Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA · 2007

United States: Milwaukee nun convicted of sexually abusing two boys she taught as school principal

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic nun (Religious Sisters of Mercy), eighth-grade teacher and school principal at St. Patrick's School

Organization

St. Patrick's School, Milwaukee, Religious Sisters of Mercy

Spiritual nexus

The victims were her own pupils, and her access to them was inseparable from her combined role as their nun-teacher and school principal; the religious authority of the habit and the disciplinary authority of the principal's office were exercised as one over children who could not refuse a teacher who was also a Sister.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · no-contest plea, conviction and sentence

    Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Wisconsin, USA. Sister Norma Giannini, who had engaged in dozens of sexual encounters with two boys beginning when they were 12 and 13 while she was their eighth-grade teacher and principal at St. Patrick's School (1964-1969), was charged in December 2006 and pleaded no contest just before trial. Judge M. Joseph Donald sentenced her to 10 years on two felony counts of indecent behavior with a child but stayed the prison sentence in favor of probation and one year's incarceration at a Milwaukee County jail facility, citing her age and health. Giannini had separately admitted to a church review board in 1996 that she had molested at least four other boys.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • position as teacher and school principal over her own students
  • religious authority of a nun combined with direct educational custodial control

Primary record

Sources

law firm case report verdict report 'Nun who abused boys gets one year in jail, 10 years' probation', Jeff Anderson & Associates (victims' law firm case report).

Case summary of the conviction, sentence, and the 1996 church-review-board admissions of additional victims.

regional magazine investigative background 'Devil in Disguise', Milwaukee Magazine.

Investigative feature on the Giannini case, her role as teacher/principal, and the prosecution timeline.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

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