MICHIGAN
Church Militant
by Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D. • ChurchMilitant.com
May 11, 2018
Is the diocese of Saginaw colluding with local media in a smear campaign against the prosecutor pursuing criminal sex abuse charges against priests?
After the launch of a criminal probe into possible sex abuse cover-up in the Michigan diocese, the diocese is returning fire, calling into question the integrity of Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner, who’s taken the lead in the investigation.
Gaertner is prosecuting longtime Saginaw priest Father Robert DeLand, arrested in February and charged with sexually assaulting multiple young men. The prosecutor’s office has since been flooded with tips implicating multiple other clergy, leading to the launch of a criminal investigation of the entire diocese and even raids on the bishop’s home, the cathedral and the chancery.
Now reports of a smear campaign against the prosecutor, with local media trying to discredit him by unearthing an old case and a 2004 letter.
A little background: In 2000, Gaertner was in an election race for prosecutor in Huron County against a man named Tim Rutkowski. Rutkowski is brother to current vicar general of the diocese Father Bill Rutkowski, according to inside sources a well-known homosexual in a long-term relationship with a priest in the Lansing diocese — a charge officially denied.
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