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	Court Won't Reconsider Order to Diocese to Release Sex Abuse Data By Daniel Tepfer Connecticut Post July 6, 2009 http://www.connpost.com/breakingnews/ci_12762508 HARTFORD -- Advocates for children who say they were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport reacted with cautious optimism Monday to the state Supreme Court's refusal to reconsider its earlier ruling ordering the diocese to release hundreds of documents detailing decades of alleged abuse by priests. The Supreme Court issued the brief decision without comment. "We are inching closer to Connecticut citizens and Catholics fully learning the truth," said David Clohessy, director of the Chicago-based SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Joseph McAleer, spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport, said: "We are disappointed that the Connecticut Supreme Court has denied our motion for reconsideration. The diocese is considering its options, going forward." He did not say whether the diocese will file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. In May, the state Supreme Court appeared to remove the last hurdle to the release of the documents held by the diocese under seal as part of more than a dozen lawsuits filed against it by people who claim they were abused as children by diocesan priests in the 1970s and '80s. Last month, a Supreme Court panel of justices ruled, 4-1, to allow the release of secret documents stored at Waterbury Superior Court. Some of the documents, reviewed by the Connecticut Post, detail accusations of abuse by priests and efforts by then-Bishop Edward Egan to hide the abuse. The documents were provided under seal by the diocese as part of lawsuits filed against it by dozens of people who claimed they were abused as children by diocesan priests. Those lawsuits were later settled after the diocese paid the victims more than $30 million, but the documents remained sealed in the court files. Attorneys representing victims of alleged abuse by priests in the diocese accused the church hierarchy of ignoring allegations, shifting accused priests from parish to parish and failing to report complaints to appropriate law enforcement agencies. The decision by the state's highest court Monday drew praise from victims' organizations. "It appears justice may finally be served," said Jim Alvord, regional coordinator of Voice of the Faithful, an organization of Catholics that supports abuse victims and is demanding greater transparency in the church's operations. "It's a sad, sad circumstance how the diocese has spent so much money on such a small matter of basic truthfulness." Last month, the diocese asked the state's highest court to reconsider its decision ordering the documents' release. The diocese, in its appeal, contended that the Superior Court judge who initially ordered the release of the documents was biased because he had served on a special state Judicial Branch committee exploring how to make the state courts more transparent. That panel's members included a reporter whose newspaper was seeking to force release of the documents. What happened? The state Supreme Court said it will not reconsider its order that hundreds of records detailing alleged abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport be unsealed. What's next? The diocese must decide whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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