Judge Orders NY Archdiocese to Turn Over its Investigative Records on [Former Albany Bishop] Hubbard

Times-Union ^ | 11/21/22 | Brendan J. Lyons

[marshmallow]

The records are being sought in a Child Victims Act case filed by a woman against Hubbard, the Albany diocese and deceased former priest Francis P. Melfe

ALBANY — A state Supreme Court justice has ordered the Archdiocese of New York to turn over roughly 1,400 pages of internal records related to its investigations of Howard J. Hubbard, rejecting the organization's arguments that the documents regarding the former Albany bishop are constitutionally protected under the religious clauses of the First Amendment.

State Supreme Court Justice L. Michael Mackey, citing court decisions dismissing similar arguments that have been invoked by the Catholic church to try and shield internal files on priests accused of child sexual abuse, noted the case involves allegations of child molestation and not an internal church dispute or employment matter. He said that under pre-trial discovery rules, the records should be treated the same as disciplinary files for a rank-and-file priest.

"To hold otherwise would require courts to conclude that ecclesiastical principles could reasonably impose or suggest different requirements for the protection of children from sexual molestation, than the requirements generally imposed by society," Mackey wrote in the decision, issued Monday. "If the First Amendment does not shield religious organizations from actions involving alleged sexual misconduct, then it follows that it does not protect against application of discovery rules to uncover relevant material in files related to that alleged misconduct."

Mackey will review the documents "in camera" — meaning they are not yet public and he will examine them in private. The judge will determine whether the materials include any probative or admissible evidence that should be turned over to the attorneys for a woman who alleges she was abused by Hubbard, former priest Francis P. Melfe and another priest for three years beginning in 1977 when she was.......

[packagingguy]

The court would be right on this one. Privileged communication usually don’t include things such as child abuse.

What’s puzzling is how organizations try to handle these things internally. Colleges and universities do the same, trying to do internal investigations.

Why have priests, bishops, and for universities professors and the like do criminal investigations? Why can’t these matters be left to law enforcement? That’s why we pay taxes to have them.

[tomsbartoo]

It’s not that law enforcement or anyone else invites these institutions to do their own internal investigation, this is always an effort on their own accord.
It must be assumed that most do so either to protect their own or to protect the institution, itself against subsequent lawsuits or simply injury to their reputation.