Los Angeles Archdiocese: Priest abuse files
The former leader of the Los Angeles archdiocese, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, and a top advisor discussed ways to conceal the sexual abuse of children from law enforcement officials, according to internal church records released Monday.
In memos written to Mahony in 1986 and 1987 contained in personnel files for 14 priests and filed this month as evidence in a court case, his chief advisor on sex abuse cases proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted molesting young boys to church officials.
Full story: L.A. church leaders sought to hide sex abuse cases from authorities
— Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers and Harriet Ryan
By the spring of 2002, the file Cardinal Roger Mahony kept on Father Michael Baker had grown to more than 300 pages. Only a handful of people had ever laid eyes on it, and the cardinal thought it inconceivable that its damaging contents would ever become public.
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A letter from Cardinal Roger Mahony to Archbishop Jose H. Gomez giving the history and context of dealing with the sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
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Statement from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony regarding sexual abuse of minors by clergy
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Jan. 21, 2013
By Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers and Harriet Ryan
Michael Baker confessed to abusing boys to then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony in 1986, but was allowed to return to the ministry after receiving therapy. However, he went on to molest more children. Authorities believe that Baker molested at least 23 boys in his 26 years as a priest. He pleaded guilty in criminal court to sexually abusing two boys in 2007 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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Jan. 21, 2013
By Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers and Harriet Ryan
Michael Wempe admitted to sexually abusing 13 boys during his 36 years in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. At the end of a high-profile trial in which a series of victims recounted the priest’s abuses, he was convicted in 2006 of molesting one boy. He admitted to using a 12-year-old parishioner as what a church official called his “sex partner,” according to internal church records.
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Jan. 21, 2013
By Victoria Kim, Ashley Powers and Harriet Ryan
Peter Garcia told therapists that he had molested boys “on and off” since his ordination in 1966. He sexually abused up to 20 boys, including one he allegedly tied up and raped, according to church records. Many of his victims were undocumented immigrants from Mexico, and Garcia assured church officials they would not go to the authorities. Garcia left the priesthood in 1989. He died in 2009 without being prosecuted.
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