National Roundup

Georgia
Bureau probing extortion allegations against sheriff
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into extortion allegations against a county sheriff.

The state Attorney General’s office requested the GBI open an investigation into Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor on Sept. 14, a bureau spokeswoman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution  on Tuesday. The GBI said the investigation is “active and ongoing,” but the agency could not provide any additional information.

Taylor, a Democrat, was still a candidate at the time and was elected two months later, becoming the county’s first Black sheriff.

Four lawsuits — one federal and three state — have been filed against Taylor by three Gwinnett County bail bond companies whose businesses were shut down. Their owners claim that Taylor retaliated against them because they did not donate to his election campaign.

The federal lawsuit filed by Anytime Bail Bonding included a video of Taylor in April 2019 allegedly saying, “if folks don’t support me, I’m not gonna let them bond here.”

In a statement released May 13, Taylor said the video was “misleading” and taken out of context, adding that allegations were “nothing more than a political stunt and trial tactic that attacks my character, my integrity, and my commitment to criminal justice and bail bond reform.”

The sheriff’s statement said he has “sole discretion” over which bail bond companies can operate in the county, and “eliminated several that did not meet my high standards for various reasons.”

The state cases were filed by Anytime Bail Bonding, A-Action, and The Bondsman. That case was dismissed on Tuesday, according to a legal assistant with the county law department; The Bondsman’s owner said he plans to appeal.

Taylor declined to comment to the newspaper and his spokesperson also declined a request for comment on the GBI investigation, the Journal-Constitution said Tuesday.

Illinois
Court: Pedophile ex-priest can’t be held longer than sentence
CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois appeals court has reversed a trial judge’s ruling that a convicted child molester and defrocked priest can be held longer than his sentence, according to a Tuesday court filing.

A three-judge panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court ruled Cook County prosecutors failed to prove Daniel McCormack’s mental disorder would likely cause him to re-offend, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. McCormack completed his five-year sentence in 2009 for molesting five boys in Chicago’s St. Agatha’s Roman Catholic parish. He has been in state custody since.

Judge Dennis Porter in 2017  declared  McCormack a sexually violent person who should remain indefinitely in a state facility for sex offenders. During the hearing, psychiatrist Dr. Angelique Stanislaus, testifying for the state, and Dr. Raymond Wood, a defense expert, both concluded that McCormack had pedophilic disorder. They differed in that Wood said McCormack and a ``below average” risk of re-offending, while Stanislaus testified it was ``much more likely than not” he would re-offend.

In its decision, the three-judge panel said that while they agree McCormack’s mental disorder could cause him to re-offend, Stanislaus failed to offer an explanation as to why the risk is ‘substantial.

McCormack’s attorney Michael Johnson said he was grateful the court followed the law. He said the decision won’t be final until a mandate is issued in about 35 days.

An internal report by the Archdiocese of Chicago found 30 “substantiated” claims of abuse at the hands of McCormack

The archdiocese has paid about $140 million to settle sex abuse claims, including those against McCormack.

New?Jersey
Lawsuit: Former archbishop abused girl, 5
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — An archbishop of Newark groomed a 5-year-old girl by delivering food to her struggling family and regularly babysitting her, then sexually abusing her on multiple occasions in the 1970s, a lawsuit alleges.

The suit filed in March is believed to be the first to level sexual abuse charges against the late Peter Gerety, who died in 2016 at 104 as the world’s oldest Catholic bishop. Gerety served as archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark from 1974 until his retirement in 1986, according to the archdiocese’s website.

Prior to serving in Newark, Gerety had served in New Haven, Connecticut, and Portland, Maine.

In an affidavit accompanying the lawsuit, the plaintiff, a woman now in her late 40s, alleged Gerety gained her trust by helping her family and praising her as “such a smart and pretty young girl.” Eventually, the lawsuit claims, Gerety took her to a bedroom in the church rectory and masturbated while abusing her. The abuse happened at least three or four times, according to the lawsuit that refers to the woman by the pseudonym Clara Doe.

She didn’t tell anyone about the abuse until she was 13 and confided in her sister. She became suicidal in her 20s and still suffers from anxiety and depression requiring medication, according to the affidavit.
“I have suffered from extreme difficulty navigating intimate relationships, and I continue to experience bouts of anger, as well as difficulties when involved in relationships and attempting to be intimate in the context of these relationships,” she wrote.

The Newark archdiocese declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, but a spokesperson said by email it was committed to transparency and “to our long-standing programs to protect the faithful and will continue to work with victims, their legal representatives and law enforcement authorities in an ongoing effort to resolve allegations and bring closure to victims.”

The suit alleges negligence, infliction of emotional distress and breach of fiduciary duty, and sets a figure of $50 million in compensatory damages and additional, unspecified punitive damages against Gerety’s estate, the Newark archdiocese and other unnamed entities and individuals.

“This case is indicative of how systemic and pervasive the sexual abuse of children was, and remains to this day, in the Catholic church,” said John Baldante, an attorney representing the woman.

Gerety was succeeded as Newark archbishop by Theodore McCarrick, who went on to become archbishop of Washington, D.C. and later Cardinal. McCarrick was defrocked in 2019 by Pope Francis after a church investigation substantiated allegations that he sexually abused minors as well as adult seminarians.

Gerety’s name didn’t appear on a list released two years ago by New Jersey’s five Roman Catholic dioceses naming more than 180 priests credibly accused of abusing minors over a span of decades.

The lawsuit was first reported  by The Record last week.