LOS ANGELES (CA)
KCET
[with video]
Reporter: Vince Gonzales
Associate Producer: Lata Pandya
Editor: Jack Moody
February 6, 2013
The stories are shocking — men who call themselves holy messengers victimizing the innocent and defenseless. Each day, new details emerge from those now-public L.A. Archdiocese personnel files. And now, there is an L.A. Unified School District connection. “SoCal Connected” was the first to report on one priest who left under a cloud, only to end up working for the school system. Turns out, he’s not the only Archdiocese employee with a questionable past and a link to L.A.’s schools.
TRANSCRIPT
Vince Gonzales/Reporter: As “SoCal Connected” reported first this weekend — Joseph Piña, an admitted child-abusing priest, was removed from ministry by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, but soon found a home at another large, monolithic bureaucracy centered around children.
Jennifer London/Reporter [to anchor Val Zavala]: After Piña left the church, he went on to work at the L.A. Unified School District.
Val Zavala: So LAUSD hired Piña to do what?
London: He was hired as a community organizer.
London [on tape, to unidentified man]: Do you know Joseph Piña, this gentleman here? Do you know him?
Man: Yeah. I worked with him. He was the community rep before this project.
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