Albany diocese ordered to turn over clergy abuse files

ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union

By Brendan J. Lyons
Updated 11:23 am, Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has been ordered by a federal judge to turn over nearly 40 years worth of clergy abuse files to a Warren County man who is suing the diocese and a priest who raped him as a young boy.

It’s the first time the Albany diocese has been ordered by a court to fully disclose its confidential files on priests and other employees accused of sexual abuse. But the ruling by U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III includes a sealing order that, for now, will keep the records from being made public. The sealing order was requested by the diocese and Gary J. Mercure, an imprisoned Albany priest who is accused of systematically raping and abusing altar boys for years.

The order requires the diocese to turn over its internal records on sexual abuse by priests and other employees dating to 1975.

“This is the first time the diocese has been ordered to turn over 38 years of records involving individuals — current and former clergy and employees, and even those who have made complaints of sexual abuse — who have absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand,” said Kenneth Goldfarb, a spokesman for the diocese. “The diocese sought a protective order because, surely, the privacy rights of these individuals warrant the same protection that the federal court already granted to Gary Mercure by issuing a protective order for his files.”

The decision was handed down in a lawsuit filed by a 37-year-old man who said he was raped by Mercure in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont beginning in the early 1980s when he was about 8 years old. The victim filed his lawsuit against the diocese and Mercure in Vermont because New York’s statute of limitations prevented any claim or criminal action here.

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