MISSOURI
Natonal Catholic Reporter
Brian Roewe | Sep. 2, 2016
After a St. Louis federal judge levied sanctions last week against the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests for resisting a court order to turn over documents containing victim information, the advocacy group says it worries what such pursuits pose to survivor confidentiality going forward.
The sanctions came in the civil rights suit brought by Fr. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, a Chinese-born priest ordained for the St. Louis archdiocese who has brought conspiracy and defamation charges against SNAP and others in regard to a 2014 criminal charge of child sexual abuse that was eventually dropped. Twice in the last three years, Jiang has been criminally charged with child sexual abuse and twice the charges were dropped. A civil suit remains pending.
Judge Carol Jackson of the U.S. Eastern District Court of Missouri ruled on Aug. 22 that SNAP deliberately and willfully refused to comply with a June 27 court order to turn over documents requested in discovery by Jiang’s attorney. SNAP and its lawyers had contended the documents at issue contained confidential victim information and were protected under Missouri law, but Jackson ruled back in June that federal law didn’t offer those protections in pretrial discovery.
As part of the sanctions, the jury will be instructed to assume as true that SNAP conspired to seek a conviction of Jiang on religious and racial grounds, and that they issued false statements about him. SNAP was also ordered to cover Jiang’s legal fees associated with the efforts to obtain the disputed documents. His attorney filed a motion Thursday reporting $22,770 in related costs.
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