Church Gets Subpoenaed by State, Revving up Priest Abuse Investigation

By Kelly Heyboer
NJ.com
November 15, 2018

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/11/turn_over_your_priest_sex_abuse_files_state_tells.html

New Jersey's attorney general has begun issuing subpoenas to force the state's Catholic dioceses to turn over records and files related to its clergy sexual abuse investigation, church officials said.

The Archdiocese of Newark, the state's largest diocese that represents more than 1 million Catholics, was asked to turn over documents, said James Goodness, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

"The archdiocese has received a subpoena," Goodness said Wednesday, declining to provide additional details. "We are cooperating with the AG task force."

The subpoena to the Archdiocese of Newark is one part of what is expected to be a lengthy and wide-ranging investigation into potential priest sex abuse cases across all five dioceses and thousands of Catholic churches and schools.

New Jersey's other four dioceses - Camden, Paterson, Trenton and Metuchen - are also expected to turn over documents. But none would confirm if they have received subpoenas yet.

"The Diocese of Camden is cooperating with the attorney general's task force," said Michael Walsh, a spokesman for the diocese, declining to comment further.

A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Trenton referred questions to the state attorney general's office. The dioceses of Paterson and Metuchen did not immediately respond to requests to comment.

Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal declined to say who has been subpoenaed or what types of records are being sought. However, he said Pennsylvania's attorney general investigation into priest sex abuse is being used as a model.

In that two-year probe, Pennsylvania used subpoenas to gather decades of files, records, notes and letters from six dioceses that revealed more than 1,000 children were sexually abused by at least 300 priests. The investigation also showed top church officials repeatedly transferred accused priests and tried to cover up the abuse allegations.

New Jersey plans to issue a similar public report at the end of its investigation, the attorney general said. The report could name priests accused with sexual misconduct in cases where the statute of limitations for criminal charges has expired.

In other cases, there could be criminal charges, he said.

"Like any criminal investigation, where criminal charges are viable, we'll pursue them," Grewal said.

New Jersey is one of several states, including New York, where officials have recently launched sweeping investigations into how the Catholic Church handled sexual abuse allegations dating back decades.

The state investigations were sparked by the Pennsylvania report and recent church scandals, including the pending church trial of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick on sexual misconduct charges.

Grewal announced New Jersey's investigation in September. His office set up a task force with subpoena power through a grand jury that can demand documents and force people to testify.

The task force also set up a hotline -- (855) 363-6548 - for people to report allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. The hotline was quickly overwhelmed with calls.

"We had to get additional call-takers and put additional resources in place," Grewal said. Since then, the calls have "slowed, but not stopped."

It is unclear how extensively the task force will use its subpoena power. Some Catholic school officials say they have been told they will be required to produce records about abuse allegations in their schools dating back decades.

But other Catholic schools said they have yet to hear from their dioceses or the attorney general's office about what, if anything, they will need to produce. In New Jersey, some Catholic schools are run by their local dioceses. Others are overseen by religious orders of monks or nuns.

Delbarton School, an independent school run by the Benedictine monks of St. Mary's Abbey, was among the large Catholic high schools schools that said earlier this week said they had not received any legal requests from the attorney general's task force for records.

"We have not received a subpoena," said Jessica Fiddes, a Delbarton spokeswoman.

In a July letter, Delbarton School and St. Mary's Abbey acknowledged for the first time that 30 individuals alleged abuse by 13 priests and monks and one faculty member over a three-decade period.

Abbey officials said they notified the Morris County prosecutor's office about the cases, but charges were filed in only one case at the time.

The attorney general's task force declined to say how many people have called them with abuse allegations since the hotline was established in September.

Bruce Novozinsky, an alleged abuse survivor who wrote a book about clergy abuse in New Jersey, said he was among the callers to the hotline who was later interviewed by a task force investigator.

Novozinsky said told the investigator he would be happy to turn over a box of files and handwritten documents he gathered from Catholic churches and schools in Ocean County during his research for his 2012 book, "Purple Reign: Sexual Abuse and Abuse of Power in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey."

"I fully expect to be subpoenaed," Novozinsky said. "I made it clear to the attorney general's office . . . they can have what I have."

However, the investigator made it clear the state's probe into clergy sex abuse will be lengthy, he said.

"They said it might take a long time before I contact you again," Novozinsky said.

New Jersey's bishops have been among those meeting this week in Baltimore for a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting to address the sexual abuse scandal.

Numerous bishops called on their colleagues at the meeting to issue a formal repudiation of Theodore McCarrick, the ex-cardinal facing allegations he repeatedly sexual abused or harassed men and boys as he rose to be one of the highest-ranking members of the church.

McCarrick is accused of sexual abuse of boys and sexual misconduct with young seminarians and fellow priests, including during the years he was head of the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Metuchen.

In a letter to parishioners sent earlier this month, the current head of the Archdiocese of Newark said the McCarrick case will lead to changes in how the church handles abuse cases.

"In a few weeks, I will be announcing further structural changes and new policies within the Archdiocese of Newark itself - step-by-step reforms that I hope will be embraced by other dioceses throughout the state," Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, wrote.