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Datum: Dienstag, den 4. September 2001, um 23:31 Uhr
Betrifft: HLT zahlt US$ 3 Mio. wegen Kindesmissbrauch

Am 10.2. stellte James einen Beitrag über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch durch einen Hohenpriester ins Forum. Jetzt kam es in diesem Fall zu einer außergerichtlichen Einigung, bei der die HLT-Kirche dem Opfer drei Millionen US-Dollar zahlt. Die Anklage feiert die Übereinkunft wie einen Sieg und spricht von einem Eingeständnis durch die HLT-Kirche. Die Kirchenanwälte sprechen hingegen von einer ökonomischen Entscheidung und werfen dem Richter Fehlentscheidungen vor, zugleich weisen sie jedes moralische Eingeständnis weit von sich.

Die Begründung von HLT-Seite ist natürlich fadenscheinig, da auch in Amerika nicht der Gewinner die Prozesskosten trägt und die HLT sehr wohl die finanziellen und administrativen Mittel zur Verfügung hat, einen Gang durch die Instanzen zu realisieren. Somit muss man trotz anders lautender offizieller Aussagen von einem Schuldeingeständnis ausgehen.

Die von der HLT-Kirche zu leistende Summe wäre bis letzte Woche die höchste Zahlung durch eine Religionsgemeinschaft im Fall von sexuellem Kindesmissbrauch gewesen, vergangene Woche wurde diese Summe jedoch von der kalifornischen Erzdiözese Orange County noch übertroffen.

Und hier die genauen Statements:

Pressemitteilung der Anklage:

Portland, OR — The Mormon Church today paid $3 million to settle a child abuse lawsuit that charged the church with covering up, for over a decade, a High Priest’s sexually molesting young boys. The lawsuit of one of the priest’s victims, Jeremiah Scott, 22, Kirkland, WA, was scheduled to go to trial August 20th in Portland, Oregon. Calling the Mormon Church a “sanctuary for pedophiles,” Scott’s mother and his legal team celebrated the settlement as “one victory for one victim in the long struggle to expose the Mormon Church’s tolerance for child abuse.”

Scott is one of 16 victims of High Priest Franklin Curtis who abused boys in Portland, Oregon, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Sheridan, Wyoming. Curtis, who was convicted of molesting Scott, has since died. Scott’s mother and his lawyers made the settlement public today and issued a statement that they had uncovered a epidemic pattern of the Mormon Church of “recycling known pedophiles into positions of prominence in the church where they have unlimited access to young children.”

The church claimed throughout the litigation that it had a constitutional right to “wipe the slate clean” of any member who had “repented” for his abuse of children and had been forgiven by the church.

Scott’s mother, Sandra Scott, read an emotional statement concluding that “the Mormon Church can forgive whomever it chooses, but it is a sin and a crime to allow known child molesters to have unsupervised access to children.”

Scott’s lawyers pointed out that the church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had been repeatedly warned at least twelve times that Curtis was using his position as a High Priest, boy scout leader and Sunday school teacher to seduce and molest young boys. Mrs. Scott described the church’s conduct as “a coverup on a massive scale, covering several states and multiple church leaders. Jeremiah would never have been abused were it not for the church’s policy of concealing the truth members.”

Scott’s Bellevue, WA lawyers, Tim Kosnoff and Joel Salmi, described the church’s conduct as among the worst of any religious organization in the country. “Most churches have finally caught on that they have a duty to protect their children from pedophiles in clerical garb, but this church still destroys records, still recycles known child molesters into positions of prominence, and still denies that it has any responsibility to tell its members the truth. The church’s secrets are safe, but its children are not. It is time for the Mormon church to change its priorities to protect the children in its care and live by the same laws that apply to the rest of America.”

“Time after time, Kosnoff described, “shattered children and distraught parents informed church officials of Curtis’ crimes. The church knew beyond any doubt that Curtis was a serial pedophile. But still the church let him lead scout troops of young boys, honored him with ordination to the High Priesthood, and assigned him to Sunday school classes for children. Never once did any church leader report Curtis to the police, and when Jeremiah’s mother asked her bishop for advice after Curtis asked to live in her home, the church covered up Curtis’ record. The Scotts’ bishop knew Curtis was living in a home with a young boy—and he issued not a word of warning.”

Kosnoff described the Mormon Church as “the most meticulous keeper of records in the history of religion. It knows where its members were born, when they were baptized and married, when and where they have moved, how much they contribute to the church each year and numerous other facts. Yet they hide the fact that they have High Priests who will molest any young boy he can gain access to. It would only have taken one word, ‘beware,’ and this little boy would have been saved from the horrors of nightly sexual abuse. We now know of twelve other victims of the church’s coverup. Many more may be still be living in the silence that shame imposes. It has to stop.”

Eine Pressemitteilung der HLT-Kirche liegt noch nicht vor, die kircheneigene Deseret News berichtet jedoch (als Abendausgabe) bereits:

Deseret News, Tuesday, September 04, 2001

Church settles abuse case

LDS officials agree to pay $3 million

By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret News religion editor

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will pay $3 million to settle a child abuse case in Portland after pre-trial motions by a county judge there looked to keep the case in court for years to come, a spokesman said.

Attorney Von Keetch, who represents the church in legal cases involving child abuse, said Tuesday the church "settled this case solely on the basis of litigation economics" and that it "continues to expressly and emphatically deny that it owed any legal liability" to the plaintiff.

"Continuing this litigation, with a trial, an appeal, another trial and probably another appeal, could well cost the church significantly more in legal fees and other costs than the amount that it paid to settle the case," he said.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Timothy Kosnoff, said he and his legal team will have "a lot to say" about the case but deferred further comment until a press conference he said will be held in Salt Lake City Wednesday, "somewhere in the vicinity of Temple Square. We think it’s an important story, but there’s a lot more to the story."

Keetch said the LDS Church, which normally keeps such out-of-court settlements and financial amounts confidential, had no interest in maintaining that confidentiality in this case. In fact, the church contacted local reporters about the case and set up individual media briefings throughout the day Tuesday, rather than announcing its settlement at a collective press conference.

Asked why the church is opting to discuss the settlement, Keetch said the "church has learned by experience that inevitably these cases come in to the press through the plaintiffs. The church has a story it wanted to get out as to the reason it’s settling, and that’s why it decided to go forward as it did."

The case involves a complaint filed in 1998 against the church by Jeremiah Scott, whose Portland-area family agreed to house 88-year-old Franklin Curtis after he moved into the Brentwood LDS ward in the Portland area and was living in a rest home. Unbeknownst to the family, Curtis — who was then a member of the church and had been ordained to the office of high priest — had a prior record of child abuse in another ward in the Portland area in the early 1980s, moved to Pennsylvania and was then excommunicated by church leaders in Pennsylvania when they found out about the abuse from Portland officials.

Keetch said that in the early 1980s, when Curtis was first convicted of abuse and excommunicated, "no church, including this one, had the ability to track all its members and inform every bishop in the country about the members’ past history."

In the mid-1990s, Keetch said, the church began an "annotation program" that notes on individual membership records whether church members have any history of child abuse.

After residing in Pennsylvania for a time, Curtis returned to the Portland area, and when the Scott family invited him to live with them, then-Bishop Gregory Lee Foster advised Mrs. Scott against having Curtis move in with them because he questioned whether they had the resources to care for him, Keetch said.

At the time the complaint was filed, Scott alleged that Foster knew about Curtis’ past and failed to warn the family. But Keetch said Foster’s sworn deposition "is uncontradicted that he never knew" about the past abuse.

"The plaintiffs kind of let that one go after a while. I think they believed their claim was better if he didn’t know. Foster’s sworn statement is that he never in his mind knew (about the abuse) when Mrs. Scott talked to him" about the living arrangement.

The case involves many of the same issues the church has faced before in lawsuits alleging knowledge of child abuse or actual abuse on the part of a church leader, but Keetch emphasized that even though Curtis, who is now deceased, was a high priest in the church, he was never authorized in any way to act as "clergy" either for Scott and his family or for any other members of the congregation.

Keetch said the church has taken exception to the way Multnomah County Circuit Judge Ellen F. Rosenblum handled the case on at least four different issues in pre-trial hearings and conferences. He said the court ruled that:

"A church could be held liable for conduct committed by a member against another member, when the abuse did not occur as part of a church activity or on church premises.

"The church disclose confidential confessions from individuals who had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Curtis’ abuse of Scott.

"Plaintiff’s counsel could argue that Mr. Curtis held the position of ’clergy’ in The Church of Jesus Christ because he was a ’high priest,’ despite the church’s clear doctrine that ’high priest’ is a commonly used membership designation that carries no specific leadership responsibility.

"The church could be held directly responsible for an intentional act committed by one of its 11 million members, even if the church had no knowledge beforehand."

Keetch said the church tried "vigorously" to defend its claim of confidentiality for church members who had reported child abuse in the past and whose records were then ordered to be disclosed by the court to the plaintiffs’ attorneys. "These and other erroneous rulings turned a weak claim into a potentially lengthy and expensive legal battle, involving multiple appeals and an eventual retrial," Keetch said. Consequently, the church "elected to settle the case and devote its resources to its principal mission, proclaiming the gospel, rather than continuing to pursue costly litigation."

Keetch said the church offered to provide "counseling and other assistance to Mr. Scott, solely out of concern for his well-being." Rather than accepting the offer, Scott filed a claim for $1.5 billion in damages against the church.

While the church has fought protracted legal battles in other child abuse cases, Keetch said the economics of this particular case dictated the settlement.

"There is no religious organization which does more to protect children — or which reaches out more to assist children who have been physically or sexually abused — than does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church strongly believes that victims of child abuse need professional counseling, love, safety and other forms of assistance. It provides assistance and helps victims of child abuse in dozens of different ways. It condemns child abuse in the strongest terms and is constantly working to assist its members and others with this devastating societal problem."

http://deseretnews.com/dn/print/1,1442,300007425,00.html

So, so, die HLT ist also die Religionsgemeinschaft, die wohl mehr tut als alle anderen um körperlich und sexuell missbrauchten Kindern zu helfen. Dass ich nicht lache!

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