HONOLULU (CN) — Victims of childhood sexual abuse filed a spate of last-minute civil suits in Hawaii state court last week, ahead of the Legislature's latest deadline to re-enact the statute of limitations for sex-abuse cases.
In all, some 150 people have filed complaints in the four years since the Aloha State suspended the statute of limitations on noncriminal proceedings against sex offenders.
The lawsuits involve various parties as defendants, including the Roman Catholic Church of Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Boy Scouts of America, medical facilities, and state agencies. One case names the State Child Protective Services, which the plaintiff says removed him from an abusive home environment only to deliver him into the hands of a predatory foster father.
The original bill to set aside the statute of limitations in sex-abuse cases was set to expire in 2014, but compromise legislation authored by state Sen. Maile Shimabokuro kept the window for filing open another two years. The compromise came after former Gov. Neil Abercrombie vetoed a measure that would have eliminated the statute of limitations altogether.
Recognizing the long psychological process of dredging up repressed childhood memories and the struggle to talk about them, the bill has given plaintiffs — most of whom filed as John Roes — a belated chance to realize a measure of justice, if not closure.
The complaints describe the actions of a number of serial pedophiles active in the 1950s through the 1970s, most notable among them former Kamehameha School head psychiatrist Dr. Robert M. Browne and the late Father Joseph Henry of Saint Anthony's of Padua Church in Kailua. Victims claim both men used their positions of authority not only to gain physical access to their victims, but to convince victims that they were somehow at fault.
Browne raped dozens of young boys in his office and home as part of their "therapy." He shot and killed himself in 1991 after being confronted by one of his victims.
Henry, described as a pillar of the community, assaulted many of his victims with the knowledge and implied consent of other priests, domestic staff, and teachers.
Other suits describe altar boys raped by priests in the church sacristy after Sunday service and at "rectory sleepovers." A custodian who molested a girl right in the pews as she was waiting to go to confession described himself as having "hands of God."
John Roe #48 claims he was sexually abused by six different priests over a 12-year period. Another plaintiff says that he was repeatedly abused with the knowledge and participation of other priests within the diocese.
A disturbing trend in the complaints involves the cover-ups — the conspiracy of silence in which these perpetrators managed to implicate witnesses and victims alike.
"An observable trend among victims is they tend to be of lower economic classes, and introverted children with little self-confidence," attorney Randall Rosenberg, who has filed on behalf of 56 victims, said. "To be successful, pedophiles had to pick victims that weren't likely to tell. In fact, two of my clients were in their 70s before they ever told anyone. I was the first person they ever told."