FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By Ellena F. Morrison
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH _ An effort to unseal records of Fort Worth Diocese priests accused of sexual misconduct stalled Friday after an attorney for one of the priests challenged the request.
The Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News filed a court motion this spring seeking the names of eight priests and related documents that had been sealed by a judge as part of a lawsuit against the Fort Worth Diocese.
The files of one of the priests, the Rev. Thomas Teczar, have already been made public as part of the sexual abuse lawsuit, which the diocese settled for $4.15 million.
State District Judge Len Wade heard arguments from both sides Friday, but delayed making a decision until H. Allen Pennington Jr. of Fort Worth, attorney for the Rev. Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen, can present evidence. A date for that hearing has not yet been set.
Tu, a Dominican order priest in Houston, is the only one of the eight priests who is still in active ministry. ``All 16 pages constitute medical, personnel and employment records that anyone would assume were private,'' Pennington told the judge Friday in arguing that Tu's files should remain sealed.
Posted by kshaw at August 13, 2005 06:09 PM