for successfully undertaking the daunting task of pursuing an investigation into sexual abuse. Gannon persevered for months to get interviews with children, families and top officials, and was able to show how sexual abuse is pervasive in Pakistan's extensive system of Islamic schools. http://bit.ly/2jhebR7
Kantele Franko, reporter, Columbus, Ohio; Larry Lage, sports writer, Detroit; and Thomas Peipert, reporter, Denver, for nimble coordination across three regions to secure an all-formats interview with the first athlete â Olympic wrestler Andy Hrovat â to make public accusations of sexual abuse against now-deceased Dr. Robert Anderson of the University of Michigan.https://bit.ly/2HZ8m7Ghttps://bit.ly/2PwPH7j
for advancing the story he broke a week earlier, now reporting exclusively on court filings claiming that work done for the areaâs Roman Catholic archdiocese by the NFLâs New Orleans Saints went beyond âminimalâ public relations work on sex abuse by clergy, and allegedly included helping to shape a list of credibly accused clergy that appears to be undercounted. Mustain also reported on a judgeâs ruling that the AP can move forward with its case to have documents between the Saints and the archdiocese made public. https://bit.ly/3718pK7
One of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2018 â Democrat Joe Donnelly of Indiana - has staked his nearly two-decade political career on opposition to outsourcing and free-trade agreements that ship American jobs abroad.
Following up on a tip from Washington, D.C., colleague Erica Werner, Indiana Statehouse reporter Brian Slodysko pulled together public documents and customs records to reveal that Donnelly has benefited financially from the very free trade policies he has decried since his first run for Congress. As Slodysko reported in his âOnly on APâ story, Donnelly earned thousands of dollars in 2016 alone from stock in the arts and crafts business his family has owned for generations, which ships raw materials to its Mexican factory that produces ink pads and other supplies.
For shining light on something a politician would have preferred left unknown to his constituents, Slodysko wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
Concord-based reporter Holly Ramer, who has owned the story of abuse allegations at New Hampshireâs state-run youth detention center for more than a year, used source work to break news once again: A lawsuit filed in early 2020 has grown to include 230 men and women who say they were abused as children by 150 staffers over the course of six decades.
Ramerâs story was based on exclusive interviews with the plaintiffsâ attorney and three victims, who described sickening allegations including broken bones, gang rape and impregnation. Powerful images by Boston photographer Charlie Krupa and video journalist Rodrique Ngowi complemented the piece.
APâs coverage prompted three Democratic lawmakers to call on Gov. Chris Sununu to shut down the center, and at least 40 more victims have come forward since the story ran.
For this latest example of impactful storytelling that has helped expose a grave scandal at the stateâs youth detention center, Ramer, Krupa and Ngowi earn Best of the States honors.
for revealing that Michigan State University, already reeling from the Larry Nassar gymnastics scandal, had maintained ties to a prominent volleyball coach long after he was publicly accused in 1995 of sexually abusing and raping six underage girls. https://bit.ly/2HOFgWL
for breaking the news that Los Angeles police are actively investigating one of Stan Leeâs former advisers for allegations of elder abuse of the Marvel Comics legend. https://lat.ms/2lp2id3
for pressing Pope Francis about the sexual abuse of nuns by priests and bishops. Drawing on APâs ground-breaking reporting in the past year, Winfield elicited the pope's first public acknowledgement of the problem, opening a new chapter in the Catholic Churchâs sex abuse reckoning. https://bit.ly/2Go2yVz
Houston-based reporter Nomaan Merchant broke important news about the role of an influential American cardinal in an abuse scandal in his home diocese, just as the cardinal was meeting with Pope Francis to discuss reforms to address clergy abuse.
Merchant exclusively tracked down two accusers who allege a priest in the Houston archdiocese had abused them â and that church leaders, including Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, subsequently did little to nothing to keep him out of the ministry and away from children.
The allegations were significant on their own given the current abuse crisis roiling the Catholic church. But they were made even more newsworthy in that they implicated DiNardo just as he met with the pope to discuss the churchâs handling of sex abuse cases. The accusers said they personally complained to DiNardo about the priest and believed they were brushed off.
Merchant's reporting made an immediate splash in Houston-area media and religion news sources. It was also the talk of the Vatican gathering in Rome.
For his efforts, Merchant wins this week's Best of States.
for obtaining a 2,000-plus page forensic study commissioned by Pope Francis of the legal case against Argentinaâs most notorious convicted predator priest that concluded he was innocent, that his victims were lying and that the case never should have gone to trial. https://bit.ly/2xJNGen
spent months digging into the secretive world of teen dance competitions, combing through court records and interviewing dozens of dancers to reveal a culture of sexual abuse and silence.In collaboration with The Toronto Star, the investigative reporters focused on one of the worldâs largest dance companies, Break the Floor, documenting sexual misconduct and assault claims against some of the most famous and influential dancers in the United States, including the companyâs founder and CEO, who sold the company as he came under the joint teamâs scrutiny.Read more
A source called Iowa City correspondent Ryan J. Foley with a tip: He had a shocking letter that he couldnât share in which the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, acknowledged a priest admitted to abuse of 50 boys in Iowa over 20 years.
Foley eventually tracked down a copy of the letter, and it was stunning: The diocese admitted the Rev. Jerome Coyle reported his pedophilia in 1986 but was simply shuffled to New Mexico for treatment. The diocese also offered to pay Coyle to stay in New Mexico, warning that his desired return to Iowa would retraumatize his victims, now grown men.
Yet sources said he returned to Fort Dodge, Iowa, which is where Foley and photographer Charlie Neibergall found him. The priest wouldnât talk, but the diocese confirmed Foleyâs story and acknowledged two victims had come forward in recent weeks with allegations against Coyle that would now be turned over to police. The 32-year coverup was over.
Reaction to Foleyâs story â the lead story in newspapers across the state â was quick, with Coyle removed from the home, the Iowa attorney generalâs office launching an inquiry, and the diocese promising to identify all priests who have faced credible allegations.
The diocese said it was taking this action due to the continuing investigations of âthe AP reporter.â
For breaking a story in vivid detail that had been kept hidden for decades, Foley wins this weekâs Best of the States award.
reported exclusively about a civilian U.S. Army employee who led a child sex in which he victimized his own adopted son and put national security at risk, all while the State of Arizona and the Department of Defense missed or ignored signs of his criminal behavior.Rezendes was investigating a separate story in Arizona when a source told him about the case. His reporting revealed that complaints had been filed against David Frodsham, the man at the center of the abuse ring, for years, but Arizona still allowed him to foster and adopt children, while the military kept him in sensitive management jobs, even though his behavior made him a national security risk.Read more
for taking a hard look at the financial reckoning of the U.S. Roman Catholic sex abuse trials, and reporting exclusively that changing laws and attitudes could translate into a flood of lawsuits with potential payouts topping $4 billion. Condon and Mustian reported on the potential impact of new laws, enacted in 15 states, that extend or suspend the statute of limitations governing claims. The pair found several attorneys who have turned their entire practices over to such cases, with TV ads and billboards seeking clients. https://bit.ly/36oRoJX
Knowledge of clergy sex abuse is widespread on the mainland of the United States. But it has long been a secret in the small, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic U.S. territory of Guam.
Washington-based investigative reporter Michael Biesecker, working with Atlanta-based enterprise photographer David Goldman and Seattle video journalist Manuel Valdes, helped to puncture that veil of silence when AP examined thousands of pages of court documents in lawsuits brought by abuse victims and then conducted extensive interviews.
The AP team detailed a pattern of repeated collusion among predator priests, with abuse that spanned generations and reached all the way to the top of the territoryâs church hierarchy, ruled over by then-Archbishop Tony Apuron, who himself had been accused of the rape of a 13-year-old choir boy when Apuron was a parish priest.
The care and sensitivity of the reporting and images were essential to the projectâs power. âTo see my story told in this way gives me a lot of peace, that I have a purpose,â said Walter Denton, a former U.S. Army sergeant and survivor of abuse nearly 40 years ago.
For telling a sensitive and little-known story of systemic clerical abuse dating from the 1950s to as recently as 2013, Biesecker, Goldman and Valdes share APâs Best of the Week award.
A true multiformat team of AP journalists produced this Only on AP piece by tracking down data on child abuse from every state to reveal a worrying trend: Reports of abuse are down while signs of severity are up. The team complemented that dogged data work and hard news with the tragic story of one girl who fell through the cracks during the pandemic.
Acting on information sourced by video journalist Manuel Valdes, Seattle reporter Sally Ho coordinated the 50-state data survey and an ambitious analysis with data journalist Camille Fassett. Ho also read through hundreds of child abuse reports to find the case of 9-year-old Ava Lerario, killed by her father in a small Pennsylvania town. Ho worked with Philadelphia photojournalists Matt Rourke and Matt Slocum, and New York video journalist David Martin, to tell the story of about how the system failed Ava.
The teamâs deeply reported package drew remarkably high reader engagement, and many news outlets localized the work using APâs data distribution.
For exposing another disturbing inequality stemming from the pandemic, Ho and colleagues Valdes, Fassett, Rourke, Slocum and Martin share this weekâs Best of the States award.
for breaking the news that the costs of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State have reached at least $237 million, well above figures reported a year ago: http://es.pn/2j9DzXQ
Christopher Sherman, newsperson, Mexico City; Arnulfo Franco, photographer, Panama City, and Gerardo Carrillo, videojournalist, Mexico City, for detailing abuses by Nicaraguan security forces against protesters, including a young woman arrested without charges and beaten until she lost her pregnancy. https://bit.ly/2Mjws1s
for exclusively reporting that a 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl who was raped, tortured and killed at her adoptive mother's home had been abused or neglected over the years in at least two other homes, raising questions about whether public agencies had dropped the ball. https://yhoo.it/2jAV46i
for being the only reporter to obtain the results of the state Democratic Partyâs investigation into a domestic abuse accusation against U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison. https://bit.ly/2A4Ucyk