Judge: AG can’t force Seattle Archdiocese to give up sex abuse documents
Catalina Gaitán | Seattle Times | July 12th, 2024
A King County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that Washington’s Attorney General’s Office could not force the Seattle Archdiocese to turn over documents showing how the Catholic institution may have misused charitable funds to cover up sexual abuse allegations against church leaders.
Judge Michael Scott said the attorney general does not have the legal authority under the state’s Charitable Trust Act to investigate a religious organization’s conduct.
“That does not mean that this court by any means condones the conduct that the attorney general seeks to investigate,” Scott said. “There is no immunity given by the Charitable Trust exemption for the church or its priests or officials to engage in conduct that would violate the health and safety of the citizens of the state of Washington.”
Scott’s ruling was a blow to the group of survivors and advocates seated in the downtown Seattle courtroom and to Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who watched from the front row.
Outside the courtroom, a sometimes tearful Ferguson said he believed Scott “misapplied the law,” and pledged to appeal.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to go to these lengths to simply get these documents to see what’s going on,” said Ferguson, who is Catholic and currently running for governor. “But if that means we have to go all the way up to the state Supreme Court, that’s absolutely what we’re going to do.”
In a statement Friday, Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne said he took “no pleasure in today’s outcome.”
“Sexual abuse in the Church is a heart-wrenching part of our history, and I am deeply sorry,” his statement said. “My offer to collaborate with the attorney general still stands.”
Ferguson has said the Seattle Archdiocese has refused to cooperate with his office’s investigation, which also seeks to identify accused priests and determine the church’s role in keeping them in positions of power.
Ferguson’s office issued a round of subpoenas to the state’s three dioceses — Seattle, Spokane and Yakima — last summer and this spring. In May, he requested a hearing with a judge after saying the Seattle Archdiocese had refused to comply with the subpoena.
In a statement Friday, the Seattle Archdiocese said it was willing to provide Ferguson with “relevant and appropriate documents,” but was exempt under the Charitable Trust Act from any investigation by his office.
“The state should not become enmeshed with the conduct of religious institutions, which violates the principle of separation of church and state,” the statement said.
Friday’s ruling surprised Sharon Valdes Huling, a member of the Washington-based nonprofit Catholic Accountability Project.
“If the attorney general cannot investigate systemic abuse, what recourse is the public left with?” she said.
Valdes Huling was among a group of eight child sex abuse survivors and advocates who gathered Thursday in front of Seattle’s St. James Cathedral — Etienne’s parish, located across the street from the Seattle Archdiocese’s headquarters.
The group carried signs with messages such as, “The church is not above the law” and “Release the files!” Along the sidewalk they had lined 151 black-and-white photos of Catholic clergy who had been accused of sexual abuse. And by their feet rested two boxes containing more than 7,500 pages of what they described as “whistleblower documents.”
The group said Washingtonians who had survived child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy sent the documents to them after Ferguson announced his investigation. Among the records were personnel files, depositions, victim testimonies and internal church correspondence, said Sarah Pearson, a member of Catholic Accountability Project and international organization Ending Clergy Abuse.
“They demonstrate a pattern and practice and culture of abuse, torture, violence, production of child pornography,” Pearson said. “And when we say it’s an ongoing public safety issue, it really is.”
The group delivered the boxes on Thursday to Ferguson’s office in downtown Seattle, where a receptionist accepted them.
While delivering the boxes was a start, Mary Dispenza said the Seattle Archdiocese’s documents “need to be freed and released” to help survivors heal.
“[Etienne] has the power to do that, he’s the one that has the key to the locked vault,” she said. “Turn it and do the right thing.”
Catalina Gaitán: 206-464-8276 or cgaitan@seattletimes.com; Catalina Gaitán is a staff reporter for The Seattle Times.