April 13, 2005

Court protects 'dirty' priests

LOS ANGELES (CA)
News 24

13/04/2005 07:48 - (SA)

Los Angeles - The California Supreme Court temporarily blocked the release of summaries of personnel files of 117 priests accused of molestation.

The move on Tuesday came just minutes before the documents were to become public on the Los Angeles Archdiocese website, publicly identifying for the first time some accused priests.

The files also had been expected to provide an unprecedented look at how the archdiocese handled suspected child molesters - when the church was told of alleged misconduct, who made the report and what action was taken.

The state Supreme Court intervened less than 15 minutes before the files were to be released by sending the case back to the appeals court that had cleared the way for the material to be made public, said Donald Steier, an attorney who represents 26 of the priests.

Posted by kshaw at April 13, 2005 07:21 AM