Letter to California D.A.

May 27, 2005

Anthony Rackauckas, district attorney
Orange Cty, CA

Mr. Rackauckas:

We, the members of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) write to implore you to act to ensure justice and the protection of children in Orange County, by launching an investigation into the possible crimes committed by employees of the Catholic Diocese of Orange for potentially obstructing justice and

- aiding and abetting known and suspected molesters and

- failing to report child sex crimes to criminal authorities as mandated by California law.

As you are aware, a Los Angeles court ordered the release of thousands of pages of documents that have been kept secret by the Catholic Diocese of Orange for decades. This happened only because of the courage of clergy sex abuse victims in that diocese who found the strength and courage to report the crimes they suffered, and who persevered through an arduous legal process and insisted that the truth about the hierarchy's complicity be revealed.

As you may know, diocesan officials also admit to still keeping files on other known and alleged abusers secret and will not release these documents unless ordered to do so. Thus, who knows how many children remain at risk of abuse by diocesan employees and how many molesters the church leaders still continues to aid and abet.

It is no secret anymore that the Catholic Diocese of Orange has engaged in a long-standing conspiracy to harbor, protect, and cover up child molesters within and outside of the diocese. Church officials reportedly moved priests accused of molesting minors from parish to parish in Orange County, helped others relocate to other dioceses and countries to avoid prosecution, ignored or delayed acting on parent’s complaints, and accepted a convicted molester from Wisconsin into an Orange County parish (LA Times May 25, 2005).

We strongly suspect that some of those involved in the alleged aiding and abetting were also mandated reporters at the time the crimes were reported them, yet chose to hide the crimes rather than report them to criminal authorities. According to the LA Times, "Driscoll admitted in depositions taken in 1990 and 2002 that he never warned Orange County parishioners that a molesting priest was in their midst, at times didn't interview the alleged victims, didn't seek out additional victims and never reported the accusations to police."

Who knows how many other children were molested and how many other molesters are still being shielded from prosecution today? Who knows what other crimes may be hidden in the remaining secret documents?

As you are no doubt aware, Los Angeles archdiocesan officials (presumably including Cardinal Mahony himself) are currently being investigated by a grand jury for their potential role in aiding, abetting and covering up for predator priests.

Surely you can understand, in light of these documents, our disappointment with Orange County government officials who have thus refused to initiate a grand jury investigation into the alleged cover-ups by church employees that we requested on October 30, 2003.

Only about one-third of the documents on known and suspected molesters in the Orange diocese have been released. But even this partial set of records contains horrific evidence that some in the hierarchy knew much but did little to safeguard innocent families. Some of those individual church leaders are likely still on the diocesan payroll. Some of their failures to report are likely still able to be prosecuted.

For these reasons, with all due respect, we urge you again to launch an investigation into whether Orange Catholic diocesan employees failed to report child sex crimes in the church and aided and abetted known and suspected molesters. We ask that you thoroughly review the recently disclosed files soon for evidence of such crimes.

We ask you to protect kids by setting an example for those who would protect child molesters. This behavior has unfortunately been tolerated before, but if we value our children and the innocence of their youth, it must never be again.

We look forward to your assistance in this matter and welcome an opportunity to speak with you about it in greater detail.

Respectfully,

Joelle Casteix, SNAP Orange County Director (949) 322-7434 or [email protected]

Lee Bashforth, SNAP Leader and Spokesperson (949) 735-8347 or [email protected]

Mary Grant, SNAP Western Regional Director (626) 419-2930 or [email protected]