A Nebraska Attorney General’s Office investigation of clergy sexual abuse documented 258 victims across the state’s three Roman Catholic dioceses, along with a familiar-sounding pattern of behavior by church officials that often protected the predators.

Attorney General Doug Peterson, at times holding back tears as he spoke of the damage done to young victims, released a report on the investigation at a Thursday press conference. He said many of the cases found during the three-year-long probe were gut-wrenching. Few had been prosecuted.

Peterson said the vast majority of cases happened before the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002. The “Dallas Charter” required all dioceses to take steps to protect children from sexual abuse.

The report found that more than half of the victims were abused in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Peterson said the Dallas Charter appears to have made a difference….