the welfare of children he never supervised. But Justice Max Baer, writing for the majority of the Supreme Court, found that Lynn"'was a person supervising the welfare of many children because, as a high-ranking official in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he was specifically responsible for protecting children from sexually abusive priests,"' The Legal reports.

The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled that mandated child reporters must report suspected child abuse and neglect no matter the circumstances, the Associated Press' Vik Jolly said. The court rejected an intermediate appellate court ruling finding that social workers are privileged against having to report child abuse and neglect when they learn information during counseling sessions.

The Seventh Circuit has ruled that a $55 million cemetery trust fund isn't off limits from the creditors of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the Associated Press reports. Sex abuse victims and their lawyers argue that the trust fund was created to shield money from them. The archdiocese has filed for bankruptcy because hundreds of sex-abuse victims have filed claims against the archdiocese.

The archdiocese argued that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protected the trust fund from a court-appointed committee the represents sexual assault victims and other creditors in bankruptcy court, but the court rejected that argument because creditors aren't the government.

The California Supreme Court has rejected San Diego's blanket ban on where convicted sex offenders can live, the Los Angeles Times' Maura Dolan reports. The Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks was unconstitutional because the blanket ban"'has severely restricted their ability to find housing.'"

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will take up the first case in the country in which a Catholic Church was convicted of endangering children abused by other priests, The Legal Intelligencer's Zack Needles reports. The Pennsylvania Superior Court overturned Monsignor William Lynn's conviction because "the trial judge had refused to address the defense argument that a pre-amended version of Pennsylvania's law criminalizing endangerment of the welfare of children did not apply in the case," The Legal further reports. The high court granted allocatur on the issue of whether there was sufficient evidence to convict Lynn either as a principal or as an accomplice to endangering the welfare of children.

The U.S. Supreme Court, 5-4, reversed a $3.4 million restitution award granted against a man who viewed child pornography porn, The New York Times' Adam Liptak reports. The award was granted to a victim whose uncle recording his raping of her. The majority adopted a "vague" standard, Liptak reports, which will require trial courts to only order “reasonable and circumscribed” restitution “in an amount that comports with the defendant’s relative role.”

The Legal Intelligencer (my journalism alma mater) reports that the Superior Court rejected all of the appellate arguments made by Jerry Sandusky, the "former Penn State assistant football coach, [who] was convicted by a Centre County jury in June 2012 on 45 of 48 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period and was subsequently sentenced to 30 to 90 years in prison." 

The panel rejected the argument that Sandusky's rights were prejudiced because he was not granted a delay in the start of the trial. 

The appellate court also came back with its decision in record time.

Monsignor William J. Lynn was the first Catholic Church official in the country to be convicted of a crime related to the sexual abuse of youth who were directly abused by other clergy, not Lynn. Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Joseph A. Slobodzian reported on the Pennsylvania appellate arguments challenging Lynn's conviction on the grounds that the crime Lynn was convicted of--endangering the welfare of child crime--could not apply to him because the statute was written to criminalize the failures in the direct supervision of kids. Defense lawyer Tom Bergstrom also argued that Lynn's conviction can't stand under the amended version of the endangering statute because he was no longer supervising children at the time the law was changed.