After a Minnesota Star Tribune/ProPublica investigation found that Duluth church leaders sheltered child sex offenders for years, a Minnesota senator wants to strengthen a state law aimed at holding adults accountable for children’s safety when they fail to report suspected child abuse.
Sen. Erin Mae Quaid, D-Farmer-Labor from the Minneapolis suburbs, said the focus is on situations in which such adults have specific knowledge that a person is abusing children but remain silent and the abuse continues.
“If you know an adult who is sexually abusing a child, you should report it,” she said. “In that case, the fine could be even higher.”
Preachers at Old Apostolic Lutheran Church in Duluth have known for years about allegations that member Clint Massey sexually abused girls in the congregation, according to a Star Tribune/ProPublica report. Instead of calling the police, church leaders encouraged some of the victims to participate in sessions where they were pressured to forgive Massey. They were then told never to talk about the abuse.
In one case, preacher Darryl Bruckelmeyer facilitated a meeting between Massey and a girl in first grade at a business office. According to her account of the incident to law enforcement 15 years later, the girl recently told her parents that Massey groped her under her shirt and touched her genitals. Massey told police that he asked for forgiveness in front of the girl, her father and Bruckelmeier. The girl’s father and preacher then allowed Massey, who had sexually abused her since kindergarten, to hold her.
Massey, now 50, pleaded guilty last year to four counts of felony sexual conduct with a victim under 13 in connection with the abuse of a girl at the church. In March, a judge sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison. Mr. Brückelmeyer declined to comment, but a church spokeswoman said the church’s preachers followed the law in the Massey case. In an interview with police, Brückelmeier said the church encouraged the victim to go to police, but that ultimately it was up to the victim.
Under Minnesota law, whistleblowers, including clergy, doctors, teachers and child care providers, can already be charged with a misdemeanor if they fail to tell authorities if they believe a child has been abused within the past three years.
Some legal experts said criminal law had proven ineffective as a mechanism to hold violators accountable. Of the 28 people charged with violating the law over the past 15 years, only six have been convicted, according to data reviewed by the Star Tribune and ProPublica. All but one were sentenced to probation, a choice of suspended jail time or community service, and fines ranging from $85 to $385.
Additionally, Minnesota courts have repeatedly blocked lawsuits from people seeking to pursue damages claims from silenced adults and organizations. In one landmark case in 2007, the state Supreme Court said that even though mandated reporters are rarely prosecuted, courts cannot create a civil right to sue simply because criminal law enforcement is weak. Justice Paul Anderson expressed the position adopted by a majority of the justices, saying, “The determination of whether civil liability is appropriate is up to the legislature, which has the power to investigate the facts.”
The result is a system in which the most powerful legal incentive for compliance, the threat of civil liability and damages, is completely absent.
May Quaid said she was considering changes that parliament could make during this session, which starts in February. She’s asking the Senate’s research staff to launch an investigation into where the gaps are in the law.
“Honestly, I should have thought about it beforehand,” she said. “These victim-survivors are coming forward and sharing their stories, and it would be wrong not to respond.”
St. Louis County Courthouse in Duluth
Law has no teeth, experts say
Prosecutors in St. Louis County, where Duluth is located, said a lack of cooperation from the church community was a key factor in the delay in charging Massey. But no preacher has been accused of failing to report abuse, even though clergy are required to be reporters under state law. The church’s attorney, Kimberly Rowe, said the preachers were unpaid. She said this raises questions about whether they are subject to mandatory reporting laws, specifically citing “employees” of clergy. The prosecutor in the case said his office and police decided instead to “educate” church leaders about their legal responsibilities to report sexual abuse.
Robert Small, executive director of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, which represents county prosecutors across the state, said it’s generally difficult to hold people accountable for violating mandatory reporting laws. To convict someone, prosecutors must prove that the person knew or had reason to believe that the child was being neglected or sexually abused.
If convicted in Minnesota, the punishment was often light. In one incident in 2022, a Wright County police officer was convicted of misdemeanor battery after failing to report a 14-year-old girl who told others she had been sexually abused. He was sentenced to one day of probation and a suspended prison sentence, meaning he will not have to serve any time in prison.
Victor Wiese, a former prosecutor now based in Minnesota who trains child abuse investigators across the country, said it’s difficult to know how often reporters on assignment remain silent. Many victims have delayed reporting for years, and there is usually a three-year statute of limitations by which reporters cannot be prosecuted for failing to report.
He said prosecutors often face a catch-22 when failures surface. If a mandated reporter fails to report, the reporter may have important evidence, and prosecutors may decide that the reporter’s cooperation is needed rather than a low-level conviction for failure to report.
St. Louis County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Ryan (right) speaks with George Olson, who is working with victims on the Massey case. Ryan was the lead prosecutor in the Massey case.
However, mandatory reporting laws have been in place nationwide since the 1960s. Over the past half century, reporting requirements have been woven into every aspect of American life, including schools, hospitals, churches, and child care centers, and training on reporting suspected abuse is now commonplace and often required as a condition of employment or licensure. Each state has its own laws to comply with federal laws passed in the 1970s that provide funding and guidance to protect children, said Toby Briggs, co-founder of Simple Learning Systems, a California-based company that develops training software for mandatory reporting.
Briggs said he hasn’t seen many cases of failure to report, but high-profile lawsuits have led to stricter rules and increased the need for mandatory training for reporters.
“There are huge, high-profile examples like the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church that are facing lawsuits and not training their tribes, incurring huge economic costs,” he said.
Some states, including Washington state, allow victims to sue individuals or organizations if they do not report abuse and the abuse continues. Schools and hospitals therefore need to better train their employees and thoroughly investigate reports.
Because Minnesota doesn’t allow such civil lawsuits, the state hasn’t shown as much interest in the issue, said St. Paul-based Jeff Anderson, one of the nation’s most prominent clergy abuse lawyers. He described the law as “a tool that no one uses,” and said he believed reporters on assignment knew they had little chance of criminal or civil liability if they remained silent.
