State appeals court: Church-abuse lawsuit should be made public
By The Associated Press
08.12.02
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A lawsuit that alleges the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lexington did not step in to halt sexual abuse by priests should be available for public inspection, a divided panel of the Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 9.
The court ordered that portions of the material remain sealed for seven days to give the diocese time to appeal.
Chief Judge Tom Emberton, who wrote the majority ruling, said the church did not show that there was a compelling public interest to keep some material in the lawsuit a secret. "The plaintiffs in this case are alleging misconduct on the part of a large and significant institution of society," Emberton said. "The public has a right to know what is being alleged and how the courts are conducting the litigation."
Judge Sara Combs joined Emberton's ruling.
Judge William Knopf dissented and said the court has a duty to make sure that it does not get misused as a forum for legally irrelevant material, "the airing of which is sure to cause harm to innocent people, not parties to this litigation."
John Famularo, the attorney representing the diocese, did not return a telephone call for comment. Tom Shaughnessy, a spokesman for the Lexington diocese, said the diocese would "study its options" regarding a further appeal.
Four unidentified males and one female filed a lawsuit in Fayette Circuit Court alleging that the diocese failed to properly respond to incidents of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, which allowed the abuse to continue.
The diocese responded by insisting that the lawsuit identify the plaintiffs, the priests and details of each of the allegations, which was done in a subsequent filing.
According to a concurring opinion by Combs, three of the four priests involved in the allegations have already been identified through previous litigation or police records.
The diocese asked Fayette Circuit Judge Mary Noble to strike some of the material from the record because it was irrelevant. Noble agreed, but did not order that the material be removed from the record, only legally ignored.
The diocese then asked the appeals court to ensure that the materials that are not going to be considered in the lawsuit be removed or destroyed.
"The details of the stricken allegations are disturbing and distressing," Emberton said. "However, they are no more so than the alleged victimization of the plaintiffs themselves."
The material that was stricken by Noble was to remain under seal for a week.
Emberton said some of the material that the diocese wants to remove includes allegations against priests who sexually abused people who are not plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Some of the allegations "involve violations of sexual morals unacceptable to the church or violations of celibacy required of Catholic priests" that do not rise to the level of criminal behavior, Emberton said.
Combs, in her concurring opinion, said the allegations "both shock the conscience and sicken the spirit of society at large. The cloak of secrecy alleged to have shielded this reprehensible conduct from disclosure cannot be maintained."
Knopf said he agreed that the material in the lawsuit that "has been legally and properly submitted" should be made public.
Knopf said the public right of access to the courts is not raised in excluding material that should never be included in the litigation.
"The point is not secrecy," Knopf said.