Experimentados abogados litigantes, reconocidos a nivel nacional

There are 32 states in the country that have amended the statute of limitations issues, and Michigan is not one of them. Michigan really is a place for predators to hide now, not be found, and that’s what we’re trying to change.

The issue with the statute of limitations is that too much time, under the current law, has gone by for them to have access to the courts. So without a change in the statute of limitations, these men will never see accountability, and most importantly, their predators will not be held accountable. Michigan, in fact, is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to holding predators accountable who encountered children while they were priests.

Clergy Abuse and Advocacy

So with clergy abuse, we do have some similarities to all child sexual abuse, that being that there is a trusted relationship between the child and the clergy, the priest.

We right now have 27 jurisdictions that have passed revival legislation or window legislation to give those folks that were barred by very restrictive statute of limitations the opportunity to walk into the courthouse, to name their perpetrator, to name the bad-acting institution, and to find some justice.

It’s been interesting over the last five years. We’ve had a couple of high-profile cases here in Michigan, going back to Larry Nassar and Dr. Anderson at the University of Michigan, that I think have brought a lot of attention to this issue. In addition to that, I think people are becoming increasingly aware of some of the abuses that the clergy has perpetrated over the years. It’s amazing how many people we’ve run into that know of this firsthand and are starting to talk about it.

What I can tell you is that the stories these men tell are very difficult to listen to. They remember the smells. They remember the lights. They remember all of the activities that took place, and it’s haunted them throughout their adulthood.

A Survivor’s Testimony

My middle brother was 14 years old, had muscular dystrophy, and I was performing CPR on him on the floor. He passed away a few days afterwards, being in the hospital on a ventilator. At that time is when Father Novak kind of got really deeply involved with our family through that process.

About a month and a half later, he started stopping by our house, checking up, seeing how we were doing. That’s kind of where it started. Then he would invite me over to the rectory and things like that, and we’d watch movies, and he had pop and candy.

Then he tried to hypnotize me. He had me in his bedroom, in a corner in a chair, holding a candle and asking me to stare at the candle. He kept repeating, “You’re getting tired,” and falling asleep, and just a real relaxed mode. He did that a couple of times.

Then he had me laying on the bed, and he would massage me with this oil or lotion. It had a really, like, tobacco smell to it. I can smell it right now. I can smell it.

From that point forward, he would massage me. He would masturbate me, perform, I believe, oral sex on me. I felt like I was frozen. It happened several times. It wasn’t once. It wasn’t twice. It was maybe 60 times, throughout the course of several years. I was a child. I was a teenager at the time. I didn’t know what to do.

The Path Toward Justice

It isn’t easy to come forward. I have a lot of people on a team that still haven’t come forward, don’t want to come forward. They’re afraid of what their husbands are going to think. They’re afraid to be questioned. They’re afraid to be in the public eye, even if they could have been anonymous. I know plenty that still have never, and will never, say anything about it.

To have those people be denied justice because of the realization of what they went through, and all of the issues that it’s caused in their life, really is unfair in terms of being able to obtain that justice, only because your perpetrator ran out the clock.

I think the Nassar and Anderson cases have really set the stage for obtaining justice for more there, and the statute of limitations is really the key to do that.

Many of the leaders in this movement to get these men relief are, in fact, Catholics and Catholic leaders, because they want this issue cleaned up. This is not about attacking the church or making the church go bankrupt or anything of that nature. This is about making people whole and bringing accountability back to the Catholic Church, so that they can go on and do the other good work that they do in the community.

It’s not a bipartisan, Democrat or Republican, sort of view. This is something that’s wrong, has been going on for years, and has been allowed and tolerated, even when it’s been brought forth.

One of the things, I think this is the most important thing, is now that I’m a grown man, I am no longer a victim. I’m a survivor, and I will do everything in my power to make sure this does not happen to anybody else.