No grand jury to investigate church abuse in Kansas

By Greg Miller
KAKE
August 22, 2018

http://www.kake.com/story/38942147/no-grand-jury-to-investigate-church-abuse-in-kansas

A Kansas City-area attorney says she’s disappointed that a grand jury won’t be ordered to investigate abuse in Catholic churches in Kansas.

Documents she released on Monday reveal hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse and called for an investigation into the Catholic church.

Kansas attorney general Derek Schmidt has responded, saying “I admire and encourage those victims of childhood sexual abuse who continue to choose to come forward, sometimes after many years have passed.” But he declined to start a grand jury investigation.

“There’s no way to determine the extent and the depth of the abuses that occurred,” said attorney Rebecca Randles. “There has to be some form of law enforcement, executive or police power for an investigation into this and it has to be on a broader scale.”

She argued for the grand jury, saying local prosecutors don’t have the time or resources to investigate the regional issue, only isolated local issues.

It was a grand jury that reached the conclusion that at least 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children in Pennsylvania – and feared similar cases were happening across the country.