Editorial: Missouri High Court Oks Harassment of Priest Victims Group

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 17, 2012

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-missouri-high-court-oks-harassment-of-priest-victims-group/article_2a3f1441-b6d0-57f8-821d-90669ec8b82a.html

David Clohessy, of St. Louis, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests in 2002. (AP Photo/Joe Marquette)

In the law there's something called a "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation." They're filed by a powerful individuals or organization who want to shut up their critics by burying them in legal fees and hassles.

Efforts by lawyers for Catholic priests in St. Louis and Kansas City to drag officers of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests into damage lawsuits brought by purported abuse victims are not exactly SLAPP suits. They're worse.

SNAP and its officers, David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, are not parties to the lawsuits. But because their organization provided counseling to the anonymous plaintiffs, lawyers for the priests want to go fishing through decades of SNAP records.

Incredibly, in the Kansas City case, Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Ann Mesle last year approved this Ahab-like expedition.

Even more incredibly, on Tuesday of this week the Missouri Supreme Court refused to block Judge Mesle's order. Many states have strong anti-SLAPP laws, but Missouri's law is narrowly drawn. The court's ruling this week effectively gave carte blanche to powerful organizations to harass anyone trying to help the powerless.

Mr. Clohessy and SNAP have said that they will continue to fight the order. They have given ground grudgingly, but their options have narrowed considerably.

In January, at Judge Mesle's order, Mr. Clohessy submitted to six hours of deposition by lawyers for the Rev. Michael Tierney, whom the Diocese of Kansas City suspended from his duties in mid-2011. Lawyers for four other accused priests and the Diocese of Kansas City also took part in the questioning.

Mr. Clohessy refused to answer many questions, saying his group was in effect a rape crisis center and thus enjoys confidentiality under Missouri law. He has resisted further deposition and SNAP has continued to withhold the documents sought by the priest's lawyers, hoping the Supreme Court would intervene.

Mr. Clohessy's petition to the high court had the support of 24 victims advocacy groups as well as the Missouri Press Association. That's because the priests' lawyers want to drop their dip net on SNAP's communication with news organizations. The petition also had the support of six current and former state and federal prosecutors.

One of them was Jennifer Joyce, the St. Louis circuit attorney. Given the influence of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, that took some guts. But she was entirely correct to say in her brief that 'sex abuse victims and the groups that support them will suffer irreparable harm" if they no longer can be assured of confidentiality.

SNAP's critics — most notably Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights — have accused the group of hypocrisy, demanding openness from the church while refusing to be open itself.

If we understand this argument, a SNAP counselor who hears a sex abuse victim pour out his soul must give him up. Meanwhile, no one questions the privilege for the "Seal of Confession," which protects a priest who hears a someone pour out his soul through the confessional screen.

Of course there's a big difference between SNAP and the church. One is an organization that counsels victims of childhood sex abuse. The other is an organization that has covered up for some of the perpetrators. Counselors for the latter have privilege; those for the former don't. Something's very wrong here.