LA School District Severs Ties with Priest Accused of Molestation

By Dan Whitcomb
Chicago Tribune
February 4, 2013

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-usa-churchabusel1n0b48v4-20130204,0,1876327.story

LOS ANGELES, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Unified School District has severed its ties with a priest accused in files released by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles of molesting a teenage girl, a district spokesman said on Monday.

Father Joseph Pina, one of dozens of priests named in 12,000 pages of records made public by the archdiocese last week after years of legal battles, was hired as a community outreach organizer by the school district in 2002, said Tom Waldman, director of media relations for the LAUSD.

Waldman said Pina, 66, was laid off last year in a wave of downsizing but continued to work occasionally at district events, a practice the spokesman said would end now that his name had surfaced in the archdiocese's priest abuse scandal.

"He (Pina) apparently alerted the district on Thursday that his name was included in the files," Waldman told Reuters in an interview. There was no indication Pina was ever arrested or charged in connection with the allegations.

The move marked the latest fallout from the release of the