Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Kanakuk officials refuse to reveal victims' names, Pete Newman's employment records

Discussions between the two sides in a lawsuit filed by the family of one of the sex abuse victims of former Kanakuk Kamp director Pete Newman have bogged down over Kanakuk officials' refusal to turn over names of Newman's other victims.

Lawyers representing the victim, referred to in court records as John Doe, are asking for the names to reveal a pattern of abuse by Newman that Kanakuk officials allegedly allowed to continue for years.

Kanakuk officials have said they won't release the names because of concerns about the victims' privacy.

That claim was ridiculed in documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.


For years, Defendants’ actions and omissions allowed these persons to be victimized; and only now, since a lawsuit has been filed, are Defendants concerned about these persons’ rights.  Defendants should not have the power, now, to assert privacy on behalf of a third-party who they allowed to be victimized years ago. 
The names are not the only things Kanakuk officials are attempting to keep confidential, according to the filing. They also have refused to turn over Pete Newman's employment records, including any posisble disciplinary actions that were taken against him prior to the revelation that he had sexually abused a large number of children.

Kanakuk officials indicated they did not want these documents to fall into the hands of the media and the public.

Defendants in the lawsuit, in addition to Kanakuk, are its CEO Joe White and Newman.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So let me get this straight--the people suing for millions of dollars want their son protected as "john Doe" but all of the other victims who participated in putting this criminal in jail should have their names released to them? They don't need the names to make their case. Let the victims move on and leave them alone!

Ross said...

Exactly. Now, Pete Newman's employment records should be fair game. But victims names? Sounds like a ploy to recruit more plaintiffs.