Police execute search warrant at Catholic Diocese of Dallas…
The Dallas diocese was ground zero for the nation’s clergy sex-abuse crisis more than two decades ago.
http://archive.today/2019.05.16-143436/https://apnews.com/3277f30dc5f742e4bae23b099bef7679
DALLAS (AP) — Investigators who were “thwarted” during earlier investigations of child sexual abuse by priests on Wednesday searched the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas to obtain evidence of sexual misconduct, according to a police commander and police records. Investigators searched the diocesan headquarters, a storage unit it uses and the offices of a church, police Maj. Max Geron told reporters. “We believe at this point that the execution of the search warrants was wholly appropriate for the furtherance of the investigation at this point,” Geron said. The events began last August with the investigation of Edmundo Paredes , a former priest who is believed to have fled Texas following claims that he abused three teenagers. That investigation resulted in allegations of abuse by others, Geron said.
Copies of the warrants refer to the 70-year-old Paredes and four others. All five were named in a report released in January by the diocese that identified former priests credibly accused of sexually assaulting a child. Paredes is suspended from the diocese; the other four are suspended, on leave, retired or removed from the ministry. Police Detective David Clark in an affidavit supporting the warrants described a diocese that wasn’t forthcoming with critical files and relied on personnel to identify predatory behavior when they had no background or training to do so. Investigators in a meeting with diocesan attorneys in January requested the number of priests’ files that were flagged for sexual abuse, Clark wrote in the affidavit. But the attorneys wouldn’t provide the number, arguing that it was “privileged” information. Clark later wrote that he was given incomplete and inaccurate files, despite “assurances” to the contrary from priests and church lawyers. The detective said his efforts to obtain records that likely contained information on the alleged sexual abuse of children “were thwarted.”