{"id":7330,"date":"2023-05-16T15:09:22","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T15:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/?p=7330"},"modified":"2023-05-16T15:09:23","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T15:09:23","slug":"msgr-henry-zerhusen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/msgr-henry-zerhusen\/","title":{"rendered":"Msgr. Henry Zerhusen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ordained:<\/strong> 1953
Died:<\/strong> 08\/09\/2003
Diocese:<\/strong> Archdiocese of Baltimore MD<\/p>\n

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In 2013, a man reported that he had been sexually abused by Henry Zerhusen at St. Ambrose in 1982 or 1983, when he was only 8 or 9 years old. The victim’s grandmother worked at the church and often took him with her to work, and she sent him to talk to the pastor multiple times. Zerhusen would take the victim to his room, pull down his pants, and touch his genitals. Henry Zerhusen tried to justify this by saying he was conducting an exam. The abuse happened five to ten times, and during one of these incidents, Zerhusen told the victim to touch his own penis. The victim was deeply impacted by the abuse and was treated for depression when he was 10 and 11 years old. The trauma stayed with him for 30 years until he decided to report it after his mother found his baptismal certificate from St. Ambrose.<\/p>\n

Monsignor Art Valenzano and [redacted] were spoken to by the Archdiocese in addition to the victim. They described Zerhusen as “saintly” and not likely to be an abuser. However, during Zerhusen’s time as a pastor at St. Ambrose, a priest who was actively abusing a girl was living there. Furthermore, both Charles Rouse and Thomas Bauernfeind, who were child abusers described in this report, were assigned to work under Zerhusen while he was a pastor at St. Anthony. The Archdiocese reached a settlement of $32,500 with the victim, and they made a mandatory report to the authorities.<\/p>\n

Zerhusen is not listed as credibly accused by the Archdiocese.<\/p>\n

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Ordained: 1953Died: 08\/09\/2003Diocese: Archdiocese of Baltimore MDIn 2013, a man reported that he had been sexually abused by Henry Zerhusen at St. Ambrose in 1982 or 1983, when he was only 8 or 9 years old. The victim’s grandmother worked at the church and often took him with her to work, and she sent him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"

The U.S. Virgin Islands is home to some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world. Each year hundreds of cruise ships come in and out of its harbors, and tourists enjoy a plethora of activities under the Caribbean sun. One of the most frequently visited islands is the island of St. Thomas. Just to the southeast of the popular paradise lies the small island of Little St. James. Though little<\/em> is heralded in its name, the island is home to some big<\/em> problems.<\/p>\n

In 1998, the 75-acre island of Little St. James was purchased for $7.95 million by an incredibly wealthy businessman by the name of Jeffrey Epstein. The island has a villa-style compound, library, cinema, boathouse, and several cabanas. It also has a large mansion and a unique structure that resembles a temple. Epstein was not only in the process of building new<\/em> structures on the island; he was also the reason Little St. James was given a new<\/em> name: Pedophile Island.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Epstein plead guilty to a charge of prostitution in the state of Florida. He completed a 13-month jail sentence for the crime. In 2010, he registered as a sex offender in the Virgin Islands. However, registering as a sex offender did not keep Epstein from engaging in heinous criminal activity. For several years, Epstein used the island of Little St. James as a \u201chideaway\u201d to rape and traffic dozens of women and girls. Some girls appeared to be as young as 11 or 12 years old. In 2016, Epstein purchased the Great St. James, an island nearby Little St. James, to prevent people from monitoring his activities on Little St. James and to prevent his survivors from escaping.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges stemming from the trafficking of women and girls in New York and Florida between 2002 to 2005. He plead not guilty to the charges. In August 2019, he hung himself in a Manhattan jail while the charges were pending.<\/p>\n

In January 2020, the U.S. Virgin Islands sued Epstein\u2019s estate for the rape and trafficking of women and girls that occurred on Little St. James. The Complaint alleged that Epstein\u2019s misconduct spanned from 2001 to 2018. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties and assets from Epstein\u2019s $577.7 million estate, including the forfeiture of Little St. James and Great St. James.<\/p>\n

The Virgin Island\u2019s lawsuit, however, has complicated matters for some of Epstein\u2019s survivors who are seeking civil remedies. Epstein\u2019s estate has set up a fund to compensate survivors, but when the Virgin Islands\u2019 lawsuit was commenced, it froze the estate\u2019s assets. Thus, the litigation has caused delays in allowing the fund to move forward. While the estate believes a plan for putting the fund into effect should occur by June 15, many survivors are skeptical. The Virgin Islands have yet to confirm resolution of any matters that have been in dispute.<\/p>\n

Because of Epstein\u2019s suicide, his survivors missed the opportunity to see him brought to justice for criminal charges. They should not miss that opportunity for civil recourse. The qualified attorneys at Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis, and Overholtz represent survivors of sexual abuse. Please contact us to receive more information.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/jeffrey-epstein-orgy-island-tourist-attraction-photos-2019-8#jeffrey-epstein-purchased-little-st-james-a-roughly-75-acre-private-island-in-the-virgin-islands-in-1998-for-795-million-2<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-people-jeffrey-epstein-lawsuit\/jeffrey-epsteins-estate-is-sued-by-us-virgin-islands-over-alleged-widespread-sex-abuse-idUSKBN1ZE2M4<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.heraldmailmedia.com\/news\/nation\/epstein-sex-abuse-victims-fund-moving-forward-soon-estate-says\/article_10d2ddb0-ac0e-5290-9142-115b252790b4.html<\/a><\/p>\n ","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[134,199,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7330"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7332,"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions\/7332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.awkolaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}