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Shari Karney | |
|---|---|
| Born | Shari Lynn Karney [1] February 1, 1952 [1] |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles (BA) Loyola Marymount University (JD) |
| Occupation(s) | lawyer, founder of ROAR as ONE, Inc. |
Shari Lynn Karney [2] (born February 1, 1952) is an American attorney, incest-survivor activist, and former bar exam preparation company owner.
While practicing as an attorney in 1983, Shari was asked by a mother to take on a child custody case where the mother thought her 3-year-old daughter was being sexually abused by her ex-husband. [3] While she was questioning the ex-husband on the stand during cross-examination regarding the incest she began to scream and yell and lose control without understanding why. As the witness talked, Shari has claimed she became nauseated and sweaty. She has claimed that she kept hearing the sound of typing in the back of the courtroom, but no one was there. When the witness gave an excuse for touching his daughter's genitals, she screamed, "These men just get away with it!" and leapt into the witness box and tried to strangle him. [4] [5] The judge cited her for contempt, sent her to jail for two days and ordered her into therapy. It was in therapy that she has claimed that she remembered her own childhood molestation by her brother and her father, who was a writer. [4] Shari's brother and father have denied her allegations and "after Louis Karney underwent a series of hypnotic regressions, clinical interviews and personality tests, licensed psychologist James J. Tschudy wrote in a Nov. 24, 1983, report that there was 'abundant and convincing evidence' that [Shari’s father Louis Karney] 'simply could not have engaged in any sexual act with his young daughter or any other child.'" [6] In 1988, Karney stated that she “never actually sued [her] brother and father because [she doesn’t] need the money." [7]
Shari began taking incest survivor cases helping the victims sue their families in civil court to win legal compensation in order to be reimbursed for therapy and other costs. [7] When victims couldn't pay, Shari would finance the suits herself with income from her bar review course, Barwinners. [7] However, Shari found it difficult to win these cases when the courts had a statute of limitations on victims of one year from their 18th birthday to sue. [8] One problem is that incest survivors often were too young at 19 years old to have the means to bring suit. Also, some survivors, like Shari, had repressed the painful memories and did not remember them until they were older and the statute of limitations had run out. She decided she would have to change the law in order to get justice for these victims.
From 1985 until 1991 Shari, along with San Francisco attorney Mary R. Williams and California state senator Bill Lockyer, attempted to pass Senate Bill 108. During the Senate hearings, Shari testified to her own molestation by her father and brother. [3] The California law, which amended California Civil Code section 340.1 [9] and took effect January 1, 1991, permits "delayed discovery" of childhood sexual abuse decades after that abuse has occurred. [3] Under the new law the statute of limitations age has been raised to 26 years old. After age 26, a "delayed discovery" provision allows a person who has suppressed their emotional trauma to sue within three years of discovering the abuse. [3] For example, a middle-aged person can now sue his or her elderly parent for sexual trauma caused at age 4, in the same manner as victims of other delayed-discovery injuries, such as asbestos poisoning. [3] Six other states have also passed similar laws. [3]
Opponents of SB 108 included California Defense Council, an association of defense lawyers, many of whom are employed by insurers because an abuser's legal fees and some settlement costs would most likely be covered by homeowner insurance policies since most incest occurs in the home. [10]
Some psychologists and therapists of incest survivors see lawsuits as a last resort or capable of causing more damage because it cuts the victim off from the family or because the experience may even compound the victimization based on the difficult burden of proof in a court of law, [8] and the often brutal experience of cross-examination by defense lawyers. [11]
In 1991, NBC bought the rights to her story and developed a movie called Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story . [12] The movie was released in 1993 as a television film directed by Bill Corcoran, written by Susan Nanus, and starring Melissa Gilbert. [13]
In 1991 Shari appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo, Today, Home Show, Larry King Live, and ABC Primetime television programs to educate members of the public about their new legal rights under SB 108. [6]
From 2000-2001 Shari also appeared on the American syndicated TV "court show" Power of Attorney as one of the rotating high-profile attorneys. [14]
In 1981, Karney began tutoring for the California Bar Exam. This would later become a company called Barwinners. [14]
In 2015 Barwinners, was the subject of an "action brought under [The State of California's] Business and Professions Code §17200, for unfair competition, and §17500 of that code, for false advertising"; the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reported that Barwinners settled without admitting wrongdoing. [15] Barwinners is no longer owned or operated by Karney. [16]
Incest is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity, and sometimes those related by lineage. It is condemned and considered immoral in most societies, given that it can lead to an increased risk of genetic disorders in children in case of pregnancy from incestuous intercourse.
Various individuals, courts and the media around the world have raised concerns about the manner in which cases of child sexual abuse are handled when they occur in congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses. An independent 2009 study in Norway was critical of how Jehovah's Witnesses dealt with cases of child sexual abuse but stated there is no indication that the rate of sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses is higher than found in general society. The organization's stated position is that it abhors child sexual abuse.
Neil Papiano was an American lawyer, and managing partner of Iverson, Yoakum, Papiano & Hatch. He received Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Stanford University, the latter in 1957, and an LL.B. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1961. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1961.
The Awareness Center, Inc., also known as the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, was a nonprofit institution whose stated mission was to end sexual violence in the Jewish community. It was praised and criticized for maintaining a website whose policy was to identify Jewish clergy and officials as alleged sexual predators, by name, whether or not they had been charged or sued. Critics say the center made unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations.
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assault against a small child, whereas sexual abuse is a term used for a persistent pattern of sexual assaults.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, established in 1989, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization support group of survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their supporters, founded in the United States. Barbara Blaine, a survivor of sex abuse by a priest, was the founding president. SNAP, which initially focused on the Roman Catholic Church, had 12,000 members in 56 countries as of 2012. It has branches for religious groups, such as SNAP Baptist, SNAP Orthodox, and SNAP Presbyterian, for non-religious groups, and for geographic regions, e.g., SNAP Australia and SNAP Germany.
Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, such as using a child to produce child pornography.
The American pop musician Michael Jackson first faced allegations of child sexual abuse in 1993. Evan Chandler, a dentist and screenwriter based in Los Angeles, accused Jackson of sexually abusing Chandler's 13-year-old son, Jordan. Jackson had befriended Jordan after renting a vehicle from Jordan's stepfather. Though Evan initially encouraged the friendship, he later confronted his ex-wife, who had custody of Jordan, with suspicions that the relationship was inappropriate.
The Álvarez incest case was uncovered late March 2009 when 59-year-old Arcedio Álvarez was arrested in Mariquita, Colombia, accused of imprisoning and sexually abusing his daughter Alba Nidia Álvarez over a period of 25 years, beginning from when she was nine years old. The daughter also gave birth to 14 children, six of whom died due to lack of medical care.
The sexual abuse scandal in Los Angeles archdiocese covered events that were documented beginning in the 1930s, but most publicity was related to events of the 1970s through 1990s. Priests accused of molesting children or adults in the parish were typically reassigned, without informing new parishes of charges against them, as the church protected its staff. Changes in policy took place, a dozen priests were dismissed in 2002, the church issued an apology and detailed report in 2004, and in 2007, the Archdiocese reached a settlement with 508 victims of $660 million, a recordbreaking amount. More lawsuits are expected when the California statute of limitations will be temporarily lifted on January 1, 2020.
The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic diocese of Orange is an important chapter in the Catholic sexual abuse scandal in the United States.
Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story is a 1993 American made-for-television drama film directed by Bill Corcoran. The film, which is based upon the true story of Shari Karney, garnered generally positive reviews.
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Cry the Darkness: One Woman's Triumph over the Tragedy of Incest is an autobiographical account by Donna L. Friess that details her father's sexual abuse of her and her niece, and how Friess has dealt with it. The book was published in 1993 by Health Communications.
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