Posted on 04/05/2002 10:21:34 PM PST by Fitzcarraldo
This woman is close to being a ward of the state. She is on disability which means the government is paying for her psychiatric care. I still want to see records of her attendance at Memorial. I do not believe she was even a student there. She went to the priest at the Cathedral downtown to report this. He followed procedures and notified the Bishop who I'm sure notified the authorities. They have to do that regardless of whether she is sane or credible. I watched her on local TV last night. She is not credible.
As she put it "She Him To Pay Money And Doesn't Think He Needs To Step Down As A Priest" - PS he is a Cardinal!
She comes off like the con artists who tried to take advantage of the 9-11 money.
Snuff...I can see you are a stickler for "ethical practice" even in cases of the absolute worst apostates and most depraved, decadent creatures on the entire planet. I am not. I happen to believe child abuse is the worst possible sin and any way the perpetrator(s) can be "outed" is fine with me and screw the marquess of queensbury rules. If a "perp" is "outed" by false accusation...tough. In the specific cases of Mahoney, Law, Egan...where they have used their positions as hierarchs to provide cover to preditors of children for decades and in some cases intimidated plaintiffs and demanded "sealed" court records, they have already had far more than their fair share of "due process". Time to hang.
The problem of course is that false accusations and blanket presumption of guilt isn't going to help "out" anyone. It's going to eventually doom the entire investigation.
False accusations of molestation are not going to hasten resolving the true cases. They're going to delay them in two ways. First, because time and attention will be spent investigating non-existent crimes that ought to be spent pursuing real ones. Second, when false accusations are revealed, it's going to cast extra suspicion on the accusers in true cases. Afterward, the testimony of true victims will be treated less seriously.
If you really hate child abuse, you ought to have some scorn left over for those trying to cash in on the "hot tort of the weak," and derailing child abuse investigations in the process. You also should save some scorn for a media more interested in discrediting Catholicism and generating scandal than they are in uncovering actual abuse.
From the AP website (wire.ap.org):
Hickman said she has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and is taking medication for depression. She told the Fresno Bee for Sunday editions: "All I said was that when I opened my eyes, some of my clothes were gone and he was the only one around. I was unconscious. I don't know if he molested me, but he could have."
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