Newspaper seeks court records in clergy sex-abuse case
By The Associated Press
06.01.02
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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Washington Post is seeking records in the case of a former Duncan priest now in prison for molesting a troubled teen-age boy.
The Rev. Edward Weisenburger, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, said the archdiocese is under court order not to discuss the case of James Francis Rapp.
The Washington Post filed motions on May 23 asking judges in Stephens and Oklahoma counties to open the sealed court records.
Rapp pleaded no contest in October 1999 to two counts of lewd molestation and is serving two 20-year sentences in a prison near Enid, according to the Post.
The former priest had been allowed to continue teaching at a Catholic high school in Michigan after he was accused of molestation, the newspaper reported. Rapp was then a pastor at a church in Duncan, where he repeatedly molested a troubled teen-age boy and allegedly abused two others, according to the Post.
The newspaper argued in its motions that the issue of sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy has become the focus of intense public concern and that the public has an interest in the functioning and operation of large religious institutions whose activities affect the lives of thousands of people.
The newspaper cited the Constitution and the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
The petition filed in Stephens County seeks records of the criminal trial, said Tulsa attorney Joel Wohlgemuth, representing the Post. The separate petition filed in Oklahoma County was for the records of a civil trial, Wohlgemuth said.
The newspaper has reported that in the civil case, the archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the priest's religious order agreed to pay the victim more than $5 million.
Judge Niles L. Jackson told the Tulsa World he ordered the Oklahoma County records sealed for Rapp's safety.
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