John Doe, 414 v. Father Shawn Ratigan

481 S.W.3d 36, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 1152
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 10, 2015
DocketWD78298
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 481 S.W.3d 36 (John Doe, 414 v. Father Shawn Ratigan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
John Doe, 414 v. Father Shawn Ratigan, 481 S.W.3d 36, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 1152 (Mo. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Cynthia L. Martin, Judge

Jane Doe 413 (“Doe 413”), John Doe 414 (“Father”), and Jane Doe 415 (“Mother”) (hereinafter “Doe Family”) appeal from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants Diocese of Kansas City—St. Joseph (“Diocese”) and Bishop Robert Finn (“Finn”) on the Doe Family’s claims for damages for acts alleged to have been engaged in by defendant Father Shawn Ratigan (“Ratigan”). Finding no error, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

In this case involving review of the grant of summary judgment, we view the record and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the Doe Family, the non-movants, subject to the requirements of Rule 74.04. 1 ITT Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Mid-America Marine Supply Corp., 854 S.W.2d 371, 376, 381-82 (Mo. banc 1993).

Doe 413 was born in 2001. Her parents are Father and Mother. The Doe Family joined the St. Patrick’s Church parish in the summer of 2009. Ratigan became the pastor of the St. Patrick’s Church at about the same time.

Ón December 16,2010, Ken Kes (“Kes”), a computer contractor who worked for St. Patrick’s Church, was asked to look at Ratigan’s laptop because it was running slow. Kes determined that the hard drive was full, and in the process of deleting files, saw pictures of young girls stored on the hard drive with numbers assigned, indicating the pictures had been taken by a camera. Kes reported his discovery to the office manager at St. Patrick’s Church. Kes then brought the laptop to the Church office to meet with Deacon Michael Lewis (“Deacon Lewis”). Kes assisted Deacon Lewis in navigating to one particular picture Kes had found of a young girl with her pants pulled down. Deacon Lewis contacted Monsignor Robert Murphy (“Msgr. Murphy”), the Vicar for- Clergy of the Diocese at the time. On December 16, 2010, Deacon Lewis delivered the laptop to Msgr. Murphy. Msgr. Murphy asked Julie Creech (“Creech”), the Diocese’s Director of Management Information Systems, to look at the laptop. On December 17, 2010, Creech copied photographs she found on the laptop to a flash drive. On the same day, Creech and her supervisor prepared a memorandum to Msgr. Murphy regarding their findings and attached copies of some of the images found on the laptop. On the same day, Msgr. Murphy contacted the Diocese’s outside legal counsel for an opinion about whether the im *39 ages found on Ratigan’s laptop constituted child pornography. Msgr. Murphy. advised Finn that he had consulted with outside counsel about images found on Rati-gan’s laptop. In December 2010, outside legal counsel advised Finn that in his legal opinion, the images on Ratigan’s laptop were not child pornography. 2

On December 17, 2010, Ratigan failed to report to work at St. Patrick’s Church. Deacon Lewis contacted the police, who discovered Ratigan unconscious in his garage with his motorcycle running. In December 2010 during Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Church, someone 3 announced that Ratigan had had an accident while working on his motorcycle, that those attending Mass should pray for his recovery, and that cards for Ratigan could be placed in a basket at the back of the church. In January 2011, the Diocese and Finn sent Ratigan to see a.doctor for a psychiatric evaluation. 4

In February 2011, Finn assigned Rati-gan to a limited ministry as Chaplain for the Sisters of St. Francis of Holy Eucharist in Independence,-Missouri. Finn imposed written restrictions on Ratigan with which. Ratigan agreed to comply. The restrictions included that Ratigan would avoid contact with children, would not use a computer, would use a camera only in limited circumstances, and would not take any photos of children. Neither Finn nor any other representative of the Diocese told Deacon Lewis about the restrictions, though Deacon Lewis did learn about some of the restrictions from Ratigan’s brother, Brian Ratigan. : -

Between March 2011 and April 2011, the Doe Family had three interactions with Ratigan. In March 2011, the Doe Family arranged to meet with Ratigan at "a park where the Doe Family was playing softball.' Mother and Father saw Ratigan take a picture of Doe 413 with his cell phone while Doe 413 was sitting in the “V” between two branches of a tree. Later that same day, the Doe Family and Rati-gan ate together at a pizza restaurant. Ratigan sat on the opposite side of the table from Doe 413. Mother and Father observed that Ratigan had his phone in his lap. On Easter Sunday in April 2011, the Doe Family attended Easter Mass at Rati-gan’s invitation, and spoke briefly with him before and after Mass; Ratigan did not take pictures of Doe 413 on this date.

In May 2011, Ratigan was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. None of the charges related to Doe 413. The arrest occurred within days of the delivery to the police of a CD and a flash drive containing photographs that had been copied by Creech from Ratigan’s laptop. At about the same time, Ratigan’s brother gave the police CDs and other *40 media he had found in Ratigan’s residence around - the time Ratigan attempted suicide. Prior to Ratigan’s arrest, Finn had no contact with the Doe Family except meeting with them briefly after a service in 2010. •

After Ratigan’s arrest, Mother began to worry that Ratigan had taken pictures of Doe 413. Mother and Father began to suspect that Doe 413’s underwear was visible when Ratigan took the picture of her sitting in the tree in, the park. Mother and Father began to suspect that Doe 413’s legs could have been open exposing her underwear at the pizza restaurant and that Ratigan could have been using his cell phone to take, pictures -of Doe 413 under the.table.

Mother and Father gave the police photos of Doe 413 and of the clothes she was wearing in the park and at the restaurant. Detective Margaret McGuire (“Detective McGuire”), the lead investigator .on Rati-gan’s case,, found no photograph's of Doe 413 on any computer, camera, phone, or device recovered in the investigation of Ratigan or in emails subpoenaed from Ra-tigan’s eiiiail provider. Detective McGuire told Mother and Father that no photos of Doe 413 were found during the investigation.

On November 16, 2011, the Doe Family filed a lawsuit in the Clay County Circuit Court naming Ratigan, the Diocese, and Finn as defendants. An amended petition was filed" in April 2012. 5 • The amended petition asserted 11 counts. Counts I and III were asserted against Ratigan only and are irrelevant to this appeal. Counts II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XI were asserted against the Diocese and Finn, and in some cases against Ratigan. Count II asserted a violation of section 537.046. 6 Count IV asserted a violation of section 537.047. 7 Count V asserted a claim of intentional failure to supervise clergy. Count VI asserted a claim of negligent failure to supervise children. Count VII asserted a claim of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McSean v. Chamberlain
E.D. Missouri, 2024
Judy Conway v. Rebecca Caldwell
Missouri Court of Appeals, 2022
Tucker v. Ethicon, Inc.
E.D. Missouri, 2021
U.S. Bank Nat'l Ass'n v. Christensen
541 S.W.3d 16 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2018)
B.B. v. Methodist Church of Shelbina
541 S.W.3d 644 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2017)
City of Joplin v. Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, L.P.
522 S.W.3d 327 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2017)
Gary Gentry v. Orkin, LLC
490 S.W.3d 784 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2016)
Shelter Products, Inc. v. Omni Construction Company, Inc.
479 S.W.3d 189 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
481 S.W.3d 36, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 1152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-doe-414-v-father-shawn-ratigan-moctapp-2015.