Child Sex Abuse :: Maryland Accident Law Blog

In Maryland, the Archdiocese of Baltimore and a former Catholic priest are reportedly close to reaching a settlement agreement with the family of a man that the priest is accused of sexually abusing 17 years ago.

Jerome Cliffe died in February 2005 when he was 22-years-old of a drug overdose. His parents, Harry and Cathy Cliffe, filed a $2 million wrongful death lawsuit against the archdiocese and former priest Steven P. Girard last year.

The Cliffe family’s lawsuit claiming that Girard’s actions toward Jerome when he was an 8-year-old caused their son to experience post-traumatic stress syndrome and subsequently abuse drugs. The sex abuse allegedly started while Girard was a pastor at St. Clement Church and supervised the Catholic school in Lansdowne where Jerome was a third grader.

The suit contends that Jerome was sexually abused in a classroom and a confessional. The complaint accuses Girard of keeping Jerome quiet by threatening to hurt his family if he reported the abuse incidents. His parents say that Jerome experienced physical pain and mental anguish because of the abuse. Girard denies the abuse allegations.

The archdiocese has distanced itself from Girard’s alleged actions and said they had no knowledge the abuse was taking place. While the settlement amount is not final, the Cliffes’s legal representation has said that a settlement worth $200,000 is being discussed.

Child Sex Abuse
Sexually abusing or assaulting anyone is a crime and punishable by law. The victim and/or his family may also be entitled to personal injury compensation for the harm suffered.

Many times, the aftereffects and trauma of child sexual abuse can last a lifetime. Emotional trauma, psychological issues, trust issues, eating disorders, drug problems, and other injuries that are very difficult to recover from can result.

In Maryland and Washington DC, an experienced child sex abuse lawyer can help you file a claim or lawsuit against the negligent party.

Church close to settling abuse case, The Daily Record, August 6, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Child Sexual Abuse

Abuse in the Catholic Church, The Boston Globe

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In Maryland, two men, former volunteer firefighters in Anne Arundel County have filed a sex abuse lawsuit claiming that Louis A. D'Camera, a former president of Odenton Volunteer Fire Company, sexually abused them on multiple occasions when they were teenage recruits. The men said that fire officials ignored them when they reported the incidents. The Anne Arundel County government and the fire company are named in the sex abuse lawsuit.

The two men are accusing D’Camera of repeatedly forcing them to perform sexual acts, take off their clothes, and sit on his lap. The former volunteer firefighters say that when they reported the incidents to supervisors, they were told not to say anything and that the matter would be taken care of. One of the plaintiffs says that defamatory statements made about him resulted in the loss of a job opportunity.

D’Camera was a 26-year veteran of the fire company and a member of the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Hall of Fame. He killed himself in 2005 after Baltimore police charged him with perverted practice after seeing him perform a sexual act on a man.

In 2003, according to the lawsuit, D’Camera had ordered one of the plaintiffs, who was 19-years-old at the time, to take off his clothes and masturbate in front of him. D’Camera called it a “rite of passage.” The plaintiff says he was sexually assaulted over 15 times.

When he finally reported the incidents to police in 2005, Robert L. Rose, now the the Odenton fire company president and Chief Charles Rogers informed the volunteer that he needed to “get over it.” Another captain told him that he should leave the company because he had made lots of adversaries. The volunteer soon resigned.

The other plaintiff, who had resigned after a series of assaults and then returned to the company after D’Camera’s suicide, also was allegedly verbally harassed by company members after filing his assault complaint with police. He also alleges that he was assigned the undesireable jobs.

The two plaintiffs say that the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company knew about D’Camera’s habit of ordering volunteers to take off their clothes. D’Camera was charged with the third-degree sexual assault of another teenage volunteer in 1998. In several suicide notes, D’Camera allegedly confessed to assaulting the two plaintiffs. No criminal charges were filed because D’Camera was already dead.

If you have been sexually assaulted or molested, you may be entitled to personal injury compensation. If your sexual assault took place because others created an environment that allowed the crime to occur or did not take enough safety precautions to ensure that no such crime could take place, you also may have grounds to file an inadequate security claim or lawsuit against these parties.

Lawsuit claims sexual abuse at Odenton fire unit, BaltimoreSun.com, January 25, 2008

Sex abuse claimed at firehouse, HometownAnnapolis.com, January 23, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Odenton Volunteer Fire Company

Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association Hall of Fame

Continue reading "Former Maryland Volunteer Firefighters File Sex Abuse Lawsuit Against Anne Arundel County Government and a Local Fire Company" »

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