Details from a statue for abuse victim Martin Kruze, by artist Michael Irving.
The tragedy of doing nothing: Ken Dryden on how sexual predators corrupt hockey PERSONAL ESSAY KEN DRYDENSaturday's Globe and Mail Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 This week in a Winnipeg courtroom, former National Hockey League star Theo Fleury told the stomach-twisting story of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his junior hockey coach, the now-infamous Graham James. For many, his victim-impact statement made what was once inconceivable conceivable.
My introduction to child abuse and hockey came almost 15 years ago when I became president of the Toronto Maple Leafs in June, 1997. Four months earlier, Martin Kruze had announced publicly that, as a child, he had been sexually abused by employees of Maple Leaf Gardens. Other victims came forward to tell similar life-shattering stories.The matter quickly went into the hands of lawyers on both sides, but it also just hung in the air. There was more to say and do, I knew – but what?
In August, I got a letter from Mr. Kruze. He said he wanted to do something for child-abuse survivors, and not just for those from the Gardens, and was asking for our help. I put the letter into a small “get to” pile on my desk. Then the Leafs' training camp opened, then the season began – and then I got a call.
Locksmith and security guard David Samuel Cyprys, 43, was yesterday charged with 16 counts of indecent assault and 13 counts of gross indecency claimed to have been committed between 1984 and 1991.
Media Quiet on Child Abuse...by Paul Balles Veterans Today February 27, 2012 Wherever they happen to live, whatever other passports they happen to carry, whatever they happen to do, it is forbidden to criticise Israelis unless–like Bernie Maddoff–they steal money from other Israelis.
Wherever they happen to live, whatever other passports they happen to carry, whatever they happen to do, it is forbidden to criticise Israelis unless–like Bernie Maddoff–they steal money from other Israelis.
When non-Israelis, often referred to as “goyim”, commit an offense, the media jumps all over them.
Do a Google search for “child abuse scandals” and one of the first results that comes up features a Wikipedia link for “Catholic sex abuse cases.”
Next, “Paterno fired over Penn State child abuse scandal” with a half dozen more on the Penn State University sporting scandal.
“Australian Jews scandal” was reported by Israeli Haaretz until someone apparently told them to pull it, and they did. Visit the page, and you get “Sorry! This page cannot be found.”
The story can be found, at least as this is being written, but you really have to search for it.
Page after page of references to reports of child abuse scandals link to the Catholic Church and the sporting abuse at Penn State University. READ MORE
Deborah Feldman’s book about her departure from haredi life includes the account of a Satmar man’s suspicious death.
‘Unorthodox’ Author’s Claim Of Cover-up Is Countered Coroner’s report lists 20-year-old’s death in Kiryas Joel as suicide, not murder.
Hella WinstonJewish Week Tuesday, February 21, 2012 With allegations of communal cover-ups involving child sexual abuse dogging the haredi community over the past several years, it may not be much of a stretch for some readers to believe a gruesome story that appears in a new memoir about growing up in, and leaving, the Satmar community.
The story, recounted by Deborah Feldman in “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” (Simon and Schuster), involves the alleged mutilation and murder of a boy by his own father — supposedly for masturbating — and the subsequent cover-up of the crime by Hatzolah, the community’s volunteer ambulance service. READ MORE
Falsus in Uno, Falsus in Omnibus - False in one, False in All. For original article go to Unorthodoxjew.com February 21, 2012 Three is a chazaka, and according to the Talmud, one may make assumptions on a particular mazik or predator based on three separate independent incidents of intentional damage. We know the example the Talmud uses for the "ox that gores." He loses his status as a Tam, or accidental/happenstance predator, and becomes a shor ha'Muad on the third goring. One must assume that an ox that gores three times is a danger to society, and the owner is put on notice that he is fully responsible for all the damages caused by his ox, not merely chatzi nezek, or partial damages.
So if I were to bring a suit against "Bais Din", on behalf of Klal Yisroel, I have my three undisputed cases of intentional harm inflicted on the Nation of Israel, by three independent incidents of intentional abuse of the bais din system, by three independent batei din - recognized perhaps by many Jews as reputable batei din, but not by me. Truth be shared, I have scores of cases of bais din abuse in my files, accumulated over the years. READ MORE
Police identify suspect in Boxing Day abduction CP24 Toronto February 22, 2012
Toronto police have released the identity of a suspect charged in connection with the Boxing Day abduction and sexual assault of a four-year-old girl.
The girl was visiting relatives when she was taken from a home on Charleswood Drive near Wilson Avenue and Bathurst Street in the early morning hours of Dec. 26.
She was found outside a nearby home hours later.
Witnesses told police they saw a man running from the scene. Investigators arrested a suspect at around 5:20 p.m. Saturday.
A publication ban imposed over the weekend prevented police from identifying the suspect until today.
Ryan Belbin, 28, has been charged with break and enter, abduction of a person under 14 years of age, sexual assault and sexual interference.
Belbin appeared in court Tuesday and was remanded into custody.
Child Sex-Abuse Scandal in Australia's Jewish Community Spills Into U.S. Allegations Surface That Child Molesters Were Protected Paul Berger The Jewish Daily Forward February 22, 2012. Child sex abuse scandal in Australia’s Jewish community has spilled into America, as a pending extradition, arrests in Australia and a slew of cover-up allegations put that community’s response to molestation under scrutiny.
Australian police are seeking to extradite convicted child molester David Kramer, currently in jail in Farmington, Mo., on suspicion of having abused children at a Chabad school in Melbourne during the 1990s.
Kramer, who was reportedly spirited out of Australia by one of Melbourne’s Chabad leaders following abuse allegations, is halfway through a seven-year prison sentence for sodomizing a 12-year-old boy in St. Louis.
According to members of the Australian community, he is not the only molester to end up in the United States after Australian community leaders failed to report them to legal authorities. Other molesters fled the country more recently as suspicion of abuse fell on them, community members say. READ MORE
Children leaving Public School 174, where the schools chancellor met with parents on Friday.
Chancellor Vows to Fire Those Guilty of Sexually Abusing Students DAVID W. CHENNew York TimesFebruary 17, 2012 Hoping to quell anxiety after three members of the teaching staff were arrested and accused of sexual crimes involving students,Dennis M. Walcott, New York City’s schools chancellor, ordered a review of all substantiated cases of misconduct dating back to 2000 on Friday and pledged to remove any teachers who had engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior.
In two of the cases, the teacher or teacher’s aide had been found to have acted inappropriately with students at previous schools, but had been able to transfer. Education officials acknowledged on Friday that they had failed to notify the principals of the new schools of the earlier accusations.
The developments came on a day when angry parents at Public School 174 in Rego Park, Queens, where the most recently arrested teacher worked, confronted Mr. Walcott during a tense two-hour meeting. And while Mr. Walcott tried to assure parents that the safety of their children was of paramount concern, the city’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, said in a letter to the chancellor that the city’s overall response had been lacking. READ MORE
Monsey rabbis visit Rabbi Israel Weingarten in federal prison in January 2011. Rabbi Moshe Green is sitting in the wheelchair. The rabbis also publicly declared Weingarten's "innocence."
Rabbi Israel Weingarten
Exclusive: Rabbi Raises Money For Convicted Sex Offender failedmessiah.com February 14, 2012 Rabbi Moshe Green, in effect the most senior of the leading haredi rabbis in Monsey, send out a Yiddish fundraising letter late last week to raise money for what he says will be an appeal led by convicted sex offender Rabbi Israel Weingarten.
Weingarten was convicted in March 2009 of transporting his daughter across international borders for the purpose of raping her, and in now serving a 30 year sentence in federal prison.
Weingarten already appealled his conviction. He had one count overturned (because the point of origin of that overseas trip was not the US) and several others affirmed last year. He was resentenced to 30 years in prision in September 2011.
Threats vs. rabbi accuser By SUSAN EDELMAN New York Post February 12, 2012
The family of a boy allegedly molested by notorious Brooklyn Rabbi Joel Kolko say they’ve received a barrage of harassing and threatening telephone calls — one warning, “You better back off or you’ll suffer the consequences.”
“We have been told by anonymous callers that our son would be publicly humiliated and named” as a student suing Kolko’s former yeshiva, the father said in a sworn statement obtained by The Post.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ office, which received the father’s affidavit, said recently that it has arrested 85 Orthodox child-molesters in the past two years, but some victims don’t pursue cases because their families are shunned, ostracized or retaliated against.
Kolko, 65, is set for trial in Brooklyn Criminal Court this week on charges he violated an order of protection against the boy, now 12. READ MORE
Los Angeles lawyer Ray Boucher sued the LA Archidocese on behalf of 500 plaintiffs and now he has revealed that 200 more priests suspected of committing sexual abuse are likely being hidden by the church in California.
L.A. Lawyer: 200 Sexual Abuse Predatory Priests Are Hiding In California According to MSNBC the location of those priests have not been revealed because they have not been convicted of sex abuse. Because no convictions were made laws pertaining to identifying the location of pedophiles doesn’t apply to them.
Boucher says of that situation:
“Many, if not all, of these priests have admitted to sexual abuse. They live within a mile of 1,500 playgrounds, schools and daycare centers.”
After settling Bouchers lawsuit for $600 million in 2007 the L.A. Archdiocese refused to accept any wrongdoing on behalf of its pedophile priests.
The lawyer says the church has now allowed many of their accused priests to retire or hide out until the statue of limitations runs out on their crimes which would make it impossible to file lawsuits against the church.
“By enabling these priests to be hidden for so many years, the church protected them from being prosecuted,” said Boucher.
Officials for the church claim the right to privacy since the priests have not been convicted of crimes, a California judge has called that statement out, ordering that files for many of those priests be revealed in the coming weeks.
Do you think the church needs to reveal the location of accused priests so lawsuits can be brought against them by victims who have been waiting for their day in court?
