LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS Los Angeles
[with video]
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — In a 2010 deposition, Cardinal Roger Mahony explained why he never called police to investigate child sex abuse claims and that he believed in a pedophile priest who told him he had reformed.
A lawyer representing abuse victims asks, “What mistakes do you acknowledge you made?” The Cardinal replies, “Basically, I believed him.”
The him being referred to was Michael Baker, a former priest convicted of molesting two young boys and accused of harming at least 21 others over a three-decade period.
“I believed him all along — that he was making progress, that he was going to the therapist. There were no new offenses. And I just believed that he, he really intended to reform, and we found out later that he lived a huge lie all those years,” said Mahony.
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