Judge Releases Data in Probe of Priests

Responding to an appellate court order, a Los Angeles judge made public more documents Thursday in the criminal investigation of child molestation by Roman Catholic priests.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green ordered the documents released after a second secret hearing in three days with lawyers representing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, accused priests and Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.

The papers released to the media on Thursday confirm earlier reports that the lawyers had agreed to retain retired Judge Thomas F. Nuss to review objections made by the archdiocese in the criminal sex-abuse investigation. The January court orders say the archdiocese will pay Nuss $350 an hour.

Green was responding to a 2nd District Court of Appeal ruling last week. The Los Angeles Times asked the appellate court to make public documents that would shed light on the archdiocese’s fight to keep secret its personnel files on suspect priests.

Attorney Kelli L. Sager, who represents The Times, said she plans to ask the appellate court to force Green to release all of the orders.

“It is clear that the court is not in compliance with the Court of Appeal order and does not intend to comply,” she said.

Court officials on Wednesday released one redacted five-page order authorizing Nuss’ appointment. Later that day, they said they were uncertain whether all the documents involving his appointment had been made public.

Sager also objected to the redacting of the earlier released document, saying the appellate court did not order it.

Besides, she said, “it does get a little silly to redact things that the public already knows.” For instance, the word “priest” appears to have been blacked out.

The judge said he was following the appellate court ruling. He removed the words because “failure to redact such information would improperly disclose grand jury matters that are secret,” according to a minute order of Tuesday’s proceedings.

Attorney Donald F. Woods Jr., who represents the archdiocese, said the judge was required to protect those who come before the grand jury and may not be indicted.

“The Court of Appeal made it quite clear the names of witnesses and targets should be protected,” he said, and urged the same privacy rights against disclosure for the church as those protecting journalists from revealing their confidential news sources.