MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune Updated: November 13, 2014
Documents alleging that church leaders destroyed videotapes have been turned over to Ramsey County attorney’s office.
Church officials in St. Paul may have destroyed evidence that a St. Paul priest possessed child pornography, a St. Paul attorney charged Thursday.
Documents released at a news conference describe an alleged coverup by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Vatican officials in Washington, D.C., in the case of the Rev. Donald Dummer. Dummer was among those recently added to a list of priests with credible accusations of sexual misconduct.
Attorney Mike Finnegan and former priest Patrick Wall, who work with clergy abuse litigator Jeff Anderson, gave media representatives documents describing the destruction of allegedly pornographic videotapes by a former vicar general of the archdiocese, Kevin McDonough, and an official in a religious order in St. Paul.
McDonough, the No. 2 person in the archdiocese, got the allegedly pornographic videotapes in 1997 and 1998 and destroyed them, according to a document prepared by an employee at St. Mary’s Parish, 261 East 8th Street, St. Paul.
Another document quotes a St. Paul religious order leader stating that he would dispose of the alleged pornography.
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