An analysis by The Buffalo News revealed that Child Victims Act lawsuits filed in western New York since 2019 alleged that 230 area Catholic priests molested children in nearly every parish in the Buffalo Diocese over the past 75 years. https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lawsuits-identify-230-priests-as-molesters-including-8-of-wnys-most-accused-abusers/article_847e4bee-050c-11ec-82e8-d38af1e219ea.html. “The numbers are a striking rebuke to Buffalo Diocese officials who for decades downplayed the extent of abuse in Western New York and protected molester priests from prosecution and public accountability.” The numbers are also probably an undercount because many victims of childhood sexual abuse are reluctant to come forward.

On August 14, 2021, the “look back” window in New York officially closed for adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their abusers if they were previously barred from legal action due to the statute of limitations or failure to file a notice of claim. The 230 number is just a result of an analysis of lawsuits filed against priests during the look back window in one New York diocese.

The New York Child Victims Act was signed into law in 2019, giving victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to file both criminal and civil suits against alleged abusers and other parties they claim were complicit or involved in their abuse. The law eases the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits. Previously, victims were required to bring civil lawsuits regarding childhood sexual abuse forward by the age of 23, but now, they have until they turn 55 to file. Survivors also now have until the age of 28 to seek criminal charges against their abusers.

The No Time for Justice Act is proposed federal legislation designed to address the disparity in state laws and would provide federal incentives to states that end their statutes of limitations all together for criminal and civil cases of child sexual abuse. https://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/No Time Limit for Justice 1-pager – SR Edits.pdf; https://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/32508-u-s-senator-kirsten-gillibrand-and-representative-gwen-moore-announce-legislation-to-encourage-states-to-end-statute-of-limitations-for-child-sexual-abuse. Seven states, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, have eliminated statutes of limitations for all felony sex crimes.

This legislative reform would level the playing field for victims and allow the public to identify child predators and the people and institutions that enable them. A 61-year-old victim of one of the New York priests said he filed a lawsuit because he wants the Catholic Church to “admit they knew what was going on and they kept it hidden for years.”

They kept it hidden as long as they could, but the arc of moral justice is finally, finally bending toward justice. In some places, that is.

A number of readers have sent me questions lately (lots of questions) and I want to point out that the best way to find something on my blog is to Google catherinebroad and [fill in the blank]. For example, if you Google catherinebroad and General Motors or GM, you will be directed not only to pages from my blog, but other relevant entries concerning, for example, H. Lee Busch, General Motors and the OCCK case, from other sources.

Hardworking volunteers are working on another website about this case which will be searchable. It is tedious work, and will contain thousands of searchable PDFs. This raw, searchable, browsable data base is in progress. Until then, you are stuck using a Google search to find what you are looking for on my blog. I should have done a better job tagging posts, but I didn’t.

If you can’t open a link to a news article (usually because you have used up your free article quota for that publication or it is “subscriber only”), just Google some of the relevant information and there may be another source you can access to get the gist. For example, if you can’t open a Detroit Free Press link about a pedophile priest, Google Gary Berthiaume and arraignment. No, I won’t scan the article and email it to you. And I won’t do your homework for you, either.

Please send emails concerning this case to OCCKtruth@protonmail.com. That is the only email address I will regularly check for correspondence concerning this case. Thanks.

On March 28, 2013, United States District Judge Denise Page Hood granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss the lawsuit Deborah Jarvis filed against Cooper, Walton, Bouchard, McCabe, O’Dell, Powell, Robertson and Oakland County and the state police. Judge Page Hood also denied Jarvis’ motion to dismiss and motion for equitable relief, thereby dismissing the lawsuit. https://casetext.com/case/jarvis-v-cooper.

The court found that Cooper and Walton were not entitled to absolute immunity. The court also found that the Oakland County Defendants, with the exception of Defendant Oakland County, and the Michigan State Defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. The court went on to explain that even if the Oakland County Defendants and the Michigan State Defendants were not entitled to immunity, the complaint failed to state a claim for relief. The court’s finding that of failure to state a claim meant the case could not survive a motion to dismiss.

No where does the court find that the filing was “frivolous” or “ludicrous,” nor were attorney fees imposed upon the plaintiff for such a filing. Interestingly, the court also stated:

On July 13, 2011, Prosecutor Cooper convened the first grand jury in approximately 35 years to investigate the case. At the request of Prosecutor Cooper, the Wayne County Prosecutor convened a grand jury two days later.

I wonder where the court got the idea that Kym Worthy convened a one-man grand jury on July 15, 2011, at the request of Jessica Cooper?

It really helps to compare the actual court opinion to the media coverage of the suit dismissal to get an idea of how misrepresentations from the prosecutor’s office can color reporters’ and then the public’s perception of a lawsuit. See https://www.candgnews.com/news/judge-tosses-100-million-oakland-county-child-killer-case.

A full six months before the federal district judge issued her decision in the case, the smarmy OCP chief deputy Paul Walton filed an attorney grievance against Deborah Jarvis’ attorney, Paul Hughes. In this grievance, it appeared Walton was attempting to litigate issues that, if he was truly concerned, should have been presented to the federal district court; namely, filing a frivolous lawsuit and unfair pre-trial publicity.

Here is the response Mr. Hughes filed with the Michigan State Bar Attorney Grievance Commission (highlights and annotations are mine):

Would love to see that appendix Walton took the time to put together for this intimidation tactic disguised as an attorney grievance. But of course all that stuff is secret, just how the Grievance Commission likes it.

So the lesson is, don’t make a stink or you will end up before an Oakland County judge on fake charges of violating grand jury secrecy rules like Barry King, or answering a bogus grievance charge like Paul Hughes if you represent somebody making a stink, or maybe every male member of your family will get shaken down for DNA samples, with no explanation whatsoever. (Perhaps regarding a Y-str sample that still sits somewhere nine years later.) THAT’S how the game gets played in Oakland County.

I wonder how the Grievance Commission would react to a grievance concerning the thwarting of FOIA laws by offloading files to the Oakland County Sheriff’s office for “safe keeping”? Or the shredding of documents thought to be related to the OCCK case at the prosecutor’s office in the days after the general election last November? Ludicrous, isn’t it?