LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC
p.m.: Detectives will review recently released clergy abuse files from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to see if there’s evidence of criminal activity by church authorities, including failure to report child abuse to law enforcement, Police Department officials said Tuesday.
Police will focus on the cases of about a dozen previously investigated priests and are auditing those past probes to make sure nothing was missed, said Cmdr. Andrew Smith. The department will also look at the files for all 122 priests that were made public Thursday by court order after the archdiocese fought for five years to keep them sealed, he said.
Thousands of pages of secret confidential files kept by the archdiocese on priests accused of molesting children show recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top archdiocese officials shielded priests to protect the church, thwarted police investigations and repeatedly did not report child sex abuse to the authorities.
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