Boston Archdiocese to give prosecutors abuse victims' names

BOSTON -- Under pressure from prosecutors, the Archdiocese of Boston agreed Friday to turn over the names of people allegedly molested by priests and details of the incidents.

The agreement -- reached in the middle of the biggest child-molestation scandal to rock the nation's Roman Catholic Church -- moves prosecutors a step closer to bringing criminal charges, in least in cases where the statute of limitations has not run out.

In the past month, the archdiocese has given prosecutors the names of about 80 priests suspected of abusing children over the past four decades. But the information did not include dates, places or victims' names, prompting complaints from prosecutors who said they needed the information to investigate.

On Friday the church relented, reportedly after Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly threatened the archdiocese with a grand jury investigation.

Reilly announced the agreement after meeting with lawyers for the archdiocese and district attorneys from five Boston-area counties.

'Crimes against children'

"What we have to deal with at this point and what my colleagues have to deal with are decades of unreported crimes against children," he said.

Church lawyers left the meeting without speaking to reporters. Calls to the archdiocese and its lawyers were not immediately returned.

Up until Friday, church officials said they were unable to release the victims' names because they were bound in many cases by confidentiality agreements under civil court settlements with the accusers. But prosecutors said such agreements are void if their effect is to hide a crime.

Reilly said the church has agreed to free victims from the confidentiality agreements and hand over dates and other details of alleged assaults. In cases that are covered by confidentiality agreements, investigators will be given the names of the alleged victims' lawyers.

Church officials have two weeks to turn over what they know. It will then take time to work their way through the cases.

"This does not mean that this will necessarily be a quick process," Essex County District Attorney Kevin Burke said.

Reilly also said the state's statute of limitations could make it difficult to prosecute some of the cases.

Limits for charges

The statute of limitations for indecent assault and battery is six years. In 1996, the statute of limitations for raping a child was extended to 15 years, starting from the alleged victim's 16th birthday or the first report to law enforcement, whichever came first.

Before 1996, the statute of limitations for child rape was 10 years. If the 10-year period had not expired by 1996, the alleged victim was given an extra five years tacked on to the original 10.

In the past month, Cardinal Bernard Law has suspended 10 priests after announcing a new zero-tolerance policy for abuse.

The new policy of reporting priests to authorities came after it was reported that the archdiocese had simply shuttled now-defrocked priest John Geoghan from parish to parish despite child-molestation allegations against him.

Geoghan is serving a nine-to-10 year prison sentence for fondling a 10-year-old boy, and faces two more criminal trials and 80 lawsuits.