KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
Sep. 06, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee
Thursday’s trial of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., Bishop Robert Finn comes as a new report commissioned by his diocese estimates the costs of its legal fees in the cases to total about $1.4 million.
That report, which appears in the issue of The Catholic Key, the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocesan newspaper, that was printed Wednesday, also estimates that the costs paid by the diocesan insurance program on all issues dealing with sex abuse in the diocese in the past year totaled almost $4 million.
On Aug. 2, former Kansas City priest Shawn Ratigan pleaded guilty to five of 13 federal counts of producing and attempting to produce sexually graphic material of minor girls. He has yet to be sentenced, but each charge separately carries between 15 and 30 years in prison.
Finn and the diocese stood trial Thursday on two charges each of failing to report suspected child abuse, a misdemeanor. Finn was found guilty of one charge and given a suspended two years’ probation. A motion for the dismissal of the diocese’s charges will be decided upon Friday.
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