Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has been investigating institutional child sexual abuse for almost 4 years

(For Immediate Release: Tuesday, August 2, 2022)

Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has been investigating institutional child sexual abuse for
almost 4 years

Survivors call for the indictment of individuals who have abused children or covered up cases of
child abuse

Call for the release of the report before the new AG and lead investigator are replaced

Call for openness and transparency on the part of the OAG

WHEN

Tuesday, August 2, 2022, at 11:00 AM

WHERE

On the public sidewalk outside Maryland OAG office in Baltimore
(200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202)

WHO

Several members of the international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of
those Abused by Priests, victims of abuse from other Maryland institutions, and supporters.

WHY

At a sidewalk news conference in front of the Maryland AG’s office, survivors, and supporters
will call on the Maryland Attorney General, Brian Frosh and the lead investigator, Elizabeth
Embry, to hand down promised indictments concerning child sexual abuse in order to rid the
cities and towns of Maryland of abusers and their enablers. This will protect the children of
Maryland from further abuse. In addition, we will request that, prior to leaving their current
positions at the beginning of the year, Mr. Frosh and Ms. Embry release, at a minimum, a
preliminary report on their 4-year investigation into institutional abuse.

DETAILS

Nearly 4 years ago, following the release of the scathing PA grand jury report on abuse by the
Catholic Church, we sat down with representatives of the OAG’s office to brief them on the
workings of the Catholic dioceses represented in Maryland and to show them the level of abuse
known through public documentation at that time. The OAG promised that they would
thoroughly investigate this issue by contacting survivors and/or their families. They did inform
us at the time that their investigation would be silent. But that was 4 years ago and it took the
PA grand jury half that time to perform their investigation with more than twice as many
dioceses! They have contacted countless numbers of survivors over those 4 years and in the last
year have promised survivors that indictments would be coming in months. Other states have
been carrying on similar investigations and when they have enough evidence to indict an abuser,
they do so in order to make their state safer. We are afraid that the Maryland OAG is stringing
survivors along with no incentive to complete the investigation, allowing known abusers to run
free, and not calling institutions to account for covering up. See the recent article about two
survivors who have been interviewed by the OAG and are frustrated at the silence.

CONTACT
David Lorenz of Bowie, MD. SNAP Maryland Leader ( [email protected] , 301-906-9161,
Becky Ianni, SNAP DC Leader ( [email protected] , 703-801-6044), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP
Survivor Support Coordinator ( [email protected] , 925-708-6175), Mike McDonnell,
SNAP Communications Manager ( [email protected] , 267- 261-0578), Zach Hiner,
SNAP Executive Director ( [email protected] , 517-974-9009