Jackson, Miss., Aug 27, 2019 / 15:32 pm
The Associated Press has uncovered the cases of two men whom the Franciscans of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Province paid $15,000 each to keep quiet about abuse claims, despite a requirement that victims must not be bound by nondisclosure agreements in child sexual abuse settlements.
La Jarvis Love and his cousins, brothers Joshua and Raphael Love, say they were repeatedly abused by Brother Paul West during the 1990s, when they were elementary school students at St. Francis of Assisi School, in Greenwood, Mississippi, the Associated Press reported Aug. 27.
The men said Brother West abused them both in the school and on summer excursions to Wisconsin.
La Jarvis, 36, came forward with his abuse claim in 2017. He told the Associated Press that Father James Gannon, Provincial Minister for the Wisconsin-based province, met with him, his wife, and his three small children at an IHOP restaurant in northern Mississippi outside of Memphis.