Criminal
Jun. 19, 2002
Priests' Lawyer Tries Quashing DA's Subpoena
LOS ANGELES - A lawyer for three priests accused of sexual abuse will ask a Superior Court judge today to bar the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese from turning over records subpoenaed by a grand jury on "technical grounds," Donald H. Steier said yesterday afternoon.
"You'll find out tomorrow," Steier said.
Steier refused to disclose the grounds for his objections, noting only that they would be similar to those he made successfully on behalf of an unnamed client he represented in connection with the district attorney's investigation into the Los Angeles Unified School District's Belmont Learning Center.
"I can only say we have made these objections in other cases, and they were upheld," Steier said.
Steier's role in the church abuse scandal has been controversial because he claims he does not represent the church but only its priests and nuns - despite numerous questions about the alignment of his interests and those of the church. In addition, the archdiocese consistently has blamed Steier for its inability to turn over the documents.
Joseph Scott, spokesman for the district attorney's office, declined to comment on Steier's motion. Michael Hennigan, lawyer for the archdiocese, could not be reached for comment.
In the Belmont case, Steier was able to quash the subpoena on a technicality because a bank gave the grand jury financial records of his client before notifying the client, according to a source. Belmont, the nation's most expensive high school, was left unfinished on a former oil field west of downtown because of fears of methane gas.
In 1995, Steier also used privacy rights on behalf of a priest, the Rev. Theodore Llanos. The district attorney had subpoenaed Llanos' personnel files in conjunction with allegations he molested more than two dozen boys in a 20-year period. The subpoena was quashed. Charges against Llanos later were thrown out of court. Llanos later killed himself.
Law enforcement is said to be investigating as many as 30 current or former priests from the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese for sexual misconduct. Many of the allegations are decades old but resurfaced earlier this year as the Catholic Church was rocked by the clerical sexual abuse scandal.
A grand jury empaneled by District Attorney Steve Cooley subpoenaed the records last week, after more than three months of requesting the archdiocese to voluntarily turn them over. California law requires allegations of sexual abuse to be reported to local authorities.
The subpoena requests all "investigative files concerning child molestation and sexual abuse" related to three current or former priests, Hennigan of Hennigan Bennett & Dorman said last week. The church was given until today to turn them over.
The priests are Michael Stephen Baker, who retired in 2000, after a $1.3 million settlement was paid to two of his victims; Michael Wempe, who was forced out of the ministry on old allegations of misconduct, after the Baker settlement; and David Granadino, who was placed on leave earlier this year, when allegations surfaced against him.
On Friday, Steier complained that he had not seen the subpoenas or the files and that the church was not giving him a chance to make objections. He got little sympathy from the archdiocese, though.
"He's going to have to persuade somebody besides us," Hennigan said, when asked whether he planned to give Steier a chance to look over the files before they are given to authorities.
But according to Steier, the archdiocese did deliver the documents to him this weekend.
The archdiocese has complained that it wanted to turn over the documents all along but was prevented from doing so by Steier.
That notion was rejected by victims of alleged priest abuse, who believe Steier has acted as a puppet for the church.
Baker said earlier this year that he told Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and a church lawyer in 1986 that he had molested boys. Nevertheless, the priest said he was allowed to continue in the ministry.
Similarly, the cardinal admitted that he sent Wempe to work at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center without notifying hospital officials even though he knew the priest was accused of sexual abuse 14 years ago.
On Friday, Hennigan said the archdiocese was glad to finally receive the subpoenas and was eager to comply.
"We don't view this as being forced to do it at all," he said "We are anxious to see some of these priests prosecuted, and we are pleased to have found a forum so these documents can be turned over to the grand jury."
Legal experts cast doubt on Steier's success in the instant.
"There is no legal privilege that I'm aware of to withhold personnel files once they are ordered by a grand jury," Loyola Law School professor Laurie L. Levenson said.
Steven Kaplan, a labor lawyer, said the California Supreme Court steadily has whittled away at the privileges that can be asserted on personnel records.
"That privilege is just not as strong as, say, your right to free speech or to practice your religion," Kaplan said.
David Houston
david_houston@dailyjournal.com
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