Prosecutor wants new charge against Bishop Finn

Mark Morris
 Kansas City Star
 May 7, 2012

 Jackson County prosecutors want to add additional misdemeanor criminal charges against Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese he serves. The charge, failure to report suspicions of child abuse, is the same as the bishop and diocese already face for their alleged mismanagement of a priest now facing state and federal child pornography charges.

 Prosecutors also have asked a judge to approve a massive request for records from the diocese’s so-called “secret archive” detailing the diocese’s responses to child abuse allegations both before and after Finn began serving in Kansas City in May 2004.

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A spokeswoman for the diocese declined comment, saying the church’s lawyers have not yet seen paperwork.

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Prosecutors also want the diocese to turn over a broad swath of records detailing how it has handled child abuse allegations received since Finn was ordained coadjutor bishop on May 3, 2004. Those records would include:
• All documents related to reports of child abuse received since May 2004, including records of the diocesan response team and Independent Review Board.
• Reports of prior concerns alleged against perpetrators mentioned in those post-2004 records.
• And all other relevant records kept in the diocese’s “secret archives,” as so described in canon law.

According to church law, the most sensitive documents of a diocese are to be kept in a secret archive, which can be as simple as a locked safe or a cabinet. According to church law, those records are to be reviewed, and some purged, annually.

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The request for records — usually called “discovery” in legal parlance — demands specific information from diocesan records about possible child abuse allegations against 10 priests and monks, eight of whom already have been sued in civil actions against the diocese or their religious orders.

 ....... Read full article at The Kansas City Star