CEDAR RAPIDS (IA)
Courier
By PAT KINNEY, Courier Business Editor
CEDAR RAPIDS --- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque has agreed to turn over to a federal magistrate judge more than 200 church documents pertaining to priests accused in three civil suits of sexually abusing young people in Waterloo and elsewhere from the early 1940s through the late 1970s, according to a court order issued late last week.
Federal magistrate John Jarvey will then review the documents in chambers to determine if any of them can be used in the civil suits, according to the order.
Waterloo attorneys Chad Swanson and Tom Staack had asked the court in September to compel the archdiocese to turn over documents pertaining to the three federal civil suits.
The archdiocese objected to the documents being used in court, citing protections under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Iowa Constitution and victim-privacy and third-party privileges. But the archdiocese agreed to the in-chambers inspection, according to Jarvey's order, issued Thursday.