First Judge Thomas and Now Father Stepek - Defame and Be Sued!
Class Action Lawyers bent on bankrupting every Catholic diocese in the name of protecting the innocent deserve greater scrutiny from the media, trial lawyers, insurance companies, and Catholics. Like The Simpson's Lionel Hutz every opportunity to bring charges is a Lotto ticket. Until now. Maybe, Father Stepek's stand will reverse this trend to blanket charges against dioceses in the hope of a jackpot.
This morning's Daily Southtown article by the estimable Stephanie Gehring deals with a priest accused of sexually molesting two boys ( now men) suing his two accusers.
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/152649,291nws3.article
Note the tone taken by career pettifogger Jeff Anderson at the end of the article. Anderson, has bankrupted many a Catholic Diocese in this country and has set up shop here in Chicago, where pickings are plentiful.
The Catholic Church in America thanks to its gutless and PC addicted bishops have helped 'cottage-industry' ambulance chasers get MEGA rich on the suffering of young kids abused by priests, the inablity of the American Church to take responsibilty for predator priests, and the universal climate of shaken faith. Priests who molested young boys and girls were protected by bishops more concerned with PC and propriety opened the door for a a cottage industry that allows any priest, any man wearing a stiff-collar, vulnerable to an accusation and any diocese open for a looting.
All one needs to do is accuse a priest of sexual misconduct and a Lotto Ticket is printed by Class Action Suit Anderson.
I hope that Father Stepek not only goes after his accusers but also the industry that encouraged them.
Send Predator Priests to Pontiac, Michigan City, Terra Haute, Westville, and other penal garden spots, but do not allow shameless opportunists to get rich by bankrupting a Church.
4 comments:
I think it is uncharacteristic of a priest (who should be fogiving to a fault) to file such a suit, but that's really his only recourse. If the brothers are, indeed, wrongly accusing him, there should be consequences. Our criminal justice system provides no justice for those who are the victim of such premeditated attempts to ruin their repuations, career, and lives. The spector of a civil lawsuit is the only thing to discourage what, in all fairness, should be a crime. The problem is that there is a concern that criminalizing false accusations might lead to the discouragement of legitimate complaints which may be difficult to prove. Ironically, based on the burden of proof requirements for civil vs. criminal cases, it might actually be better to have those accused of such defamation be tried to the standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" than "by a preponderance of the evidence."
But then again, I'm not a lawyer. Perhaps there is some technical stuff I'm missing that makes my comments invalid.
GOP,
No lawyer myself and most of what I post here comes from the heart - my more Surreal comments are saved for the truly snotty.
I think that you are quite right about false accusations being ripe for criminal prosecutions; however, good sense went the way of ALL ACLU lawsuits to 'protect free speech' - really they mean to undermine any and all confidence in our justice, moral and civil codes.
Whenever the ACLU gets misty eyed about the Constitution, we can be sure that another weave in the American fabric of life will be taken out. Just so with the meaning of 'fair' and 'innocent' - they seem to be moveable feasts to the radical left and their handmaids.
I hope that this suit slows down the activities of lawyers like Anderson.
it would be nice if Stepek pledged to donate any award he gets from the settlement of the suit to some sort of foundation to assist priests who have been wrongfully accused re-establish their good names and good faith.
It would at that.
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