Posted on 08/06/2004 3:27:10 AM PDT by sidewalk
$2.2M bill due for report clearing bishop of charges Albany -- Former prosecutor to be paid from diocese's self-insurance fund
A four-month investigation that cleared Bishop Howard Hubbard of claims of sexual misconduct will cost the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany $2.2 million. Church officials released former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White's bill late Thursday afternoon.
The $2,231,910.81 total will be paid from a self-insurance fund, which is continually fed by assessments levied to each of the diocese's 178 parishes, and growing interest income, church officials said.
No money from the Bishop's Appeal, the diocesan capital campaign or any other program or service will be tapped, said the Rev. Kenneth Doyle, Chancellor for Public Communications.
"Nor will the cost of the investigation compromise the financial resources that the Albany Diocese will make available to assist legitimate victims of clergy sex abuse," he said.
Doyle, who is also pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Albany, apparently couldn't resist a veiled slap at Hubbard's nemesis, John Aretakis, the combative attorney who triggered the probe into the bishop's private life -- and then refused to participate in it.
"It is unfortunate that an investigation was made necessary by the public airing of false claims," Doyle said. "It is even more distressing, as Ms. White reported, that the investigation took longer and cost more because the individuals who made and publicized the false claims refused to be interviewed."
White and a team of investigators from her Manhattan law firm conducted more than 300 interviews around the country and reviewed more than 20,000 documents including all of Hubbard's personnel files, phone records, credit card statements and his personal computer.
They probed the kind of movies he regularly watches and examined his medical records for any indiction of homosexual activity.
In the end, the investigation failed to turn up any evidence that could prove Hubbard ever broke his priestly vow of celibacy.
Aretakis continued Thursday to describe White's report as "a complete and total work of fiction."
"And now we know it's a very expensive work of fiction," he said. "It was also a colossal waste of money for parishioners by an embattled bishop trying to salvage his image."
Aretakis called on the diocese to release the full, itemized accounting of White's work and insinuated more bills would be secretly forthcoming.
In an Aug. 2 letter to Jaclyn Brilling, who is chairwoman of the diocese's Sexual Misconduct Review Board, White said she made every effort to work efficiently, in a cost-effective manner, despite the need to expand the probe's scope once "certain primary sources" failed to cooperate.
When she released her report, White urged people to remember that "baseless" claims shouldn't cloud the real victims.
In the letter the diocese released Thursday, White told Brilling how moved investigators were by the pain and needs of victims they interviewed.
"After receiving payment from the review board, it is the intention of our firm to make a substantial contribution to an appropriate organization or fund that provides direct assistance to victims of clergy sex abuse," White said.
The investigation firm of Stroz Friedberg, LLC, which assisted in the inquiry, will donate computer support or other services to the same recipient, she added.
The diocese was billed $1,457,136.20 for professional services and advice from Feb. 16 through July 29, even though White issued her report on June 24.
Another $42,867.17 was attributed to document preparation, with $551,688.98 in disbursements.
The bill also includes an earlier $180,000 in expenses that was paid previously, Doyle said.
The invoice stated the diocese was aware that immediate payment could be wired directly into the firm's bank account.
Why not just discount the bill in the first place?
I don't know how this creep gets away with giving leftist snow-job artist Mary Jo Whitewash a cool 2 mil t run cover for him.
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