Attorney for victims says Hawley’s investigation of archdiocese is ‘exactly backwards’

By Chris King
St. Louis American
August 24, 2018

https://bit.ly/2wea2V3

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley visited with President Trump at the St. Louis airport on March 14. An investigation into possible sexual abuse by priests in St. Louis that he announced on August 23 received scathing criticism from an attorney for alleged victims. Photo by Bill Greenblatt

“Victims of sexual abuse of any kind deserve to have their voices heard, and Missourians deserve to know if this misconduct has occurred in their communities,” Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley stated on August 23, when announcing an independent review of the Archdiocese of St. Louis regarding allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members.

That’s what Hawley – who is running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in the November 6 general election – said when the archbishop called. “By inviting this independent review, the archdiocese is demonstrating a willingness to be transparent and expose any potential wrongdoing,” Hawley stated.

Nicole Gorovsky, an attorney with clients who claim to have been sexually abused by priests in Missouri, said she and her clients did not receive the same warm welcome from Hawley when they asked him to investigate the church.

“I stood outside your office with survivors of childhood sexual abuse to ask you to organize an investigation into abuses within the Catholic Church in Missouri. We asked for an investigation like the one that occurred in Pennsylvania which revealed over 300 perpetrators and likely over 1,000 victims,” Gorovsky wrote to Hawley on August 24 in a letter that she shared with media.

“You responded that you did not have the power to do such an investigation.”

Indeed, Hawley claimed, in announcing his investigation, that he was empowered to do so by an invitation from Archbishop Robert J. Carlson.

“In Missouri, jurisdiction for crimes of this nature lies with the elected local prosecutor,” Hawley stated. “However, because the archdiocese has agreed to voluntarily cooperate, the Attorney General’s Office will be able to conduct an independent review for the purpose of public transparency and accountability.”

Gorovsky said this “was somewhat of a half-truth,” given his office’s wide range of authority.

“The attorney general of the State of Missouri has the power to coordinate all kinds of law enforcement and prosecution efforts in the state,” Gorovsky wrote to Hawley.

“For example, you are currently running an advertisement on television claiming that you coordinated a state-wide audit on the backlog of untested rape kits in prosecutor’s offices in Missouri and are now coordinating an effort to get funding for this issue, and you are publicly pushing state prosecutors to be more aggressive on sexual assault cases. You can behave similarly here.”

Further, Gorovsky said that the way his investigation was initiated and will proceed Is “exactly backward.”

 “Archbishop Robert Carlson sent you a letter and held a press conference to say that he would voluntarily provide you with documents from his archdiocese. You accepted his offer. Unfortunately, this is exactly backward,” she wrote to Hawley.

“Allowing the accused wrongdoer to pick and choose what will be provided in an investigation of his wrongdoing is not an investigation at all. It is certainly not what I was asking for as I stood outside your office on Wednesday, and I do not believe it is what survivors of clergy abuse want either.”

She told Hawley that the criminal investigation of priests in Pennsylvania should have taught this to Hawley.

“The Pennsylvania grand jury specifically noted that in addition to horrific child abuse committed by priests within the church, the church hierarchy perpetrated a cover-up that was shameful, harmful and that went unpunished,” she wrote to Hawley.

“After hearing about such a mass cover-up do you believe that the church in Missouri will be forthcoming with you in a ‘voluntary’ investigation? If you do believe that as you have said in the press so far, does it make any sense to believe that? Do you want to reconsider?”

Gorovsky told Hawley it’s not too late to initiate a truly independent investigation of the archdiocese and implored him to do so: “I implore you, as a person who cares deeply about survivors of childhood sexual abuse, whether it be by priests, rabbis, imams, coaches, parents, or Mr. Smith down the street, do more for the children of Missouri and the people who have already been deeply hurt.”

As for Hawley’s assurance that the archdiocese is being “transparent,” Gorovsky had a different message for the archbishop.

“I am writing to ask, in the spirit of that promised transparency, that you release all attorneys and victims who have settlement agreements, or any other kind of ‘deal’ with the Archdiocese of St. Louis requiring that they remain silent about what happened to them, and how the archdiocese treated them, from these requirements,” she wrote to Carlson, also on August 24.

“I ask that you promise that you will not pursue damages, liquidated damages, defamation charges or any other actions against attorneys or victims who wish to tell the attorney general or anyone else about their experiences.”

As a parting shot, she wrote, “As you know, such an action would go a long way toward assuring the public that this truly is a ‘transparent’ investigation.”

The Archdiocese of St. Louis did not immediately respond to a request from The American for a response to Gorovsky’s challenge. This story will be updated with their response if we receive one.

Hawley’s press release announcing the investigation did not include any contact information for his office for victims to use, but the Missouri attorney general may be contacted at 573-751-3321 or www.ago.mo.gov.