St. Paul Police Have 7 Priest Sex Investigations, Chief Says

By Mara H. Gottfried and Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press
January 29, 2014

http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_25018830/st-paul-police-have-7-priest-sex-investigations

St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith speaks during an interview about the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul child sex abuse case in his office at police headquarters in St. Paul on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2014.. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

The Rev. Kevin McDonough, former vicar general of the archdiocese. (Pioneer Press file photo)

St. Paul police are investigating seven cases of alleged sexual abuse or inappropriate sexual behavior involving priests in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Police Chief Thomas Smith said Wednesday.

Smith said his department has not sent additional cases to prosecutors to review for charges.

In two other cases, prosecutors said Wednesday that they will not file charges.

In October, police urged victims of sexual abuse by priests to come forward. The seven reports currently under investigation were made after that date. They include allegations that date from 1960, 1972, 1977, 1981 and 1984, according to police reports.

Another case is an allegation made against Archbishop John Nienstedt; he was recently accused of inappropriately touching a boy in 2009.

Nienstedt has denied the allegation and stepped aside from his public ministry during the police investigation.

In an interview Wednesday, Smith discussed his department's work, but not specifics of the active investigations. The questions and answers were edited for space and clarity.

Question: Are you satisfied with the Ramsey County attorney's office decision to decline charges in the case of whether the St. Paul archdiocese violated reporting laws in the Curtis Wehmeyer child sex abuse case?

Answer: We presented all of the facts that we have, and we've been working very closely with the county attorney's office. We're fact-finders here in the police department, and we presented the facts that our investigators (gathered) -- and, by the way, we've had a lot of investigators, at least three, who have worked on that case specifically and other cases involving the archdiocese, basically on a full-time basis.

Q: You previously said you were frustrated with the lack of cooperation of the archdiocese and its officials in providing information. What's the status of their cooperation at this point?

A: The cooperation has improved with the archdiocese. ... There have been a lot of people in the archdiocese, including the archbishop, who have said that there have been mistakes that have been made throughout this entire reporting period and that they want to be transparent, and I expect that the archdiocese continues to be transparent.

Q: One of the people you had mentioned previously that you wanted to talk with was the Rev. Kevin McDonough, formerly vicar general of the archdiocese. Have you talked with him?

A: No, we have not had the opportunity to speak with Father McDonough.

Q: Is he declining to talk?

A: At this time period, yes.

Q: Has the focus of the investigations been on the perpetrators or has it gone into the officials and the potential for failing to report or obstructing justice?

A: They somewhat go hand in hand, but I want to be very clear that victims take precedence over anything. Just like any victim of a crime in the city of St. Paul, that is our job to make sure to protect those individuals. ... Through those investigations, if we find out that protocols were not followed as far as failure to report, that becomes part of the investigation as well.

Q: How do you address people who say police haven't done enough with investigating officials in particular?

A: We're not going to leave any stone unturned.

We are investigating specific things that we are aware of that occurred in the city of St. Paul.

If a crime occurred or an alleged crime occurred outside the city of St. Paul, that law enforcement agency (in that jurisdiction) would investigate that complaint. ... If there was a decision made at the chancery by the hierarchy of the archdiocese, a failure to report ... we may investigate that with another law enforcement agency at the same time if a decision was made here in St. Paul. ...

Whoever says we're not doing enough, they're wrong.

Q: When your department has filed search warrants, have you searched at the chancery or at the archdiocese's attorney's office?

A: Search warrants need detailed, corroborating investigative information to present to a district court judge who then is going to scrutinize what you have. 

You have to have independent information. ... I've been asked this question before, "Chief, could you just not do a search warrant and just go search the entire chancery for all these files?"

And there's no judge (who would grant that warrant.) That's not due process; you have to have specific information.

That's why I go back to now that we're talking to archdiocesan officials, we are trying to get some of those answers and we're continuing to meet with them to hopefully get more documents and go forward.