A state grand jury in Louisiana has indicted a retired Roman Catholic priest on a number of felony costs associated to claims that he sexually assaulted a teenage boy within the Seventies. The long-sought costs come after public allegations that leaders within the Archdiocese of New Orleans knew about accusations in opposition to the priest for many years.
The retired priest, Lawrence Hecker, 91, faces costs of aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime in opposition to nature and theft, the district legal professional of New Orleans, Jason Williams, mentioned in a news convention on Thursday.
“We’ve had to fight very vigorously through the courts and behind the scenes for disclosure of any and all information and evidence,” Mr. Williams mentioned, referring to a “cone of silence” that always protects clergy members.
The costs come months after The Guardian reported that Mr. Hecker confessed to his superiors within the archdiocese in 1999 that he had both sexually molested or dedicated different acts of sexual misconduct in opposition to a number of youngsters within the Sixties and ’70s. In a latest interview on digital camera with The Guardian and the New Orleans news outlet WWL-TV, Mr. Hecker acknowledged the accuracy of the assertion, wherein he wrote that he had dedicated “overtly sexual acts” with no less than three underage boys.
The Guardian reported that the final 4 archbishops in New Orleans had “substantial reason” to imagine Mr. Hecker had abused youngsters. Three stayed silent, and the present archbishop, Gregory Aymond, waited years earlier than publicly acknowledging Mr. Hecker’s historical past.
Mr. Hecker’s legal professional, Eugene Redmann, didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Hecker retired as a priest in 2002, and the archdiocese didn’t publicly determine him as an accused predator till 2018, when it launched an inventory of “credibly accused” clergymen within the archdiocese.
“Of all the pedophiles that the archdiocese hired and retained and concealed over these generations, Hecker is the one who’s emblematic of their failed practices and acts of self-preservation,” mentioned Soren Gisleson, a lawyer for the alleged sufferer whose claims kind the premise of the indictment.
“It wasn’t a fluke, it wasn’t a one-off,” Mr. Gisleson mentioned of Mr. Hecker’s alleged abuse. “It was chronic and sustained.”
In an announcement, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans mentioned the archdiocese had “reported Lawrence Hecker to law enforcement authorities in different jurisdictions multiples times since 2002,” and would proceed to cooperate with legislation enforcement.
Another alleged sufferer of Mr. Hecker’s, Aaron Hebert, has spoken publicly about his claims that the priest abused him within the late Sixties when he was in eighth grade at an elementary college outdoors New Orleans. Mr. Hebert has mentioned that Mr. Hecker took a number of college athletes into the church vestry to show “what a hernia examination would be like” in highschool sports activities settings. The priest advised the boys to drop their pants and underwear, and fondled them, Mr. Hebert has mentioned.
The New Orleans archdiocese filed for chapter in 2020 amid a flood of sexual abuse claims in opposition to dozens of former clergymen and church staff. It is amongst a couple of dozen dioceses and archdioceses which can be at the moment in chapter proceedings.
The chapter submitting triggered a sweeping confidentiality order that stored secret hundreds of church paperwork associated to clergy abuse in New Orleans. Lawyers, media retailers, and advocates for victims have urged the courts to unseal the paperwork, saying their secrecy impedes a whole accounting of abuses dedicated by Mr. Hecker.
Thousands of Catholic clergymen have been accused of sexual misconduct over the course of the far-reaching sexual abuse disaster within the American Catholic church, which exploded into public view within the early 2000s. But comparatively few clergy members have been topic to prison prosecution. Most of the accusations stem from occasions that passed off a long time in the past, and lots of the perpetrators have died or the statues of limitations have expired.
Source: www.nytimes.com