Church in
Crisis Lawsuit filed under racketeering law charges cover-up
On May 20, a former altar boy charged sexual molestation by Fr.
Michael Stephen Baker, 54. The boys lawyer, Jeffrey Anderson, according
to the next days Los Angeles Times, told reporters, Cardinal
Roger Mahony belongs in prison for aiding and abetting Michael Baker, for
protecting a pedophile priest.
Three other complainants are party to the suit filed in Los
Angeles Superior Courthouse under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act, known as RICO. The complaint alleged that for 14 years, from
1975 on, Baker abused at least a dozen young boys, and that even after Baker
admitted his abuse to the cardinal, the archdiocese failed to keep the priest
away from youngsters and did not report the abuse to police, the Times
reported.
Mahony referred to the racketeering charges as baseless and
irresponsible, the paper stated. (RICO convictions permit tripled
damages.)
A week earlier, the newspaper reported that Mahony, who
transferred Baker nine times to other parishes after 1986, made confidentiality
a condition of $1.3 million settled on two male complainants, brothers, who
alleged that as boys Baker repeatedly molested them over a 15-year period.
Baker had already told the Times that in 1986 hed
informed Mahony hed abused two or three children. Baker
said the cardinal did not press him for details and he did not provide any.
Late in 2000, the cardinal arranged for Baker to retire quietly from the
priesthood without notifying law enforcement authorities or informing
parishioners of the alleged abuses.
The new allegations concern abuse that occurred after Baker
informed Mahony of his past.
In May Mahony told the Times he would provide all relevant
records to the district attorney and, we told [Los Angeles Police
Department] detectives whatever they wanted, they could have.
On Aug. 18 the Times stated that in 1986 during a
series of summer retreats with about 1,100 archdiocesan priests, the
cardinal encouraged any priest with a history of sexual abuse to step
forward. Subsequently Baker met with Mahony, Baker told the Times.
I told Mahony I had a problem, Baker said. He was very
solicitous and understanding. I was glad I brought it up.
Mahony earlier this year told the Times he could not recall
the meeting, but more recently said the Baker meeting was very
brief.
During what the Times described as a series of
interviews with the newspaper, Mahony said that authorities have
long known about nearly all the sexual abuse cases in the Los Angeles
archdiocese. There was no sort of policy on my part that we would not cooperate
with law enforcement.
According to the Times, Mahony said, Because
reporting was not mandated until 1997, this was not an area of
responsibility for the church. We always made sure that people knew that they
themselves were the ones who should contact police. We also have cases, if I
might say so, where the police didnt do much about it either.
Los Angeles County District Attorney called Mahonys
characterization disingenuous, the newspaper stated.
The cardinal told the Times that archdiocesan lawyers
took the position that members of the clergy were not required by law to
disclose accusations by adults who came forward to report sexual abuse that had
occurred when they were minors. These people, the lawyers said, had been
informed that they could report allegations to the police on their own.
That practice changed earlier this year as the clergy sex
scandal boiled over, the Times reported. The cardinal said his top
aides had been ordered to provide all documentation on all priests suspected of
sex crimes to the police.
-- Arthur Jones
National Catholic Reporter, August 30,
2002
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