MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: October 8, 2013
Question concerns whether priest had illegal child porn on his computer, which was sold at parish rummage sale.
St. Paul police said Tuesday that they have reopened an investigation into whether a Catholic priest downloaded child pornography in 2004 while he served at a church in Mahtomedi.
The priest’s attorney has acknowledged that his client had downloaded adult pornography but said the priest denies downloading child porn.
Jennifer Haselberger, who resigned in April from her job as a canonical attorney for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, reported the priest to Ramsey County officials after, she contends, the church hierarchy failed to do so. She turned over numerous documents indicating that church officials were concerned about possible criminal prosecution. A computer forensics expert hired by the church in 2004 had characterized some of the images as “borderline illegal,” according to documents turned over to police by Haselberger and obtained by Minnesota Public Radio.
St. Paul Police reviewed three discs containing images from the priest’s hard drive and found no child porn. But the investigating officer, Sgt. William Gillet, noted that the priest’s computer had been destroyed long ago, adding that he couldn’t be certain that the discs reviewed by police contained the same content that was originally reviewed by the forensics expert.
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