Diocese of Little Rock ACCUSED PRIESTS

The Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas, was established in 1843. It covers the entire State of Arkansas and serves around 122,000 Catholics residing in the state. 

In September 2018, the Diocese released a preliminary list of priests who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse in Little Rock, Arkansas. One month after the Diocese released the initial list, it received 26 new allegations of priest abuse, many of which were against priests already named in the preliminary report. The Diocese updated the list, naming the following additional priests who had abused victims: 

• Donald Althoff
• Joseph Correnti
• Robert Dagwell
• John McDaniel
• Edward Mooney
• Walter Rajmund
• Edward Simpson
• Robert Torres

The Diocese also named one priest from another diocese who was credibly accused of committing child sexual abuse in Arkansas: Paul Haas. 

Other priests and brothers belonging to religious orders who have been credibly accused of committing child sexual abuse while in Arkansas include:

• Nicholas Fuhrmann
• Patrick Hannon
• Timothy Sugrue
• Patrick Walsh
• Bill Wright
• Francis Zimmerer

Finally, the Diocese listed the following priests who served at some point in the Diocese and have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors in other dioceses: 

• Gary Carr
• Daniel de Dominicis
• Gabriel Hentrich
• Albert Holmes
• Conrad Kinder
• Kevin McCarthy
• Anthony McKay
• Bede Mitchell
• Jeremy Myers
• Patrick Nicholson
• Aloysius Schwellenbach
• Vance Thorne

One priest who served in Arkansas, Jeremy Myers, was added to the list in 2020 after a former parishioner accused Myers of molesting him in the 1980s. The abuse happened when Myers was the dean of a students’ dorm at Subiaco Academy, an all-boys boarding school in Subiaco, Arkansas. According to court documents filed in 2019 as part of a criminal investigation into several priests, Myers also molested the victim when he later visited the parishioner in Texas.  

As early as 1994, a former student filed a federal lawsuit against Subiaco Academy, alleging that Reverend Nicholas Fuhrmann, a monk who taught at the academy, sexually abused him in 1978 and 1979 when the victim was 14 years old. In another alleged child sexual abuse case against Fuhrmann while at Subiaco Academy, Joffre Miller accused the monk of sexually abusing him between 1976 and 1979 when Miller was a 13-year-old student. Fuhrmann was Miller’s teacher and boxing coach. 

The molestation began under the pretense of giving Miller “massages” after his boxing matches. Miller sued both the school and Fuhrmann in a federal lawsuit in 2005. On its website, Subiaco Abbey lists Furhmann, and Francis Zimmerer, Patrick Hannon, and Jeremy Myers, as former monks from the Abbey accused of child sexual abuse. 

The Abbey also listed “of note” two additional monks, Timothy Donnelly and Bede Mitchel. The note states that victims accused Donnelly of numerous inappropriate touching incidents and that the Diocese of Ft. Worth, Texas, listed a credible allegation of abuse lodged against Mitchel.    

The Diocese of Little Rock failed to protect its church members throughout Arkansas. It’s a tragedy that many victims fell prey to these predators. Arkansas recognizes that many victims of abuse don’t come forward until later in life, which is why state legislators have enacted a two-year revival window under the Justice for Vulnerable Victims of Sexual Abuse Act. This Act will allow victims to file a claim no matter how old they are or how long ago the abuse occurred. The window is set to open on February 1, 2022, and close on January 31, 2024.

If you or someone you love experienced childhood sexual abuse at the Diocese of Little Rock, contact the passionate and knowledgeable lawyers at Herman Law today for a free consultation.