Green Bay Judge Suddenly Schedules Unusual Hearing in Child Molestation Case
November 04 2006 - 04:53PM
PR Newswire (US)
On Monday, he'll hear arguments on whether he's biased and should
step aside GREEN BAY, Wis., Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- A Green Bay
Judge has set an unusual court hearing for this Monday in a civil
child molestation case involving an abusive Catholic priest who is
behind bars. Brown County Circuit Court Judge Mark Warpinski has
been asked to recuse himself from the case by the victim's attorney
for alleged bias. Monday's hearing will focus strictly on this
issue. Attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, who has handled hundreds
of clergy sex abuse cases, has filed a motion asking Warpinski, a
Catholic, to step aside in a molestation case filed against Fr.
Donald Buzanowski and the Green Bay Catholic diocese. The plaintiff
is David Schauer of Marshfield. According to documents filed in the
case, Warpinski was "an agent of the diocese" at the same time
Buzanowski worked at Sts. Peter and Paul church, but didn't
disclose this fact, or other close ties to Catholic officials,
until after he'd made repeated rulings that appear to favor the
church over the victim. On Friday, Warpinski set the hearing for
Monday at 3:40 p.m. He has given each side six minutes to make
their case, and four minutes of rebuttal. "These serious
allegations of bias against this judge are troubling, as is the
sudden and unusual timing of this hearing," said Peter Isely of
Milwaukee, a national board member with SNAP, the Survivors Network
of those Abused by Priests. "This brave victim deserves an
objective process and has already suffered because the judge
released information about confidential settlement discussions."
Last month, Warpinski put, in a publicly accessible file,
information about settlement talks between the two parties. The
information later appeared in a newspaper story, and Warpinski said
it had been a mistake. Court papers cite Warpinski's years as
President of the Board of Education for Notre Dame Academy, a
Catholic school that gets financial support from the diocese, as
evidence of bias. He also notes that Warpinski quickly tossed out
Schauer's case, a decision that was overturned by an appeals court.
That court instructed Warpinski to allow Schauer to do discovery,
but Warpinski told Schauer's attorney that he could ask only five
questions of church officials. "It's very rare that a clergy
molestation case goes to trial, especially in Wisconsin," said
David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of SNAP, the
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's even more rare
that a judge in such a case is asked to recuse himself. We hope he
does so." For the official court page on Monday's hearing, cut and
paste the link into your web browser.
http://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetails.do;jsessionid=48C68716BEC7CD376E06EA0D5F8
C7653.render1?caseNo=2003CV000628&countyNo=5&cacheId=DD2D1129EC2E70B289766816A
7609667&recordCount=2&offset=1 (SNAP, the Survivors Network
of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest
support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 17
years and have more than 7,000 members across the country. Despite
the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested
by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis,
bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
DATASOURCE: Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
CONTACT: David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP national director,
+1-314-566-9790 cell, or Peter Isely of Milwaukee, SNAP national
board member, +1-414-429-7259 Web site: http://www.snapnetwork.org/
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