The Salem priest, long respected by Catholic parishioners, has been branded a pedophile by his accusers. Since mid-2003, more than 15 men have sued Sprauer, alleging that he sexually abused them while he was chaplain at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in the 1970s.
Starting Tuesday, Sprauer goes to court for trial of a civil lawsuit pitting him against three of his accusers: Robert Paul Jr., Randy Sloan and Norman Klettke Jr.
"Do I think we're going to win? Absolutely," said Paul, 49, of Salem. "We're going to go in there and tell the truth. The jury is going to see through lies."
In court papers, the three men allege that Sprauer used his authority as a prison chaplain to lure them into sexual acts, primarily mutual masturbation and oral sex.
The priest allegedly molested the boys in segregation cells, his chaplain's office, in a storage closet and in a car that he drove to transport one youth to his sister's funeral.
To loyal parishioners, he remains a trusted man of God. Some think the well-known priest is being railroaded by ex-convicts seeking to cash in on bogus allegations.
"They've got nothing to lose and everything to gain," said Kevin Mannix, a former state legislator and long-time parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Salem, where Sprauer remains on the staff as a parochial vicar, assisting the Rev. James Coleman.
By law, it's too late for any criminal investigation or possible prosecution of the sex-abuse allegations against Sprauer. The statute of limitations expired long ago.
But Oregon law allows victims of sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits as long as three years after discovering the impact of abuse on their lives. In some cases, that can mean years, or decades, later.
The theory behind the law: Victims of sexual abuse may completely forget traumatic offenses against them as children, but recover the repressed memories later.
In all, more than 15 of Sprauer's accusers filed a series of suits in 2003 and 2004 -- three decades after their alleged abuse at the state-run juvenile facility.
The Archdiocese of Portland, the governing body for Catholic parishes in Western Oregon, agreed to pay them $600,000, according to Salem attorney Daniel Gatti, who represents Sprauer's accusers. Individual settlements ranged from $7,500 to $100,000, he said.
Cases still are going forward against Sprauer and the state, which employed him at MacLaren. As it stands, six civil suits are pending against Sprauer in Marion County. No trial dates have been set.
The trial scheduled to get under way Tuesday will be held at the Multnomah County Courthouse in Portland. It's expected to last several weeks; jury selection could take several days.
Paul alleges that Sprauer molested him four times during counseling sessions in the chaplain's office at MacLaren in 1972. He stated in his deposition that he tried to report the abuse to a MacLaren counselor but was told "to get the hell out of his office and not talk like that about somebody in the priesthood."
"Now, we're ready for the big one," he said. "The money is a consolation. It's the only way we can get to them and hurt them. I'd like to see him go to prison myself."
Heeding his attorney's advice, Sprauer has not responded to Statesman Journal requests for interviews. His attorney, Thomas Cooney Sr. of Lake Oswego, has said that Sprauer looks forward to clearing his name at trial.
In videotaped depositions, all three men recounted being sexually abused by Sprauer. They all linked the abuse to long-term problems in their adult lives, ranging from depression to alcoholism and personality disorders.
"He asked me if he could sit with me for a while and I let him," he said. "He put his hand on my leg as if to comfort me and asked me why I was in detention and why I was in MacLaren ... "
"He asked me about my family life, what it was like growing up, if my mom and dad were still alive, and he told me that he might be able to help me."
Visiting Sloan's cell the next day, Sprauer sat beside him on his bunk, Sloan said. The priest allegedly told the teenager that he was handsome and asked him whether he had ever given oral sex to a man. He allegedly took the boy's hand and placed it on his groin.
"Then he asked me if I enjoyed that, and I told him I didn't know," Sloan said. "He told me that he could help me and do things for me but he also wanted the favor returned and then he left."
According to Sloan, Sprauer molested him again during another visit to his cell. He said the chaplain became "mad and disgusted" when Sloan refused to give him oral sex.
"We're here to finish what I asked you to do to me," Sloan said, recounting what the priest allegedly told him. "Give me oral sex, and if you don't, I'm going to take you back to MacLaren."
According to his account, the sexual encounter left him reeling. He skipped his sister's funeral and went AWOL until law enforcement caught him and took him back to MacLaren.
For much of his troubled life, Sloan said, he buried the abuse that occurred at the juvenile lockup. "I just blocked it out so I didn't think about it," he said. "It was like it wasn't there."
In 2003, Sloan said, he read a Statesman Journal story about Sprauer being sued by several former inmates at MacLaren. Bitter memories overwhelmed him. "I just felt sick," he said.
In his deposition, Sloan blamed Sprauer for triggering his 30-year battle with depression, anger, personality disorder, loss of sleep, isolation and inability to trust other people.
"I couldn't say if that was the only factor that caused him to take his life, but I know without a doubt that it wasn't an accidental overdose," she said.
Colvin entered MacLaren as a rebellious, out-of-control teenager, his mother said. She hoped that he would get his life on track at the juvenile facility.
"I was told that If he went there he could get counseling and job skills," she said. "The thing was, he came out worse than when he went in. He was angrier, he was harder to communicate with. He wouldn't talk to me."
After MacLaren, Colvin was consumed by drug abuse, psychiatric problems and self-destructive impulses. He tried to kill himself several times, medical records show.
"He called me in tears and said, 'I just saw the monster,'" Cowan said. "It didn't make any sense to me, I didn't know what he was talking about. I asked him, 'What monster?' and he said, 'Sprauer.'"
"He happened to see Sprauer on downtown streets, and he started having flashbacks," she said. "That's when he started telling us what had happened."
"One time, he told me, 'I'm tired of this,'" Cowan recalled. 'I'm tired of not being able to hold a job, I'm tired of not being able to kick the habit, I'm tired of having to wait for justice.'"
Amid his otherwise bleak existence, Colvin displayed flashes of musical talent, playing the guitar and slipping into hotel lobbies and department stores to play piano.
By suing Sprauer, Colvin hoped to receive a financial settlement that would enable him to produce a CD and fashion a fresh start, Cowan said. Those hopes evaporated with his fatal overdose. He died after giving away his guitar. Family members saw that as telling evidence that he intended to take his own life.
"I'm trying to heal from the death of my son," she said. "And my presence wouldn't help anything now, would it? Steve's dead. Steve is going to remain dead no matter what happens to Michael Sprauer."
"To my mind, the circumstances underlying these claims are highly suspicious," he said. "I'm talking about failure to report at the time, delay in complaint, and the nature of the complainants."
Mannix, while serving in the Oregon Legislature in the late 1980s and early 1990s, sponsored legislation to extend the time for child abuse victims to file claims.
"Philosophically, I think any person's who's been sexually abused as a child should be given an opportunity to seek redress," he said. "Don't get me wrong there."
But Sprauer's accusers lack credibility, Mannix said. "These plaintiffs are filing complaints relating to events that occurred about 30 years ago," he said. "As I understand it, most of them have had substantial criminal histories since then."
Asked whether he thought the priest was being railroaded, Mannix said: "I think the train has left the station, and there was piling on to that train. That's just my perception. He was just too easy a target."
"Anybody who's dragged through this is injured before the process is over," he said. "And that is truly sad, assuming the person has not committed the conduct for which he is accused."
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