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	Attorneys in St. Paul Spar over Naming Priests Accused of Abuse But the Archdiocese Says Some of Those Named As Suspects Might Actually Be Innocent By Jeff Strickler Star Tribune April 8, 2009 http://www.startribune.com/local/42683827.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUZ Does the public's right to be alerted about a potential danger override the damage that could be done by wrongly accusing a person of a crime? That was the question put before Ramsey County Judge Gregg Johnson on Wednesday. At issue is a list of priests suspected of sex abuse assembled by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona. Jeff Anderson, the lawyer for a man alleging he was abused by a priest, wants to make the list public, while lawyers for the church argued that its release could do more harm than good. After spending the morning listening to arguments, Johnson said he would make a ruling in about two weeks. Two months ago, a court ruled that Anderson was entitled to the list as part of a case in which an unnamed Twin Cities man is alleging that he was sexually abused by former Roman Catholic priest Thomas Adamson between 1980 and 1982 while Adamson was serving at Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville. Anderson had announced that as soon as he got the list, he was going to make it public. "I think there is a moral and legal imperative to release it," he said. "Although none of these people are still in the church, they remain in our schools, in our day-care centers and in our community. As long as they remain at large, our children are in danger." Tom Wieser, the lawyer representing the archdiocese, said his client has no problem with supplying the list to Anderson but objects to his plans to make it public, because it contains names of people who may be innocent. List was made in 2004 Assembled in 2004, the list "was put together under the belief the names would remain anonymous. Therefore, there was a very low threshold [in terms of proof]. Someone went through the files at the archdiocese and noted every time there was any sort of accusation. Sometimes it was just a note or a single letter or a reference to something that might have happened.
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