Morganelli seeks release of diocesan sex abuse report from grand jury

moncler sale Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli is calling on the state District Attorney’s Association to petition for the release of https://www.moncler-jacket-outlet.com a two year state grand jury buy moncler jackets investigation into sexual abuse by priests and others in six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses, including Allentown. moncler sale

moncler outlet uk The Supreme Court on June 20 blocked the report’s release, which was expected at the end of June. moncler outlet uk

moncler sale outlet The court’s order came cheap moncler outlet after about two dozen unnamed people, including current and former clergy, challenged the release, arguing that naming people who have not been charged with crimes would damage their reputations moncler outlet online in violation of cheap moncler the state constitution. The challenge also questioned whether the report adheres monlcer down jackets to the grand jury law. moncler sale outlet

moncler jackets outlet In a news conference Monday, Morganelli said those filings put the grand jury process under assault and if they’re successful, would wipe out the grand jury as a corruption fighting tool. moncler jackets outlet

“The petitioners’ demands in these cases would essentially eradicate the grand jury cheap moncler coats report as an instrument of accountability for public and private institutions,” Morganelli said.

In their briefs, the unnamed petitioners raised fundamental questions about the grand jury process, including whether naming a person criticized, but not criminally charged, is constitutional; cheap moncler sale whether a supervising judge has the ability to cheap moncler jackets edit moncler outlet a grand jury’s report; whether moncler sale the Grand Jury Act violates the right to due process; and whether individuals have the right to cross examine witnesses before a grand jury, he said.

Grand juries, Morganelli noted, have played moncler sale outlet “a vital role in highlighting important issues” such as waste and abuse at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s abortion center in Philadelphia and the incinerator project that devastated Harrisburg’s finances.

cheap moncler jackets Lawyers for nine news organizations including The Morning Call countered the unnamed clergy’s argument in court papers last week, saying state law requires public release of the report. cheap moncler jackets

Siding with the media outlets, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a court filing last week, “Hundreds of victims, thousands of parishioners and many members of the community are awaiting the report. The longer moncler outlet sale it is held, the greater the risk of undermining public confidence in the judicial system.”

cheap moncler jackets sale The state’s highest court ordered lawyers for both sides to lay out their arguments in briefs this week. cheap moncler jackets sale

These priests have been accused in court cases or published reports over the past two decades. This listing includes summaries of their cases and their status with the Allentown Diocese.

moncler outlet jackets The Rev. Thomas Bender, former pastor of Most Blessed Sacrament in Bally, was sentenced to seven years’ probation. moncler outlet jackets

Morganelli also said Monday that his office has an active investigation into the activities of an Allentown Diocese priest, which came after a lawsuit was filed against a priest in Bath. He did not name the priest.

moncler outlet The Allentown Diocese removed from ministry Monsignor Francis Nave, pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Bath, after a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia on June 26 alleged that Nave encouraged a 16 year old he was counseling via online video to take his clothes off and perform sex acts, beginning in 2011. moncler outlet

moncler outlet online Morganelli said he did not contact the Allentown Diocese about the grand jury report. moncler outlet online

Morganelli, a past president of the District Attorneys Association, suggested an emergency meeting of the organization to pressure the Supreme Court to release the grand jury report.

moncler outlet sale Richard W. Long, executive director of the association, said the organization would need around 48 hours to decide what action, if any, it should take. moncler outlet sale

cheap moncler outlet Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin has no plans to take action on the grand jury report, a spokeswoman said. cheap moncler outlet

moncler outlet store Morganelli said the process worked well in 2016 when a grand jury moncler outlet store detailing allegations of sexual abuse in the Altoona Johnston Diocese was made public, revealing claims against about 50 priests and an alleged cover up by church officials. moncler outlet store

Five years before that, the second of two grand juries investigating the Philadelphia Archdiocese concluded, uncovering unreported sexual abuse allegations against more than 60 priests.

cheap moncler Those two dioceses were the only two excluded from the current investigation, which covers Allentown as well as the Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton dioceses. cheap moncler

moncler jacket sale In 2002, Morganelli joined district attorneys from the five counties comprising the Allentown Diocese Lehigh, Berks, Carbon, Northampton and Schuylkill in reviewing reviewed diocesan files, amid an international sex abuse scandal in the church. All of the Moncler Outlet abuses cases found in those filed had exceeded the statute of limitations by that time, the district attorneys said then. moncler jacket sale

Morganelli is fresh off a similar fight for disclosure. Earlier this year, he successfully countered the Pennsylvania State Police’s attempt to suppress a Northampton County grand jury report critical of the state police’s handling of an investigation into the 2017 shooting death of a Lower Mount Bethel Township individual by two troopers.

The fight to make the report public also involves victims. In a filing last week, a Lancaster County man who said he was molested by a Harrisburg Diocese priest in the 1980s, said in a court petition that keeping the report secret has added to victims’s trauma.

“The emotional trauma of being silenced as a youth is now exacerbated by the [Supreme] Court’s June 20 order, which replicates and continues that silencing,” Todd Frey said in the filing.

moncler factory outlet In addition to The Morning Call, the media groups petitioning for the release are: The Associated Press; LNP Media Group in Lancaster; Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News; NBC Philadelphia affiliate WCAU TV: PG Publishing Co., which publishes the Pittsburgh Post Gazette; PA Media Group, which publishes The Patriot News in Harrisburg; Telemundo Mid Atlantic; and Philadelphia public broadcaster WHYY Inc moncler factory outlet.