ational Trial Lawyers member Lyndsay Markley says she's investigating cases of alleged sexual abuse by now deceased Catholic Priest, Monsignor Thomas Mohan Of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Diocese of Los Angeles, and Diocese of Orange County, California.
The alleged victims, some of whom reside in Cook County, Illinois and others in California, claim that they were sexually abused as children by Mohan during their participation in the Catholic Faith, including performing tasks as altar boys. Following Mnsgr. Mohan’s retirement from his work as a Catholic Priest within the Archdiocese of Chicago in the early 1970s. Thereafter, he performed work as a pastor and Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange County until 1997. Mohan died on November 28, 2002. Many of the current allegations against Mohan arise from his time in California.
In response to multiple queries regarding the status of these claims, Attorney Lyndsay Markley is investigating these matters on behalf of her clients and working with the representatives from the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Diocese of Los Angeles, and the Diocese of Orange County in an effort to reach an amicable resolution of these claims outside of litigation.
The timing of these claims is fortuitous given the impending enactment of California resolution AB-3120 - an amendment to the California statute that sets the statute of limitations for civil claims against private entities. Under this new version of the law, many of the previous barriers to victims of sexual abuse in California would be removed. The law also provides for treble damages. Illinois’ law still creates a difficult barrier to victims from this time period.
Attorney Lyndsay Markley says:
“Given the passage of time, many witnesses to the wrongful actions of Monsignor Mohan are no longer available and we urge anyone with information regarding this priest to come forward to help these victims achieve justice. For far too long the Catholic Church has known about sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior indicating abuse committed by its priests and acted to protect the priest to the grave detriment of children. For too long, the Catholic Church has covered it up to avoid scandal, criminal charges, and civil lawsuits by running down the clock on the time period available to a victim to file a lawsuit.
Most recently we are seeing this sad story play out in Pennsylvania, where over 300 priests have molested and abused nearly 1,000 children since the 1970s. Now it is time to hold the church accountable civilly and criminally for all of their years of wrongdoing by removing any impediment to a victim’s right to bring a lawsuit.
“In the future, hopefully the Archdiocese of Chicago will prevent the admittance of predators into the clergy so that innocent children will remain unharmed and we don’t have to rely on the justice system to address a victim’s needs after the fact.”
Lyndsay Markley has represented and currently represents several victims of sexual abuse against the Archdiocese of Chicago arising out of sexual abuse that occurred by defrocked priest, Daniel McCormack. She has also represented survivors of sexual abuse in lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Chicago Board of Education, United Airlines, Inc., daycares, and many other entities.
