CALFORNIA
Sacramento Bee
The prosecution’s expert witness testified Tuesday that the Rev. Uriel Ojeda had no expectation of confidentiality when he allegedly made admissions to a church official and a private investigator that he molested an underage parish girl.
A priest who was acting as a representative of Bishop Jaime Soto and an investigator for a law firm that represents the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento were both acting in “external” and not spiritual capacities when they confronted Ojeda two years ago about the sexual abuse allegations, according to the testimony of Monsignor Steven Callahan.
“The topic is not the priest’s spiritual life, but information that would have come to the bishop … and his responsibilities to act and report it to the civil authorities,” Callahan, the judicial vicar for the San Diego diocese, testified in Sacramento Superior Court.
The conversation Ojeda had with the bishop’s representative, Father Timothy Nondorf, and the private investigator, Joseph Sheehan, who was working on contract with the law firm of Sweeney & Greene, “had nothing to do with spiritual growth and development and everything to do with an allegation brought to diocesan authorities that they needed to take action on,” Callahan testified.
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