MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer
Judge to decide on confidentiality of accused clergy: Lawsuit calls for Crookston diocese to release list of priests
Justin Glawe
Forum News Service
CROOKSTON — The lists exist, but whether they will be made public is now up to a judge.
Steven Aggergaard, an attorney representing the Diocese of Crookston, argued there is no concrete harm in keeping a list of priests accused of sexual abuse private.
The statement came in Polk County Judge Tamara Yon’s courtroom. She must now decide whether the diocese is legally required to release their list as part of a lawsuit filed in June by St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson.
Anderson, well known for pursuing cases involving sexual abuse by clergy, represents a Bemidji woman who claims she was sexually abused from 1969 to 1970 by the Rev. James Porter, who was convicted of sexually abusing 28 children.
Porter was with the diocese at the time of the alleged abuse of the Bemidji woman.
The lawsuit, in addition to monetary damages, seeks the lists of accused priests compiled by the three defendants — the Diocese of Crookston, the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., and the Servants of the Paraclete, which has housed priests accused and in some cases convicted of sexual abuse at their Jemez, N.M., facility.
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