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2000s

Cosimo

Type of Case (Legal, Clinical, Other): Other

Location (State or Country): Utah

Form of Corroboration (other victim, witness of event, family member/mother, advisory organization, confession): other victims, confession by perpetrator

Description

Ralph Cosimo’s “repressed memory of multiple instances of [sexual] abuse” by Rev. James F. Rapp of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City in the early 1970s. Rapp was defrocked and is currently in prison for molesting a boy in Oklahoma. Ralph Cosimo’s memory is corroborated by his brother’s continuous memory and by an admission by Rapp. The church’s defense to civil litigation was based on the stature of limitations. The defense even argued that Rapp had acknowledged to Ralph in 1975 that he was a pedophile and that he was abusing his brother at the time. (An appeals court in Utah disallowed the lawsuit on statute of limitations grounds.)

Sources

1. Romano. (2002, May 21). Okla. Archbishop Failed to Oust Priest; Long Trail of Abuse Prompts Complaints. Washington Post. 2. Neff. (2004, November 27). Court rules brothers waited too long to sue. Salt Lake Tribune.

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