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 an Iowa 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 Sexual Abuse Lawyer Iowa
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Please call Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 or fill out our confidential contact form and a lawyer will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your case. Iowa Priest Sexual Abuse Lawyer
Child sex abuse Davenport Diocese (IA)
For many victims of clergy sexual abuse, the choice to come forward with an accusation in a difficult one, but one that’s fueled by a simple desire to make the truth known. A clergy member who molested a child cannot always be prosecuted, due to overly limited statutes of limitations in many states. And victims may not always be able to win legal damages for the pain they’ve endured. But by exposing a predator who presented himself as a pillar of the community for all too long, they win a victory of sorts.
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A case that occurred in 2014 illustrates the dynamic at play here. In that year, a law firm released documents revealing that James Jansen, a priest who had already been defrocked, was revealed to have molested an altar boy in Joliet Diocese in 1956. The Davenport diocese has reported that he has been accused of abuse by a total of 36 former victims, with the incidents having begun in the early 1950s. (Another accounting places the number of accusers at over 40.)
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The Quad-City Times reported that “The victim's mother found obscene letters between the boy and Janssen, and she told her parish priest, who wrote to officials in Davenport, the records state. Janssen was allowed to return to Davenport and continue in several assignments, records state.” When in contact with a reporter for the article, “Janssen stated that he was dying of cancer and declined to offer any statement or apology to the victims.”
Accusations and suspicions about Jansen began in the 1950s, when he was accused multiple times of molesting boys at the YMCA. He was eventually suspended, but only for less than a year. Not only was he accused, but in 1958, he confessed his guilt.
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The bishop sought to curb his behavior by placing restrictions on him. However, over the next 30 years, as he would repeatedly violate the restrictions. He would also be moved around from one post to another in the area, with officials in his new post not being informed of his unsavory history. Janssen retired in 1991 and was finally defrocked in 2004; he was the subject of multiple lawsuits against the diocese.
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The advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests was quoted as saying that Davenport should still maintain records of Janssen’s whereabouts. “Older child molesters don't suddenly and magically get cured. In fact, they often become more dangerous because few suspect that a balding, slow-moving, stoop-shouldered grandfatherly looking man is a criminal.”
The massive scale of the harm done by Janssen reveals the need for accurate record-keeping, as well as a zero-tolerance policy for people who harm even one child.
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