THE UNIVERSITY HAIRY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2008
3A
COURTS
Diocese prepares to settle sexual abuse claims
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Roman Catholic diocese has tentatively agreed to pay $10 million to settle 47 pending sexual abuse claims against the diocese and 12 of its priests.
Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese Bishop Robert W. Finn on Wednesday apologized for the abuse that occurred at the hands of current and former clergy members, and promised that steps are being taken to make sure such abuse never happens again.
"A priest is ordained with the privilege of celebrating the church's sacraments by nothing less than a holy order," Finn said at a news conference. "The behaviors attributable to certain priests involved in this matter not only betray those holy orders, but diminish the stature of the faithful and responsible priests who dispatch their ministry effectively and faithfully day in, day out."
The deal will settle all current sexual abuse lawsuits pending in Jackson County against the diocese and 12 current or former priests for incidents alleged to have occurred between 1951 and 1992.
Finn said he would recommend to the Diocese Tribunal and to the Vatican that the accused priests have their holy orders removed, an action known as laicization.
Priestsnamedinthelawsuitsare retired Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart, John Tulipana, Thomas J. Ward, Earl Johnson, Stephen Wise, Francis E. McGlynn, Hugh E. Monahan, John C. Basketk, Thomas J. O'Brien, Thomas J. Reardon, James Lawbaugh and Sylvester Hoppe.
Finn said he would consult with two diocese boards on Thursday — a stipulation of church law — and then sign off on the settlement.
In a letter sent to priests late Tuesday night, Finn said the deal was in the best interest of the diocese. He said Wednesday most of the settlement money would be paid by insurance carriers, with any remaining balance possibly derived through selling undeveloped church assets.
Along with the money, the deal calls for the diocese to meet 19 nonmonetary conditions, including publicly announcing and acknowledging the wrongfulness of sexual abuse by its priests.
"That is one of the many non-monetary stipulations in which we were in total agreement," Finn said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs say it is those nonmonetary conditions that make the proposed settlement so important.
"Our clients are trying very hard to right the unrightable wrong," Rebecca Randles, a Kansas City attorney representing the plaintiffs, said during a news conference Tuesday night. "The civil process is not something that is amenable to righting this kind of wrong. But they're working very hard to try to come to a process where children in the future are protected."
While the deal has not been finalized, both sides said they have been operating under the assumption that it will be. Victims have been in arbitration hearings since Monday to determine how much of the settlement they will receive. Those hearings are expected to continue for about two weeks.
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Because of a coding error, the United States Department of Education accidentally sent an unknown number of University of Kansas students' applications for financial aid to the Dallas County Community College District in Texas.
BY HALEY JONES hiones@kansan.com
Ann Hatch, director of media relations for the Dallas district, said the Dallas district received files for KU students through secured transmissions.
FINANCIAL AID
Information remains secure despite error
Jack Martin, deputy director of University Communications, said the Dallas district also had a secure system for records.
Maigaud said her office was in contact with both the education department and the Dallas district throughout the situation.
On July 31, officials at the Dallas district sent a letter to students who had applied for financial aid but had not yet enrolled in one of the district's eight colleges. Some KU students whose information was wrongly sent to the district were included in this mailing.
"There is no reason to believe KU student information was unsafe or at risk of being disclosed outside of that system at any point," Martin said.
The district realized it had financial information for the wrong students when it began receiving e-mails and calls the following week from confused KU students.
Hatch said the Dallas district sent a follow-up letter on Aug. 1 to KU students that explained the district had received their financial information. She said the Dallas district assured KU students their records were safe and would be purged from its system the following week.
Hatch said the education department treated the error as a customer service issue and all KU student records were deleted from the Dallas district's system on Aug. 5.
Herman said she could not contact anyone regarding the e-mail because she was abroad.
Rochelle Herman, Pittsburg junior, said she was studying abroad in Greece when she received e-mails from the Dallas district explaining that they were waiting for her to apply for admission. Herman said she was very nervous when she received the e-mails and she thought she had made an error when she had applied for financial aid.
"I'm not very good with computers, so I didn't know if I had to start paying money for that college or something," Herman said. "I was just really confused."
delayed in reaching the University and were processed normally.
Brenda Maigaard, director of the University Office of Student Financial Aid, said the records sent to Dallas were not
Martin said students who had concerns about their information should contact the University Office of Student Financial Aid.
Edited by Becka Cremer
POLICE BRIEFS Campus police go green with Seqwavs. E-85 cars
University students may notice campus police traveling in new ways this semester, most notably with the use of three new Segway scooters.
The electric-powered units, which cost about $5,000 each, were paid for in part by Student Senate.
The expenditure, made by the Campus Safety Advisory Board and matched by the University, was in response to an expressed desire by the KU student body for increased safety.
"The idea was to increase the visual presence that KU Public Safety has on campus," said Student Body Treasurer Alex Torte, Great Falls, Va., junior. "I think students just wanted to feel safer on campus, and I think a police presence does that for them."
The KU Public Safety Office also has rolled out environmentally friendly patrol vehicles that run on E-85 fuel, according to Capt. Schuyler Bailey of the safety office. E-85 is a gasoline-ethanol mixture that is up to 85 percent ethanol.
Officers with the KU Public Safety Office are making use of an electric car in the evenings, which travels at speeds up to 25 mph and uses no gasoline.
LPD will be more visible early in fall semester
Officers with the Lawrence Police Department will have an increased presence on the city's streets during the first few weeks of the fall semester. The enforcement effort known as the Special Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP), which began on Aug. 14, will run through Sept. 1. According to Sgt. Bill Cory, the public information officer with the LPD, the purpose of the program is "to put additional officers on the street to concentrate efforts towards traffic enforcement and impaired driver detection."
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Lawrence Police Department officer Matthew Weidl scans passing traffic with a radar gun from his patrol car parked off Massachusetts Street Wednesday night. The LPD is conducting Special Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) measures though Sept. 1, and will include saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints on Saturday and Sunday.
It will include "saturation patrols" and sobriety checkpoints on Saturday and Sunday, according to a statement released from the LPD Traffic Division.
The STEP enforcement project was first implemented six years ago. According to the LPD 2007 annual report, there were a total of 85 arrests for OUI/DUI.
Four new stop signs built to improve safety
The stop signs are located at the west end of Jayhawk Boulevard near the Chi Omega fountain
Four new stop signs have been installed on campus in an effort to improve pedestrian safety and manage traffic entering and exiting campus.
roundabout; the intersection of Sunflower Road and Sunnyside Avenue; the intersection of Jayhawk Boulevard and 14th Street near the Student Union; and at the north end of Mississippi Street near the entrance to Memorial Stadium.
Public Safety Office reports electronics theft
Between July 28 and Aug.
Between July 28 and Aug.
18, the KU Public Safety Office reported three computers, two digital cameras and assorted scientific research equipment stolen from academic halls on campus. Two of the computers were Apple laptops that were taken from the Dole Human Development Center and Stauffer-Flint Hall and were later returned. With the exception of an Apple iMac reported stolen from the Art and Design building on July 31, none
of the thefts coincide with reports of forcible entry, and appear to be a result of a simple failure to secure the items.
Capt. Schyler Bailey said that the series of thefts do not represent an unusual trend. Bailey said that an increase in computer theft was the result of their increased prevalence on campus.
OBITUARY
Ryan McGeeney
ASSOCIATED PRESS
First black congresswoman to represent Ohio dies at 58
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Tubbs Jones, 58, died of a brain hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm that burst and left her with limited brain function, said Eileen Shell, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland Clinic, which owns the Huron Hospital in East Cleveland where Tubbs Jones died.
"Throughout the course of the day and into this evening, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones' medical condition declined," Sheil said in a statement from the clinic and Tubbs Jones' family.
the liberal Democrat, first elected in 1998, suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights Tuesday night,
said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital.
Several news organizations had reported earlier in the day that Tubbs Jones had died. That report, citing a Democratic official, was corrected a few minutes later when a hospital official held a news conference to say she was in critical condition.
Tubbs Jones represented the heavily Democratic 11th District and chaired the ethics committee in the House.
She was the first black woman to serve on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, where she opposed President Bush's tax cuts and his efforts to create personal accounts within Social Security.
"Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a gifted trailblazer with a spirit as big as the city she loved," Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement. "Her incredible legacy will never fade from our memories."
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THIS WEEK ON CAMPUS August 21, 2008
JOIN STUDENT SENATE TODAY! YOUR CAMPUS! YOUR VOICE! Be Part of It!
For information on getting involved in Student Senate please contact:
Mason Heilman Student Executive Committee Chair OR mennis@ku.edu
Michael Wade Smith Deputy Communications Director michaelw@ku.edu
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