LOS ANGELES
(AP) -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles must release the
names of church leaders and pedophile priests identified in thousands of
pages of internal documents recounting sexual abuse allegations dating
back decades, a judge ruled Monday.
The
decision by Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias overturned much of a 2011
order by another judge that would have allowed the archdiocese to black
out the names of church higher-ups. Victims, as well as The Associated
Press and Los Angeles Times, argued for the names to be public.
Elias
said she weighed the privacy rights of priests and others - including
those who are mentioned in the documents but were not accused of any
wrongdoing - versus the public's interest in learning details of the
child abuse that prompted the archdiocese to agree to a record $660
million settlement with victims in 2007.
"Don't they have the right to know what happened in their local church?" Elias said before ruling from the bench.
The
documents include letters and memos between top church officials and
their attorneys, medical and psychological records, complaints from
parents and, in some cases, correspondence with the Vatican about
abusive priests. There are approximately 30,000 pages and it wasn't
immediately clear how soon they would be released.
Elias
stipulated that some redactions of people who played no major role
would be allowed, and attorneys for the plaintiffs and church were
discussing how to do so.
The sexual abuse
scandal within the Catholic Church has played out in many dioceses
around the country, with victims receiving huge settlements. Files
released in other places, such as Boston, have shown the church shuffled
predator priests among parishes without calling police.
Both plaintiffs' and church attorneys said Monday they want the documents released as soon as possible.
"Our client's objective is to get this over with," church attorney Michael Hennigan said.
Attorneys
for the archdiocese previously said they planned to make the
confidential files public by the middle of this month with the names of
the church hierarchy blacked out. A set of documents with the redactions
already was prepared and Hennigan said it's not clear how long it will
take to produce a new set with far fewer redactions.
"We have to see how big this mountain is," he said outside of court.
Plaintiffs'
lawyer Ray Boucher believes it should take less than a month. He said
the names revealed in the documents could range from priests at local
churches to those in the Vatican. Hennigan said recently retired
Cardinal Roger Mahony doesn't object to having his name appear when the
files are released.
"This is a very important
and significant step," Boucher said. "Clearly my preference would be
that the files be unredacted and the full files be released. But I
understand there's a need to get out these files as soon as possible."
The
2007 settlement stipulated that personnel files would be made public,
but more than 20 accused priests went to court to block the release,
arguing that making their files public would violate their privacy
rights.
In 2011, Judge Dickran Tevrizian ruled
the documents could be heavily redacted. He said the release of the
files should not be used to "embarrass or to ridicule the church."
He
said the public could figure out which church leaders were responsible
for how molesting priests were handled by matching the documents' date
and location with a roster of the archdiocese staff at the time.
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Associated Press Writer Gillian Flaccus contributed to this report.
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