Paul Mones
{{short description|American lawyer and author}}
Paul Mones is an American lawyer and author. Mones specializes in representing victims of child sexual abuse against institutions like the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church. He has also defended children accused of killing a parent. He is the author of the books When a Child Kills: Abused Children Who Kill Their Parents and Stalking Justice: The Dramatic True Story of the Detective Who First Used DNA Testing to Catch a Serial Killer.
Early life
Paul Mones received his BA from the State University of New York at Buffalo and completed his JD at the University of North Carolina Law School. After law school he became a staff lawyer for West Virginia Legal Services. He became the director of a juvenile justice program in Morgantown, West Virginia.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/14/news/when-child-kills-parent-it-s-sometimes-to-survive.html|title=When Child Kills Parent, It's Sometimes to Survive|date=14 February 1992|website=The New York Times}} He has practiced law in Portland, Oregon, and in Los Angeles.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/whenkidsgetlife/interviews/mones.html|title=when kids get life|date=8 May 2007|website=www.pbs.org}}
Legal career
During the 1980s and 1990s, Mones was described as the only lawyer in the United States specializing on the defense of sexually abused and physically abused children accused of killing their parents.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBxUpILloWwC&pg=PA28|title=ABA Journal|first=American Bar|last=Association|date=1 May 1992|publisher=American Bar Association|via=Google Books}} Between 1981 and 1993, Mones defended or acted as a consultant on more than two hundred parricide cases.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/06/17/when-a-child-kills-a-parent-does-abuse-forgive-the-act/|title=When A Child Kills A Parent, Does Abuse Forgive The Act?|publisher=}}{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-07-vw-1786-story.html|title=Defender of the Indefensible : Paul Mones Sees Terrified Kids Where Others See Parent Killers|first=GARRY|last=ABRAMS|date=7 June 1989|publisher=|via=LA Times}} Mones’ advocacy work also extended to developing public service announcements about child abuse with organizations like the NBA.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-31-vw-64-story.html|title='89 Encores : On this last day of the year, and of the 1980s, the View staff pays a return visit to some of the people who made news in 1989. : A Point of Departure|first=GARRY|last=ABRAMS|date=31 December 1989|publisher=|via=LA Times}}
In 2010 in Portland, Oregon, Mones won a $19.9 million verdict against the Boy Scouts of America filed by a former scout who had been sexually abused by his Scout leader in the mid- 1980s.{{cite web|url=http://www.survivorsforjustice.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=353:185-million-in-liability-for-scouts-in-abuse-case&catid=2:news&Itemid=57|title=Attorney Paul Mones Wins $18.5 Million In Abuse Lawsuit|first=NY|last=Times|website=www.survivorsforjustice.org}} This verdict resulted in the release of the Perversion Files that had been maintained by the Boy Scouts for about ninety years. The files, which were released for the period 1965 through 1985, detailed the sexual abuse of scouts by their adult leaders. The case was a part of Mones’ current practice representing victims of child sexual abuse against trusted authority figures in public and religious organizations.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2u8WCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT93|title=Great Is the Truth: Secrecy, Scandal, and the Quest for Justice at the Horace Mann School|first1=Amos|last1=Kamil|first2=Sean|last2=Elder|date=3 November 2015|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=9780374711566 |via=Google Books}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/magazine/the-horace-mann-schools-secret-history-of-sexual-abuse.html|title=Prep-School Predators|date=10 June 2012|website=The New York Times}}
Mones has also been quoted as an expert on child's rights advocacy and sexual abuse cases.{{cite news|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/peggynoonan/2015/01/07/a-response-to-bishop-ohara/|title=A Response to Bishop O'Hara|last=pnoonan2|newspaper=Wall Street Journal |date=8 January 2015|publisher=}} Interviews with Mones about his work have appeared in segments for television news shows such as CNN, Frontline, Oprah,{{cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/06/13/abuse-as-a-child-led-her-to-kill-parents-inmate-says-in-the-first-legal-case-of-its-kind-in-md-daughter-asks-to-be-freed-after-18-years/|title=Abuse as a child led her to kill parents, inmate says In the first legal case of its kind in Md., daughter asks to be freed after 18 years|publisher=}} 60 Minutes, and 20/20.{{cite web|url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/711075/School-violence-starts-at-home-lawyer-says.html?pg=all|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806112201/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/711075/School-violence-starts-at-home-lawyer-says.html?pg=all|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 6, 2016|title=School violence starts at home, lawyer says|website=Deseret News |date=5 August 1999|publisher=}}
Writing
In 1985, Mones authored the study The Relationship Between Parricide and Child Abuse: An Overview, on the relationship between parricide and child abuse. In his work, Mones argued that his case studies that the primary reason teens killed their parents was because they believed no one would help end their abuse, and that the abuse was likely to escalate into their own demise.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=raswOMYcXFEC&pg=PA36|title=ABA Journal|first=American Bar|last=Association|date=1 June 1987|publisher=American Bar Association|via=Google Books}}
In 1991 Mones authored the book When a Child Kills: Abused Children Who Kill Their Parents (Pocket Books: {{ISBN|067167420X}}).{{cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/expert-calls-newtown-shooting-fundamentally-different-because-it-started-with-matricide/|title=Expert calls Newtown shooting "fundamentally different" because it started with matricide|website=CBS News |date=20 December 2012 |publisher=}} In his book he claimed that most American runaway children leave home to escape parental abuse,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g_HqYYGS55oC&pg=PT296|title=Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane)|first=Gavin De|last=Becker|date=15 May 2013|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=9780307833693 |via=Google Books}} and that most of the cases of children killing their parents in the US are the result of child abuse.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kc5TKoLX5w8C&pg=PA110|title=Angels of Death: A True Story of Murder and Innocence Lost|first=Gary C.|last=King|date=15 September 2003|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9781429996853 |via=Google Books}} Mones also wrote of cases in which abused children would deny the abuse even after the homicide because of shame and embarrassment.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOpOk09GMwYC&pg=PA87|title=The Batterer: A Psychological Profile|first1=Donald|last1=Dutton|first2=Susan|last2=Golant|date=5 August 2008|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=9780786724598 |via=Google Books}}
In 1996, Mones wrote Stalking Justice: The Dramatic True Story of the Detective Who First Used DNA Testing to Catch a Serial Killer (Pocket Books: {{ISBN|067170348X}}), a true crime story concerning the first time DNA was used in rape-murder case in the United States.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-07-10-ls-22258-story.html|title=New Respect for the New Centurions : For Paul Mones, Writing About Death and DNA Shattered Long-Held Prejudices About the Police|first=DENNIS|last=ROMERO|date=10 July 1995|publisher=|via=LA Times}} Kirkus Reviews wrote of the book that, "Mones brings to his story gritty, specific descriptions of high-tech forensics that will fascinate true-crime buffs and mystery fans alike. Novelistic suspense, strong characterization, plus state-of- the-art crime-solving add up to a natural for summer reading lists."{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-a-mones/stalking-justice/|title=STALKING JUSTICE by Paul A. Mones - Kirkus Reviews|publisher=}}
Mones has also been a contributor to The Huffington Post{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-mones/the-perfect-crime_b_1088470.html|title=The Perfect Crime|first=Paul|last=Mones|website=HuffPost |date=11 November 2011|publisher=}} and the American Bar Association Journal.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzgaKM5QDA0C&pg=PA88|title=ABA Journal|first=American Bar|last=Association|date=1 September 1999|publisher=American Bar Association|via=Google Books}}
Recognition
In 1993 Mones received the Livingston Hall Juvenile Justice Award from the American Bar Association.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i4Z4D5V-kD0C&pg=PA128|title=ABA Journal|first=American Bar|last=Association|date=1 October 1993|publisher=American Bar Association|via=Google Books}}
External links
- [http://www.paulmones.com/ Official website]