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| Newspapers Seek to Open Records of Priest Sexual Abuse Cases By April Thompson WREG April 2, 2009 http://www.wreg.com/wreg-court-fight-for-catholic-abuse-records-story,0,4978949.story FAST FACTS: * Local newspapers file for open records of Catholic Church abuse cases(Memphis 4/2/2009) From the Diocese to the courtroom. Lawyers for the Commercial Appeal and the Daily News are in a open records fight. The newspaper's attorneys want open access to files about child sexual abuse allegations against priests in the Memphis Catholic Diocese. "Let's say one of these priests is in a position of authority somewhere else now and something has happened since these depositions have occurred and since the investigation happened, people would need to know whether or not this person has been accused before." says Paul Billings, an attorney for The Daily News. But the Memphis Catholic Diocese says a settlement with abuse victims is in place and records should not be open for review because lives could be damaged based on allegations. "What happens often in these cases, there are several people who allegations are implied. Implied allegations destroy people's reputations and there's no need having reputations destroyed that way." says Rev. John Geaney with the Memphis Catholic Diocese. The judge in the case wants more details about specific records and what they entail, before he rules. Abuse victims like David Brown, who is also a coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP, say opening up the records will end some of the cover up of priests who are not being identified. "We want to know where they are today, what they are doing today, are they in active ministry and are they teaching. I have a grand daughter and I don't know whether one of these men lives near my grand daughter. I would like to know that." says Brown. The judge has given the Catholic Diocese lawyers a few weeks to go through the cases and report back to him. Both sides say if records are unsealed, they want to protect the victims in these cases. But Diocese lawyers say that may be hard to do because once records are open, they are open to everyone and finding out identities will just take a matter of time. |
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