The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Tag: Roman Catholic Church

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest James Talbot Faces New Sexual Assault Charges

    father james talbot

    The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.

    Catholic priest James Talbot was indicted earlier this month on charges of gross sexual assault. Talbot previously spent six years in prison after pleading guilty to raping two high school students.

    Dennis Hoey, a reporter for the Press Herald, writes:

    A former Jesuit priest who taught and coached at Cheverus High School for nearly two decades before being fired in 1998 is scheduled to be arraigned in Portland on charges he sexually assaulted a minor in Freeport nearly 20 years ago.

    A grand jury indictment dated Nov. 9 and obtained by the Press Herald on Tuesday identifies the priest as 80-year-old James Francis Talbot of Dittmer, Missouri.

    The indictment charges Talbot with gross sexual assault, a Class A offense, and with unlawful sexual contact, a Class C offense.

    The indictment alleges that Talbot engaged in a sexual act with a minor and subjected the minor, who was 8 or 9 years old at the time, to sexual contact on or between May 1, 1997, and June 14, 1998.

    The indictment said the alleged crimes took place in Freeport, but offered no information about a specific location, Talbot’s relationship to the minor, or why Talbot was in Freeport. It also was not clear why the charges are being brought now or whether this is the first time Talbot has been charged in Maine.

    According to Maine statute of limitations, a prosecution for incest, unlawful sexual contact, sexual abuse of a minor, rape or gross sexual assault may be commenced at any time if the victim was not 16 at the time of the alleged crime.

    The Boston Globe reported in October 2005 that Talbot pleaded guilty to raping and sexually assaulting two Boston College High School students in the 1970s and was sentenced to five to seven years in prison. Prosecutors said the assaults took place during wrestling practices.

    When Talbot was accused of molesting the Boston College high students in 2002, the president of Cheverus said the school was unaware of the incidents in Boston when Talbot was hired in 1980.

    “It was absolutely not known,” the Rev. John Keegan told the Press Herald in March 2002. “I was superior of the community and I would have heard. But there were no hints at all.”

    Talbot served six years before he was released in 2011. He was ordered by the court to live out of state in a secure, monitored treatment facility.

    ….

    Talbot was targeted in the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation into abuses that had occurred within the Catholic Church. The Globe’s investigation resulted in the movie “Spotlight” that told the story of how the newspaper uncovered the sex abuse scandal in the Boston church.

    In a March 2002 Spotlight article, the reporting team said that Talbot coached wrestling at Boston College High School and that he engaged in a “bizarre habit” of wrestling with students who were in various stages of undress, including wearing only athletic supporters. He was transferred to Cheverus High School in 1980.

    The Globe reported that Michael S. Doherty of Freeport filed a lawsuit against Talbot in 1997 for molesting him while he was a student at Cheverus. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, the Globe reported. No criminal charges were filed because the alleged abuse fell outside the statute of limitations at that time.

     

     

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Felix Broussard Still Awaiting Trial on Child Porn Charges

    pastor felix broussard

    The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.

    Felix Broussard, pastor of St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana is still awaiting trial on child pornography charges. According to a previous news report, Broussard “repented” after every time he looked at child porn [the blood of Jesus making pedophiles and sexual predators “clean” for 2,000 years].

    Ken Stickney, a reporter for The Daily Advertiser, writes:

    The Rev. F. David Broussard, charged 16 months ago with 500 counts of possession of child pornography, may yet get his day in court.

    But it didn’t happen Monday in 16th Judicial District Court in St. Martin Parish, where he was scheduled to appear before Judge Vincent J. Borne. Broussard’s name was called in court simply as “Felix Broussard,” but he did not appear before the judge after court officials scoured the courtroom to see if the defendant was present to stand. Court officials said they were not fully certain why Broussard was absent.

    ….

    A priest for more than two decades, Broussard was arrested in July 2016 after a repair technician discovered more than 500 images of child sex abuse on Broussard’s personal computer. Broussard had brought the computer in for repairs and the technician, after discovering the images, was required by law to report the crime.

    Broussard had been assigned to St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church in Breaux Bridge at the time of his arrest; he was also chancellor at the church school.

    A police investigation revealed the images were on Broussard’s computer for about two years. None of the images were of local children, authorities said.

    On the weekend after his arrest, Broussard sent a letter of apology to his parishioners by way of Most Rev. Douglas Deshotel, bishop of Lafayette, who offered Masses at St. Bernard that weekend and read the letter to parishioners.

    Nonetheless, Broussard personally entered a plea of not guilty to the possession of child pornography charges in May before Judge Paul de Mahy.

    At his arrest, Broussard was suspended from his priestly duties by Deshotel. Church law says sex with minors is a sin of adultery and are considered criminal. If he is convicted, the church could convene a tribunal for Broussard, and remove him from the priesthood.

    ….

    In August 2016, KATC-3 reported:

    The Breaux Bridge priest arrested on child pornography charges told investigators he knew viewing the images was wrong and that he “‘repented’ after every episode,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by our investigative team.

    Father David Broussard was arrested on July 27 on 500 counts of child pornography after images allegedly were found Broussard’s computer. The images included both male and female children ranging in age from infancy to 12 years old, and included photos of children involved in sexual activity with other children and adults, according to the arrest affidavit.

    During an interview with investigators, Broussard allegedly admitted that he used the computer to search and view child pornography.

    The computer was found at Broussard’s office or living quarters at St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church, where Broussard was a priest, according to the affidavit.

    Investigators examining the computer learned that it had be used from July 2014 to July 2016 to search for child pornography. Genealogy searches for the surname Broussard were also made on the computer in close proximity of searches for child pornography, according to the arrest affidavit.

    ….

    The initial report in the case of David Broussard, the priest arrested on child pornography charges, indicates State Police were initially contacted by the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office on July 15. The State Police Special Victims Unit found that multiple searches for child pornography were made on Broussard’s computer between July 2014 and July 2016, the document states.

    The computer was “personally owned” by Broussard. The desktop had more than 500 images of child sexual abuse saved, the document states.

    The computer was located a Broussard’s living quarters at the St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church in Breaux Bridge where he was pastor.

    ….

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Ronald Paquin Indicted on 31 Counts of Sexual Misconduct

    ronald paquin

    The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.

    Ronald Paquin, a former priest with the Boston Catholic diocese, was indicted last week on 31 counts of sexual misconduct.

    Seacoast Online reports:

    A York County Grand jury re-indicted a former Catholic priest from Boston on additional charges alleging he repeatedly sexually abused young boys in Kennebunkport in the late 1980′s.

    Ronald Paquin, 75, was originally indicted on 29 counts of sexual misconduct last February stemming from an investigation by Kennebunkport police after one of the victims contacted them. He was re-indicted last week with two new charges, bringing the total now to 31.

    Paquin has been held at the York County Jail since his arrest in February at a homeless shelter in Boston.

    According to Kennebunkport Police Chief Craig Sanford, the two new charges filed last week stem from one of the victims remembering two more events during the course of the ongoing investigation.

    The defrocked priest, formerly of the Boston archdiocese, served more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for abusing an altar boy from 1989 to 1992 while serving as associate pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He was a central figure in the Boston archdiocese’s sex abuse scandal. He pleaded guilty to raping an altar boy in 2002 and was released in 2015.

    ….

    Keith Townsend of Seabrook, New Hampshire, said in an interview with Seacoast Media Group in February that Paquin’s release from jail in 2015 prompted him to contact Kennebunkport police again, leading to the indictments. He first met Paquin when he arrived at St. John the Baptist Church, his family’s church, in 1981.

    Townsend said he was molested by Paquin approximately between the ages of 8 and 13. He said Paquin used alcohol and drugs to control and sedate him during the period of abuse. He said he was one of about 10 other young boys abused together during trips to a camp in Kennebunkport, and that he personally knows the other victim tied to the new indictments.

    ….

    cal coverage, including for medication. He then decided to go to the Kennebunkport Police Department, where he told an officer in a video interview about the abuse, but said he did not contact the department again until Paquin was freed in 2015.

    “I was under the impression he was in jail for the rest of his life,” Townsend said. “When they released him, simple outrage. Nobody is safe as long as this guy’s on the street.”

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Lorenzo Guidotti Berates Rape Victim

    father lorenzo guidotti

    Italian Catholic priest Lorenzo Guidotti is not accused of rape, but he does stand accused of being a Grade A asshole for berating 17-year-old rape victim. Here’s what he had to say:

    “I mean, honey, I am sorry, but 1) you frequent Piazza Verdi (which has become the asshole of Bologna!! […] 2) You get disgustingly drunk! Why? If you participate in the (sub) culture of mayhem, it’s your fucking business if the morning after you wake up who knows where.”

    “After the mistake of getting drunk, who do you walk away with? A North African? Notoriously, especially in Piazza Verdi, very gentlemanly, all professionals, teachers, people of culture, good people.”

    “Honey, at this point waking up half-naked is the least that could happen. I’m sorry, but if you swim in the piranha tank, you can’t complain if when you get out, you’re missing an arm.”

    “Should I feel pity? No.”

    Guidotti rightly faced outrage over his comments. Here’s part of his “apology”:

    “I wish I could meet her [the victim’s mother]. I understand when she says that this is not Christian charity, but I did this with all the charity possible because we are getting used to news of rape. If no one helps our young people, because of complete imputability, then young people must help themselves, by staying away from mayhem. This is what I meant, but I said all the wrong words.”

    priest rant against rape victim

  • Black Collar Crime: 56 Lawsuits Alleging Sexual Abuse Filed Against New Brunswick Catholic Church

    lawsuits against priests

    The Catholic Church in New Brunswick, Canada faces fifty-six lawsuits filed as a result of decades-long sexual abuse by New Brunswick priests.

    Gabrielle Fahmy, a reporter for CBC News, writes:

    Almost every month for a year, lawsuits have been filed against the Catholic Church in New Brunswick by alleged victims seeking compensation for sexual abuse by priests.

    Many of the priests are dead, but that hasn’t stopped the lawsuits in Moncton, Bathurst and Edmundston from piling up.

    CBC News has found at least 56 lawsuits are still before the courts, despite an extensive conciliation process a few years ago.

    At least 11 priests are targeted in the accusations, and one name appears far more often than others.

    “It’s very difficult to see all these new allegations coming in,” said Moncton Archbishop Valéry Vienneau.

    “We are going through a very difficult time. It certainly has not helped our credibility, as priests and as a church.”

    Thirty-two of the accusations are against one individual — Camille Leger.

    Leger was the priest in the Sainte-Thérèse-d’Avila Parish in Cap-Pelé between 1957 and 1980. He died in 1990 without ever being accused or convicted of any crimes. His accusers all came forward after his death.

    The archbishop said he was surprised by the sheer number.

    “It seems that he was a predator all the years that he was in that parish,” Vienneau said.

    According to the court documents, most of Leger’s alleged victims were young boys, generally between seven and 15 years old.

    Many of them were altar boys at the parish, or boy scouts, who were chaperoned by Leger.

    They all allege in court documents that Leger developed a close relationship with them, where he was able to be alone with them.

    The sexual abuse often took place in Sainte-Therese-d’Avila church itself, in Leger’s car, during church-organized trips or at boy scout camp, it’s alleged.

    ….

    Between 2012 and 2014, retired judge Michel Bastarache, who was brought in by the church, spoke to hundreds of victims and worked out a compensation formula for the church to pay them all.

    In the end, the Archdiocese of Moncton had to come up with $10.6 million for victims, and the Diocese of Bathurst $5.5 million.

    Victims received between $15,000 and $300,000, depending on the severity of the abuse, how old they were when it started, and how many years it lasted.

    Bastarache said the conciliation process had to be delayed three times to accommodate new victims, which is why he’s taken aback by so many lawsuits still before the courts.

    “I’m just surprised that the numbers are so high,” he said.

    He also wonders why these alleged victims didn’t take advantage of the process and are choosing to go to court instead.

    “I heard about a hundred victims in Bathurst, another hundred in Moncton, and those people — 90 per cent of them, wanted absolute confidentiality,” said Bastarache.

    “A lot of them never told their story to anyone, not even in their family.”

    The Catholic Church is named in all the lawsuits, accused of knowing or saying it should have known about the alleged abuse.

    The allegations haven’t been tested in court.

    One lawsuit claims the church knew Leger took an unusual interest in children, that some parents had made complaints about him, that he spoke of his “sins” to other priests during confession, and that he was even reported to archdiocese officials for sexual misconduct, yet nothing was done to stop the abuse.

    Fernand Arsenault, a priest for 20 years before he chose to leave the church, knew members of the community and is saddened every time he hears of new allegations of sexual abuse.

    He accused the church of turning a blind eye to the abuse and concealing the crimes of those priests.

    “It’s a terrible mistake,” said Arsenault. “Because we would have saved many lives.”

    Arsenault said that years ago, if a priest reported another priest, he would have been punished, not the abuser.

    But the church, in every filed statement of defence, has systematically denied knowing about any of the abuse at the time.

    ….

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Church Volunteer Terrence Smalls Pleads Guilty to Sexual Abuse

    terrence smalls

    Terrence Smalls, a nursery volunteer at The Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl.

    In December 2016, Fox-5 reported:

    A man who worked with children at a Baltimore County church is accused of sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl.

    Police are investigating only one case at the church, but detectives fear there could be more victims.

    The suspect is Terrence Smalls, 26, of Cockeysville. Police arrested him on Thursday, December 8. Smalls faces sex abuse of a minor and other offenses. Police say Smalls worked as a nursery volunteer at The Church of the Nativity in Timonium. Investigators say the incident happened November 27 when the man took the child to a bathroom in the day care room.

    “The 4-year-old girl told her mother that a church volunteer had sexually abused her during nursery time, during Sunday worship service,” said Cpl. John Wachter, a police department spokesman.

    ….

    Yesterday, Smalls pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor.

    Fox-5 reports:

    A Cockeysville church volunteer was sentenced to 18 years in jail for abusing a 4-year-old girl during Sunday Mass at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium.

    Terrence Smalls, 27, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to 25 years with all but 18 suspended, according to a news release from the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office Tuesday.

    He will be on five years’ probation upon his release.

    The 4-year-old girl told her mother after a November 2016 church service that Smalls, a volunteer in the daycare room of the church, had abused her in the bathroom, according to the news release.

    He encouraged her to go to the bathroom and abused her while the two were alone, according to the investigation.

    He has also served as an aide at the play center at Pot Spring Elementary, the Ultimate Play Zone in Cockeysville, the Little Gym of Hunt Valley and as a teacher’ aide at Pot Springs Elementary School.

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Church Accounting Clerk Barbara Snyder Convicted of Fraud

    theft cartoon

    Barbara Snyder, an accounting clerk at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Onalaska, Wisconsin, was convicted of stealing more than $800,000 from the church, using the money to gamble.

    Anne Jungen, a reporter for the LaCrosse Tribune wrote in August, 2017:

    The former accounting clerk at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Onalaska was convicted Friday of two federal charges that accused of her stealing more than $800,000 from church donors and falsifying her tax return.

    Barbara Snyder, 59, between January 2006 and December 2015 received weekly church donations and paperwork documenting the amount collected. She was responsible for retaining the paperwork, depositing collections and maintaining accounting records reported annually online to a financial services company with a server based in Ohio.

    During her tenure, Snyder misappropriated $832,210 for “the purposes of wagering such funds at nearby casinos,” falsified accounting records and bank deposit slips and covered her misconduct by throwing out paperwork that documented actual church donations, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Madison.
    Snyder reported an income of $162,949 on her 2015 tax return, although prosecutors contend her income “was greater than that reported,” the complaint reported.

    She pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making false statements on tax returns and agreed to make restitution as part of the agreement.

    ….

    Yesterday, Snyder was sentenced to four years in prison.

    A former accounting clerk at a church in Onalaska has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for stealing from her congregation.

    Fifty-nine-year-old Barbara Snyder, of West Salem, was accused of stealing more than $800,000 from St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church when she was responsible for depositing church collections and maintaining accounting records between 2006 and 2015. Authorities said she used the money to gamble at casinos.

    ….

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Dennis Zacheis Accused of Sexual Abuse

    sexual abuse catholic church
    Comic by David Riddick

    Dennis Zacheis, a priest with the Archdiocese of St. Louis, has been accused of sexually abusing a minor.

    The St. Louis Review reports:

    The Archdiocese of St. Louis has received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Father Dennis B. Zacheis. The acts are alleged to have occurred while he was an associate pastor at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish in Mehlville from 1975 to 1979. Father Zacheis denies the allegation.

    Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, in consultation with the Review Board of the archdiocese, made the allegation known for the sake of openness and transparency.

    Father Zacheis retired from ministry without priestly faculties in 2010 due to alleged irregularities in finances for which he was responsible as pastor of St. Anthony in Sullivan. He currently resides in a private residence.

    Father Zacheis served as associate pastor at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in south St. Louis from 1979-85, Christ, Prince of Peace in Manchester from 1985-88 and St. Matthias in Lemay from 1988-92. He was pastor of St. Gertrude Parish in Krakow from 1994-2003, St. Alban Roe in Wildwood from 2003-04 and St. Anthony in Sullivan from 2005-09.

    As pastor of the parish in Sullivan, Father Zacheis also was known for a large number of new Catholics joining the faith in a town that is largely non-Catholic.

    ….

    In 2010, Tim Townsend, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrote:

    A lawyer for a Catholic priest said Friday that his client bears no responsibility for a $60,000 shortfall at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church that has divided the Sullivan parish and triggered a reimbursement from the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

    John Kilo, a lawyer who represents the Rev. Dennis Zacheis, said the priest “denies any wrongdoing whatsoever.”

    A prosecutor, meanwhile, said his decision not to bring criminal charges against the priest follows seven months of investigation in which the archdiocese cooperated fully.

    “If I’d had enough evidence to file criminal charges, (the archdiocese) would have been 100 percent on board,” Franklin County prosecutor Robert Parks said. “As far as I am concerned, the investigation is closed.”

    That’s not good enough for some parishioners who feel the $60,000 is only a portion of what the church of 300 families lost during Zacheis’ tenure between 2005 and April 2009, when the archdiocese removed him “for reasons of health.”

    Those same parishioners question why their former priest had the church pay for a variety of expenses incurred at Lake of the Ozarks, where he owned a waterfront home.

    Financial irregularities at the parish led St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson to take the extraordinary step of visiting the parish personally Wednesday to announce that $60,000 would be restored to St. Anthony’s through the archdiocese’s insurance fund and to pray for healing.

    Parishioner Tammy Emily said at the meeting, “There were several people up there saying that this money was unaccounted for. No one would say it had been taken.”

    Carlson did say that a routine audit of parish finances in 2009 turned up an off-the-books bank account that included $300,000 in disbursements. Nearly $240,000 of the money “came back to help the parish in a variety of ways,” Carlson told parishioners.

    Nonparishioners were asked to leave the meeting before parishioners began asking questions, but those who were there said someone asked how the rest of the $240,000 from the off-the-books account came back to benefit the parish.

    According to those parishioners, Carlson detailed some of the expenditures, saying $100,000 was used to renovate the parish rectory (a priest’s residence) and another $90,000 was used for updates to the church. The archdiocese’s internal auditor, Mike Duffy, later told the Post-Dispatch that about $100,000 was for rectory improvements, and $70,000 was for heating and cooling for the church.

    Walter Korte, a former St. Anthony’s parishioner and friend of Zacheis’, said he was “totally disappointed” in the meeting because of the “personal attacks” on the priest by angry parishioners.

    “I went there for a healing service, and I felt like I’d walked into a crucifixion,” Korte said. “Some of us are grateful he’s in our lives. I had no idea what that meeting would turn into.”

    Kilo said Zacheis “has many supporters and he’s done a lot of good for the parish. He engaged in capital improvements and helped the parish out financially.”

    The archdiocese said Zacheis’ primary residence since leaving St. Anthony’s is Regina Cleri, a home for retired priests on its Shrewsbury campus. Recently, he has been living at Rochester Treatment Center for Clergy and Male Religious in Minnesota. A woman who answered the telephone at the treatment facility Thursday said Zacheis had checked out that morning, and did not know whether he would be returning.

    Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke assigned Zacheis, 63, to St. Anthony’s in 2005 after a stormy 17-month assignment at St. Alban Roe in Wildwood that ended in the priest’s resignation.

    The first two years of Zacheis’ tenure at St. Anthony’s were excluded from any criminal investigation because a three-year statute of limitations on theft meant police could investigate only back to early 2007, Parks said.

     

    ….

    Members of the parish also raised questions about church petty cash and a credit card used to pay expenses at Lake of the Ozarks.

    “Parishioners have no proof of where their money is going, but I can pretty much guarantee no one donated money for (Zacheis) to go have a good time at the lake,” Emily said.

    The archdiocese’s audit details disbursements from a petty-cash checking account and a building-fund checking account, some of which went to payments for Zacheis’ waterfront home at the Lake of the Ozarks, including personal property taxes on his 26-foot PlayCraft tritoon boat.

    Other items from the audit include church credit card payments to a variety of retailers and services in Lake Ozark and Osage Beach, Mo., including at the Horny Toad Bar & Grill at the Camden on the Lake resort, just across Workmen Hollow Cove from the priest’s Horseshoe Bend lake house.

    The audit lists credit card expenditures from Lake of the Ozarks retailers such as Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Hy-Vee Foods and Sam’s Club; restaurants from McDonald’s to high-end lake spots like the Blue Heron and Bentley’s; and numerous clothing stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and American Eagle Outfitter.

    It also lists hundreds of dollars in credit card and bank late fees, overdraft fees and finance charges.

    Carlson told St. Anthony’s parishioners Wednesday that the archdiocese had notified civil authorities of financial discrepancies in two other cases recently, neither of which involved Zacheis.

    The first involved about $40,000 missing at the Cathedral Basilica. The second involved “improper documentation” of expenditures by an outside vendor working on three construction projects for three different parishes and $95,000 missing, according to Duffy.

    ….

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Louis Brouillard Faces 87 Lawsuits over His Sexual Abuse of Minors

    louis brouillard

    Louis Brouillard, 96, spent a lifetime sexually molesting church children. Told  by Catholic church officials to ” try to do better and say prayers as a penance,” Brouillard now faces eighty-seven lawsuits over lifelong predatory behavior.

    Haidee V Eugenio, a reporter for the Pacific Daily News, writes:

    A priest accused of sexual abuse was sent from Guam to Minnesota for “help with his personal problems” in 1981, and later barred from serving as a priest after questions arose about a house guest from the island, according to a statement from the Diocese of Duluth.

    Louis Brouillard, 96, is accused of sexually abusing minors in 87 lawsuits filed since the beginning of the year. He served as a pastor, teacher and Boy Scout leader on Guam, and he has admitted to molesting 20 or more boys here.

    In three recent lawsuits, he is accused of paying to bring boys from Guam to Minnesota, where he continued to abuse them. One of the lawsuits alleges he moved a boy into a two-bedroom retirement home apartment where he lived with his elderly parents.

    Brouillard would have been about 60 at the time.

    “Father Bouillard was sent to the Diocese of Duluth in 1981 in the hope that he would receive help with personal problems,” said Kyle Eller, communications director for the Diocese of Duluth.

    “While in the diocese, he did assist at several parishes. In 1985, Father Bouillard’s faculties to serve as a priest in the Duluth Diocese were revoked after questions were raised about a guest from Guam staying with him,” Eller wrote.

    Brouillard, who continues to receive a monthly retirement check from the Archdiocese of Agana, was ordained as a priest on Guam in 1948 and served here until 1981. He is being deposed in Minnesota this week in connection with the Guam lawsuits.

    In 2013, Brouillard’s name appeared on a list of priests released by the Diocese of Duluth with credible allegations of child sexual abuse against them.

    Although the Diocese of Duluth did not specify the nature of Brouillard’s personal problems, he had at least one criminal sexual conduct complaint filed against him shortly before leaving the island, according to a lawsuit.

    In 1980, Brouillard was moved to St. Williams Catholic Church in Tumon, now the Blessed Diego de San Vitores Church, according to a lawsuit. While at St. Williams, according to a separate lawsuit, he was named in a criminal sex abuse complaint filed with police.

    Former altar boy and Boy Scout Felix Manglona said he was abused by Brouillard when he was 13, and “after several years passed, Felix was assisting the statistician at the Guam Police Department under the cadet program. While performing his daily duties to review police reports and collect data, Felix reviewed a police report pertaining to Brouillard. Upon information and belief, an incident occurred at the St. Williams Catholic Church in Tumon involving Brouillard and a minor boy, resulting in a sexual abuse complaint being filed against Brouillard,” the lawsuit states.

    Brouillard’s sexual activities involving children had been known to church officials for at least a decade before he left the island, according to an affidavit Brouillard signed last year.

    “My actions were discussed and confessed to area priests as well as Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner who had approached me to talk about the situation. I was told to try to do better and say prayers as a penance,” he said in the affidavit.

    Baumgartner died in 1970.

    While at St. Williams, according to a lawsuit, Brouillard abused an altar boy, identified in court documents only as F.S.L. to protect his privacy. In 1981,when Brouillard moved to Minnesota, he invited F.S.L. and a friend to spend the summer with him. While there, according to the lawsuit, the boys were sexually abused.

    Another lawsuit, filed by plaintiff J.T., stated that he was abused by Brouilard on Guam from 1972 to 1976. Around 1981, Brouillard brought him Minnesota, telling his parents he would be able to attend college there.The lawsuit said Brouillard tried to rape him in Minnesota.

    More than 140 sex abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Agana, 16 clergy members and three others affiliated with the church since the beginning of the year.

  • Black Collar Crime: Catholic Priest Richard Jacklin Charged with Sexual Assault

    busted

    Richard Jacklin, who is a priest affiliated with Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Goodrich, Illinois, was charged yesterday with sexually assault a disabled adult.

    The Daily Journal reports:

    Father Richard E. Jacklin, who assists with Masses at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Goodrich, is scheduled to be in court today for his bond to be set after he was arrested by Illinois State Police on Tuesday and charged with sexually assaulting a resident at Shapiro Developmental Center in Kankakee.

    The 65-year-old Jacklin has been preliminarily charged by state police with criminal sexual assault by force and sexual misconduct of a person with a disability.
    “We are still gathering information,” Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe told the Daily Journal on Wednesday.

    Rowe said he would not comment further until after Jacklin’s bond is set in Kankakee County court today. Jacklin, who was ordained June 2, 1984, has been assigned to Sacred Heart since 2005, according to the Diocese of Joliet. Jacklin was assigned as resident at St. Rose of Lima Church in Kankakee from 1996-2005.

    ….