NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune [New Orleans LA]
May 3, 2024
By Stephanie Riegel
[See also the text of the search warrant.]
An investigation into the Archdiocese of New Orleans entered a new phase last week, when Louisiana State Police raised allegations whether former archbishops might have acted criminally by keeping the sexual abuse of children secret for decades.
The allegations, contained in documents connected to a search warrant, for the first time raised the possibility of a criminal case against former local church leaders or the archdiocese itself. Bringing such a case, however, could present a formidable challenge for prosecutors, according to legal experts and authorities on the Catholic church.
Nearly two dozen other states have empaneled grand juries and issued sweeping reports since 2018 detailing thousands of complaints against priests and deacons in local Catholic dioceses, and implicating church leaders in the coverup, according to Terry McKiernan, executive director of Bishopaccountability.org, which tracks clergy sex abuse worldwide.
A few have resulted in criminal prosecutions of individual clergy members. But none of the investigations have resulted in charges against a bishop or the church as an institution for playing a role in hiding the extent of the crisis, according to advocates for survivors.
In part, that’s because it’s difficult to prosecute crimes that took place years or decades ago, according to lawyers with experience in church abuse cases. Statutes of limitations also expire, and alleged abusers or witnesses to abuse are often long dead. What’s more, it’s hard to trace an alleged cover-up to the highest officials in an archdiocese — archbishops or their deputies — because of the way the church hierarchy is structured.
“When was the last time you saw an institution go to jail?” said Kathryn Robb, executive director of Child USAdvocacy, which advocates for victims of child sex abuse. “It just doesn’t happen.”
Potential cover up?
State Police declined to comment on their investigation except to say the archdiocese is cooperating with the sweeping request for all documents related to clergy sex abuse, including priest assignments and correspondence between the local archdiocese and the Vatican.
A sworn statement from the lead investigator in the case says there is “probable cause” to suspect the church was engaged in “trafficking of children for sexual purposes,” a felony under state law. The statement goes on to cite sealed church records containing claims that clergy transported victims across state lines to abuse them; hosted nude pool parties at the Notre Dame seminary where children were sexually abused; and created a system whereby potential victims would unwittingly transport “gifts” from one priest to another, signaling they had been targeted for abuse.
The statement suggests the alleged abuse occurred under “previous archbishops,” who may have known about the abuse but failed to report it, and potentially tried to cover it up using church funds.
The archdiocese has said it is cooperating with the probe. In a statement earlier this week, it said, “the archdiocese has been openly discussing the topic of sex abuse for 20 years. In keeping with this, we also are committed to working with law enforcement in these endeavors.”
Long shot
A look at what has happened in other states where clergy sex abuse has been widely documented underscores the rarity of criminal prosecutions. A Pennsylvania grand jury in 2018 issued a 900-page report that found more than 1,000 instances of child sex abuse by 300 or so priests, and evidence of a “sophisticated” coverup by church officials. Six years later, only two priests have been charged.
The California attorney general launched an informal probe in 2018, inviting victims to come forward with their stories. The office later issued subpoenas to several Catholic dioceses. So far, nothing has come of the investigation, and the AG’s office has declined to comment on the probe’s status.
In Illinois, an attorney general report released last June documented more than 2,000 instances of child sex abuse by 450 credibly accused clergy, with evidence suggesting a coverup by church leaders dating back to the 1950s. So far, no criminal charges have been filed.
“Law enforcement and prosecutors often find a lot of information, but it is not necessarily information they can act on,” McKiernan said. “It’s very difficult to establish responsibility going up the chain, because bishops have various ways of making sure it’s not on their hands.”
Statutes of limitations
It is difficult, and sometimes not possible, to prosecute crimes that took place long ago, experts said, because of statutes of limitations, which bar prosecution after a certain amount of time has elapsed.
The state law cited in the affidavit attached to the State Police search warrant has a 30-year statute of limitations, which doesn’t begin to run until after an abuse victim reaches age 18. However, that law wasn’t passed by the Louisiana Legislature until 2009, which means it can only be applied to incidents that occurred within the past 15 years.
Though a few instances of abuse by clergy have been documented over the past decade or so in the New Orleans archdiocese, most of the abuse committed by the 50-plus priests and deacons on the archdiocese’s 2018 list of credibly accused clergy took place in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Most of that was during the tenure of the late Archbishop Phillip Hannan, who served from 1965 to 1988 and died in 2011.
“You can’t charge someone with breaking a law that wasn’t a law when they allegedly committed the crime,” said veteran criminal defense attorney Lewis Unglesby.
Still, just because the affidavit cites the 2009 child sex trafficking law as its justification for seeking the warrant doesn’t mean investigators aren’t looking for other crimes, according to attorneys, who said a case related to allegations of a cover-up of church abuse could rely on the state’s racketeering law — a broad statute that can be used to lump together several crimes under a single umbrella, experts said.
“It could be that they are looking at stuff that happened from 2009 on in the form of a cover-up, which would be accessory after the fact,” said Peter Strasser, a former U.S. attorney in New Orleans.
Certain conspiracy charges could extend the statute of limitations, depending on what other charges are involved.
“There are ways to do it, but it is very complicated and depends on the individual case,” said Don Cazayoux, a former U.S. attorney in Baton Rouge and now a criminal defense attorney. “Prosecutors would have to get very creative.”
There’s also the question of whether Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams would empanel a grand jury seeking charges against the archdiocese, current Archbishop Gregory Aymond, or other current or former church leaders. Williams has previously said he will “go after” anyone who has “played any role in protecting criminals,” though he has not weighed in on the recent State Police actions or responded to a request seeking comment.
Attorney General Liz Murrill could take up a case if the DA opted to recuse himself. But Murrill said she currently “has no involvement in the State Police probe.”
Right now, she said, she is focused on appealing a recent Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state’s look-back window, which extended the time child sex abuse victims can file civil lawsuits against their abusers.
“I condemn the sexual abuse of minors no matter who does it, and I’m in court now advocating for a law that would give rights back to those abused children,” Murrill said in a statement.