Attorney: Kissing Is Not Abuse, by Darren Barbee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 4, 20066

Attorney: Kissing Is Not Abuse

By Darren Barbee
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 4, 2006

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/14017858.htm

Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen

FORT WORTH -- A former Arlington priest's repeated kissing of two sisters in the 1970s, even if true, amounts to unacceptable conduct, not sexual abuse, according to court documents filed in state district court on Friday.

In the documents, the first detailed response to allegations raised by six women, the attorney for the Rev. Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen also says he was previously unaware of a sexual misconduct allegation involving a 13-year-old Arlington girl in the 1970s. The allegation, raised recently in court documents, resulted in Tu's temporary suspension Sunday from the Houston church he now serves.

Tu's attorney, H. Allen Pennington Jr. of Fort Worth, asked in a court filing to question four of Tu's accusers: the three who said they were minors and another who says she was an adult when Tu fondled her breast, according to the court documents.

"No one has ever accused Father Tu of attempted or actual genital contact or the attempted touching of any genital area involving a child or an adult," Pennington wrote.

At stake is a pending decision by state District Judge Len Wade on whether to release the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese's confidential records on the priest. Last week, Wade said he would release the files of six other Fort Worth Diocese priests after reviewing them. An appeal by the diocese is expected.

Pennington said that any public interest to alerting Tu's parishioners has been accomplished through media coverage and that the priest's files should stay closed.

In the ongoing back-and-forth of legal filings in the case, Pennington was accused Wednesday of making "bald faced claims" about the sisters. Pennington said at a hearing that "these ladies do not want their names in the press or in the courtroom." Pennington also said they do not want to be involved in the case to open Tu's records.

The family said in sworn statements that they did not speak with Pennington and that they do want Tu's records opened.

In response, Pennington wrote in Friday's filing that the sisters' reluctance to come forward was "described by the Fort Worth diocese and the newspaper reports covering this case."

The sisters came forward in 1993 and told the diocese that Tu had taken them into his office, held them tight, held them on his lap and kissed them on the face and neck when they were about 7 to 9 years old. They said the incidents occurred in the 1970s.

Allegations first surfaced against Tu in the 1990s, when two adult women made reports to the Fort Worth Diocese. Tu, a Dominican priest, has served in Houston since 1994. Officials at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston have said they have received no complaints against him.