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July 16, 2008 Justices split on whether Milwaukee Archdiocese should have warned Kentucky Catholics about pedophile teacher Sex offender dumped in another state, then came back to Wisconsin CONTACT Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee), 414.429.7259 Statement by Mark Salmon of SNAP Milwaukee, sexually assaulted by Catholic school teacher Gary Kazmarek The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today that employers, including churches, have a limited duty to warn others, including other churches and schools, that a former employee had been caught sexually assaulting children. The decision has no effect on the cases that have already been filed and will be filed in Wisconsin against bishops for committing fraud in reassigning known sex offender clergy. Yesterday, an Outagamie County judge ruled that fraud cases against the Green Bay diocese can proceed. Today's ruling involves a twice convicted sex offender, Gary Kazmarek, who sexually assaulted children in Catholic grade schools in Milwaukee, Madison and Louisville. A prolific offender, Kazmarek was dismissed from his first teaching job at St. John's grade school on the West side of Milwaukee when church officials learned he had sexually assaulted at least 20 of its students. Officials promised parents of victims that Kazmarek would be sent to treatment and never allowed around children again. Instead, Kazmarek surfaced in Louisville a few months later and began assaulting children at another Catholic school. Caught again, he returned to Wisconsin, this time to teach in the Madison diocese, where he was finally arrested and convicted for child abuse. The court today did not address Wisconsin's tangled statute of limitations question, nor did it address the controversial first amendment decision it rendered in the mid 1990's, which has barred most lawsuits against bishops and religious organizations for sexually abusive clergy. Significantly, however, the justices were split on their decision about whether at least the Milwaukee archdiocese should have warned Catholic parents and schools in Kentucky that Kazmarek has been raping children in Wisconsin. Isn't it time for insurance companies and others to insist that organizations like the Catholic church, whose geographical reach is so great, that they must at least set up a simple, easily accessible internal "bulletin board" that informs and alerts other dioceses and schools that they are dumping a sex offender priest, teacher or youth director? In any case, as Justice Butler writes in an impassioned plea in today's decision: "Sexual abuse victims deserve justice to the fullest extent possible." He notes that these victims, from Kentucky, have already received compensation from the Louisville diocese. The obvious question is," What about the dozens of victims of Kazmarek right here in Wisconsin? Where is their justice?" Absurdly, many of these victims were sexually molested after Kazmarek assaulted these Kentucky plaintiffs. Butler's powerful plea is directed squarely at the Wisconsin legislature. This fall, Wisconsin lawmakers must finish the job they started in the spring and untie the court's hands by passing long overdue reforms like the Child Victims Act. SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest self help organization of clergy sexual abuse survivors with over 8.000 members in 53 chapters. |