MILWAUKEE — Norma Giannini is a 78-year-old nun who was principal of St. Patrick's School in Milwaukee in the 1960s. She was charged with having sexual contact with two boys who attended the school, including sexual intercourse, a total of more than 160 times over four years. She decided not to fight the charges and pleaded no contest to two counts of indecent behavior with a child. "She is not contesting the charges," Nikola Kostich, the nun's attorney, said in explaining the no-contest plea. "She is basically saying that the prosecutor has enough evidence to find her guilty." Kostich said Giannini didn't plead guilty out of concern her admissions could be used in possible civil lawsuits against her religious order, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
The men who say they were abused, Gerald Kobs and James St. Patrick, are now in their 50s and were in attendance at Monday's hearing. One of them has recounted one of the early sexual encounters with Giannini in which she instructed him to unbutton her habit and indecently touch her breasts. He was about 13 at the time, and shaking so badly he couldn't undo the buttons.
As time went on, Giannini had more intense sexual contact with the boy, ultimately leading to sexual intercourse inside her south side home. She initiated contact with the other boy, a seventh-grader, after discussing his "Beatle-style hair." The boy said the incident caused him confusion because he believed nuns were married to Jesus. After that the boy recalled having more than 100 incidents of sexual contact with Giannini, including intercourse.
In no shock to anyone, the church knew about all this over 10 years ago and never forwarded the confession to the police.
"I thought I was in love with both of them," Giannini told a panel of the Milwaukee Archdiocese Response to Sexual Abuse in 1996, "Once I left Milwaukee nothing ever happened. . . . I still don't understand it," Giannini told the panel.
In a letter to Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a national organization of clergy abuse survivors, questioned Tuesday why diocese officials present at the 1996 panel didn't forward the confession to law enforcement. Giannini, who will be sentenced Feb. 1, left the courthouse without comment. She faces a maximum of 10 years on each of the two counts of indecent behavior with a minor.
Tags: Child Sexual Abuse, Church Scandal, Norma Giannini, nun, Pedophile, Sex Crime
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