who is the attorney who won lawsuit against the village voice

by Prof. Waino Ryan Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago 5 min read

Legal Claims

On September 16, 2010, M.A., a minor, filed suit against Village Voice Media for content posted on Backpage.com, a website that allows users to post classified ads targeted to specific geographic areas. M.A.'s claims were based on the Child Abuse... read full description

Legal Counsel

What triggered Hoatson's lawsuit?

What finally triggered his suit was Hoatson’s fear that he’d be stopped from working with victims. On May 20, 2003, according to the lawsuit, he testified at an Albany hearing sponsored by the New York State Senate. There, he criticized Catholic bishops for shielding predatory priests. That’s exactly what happened in Boston, where the release of internal church documents revealed how Cardinal Bernard Law and his underlings had shuffled pedophiles from parish to parish for decades, covering up abuse while putting children at risk. Bishops who engaged in this practice, Hoatson testified that day, had “selected evil over good, denial over admission, lying over truth-telling.”

Who represents Egan in the New York case?

As Daniel Alonso, the Manhattan attorney who represents Egan and the New York archdiocese, writes in his January 19 letter, “We propose to move to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”. Hoatson’s suit could well get quashed before it ever reaches an open courtroom.

Who said you need to express yourself loudly to get the church's attention?

Pat Serrano , of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, seconds that: “You need to express yourself loudly to get the church’s attention.”

When did Hoatson get reassigned to the Catholic Charities?

Yet only after the Albany testimony did Hoatson receive a formal letter letting him go, “effective immediately.” It would take another eight months before Myers reassigned the priest to the Catholic Charities chaplaincy, in early 2004.

What did Hoatson do for victims?

Word spread among survivors in New York and New Jersey about the generous priest. Hoatson has rescued victims from heroin dens ; visited them in prison; collected them from shelters; paid their rent. Last year, he set up a ministry known as Rescue and Recovery International out of his Rockaway Park, Queens, apartment.

Why did Aretakis denounce White?

Aretakis puts little credence in the investigation, calling it “the most expensive piece of fiction ever produced.” He denounced White for essentially investigating her own client, and he and his clients refused to cooperate.

Does Aretakis have a platform to prove his allegations?

Now that similar allegations are written in a lawsuit, the landscape has changed. Now, Aretakis has the platform to try to prove them— and he says he’s prepared to do it. He says he’s accumulated a list of priests and witnesses who have agreed to provide “firsthand evidence of the sexual proclivities” of Egan, Hubbard, and Myers, if subpoenaed. Some have written statements relaying “homosexual relationships with these bishops,” he maintains; others know people who have had the affairs.

The FBI investigated The Village Voice and RCFP for espionage in 1976

WikiLeaks wasn’t the first organization investigated for espionage over publishing classified information

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