MINNESOTA
MinnPost
By Brian Lambert
You know the old adage about how if you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging …? Following Tuesday’s news out of the archdiocese, Tom Scheck and Madeleine Baran at MPR write: “St. Paul Police Chief Tom Smith said the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is not cooperating with an ongoing criminal investigation into clergy sexual abuse. … In a statement released after the news conference, archdiocese officials said they hope to better understand police requests for information at Wednesday’s meeting.”
The PiPress story, by Nick Woltman and Emily Gurnon, says: “A clearly frustrated St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith said Tuesday that investigators have not gotten cooperation from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on sexual abuse cases. ‘We have through written and verbal requests made clear our desire to speak to individuals connected with the archdiocese, and we’ve been told no,’ Smith told reporters at a news conference. At the same time, the archdiocese has made repeated statements that it is working to assist police on the abuse cases, Smith said. If that’s the case, ‘you need to have access to individuals that work within that institution,’ the chief said. … During Tuesday’s press briefing at police headquarters, Chief Smith named one archdiocesan official who had declined — through his attorney — to talk with police. That official is the Rev. Kevin McDonough, who served for years as vicar general, the archbishop’s top deputy, and was deeply involved in many of the archdiocese’s decisions about accused priests.”
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