Victims sue Jefferson City Diocese for ‘shameless cover-up’ of sexual abuse
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Five people claiming Catholic priests abused them in Mid-Missouri accused the diocese of covering up and sometimes encouraging their assaults over decades.
The five victims, identified only by their initials, sued the Jefferson City Diocese and Bishop Shawn McKnight in federal court on Thursday. The five plaintiffs and their attorney, Rebecca Randles of Randles Mata, accused the diocese of a "shameless cover-up" throughout the last 50 years and said it "hindered Plaintiffs from discovering their causes of action against the Defendants for their negligent and intentional conduct."
A diocese spokesman declined to comment on the substance of the allegations while the lawsuit is in the courts.
“The Diocese of Jefferson City is aware of this lawsuit," Jacob Luecke said in response to questions from ABC 17 News. "Out of respect for the judicial process, we will decline to comment at this time.”
The lawsuit details abuse by several members of the church, some of whom have already faced criminal charges or have been identified by the diocese. McKnight, who took over the diocese in 2018, published a list of clergy who were "credibly accused" of sex crimes in 2018. Two of them -- Fathers Gerald Howard, who once went by Carmen Sita, and Thomas Duggan -- are mentioned in the new lawsuit.
The five victims reported that they were abused at various churches around Mid-Missouri. One reported that Father Francis Gilgannon and a "Father Dave" abused him while going to St. Joseph Cathedral School in Jefferson City in the 1970s between the ages of 9 and 11. Another reported that Father David Darr abused them at a "small Catholic church" in Mid-Missouri in the 1980s.
An adult woman in Linn County accused Duggan of abusing her while seeking counseling. She claims Duggan "crossed boundaries and sexualized the therapy" by fondling her.
Two victims sued the diocese over abuse they say they suffered at Howard's hands in the 1980s. The priest pleaded guilty in 2014 in Cooper County to three counts of sodomy and received a 12-year sentence. The lawsuit said Howard changed his name from Carmen Sita after he abused boys in a different state and was reassigned to St. Peter and Paul Parish in Jefferson City. He was removed from there when officials found marijuana in his rectory, according to the lawsuit.
Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said that Howard was released from prison in 2019. He had served more than four years in jail before the guilty plea.
The lawsuit brings nine counts against the diocese. It says the diocese failed to report the abuse it knew about to state authorities under a law mandating its reporting in 2003. They claim that the diocese hid the knowledge it had of its priests' prior abuse from the public and continued to give the priests access to children. By not disclosing it to the public, Randles argues that church stopped some of the victims from coming forward.
"The actions of the Diocese and Bishop that enabled the Abusers to have access to children and hold themselves out as priests, father figures, counselors or mentors to their parishioners and young children with whom they came into contact, were outrageous and utterly repugnant to a civilized society," Randles wrote.
McKnight asked the Missouri Attorney General's Office in 2018 to review the diocese's files on abuse after a massive grand jury report in Pennsylvania found hundreds of priests abused children over decades. A report from the Jefferson City Diocese later that year identified dozens of clergy members with credible accusations of abuse.
"I humbly and sincerely offer my deepest apologies to those who have been abused by clergy and religious," McKnight wrote in 2018. "I also offer my condolences to them, their families, friends, and communities."
