Wyoming County Man Charged With Child Exploitation Crimes

 Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Middle District of Pennsylvania

SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Sean Michael Fryer, age 37, of Factoryville, Pennsylvania was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury for multiple child exploitation crimes.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, the indictment alleges that Fryer used the internet and a cellular device to coerce a minor to produce child pornography and to engage in sexual conduct.  The indictment further alleges that Fryer received, distributed and possessed material in the form of visual depictions involving the use of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. 

The charges stem from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – Philadelphia Division.  Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Olshefski is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit  www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit  www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

Indictments are only allegations. All persons charged are presumed to be innocent unless and until found guilty in court.

A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The maximum penalty under federal law is life imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the Judge is also required to consider and weigh a number of factors, including the nature, circumstances and seriousness of the offense; the history and characteristics of the defendant; and the need to punish the defendant, protect the public and provide for the defendant's educational, vocational and medical needs. For these reasons, the statutory maximum penalty for the offense is not an accurate indicator of the potential sentence for a specific defendant.

Topic(s): 

Project Safe Childhood

Component(s): 

USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle

Online predators: 'They hunted girls. They lied to girls. They manipulated girls.'

Anthony Borrelli, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

She was a 14-year-old girl spending time on an online social networking site chatting with four or five teenage boys. The back-and-forth began to fill with sexually-charged language and the girl was encouraged to perform sexual acts in front of her webcam.

But this Michigan teen — who ended up performing on camera — didn't realize who was on the other end: adult men who were well-practiced in a national conspiracy to entice girls to sexually perform over the internet.

FBI agents spent months investigating and in February indictments were unsealed against nine suspects. Broome County resident Christian Maire, 40, was pegged as the leader of this internet sexual exploitation ring.

On Wednesday, in a Michigan federal court, Maire was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

What's chilling about what the men got the 14-year-old to do in mid-2015 is that it could happen to just about any vulnerable young person who spends time networking with others online, raising questions about how parents can protect their children from becoming victims of online predators who know how to manipulate young people and exploit those social media connections.

"These men psychologically manipulated their victims to get them to engage in sexual activity on web camera on an unmonitored, chatroom-based website. They hunted girls. They lied to girls. They manipulated girls. They ganged up on girls. They sexually exploited girls," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in sentencing documents filed last week.

GOING TO PRISON: Online child predator sobs in court; sentenced to 40 years for leading porn ring

More details: How an internet sex scheme, led by a Broome County man, victimized over 100 girls

"This group did not invent the sexual exploitation of children," prosecutors said, "but they may have perfected it."

Victimization becomes easy online

The internet makes it easier than ever for sexual predators to get access to potential victims, said FBI Special Agent David Fallon, an Albany-based investigator not involved in Maire's case.

"These guys want to go where the kids are and any one of the popular social media things is perfect them," Fallon said. "Some are crimes of opportunity and some are crimes of preference, where they have a sexual interest in children and act on that."

Hunting for 'bored' girls

Maire and his accomplices came to be called the "Bored Group" by federal investigators. They spent five years creating dozens of chat-rooms for specific victims, who apparently were viewed as bored teens.

The word "bored" was used in the chat-room names, including "just bored," "borednstuff," "f*ing bored," "boredascanbe" and "soooobored."

The website and chat rooms were "primarily devoted to the production of child pornography, with multiple groups of adult males using it to target 8-17-year-old children. With the group finally landing in an un-monitored format (a website with no supervision), its members were now free to act on their sexual interest in preteen and teenage girls," according to the court documents.

Their target group was girls who were between 13 and 17 years old. However, the court documents disclose that a 10-year-old girl was lured also; she performed on camera and was recorded.

Struggling teens, preteens easily duped

Young people, especially those who might be already struggling in their family and personal relationships, can be easily duped.

"The adolescent might realize this isn't appropriate but at the same time, enjoys the experience and wants it to continue," said Kevin M. Antshel, an expert in clinical child psychology at Syracuse University. "You never know who you're talking to on the internet, so don't make assumptions."

Out of 5,863 cyber tip-line reports for online child enticement in 2015, a majority of the offenders were strangers to the victims, according to a recent study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

By contrast, law enforcement officials generally contend many perpetrators and victims are known to each other in physical sex abuse cases.

Adolescents of the current generation have grown up as "digital natives," Antshel said, but the technology has grown faster than our ability to understand it.

'Bored Group' goal: gain trust, later manipulate

Many of the underage girls who fell for the "Bored Group" scam were troubled and vulnerable and the men gained their trust to later manipulate them, according to the court papers.

"If a girl was suicidal or revealed that she was cutting herself, the group engaged in what they called a 'trust building session.' Trust building sessions involved no discussion of sexual activity, but rather more sensitive chats about life and the child’s worth," the U.S. Attorney documents stated. "To be sure, there was no benevolence in these sessions. Instead, the group used trust building as an opportunity to further engender loyalty to the group so as to increase the chances that the girl would later engage in sexual activity on web camera."

Clearly, the conspirators hunted the most fragile and vulnerable.

More: Hunters. Talkers. Loopers. How the FBI cracked an online child exploitation ring

More: How a therapy dog could help internet sex victims in Broome man's case

One victim was targeted beginning at age 11. She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, struggled with depression and had a service dog to assist her.

Yet not all were so obviously fragile.

One victim, an elite dancer attending a ballet school, was described by her mother in the documents as "a sensitive kid, she was precocious, intelligent and an excellent student." She suffered from anxiety about dancing well and felt isolated and lonely, according to the documents.

This young teen was exploited by the men for years. Court documents said "they manipulated and enticed her into creating more than 60 videos" of her engaged in sexual activity.

Protecting your child online

Short of pulling the plug on the Wi-Fi, what's a concerned parent to do?

Here are some safeguards the New York State Attorney General's Office recommends:

Outline which websites children can browse.

Keep appraised of who they meet or "friend" online.

Set limits on how much time they can spend online playing games or using social networks.

Know where in the house the computers can be used.

Have a written contract between parent and child that sets internet rules and lists consequences of breaking them.

Across the U.S., authorities investigate cases of online predators every year. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 10.2 million reports about suspected child sexual exploitation nationwide in 2017.

Various risk factors for internet victims can include:

• Low self-esteem and/or levels of depression.
• Social problems including a lack of parental involvement.
• Sensation-seeking; interest in the novelty of new experiences.

"The teenager's decisions tend to be more driven by emotion than logic," psychologist Antshel said. "Heightened sensitivity to anticipated rewards can motivate adolescents to engage in a risky act, and there's no brakes on the car."

If you suspect your teenager or child is involved in something inappropriate, Antshel said getting mad and yanking the phone won't necessarily fix the problem. Forcing a young person's online activity into taboo territory could simply drive it underground.

Kids who realize they've gotten over their heads might not come forward if they're to afraid of how mom and dad will react, said Fallon. If that's the case, he suggests talking to a trusted adult — a teacher or a coach.

Law enforcement can't catch an internet predator if the crime goes unreported, Fallon said, and letting it slide won't stop the predator from targeting someone else.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in a 2017 report, said offenders in these cases prefer to begin on any site that seems easiest to meet potential victims.

Christian Maire (Photo: Provided)

Certain social media sites became a "hunting ground" for Maire and his associates, the FBI said in court records.

The group utilized a variety of social media and email accounts: Kik, Discord, MyLOL, Gmail.

Online platforms such as Kik, which is a cross-platform instant messaging app, and Discord, another chat-base program, have been utilized by offenders in other child pornography cases around the Southern Tier.

Among them: Johnson City resident Jared Flanders, 34, used Kik on a dozen occasions to distribute child porn through a chat group to people in other countries, including New Zealand. Flanders is serving an eight-year federal prison sentence.

Federal authorities have not publicly named the site chiefly used by Maire's group, but the FBI said it's "primarily used by adult men seeking to sexually exploit teenage and preteen girls."

800,000 Missing Each Year – International Tribunal Exposes Pedophilia Problem – Victims Testify of Child Sex Trafficking and Satanic Ritual Abuse

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

800,000 children a year in the United States go missing, many of them being sexually trafficked through pedophilia networks where the children suffer unimaginable horrors such as Satanic ritual abuse.

This number is comprised of documented cases of children gone missing, and does not include children who are born and bred into pedophilia networks and have no birth certificates, or undocumented immigrant children who come across the borders.

Worldwide, the number is close to 8 million children missing and being sexually trafficked.

Such is the scope of the problem that was reported earlier this year (2018) in Westminster, London by The International Tribunal for Natural Justice (ITNJ), as the court convened over a 3-day period to launch their Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Human Trafficking and Child Sex Abuse.

The Judicial Commission is comprised of world leaders who have been involved in fighting child sex trafficking for years, and includes intelligence officers, politicians, legal scholars, and many others. (Website: https://commission.itnj.org)

The International Tribunal was formed because most of the world’s government bodies today have been corrupted and no longer represent the people, but instead serve the interest of private corporations, and as such, justice is seldom found in most government judicial courts around the world today to stop such a heinous crime as child sex trafficking.

In fact, the child sex trafficking network today is actually facilitated by the rich and powerful, whose influence reaches into the political and judicial branches of society.

From the INTJ report:

The ITNJ initiative has arisen as a response to the disregard for the rule of law exhibited by (alleged) public officials, corporate directors, and ‘world leaders’ who have deliberately privatized and weaponized the governments of the world against their own people.

It is the culmination of years of endeavour and research on the part of many people from a diverse set of backgrounds dedicated to safeguarding a viable future for human kind. It is recognized that we the people must take responsibility in holding government to account when it violates basic human rights and natural law.

Today we know conclusively that many of these activities are being facilitated by politically and financially powerful individuals, government, and corporate organizations who perennially avoid being brought to account for their actions due to their affluence and influence.

Included in the court proceedings of the first Judicial Commission of the Tribunal were powerful testimonies from victims who suffered unimaginable horrors as children being sexually abused and trafficked through this powerful world-wide pedophilia network that sexually trafficks children, a human trafficking network that brings in more revenue than the trafficking of weapons and drugs.

During the opening Plenary Session, Chief Counsel Robert David Steele, a former CIA officer, gave perhaps the best summary of the purpose of Tribunal’s Judicial Commission, which has been condensed into a 15 minute video:

Convicted in child porn case, rogue priest still preaches as he crafts his own narrative

Brandie Kessler and Dylan Segelbaum, York Daily Record

The general's report comes after years of state and local law enforcement uncovering cases of sexual abuse within the Catholic church.

Nate Chute, IndyStar

The Catholic church kicked him out. He is among 301 "predator priests" named by a grand jury. But he still leads a Catholic church in York County.

A York Daily Record/Sunday News investigation shows how he has tried to discredit the conviction.

He tells supporters various stories about why he was convicted of a crime.

Harry Spencer realized that he was home.

He’d grown uncomfortable with the direction of the Catholic Church, particularly since Vatican II. The doctrines had changed. The Mass had changed. So had all the traditions and rituals.

Then, about seven years ago, Spencer started going to what would become St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church in Lower Windsor Township. It offers a traditional Latin Mass. The Rev. Virgil Tetherow, also known as Father Gabriel, leads the church.

“I have never met a priest that I’ve felt more comfortable with in his religiosity and his ability to teach the religion of the Roman Catholic faith,” Spencer said. “I love my religion. And Father Tetherow is a true Catholic priest.”

But that is not what the Catholic church says.

In fact, Tetherow “is not recognized as a priest, is prohibited from presenting himself as clergy and is not associated with the Diocese of Harrisburg,” said Mike Barley, a spokesman for the diocese, who encouraged the faithful to not attend Tetherow's services.

Tetherow, 54, is among 301 “predator priests” named in the recent landmark grand jury report that details widespread sexual abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. He was arrested in 2005 after police found child pornography on two computers and he later pleaded guilty to criminal use of a communication facility.

In a statement provided to the grand jury, he maintains his conviction isn't what it seems and that the grand jury report distorts the public record. He’s never been accused of physical sexual abuse of children.

Many of the clergy named in the almost 900-page report are dead. But Tetherow, who declined to be interviewed, is still actively running a church — and there’s nothing, and apparently no one, that can prevent him from doing so. A York Daily Record/Sunday News investigation based on dozens of interviews, Right-to-Know Law requests, court records and secret canonical letters reveals how he’s been able to weave a narrative to discredit the conviction and keep loyal followers in his flock.

READ: 'Punished' for being sexually abused in York County: Jehovah's Witnesses' culture of cover-up.

South Arkansas Online Predator Sting Nets 12 Arrests

By Rebecca Jeffrey

DALLAS COUNTY, Ark. -- A week long online predator and child exploitation sting generated 12 arrests in Dallas County. 

The small sheriff's office in south central Arkansas took on the operation as an experiment to see how prevalent these crimes are in the area. 

"I think that it's more rampant now than it's ever been," Dallas County Investigator Chuck Barker said. 

Since last Monday, at least 12 potential online predators were communicating with who they thought was a teenaged girl from the Fordyce area. 

Who they were actually talking to was Barker and Deputy Jacob Cain.

All 12 were arrested for internet stalking of a child, a class Y Felony, after meeting up with the virtual victim. 

The offenders ranged from 22 to 53 years old. Three were from Louisiana, the other 9 were from central and south central Arkansas. 

"If they're willing to come from other states to victimize our children then we're willing to be here to catch them," Barker said. 

The sheriff's office won't reveal where they found their potential predators because they are still working to catch more using different names, profiles and interests. 

"We only had one victim. So we haven't even explored the gamut of potential victims," Barker said. 

But they plan to. They want to expose the dark reality and protect their most vulnerable from predators using the only resource they have -- themselves. 

“We don't have any extra resources, we don't have any extra money or extra time, or officers to dedicate to this type of operation, but when you're talking about protecting children, that's paramount," Barker said. 

These arrests also serve as a reminder for parents to not use the internet as a virtual babysitter. 

"We think that because children are quiet and in their rooms playing on their phones that they're safe, and that's just not the case, as we've seen 12 times in the last 7 days," Barker said. 

Of the 12 men arrested, some are also facing drug and weapons charges. We're told some brought the items with them when they were planning to meet the teenaged girl. 

DCSO is now working with the FBI on the out of state cases and ICE will be deporting another inmate.

Targeting the Innocent: Sex trafficking myths spread on social media

by Rachel Glaser | Newschannel 3

Investigators and survivor advocates say there is no question that children and teens in Michigan are sold for sex, but it doesn't happen the way many think.

The most common myth, according to experts, is often spread on social media. Someone notices a suspicious person following them in a store and goes online, typically with good intentions, to warn of sex traffickers.

Investigators said that's not how traffickers take victims. Experts also warn advancing the false narrative of what's portrayed in movies is keeping real victims in the dark.

"It takes the attention off of what’s really going on," Michigan State Police Missing Children’s Clearinghouse Manager Jolene Hardesty said.

Children are more likely to be targeted inside their own homes, she said.

"It’s someone who has come into your house, on your couch or in your kids bedroom via their smart device," said Hardesty.

Hardesty works with state and local law enforcement to help find missing kids in Michigan.

According to MSP, the most common age range for sex trafficking victims is 13- to 16-years-old.

Scott Jenkins noticed his 12-year-old daughter Haylee become increasingly secretive.

The change in his oldest daughter started when a friend introduced Haylee to a boy on Instagram. Let's call him Brad, that's not his real name, but police believe he is a real 16-year-old boy.

"I was like wait, this isn't... something is wrong," Jenkins said.

Concerned about his daughter's change in behavior, Jenkins snuck into his daughters room to scour her social media accounts while she slept.

What he read, Jenkins said, looked like typical teenage flirting.

“I had no idea it was planned process to lure young girls and that's when it really hit me,” said Jenkins.

Upon further digging he found the email addresses linked to many of Brad’s friends, who were also contacting Haylee, belonged to adult men.

Investigators say sex traffickers use fake accounts to insert themselves into friend groups online.

They use kids to recruit other children, sometimes without their knowledge. Friends of friends, followers of followers, can make predators seem safe.

“They will groom them and talk to them and pretend like they care for them for however long it takes until they can gain this child's trust and once they gain the child's trust, then the game begins,” said Hardesty.

Traffickers target the most vulnerable and lonely children; kids fleeing family violence, runaways, children in the LGBTQ community and children without homes. Traffickers shower children with attention, affections, gifts and promises of a better life.

Hardesty said, "These kids are going missing completely under the radar, some of the kids that are missing, they still go to school every day. They come home sometimes at night, sometimes they are not at home, but we've had straight A students who are being trafficked and parents had no idea."

Hardesty said investigators now see the recruitment process spread from social media into schools.

"You want to make some extra money this weekend? Hey, you want to come party with me?"

Hardesty said students, current victims, act as scouts in schools for traffickers.

Senior Director of Law and Policy at the YWCA Jessica Glynn has provided legal representation to 60 sex trafficking survivors in Kalamazoo County since 2016.

"We do not see people snatched from grocery store parking lots, we do not see people kidnapped in the middle of the night form their beds," Glynn said.

In her decade-long career Glynn has never worked a case where a victim was abducted from a public place.

"We have to get human trafficking right," Glynn said, "Because if we don't then those who are truly victims of human trafficking will never reach safety."

Most of the cases she's seen involve one victim and one suspect, not a chain of victims.

Glynn said, "Like domestic violence, like sexual assault it’s far more complicated than why didn’t you just walk away, or why didn’t you scream for help?"

Reports of sex traffickers at stores masks the ways that children are actually being victimized. Glynn said, "Those are not human trafficking cases and, so, if we continue to get it wrong and if we continue to advance stories that are not human trafficking, it means that those victims who are in danger, they’re not going to be identified."

She said the Hollywood portrayal of sex trafficking also makes it difficult to prosecute traffickers.

Assaulted, threatened with violence, addicted to drugs or without another place to go, victims can feel trapped. Instead of looking for perceived predators in well-lit public places, Glynn stresses the importance of looking for potential victims.

"Nicer clothes and items they know they couldn’t have afforded or their parents could not have purchased for them and that should raise red flags," Glynn said.

Haylee, now 17-years-old, is happy her dad noticed those red flags and interrupted before she could meet up with Brad and his friends.

"I wouldn't be here right now if I would have met up with him," Haylee said.

A thought that still makes her dad emotional.

Jenkins said, "Mostly anger that this is still happening, I mean, this happens everyday. People need to be aware this happens here.I

In2017, reports of sex trafficking case to the National Human Trafficking Hotline increase by nearly 350 percent since 2012, when Haylee found herself in that questionable online relationship.

Priest sex abuse: New report lists 212 Catholic priests in Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco dioceses accused of child sex abuse

• Matthias Gafni, Julia Prodis Sulek, John Woolfolk and David DeBolt
• PUBLISHED: October 23, 2018 at 10:02 am | UPDATED: October 24, 2018 at 9:36 am
• Categories:California News, Crime & Courts, Latest Headlines, Nation & World, News

Related Articles

• A priest, a sex addict, an exorcist
• The stories behind each of San Jose’s 15 accused priests
• San Jose diocese names 15 priests accused of abuse
• San Jose priest, registered sex offender, faces new molestation charges

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As Bay Area Catholic leaders are increasingly under pressure to name priests accused of abusing children, a Minnesota law firm published a report Tuesday identifying 212 priests in the San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco dioceses accused of sexual misconduct involving kids.

The report names 135 accused offenders in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, 95 in the Oakland diocese and 33 in the San Jose diocese, though 51 names are duplicates because some of the priests worked in more than one Bay Area diocese. Earlier this month, the San Jose diocese released its own list of credibly accused priests that had only 15 names, which this report calls “deficient.”

Jeff Anderson & Associates, a law firm that has represented a number of Catholic priest abuse victims in California and elsewhere, compiled the 66-page report, which included the mugshots of priests, their parish work history and a short synopsis of their alleged abuse.

“The data reveals the scandalous scale of hundreds of priests assaulting thousands of minors from early history to the present in these Dioceses,” the report concludes. “The data collected suggests the patterns and practices of Church officials, including the orchestration of an institutional cover-up of an enormous magnitude.”

Related Articles

• A priest, a sex addict, an exorcist
• The stories behind each of San Jose’s 15 accused priests
• San Jose diocese names 15 priests accused of abuse
• San Jose priest, registered sex offender, faces new molestation charges

The law firm acknowledges that the “vast majority” of the claims against the priests named in the report have been settled or not fully evaluated in civil court. Therefore, they say “the allegations should be considered just allegations and should not be considered proved or substantiated in a court of law.” They further describe how they compiled the names from media reports, the priest abuse database on BishopAccountability.org, dioceses’ own public statements and other sources.

For example, the Oakland Diocese in 2004 released a list of 24 credibly accused priests, and an investigation by this news organization in 2008 reported that 64 priests who had served in the East Bay had been accused of sexual abuse, either while working within the Oakland Diocese or at another outside the area. The investigation noted if a priest was named in a lawsuit, internal church records or another one of the thousands of documents reviewed. All but one of those was included in the law firm’s list Tuesday.

One of the most egregious abusers on the list is Stephen Kiesle, a priest who was placed on three year’s probation in 1978 for molesting two boys at Our Lady of the Rosary in Union City and was later arrested and charged with molesting three girls at Santa Paula in Fremont in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was was allowed to continue serving in a number of Bay Area parishes and ministries until the mid-1980s before being defrocked in 1987. He was sentenced in 2004 to six years in prison for abusing a 15-year old girl.

New on the list is Milton Eggerling, a priest who was accused of sexually abusing a boy in Austin, Texas, from 1973 to 1978. Before leaving for Texas, Eggerling was at Corpus Christi in Piedmont. He returned to Oakland in 1980 and later worked at the San Jose Diocese and at St. Patrick’s Church in Rodeo. He died in 2008. Anthony Rodrigue of the Dominican order served at St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland but was not named as an abuser by the Oakland diocese in 2004 despite having been sentenced in 1998 to 10 years in prison for abusing youth in Southern California before he came to the East Bay.

At least eight priests’ only East Bay connection was attending or being stationed at the Jesuit Theology Seminary in Berkeley.

On the law firm’s list connected to the San Jose Diocese, some names that did not appear in the diocese’s own report last week were already well-known offenders who were not parish priests but had a connection to the San Jose area. For others, there appears to be either no connection to the San Jose diocese or a tenuous one.

The San Jose diocese released a statement Tuesday saying they are reviewing the names on the list and will comment Wednesday.

“It is heart-breaking to see the list of so many who have betrayed and abused innocent children in these horrific ways in the list released today by Anderson & Associates,” the statement said. “Diocese of San Jose remains resolute in our commitment to provide healing and reconciliation for the victims/survivors. This will allow us to begin the process of restoring trust that has been painfully eroded by those in positions of leadership and trust by being accountable and transparent for what has happened in the past within the Diocese of San Jose.”

The new report shows a list of priests accused locally and elsewhere over the decades ended up at two South Bay retirement homes — the MaryKnoll retirement house in Los Altos and the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

They include Jerold Lindner, spiritual adviser for a lay organization called Christian Family Movement, who was accused of molesting boys at a religious camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the 1970s. One case made headlines in 2016, when one of his accusers, Will Lynch, attacked Lindner at the Jesuit Center where he was living. A jury later acquitted Lynch of assault.

William Farrington, a Jesuit accused in 2012 of molesting a Bellarmine College Preparatory School student in the 1960s, also lived at the Jesuit Center. Farrington was disciplined by the Jesuit order and banned from working with minors, according to a Mercury News report at the time.

The late John Rodriguez Moniz, also from the Los Gatos retirement home, had been convicted of lewd conduct with a young girl for a 1991 incident while visiting St. Mary’s parish in Los Gatos, also reported by the Mercury News. At the MaryKnoll retirement center, James E. Avery plead guilty and was sentenced to prison for abusing a 10-year-old boy in 1978 in Philadelphia. He later recanted his confession, according to BishopAccountability.org and the Philadelphia Enquirer.

Two priests who had brief stints at the campus ministry program at Santa Clara University in the 1970s and 1980s also were accused of sex crimes while working out of state. James F. Kuntz pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in 2008 while in New Jersey, according to published reports, and Edward Buenter was accused in a civil lawsuit of abusing four boys in the late 1960s.

In a statement, Santa Clara University said it supports “the release of the names and statuses of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse.” It also said it would “cooperate with any lawful investigation.”

The Oakland diocese has vowed to release a list of priests credibly accused of child sex abuse, and the San Francisco archdiocese has hinted that it also is looking at doing a similar self-reporting. The Oakland report is expected late next month. It’s not clear what effect the law firm’s disclosure — or previous reporting — will have on Oakland’s report.

Oakland diocese spokeswoman Helen Osman said she could not comment on Tuesday’s report while it prepares its own list.

“We are actively reviewing files,” Osman said. “We don’t have a definitive date yet for the release, but I am anticipating immediately after Thanksgiving.”

In 2004, the San Francisco archdiocese named 56 abusive priests, significantly less than the 135 named in Tuesday’s report. Spokesman Mike Brown said the San Francisco Archdiocese plans to look “carefully” at the names released by the law firms.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has not yet decided if he’ll follow bishops in San Jose and Oakland, who are releasing names. Brown said the church is “going through our files,” and Cordileone is holding listening tours with parishioners. A decision could come “in the next month or even shorter,” Brown said.

At a San Francisco news conference Tuesday, Anderson spoke about the lawsuit filed earlier this month against every California diocese asking for the church to turn over their books.

“The bishops made a conscious choice to protect those offenders, but they also made a conscious choice to protect themselves and officials complicit in their crimes,” said Anderson, who earlier this month released a report naming 307 offenders in the Los Angeles diocese.

Patrick Wall, a former priest who works with the Minnesota law firm and helped compile the list, said the names were pulled from public sources.

“This is a secret sitting right in front of their eyes through open sources,” he said. “That’s what drives me nuts.”

The report comes in the wake of a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report about abuse in several diocese there, as well as more and more law enforcement agencies across the country launching their own probes. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has a policy of not confirming whether his office has opened an investigation, but several Bay Area victim advocates said they met with senior staff from the AG’s office on Sept. 26 in the state building in Oakland.

“They told us that they didn’t have the same powers as the AG in (Pennsylvania), but they seemed concerned, and they asked us for additional information on a couple of topics,” said Melanie Sakoda, a member of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“They asked good questions and clearly were tuned into the situation,” SNAP official and priest abuse victim Dan McNevin said. “They shared that they had already been in touch with dozens of other states aboutut the status of those investigations.”

The stories behind each of San Jose’s 15 accused priests

John Woolfolk, Julia Prodis Sulek, Tatiana Sanchez and Matthias Gafni

Father Philip McCrillis, Rev Joseph Theodore Pritchard, and Arthur Harrison are on a list of 15 priests names released by San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath on Thursday he said were found to have been credibly accused of abusing kids within the diocese.

These are the priests named Thursday by the Diocese of San Jose as credibly accused of abusing children during their time in the diocese.

Leonel Noia

While a pastor at the former St. Patrick parish in San Jose, Noia was arrested and convicted in 1976 after two boys reported he sexually abused them on a camping trip. When he got out of jail in 1978, he was transferred to three other San Jose parishes: St. Julie Billiart until 1982, St. Anthony until 1986 and Five Wounds, where he served for 16 years until 2002, when the church banned all priest child molesters from ministry. Each time Noia was introduced at a new parish, according to a newspaper account in 2004, either he or the pastor announced to the parish his past record. The same news account says he was accused of sexual misconduct with two boys while he was at St. Anthony’s parish in 1985, although the the family didn’t pursue compensation or a lawsuit and those accusations are not listed in the diocese account.

Robert Gray

While a priest at St. Justin parish in Santa Clara from 1991 to 1993, Gray was accused of sexually abusing three teenage boys he taught in a karate class, including at least one from St. Christopher parish. In 1993, in exchange for a no contest plea in one case, two other counts were dropped. Gray served 160 days in jail and received psychiatric treatment before returning to the diocese in 1995, when he was given a job as an administrator in the cemeteries department. He was still allowed to serve Mass weekly at different parishes and preside over weddings. He was permanently banned from ministry in 2002, in accordance with the Dallas Charter.

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Hernan Toro

Originally of the Archdiocese of Popayan in Colombia, Toro was accused of sexual misconduct with a child while at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Alviso in 1983. He was convicted and registered as a sex offender in 1983, but that didn’t stop his work in the church. After his conviction, Toro went on to serve at St. Athanasius Parish in Mountain View; St. Catherine Parish in Morgan Hill; and St. Aloysius Parish in Palo Alto. He was sent to a detention ministry in 1988 and was permanently banned from the ministry two years later. Toro retired that year and now lives in San Leandro, according to the Diocese. The allegations against him had not previously been disclosed.

Laurent Largente

Father Laurent Largente is pictured in an article from the Friday, October 27, 1967 issue of The Spartan Daily, the San Jose State University newspaper. Largente is on a list of 15 priest names released by San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath on Thursday he said were found to have been credibly accused of abusing kids within the diocese. 

Largente was removed from ministry in 1994, the same year the victim came forward recounting sexual molestation by Largente at St. Patrick Cathedral between 1980 and 1983. The case apparently wasn’t made public until this week. Largente was put on leave from St. Patrick’s in 1987, although the reason isn’t explained. He was transferred to Church of the Ascension in Saratoga later that year. Although he was “removed from ministry” in 1994, in accordance with the Dallas Charter, he was permanently banned from ministry in 2002.

Thomas Bettencourt

Bettencourt reportedly engaged in sexual misconduct with a child while serving at St. Justin Parish in Santa Clara in 1982. The diocese says the abuse was not reported until 1997, seven years after Bettencourt, the 48-year-old scion of two well-known San Jose families and a heavy smoker, died from respiratory failure. From 1974 to 1988 he served at parishes and Catholic schools from San Francisco to San Jose to Campbell to Los Gatos. In a 1981 article, a year before the abuse, Bettencourt told a reporter he found the most satisfaction in “restoring the faith of someone who has been driven from the church by the insensitivity of some other priest.” Bettencourt’s father, Anthony Bettencourt, owned a fountain at 17th Street and Santa Clara Avenue that became a popular hangout for San Jose families, and his mother Elizabeth was part of the Pasetta construction family. The allegations against Bettencourt had not previously been disclosed.

Joseph Pritchard

Pritchard, a priest from the 1950s through late 1980s, was accused of sexual abuse by at least 19 victims, at least 10 from St. Martin of Tours parish in San Jose and one from St. Nicholas in Los Altos. The cases weren’t made public until the early 2000s, when the St. Martin’s victims came forward. However, the father of one of the victims said that in 1977, he wrote a letter of complaint to church officials and was told that Pritchard was in therapy and would be transferred. Pritchard left St. Martin’s in 1978 and moved to St. Nicholas in Los Altos, where he served until the year of his death in 1988. The diocese’s list Thursday said it was not alerted to Pritchard’s abuse until lawsuits were filed in 2002 and 2003. However, a victim’s father mailed a letter in 1977 alerting church officials to the abuse of his son and other children by Pritchard. Over the years, the diocese has said the letter didn’t exist, but it later stipulated in court that the father sent the letter.
Attorney Rob Mezzetti, who represented about 10 of Pritchard’s victims, said “that list is wrong and they know it’s wrong.” Mezzetti said he deposed Bishop McGrath during the case.

Alexander Larkin

Father Alexander C. Larkin. This photo appeared in the Saratoga News, September 11, 1996. 

Larkin was removed as pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Saratoga in 2005 after the diocese was served with a lawsuit by two men who allege he molested them while they were altar boys at Our Lady of the Rosary in Palo Alto in the late 1970s. One of the men, known as “John Doe 31” in court filings, told the Mercury News in 2005 that Larkin was a trusted friend of the family who visited them three to four times a week. He escaped his abuse, he said, when he went off to college. At the same time he was filing his lawsuit, the diocese was contacting law enforcement and initiating an investigation into Larkin based on an anonymous letter posted on car windows at Sacred Heart. The letter writer described being abused as a teen by Larkin at St. William in Los Altos. Larkin was put on restrictive ministry duties in 2005 and was permanently banned in 2009. He still resides in San Jose, according to the diocese.

Don Flickinger

Don Flickinger is on a list of 15 priest names released by San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath on Thursday. McGrath said the priests were found to have been credibly accused of abusing kids within the diocese. (Courtesy of KMPH/FOX26) 

The diocese found credible sexual misconduct allegations involving children against visiting priest Flickinger while he stayed at St. Frances Cabrini in San Jose and Sacred Heart Parish in Saratoga from the 1990s to the early 2000s. The diocese said they learned of the abuse in 2002, 2005 and 2006, the latter year Flickinger was permanently banned from the ministry.
Flickinger, who was a visiting priest from the Fresno diocese and allowed to stay in the South Bay rectories as he cared for his ailing mother, was sued by at least three individuals who alleged he molested them as children — two boys and a girl. At the Saratoga parish, Flickinger would hear confessions and prepare second-graders for their First Communions.

George Moss

Moss was accused of sexual misconduct with children while at St. Joseph Parish in Mountain View from 1963 to 1976, when it was part of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The allegations were reported in 2002, 2004 and 2012 to the Diocese of San Jose, established in 1981. Moss had retired in 1976 and died a decade later, the diocese said. The allegations had not previously been made public.

Noel Senevirante

Senevirante was accused of sexual misconduct with a child some time between 1971 and 1972 while at St. Leo the Great School in San Jose. The San Jose diocese associated him with a diocese in Sri Lanka but indicated he spent time in San Jose in 1970 at St. Martin of Tours, St. Leo the Great and St. Maria Goretti parishes. The abuse was reported in 2002 and the diocese said he was permanently banned from ministry that year and that he died in 2009. The allegations against Senevirante had not previously been disclosed.

Phil Sunseri

Sunseri was accused of sexual misconduct with children at St. Christopher Parish in 1986 and while at Holy Family Parish the following year. The abuse was reported in 1987 and 2018, and the diocese said Sunseri was permanently banned from ministry in 1988 but still living in San Jose. The allegations against Sunseri had not previously been disclosed.

Philip McCrillis

McCrillis was accused by two sisters of sexual misconduct during his time at St. Albert the Great Parish & St. Patrick Seminary between 1968-1969. The sisters said McCrillis became close to the family after their parents divorced and that he and their mother had an affair. When they were in junior high, they said he began molesting them. Parkinson’s disease forced him to retire in 2003. The sisters sued in 2004, won a settlement, and he was banned from ministry that year. Aside from several pastoral assignments, McCrillis also ran two restaurants and wrote poetry. But by the time he died in 2007, many parishioners still didn’t know about the accusations, and those that did were angered by the glowing obituaries and memorials he received upon his death.

Angel Mariano

Mariano was reported and convicted in 1998 of having sex with a 17-year-old boy that he met in an internet chat room. He was convicted of two felonies and spent five months in Santa Clara County Jail. Mariano was permanently banned from the ministry in 1998, the same year he left Most Holy Trinity Parish in San Jose. But according to parishioners, the diocese didn’t disclose the information to them, and many wondered why Mariano quietly left the church without notice. They didn’t find out about the charges against him until 2002, when his name came up in news reports in a list of priests accused of sexual abuse. After being forced out of the church, Mariano, like other priests, was taken to Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

Joseph Dondero

Dondero was accused of sexual misconduct with a child while at St. Joseph Parish in the 1960s, according to the diocese, which said the incident wasn’t reported to them until 2002. Dondero had several pastoral assignments throughout the South Bay and a stint at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in the 1950s. After leaving St. Thomas Cantebury Parish in Campbell in 1980, Dondero spent seven years at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, where he died in 1997.

Arthur Harrison

Harrison was accused of sexually abusing children he met at St. Frances Cabrini parish in San Jose between 1974 and 1976, as well as at Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Novato in 1961. Although he was not her parish priest, one of the victims told this news organization that said she had been repeatedly molested in the 1970s at Harrison’s cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Harrison was listed as chaplain at San Quentin Prison at the time. The first victims didn’t come forward until 1988 — after Harrison had been serving for 10 years as priest at St. Elizabeth parish in Milpitas and had moved to Church of the Ascension in Saratoga. In 1989, Harrison was put on leave. He retired in 1992, was permanently banned from ministry in 2002, and died in 2005.