Clergy abuse survivors want documents open to public

ST. LOUIS -- The Archdiocese of St. Louis is suing a law firm that handles clergy sex abuse cases, claiming it is improperly circulating confidential documents related to eight current or former priests.

At a news conference Tuesday, members of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests said they were outraged by the lawsuit. SNAP members instead urged the church to embrace transparency as a necessary part of healing. The support group for abuse victims said the lawyers had done nothing wrong.

Meanwhile Tuesday, a new lawsuit was filed against a former priest in the St. Louis area, Donald "Duck" Straub, for allegedly abusing a boy in 1977.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press and other news outlets reported that parents came forward in the 1970s alleging sexual abuse by Straub, prompting a confession signed by Straub in 1978 and witnessed by Bishop John Wurm, who is now deceased. However, Straub was allowed to continue serving parishes for more than a decade after that, SNAP has said.

SNAP outreach director Barbara Dorris said the archdiocese's move to keep documents away from public scrutiny is an attempt to protect church authorities who covered up the problem or transferred offenders to other parishes.

The archdiocese filed suit May 11 against the law firm of Chackes, Carlson, Spritzer and Ghio. The firm says it has represented about 75 people in the St. Louis area in clergy abuse cases.

The archdiocese said the firm's lawyers shared personnel and medical documents with third parties, including a reporter for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The suit seeks to prohibit the law firm from such disclosures.

An assistant managing editor for the Post-Dispatch, Adam Goodman, noted that the newspaper is not a party in the lawsuit. However, he said the newspaper had filed a legal memo voicing concern about the possibility that the action could become prior restraint of the press.

He said the newspaper was not indicating whether it had received documents.