Lawyers Spar Over Catholic Abuse Records
Pastor Dale Morgan
Lawyers Spar Over Catholic Abuse Records*
Saturday August 5, 2006 4:01 AM
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Lawyers sparred in court Friday over access to
records held by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, and the outcome
could impact hundreds of pending molestation cases involving current and
former southern California priests.
The documents, personnel files and other materials at issue are being
sought in the first three of nearly 600 sexual abuse lawsuits filed
against the archdiocese. The trials are scheduled to begin in November.
Donald Woods, an archdiocese attorney, told Superior Court Judge Haley
J. Fromholz that lawyers representing accusers wanted to go fishing
through 75 years of church archives, including bishops' desk calendars,
archdiocese newspapers and parish bulletins.
``This is absurd,'' Woods said.
Attorneys for alleged molestation victims said they needed access to a
broad range of records, which they said could reveal patterns of abuse
by priests or other information essential to the cases.
Church officials ``are saying, 'We are going to pick and choose,''' said
lawyer Katherine Freberg.
Plaintiffs say the church sent pedophile priests off to treatment, then
returned them to ministry without warning parishioners or alerting
authorities. Church officials say they originally thought the priests
could be cured through treatment.
Access to church records has been a long-standing issue. Last year, the
state Supreme Court declined to overturn a lower court ruling that
forced Cardinal Roger Mahony to turn over to prosecutors private
personnel files of two former priests accused of sexual molestation. The
U.S. Supreme Court in April declined to hear the archdiocese's appeal.
Last week, in a tentative ruling, Fromholz indicated that the accusers'
lawyers would get access to much of the information they are seeking.
In June, the judge ruled that many of the records in lawsuits alleging
sexual abuse by priests will remain secret before trial.