A 79-year-old Roman Catholic nun was sentenced to one year in jail and 10 years' probation Friday for sexually abusing two boys at an elementary school here in the 1960s.According to a complaint filed in 2006, Sister Norma Giannini engaged in dozens of sexual encounters with the two boys while she was an 8th-grade teacher and principal at St. Patrick's School.
The victims were 12 and 13 at the time.
Judge M. Joseph Donald said he spent much time contemplating a suitable punishment for a "diabolical crime."
"I'm struggling to understand how it is that someone who spent their entire life in service of others could have been so diabolical," he said.
Donald said he decided against a prison sentence and opted for sending her to the House of Corrections facility because of Giannini's age and health problems.
He also recommended that Giannini meets with the two victims away from cameras and media so she could hear how her crime destroyed their lives.
At the hearing, Giannini also read a statement in which she expressed remorse for abusing the victims.
Both victims, James St. Patrick and Gerald Kobs, read statements at the hearing to the judge.
"I was sure I was going to hell for defiling a holy sister," he said. "What worse sin could there be? . . . I've been suicidal ever since. I spent decades trying to escape it all through drugs and alcohol."
After the sentence was handed down, both victims expressed frustration with the punishment.
"I would have liked her to have served four years in prison," Kobs said. "But one year in jail is better than none."
St. Patrick added, "When will we start dealing with the female rapists in the same way that we deal with the male rapists?"
St. Patrick and Kobs pleaded for the judge to give Giannini prison time.
In a court document obtained by the Tribune, Giannini also admitted to a church panel that she had molested a Chicago boy and at least three other minors
Giannini avoided trial in November by pleading no-contest to two felony counts in Milwaukee of indecent behavior with a child.
Court documents show that a psychologist told prosecutors in 2006 that Giannini had identified other victims to a Milwaukee archdiocese panel.
The psychologist and other members of the panel interviewed Giannini in 1996 after the allegations of abuse emerged.
Because church officials did not report the allegations to law enforcement at the time, prosecutors began building their case in 2005 only after the victims approached civil authorities.
Prosecutors subpoenaed the psychologist, Elizabeth Piasecki, who read into the record the notes she wrote during the interview. The notes indicate that Giannini discussed molesting three other boys in Milwaukee and one in Chicago, where she worked before and after her stint in Wisconsin.
According to a transcript, Piasecki read: "One thing happened at St. Ann's before Milwaukee, a young man, a student. First time it happened. He was 14 to 15. He was in 8th grade. Started kissing and petting. I was talking to him and all of a sudden he was kissing me. Then it went on. And then unfortunate."
Piasecki's notes on the other alleged victims include: "There's one more boy . . . he was 16 years old . . . going on 20. I knew nothing. Kissing and petting, I think."
At one point, the panel asked Giannini: "What do you think that these kids thought?"
Giannini answered: "They were sowing their oats. How many teenagers would resist that opportunity?"
Sheila King, a spokeswoman for Sisters of Mercy of the Chicago Regional Community, said she could not confirm the existence of additional victims because the sister who was president at the time of those allegations is unavailable.
The current president, Sister Betty Smith, assumed her title in 2006.
The Chicago archdiocese, where Giannini served in schools for decades, referred all questions to her order. A native of Chicago, Giannini entered the convent at 18.
She started teaching in 1949 at St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge, followed by several other schools in the Chicago area before being sent to Milwaukee in 1964.
Giannini returned to Illinois in 1969, working at Christ the King, Mother McAuley High School, Little Flower, St. Clare of Montefalco and Holy Redeemer, where she was principal.
Sisters of Mercy removed Giannini from service in December 1992, when the Milwaukee archdiocese notified the order of allegations against her.
Milwaukee County Assistant District Atty. Paul Tiffin confirmed that he was aware of other potential victims. In addition to Kobs and St. Patrick, one other man came forward but did not press charges, Tiffin said.
"We did know she had mentioned other victims, but we made no effort to contact them because these people are adults," he said. "We're not going to force anyone to come forward. These are terrible memories that some people just don't want to bring up."
Prosecutors in Milwaukee could have referred their findings to Illinois authorities in an attempt to search out more victims but had no professional obligation to do so, said Mark Rotert, a former federal prosecutor and Illinois assistant attorney general.
Rotert said the crimes apparently are not ongoing and the victims know who abused them. "It's their choice if they want to come forward," he said. "It's also their choice if they don't want to come forward."
Even if Cook County authorities had received the information, the time limit for prosecuting the sexual abuse in Illinois probably would have run out, said John Gorman, spokesman for State's Atty. Richard Devine.
Milwaukee authorities could prosecute Giannini because Wisconsin's statute of limitations halts if the alleged offender leaves the state.
Kobs and St. Patrick said Thursday that they lived with memories of abuse for more than 30 years before coming forward.
Kobs said he often considered suicide and suffers from frequent migraines and recurring nightmares of abuse. St. Patrick said he abused alcohol and drugs for years after the abuse, which destroyed his faith.
"I thought, why didn't Jesus stop this?" he said.
Both men said Giannini had abused several other boys in their school, whom they have been trying to contact. One victim committed suicide, they said, and two others have sexually assaulted women.
Kobs said he hopes the judge sentences Giannini to at least 8 years in prison, which prosecutors are recommending.
"I just hope she gets some time," Kobs said. "If we go through this mess, and she gets no punishment, how will that make other victims of abuse feel?"
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