LOUISIANA
Louisiana Record
Chris Galford
Jan. 18, 2016
BATON ROUGE — One case has given rise to another, as the Rev. Jeff Bayhi filed a defamation and false light suit against Baton Rouge’s WBRZ-TV on Nov. 20, alleging the station misrepresented allegations in another case involving the Catholic priest as facts.
The case in question pertained to Rebecca Mayeux, who claims that at the age of 14 she was sexually abused by a now-deceased parishioner in Bayhi’s church, Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton. In that case, she alleges Bayhi neglected his duty to Louisiana law by failing to report the alleged abuse. At the heart of the case is the notion that she made these initial claims in confessional. The question is whether the confidentiality of confessional overrides the obligation to report abuse.
“Should Father Bayhi violate that sacred seal in any way, his faculties as a Roman Catholic priest would be immediately and automatically suspended by the Vatican itself,” Henry Olinde Jr., Bayhi’s lawyer who is with the law firm of Olinde & Mercer in Baton Rouge, noted in the suit against WBRZ.
Previously, the Baton Rouge diocese had attempted to block Mayeux’s testimony on the grounds of that sacred seal, but State District Judge Mike Caldwell ruled that seal was Mayeux’s to break. After some back and forth up the legal chain, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the notion that priests are mandatory reporters of abuse and likewise that Mayeux had every right to waive her privilege of confession.
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