SURVIVORS' NETWORK OF THOSE ABUSED BY PRIESTS (SNAP) ALLEGED KICKBACK SCHEME

Here is a recent story which does not surprise me a bit.

A former employee of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests. more commonly known as SNAP, has filed a lawsuit claiming wrongful termination.   

Gretchen Rachel Hammond, a past development director of SNAP, is alleging that the organization routinely accepted financial kickbacks from attorneys who were suing the Church on behalf of sexual abuse victims.  She contends that proof of this allegation exists on an external computer hard drive in her possession.

In her lawsuit, Hammond charges that “SNAP routinely accepts financial kickbacks from attorneys in the form of ‘donations.’ In exchange for the kickbacks, SNAP refers survivors as potential clients to attorneys, who then file lawsuits on behalf of the survivors against the Catholic Church. These cases often settle, to the financial benefit of the attorneys and, at times, to the financial benefit of SNAP, which has received direct payments from survivors’ settlements.”

Hammond’s attorneys filed the lawsuit against SNAP on Jan. 17 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Hammond was employed at SNAP from July 2011 through February 2013, the complaint said.

The lawsuit claims that SNAP receives “substantial contributions” from attorneys sometimes totaling more than 40 or 50 percent of its annual contributions. 

A prominent Minnesota attorney who represents clergy abuse survivors reportedly donated several six-figure annual sums, including over $415,000 in 2008. Other attorney-donors who represent abuse survivors reportedly came from California, Chicago, Seattle, and Delaware.

Hammond claims that the SNAP leadership provided supposed victims with a list of attorneys who were regular donors.  She likewise charges that SNAP ordered her  “not to reveal to anybody that SNAP received donations from attorneys.”  She alleges that during 2011 and 2012, SNAP “concocted a scheme to have attorneys make donations to a front foundation” in order to conceal attorneys’ “kickbacks.”

In her petition, Hammond cited an April 26, 2011 email from executive director David Clohessy recommending an abuse victim pursue a claim against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee: “every nickle they don't have is a nickle that they can't spend on defense lawyers, PR staff, gay-bashing, women-hating, contraceptive-battling, etc.”  

The lawsuit claims that SNAP “callously disregards the real interests of survivors” and pressures them to “pursue costly and stressful litigation” instead of the survivors’ best interests.

SNAP allegedly uses publicity about victims’ lawsuits to drive fundraising. The group “regularly communicates” with victims’ attorneys, often receives drafts of complaints and “other privileged information” which it would allegedly use “to generate sensational press releases on the survivors' lawsuits.”

The suit claims that when Hammond attempted to confront superiors about these practices, they engaged in retaliation resulting in the firing. Now, the lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, attorney’s fees and other relief.

Is SNAP a despicable group of opportunists who have sought to capitalize on the suffering endured by victims of homosexual Priests who have preyed upon the innocent children entrusted to their care? 

Is SNAP a front for corrupt lawyers and other advocates who see the Church as a coffer of treasure they are eager and greedy to plunder?

Does SNAP represent no one other than itself and the unethical attorneys it promotes for self-gain?

Perhaps, all one need do to answer these questions is "follow the money."

I pray this lawsuit goes to trial and judgment and is not settled out of court.  

I want to know whether or not and once and for all if SNAP is as duplicitous and corrupt as I have always suspected it of being.