Gov. Mark Gordon said he would talk with Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill about investigating sexual abuse by priests in the Equality State, in the wake of other states launching their own inquiries into the history of abuse by Catholic clergymen.
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Gordon says he'll talk with AG about priest abuse in Wyoming
By Seth Klamann
"My sense is I probably will, now that you bring it up, probably ask Attorney General Hill her point of view of where the state's role should be," Gordon said during a wide-ranging interview with the Star-Tribune on Tuesday. "Those are horrific cases. Horrific cases." Gordon added that he was "hesitant to say we're going to storm in" without knowing more of the details of abuse by priests in Wyoming and without consulting with Hill. The comments come as one of the state's top prosecutors, Natrona County's Dan Itzen, continues to review a sexual abuse case involving two men, including retired Wyoming bishop Joseph Hart. Hart has been accused by at least 16 men in Wyoming and in Missouri, where he was a priest for 20 years before moving here. He has been the subject of a months-long criminal investigation that started with Cheyenne Police and is now in the hands of Itzen, whose own work on the case has lasted more than 100 days. Hart has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct, both from his 20-year tenure in Missouri and his 25-year tenure in Wyoming. His attorney, Tom Jubin, has not returned repeated requests for comment sent over the past four months. While Hart is the most high-profile case -- and could still lead to historic charges for such a high-ranking cleric -- he is not the only Wyoming clergymen accused of abuse. In June, the Diocese of Cheyenne released a list of 11 men, including Hart, who the church said had faced substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct. Many of those men are dead; of those living, none are still priests. In a statement to the Star-Tribune sent Wednesday, Gordon's spokesman said the governor needed to talk with Hill "before determining a path forward." If Wyoming were to open a state-level inquiry into priest abuse, the Equality State would not be the first. The attorney general in Colorado concluded such an investigation in October, which went back 70 years and found that more than 160 children were victimized by 43 priests. What's more, the Colorado AG found that the church attempted to cover up much of that abuse. Pennsylvania had perhaps the most breathtaking report. In 2018, a grand jury there found that more than 300 Catholic priests had molested more than 1,000 children over several decades and that church leaders there had also covered up the abuse. Other state-level investigations have been conducted in Kansas, Missouri, California and New Mexico, among other states. Hill previously told the Star-Tribune that she wouldn't comment on whether any inquiry into how past investigations of clergy abuse were conducted. In 2002, Hart faced a criminal investigation after a victim who said he was abused in the 1970s came forward. That case was eventually closed, with Cheyenne Police and a Casper prosecutor saying the victim was uncooperative and that the accusations were unfounded. That victim has since had his account substantiated by the Church. He was also part of the investigation that is now being considered by Itzen. Still, there has been little appetite for looking back to the past. Cheyenne police said they had no plans to look back at the 2002 investigation and see why it didn't move forward, if the victim's claims have now been deemed legitimate by the Catholic diocese 17 years later. The two bishops who followed Hart have both said they couldn't do much without a victim, and neither responded when asked if they regretted their handling of the situation. Contact: seth.klamann@trib.com
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