KANSAS CITY (MO)
News-Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri prosecutors have asked a judge to add a second misdemeanor charge against a Kansas City diocese and its bishop, who is the highest-ranking U.S. Roman Catholic official criminally charged with shielding an abusive priest.
The Jackson County prosecutor’s office announced Monday that it had filed a motion to add a charge of failure to report suspicions of child abuse. Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph already face one count of that charge over the way they managed the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges stemming from claims that he took hundreds of pornographic pictures of children. After the images were found on Ratigan’s computer, the diocese waited five months to turn copies of them over to police.
Prosecutors also want the diocese to turn over a broad swath of records detailing how it has handled child abuse allegations.
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