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Wednesday, October 24, 2018

JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS AND THE CHURCH IN GENERAL AS LAICIZED SAVANNAH PRIEST SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON FOR MOLESTING TWO 6TH GRADERS AT SAVANNAH CATHOLIC SCHOOL IN 1986, just two of many more in our diocese and in Maryland

If there was ever a priest who should have his ordination annulled, this is he! He should never have been ordained and his file going back to his application to our diocese proves it. There is justice for his victims, many still too embarrassed to come forward. He is the classic definition of a predator pervert. If anyone deserves to go to hell, this pervert does! He was placed on non assigned status in 1988 and laicized much too late after 2002!

This is from the Savannah Morning News newspaper this morning. Thank God South Carolina does not have a statute of limitations for this type of crime. Georgia does. Savannah, as Augusta, is on the boarder of South Carolina. Be forewarned that this article is overly descriptive of this pervert's crimes:

Ex-Catholic priest sentenced to 20 years for sex assault





Wearing a grey beard and prison stripes to match while clasping his hands together with a ghostly stare, Wayland Brown was wheeled into the Beaufort County courtroom Tuesday for his sentencing.

Brown, 76, a former Savannah Roman Catholic priest and sex offender, had been accused of numerous sex crimes against children. He entered a guilty plea to nine charges, including six counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second degree and three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first degree. Judge Robert Hood accepted the pleas and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for the crimes.

“I do not expect the defendant to live through that sentence ... What you saw during today’s proceedings is not only someone who violated the trust of children but who violated their faith, as well,” 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said.

The felony indictments, returned Aug. 29, 2017, charged Brown with sexual battery in several locations, including St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Hardeeville, S.C., the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and the intersection of Stiney and Morgan roads in Hardeeville in the area surrounded by railroad tracks and depot area.

The victims, Allan Ranta and Chris Templeton, were male parishioners in Savannah who were taken into South Carolina where the attacks occurred between 1978 and 1988. Each appeared in court and spoke to the judge as Brown sat in his wheelchair only a few feet away.

Ranta was 9 in August 1978, a fifth grader at St. James Catholic School, when, according to evidence, “The defendant, a Catholic priest took Ranta to the Savannah National Refuge and forced the victim to have anal sex and oral sex. Ranta was also raped at Saint Anthony’s Church behind the altar. (Brown) wore his collar during the rapes.”

Stone said Templeton was Brown’s second victim. After knowing Templeton for about two weeks, Stone said Brown also took Templeton to the Savannah Wildlife Refuge and raped him numerous times.

With tears in his eyes and a pause in his voice, an emotional Templeton recalled the horror of what had happened to him so many years ago. He had grown up in Savannah in a neighborhood across the street from St. James Catholic Church.
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“I am just glad to be able to hear a guilty plea,” Templeton said as he wiped a tear from his face. “I was a happy kid but when I met Mr. Brown, those were pretty much my last memories of my childhood. I lost my soul. I was a 13-year-old kid trying to survive; I was raped over 50 times and have lived with the nightmares.”

“There was a lot of pain and suffering I put my family through,” he said. “I did not think today would ever come. All I wanted to hear was ‘guilty’ and so many years, I wanted to die. Today is a good day; it is a day of hope.”

Templeton said not everyone agreed with his decision to come forward. He said he felt like there are others who have been abused and are scared to come forward.

“If I can save one person by coming forward,” he said. “I was robbed of 30 years of my life. This is a victory today for me and Allan.”

Ranta, standing beside Templeton, then spoke about his experiences, saying he had worked very hard to heal from the abuse he experienced.

“When the abuse began for me, I internalized everything and became suicidal,” Ranta said. “I would come out of my body in order to escape the pain. I would cut myself among other self-harming behaviors in order to feel. I was unable to look at myself in the mirror and I felt like I had a parasite coursing through my body at all times.”

Ranta said that if there are other victims, it is very important for them not to be worried and concerned if they come forward.

“Speaking up and taking assertive action is a form of self-care,” Ranta said.

After hearing from Templeton and Ranta, Judge Hood gave Brown an opportunity to speak. Brown, although sitting in a wheelchair, stood up to speak to the judge.

“I want to thank the victims for coming forward, it crystallized my emotions about dealing with the past, from my perspective,” Brown said in a low voice. “It takes courage for any adult man to apologize to any other adult man. I don’t think the Catholic Church had any knowledge of what was going on.” (My comment: Here you see the mind of a sick man who is praising himself for apologizing to his now adult victims who are in the late 40's, early 50's. He has courage to apologize. What narcissism and pathology! What a despicable thing to say in front of two of his victims! But he also says he doesn't "think the church had any knowledge of what was going on." I think he is right here, in terms of the specifics of his abuse and how perverted it was. In fact I doubt the parents of these boys at the time had any clue. Was it clericalism, placing a priest on a pedestal and thinking that because he was a priest he could be trusted with their sons. They even invited this pervert into their homes and some of the abuse occurred in the home unbeknownst to the parents too! This is the recipe for these kinds of crimes--trust, misplaced trust fueled by clericalism (meaning trust just because someone is a priest).


Brown said he could not make up for what he had done, saying he did not think there was to be any closure for this kind of event.

“I’ve done what I can do, there’s nothing more I can do.”

Hood, who said he normally did not comment about sentences, took exception to his rule Tuesday.

“These cases are like explosions,” he said. “It affects not only those directly involved but also the entire community. It takes a lot of courage for two grown men to tell somebody and go to the authorities. This case reminds me of a Bible verse in the New Testament that says if you harm a child, a millstone should be placed around your neck and then you get thrown into the sea. Children are precious and special.”

The Jasper County charges stemmed from a 14-month investigation involving law enforcement agencies in both states, the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office and the Chatham County District Attorney’s Office.

“These cases were from the 1970s and 1980s, so going back and finding information and finding evidence” was difficult, said Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap. ”(Solicitor Stone) picked it up, and he went with it. “It’s justice, finally, for these victims.”

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I can tell you from personal exposure to Brown that the Church DID know, certainly by 1977, and transferred that abomination to Augusta. I met him in the parish office where he was assigned. The Pastor put in charge of that nightmare did night fishing on a local lake with my husband and another man who owned a pontoon boat for such excursions. The pastor relayed enough of the story (including sexual abuse of his beloved dog!) that there was no doubt what was going on. The poor pastor, after doing everything required of him by his Bishop here and then in Savannah, finally left the priesthood pretty broken.

Brown was finally sent to St. Luke’s (yes, THAT St. Luke’s!) in Silver Spring MD, FOR “rehabilitation”, for a year at Diocesan expense. He was discharged to continue his abusive predation.

Thanks be to God, we only had a baby daughter at the time we knew Wayward Wayland, and not an altar boy son! How it has taken this long to prosecute this sicko criminal (40 years!) is a serious malfeasance involving the earlier Church coverup that should be addressed, and later the unresponsive legal justice system. That creep should never have been allowed to roam free.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

He did serve a prison term, maybe 5 to 10 years, can't remember, in Maryland after 2002 when one of his victims from his time in the seminary there (late 1970's) came forward (as an adult). Maryland didn't have statues of limitations either. He would have been prosecuted in Georgia if there were no statutes of limitations. The problem is that you have to have someone who is a victim to come forward and the ones who have come forward did so in the adult years many years after the rapes, etc.

I would suspect there are adult victims now in Augusta (unless they moved) but for whatever reason haven't come forward. Shortly after 2002 I wrote a op ed piece in the Augusta Chronicle, which I think was printed on a Sunday, inviting those who may have been abused by Wayland Brown to come forward. I don't know if anyone did.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

I remember when he was sent to St. Luke's and the report that we got was that he was diagnosed as an alcoholic! It was shortly after he returned from there that Bishop Lessard placed him on "non assigned" status.

I know that bishops throughout the country had all kinds of legal machinations not to report priests like Wayland to law enforcement given the relationship of the priest to his bishop. It was flimsy then as now.

We have to keep in mind too, that back in the 60's and 70's parents did not want to place their sons or daughters who were the age of Wayland's victims through a legal hassle or bring scandal to the family or the Church and were content too to keep things hushed. This too is a form of clericalism too, I suspect. Any parent who knew of the abuse could have gone to the law first and then the Church.

60's Survivor said...

Given the way that the diocese frequently flings Brown's name out for public consumption (i.e., "See? We're being open about sexual abuse!") I cannot help but suspect that Mr. Brown is not the only abuser among the diocesan clergy, but simply a "bone" thrown at us to keep us quiet.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

No one as notorious as Brown! The diocese may release names of those credibly accused over the past 50 years if it is in their file. We will learn of dead priests accused. I doubt seriously anyone with a past credible accusation is functioning today.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

The problem with these public disclosures is when a false accusation is made and is in a file--who today is going to believe the priest is innocent. Everyone, including Justice Kavanaugh, is considered guilty until proven innocent which is practically impossible to do. So perfectly innocent priests will be exposed to shame simply by a false accusation that is in their file.

Anonymous said...

Justice Kavanaugh was not on trial, so "innocent until proven guilty" does not apply.

He was in a very high profile job interview.

When you are interviewing a potential hire for your parish staff, and there are significant questions raised about his/her past behavior having to do with alleged sexual abuse, are you going to say, "Oh, this person is innocent until proven guilty!" and add him/her to the parish staff?

I didn't think so.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

Of course I was speaking euphemistically and about the court of public opinion and Kavanaugh fits that scenario but also a political agenda.

Anonymous said...

And you would hire for your staff a person with such accusations?

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

If qualified and then cleared by FBI after smear campaign, in justice, yes!

TJM said...

I think anonymous is not playing with a full deck.

rcg said...

The dilemma for Justice Kavanaugh and any priest is the same: we naturally ask for evidence while understanding it might be difficult to find unless the people making the accusation can endure the additional shame and social mockery to produce it. I personally think this is made worse by the weak responses to the people that are caught red-handed. If the heirarchy, or the local college board, made the appropriate and extremely harsh responses to the people caught in the act then the ones on the edge of giving in to their darker desires might find the strength, in many cases, to resist and do the right thing.

Dan said...

Most job interviews aren't televised, nor do they bring up behavior from high school A.

Anonymous said...

Which bishop ordained him? Where was he from? Seminary?

TJM said...

Anonymous,

Probably the bishop who ordained you and was your classmate

Anonymous said...

Uh, TJM, if you are referring to Anonymous at 430, no, I am not ordained, nor ever have been, and I was not his classmate. I have never even lived in the state's "other diocese" (as in, the one which is not an archdiocese).

Anonymous said...

"Most job interviews aren't televised, nor do they bring up behavior from high school A."

Most job interviews are not for a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States, either.

And most job interviews don't bring up behavior from high school (and college) because most of us aren't accused of sexual assault from our high school (and college) days.

TJM said...

Anonymous at 10:01,

Quit the nonsense. The DNC talking point about the "job interview" was created as a pathetic attempt to suggest with regard to the Justice Kavanaugh hearings due process was not necessary, forgetting of course in a job interview, such questions may not be asked.

But I imagine you were perfectly fine with Bill Horndog Clintoon molesting women and against whom a credible charge of rape was made against him, NOT for the time he was in high school or college, but when he was a sitting governor and president. If lefties didn't have double standards they wouldn't have standards at all.

Anonymous said...

“And most job interviews don't bring up behavior from high school (and college) because most of us aren't accused of sexual assault from our high school (and college) days.”

Maybe that’s because most of us haven’t been nominated for the Supreme Court In the year of our Lord 2018.

Dan said...

A., think about it. Because of politics, this Kavannah issue was broadcast all over the place. Personally, I dont think that was right, due to the "crazies" out there. YOU post here anonymously on a forum which gets MUCH less exposure. So I think you may understand my concerns about the way things were handled.

Dan said...

Also, remember Kavannah has gone through several backround checks and FBI investigations.... no real need for the public airing before an already divided public that is rapidly getting aggressive.