KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
Aug. 01, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The priest whose arrest for possession of child pornography led to the first criminal charges against a Catholic bishop in the church’s decades-long clergy sex abuse crisis is expected to plead guilty in federal court Thursday to at least some of the charges against him, according to court records.
Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocesan priest whose May 2011 arrest raised questions about when his diocese and its bishop, Robert Finn, first became aware of concerns against him, is charged with 13 federal counts of possession and production of child pornography.
While Ratigan initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, a change of plea hearing for Thursday afternoon in federal court was entered into the court docket Wednesday morning.
Ratigan’s case made national headlines in the fall when prosecutors in Jackson County, Mo., separately charged Finn and the Kansas City diocese with individual counts of failure to report suspected child abuse, which are criminal misdemeanors, regarding their oversight of the priest.
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