MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin
To: The Honorable J. B. Van Hollen, Attorney General, Wisconsin Department of Justice
From: Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
Re: Archdiocese of Milwaukee obstructing active child sex abuse investigation
Dear Attorney General Van Hollen,
We are writing on behalf of childhood victims of rape, sexual assault and abuse by clergy sex offenders from the Milwaukee Archdiocese, our families, and the clergy that support us. Our organization, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) is the oldest and largest self-help community of survivors of clergy sex crimes in the world, founded in 1989 and with over 12,000 members.
Today 350 victim/survivors filed a brief with supporting documents in Milwaukee Federal Bankruptcy Court that demonstrate that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is refusing to cooperate with law enforcement officials and turn over evidence of sex crimes against children in a current and active investigation of childhood sexual assault (see attachments). Church officials are making the absurd assertion to the Fond du Lac police that the rules of bankruptcy court prohibit such cooperation. This is contrary to the repeated and public claims by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki that church officials always cooperate with civil investigations of child abuse and that he has already turned over all relevant evidence of sex crimes to district attorneys in the 10 counties in which the archdiocese operates.
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