DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press
April 5, 2019
By Niraj Warikoo
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is requesting $2 million in her budget for state investigations into abuse by Catholic clergy in Michigan as an advocacy group calls upon Catholic officials in Detroit to include more priests on the list of clergy accused of sexual abuse.
The money Whitmer is asking for would be used by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office for an investigation launched last year into abuse by Catholic clergy in Michigan.
“The appropriation will be used to hire investigators and victims’ advocates to continue the detailed investigative work necessary to review and pursue the information we have gathered from all seven Michigan dioceses,” Kelly Rossman-McKinney, spokesperson for Attorney General Dana Nessel, told the Free Press this week.
The $2 million would designate money that the Attorney General’s Office “has already received in settlement monies for the investigation,” Rossman-McKinney said.
The Attorney General has received about 400 tips and complaints so far of abuse allegations against Catholic clergy, Rossman-McKinney said.
In February, Nessel said Catholic Church leaders were not fully cooperating with law enforcement on the abuse investigations, claims the Archdiocese of Detroit denied.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.