11-10-15 clergy sex abuse bankruptcy settlement

A federal bankruptcy judge in Milwaukee has approved a reorganization plan for the city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese that calls for $21 million to be paid to clergy abuse victims… but several victims are not happy with the settlement.  The plan approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley on Monday splits most of that money among 355 people. Another class of 104 victims will get about $2,000 each.  Several victims testified that they wished the settlement amounts had been larger, and some said they wanted to see deeper investigation of abuse claims. Victim advocates had sharply criticized the proposed settlement for its size. Nick Janovski was sexually abused by two priests over a three year period starting when he was just eight years old when he lived in West Bend and Waukesha.  “I fought that, it took a lot out of me, it took a piece of my soul I’ll never get back,”  Janovski said in an exclusive interview with AM 1170 WFDL’s Between the Lines program.  “I’ve been doing this since I was eight years old, I’m 34 now and this is still going on.  I don’t know a day outside of my life before I was eight years old not dealing with this stuff.”   Janovski says he’s convinced there are even more victims who never came forward.  The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011 to address its sex abuse lawsuit liabilities, and is among a dozen nationally to do so in the past decade.