Judge sanctions SNAP for defying orders in abuse lawsuit

Crux
August 23, 2016

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2016/08/23/judge-sanctions-snap-defying-orders-abuse-lawsuit/

Father Xiu Hui "Joseph" Jiang.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A federal judge has admonished an advocacy group for clergy abuse victims for defying her orders to release personal information about people who accused a priest of sexual misconduct.

In a ruling Monday in St. Louis, U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson cited the “deliberate and willful refusal” by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to turn over information to Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang.

Jiang is suing SNAP, St. Louis city, two police officers and the boy’s mother for defamation. His lawsuit, filed in 2015, names the accuser’s parents - by initials only - along with St. Louis police Officers Tonya Porter and Jaimie Pitterle, the city of St. Louis, SNAP and the group’s leaders, David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris.

In the lawsuit, Jiang claimed he’s the victim of both religious and racial discrimination, asserting that the priest had fled religious persecution in China only to face further harassment in the United States. He is seeking information about the people who lodged the accusations against him.

Jackson says she’ll direct that it has been established that SNAP plotted against Jiang.

St. Louis prosecutors accused Jiang in 2014 of sexually abusing a boy in a Catholic school bathroom but dropped the charges without explanation last year.

SNAP considers the information Jiang seeks privileged.