KANSAS CITY (MO)
The New York Times
By JOHN ELIGON and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: September 6, 2012
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bishop Robert W. Finn was found guilty on Thursday on one count of failing to report suspected child abuse, becoming the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States in the decades-long sexual abuse scandals to be convicted of shielding a pedophile priest.
In an abruptly announced bench trial that lasted a little over an hour, Judge John M. Torrence of Jackson County Circuit Court found Bishop Finn guilty of one misdemeanor charge, and not guilty on a second. The charges each carried a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, but Bishop Finn received a sentence of two years of court-supervised probation. …
The prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, told the judge in opening arguments that Bishop Finn had been given ample warning that Father Ratigan was a danger to children. She said that the priest had even admitted to Bishop Finn that he had “a pornography problem.”
The prosecutor said, “Defendant Finn is the ultimate authority. The buck does stop with him.”
In May 2010, the principal of the Catholic elementary school where Father Ratigan was working sent a letter to the diocese raising alarm about him. The letter said he had put a girl on his lap on a bus ride, encouraged children to reach into his pockets for candy and parents discovered girls’s underwear in a planter outside his house. Bishop Finn has said he did not read the letter until a year later.
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