DENVER (CO)
Rocky Mountain News
By Associated Press
October 4, 2005
In its first official response to nearly a dozen claims of clergy sexual abuse, the Archdiocese of Denver on Monday asked the case be moved to federal court because of constitutional questions surrounding claims it did nothing regarding a priest who had been accused of abusing children.
At least 10 men have filed lawsuits in Denver District Court alleging that they were abused as boys by Harold Robert White, starting in the 1960s.
In court documents filed in U.S. District Court regarding two of the lawsuits, the church asks the cases be heard in federal court because the issues are "inextricably intertwined with the First Amendment," which guarantees the right to freely practice religion.