KANSAS CITY (MO)
San Francisco Chronicle
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has to provide prosecutors with information about the diocese’s investigation into past reports of priests accused of abusing children, a Jackson County judge has ruled.
Jackson County Circuit Judge John M. Torrence, who is overseeing a case against Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese, also said in a ruling Wednesday that the diocese must turn over documents from the independent investigation into the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan that the diocese commissioned.
Ratigan has pleaded not guilty to state and federal child pornography charges and remains jailed.
Finn and the diocese are charged with misdemeanor failure to report suspected abuse to the state after learning of suspected child pornography on Ratigan’s computer. Finn has acknowledged learning about the photos in December 2010, six months before Ratigan was arrested. The trial is scheduled for September.
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