Court: Bishop Finn Is Required to Report Child Abuse

By Yael T. Abouhalkah
Kansas City Star
April 6, 2012

http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/court-bishop-finn-required-report-child-abuse/

In a full-scale setback for Bishop Robert Finn, he lost a legal battle today when a judge ordered him to stand trial in a child abuse case.

You can read the full ruling regarding this nationally watched case by Jackson County Circuit Judge John Torrence here.

Finn essentially lost the most important bid he and his lawyers were making in court, which was to throw the whole thing out.

And here’s a key part of the Torrence ruling:

“The court finds that the evidence in this case is sufficient to allow a jury to conclude that Bishop Finn was a designated reporter as defined by Missouri law.”

Note: The judge obviously wasn’t reaching a conclusion on whether Finn had or had not violated the law in a specific case of child abuse.

But he was striking down a key contention made by Finn and his supporters, that he shouldn’t even be a mandatory reporter when it came to abuse of minors.

Yes, he should be on that list, the judge said.

This ruling ratchets up the possibility that Finn may become the highest ranking Catholic to be found guilty of participating in the church’s long-standing coverup of sexual abuse of minors.