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If you were sexually abused as a child by a priest, deacon or any other member of the Catholic Church, you are not alone. We are here to help you. Please fill out our confidential online contact form or call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 and a Connecticut Sexual Abuse Lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your possible case. Help is available nationwide. There is no cost to investigate and there are no legal fees unless you receive financial compensation. Making the call is sometimes the hardest step, but it is often a necessary step on the road to healing. Priest Abuse Lawyer Connecticut
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Priest Abuse Lawyer Connecticut
When records have been released detailing the reality of sexual abuse by priests in Catholic dioceses, the results have been quite shocking. Bridgeport, Connecticut is no exception. In 2009, the state supreme court ordered the release of thousands of legal documents from lawsuits filed against predator priests. The suit against the church was brought by newspapers including the New York Times.
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The court decision stated that beginning in the mid-1990s, twenty-three actions alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergymen employed by the diocese were filed. In the course of pretrial discovery in those cases, upon the defendants’ motions, the trial court, Levin, J., issued sealing orders with respect to certain documents and information that had been obtained in discovery on the ground that their disclosure could jeopardize the defendants’ right to a fair trial. “
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The material that was ultimately release comprised 12,000 pages of documents containing what the Times described as “decisions the diocese made in assigning priests who had molested children in the past to positions where they abused children again.”
The documents were originally obtained in lawsuits filed in the 1990s by 23 victims, during the tenure of Bishop Edward Egan. Although the actual incidents of abuse occurred before his tenure, the documents suggest he knowingly shuffled predator priests into new jobs during this time period.
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Egan claimed that he had followed the guidelines at the time by sending problem priests to treatment and not letting them work again until they had been cleared to do so by mental health professionals, but that these guidelines had since been changed. David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, stated that because of the delays, “children have been needlessly at risk.”
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In 1990, Egan received a memo about "a developing pattern of accusations" about Charles Carr of Norwalk, who allegedly fondled young boys. Egan kept Carr for five years after receiving the memo, suspended him only after a lawsuit was filed, and in 1999 made him a chaplain at Danbury's hospital.
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Although Egan publicly apologized in 2002 for the church’s handling of abuse, he shockingly retracted the apology in 2012. He called his handling of the situation "incredibly good" and said of the apology, "I never should have said that…. I don't think we did anything wrong."
He added, "I never had one of these sex abuse cases. If you have another bishop in the United States who has the record I have, I'd be happy to know who he is." As society demands more transparency and accountability from the church, we can hope that officials with Egan’s cavalier attitude toward sexual abuse will become a thing of the past.
Priest Abuse Lawyer Connecticut
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