LOS ANGELES (CA)
Washington Post
Judge orders LA archdiocese to release 30K pages of priest files without blacked-out names
By Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A judge on Thursday ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over 30,000 pages from the confidential files of priests accused of child molestation without blacking out the names of top church officials who were responsible for key decisions in how to handle the sexually abusive priests.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias ordered the nation’s largest archdiocese to turn over the files to attorneys for alleged victims no later than Feb. 22.
The archdiocese had planned to black out the names of members of the church hierarchy who were responsible for the molesting priests in the documents and instead provide a cover sheet for each priest’s file, listing the names of top officials who handled that case. The church reversed course Wednesday after The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and plaintiff attorneys objected in court.
The archdiocese had also planned to black out handwritten comments on the files inked by recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and provide those in typewritten form instead.
A record-breaking $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 alleged victims paved the way for the ultimate disclosure of the tens of thousands of pages, but the archdiocese and individual priests fought to keep them secret for more than five years. The AP and the Los Angeles Times intervened in court in January because the 4.3 million-person archdiocese intended to release the files with the names of top officials, including Mahony’s, blacked out.
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