What:
Saying “a dangerous line has been crossed,” sex abuse victims will hold a sidewalk news conference and
- try to hand deliver a letter to Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon seeking a formal opinion about a recently convicted pedophile priest who refuses to register as a sex offender, and
- unveil a hard-hitting new print advertisement that urges local Catholics to protest Archbishop Raymond Burke use of a $500,000 bond to free that same convicted child molesting priest.
When:
TODAY, Thursday, Dec. 1, 1:15 p.m.
Where:
Outside the Missouri Attorney General's office, Wainwright State Office Building, 111 N. 7th Street (340-6816)
Who:
Several clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
Why:
On November 16, Fr. Thomas Graham was sentenced to 20 years in prison for molesting a boy at the Old Cathedral downtown in the 1970s.(http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsft) But thanks to a $500,000 bond posted by the Archdiocese, he is free pending appeal, and until very recently was living at a church-run retirement home in Shrewsbury next to a day care center.
Sex offenders in Missouri are required to register with the state within ten days of their conviction, but Graham refuses to do so. His lawyer, Christian Goeke, claims that the law does not apply to him. (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/t) The group wants Attorney General Jay Nixon to resolve whether or not Graham must register.
Never before have church officials paid to keep a convicted pedophile priest out of prison, SNAP maintains. They are taking out newspaper ads telling local Catholics that “by your silence and donations, you are helping a convicted child molester walk free.”
SNAP believes Graham may have violated another state law, one barring sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a children’s facility (www.moga.mo.gov/statutesearch). After SNAP publicly raised concerns about this last week, archdiocesan officials announced they had “initiated arrangements to have (Graham) transfer his residence” from Shrewsbury but refused to say where he would go.
Contact:
David Clohessy 645 5915, 566 9790 cell
Barb Dorris 862 7688
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