MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
[link to legal documents via SNAP]
Posted by Mark Serrano on January 18, 2012
Late yesterday, a judge “unsealed” the six hour deposition of SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy by five lawyers representing Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn and five Kansas City accused pedophile priests (Fr. Michael Tierney, Msgr. Thomas O’Brien, Fr. Mark Honhart, Fr. Francis McGlynn and Fr. Thomas Cronin). We will post it on our website as soon as we get a copy of the transcript. It ostensibly stems from a case called John Doe BP v. Fr. Michael Tierney and the Kansas City diocese and from one of three subpoenas that have been issued in recent weeks to victims who are SNAP leaders. This is the first time in SNAP’s 23 years that its staff has been subpoenaed.
Catholic officials are demanding thousands of pages of private records from child sex abuse victims and others. This has been called a “fishing expedition.” But it’s much worse than that. It’s a cynical, shrewd legal maneuver to deter victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, police, prosecutors, journalists and others from exposing predators, protecting kids and seeking help from SNAP.
And it threatens the long-standing privacy protections that almost all crime victims – not just child sex victims of predatory clerics’ victims – have enjoyed for years.
The demands – including documents from as long ago as 23 years- come from church officials in two dioceses – Kansas City and St. Louis. SNAP is not part of either suit.
Catholic officials want private, personal records and e mails involving hundreds of individuals who have never even heard of or met the accused or the accusers in the two suits. This is a misuse of judicial processes designed to crush a support and advocacy group that protects the vulnerable and heals the wounded. It’s cleverly orchestrated to keep clergy sex crimes and cover ups concealed.
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