Dallas lawyer Sylvian Demarest could have spent another lifetime representing the victims of pedophile priests. Instead, she decided to bequeath her years of research on the matter to help protect future generations of potential victims.
‘Wake Up the Pope’ – The Historic Jury Verdict Against a Priestly Pedophile that Shook the Catholic Church
Twenty years ago this month, an extraordinary trial took place in a Dallas County court. It pitted 10 young men and the family of another against the Dallas Catholic Diocese. The issue was serial sexual abuse by Rudy Kos, a priest and pedophile whose transgressions had been ignored for years. The resulting verdict of $119 million was a record for its time; but the dramatic 14-week trial helped expose to international public scrutiny the clear and present danger of a pedophile population within the priesthood that had been protected for decades, both by the church bureaucracy and the public trust. This special Texas Lawbook report by Bruce Tomaso tells the story of the trial of Rudy Kos, a remarkable and historic tale of courtroom justice.