MILWAUKEE (WI)
Daily Journal
By DINESH RAMDE Associated Press
First Posted: September 03, 2013
MILWAUKEE — While clergy sex abuse victims have long accused the Archdiocese of Milwaukee of failing to report priests’ crimes to police, recently released records show that church officials often did go to authorities.
Yet few charges were filed, and even fewer priests served jail time when they were convicted. And, in at least three cases, no mention is made of police when a timely report might have allowed justice to be served.
The archdiocese released files on 42 priests in July as part of a deal with victims suing it for fraud in federal bankruptcy court. The 6,000 pages of documents provide the first detailed look at when the church reported crimes, the response from police and how cases were resolved.
Twenty-eight of the files mention reports to police or a prosecutor; nine do not. In the five remaining cases, either the victim didn’t want to involve police or the priest died before the allegations were made.
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