DENVER (CO)
The Colorado Sun
February 20, 2019
By Jesse Paul
With the announcement Tuesday that the Catholic church in Colorado will voluntarily participate in an independent investigation into sexual abuse by its priests comes a big question: Why didn’t the state convene a grand jury to investigate, as Pennsylvania did?
The answer has to do with the limited powers Colorado’s attorney general has to look into criminal offenses.
After a Pennsylvania grand jury released its report alleging hundreds of cases of child sex abuse had been covered up by the church, survivors of sexual abuse as children petitioned in August for an accounting of misconduct here, asking then-Attorney General Cynthia Coffman to convene a grand jury. And the possibility was explored.
But a statewide grand jury can be convened only in “certain, fairly limited circumstances that were not met in this instance,” Coffman told reporters Tuesday at the news conference announcing the independent investigation.
“Typical cases that go to the statewide grand jury are drug trafficking organizations, auto theft rings, financial fraud that occurs in multiple jurisdictions — places where there is evidence across judicial districts, where it makes sense for there to be a central investigation and prosecution,” Coffman said.
There are exceptions, however.
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