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  Personnel Bile #2: Surf City Sinnin'

By Gustavo Arellano
OC Weekly
February 10, 2005

[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]

The following seven files are excerpts from a 1986 Huntington Beach Police Department report on Father Andrew Christian Andersen, who remains one of only two Orange County Catholic priests to be jailed for molesting children after pleading guilty to 26 counts of molesting four altar boys. Most of the report graphically describes how Andersen, at the time a priest at St. Bonaventure in Huntington Beach, committed his crimes—in the St. Bonaventure rectory, at a Orange diocese-owned home, inside a victim's room, while driving to numerous funerals. Rather than dwell on the lurid, though, we've only included those reports that paint a picture of a diocese that, then and now, protected its pedo-priests from justice.

Please note, some of these files are large. [BA.org has re-scanned the large files to improve the download.]

The highlights:

APRIL 10 REPORT

•Detectives Gary Brooks and Tom Gilligan visit St. Bonaventure and ask a secretary if they could speak with Monsignor Michael Duffy, the parish's head priest. She informs them that Duffy is in a conference. After leaving the room for a couple of minutes, she returns with a phone number for an attorney and refuses to explain why Duffy isn't available.

•After Brooks and Gilligan return from speaking with St. Bonaventure Elementary's principal for a couple of minutes, the secretary informs the detectives that Duffy just left his conference "and was not sure when he would return."

To read this pdf file, click here.


APRIL 16

•Brooks expresses frustration with the investigation: "We were concerned because I was not receiving any cooperation from Monsignor Duffy. . . . I had made several attempts in the past to contact Monsignor Duffy by telephone and in person at the church; however, it appears that he is attempting to avoid me."

To read this pdf file, click here.


APRIL 17

•On page one, St. Bonaventure's secretary admits to Brooks that Duffy "has been very secretive about [Andersen] and has not given her any information or cooperation at all." When Duffy finally calls Brooks, the monsignor tells the detective he's unaware of where Andersen is or of any contact information, claiming "the church doesn't keep those types of records or information." When Brooks asks for a description of Andersen's church-owned car, Duffy "said he didn't have that information available."

To read this pdf file, click here.


APRIL 21

•A mother of a 12-year-old Andersen victim tells Brooks that she confronted both Andersen and Duffy around 1983 after Andersen molested her son inside the St. Bonaventure rectory. "After approximately six months with nothing being done," Brooks wrote in page two, "Father Chris was still at the church."

To read this pdf file, click here.


APRIL 24

•The same mother in the April 21 report goes into further detail about her confrontation with Andersen and Duffy. On page three, Andersen tells her, "Through your pain, I have earned my ticket to heaven." Later on the same page, Brooks writes that Duffy told the mother that Andersen could continue to preach because "Father Chris was going to counseling and that he was okay to remain in his position."

To read this pdf file, click here.


APRIL 29

•Brooks finally meets with Duffy and asks the monsignor about Andersen. Duffy "said that he would not make any comment at this time . . . [and] was obliged not to."

•On page two, Duffy refuses to tell Brooks the circumstances of Andersen's counseling, saying "that was something that could be brought out in court, but he was not obliged to speak about it at this time."

•On page four, Duffy claims he received permission from the mother in the April 21 report to destroy a letter detailing her son's molestation.

To read this pdf file, click here.


JUNE 12

•On page one, Brooks asks the mother about Duffy's April 29 claim; the mother responds "that was never a statement made by her to [Duffy] or any other person belonging to the church or archdiocese . . . . [The mother] said that she never made a statement to that effect."

•Page three reveals that when Orange diocese officials sent Andersen to a psychiatrist for counseling, "it was not reported to the Child Abuse Registry, as mandated by law."

To read this pdf file, click here.

GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM

 
 

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