RICHMOND HEIGHTS 鈥 A man who said he received a $1 million settlement earlier this year from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of 狐狸视频 went two steps further Thursday by sharing his name publicly and calling on lawmakers to remove time limits for filing child sex-crime lawsuits.
He said religious organizations can hide behind the technicality in civil cases at the expense of survivors of abuse like him.
鈥淭he fact that Missouri law has a statute of limitations for claims of childhood sexual assault is a political and legal choice to value the comfort and well-being of pedophiles over the lives and well-being of their victims,鈥 Jonathan Dean, 41, said at a news conference.
Standing behind a framed school photograph from his childhood, Dean recounted his story of growing up in Chesterfield and allegedly being raped four times in the 1990s by Gary P. Wolken, a former priest at Ascension Catholic Church.
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Dean claims he was 10 or 11 years old when Wolken abused him in the church, school and on a scouting trip. Dean said he self-destructed as a teenager and eventually contemplated suicide.
鈥淪till to this day, having been raped as a child has left a darkness in my soul that I cannot shake and cannot leave behind,鈥 said Dean, a product liability attorney who lives in Chicago with his wife and two children.
Neither Wolken nor his attorney could be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Records show that Wolken was ordained in 1993 and assigned to Ascension until 1997. He served at Our Lady of Lourdes in University City until 1999 and Our Lady of Sorrows in south 狐狸视频 until 2002, when he was removed from ministry and later defrocked. Wolken, now 58, is a registered sex offender who lives in south 狐狸视频.
He served 12 years in prison from 2003 to 2015 for sexually abusing a Ballwin boy from 1997 to 2000 while babysitting the boy. The boy鈥檚 family filed a civil suit against the archdiocese alleging church officials could have known about Wolken but failed to intervene. That lawsuit resulted in a nearly $1.7 million settlement in 2004.
In Dean鈥檚 case, he said he wasn鈥檛 aware he was abused until repressed memories first emerged in 2013 while talking to someone else who鈥檇 been on the precipice. Dean filed suit in 2018, as a 鈥淛ohn Doe,鈥 alleging 狐狸视频 church officials failed to intervene to protect him, years prior to the case that landed Wolken behind bars.
Dean said the grueling civil case ultimately resulted in one of the largest settlements paid by the archdiocese but didn鈥檛 make it to trial. He said more needs to be done to change the legal system in Missouri.
鈥淭he laws have not kept up with the established science, especially how victims repress memory,鈥 he said.
Dean denounced the archdiocese for misusing 鈥渢he statute of limitations to cut down victims of clergy abuse in litigation, despite its public statements in support of victims.鈥
Dean said about a dozen people testified on his behalf, including his parents, siblings and eight childhood friends; still he faced hours and hours of questioning.
鈥淚 opened up my entire life to them,鈥 he said.
Yet, Dean said, in an interview: 鈥淥nce they found out my case was credible in discovery, they went in the opposite direction. They worked as hard as they could to get my case dismissed without any compensation and without a trial.鈥
Asked for comment from 狐狸视频 Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, the archdiocese said by email that the 鈥渟ignificant passage of time鈥 from the alleged acts to the filing of the lawsuit 鈥減oses a challenge in uncovering the truth.鈥
鈥淒espite the absence of criminal charges and other mitigating factors, it was the archdiocese which proposed a settlement process with an experienced mediator through which a mutual agreement between Mr. Dean and the Archdiocese of 狐狸视频 was reached.鈥
Asked for the archbishop鈥檚 position on removing the statute of limitations on child sex-crime civil lawsuits, the archdiocese said: 鈥淭he Archdiocese of 狐狸视频 treats every accusation of sexual abuse with utmost seriousness. Regardless of any applicable statute of limitations, the Archdiocese collaborates with former FBI and other law enforcement personnel, independent of the Church, to thoroughly investigate claims and respond appropriately. It鈥檚 important to note whether or not victims of abuse file a lawsuit, they may still seek and receive assistance from the Catholic Church.鈥
In typical cases, adults in Missouri who claim they were sexually abused as a child by clergy have until they are 26 to file a civil claim against the institution that housed, hired or supervised the alleged perpetrator. Repressed memory is an exception. From the time repressed memory surfaces, adults have a five-year window to file the case against the institution or 10 years against the perpetrator, Nicole Gorovsky, a 狐狸视频 attorney who previously represented abuse victims, said by telephone.
鈥淎 26-year-old is often not prepared nor able to admit to him or herself that this happened to them 鈥 or deal with it,鈥 Gorovsky said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 part of the dynamic of child sexual abuse. The statute of limitations either should be eliminated or elongated. In the criminal world, we understand that. Not in the civil world.鈥
Other states have already taken action on the issue. According to the Associated Press, Vermont was the first state to remove the time limits for child sex crime lawsuits, followed by Maine in 2021. Days before Maryland鈥檚 new state law went into effect early this year, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for bankruptcy protection.