Purify The Church
Oct. 3, 2022
Feast of St Therese of Lisieux
Dear Members of the Board of Directors of Boys Town,
I am hoping that what I am about to share with you in this letter is already known to you, since it is information that I have sent to every member of the Board of Trustees of Boys Town; indeed, I have sent three letters to them. I have not heard back from any one on the Board, though I did hear from Mr. Michael O’Brien, legal counsel for Boys Town, who does not want me or the victim to communicate directly with the board. Although I have requested an explanation for that request, he has not given me any explanation.
The relevant documents concerning the matter I bring before you are many and long and thus I am sending you a link to a folder containing them. I hope you will read through all of them. They tell the tale of my attempt and the attempt of a victim of Satanic Ritual Sexual Abuse to alert Boys Town to the accusations she made against Father Dennis Hanneman whom she alleges was the priest who abused her. Hanneman is currently retired and lives at Boys Town. He says Mass there and likely hears the confessions of vulnerable boys and girls. The victim makes no demands for herself but wants only to protect the young people at Boys Town.
You are among those who have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that no one who would abuse young people has access to those who reside at and visit Boys Town. If the Board of Trustees and the legal counsel of Boys Town has not informed you of these accusations, they have seriously hampered your ability to perform your duties.
The victim has definitely done everything she can to bring her experience to the proper authorities. She has had and continues to have contact with investigators of the Attorney General’s Office of Nebraska who have shown considerable interest in her case although they are hampered by statutes of limitations (the abuse occurred in 1972-74) and by the lack of cooperation from the Archdiocese of Omaha.
What is extremely relevant to this case is that we have clear evidence that Archbishop Lucas has said contradictory things about whether or not he turned the file concerning this case over to the AG’s office.
In the letter from Lucas to the victim in Oct of 2021 (document 4 below) Lucas told the victim he had not turned over the victim’s file because the AG’s office only wanted documents after 1978 (a claim that we know to be false, see document 13a below). In contradiction to that claim, Lucas has made statements that he did turn the file over to the AG’s office; that the AG’s office did a thorough investigation and that Hanneman was cleared. O’Brien has repeatedly told us and others (e.g., Fr. Jeff Norfolk) that Boys Town accepts Lucas’ claims that the documents were turned over to the AG’s office.
Neither I nor the victim have believed that claim. We are now in possession of a document that explicitly refutes that claim. Troy Cockle, an investigator from the AG’s office has written an email to the victim where he states that the AG’s office has never received any files re the allegations against Hanneman. (See document 12 below.)
We recently received a letter sent from the AG’s Office (document 13a below) to the AO that makes it clear that they wanted all files regarding claims made back to Jan 1, 1978. This conflicts with what Lucas told the victim in document 5 below (referenced above) that the AG’s office was interested only in documents about cases alleged to have happened after January 1, 1978. That is a serious misrepresentation of what the AG’s office asked for: in document 13a below, the Attorney General states: “I am requesting that the diocese to provide to our office all investigative files the diocese has in its possession dating back to January 1, 1978 regarding any claims of improper sexual exploitation…” (my emphasis.)
The victim first made her claim in 2003 and thus files concerning her claim should have been sent to the AG’s office.
And, of course, we have other statements by Lucas that he did turn over documents to the AG’s office. In his public letter of Nov. 7, 2018 (document 7 below) he claimed: “In all, documentation on 38 clergy were given to the attorney general for alleged abuse of minors or misconduct with minors as far back as 1956 but reported to the archdiocese between 1978-2018.” If that is true, the victim’s files should have been turned over to the AG’s office, But, again and again, the AG’s office never received any of the victim’s files.
Lucas has also claimed that the Archdiocese of Omaha has done its own thorough investigation of Hanneman although their investigator never interviewed the victim or attempted to contact the other girl who was victimized at the same time. What kind of investigation could have been done? And given Lucas’ contradictory statements about having turned over Hanneman’s files to the AG’s office, why should anyone believe what he says about investigations done by the AO?
Sadly, it is hard not to conclude that Lucas has been covering up for Hanneman … or for something else nefarious … and that the Board of Trustees at Boys Town has not been interested in getting to the truth of the matter.
At this link you will find the listed documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WC7dov5mW87lt1pE7BcpX90iR9jhchGM?usp=sharing
A statement of memories of the satanic ritual sexual abuse (4 pages)
An impact statement (11 pages)
Two appendices
The letter sent by the victim to Archbishop Lucas
A copy of the letter from Archbishop Lucas to the victim
The victim’s response to Archbishop Lucas’ letter.
A copy of Lucas’ public letter
Emails O’Brien Smith
New documents (not sent to Trustees)
Smith to O’Brien email 8.24.22
Fr. Jeff’s letter
Troy Cockle’s email
Three documents from the AG’s office.
Letter to Omaha Diocese from AG’s office
Press release on Reporting Abuse
Press release on NE DOJ Subpoenas
Again, I hope you have already had an opportunity to peruse these documents at the invitation of the Board of Trustees. I suspect, though, that you haven’t had such an opportunity. We keep hoping someone will insist that contact be made with the victim and hear her out; that someone will talk to the investigators from the AG’s office, and finally that a truly independent investigation will be done that will include an attempt to locate the other victim and to interview both her and the primary victim.
The victim does not want to do anything to damage the reputation of Boys Town but even more she wants to protect the vulnerable young people at Boys Town and also, of course, to achieve at least the justice of establishing that her accusations against Hanneman are credible whereupon he should be removed from the priesthood for the egregiously evil actions he performed on her and at least one other known victim.
It is our fervent prayer that someone at Boys Town will take responsible action in respect to the accusations made. If Hanneman is innocent, he deserves to be cleared by a legitimate investigation. If the accusations are found to be credible he must be removed from ministry and isolated from young people.
We have also made contact with the Institute of Priestly Formation in Omaha because Hanneman serves there as a spiritual director to seminarians.
I very much hope to hear from you about the measures you intend to take to resolve it.
Sincerely yours,
Janet E. Smith
Former Fr. Michael J. McGiveny Chair of Life Ethics, 2000-2019
Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI.