Plaintiff alleges diocese knew about abuse but did nothing
By Allyssa D. Dudley
The Daily Record Newswire
ST. LOUIS, MO - A Jackson County jury will continue to wrestle this week with whether the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph knew about allegations of abuse by one of its priests in the early 1980s and did nothing to stop it.
The case - the first involving abuse by a Catholic priest to go to trial in recent history - commenced Sept. 29. The trial is scheduled to continue through Tuesday, but an attorney for the defense, Chad Blomberg, said it could last until the end of the week.
The plaintiff, Jon David Couzens, alleges that the diocese was told time and time again that Monsignor Thomas J. O'Brien was abusing male students at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary school. The diocese's lack of action allegedly allowed Couzens to be molested by O'Brien in the church sacristy, and Couzens is seeking more than $10 million in damages.
Couzens' attorney, Rebecca Randles of Randles, Mata & Brown, said in opening statements that the diocese had sent O'Brien for counseling and that a letter in the bishop's files said O'Brien's alcoholism caused him to act out sexually.
"Despite this admitted knowledge, nothing happened," Randles said.
O'Brien, the subject of multiple suits alleging abuse, died in October 2013, and the diocese's then-bishop, John Sullivan, died in 2001. There is only record of one complaint, said an attorney for the diocese, David Frye of Lathrop & Gage. Everything else is hearsay - a frequent objection in Judge James F. Kanatzar's Independence courtroom last week.
During opening statements, Frye set clear parameters for the trial: It is not about whether O'Brien abused underage boys, and it is not about whether the diocese did enough to discipline O'Brien. The only question before the jury, he said, is whether the diocese failed to do anything at all.
Frye said the one official report of abuse made to Sullivan in regard to O'Brien led to O'Brien's removal from contact with children. There was no written record of prior calls, he said, and the diocese said it could not rely on rumors or hearsay.
But according to Janice Fristoe, there were not just rumors. As the first female member of Nativity's school board, Fristoe said she had been told by two teachers that students were being removed from class at an alarming rate.
"There were concerns about Monsignor O'Brien's behavior with the boys. It was different than what [the teachers] had seen before," Fristoe said.
Fristoe said she told Father John Tulipana she had "deep concerns" about O'Brien and asked to speak with Sullivan. She got a meeting with the bishop, and Tulipana accompanied her. Fristoe said she tried to be "diplomatic" with her words but expressed to Sullivan that she believed O'Brien was abusing children at Nativity. Sullivan allegedly responded that O'Brien had a drinking problem.
"He wasn't grasping what I was saying," she said. "I was so appalled and upset that he could boil it down to the drinking."
One of the teachers testified that she and at least two others told a representative of the diocese in 1983 about their concerns over O'Brien's behavior, that "boys always seemed to be around him," and that he was an alcoholic. The representative, a nun, told the educators if "we didn't like it, we could leave," she said.
Two other alleged O'Brien victims testified. Now grown men, they said O'Brien had molested them and they reported the incidents.
But, the defense asked over and over, where is the proof? Fristoe did not take notes during her meeting with the bishop, she said. The boys did not report their attacks directly to the diocese, or if they did, there is no record of it.
The trial began shortly after the current bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, Robert Finn, had a closed-door meeting with Vatican representative Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, diocese spokesman Jack Smith said.
Although Smith would not disclose the purpose of the meeting - saying "the process and visit are supposed to be secret; we cannot comment further" - the National Catholic Reporter reported that it involved an investigation into Finn's leadership abilities.
Published: Tue, Oct 07, 2014
