CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise
11:51 PM PDT on Monday, August 1, 2005
By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise
Riverside County prosecutors said Monday that they intend to seek documents from a defrocked priest's personnel file, which they examined last month as part of an agreement with the Diocese of San Bernardino.
The file, which remains sealed before a Riverside County judge, was confiscated Jan. 25 when authorities served a search warrant at the diocese's San Bernardino headquarters as part of an investigation into Jesus Armando Dominguez, a former priest now facing 58 child-molestation charges. The diocese encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
The search has been challenged by the diocese, which described some of the seized records as privileged and confidential.
The district attorney's office and diocesan officials acknowledged Monday that they had struck an accord that allowed prosecutors to review Dominguez's file on July 12 to see what, if anything, might be useful in locating the former priest, now believed to be Mexico, or prosecuting him.
Both sides had previously declined to discuss the agreement.