Posted on 05/15/2019 8:16:30 PM PDT by caww
Investigators who were “thwarted” during earlier investigations of child sexual abuse by priests on Wednesday searched the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas to obtain evidence of sexual misconduct, according to a police commander and police records.
Police Detective David Clark in an affidavit supporting the warrants described a diocese that wasn’t forthcoming with critical files and relied on personnel to identify predatory behavior when they had no background or training to do so.
Investigators searched the diocesan headquarters, a storage unit it uses and the offices of a church, police Maj. Max Geron told reporters.
“We believe at this point that the execution of the search warrants was wholly appropriate for the furtherance of the investigation at this point,” Geron said.
The events began last August with the investigation of Edmundo Paredes , a former priest who is believed to have fled Texas following claims that he abused three teenagers. That investigation resulted in allegations of abuse by others, Geron said.
Copies of the warrants refer to the 70-year-old Paredes and four others. All five were named in a report released in January by the diocese that identified former priests credibly accused of sexually assaulting a child.
Paredes is suspended from the diocese; the other four are suspended, on leave, retired or removed from the ministry. “Institutions cannot police themselves and it is only through strong action from law enforcement that the full truth of their scandals can be revealed,” the statement said. “We applaud the move and hope that it will inspire others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Texas to make a report to law enforcement officials immediately.”
The Dallas diocese was ground zero for the nation’s clergy sex-abuse crisis more than two decades ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
They “relied on personnel to identify predatory behavior when they had no background or training to do so.”
Sorry. That’s not a crime. If it were, 95% of the people would be guilty. And the 5% who are experts are often wrong.
Bet they wouldn’t do that to a mosque.
Kos was criminally convicted in 1998, sentenced to life in prison and later dismissed from the priesthood.
Were they waiting to see if he was
would be bodily assumed to heaven?
It’s a process. It takes time. Just like any paperwork in the business world.
The Dallas Diocese is cooperating. And in many ways, the Dallas Diocese is helping lead the way in this crisis. In fact, after the Rudy Kos fiasco, the diocese instituted a safe environment process that the entire RCC in the US adopted. And more recently, the diocese was one of the first to release the names of credibly accused priests.
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