By Tim King Salem-News.com

August 31st, 2007

Lawyers for the plaintiff say a fifteen-year old male who molested a seven-year old girl had an established history as a sex offender in another state.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Attorneys representing a 23-year old Oregon woman say she was subjected to multiple counts of sexual molestation and abuse as a 7-year old girl while attending the East Salem Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Kelly Clark of the Portland law firm O’Donnell & Clark LLP, says the offender at the time was a 15-year old boy who attended the same congregation.

Clark says the case is important, because it illustrates the need for churches to monitor and maintain people who are in a close proximity to children. Their law firm has been involved in a number of successful similar actions involving the Catholic Church that date back to 1999.

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The Register Guard
Op-Ed
by Kelly Clark
April 29, 2007

Amidst all the congratulations going around these last days concerning the long-awaited resolution of the Archdiocese Bankruptcy, I have noticed a particular tendency among nearly all involved to want to move on and put the past behind us. At one level, I wholeheartedly agree with those sentiments. It is time for this Archdiocese to heal. As a lawyer who has represented over one hundred individuals with claims against the Catholic Church, including forty-one in this Bankruptcy, I have pledged my assistance to the Archbishop, and to his lawyers, in doing whatever I can do to facilitate that healing. The Archdiocese needs it, the larger faith community needs it and our city and state need it.

At the same time, however, the duty I have to the courageous men and women I have represented requires me to remind the community that, while it is all well and good to say let us move on, it is not that simple for the abuse survivors. Between the long delays of the bankruptcy, the breathtakingly broad gag orders, and the natural tendency of child abuse survivors to stay silent, their voices have not been heard in many, many months. As I have listened over the last fifteen years to the stories of boys and girls now men and women who were abused by priests, teachers, nuns, and others they trusted from a Church they loved, and then as I have heard comments from the community these past days and months, I am reminded that there is still much misunderstanding about the nature of priest sexual abuse and its impact. The people who came forward to name their abuse have struggled too hard, for too long, too courageously, to let any misconceptions about what happened to them go unanswered. The misunderstandings and myths we have often heard about child abuse and its survivors in the past years need to be corrected.

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By Gina Parosa

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN, kgw.com Staff

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

An attorney for a man who claims he was abused by a local Boy Scout leader as a child in the 1950s filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Boy Scouts of America and the Oregon chapter of the Boy Scouts.

The plaintiff was allegedly abused by Donald Santy during a two-year period.

Santy was a Scout leader and executive director of the Boys Club of Portland in the 50’s and 60’s.

(more…)

Koin 6 News

PORTLAND - A sex abuse case has been filed against the Boy Scouts of America and its Oregon chapter.

A former scout has accused Donald Santy of sexually abusing him when he was about 10.

Santy was both a scout leader and served as the executive director of the Boys Club of Portland.

The lawyer of the plantiff, Kelly Clark, says, "It is not unusual for an individual such as Donald Santy to have several positions of trust at the same time, such as here, where he is both a trusted Boy Scout Leader, and the trusted executive of the Boys Club. My client, then approximately 10 or 11 years old, without a father figure in his life, latched onto Donald Santy, whom he thought cared about him and whom he could trust. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, that trust was betrayed."

The accuser is now 60 and resides in Portland. According to Clark, he never told anyone about his abuse until recently.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007
By kgw.com Staff

A Portland attorney was expected to file a childhood sexual abuse case against the Boy Scouts of America and the local chapter of the Boy Scouts on Wednesday.

Attorney Kelly Clark said he represents a Portland man allegedly abused by Donald Santy, who was a Scout Leader and executive director of the Boys Club of Portland in the 1950’s and 60’s.

The Boys Club, now the Boys and Girls Club of Portland, won’t be sued, Clark said.

From dailymotion.com

Thursday, August 2, 2007
Associated Press

Six more sex abuse lawsuits were filed Thursday in federal court against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, the first complaints since the archdiocese resolved its bankruptcy with a massive settlement in April.

The lawsuits were filed by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who also represented many of the alleged abuse victims covered by the $75 million settlement. (more…)