Christian Brothers
File for Bankruptcy
Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala
April 29, 2011
http://www.pcvalaw.com/christian-brothers-file-bankruptcy/
http://www.pcvalaw.com/christianbrothers/cb-evidence/
Over the past eight years, our attorneys have settled more cases
against the Congregation of Christian Brothers than anyone else
in the United States. During that time we have gathered an extensive
amount of evidence regarding their sexual abuse of children in both
the United States and around the world, going back to the 1940s.
Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Force Christian Brothers to Declare
Bankruptcy
(New York) – The Congregation of Christian Brothers, a Catholic
religious order, has filed for bankruptcy protection over allegations
that its members sexually abused scores of children in the United
States and Canada. Last year, the Congregation of Christian Brothers
came under fire over a report by the government of Ireland
that its members sexually abused thousands of children in that country.
Although the Christian Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection
in New York, under the name of the Christian Brothers Institute,
the majority of the active lawsuits were filed over allegations
of sexual abuse at schools and orphanages the Brothers owned and
operated in Washington state and Canada.
Seattle sexual abuse attorney Michael Pfau, who filed ten of the
active claims in Washington state and has settled more than 50 others
against the Christian Brothers in the past eight years, claims the
Brothers filed for bankruptcy in an effort to shield their assets
in Rome. “Ever since they came to the United States the Christian
Brothers have accumulated money and assets for their headquarters
in Ireland and then Rome. It is a worldwide organization that doesn’t
want to be held responsible, either legally or financially, for
what it knew its members were doing to children in the United States
and Canada.”
At one point, the North American Province owned or operated more
than a dozen orphanages and schools around the United States and
in Canada. Currently, its Brothers staff schools across the United
States, including Brother Rice High School in Chicago, O’Dea
High School in Seattle, and Damien Memorial School in Hawaii.
According to Pfau, it is unclear how many victims may come forward
as a result of the bankruptcy filing. “The Christian Brothers
came to New York at the turn of the last century and they slowly
moved West. They operated schools in many states, including New
York, Chicago, Montana, Washington, California, and Hawaii. Given
the severity of sexual abuse we have seen in their internal documents,
and their cover-up of that abuse, it is difficult to imagine how
many children were likely abused at their schools.”
The Christian Brothers are the second Catholic religious order
to declare bankruptcy in the last two years over claims that its
members sexually abused children. Just last month, the Oregon Province
of the Jesuits announced it had settled the claims of more than
450 victims who came forward after it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
According to Pfau, who represents nearly 150 victims in the Jesuit
bankruptcy, the two bankruptcies are similar because both orders
are alleged to have frequently sent abusers to places where they
could molest orphans or children from broken homes. “This
Christian Brothers organization has caused irreparable damage to
a staggering number of children who were entrusted in their care.
They made money taking over the care of children, but put many of
their members who were known abusers in charge of them. Nobody else
was there to protect them. The results were predictable and horrific,
and then they tried to cover it up. This bankruptcy is just another
effort for them to avoid responsibility for this tragedy.”
Pfau acknowledges the bankruptcy will lead to closure for abuse
victims, but fears the Christian Brothers may try to use it to hide
the full story of their alleged abuses. “The bankruptcy should
be beneficial to victims in terms of providing some amount of closure,
but it is frustrating to the extent it will allow the Christian
Brothers to further conceal a century-worth of wrongdoing.”
More than Fifty Claims in Washington State Alone
In the past eight years, the Christian Brothers have faced more
than fifty cases in Washington state over allegations of sexual
abuse at schools they jointly operated with the Seattle Archdiocese.
Briscoe Memorial School
Approximately thirty-five of those claims arose from allegations
of sexual abuse at the now-defunct Briscoe Memorial School, which
was an orphanage and boarding school located a short distance from
Seattle. Briscoe was owned by the Seattle Archdiocese and jointly
operated by the Archdiocese and the Christian Brothers.
In the five active cases regarding Briscoe, the plaintiffs allege
physical and sexual abuse at Briscoe was rampant. For example, they
claim that by the early 1950s, two of eight Christian Brothers
who had worked at Briscoe were removed after they admitted to molesting
children. According to the plaintiffs, the conditions only worsened
and the abuse of children continued. In total, more than thirty-five
men have alleged they were sexually abused by various Christian
Brothers at Briscoe between 1940 and when the school finally closed
in 1970.
O’Dea High School
While the Briscoe cases involve allegations against a number of
Christian Brothers, the organization has also faced more than a
dozen claims over allegations of sexual abuse by one former Christian
Brother, Edward Courtney.
According to an
internal document filed with a Washington court, the Brothers
first learned of abuse by Courtney in the late 1960s. Over the next
several years, they transferred him between four schools in Chicago
and Michigan, removing him each time over allegations of child abuse.
In March 1974, minutes
from their Provincial Council show the Brothers voted to prevent
Courtney from having contact “in any way, shape or form”
at his prior schools,” but a little over a month later, they
debated whether to make him a groundskeeper or send him to O’Dea
High School in Seattle. In September 1974, they voted
to send him to Seattle.
Over the next four years, internal documents and testimony on file
with the court show the Christian Brothers and the Seattle Archdiocese
learned that Courtney was molesting students at the school but did
not remove him. For example, in approximately 1975, the
school’s principal, vice-principal, and religious superior
were confronted with allegations that Courtney had molested
a student. A year later, an internal visitation report
described how Courtney was a “constant source of anxiety”
for the school’s principal who “cannot ignore complaints
coming to his office.”
Courtney was not removed from the school until 1978. According
to the Provincial at the time: “This past spring of 1978
there was another confrontation of parents with (sic) Principal
telling of three incidents during the year when their son had been
abused. We were pretty well at the end of our options at this point.”
The same letter acknowledged the danger that Courtney posed to children:
“I do not believe he should be teaching at all and that he
would be much better off physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually
anywhere except in a teaching Congregation.”
Despite this conclusion, the principal of O’Dea, John McGraw,
wrote Courtney a letter of recommendation and praised
him as a “tremendous asset” who “would be an excellent
addition to any school’s administration.”
Jason Amala, a Seattle sexual abuse attorney who works with Pfau
on the Christian Brothers cases, believes the evidence they have
discovered demonstrates the severity of the abuse scandal in the
Catholic Church, particularly within the Christian Brothers. “The
public needs to know this was more than negligence. This was a deliberate
disregard for children. They knew he molested children at four different
schools and then they sat down and voted on whether to make him
their gardener or to send him to another school. They unanimously
agreed to send him to another school and kept him there for four
years while they knew he was molesting kids. When he finally left,
they wrote him a glowing letter of recommendation. It was criminal.”
Amala also believes the evidence regarding Courtney sheds light
on a common defense the Catholic church has asserted during the
abuse scandal, that it believed abusive clerics could be treated.
“The Christian Brothers sent Brother Courtney to two psychiatrists
and they knew he continued to re-offend, sometimes while in treatment.
Rather than deny him any further access to kids, they shipped him
to Seattle and sent him to a third and fourth psychiatrist. He kept
re-offending, they knew it, and they did nothing. We now know the
counseling was a calculated way for the Christian Brothers to feign
ignorance if they ever got caught.”
Although Courtney left O’Dea High School in 1978, he did
not leave Seattle or quit teaching. Instead, the Seattle Archdiocese
appointed
him as the principal of St. Alphonsus Parish School, a grade
school in Seattle. A year later, Courtney was removed from that
position after parents complained to the school’s pastor,
Jeff Sarkies, that Courtney had molested their sons. Courtney left
the grade school after meeting with Sarkies, the Archdiocese’s
lawyer, and its Office of Education. According to a
letter written by Sarkies to Courtney, they cut a deal. The
Archdiocese would keep the matter “quiet” so long as
Courtney left immediately. Sarkies advised Courtney that “to
alter that course would be to run the very real risk of turning
this situation into a cause célèbre thereby doing
damage to your name and reputation and that of the school.”
In line with that agreement, the Archdiocese certified
Courtney as fit for teaching and wrote him a letter
of recommendation. According to Amala, the decision reflects
how little Church officials cared about protecting children. “Rather
than call the police or take any action against his teaching certificate,
the Archdiocese re-endorsed him, wrote him a letter of recommendation,
and then cut him loose into the public school system. They were
more concerned with protecting their reputation than protecting
children in the public schools. Their own letter says as much. And
as they knew he would, he kept molesting children.”
In 1982, Courtney moved to the small farming community of Othello,
Washington, where he continued working as a teacher. According
to the superintendent at the time, “we were impressed
with his history of teaching assignments and letters of recommendation.”
After four years in Othello, a boy’s family went
to the police with allegations that he was sexually abused by
Courtney. Courtney fled to Nevada, but was
eventually extradited back to Washington and pled
guilty to indecent liberties. He surrendered
his teaching certificates, but he never served a day in jail. Last
year, Pfau and Amala settled three claims with the Christian Brothers
and the Seattle Archdiocese on behalf of three men who were sexually
abused by Courtney in Othello.
“The bankruptcy should be beneficial to victims in terms
of providing some amount of closure, but it is frustrating to the
extent it will allow the Christian Brothers to further conceal a
century-worth of wrongdoing.”
Other Documents
2009-10-07 – JB – Plffs Opp to Summary
Judgment Motions
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