August 26th 2010

Lansing Diocese: $225K paid to man who claimed abuse by priest

The Catholic Diocese of Lansing was rocked Wednesday by revelations about another deceased priest, accused of sexually molesting a boy decades ago. Steps to avoid hidden auto insurance costs After the alleged victim refused a confidentiality agreement and accepted a settlement of $225,000, Lansing Bishop Earl Boyea acknowledged that the diocese paid the money this week to a man who said he was abused in the 1950s by Msgr. John Slowey, who led Catholic Social Services of Lansing.

David Mittleman, a lawyer for the victim, said his client says he was about 5 or 6 years old when he was molested by Slowey at the St. Vincent orphanage, where the man and his siblings were placed from June 1954 to March 1955. Slowey died in 1983 at age 68.

In the video below, Attorney David Mittleman of Lansing describes the details of a settlement made with his client and the Lansing Catholic Diocese. The client was allegedly abused by Monsignor John Slowey in the 1950s.

Read More at WILX Channel 10 in Lansing:

August 31st, 2010 - UPDATE

Update on the Lansing Diocese and claimed abuse:

Alleged Victim in Priest Scandal Speaks

Gregory Guggemos said the past few years have been unbearable.

"When I saw his picture, I threw all the papers up in the air and started crying uncontrollably," Guggemos said. "When I saw Slowey's picture, i immediately had a flashback to him, the orphanage and being sexually abused by him."

He said memories of his sexual abuse at the hands of Father John Slowey, while he stayed at the St. Vincent home for Children back in the 50s, have come back to him as an adult like a flood. It started with a tour of the home back in 2008.

"As my memory of these ceramic tiles was triggered, I viewed them in my mind's eye as if I was five years old," Guggemos said.

Guggemos and the Catholic Diocese of Lansing settled for $225,000 at the beginning of this month. A diocese spokesman has said they could not confirm Guggemos' story, but wanted to help in his healing.

Read the rest of the article

 

September 2nd, 2010

Remembering the unthinkable

Lawyer takes ‘against the odds’ sexual abuse case

POSTED: 12:05 PM Thursday, September 2, 2010 
BY: CAROL LUNDBERG 

 

David S. Mittleman knew that the deck was stacked against him when he took his first clergy sex abuse case. But he would have taken it even if there were absolutely no chance at all of recovering a nickel for his client.

“My client was a friend long before he was a client,” said Mittleman, of Lansing-based Church Wyble PC. “Against the odds, I said, ‘Let’s see what we can do. You deserve this as part of your healing process.’”

Mittleman’s client, Gregory J. Guggemos, is a lawyer who overcame serious odds, having come from a family that faced grave challenges, namely his mother’s serious illness, Mittleman said. So significant were the challenges that when Guggemos was 5 years old, his parents had to take him and four of his five of his siblings to the St. Vincent Home for Children in Lansing.

After a few months, the Guggemos children returned to their home, and the family was reunited. And young Gregory Guggemos did well in school, went to college, and later to law school.

“He’d done very well for himself,” Mittleman said.

Guggemos is 50-something years old, and for 30 years he’s enjoyed the respect of his colleagues and a successful practice. He and his loving wife have raised successful and happy children. Until a couple of years ago, life was good.

“But in the early 2000s, Greg began to feel like something wasn’t right. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something was wrong,” Mittleman said.

He couldn’t remember anything of the nine months he spent at St. Vincent. But a trip to tour the orphanage, a change in his work place ( a tile-covered stairway in the office jarred loose scattered repressed memories from his youth), and some counseling awoke long-buried memories of the terrible truth: Guggemos had been molested while he was at the orphanage, he said.

Guggemos has remembered the alleged abuse, which he said happened at the hands of one of the priests at St. Vincent, Monsignor John Slowey, who died in 1983.

“He had a dramatic breakdown, to the point where friends were afraid for his life,” said Mittleman, adding that twice, Guggemos’ wife took him to the emergency room. “He felt he couldn’t effectively represent people the way he was before.”

Guggemos has been unable to work for the last 18 months. In July of last year, feeling that he was unable to properly represent his employer, or any other clients, he ended his 30-year law career, and eventually opted for inactive status in the State Bar of Michigan.

He talked to three lawyers before meeting with Mittleman, a longtime friend.

Every lawyer before Mittleman told him the same thing: Michigan’s laws are anti-victim, and the two-year statute of limitations to pursue charges against Guggemos’ abuser had passed more than 50 years ago.

That’s one of the reasons Mittleman wanted to help Guggemos.

“We need to change our anti-victim laws here. We ought to have no limitation period,” Mittleman said. “A predator ought to have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Why shouldn’t Michigan victims be able to hold their abusers accountable?”

So, even though Mittleman had never represented a client with repressed memory before, he said, “I think the law is wrong, the way it is now. I was willing to challenge it regardless of the law, and the composition of the court. This just has to change.”

Last fall, Guggemos, Mittleman and Mittleman’s colleague, Nolan Erickson, met with two monsignors from the Lansing diocese. Guggemos told them his story about what he believes happened, and how the memories emerged.

Within an hour, Mittleman got a call from a lawyer with the church’s review board, which was established to review sexual abuse allegations.

Guggemos met with the board members, and soon after, he received a letter telling him that the diocese would be represented by John D. Pirich of Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn LLP.

“We had several meetings,” Mittleman said. “It was like negotiating with one and a half hands tied behind my back.

“If we had filed a case in court, it would have been dismissed based on the statute of limitations. We could have appealed, perhaps to the Supreme Court. But it was an ‘against the odds’ situation.”

He had no evidence, other than Guggemos’ story and the circumstantial evidence that Guggemos and Slowey were both at St. Vincent at the same time. There have been no other complaints against Slowey. There were no witnesses.

Everything rested on whether Guggemos himself was credible. Mittleman also held up House Bill 5699, which is still being considered by the House Judiciary Committee, and would extend the statute of limitations for certain civil suits if the sexual conduct occurred when the victim was younger than 18 years old. The victim would have two years after the bill’s effective date, or 30 years after reaching 18 years of age to bring action on a claim.

Though Mittleman said that he isn’t expecting the state House and Senate to take action on the bill before the end of the year, he does think that eventually the legislation, or similar legislation, will be passed.

“The question for the diocese then becomes: Do you ultimately want this kind of exposure?” Mittleman said.

Because Guggemos had to leave his career while he was in his 50s, during the prime earning years for most lawyers, his lawyers asked for more than $2 million, Mittleman said.

They ultimately got two settlement offers.

“One contained a confidentiality component, and the other did not,” Mittleman said. “I suppose they would have paid more with confidentiality, but I don’t know that for sure.”

Guggemos and the diocese settled in  July, with the diocese paying $225,000 to Guggemos.

“Their position is that it’s unsubstantiated, and paying the settlement is not proof that the claim is valid,” Mittleman said. “But I think that, to Greg, in spite of the fact that words don’t say we were responsible, he believed that this is an acknowledgment of responsibilities.”

 

The Church Wyble Law Firm Congratulates David Mittleman for the Following Achievements