Audit Records
Diocese of Manchester and New Hampshire Attorney General
Released on March 7, 2009 and March 26, 2009

In March 2009 the attorney general of New Hampshire released 879 pages of files assembled by the AG's office during a five-year audit of the Diocese of Manchester. The audit was stipulated in the 12/10/02 agreement between the AG and Bishop John B. McCormack that allowed the Manchester diocese to avoid indictment and probable conviction for violation of New Hampshire's child endangerment statute. The agreement also provided for the publication of a report by the AG, as well as the release of nearly 10,000 pages of investigative files.

Now that the audit is completed, the Concord Monitor and the Union Leader newspapers have requested release of the audit files under New Hampshire's Right to Know law. See New Hampshire Names 27 Clerics in Abuse Cases, by Abby Goodnough, NY Times (March 26, 2009). Compliance by the AG's office entailed release of the files to the public. BishopAccountability.org has acquired the audit files and posted them on this page, to facilitate public access.

Note: As an introduction to the audit files, we recommend that you view the allegations against clerics accused publicly for the first time in these audit files. This two-page feature is much easier to read than the 879 pages in their entirety. The feature also gives you a preview of the kinds of documents you will encounter.

The audit files were released in two stages: 597 pages on March 7, 2009 and 282 pages on March 26, 2009. All the files are available for download below.

In addition to the downloadable PDFs, we provide two other approaches to the documents:

1) A table of contents that allows you to access individual files.
          •   For the March 7 release, the AG prepared a detailed list of files called an Index.
          •   For the March 26 release, BishopAccountability.org prepared the Index.

2) A comprehensive list of accused priests who have worked in the Manchester diocese, with the 27 "new" clerics revealed by these audit files coded in red.

Please note that these audit records have been publicly released by the Attorney General to comply with requests from the Concord Monitor and the Union Leader newspapers under New Hampshire's Right to Know law. The Attorney General's office has redacted the documents and has withheld others. These audit files do not state or imply that individuals facing allegations are guilty of a crime or liable for civil claims. The reports contained in the audit record are merely allegations. The U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements.

BishopAccountability.org has made several additional redactions so that the redactions are consistent across the documents. Please email us if other redactions appear necessary, or if you have problems of any kind with this page.

BULK FILES FOR VIEWING AND DOWNLOAD
(Numbers are keyed to the numbers in the Audit Record Index and the Summaries.
Numbers in parenthesis are the AG's Bates numbers on each page.)

Files Released on March 7, 2009

Note: There are gaps in the file numbers because not every audit record was released. Those records are missing from the audit files and were redacted by the AG from the Audit Records Index and the Summaries.

DIOCESE AUDIT RECORDS INDEX
FOR THE MARCH 7, 2009 RELEASE
[with links to individual summaries and audit files]

***** THE FOLLOWING TABS ARE IN FOLDER #4 *****

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: In this Index, Abuse Report 84 is included in Folder 3, but in the Summaries, it is at the beginning of Folder 4.]

ACCUSED PRIESTS WHO HAVE WORKED IN THE MANCHESTER DIOCESE
INCLUDING SOURCE MATERIALS RELEASED BY THE NH ATTORNEY GENERAL

The following table collates 1) the documents released by the New Hampshire attorney general in 2003 and 2009, and 2) the clerics accused of sexual abuse in New Hampshire. The following abbreviations in the table indicate the vows or status of the cleric:

P=priest, B=brother, M=monsignor, Bp=bishop, N=nun, S=seminarian.

In the table, color highlights the names of priests about whom documents were released in 2009:

red   = priests who were not known as accused priests before the AG's 2009 document release

blue = priests documented in 2009 who were previously known.

If a priest's name is in black, documents pertaining to him were released in 2003, but no documents relating to him were released in 2009.

You may scroll down to view the table, or click on a name in the following list to scroll directly to a name of interest:

| Br. Dennis SDB | Br. Henry FSC | Rev. Leo Allyson | Rev. Paul L. Aube | Rev. Charles Authier | Rev. Gerard Beaudet | Rev. Sylvio Beaudet | Rev. Guy Beaulieu SC | Rev. Aime Boisselle | Rev. Albert L. Boulanger | Rev. Maurice R. Boulanger | Msgr. John Boyd | Rev. Gerard F. Chalifour | Rev. Alfred Constant | Rev. Thomas Crowe | Rev. Robert J. Densmore | Rev. Karl E. Dowd | Rev. Denis Downey | Rev. Patrick Dubreuil | Rev. Gregoire Dumont | Rev. Edouard J. Duval | Rev. Roger Fortier | Rev. J. Delphin Gagne | Rev. Marcel Genereux OMI and Diocesan | Rev. Leo Gilbert | Rev. Paul E. Groleau | Rev. Wilfred Houle | Rev. Alfred L. Jannetta | Rev. Gerald F. Joyal | Rev. Raymond H. LaFerriere | Rev. Francis Lamothe | Rev. Harvey Lamothe | Rev. Michael Ledoux OFM | Rev. Edmond Lemire | Rev. Albert Lirette OMI | Sr. Patricia Long CSC | Rev. Richard T. Lower | Rev. Gordon J. MacRae | Rev. Joseph T. Maguire | Rev. Hubert Mann | Fr. M | Rev. Francis McMullen | Rev. Andrew Meehan | Rev. Rocco Memolo | Msgr. Russell Neighbor | Rev. William Neiman | Br. Bernard Nolan FMS | Rev. Donald M. Osgood | Rev. Philip A. Petit | Rev. Edward D. Richard | Rev. George Roulier | Sr. Noelle Roy CSC | Rev. J. Joseph Sands | Rev. Stephen Scruton | Rev. Leo A. Shea | Rev. Joseph Shields | Rev. George St. Jean OMI | Rev. Paul Stevens | Rev. John J. Sullivan | Rev. John T. Sullivan | Rev. Francis A. Talbot | Rev. Edward Townsend | Rev. Eugene Turcotte | Rev. Armand Turgeon | Rev. Paul Vadenboncoeur | Rev. Romeo J. Valliere | Rev. Roland W. Veilette | Rev. Peter Walsh OFM | Rev. Edward Zalewski |

CLERICS INCLUDED IN THE AG'S REPORT AND DOCUMENT RELEASES WHO ALLEGEDLY OFFENDED IN NH BUT DID NOT WORK FOR THE MANCHESTER DIOCESE