Clergy child sexual abuse probe targets New Orleans Catholic Church leaders who may have shielded predators

Investigators investigating sexual misconduct by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans have expanded their investigation to include higher-ranking church officials who may have shielded predatory priests for years without reporting their transgressions to the police.

The Louisiana State Police carried out a thorough search warrant against the Archdiocese of New Orleans last week. The warrant sought to unearth a covert cache of church records and letters between local church authorities and the Vatican concerning the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse cases.

The warrant also verified a concurrent FBI investigation into clergy sexual misconduct that was documented by The Associated Press almost two years prior. (AP Photo)The search marked a new phase in the investigation as it sought to ascertain the knowledge of certain church officials, including living and deceased archbishops, about accusations that were “overlooked and often concealed,” per the warrant.

Several new details about the investigation into sex-trafficking were disclosed by the warrant, including claims that some victims were sexually assaulted in a seminary pool after being told to “skinny dip.”

The warrant states that specific priests who preyed on victims devised a plan in which they would give “gifts” to the victims, who were then instructed to give them to other clergy members at various churches or schools.

In the affidavit supporting the warrant, state investigator Scott Rodrigue stated, “It was said that the ‘gift’ was a form of signaling to another priest that the person was a target for sexual abuse.”

A plethora of staff records, “files contained in any and all safes,” and reports and records detailing the degree of support the archdiocese gave to clergy members after their inclusion on the list of people considered “credibly accused” of misconduct were all demanded in the warrant.

The authorization also confirmed a concurrent FBI investigation, first made public by The Associated Press nearly twenty-four months ago, into the sexual misconduct of religious leaders.

The investigation has looked into whether clergy members have transported children across state lines in order to sexually abuse them.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond has consistently disregarded calls for resignation from victims of clergy abuse and declined to respond to a request for comment.

“No one and no institution is above the law, especially when we are talking about protecting children from the horrors of child sexual abuse,” Kathryn Robb stated, who is the executive director for Child USAdvocacy, which is a nonprofit that’s advocating on behalf of alleged child sexual abuse victims. “This warrant is the necessary muscle of the criminal system to protect children.”

A flurry of sexual abuse cases produced a number of highly contentious church documents, which prompted the archdiocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection four years ago.

A broad confidentiality decree in the bankruptcy proceedings has protected the records, which include conversations with suspected clergy members, decades’ worth of allegations of misconduct, and a history of church officials moving troubled priests around. This has hampered both federal and state investigations.

“We have been forced, against our own professional obligations, to keep them secret,” lawyers John Denenea, Richard Trahant, and Soren Gisleson said, who are representing the alleged victims.

The investigation could put church officials in greater legal jeopardy by raising the possibility of state court charges while the US Justice Department works to identify federal offenses related to clergy sexual misconduct.

A grand jury in Orleans Parish had filed charges against 92-year-old former clergyman Lawrence Hecker last year for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage boy in 1975. The archdiocese was the subject of a more thorough investigation last week as a result of this historic legal action.

Hecker has pled not guilty to charges of robbery, severe offense against nature, abduction, and sexual assault.

The defendant is accused of choking the teenager while feigning to perform a wrestling move, rendering him unconscious, and then participating in sexual misconduct.

Until Hecker quietly left the clergy in 2002, the archdiocese failed to report to the relevant authorities the confessions he had made while he was in close contact with children.

The warrant states that even after Hecker was declared a pedophile and admitted to a Pennsylvania mental health facility, church officials had him relocated.

“Hecker was not the only member of the archdiocese sent to receive psychiatric testing based on allegations of child sexual abuse,” Rodrigue put in the warrant.

Prosecutors face difficult legal and evidence challenges in the aftermath of the Hecker case, as they negotiate the politically sensitive terrain of charging a well-respected clergyman in New Orleans, a predominantly Catholic community.

The importance of the recent investigation is increased by the fact that several predatory priests in Louisiana have avoided legal consequences for similar reasons.

A prominent case occurred in 2019 concerning George F. Brignac, a revered deacon and teacher, who was charged with having sexually abused an altar boy in the 1970s.

At the age of 85, Brignac passed away in 2020 while awaiting trial after entering a not guilty plea.

Numerous confidential emails pertaining to the New Orleans Saints’ clandestine PR campaigns in 2018 and 2019 to handle the fallout from clergy abuse scandals were made public during Brignac’s legal proceedings.