The Child Protection eNewsletter

L.A. Archdiocese reaches $660 million settlement…

A judge on Monday approved a $660 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 500 alleged victims of clergy abuse, the largest payout yet in a nationwide sex abuse scandal. Read More Some of the plaintiffs sobbed as the deal was formally approved and a moment of silence was held for others who had died during the years of negotiations. "This is the right result," said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz. "Settling the cases was the right thing to do, and it was done by dint of a number of extremely talented and dedicated people putting in an awful lot of time."

The deal came after more than five years of negotiations and is by far the largest payout by any diocese since the clergy abuse scandal emerged in Boston in 2002. The individual payouts will vary according to the severity and duration of the abuse alleged. The plaintiffs' attorneys are expected to receive up to 40 percent of the settlement.

Ray Bouchet, lead attorney for alleged victims, asked his clients to stand during the hearing and thanked them for their resolve and their courage. "I know it's hard for most of the victims whose scars are very deep...and I know many will never forgive the cardinal," he said. "But he took steps that I think that only he could take and if left to the lawyers and others in the church he would not have settled this case."

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has led the archdiocese since 1985, apologized on Sunday after the settlement was announced. "There really is no way to go back and give them that innocence that was taken from them. The one thing I wish I could give the victims...I cannot," Mahony said. "Once again, I apologize to anyone who has been offended, who has been abused. It should not have happened and should not ever happen again."

Outside court, some plaintiffs weren't ready to accept the cardinal's words. Lee Bashforth held up a photo of himself as a young boy with the priest he says abused him. He called Mahony's apology "disingenuous" and said the settlement only saved the church from having to face questions before a jury.

The settlement also calls for the release of priests' confidential personnel files after review by a judge. "I think for those of us who have been involved in this for more than five years, it's a huge relief," said Michael Hennigan, archdiocese attorney. "But it's a disappointment, too, that we didn't get it done much earlier than this."

The deal settles all 508 cases that remained against the archdiocese, which also paid $60 million in December to settle 45 cases that weren't covered by sexual abuse insurance. (Read More)

The archdiocese will pay $250 million, insurance carriers will pay a combined $227 million and several religious orders will chip in $60 million. The remaining $123 million will come from litigation with religious orders that chose not to participate in the deal, with the archdiocese guaranteeing resolution of those 80 to 100 cases within five years, Hennigan said. The archdiocese is released from liability in those claims, said Tod Tamberg, church spokesman.

Meanwhile, in Great Britain, five years after the introduction of sweeping reforms to try to stop sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic Church has been told that it needs to do more. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2080318.ece Bishops and congregational leaders have displayed a “patchy will” to drive through reform and there is a view held by some within the Church that the implementation of protection policies had been “tolerated rather than embraced,” an independent report said.

The Cumberlege Commission said that if existing tensions within the Church in Britain over how to tackle the issue of abuse were not confronted, they would result in a step backwards. It expressed concern that leaders could be “minimizing” the anguish that followed child abuse and that “complacency” surrounds the issue.

Spanish police nab 66 in child pornography sweep…

Spanish police investigating a child pornography ring have arrested 66 people and seized computer hard drives containing 48 million photographs and video images, officials said Sunday. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289343,00.html The nationwide sweep came after a 10-month investigation that was coordinated with Interpol and began with information supplied by the Germany police, the Interior Ministry said. The ministry statement did not say when the raids were carried out.

Investigators analyzed Web sites where the photographs and video images of children being abused were available and monitored more than 5,000 downloads. That led them to identify 85 suspects, out of which 66 have been arrested so far, the ministry statement said. The operation required 300 specialist agents, involved 50 courthouses and stretched across 40 of Spain's 57 provinces.

In other news… 

Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/13/ The teen birth rate has hit a record low. More young people are finishing high school, too, and more little kids are being read to, according to the latest government snapshot on the well-being of the nation's children. In 2005, 47 percent of high school students — 6.7 million — reported having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex has remained the same since 2003. The teen birth rate, the report said, was 21 per 1,000 young women ages 15-17 in 2005 — an all-time low. It was down from 39 births per 1,000 teens in 1991. The full report is available online at http://childstats.gov/americaschildren/index.asp.

Social networking sites continue to draw younger and younger children, some targeting children as young as six or seven. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3370708 Unlike News Corp.'s MySpace, the anything-goes site frequented by older kids, Club Penguin limits what kids can say to one another, reducing the risks of predators and online bullying.

It's not just Jersey girls who get tripped up by embarrassing Internet photos. Read More Whether trying to become the next American Idol, Miss America, or just get an office job somewhere, people are starting to take steps to ensure that photos and personal information they post on the Web doesn't end up coming back to bite them. The latest high-profile victim is Amy Polumbo, who was named Miss New Jersey last month, only to be hit with an alleged blackmail attempt by someone hoping to make her resign by threatening to release embarrassing photos of her. Polumbo's mother, Jen Wagner, said her daughter was just like millions of other young people who thought that just because their Facebook or MySpace page was set to "private," their photos would remain that way.

A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/ The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Though there was food in the house, the Reno couple was too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing "Dungeons & Dragons" series, to give their children proper care.

A 7-year-old boy who weighed 34 pounds when he died of starvation was locked inside a closet for days at a time without food, water or access to a toilet, according to court documents. Read More A revised police statement of probable cause, released Wednesday, quotes the boy's younger half-brother as saying Chandler was regularly put inside the closet when he'd been "bad," and was left there for days and nights.

Authorities are looking into whether a Thai immigrant whose tip they say led them to the body of a 12-year-old Washington state girl could have ties to other missing child cases dating back to 1986. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JULY_4TH Terapon Adhahn, 42, told his lawyer where police could find the body of Zina Linnik, who was abducted outside her family's home during a neighborhood fireworks display July 4. Adhahn is expected to be charged in Linnik's death, Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said Friday.

A full-scale, Columbine-style school massacre may have been averted today when police arrested two Long Island teenagers on suspicion that they planned to unleash gunfire and detonate explosions inside a local high school. http://abcnews.go.com/ The arrests were made after a mystery Samaritan gave law enforcement officials a handwritten journal that detailed plans to attack Long Island's Connetquot High School in the Suffolk County town of Bohemia. The journal was found in a McDonald's parking lot a week ago and named specific students as targets.

US researchers have identified the parts of the brain that are involved with suppressing unpleasant memories, a finding that could have implications for treating depression or post traumatic stress disorder, according to a study released Thursday. The concept of memory suppression has been a controversial one among psychologists for a century, but in this study neuroscientists used brain scans to show that volunteers who have been asked to banish disturbing memories show very specific patterns of brain activity. Read More The scans showed that two specific regions of the prefrontal cortex — what neuroscientists call the seat of cognitive control — appear to work in tandem to modulate posterior brain regions like the visual cortex, the hippocampus and amygdala. These areas are involved in tasks such as visual recall, memory encoding and retrieval and emotional expression.

*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org"