L.A. Archdiocese’s Handling of Sex Abuse Cases under Investigation by Attorney General
By Teresa Watanbe
The California attorney general’s office will review how the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has handled sexual abuse allegations, including whether it followed mandatory reporting requirements to law enforcement, according to a letter reviewed by The Times. The letter, dated Thursday, from Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra to Archbishop Jose Gomez, requests that church officials preserve an array of documents related to clergy abuse allegations. The investigation marks a major escalation in the abuse scandal, which has resulted in massive settlements for victims and criminal charges against individual priests but not the larger institutions. It’s unclear whether Becerra's office is also seeking records from other California dioceses. But one source told The Times that other dioceses were being contacted by the attorney general. “The California Department of Justice is conducting a review of your archdiocese’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations involving children, including whether your archdiocese has adequately reported allegations of sexual misconduct, as required under California’s Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act,” the letter to the archdiocese stated. Officials from the attorney general’s office could not be reached for comment Friday morning. The archdiocese did not specifically address the attorney general’s investigation in a statement issued Friday, but said it already has cooperated with two state investigations and one federal probe and “continues to fully cooperate with all civil authorities.” “The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is committed to transparency and has established reporting and prevention policies and programs to protect minors and support victim-survivors in our parishes, schools and ministries,” the statement said. “The Archdiocese was one of the first dioceses in the nation to publish a comprehensive report in 2004 listing accused clergy both living and deceased, and released clergy files as part of a 2007 global settlement. Allegations of abuse involving minors whether by a member of the clergy or a layperson are reported to law enforcement, public announcements are made at the places where the person has served, and if found credible the person is permanently removed from any capacity according to the Archdiocese’s Zero Tolerance policy.” For nearly two decades, the archdiocese has been roiled by allegations that onetime church leaders mishandled clergy abuse cases, sometimes moving clergy suspected of wrongdoing to other parishes rather than punishing them and informing law enforcement. The L.A. Archdiocese paid a record $740 million in various settlements to victims and had pledged to better protect its church members. Gomez succeeded longtime Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who faced criticism for his handling of the scandal. In the wake of the settlement, the church imposed a series of reforms. Other state attorneys general have launched Catholic clergy abuse investigations in the wake of a series of new scandals in the last year, including a Pennsylvania report that revealed a decades-long cover-up of child sex abuse involving more than 1,000 victims and hundreds of clergy. An Illinois attorney general’s report released in December found that the number of Catholic clergy accused of sexual abuse in that state was much higher than previously acknowledged. The report found 690 clergy accused, although church officials had publicly identified only 185 with credible allegations against them. Churches in California and elsewhere across the nation responded by releasing previously undisclosed names of clergy accused of abuse. Other states’ attorneys general have requested or subpoenaed dioceses’ records on clergy, but Becerra’s request goes further, also asking for records about cases involving non-clergy personnel, such as volunteers and staffers. According to the letter, Becerra is seeking records from the archdiocese, including: • All allegations of sexual misconduct toward minors that the archdiocese received from 1996 to the present, regardless of when the alleged misconduct took place. • Any actions taken from 1996 to the present against any individual within the purview of the archdiocese who was accused of sexual misconduct toward a minor or who failed to report allegations of sexual abuse to appropriate law enforcement authorities. • Individuals who have been the subject of any allegation of sexual misconduct toward a minor who are still active in the ministry. • All reports of alleged sexual misconduct toward a minor filed by the archdiocese in compliance with the law from 1996 to the present. • For any individual accused of sexual molestation of a minor, any and all files maintained by the archdiocese about the individual, including “secret archives,” personnel files, litigation files, victim or review board files. • Any and all policies, procedures, documents or communications regarding the archdiocese’s compliance with the laws. In November, Becerra asked people who believe they had been sexually abused by clergy members in California to come forward. “In light of the news surrounding the sexual abuse of children by members of clergy or religious organizations across the country, the Department of Justice is gathering information from the public regarding complaints of this nature in California,” he said in a statement at the time. In December, the L.A. Archdiocese updated its list of clergy accused of molesting children for the first time in a decade. Of the 54 names previously undisclosed by L.A. church leaders, the vast majority were clergy members accused of wrongdoing before 2008, the last time the archdiocese updated the list. At least 27 are dead. The Times reported in December that the archdiocese knew for at least 13 years that one of its bishops had been accused of sexual abuse at a parish but had not informed the public until December, despite repeated pledges to disclose such information. Archdiocese officials have said the church has made great strides to prevent abuse and to work with law enforcement. But in April, the L.A. archdiocese announced a record $8-million settlement with a former Catholic school student, now 18, who was molested by a coach. It was the largest individual settlement by the archdiocese in a sex abuse case. Her attorney said concerns about the teacher’s conduct were ignored. In 2009, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles launched a federal grand jury investigation into Mahony and the church’s handling of abuse allegations. But the investigation did not result in any criminal charges. Times staff writers Hannah Fry, Kim Christensen and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.