Church Doesn’t Have Report Clearing Priest

By Billy Gunn
Bayou Buzz
July 30, 2014

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/louisiana-news/baton-rouge-news/item/717152-church-doesnt-have-report-clearing-priest

Diocese of Lafayette officials said Thursday they do not have the investigative report they say exonerated the Rev. Gilbert Dutel after claims of sexual abuse were leveled at the priest in 1992.

Dutel, 69 and the priest at St. Edmond Catholic Church in Lafayette since June 2010, was revealed in newly uncovered court documents as a priest suspected of abusing at least one youth in the mid- and late-1970s, a boy who said he was 9 or 10 when it started and an early teen when it stopped.

“There was an investigation by Bishop Harry Flynn in 1992,” Monsignor Richard Greene, media liaison for the diocese, said in an emailed response to questions posed by The Advocate.

“We have no record in the files but apparently Bishop Flynn was satisfied that there was no credible allegation,” Greene said.

Contact: bgunn@theadvocate.com