Judge Orders Archdiocese to Release Priests' Names

The Columbia Tribune
January 9, 2014

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/judge-orders-archdiocese-to-release-priests-names/article_d53dc612-74a6-11e3-a6a5-10604b9f7e7c.html?comments=focus


ST. LOUIS (AP) — A judge has ordered the Archdiocese of St. Louis to release by the end of the working day today the names of all priests accused of sexual abuse in the past 20 years, though the names will not be made public.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported St. Louis Circuit Judge Robert Dierker's order Tuesday said the archdiocese could withhold the names of those involved in cases the church determined were "unsubstantiated," leaving it unclear what the archdiocese will reveal from 234 complaints identified by the court.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Angie Shelton said in a statement yesterday that Dierker's order "clearly shows that these are very complicated issues. The Archdiocese will continue to work within the judicial process toward a resolution to this lawsuit, which is rooted in the truth and fairness to all involved."

The action is part of a 2011 lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed she was abused as a child by the Rev. Joseph Ross, who was later defrocked. The suit also names the archdiocese and Archbishop Robert Carlson.

Dierker said the archdiocese's refusal to comply with the court order "has inflicted unnecessary trouble and expense on plaintiff, manifestly interfered with trial preparation, and borders on if not actually amounting to contempt."

Ross had been convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy at a parish in University City decades earlier. He received treatment and was reassigned to St. Cronan's.

The woman's attorney, Kenneth Chackes, said what is important "is to find a pattern of other incidents where priests have abused children that the archdiocese knew about and put the priests in a place where they could abuse children again."