LOS ANGELES (CA)
LAist
January 31, 2019
By Aaron Schrank
A law firm representing California survivors of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests has released a new report detailing alleged abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino.
The 70-page report by Minnesota-based Jeff Anderson and Associates provides background information and assignment history on more than 80 clergy accused of sexual misconduct in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
The firm — which is representing a Camarillo man in a public nuisance suit against California’s Catholic bishops — has released similar reports on the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange in recent months.
At a news conference in Ontario Thursday, attorneys demanded San Bernardino Bishop Gerald Barnes release the names of predatory priests and Church officials who hid their behavior.
Attorney Mike Reck says today’s disclosure makes children safer.
“This information is information that could have and should have been shared by Church officials long ago,” Reck said. “We’re doing this because the Diocese of San Bernardino did not.”
In October, the Diocese of San Bernardino County released a list of 34 priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children since the diocese formed in 1978. Officials added one name to that list the following month.
Anderson’s report includes those 35 names, as well as 32 names of priests accused of abuse in San Bernardino before 1978, when the region was still part of the Diocese San Diego.
Those 32 names can be found on the Diocese of San Diego’s list of credibly accused priests, which recently added 8 new names, including Rev. Raymond Etienne, who served as pastor in a San Bernardino church 20 years ago. Etienne allegedly sexually assaulted seminarians in Riverside.
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