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STEUBENVILLE -- A change.org petition urging the Franciscan University of Steubenville to ease the student loan debt of a female student who was sexually victimized by a friar who professed to be counseling her had gathered 1,333 signatures by 4 p.m. Sunday.
The petition, begun by Franciscan alum Emily Allen, suggested that, "If the university desires to restore any semblance of faith for their alumni community, and the Catholic community as a whole, they would do well to offer financial restitution to the victim, that she might be free of the debt tied to her time of constant abuse."
The victim, who has not been identified publicly, was saddled with $350,000 in student debt when she left Franciscan in 2013 after being subjected to years of abuse by the Rev. David Morrier. Morrier pleaded guilty March 11 to sexual battery of a female student, admitting he used his position and the victim's troubled past to engage in sexual conduct with her repeatedly during a three-year period beginning in 2010.
He'd originally been charged with two counts of rape as well as sexual battery.
Authorities had described him as a predator who "looked for and found a victim he thought no one else would believe," insisting he weaponized the abuse the woman had previously endured at the hands of a family member and manipulated her into believing she was possessed by demons. They said he told God had tasked him with healing her through a series of exorcisms and deliverances, and coerced her into performing sexual acts in the Finnegan Fieldhouse, the chapel and even the confessional.
Prosecutors have said his victim agreed to the plea deal because she wanted to be sure Morrier would carry a "warning label" that he was a sex offender, thereby ensuring he could never again victimize another woman as he had her. Had the case gone to trial, if just one juror in the heavily Catholic community felt the state fell short of proving its case he could have walked out of court without any restrictions, a risk they said his victim felt she couldn't take.
With interest, her student debt has ballooned to roughly $750,000.
Allen, who started the petition, said erasing Jane Doe's debt "to the university who betrayed her and facilitated the abuse, is a matter of justice -- not charity."
"Policies and PR statements are not enough," she'd concluded, saying the university should "not simply say they are sorry for what happened, but do true penance in the form of offering financial restitution to the victim equaling to or above $750,000 to match her student loan debt."
A GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help Jane Doe has, to date, raised $7,000 of its $10,000 goal.