Judge rules priests’ files must be surrendered

LOS ANGELES – A state judge, rejecting claims by Cardinal Roger Mahony that the U.S. Constitution gives the Roman Catholic Church a right to withhold personnel files, on Wednesday ordered the Los Angeles archdiocese to turn over confidential records of two former priests accused of sexually abusing children.

Prosecutors have sought the files for 27 months, part of a county grand jury investigation of allegations that the two priests molested children. Citing grand jury secrecy, prosecutors have declined to say who the two priests are or how many children allegedly were molested.

Lawyers for the archdiocese said they would appeal the ruling by Judge Thomas Nuss, a move that could delay, perhaps for years, the actual delivery of files to the grand jury.

“We believe that Judge Nuss’s ruling is novel, is inconsistent … and should be considered by a higher court,” said Donald F. Woods Jr., one of Mahony’s attorneys.

Mahony has taken the position that any review of confidential communications between a bishop and his priest by prosecutors would violate the church’s rights under the First Amendment.

That stand goes beyond what other American dioceses have argued and has drawn extensive criticism.

Earlier this year, an independent Catholic national review board said in a report that Mahony’s legal argument “did little to enhance the reputation of the church in the United States for transparency and cooperation.”

More recently, however, others among the 195 Catholic dioceses in the United States have begun to resist disclosure using some of Mahony’s legal arguments, said Thomas Doyle, a retired military chaplain who co-wrote a report to U.S. bishops in 1985 warning of problems with abusive priests.

“The hardest fight was in L.A., and I think everyone is waiting to see how it will come down,” said Doyle, who worked as an expert witness for prosecutors in this case.

Wednesday’s ruling offered some limited victories for Mahony.

Nuss agreed that church officials could withhold some documents, such as those involving discussions between psychotherapists and patients and between priests and penitents. Church documents having to do with counseling of priests could be withheld, he said, but not those that describe the church’s own internal investigations of alleged crimes. In cases where church officials mingled counseling with investigation, the documents would have to be disclosed, he said.

The judge rejected Mahony’s First Amendment argument and ruled that any potential problems for the church were outweighed by the state’s compelling interest in prosecuting child molesters.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, whose office is seeking the church files, praised the decision.

“I once again urge Cardinal Mahony, as I first did in 2002, to give priority to the protection of children from child molestation by providing the fullest possible disclosure of evidence of sexual abuse by clergy,” he said.