Young adults and adolescents of either gender are at risk from sexual exploitation by clergy. Some young adult victims are in the midst of seminary training to become ministers themselves when the abuse occurs.
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A Cambridge woman is reportedly alleging she was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest in the 1980s while she was a 15-year-old high school student. . . the priest's attorney threatened to file a lawsuit against Mercer if she spoke publicly for the first time about the alleged crimes. See also online reader comments.
Martin Klassen
"I felt betrayed by my church," Klassen told the Crier via phone from an undisclosed location. "I had gone to my pastor (when the abuse took place) and he told me he was aware of it. He told me to forgive my father and family for what happened."
Klassen said she was also told to never go to the police about the matter. . . She said her father's pastor, who was based at what is now called the Cornerstone Community Church in Virgil, told her to forgive her father, her family, and the faith leaders who didn't come to her assistance.
Daniel Pedroza
Pedroza is accused of six felony counts, including three counts of unlawful sex with a minor. See also online reader comments.
Amormino said investigators think there may be additional victims, and urged anyone with more information to contact the Sheriff's Department at 714-628-7170. See also online reader comments.
Jon Moore
A former pastor convicted of molesting a teen-age girl will spend Christmas in jail . . . Moore admitted he repeatedly assaulted a then 15-year-old female parishioner, including after Sunday services in the church basement, starting in 2004. See also online reader comments.
John Powell
A Florida woman has become the most recent person to claim she was sexually abused by a Jesuit priest who used to teach at Loyola University Chicago, and that the Jesuit order covered up the incident and others like it. . . Powell, 83 and now retired, was named in two previous sex abuse lawsuits, one of which was settled out of court in 2005.
Stephen E. Jeselnick
Diocese of Erie statement on the case: The allegation . . . concerns Kevin McParland, who at the time was an adult, and not a minor. Thus, this matter does not fall within the bishop's Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. See also online reader comments.
Philip Taban
The investigation revealed an 18-year old Hispanic female met with Taban for spiritual counseling. During two of these meetings, Taban sexually assaulted the victim . . . Taban is being held in the El Paso County Jail on a $25,000 bond for each count.
Timothy Joseph Evans
Jurors said Monday that they didn't buy the claims of a former Fort Collins priest that his manhandling and caressing of a 17-year-old boy was an innocent expression of his love. . . the panel convicted 43-year-old Timothy Joseph Evans of three counts of sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust.
Martin P. Ryan
Ryan, pastor of St. Edward the Confessor parish in New Fairfield, has been accused of molesting the girl in the 1970s when she was a member of the Catholic Youth Organization at St. Theresa's Church in Trumbull. . . She said diocesan officials told her Ryan was having "issues with celibacy."
Of the 16 priests named in Thursday's settlement. . . only one, Msgr. Martin P. Ryan, is still active. . . Bishop Lori said he stood by the decision to allow Monsignor Ryan to continue working. "He's not a predator. . . He's not at all a threat to young people."
James G. Kiffmeyer
Kiffmeyer has denied that allegation as well as the 1997 complaint that was settled. . . Like the other allegation, the settlement involved an 18-year-old who alleged the priest had "attempted sexual intimacy". . . Because the accuser was not a child, the archdiocese didn't feel it had to report the complaint to law enforcement. . .