Former Children's Theatre Company director named in sex abuse lawsuit

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - It's been 30 years since the curtain closed on John Clark Donahue’s reign at the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Once praised for his theatrical genius, the former artistic director and founder was also known to an unknown number of students as a predator.

In 1984 Donahue was charged with molesting three teenage boys and sentenced to ten months in the county workhouse.

"I see the Children's Theater as one of the iconic institutions that has yet to be held account for their institutional failures," St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said.

Anderson plans to hold the Children's Theatre Company accountable when he files a lawsuit on behalf of two of Donahue’s alleged victims Tuesday morning.

Back in August Anderson talked to the Fox 9 Investigators about the likelihood of a lawsuit and said the legal system gave Donahue a pass because of intervention by outside interests.

Anderson says the lawsuit will name not only Donahue but one of his colleagues at the theater as defendants and although the statute of limitations has expired on criminal charges Anderson says alleged victims may finally get closure by filing suit and speaking out.

Litigation is possible 40 years after the abuse thanks to a bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 2013 that temporarily eliminated a statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases.