|
N.C. man guilty of abuse in Maryland The sexual abuse perpetrated by Michael Lowell Barnes was exposed solely through a lawsuit filed by a courageous victim/survivor during the civil window that was enacted by the Child Victim's Act of Delaware. Without the brave efforts of Delaware survivors and advocates, the visionary leadership of Senator Karen Peterson (D-Stanton) and Representative Deborah Hudson (R-Fairthorne), the unanimous vote of the Delaware General Assembly, and the signature of the governor to enact a retroactive civil window, this predator — and many others — would have remained hidden. Barnes would have escaped with no consequences. Instead, he awaits sentencing. According to law professor and advocate Marci Hamilton, "civil litigation through a [civil window like the Child Victim's Act] is the only way we as a society will learn the monstrous secrets still withheld by so many — perhaps every religious organization, every perpetrator of incest and every adult or organization whose members have sexually assaulted a child or made such an assault possible. Without the due process of the legal system, those secrets will remain buried, perpetrators will remain free to continue molesting (as we have learned from the anti-recidivism movement), and children will be at serious risk. It takes the law to force these secrets into the sunlight." The Barnes conviction was also made possible thanks to a tolling provision in Maryland law that froze the criminal statute of limitations when Barnes left the state. But tolling provisions do not expose predators, civil windows do. The civil window law in California also led to criminal charges of sexual abusers, including the ongoing prosecution of child psychiatrist Dr. Willliam Ayers. Learn more here: http://williamayreswatch.blogspot.com/ http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100604/WCT01/100604033 "OCEAN CITY: Former priest found guilty of child abuse Staff Report • June 4, 2010 OCEAN CITY — A North Carolina man accused of sexually abusing a child in Ocean City more than 30 years ago was found guilty when he had his day in court Thursday. Michael Lowell Barnes, 64, submitted an Alford plea June 3 in Worcester County Circuit Court to child abuse as a custodian. Fifteen other charges of second- and third-degree sex offenses, second-degree assault, and additional counts of child abuse as a custodian were dropped by prosecutors. Barnes hasn't yet been sentenced for the offense because the judge ordered a routine pre-sentencing investigation of his background. Ocean City police received allegations in late 2009 of abuse allegedly taking place between 1977 and 1983, when the victim was a minor. Barnes was later apprehended at his home in North Carolina. The Archdiocese of Baltimore told The Associated Press that Barnes was the associate pastor of an Essex parish during the time of the alleged abuse and that he left the priesthood in 1988." |
Child Victim's Voice