The attorney representing "Survivor Doe" in the civil suit against Father Robinson has filed a notice of appeal of the judge's ruling last month to dismiss the case.
Mark Davis, who represents the woman who sued the priest claiming he abused her in satanic rituals when she was a child, filed the motion last Friday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Ruth Ann Franks' dismissal of the civil suit hinged on the legal interpretation of when the statute of appeals began to tick. The alleged crimes occurred decades ago, and the woman is now in her early 40. So if you look at the statute on the surface, it would have expired long ago because it requires a suit to be filed within 2 years after the victim turns the age of majority -- in most cases that's 18.
But Davis and Survivor Doe say that she did not know her abuser's identity until she saw news reports of him being arrested on TV. It was impossible to sue him by the time she turned 20 because she never knew his identity until years later. The argument in this case is that the statute of limitations should not have started until she recognized him. In that interpretation, her suit was filed in time.
In some where victims blocked out memories of childhood abuse, courts have ruled that the statute did not start until the memories surfaced.
This is a very fuzzy area of law and one that remains to be determined as these cases wend their way through the legal system. It may someday end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
And we're not even getting into the moral and psychological implications of such statutes. I've learned from experience that most victims of childhood sexual abuse have a very difficult time telling anyone about it, they tend to blame themselves, and they often turn to self-destructive behavior to try to cope with the inner pain.
Many of the abuse victims I've interviewed are now in midlife and still reeling from the psychological, emotional, and spiritual torment. They still can barely deal with it, and it's clear to me that it is utterly unrealistic to have expected them -- indeed, required them -- to stand up to the powerful church and the priest-on-a-pedestal when they were emotionally shattered children or teenagers.
We'll keep an eye on this appeal.
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I made the 100-mile trek to the small town of Van Wert, Ohio, on Sunday to cover Bishop Leonard Blair's meeting with parishioners of St. Mary of the Assumption Church. He was there to discuss the removal of their priest, Joseph Schmelzer, over credible allegations of sexual abuse.
The parishioners were outraged that the bishop had forced Schmelzer to resign, even though Blair told them there had been two credible allegations and that a team of veteran Catholic law-enforcement experts had investigated the charges and found them credible.
The church members didn't care -- they just wanted Schmelzer back. I am astounded, and yet it shows just how much power a priest exerts over his flock. Even when their bishop tells them that the priest is a child molester, most of them don't want to believe it and only want to get the priest back as their pastor.
It reminds me of Robinson's supporters. They still maintain his innocence, and come up with every excuse they can imagine to claim he was wrongly convicted of murdering a nun. I think there are some blind loyalists who even if they had witnessed Robinson killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, they would not believe their own eyes and would conclude that they must have been hallucinating.
Based on the Van Wert parishioners' shocking loyalty to a child abusing priest, I am even more aware than ever of the critical role of the media and groups like SNAP and Voice of the Faithful, who are working diligently to hold the church accountable. If not for such watchdogs, clerical sexual abuse would be an even greater threat to society than it is now.
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I had a wonderful time on WBGU-FM the other night. The hosts, Frank Black, Jim Barnes, and Haley Comet, devoted the entire 2 hours to the Robinson case and to my book, and we had some great questions from callers. Making it even more fun was the sense of humor they managed to inject into the program, such as opening up by saying we were broadcasting live from the Space Shuttle.
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SNAP held its midwest conference in Chicago last weekend and asked to have copies of my book on hand. Continuum sent a shipment, quantity unknown to me at this time, and I am glad to report that they sold out every copy.
I am not thinking about going to SNAP's national conference in Washington in July.

Well that's enough for tonight... Stay tuned. Thanks for visiting.

Sylvania, Ohio, Feb. 20, 2007