NorthJersey.com
WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – As clergy abuse lawsuits proliferate across the U.S., a growing number of priests who say they were falsely accused are pushing back by suing their accusers, investigators and even church officials.
The list includes the Rev. Roy Herberger of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New York. Last year, he filed a defamation case against a 42-year-old man who said the priest had assaulted him as a boy.
The diocese cleared Herberger after a six-month investigation, but the experience was devastating, he said. I felt abandoned, embarrassed and betrayed, Herberger said in an email. It was difficult for me to leave the shelter of my apartment lest I be seen by others who might recognize me and tag me as one of them.
The exchange was a vivid illustration of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s influence on New York’s political landscape. Whether she’ll use her platform to help shape the race for mayor is an open question.
Beyond Policing: Creating Safe and Just Communities, with Art Acevedo, Roy L. Austin, and Karol Mason in conversation with Bill Whitaker
As the nation witnesses increasing public support for a reimagining and transformation of the criminal justice system, calls for defunding the police and reinvestment of those funds have dominated recent discourse. This moment also presents an opportunity to simultaneously achieve safety and justice through a more community-driven approach. How do we and our leaders make change happen in a way that takes into consideration historic injustices, as well as the underlying social, economic, education and health disparities in the United States?
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The nonconsensual removal of a condom during sexual intercourse would be an act of sexual battery under a bill introduced Monday by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens).
California’s Civil Code currently characterizes sexual battery as someone who acts with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact with an intimate body part of another, and as a result, commits a sexually offensive act. The perpetrator is liable for damages.
The bill, AB 453, would add a provision that says a person commits sexual battery if they cause “contact between a penis, from which a condom has been removed, and the intimate part of another who did not verbally consent to the condom being removed.”
Prakash Churaman was 15 years old when detectives showed up at his family's basement apartment in Jamaica in December 2014 and handcuffed him, charging him with his best friend's murder. He says his confession was coerced.