MISSOURI/MINNESOTA
KSDK
[with video]
Stephanie Diffin, KSDK July 9, 2014
ST. LOUIS (KSDK) – New secrets are spilling out about a priest sex abuse case out of Minnesota. A series of confidential documents became public Wednesday, and St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson’s name is in the paper trail.
The documents involve a de-frocked Minnesota priest, and they date back to the ’80s and ’90s when Archbishop Carlson was serving in Minnesota. For a time, he was among those in charge of the man accused of repeatedly abusing kids, whose name is Joseph Wajda.
“I have never abused anybody. I deny all these allegations. They’re false, they’re ridiculous,” Wajda told a KARE 11 reporter, our sister station in Minnesota, in December.
According to the documents released Wednesday, Wajda repeatedly denied allegations that he forced kids to get naked and brushed against them inappropriately, among other accusations. His repeated denial is recorded throughout the documents, including in a memo from Archbishop Carlson in 1987.
The paper trail shows Carlson was among those who questioned Wajda after learning about some of the accusations in 1981.
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