Latest news with #childsexabuse
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Ex-Manual coaches Donnie, Ronnie Stoner plead not guilty to child sex charges
With their accusers sitting in the courtroom behind them, two former Jefferson County Public Schools coaches listened as an attorney entered not-guilty pleas for both on child sex abuse charges. Donnie and Ronnie Stoner, who last worked at duPont Manual High School and previously worked and coached at other schools within JCPS, were then placed on home incarceration July 21 by Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry. A Jefferson County grand jury indicted the twin brothers July 18 on over 50 combined counts related to child sex abuse charges related to four minors, identified by the initials A.S., A.F., A.J. and A.C. The counts span from May 2005 to July 2023. Zach Kilgore, also named in the case, did not appear in court. Perry scheduled a bond hearing in the case for July 29. The case was originally set for Circuit Judge Julie Kaelin's court until she recused herself because of a conflict of interest. She told the court she formerly represented a co-defendant of Kilgore's. The case was reassigned to Perry's case within an hour of the Stoner brothers' original arraignment. Donnie Stoner pleaded not guilty to 35 total counts of child sex abuse charges related to the four minors, including: 12 counts of sodomy; 11 total counts of rape (nine counts third-degree, two counts first); 8 counts of sexual abuse; 2 counts of unlawful transaction with a minor; 1 count of tampering with physical evidence; 1 count of conspiracy to commit unlawful transaction with a minor. Ronnie Stoner pleaded not guilty to 21 total counts of child sex abuse charges related to the four minors, including: 6 total counts of sodomy (three counts in the third degree, three counts in the second degree); 6 total counts of rape (three counts in the third degree, one count in the second degree and two counts in the first degree); 4 counts of sexual abuse; 3 counts of unlawful transaction with a minor; 1 count of conspiracy to commit unlawful transaction with a minor; 1 count of incest. Kilgore was charged in the indictment with one count of first-degree rape. "It's like the first step of any accountability for 20 years, so we're very happy such a robust indictment was filed," said one of the accusers who attended the hearing. "... Emotions are really high." The Stoner brothers walked out of the courtroom with three bailiffs and onto the elevator. They were not made available to reporters by attorney Rob Eggert, who represented both in the arraignments. Eggert is the legal representation for Donnie Stoner. Ronnie Stoner is still working to obtain legal representation. From 2005 to present Personnel files for both Donnie and Ronnie Stoner obtained by The Courier Journal through Kentucky's Open Records Act show the brothers ― formerly known as LaDon and LaRon ― first began coaching at Evangel Christian in 2005, the year the counts in the grand jury indictment began. Donnie Stoner's JCPS tenure began in 2010 as a paid freshman football coach at Fern Creek, where Ronnie would eventually join him as an assistant football coach. By 2013, Donnie Stoner became an assistant junior varsity football coach. By 2015, he began at Newburg Middle School. And by 2015, he was named varsity assistant football coach. In 2017, he moved to duPont Manual as varsity assistant football coach until 2022, when he became the head coach there. There are charges that relate to different minors throughout this time period, too. On July 13, 2023, JCPS "temporarily removed" Donnie Stoner from his coaching duties. He was arraigned 18 days later on rape, sodomy and child sex abuse charges of a Manual student. That trial is set for Aug. 26, which was delayed from March 11. Following a court hearing in February, JCPS confirmed Donnie Stoner was still working for the district in a position that had no contact with students. On July 18, JCPS confirmed he was no longer employed by the district, but spokesperson Mark Hebert wasn't sure when the change took place. An open records request for Stoner's resignation or termination letter has not yet been fulfilled. Donnie Stoner has an active criminal case regarding child sex abuse with a former Manual student. Ronnie Stoner and Kilgore have not faced previous child sex abuse charges related to this group of minors. Donnie Stoner is also facing a civil suit. That suit, originally filed under seal because of a state law, was filed in September 2024. The student, who is no longer a minor, filed a motion to unseal the case. That motion was granted in January 2025. The civil suit also names Ronnie Stoner, as well as Manual principal Michael Newman and athletic director David Zuberer, claiming they "knew or should have known" about Donnie Stoner's conduct and were negligent in his hiring, training, supervision and retention. In response to the suit, Ronnie Stoner denied the allegations due to a lack of "sufficient knowledge," according to court documents. In response to the lawsuit, JCPS claimed governmental immunity. It's a common claim by school districts across the commonwealth used to avoid liability in child sex abuse cases, The Courier Journal found as part of its series, Silence & Secrets, which discovered at least 80 Kentucky middle- and high-school coaches were alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct in the last 15 years. Stoner's case was one of the more prominent cases profiled in "Silence & Secrets." At the time of its publishing, there were at least three former JCPS coaches on trial for charges related to child sex abuse. One of those coaches, Christopher 'Ro' Morris, has a trial starting this week for charges related to the alleged child sex abuse of two former athletes he coached at two JCPS middle schools. Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter. Reach her at skuzydym@ or on social at @stephkuzy. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Ex-coaches Donnie and Ronnie Stoner plead not guilty to sex charges Solve the daily Crossword
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Sex abuse in schools: State accused of ignoring its liability for redress
The Government has been accused of refusing to acknowledge the O'Keeffe judgment, by claiming the State does not bear liability for historical child sex abuse in schools . The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) and Louise O'Keeffe have both questioned Government guidance which appears to suggest it may not be the responsibility of the State to pay for redress. Ms O'Keeffe successfully took the State to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2014 for failing to protect her from sexual abuse in Dunderrow national school in Cork in the 1970s. The ECHR found that the State had an obligation to protect her from the abuse she had suffered from her then school principal Leo Hickey. Ms O'Keeffe was awarded redress, and since then has been campaigning for the same redress to be made available to other abuse survivors. READ MORE The Government has agreed to set up a commission of investigation into the handling of sexual abuse in schools, but officials are still considering the issues around the setting up of a redress scheme for survivors of such abuse. It is understood there are concerns within the Government about the demand for and costs of such a scheme, which would be likely to be the largest in the history of the State. [ Q&A: Will survivors of historical abuse in schools be compensated? And who will be liable? Opens in new window ] An interdepartmental report prepared by officials from the departments of the Taoiseach, education, justice, children and public expenditure and reform warned that setting up such a redress scheme was 'as complex' as setting up a commission of investigation. It said that guidance from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had warned against 'rushed approaches to redress, including the assumption of risk by the State when liability should more appropriately be borne by third parties'. The report also considered the question of who bears liability for the actions of school employees. 'It has been concluded in case law, at Supreme Court level, that the State does not have such liability,' it said. Liam Herrick, chair of IHREC, said that as recently as January 2024 the State had told the ECHR it was working to meet its legal obligation 'to abide by the final judgment of the European Court of Human Rights'. 'The report of the IDG indicates that Government departments adopt a different position in refusing to acknowledge the primacy of the O'Keeffe judgment,' Mr Herrick said. 'So, it must be asked, what is the State really saying to the victims and survivors who have been waiting so many years for the redress they are legally entitled to? Can the Government confirm that it does accept the ruling of the European court which found that the State does bear responsibility for abuse that occurred in schools?' Ms O'Keeffe told The Irish Times the Government was 'basically trying to avoid looking at the ECHR judgment'. 'They are particularly dwelling on the religious organisations as being responsible for paying redress, and seem to be avoiding their own responsibility,' she said. Prof Conor O'Mahony, director of the child law clinic at UCC, said the claim that the State does not bear liability in such cases was 'staggering'. He said the O'Keeffe judgment applied to 'every case of abuse that occurred in any Irish school prior to the adoption of State guidelines on the reporting of abuse in schools in 1992' . A spokesman for the Department of Education said 'domestic courts have ruled that the State is not vicariously liable for the acts of a teacher appointed by the manager of a national school'. 'The 2014 ECHR judgement in O'Keeffe v Ireland indicated that the State bore partial responsibility where a complaint had been made against an alleged abuser and no system was in place to act upon that complaint. Since that ruling, extensive measures have been put in place to improve child protection in schools, including detection and reporting mechanisms as well as vetting and greater overall awareness,' the spokesman said.
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
Survivors' lawyers say Illinois has one of nation's worst records on sex abuse in juvenile detention
Illinois has one of the nation's worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers, attorneys representing more than 900 survivors who have filed lawsuits said Wednesday. Dozens of complaints, including several filed this week in Chicago, allege decades of systemic abuse of children by the employees of detention facilities. Similar lawsuits have popped up in states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, but Illinois stands out for the volume of cases that began piling up last year and the lackluster response from state leaders, according to attorneys. 'The scale and the magnitude and the severity of these cases are some of the worst we've seen all over the United States,' Jerome Block, an attorney who has filed lawsuits nationwide, said at a news conference. The latest Illinois complaints, filed Tuesday, represent 107 people who experienced abuse as children at 10 centers statewide. Some have since closed. The lawsuits allege abuse from the mid-1990s to 2018, including rape, forced masturbation and beatings by chaplains, counselors, officers and kitchen supervisors. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as some who have filed lawsuits have done. Most plaintiffs are identified by initials in the lawsuits. Survivor Kate-Lynn, who appeared at a Chicago news conference, said she only felt comfortable speaking publicly using her first name. The Illinois woman, now 26, said she was held in solitary confinement at a suburban Chicago facility for a year when she was 14. She said she was sexually and physically abused by at least five staff members who came into her cell and stripped her naked. As she spoke, a fellow survivor who also planned to speak became overcome with emotion and left the room. He didn't return. Kate-Lynn said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. 'Going to public places is very hard for me,' she said, wiping tears at times. 'I feel like I 'm going to be attacked when dealing with authority figures." The lawsuits, first filed in May 2024, and they are slowly making their way through the courts. Two lawsuits against the state — representing 83 people — were filed in the Illinois Court of Claims and seek damages of roughly $2 million per plaintiff, the most allowed under law. Separate lawsuits representing 24 people held as children at a Chicago center, were filed in Cook County and seek more than $100,000 per plaintiff. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who represents the state, has tried to dismiss the cases in court. Raoul, whose office has investigated church sex abuse cases, declined to comment Wednesday as did officials with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Cook County. The lawsuits also name the state of Illinois and the Department of Corrections. Officials for the governor's office and Corrections did not return messages Wednesday. While the number of lawsuits grows, few cases have gone to trial or resulted in settlements. Arrests are infrequent. Many alleged offenders are not named in the lawsuits, represented by initials or physical descriptions as the plaintiffs remembered them. There are several alleged repeat offenders, including a corrections officer who currently serves as a small-town Illinois mayor and was accused separately by 15 people. He has denied the allegations. Attorneys have called for legislative hearings, outside monitors, victim input and criminal charges by local authorities. Block has also harshly criticized Illinois leaders, including Raoul, saying there is a double standard for the abuse victims juvenile detention centers versus church abuse victims. 'When it's the state who perpetrated the abuse, when it's state employees who perpetrated the abuse rather than Catholic priests, the attorney general doesn't want to support the survivors,' he said. Horrific accounts are detailed in the hundreds of pages of complaints. Many plaintiffs said their abusers threatened them with violence, solitary confinement and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given fast food, candy, cigarettes or the chance to play videos games if they kept quiet. Another survivor, a 40-year-old Texas man identified in the lawsuit by the initials J.B. 2, said he was abused when he was 14 years old and staying a facility in St. Charles, which is outside Chicago. He issued a statement through attorneys. 'I want to let my fellow survivors know that we are not alone in this,' he wrote. 'Speaking your truth, no matter how gruesome it is, it can help to set you free from yourself and all the hurt that's been bottled up.'
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Associated Press
Survivors' lawyers say Illinois has one of nation's worst records on sex abuse in juvenile detention
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois has one of the nation's worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers, attorneys representing more than 900 survivors who have filed lawsuits said Wednesday. Dozens of complaints, including several filed this week in Chicago, allege decades of systemic abuse of children by the employees of detention facilities. Similar lawsuits have popped up in states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, but Illinois stands out for the volume of cases that began piling up last year and the lackluster response from state leaders, according to attorneys. 'The scale and the magnitude and the severity of these cases are some of the worst we've seen all over the United States,' Jerome Block, an attorney who has filed lawsuits nationwide, said at a news conference. The latest Illinois complaints, filed Tuesday, represent 107 people who experienced abuse as children at 10 centers statewide. Some have since closed. The lawsuits allege abuse from the mid-1990s to 2018, including rape, forced masturbation and beatings by chaplains, counselors, officers and kitchen supervisors. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as some who have filed lawsuits have done. Most plaintiffs are identified by initials in the lawsuits. Survivor Kate-Lynn, who appeared at a Chicago news conference, said she only felt comfortable speaking publicly using her first name. The Illinois woman, now 26, said she was held in solitary confinement at a suburban Chicago facility for a year when she was 14. She said she was sexually and physically abused by at least five staff members who came into her cell and stripped her naked. As she spoke, a fellow survivor who also planned to speak became overcome with emotion and left the room. He didn't return. Kate-Lynn said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. 'Going to public places is very hard for me,' she said, wiping tears at times. 'I feel like I 'm going to be attacked when dealing with authority figures.' The lawsuits, first filed in May 2024, and they are slowly making their way through the courts. Two lawsuits against the state — representing 83 people — were filed in the Illinois Court of Claims and seek damages of roughly $2 million per plaintiff, the most allowed under law. Separate lawsuits representing 24 people held as children at a Chicago center, were filed in Cook County and seek more than $100,000 per plaintiff. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who represents the state, has tried to dismiss the cases in court. Raoul, whose office has investigated church sex abuse cases, declined to comment Wednesday as did officials with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Cook County. The lawsuits also name the state of Illinois and the Department of Corrections. Officials for the governor's office and Corrections did not return messages Wednesday. While the number of lawsuits grows, few cases have gone to trial or resulted in settlements. Arrests are infrequent. Many alleged offenders are not named in the lawsuits, represented by initials or physical descriptions as the plaintiffs remembered them. There are several alleged repeat offenders, including a corrections officer who currently serves as a small-town Illinois mayor and was accused separately by 15 people. He has denied the allegations. Attorneys have called for legislative hearings, outside monitors, victim input and criminal charges by local authorities. Block has also harshly criticized Illinois leaders, including Raoul, saying there is a double standard for the abuse victims juvenile detention centers versus church abuse victims. 'When it's the state who perpetrated the abuse, when it's state employees who perpetrated the abuse rather than Catholic priests, the attorney general doesn't want to support the survivors,' he said. Horrific accounts are detailed in the hundreds of pages of complaints. Many plaintiffs said their abusers threatened them with violence, solitary confinement and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given fast food, candy, cigarettes or the chance to play videos games if they kept quiet. Another survivor, a 40-year-old Texas man identified in the lawsuit by the initials J.B. 2, said he was abused when he was 14 years old and staying a facility in St. Charles, which is outside Chicago. He issued a statement through attorneys. 'I want to let my fellow survivors know that we are not alone in this,' he wrote. 'Speaking your truth, no matter how gruesome it is, it can help to set you free from yourself and all the hurt that's been bottled up.'
Fox News
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: How state law could force priests to choose between jail or excommunication
When I was auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles some years ago, I spoke up at a meeting of the California hierarchy. We were considering a number of moves being made by the state legislature, including a proposal to require priests to break the seal of confession in matters dealing with child sex abuse. I remember saying, "Brothers, I think we have to draw a line in the sand on this one." And so we did. In every diocese and archdiocese of the state, the bishops roused their people to oppose this legislation. The good Catholics of California consequently flooded Sacramento with letters and petitions ardently defending Catholic prerogatives – and the legislators backed down. It was a victory and an important one. However, similar laws have gone into effect in six other states and most recently the state of Washington legislated along the same lines, requiring priests to violate confidence, even as it exempts healthcare professionals from the same obligation. Happily, the bishops of Washington have filed suit to prevent the implementation of this law, and they have been joined by the Justice Department itself. I was very pleased to submit, with the help of the Thomas More Society, an amicus curiae letter in support of my brother bishops. As I said years ago in California, we have to draw a line in the sand. No one doubts that the motivation behind these legislative moves is a deep and altogether legitimate concern for the safety of children. Catholics share this preoccupation. Indeed, beginning with the implementation of the Dallas accords of 2002, no institution in the world has done more to assure the protection of young people from sexual predation than the Catholic Church. Moreover, every bishop, priest, deacon and lay minister is a mandated reporter, meaning that he or she is obligated by law to convey to the civil authorities any claim of the sexual abuse of a minor. Further, all of those leaders are required to follow, on a constant basis, training in regard to this issue. If you doubt my own dedication to eradicating the scourge of clerical sexual misbehavior, take a look at my book "Letter to a Suffering Church." However, the demand to report cannot be, for Catholics, absolute in the measure that it impinges upon the confidentiality of the confessional. Our belief is that in the sacrament of reconciliation, a penitent opens her heart to Christ himself and receives absolution, which is to say, healing at the level of the soul. What transpires in the privacy of the confessional is, from a spiritual standpoint, a matter of life and death. If there were, therefore, on the part of a prospective penitent, even the slightest suspicion that what he confesses might be shared publicly, he would not seek out this font of grace and the integrity of the sacrament would be utterly compromised. This is why, too, the breaking of the seal results in automatic excommunication of the priest in question. And this explains the awful dilemma currently presented to the priests of Washington state: either they break the seal of confession (and hence face excommunication) or they remain faithful to the sacrament (and hence face jail time). God knows that the Church has faced, over the centuries, more brutal persecution on the part of civil authority, but no Catholic priest in America should be subject to this sort of mistreatment. Permit me to double-down on the properly American dimension of this question. The First Amendment to the Constitution has two very important things to say about religion. The first relevant clause stipulates that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." This means that the sort of arrangement that was obtained in 18th-century England between the government and the Church of England should not obtain in the United States. In other words, there should not be, in our country, any one religion that is specially favored or authorized by Congress. But the second relevant clause, less well-known, stipulates that Congress shall make no provision interfering with "the free exercise" of religion. Though no particular church can be institutionally favored, all churches should be free to express themselves in the public forum. Mind you, this goes beyond the mere permission to worship as one sees fit; it includes the exercise of one's faith in the civic arena. And there is the rub. For all of these laws, which directly target the integrity of the confessional, are egregious violations of the free exercise clause. They militate against both a Catholic priest's right to hear confessions as is appropriate and against a Catholic penitent's right to participate in the sacrament without trepidation. So, Catholics should indeed rise up against this law of the state of Washington and those like it in other states, but I would insist that all loyal Americans should do so as well. For the moment, the state is threatening the Catholic Church, but if this is allowed to endure, what will prevent it from coming, in time, after the free exercise of other religions? Therefore, I say to my Catholic brothers and sisters, but also to all my fellow Americans, "Don't sit still, draw a line in the sand, fight back."
