New Jersey
Catholic bishop says diocese will no longer oppose investigation into abuse allegations
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — The Catholic bishop of a New Jersey diocese said he would no longer oppose a state grand jury investigation of clergy sexual abuse that the church has been fighting behind closed doors in court for years.
It’s not clear, however, that the grand jury investigation will go forward because the state Supreme Court is already considering the diocese’s earlier argument against seating one.
Camden Bishop Joseph Williams, who took over the diocese in March, told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday the diocese no longer wants to prevent the attorney general’s office from seating a grand jury to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by priests and other religious officials.
Williams told the newspaper it was important to help those harmed by the church and that he doesn’t want to stop their voices from being heard.
“Our people need to hear this, the clergy needs to hear this, so that it never happens again, first of all,” Williams said.
A message seeking comment Tuesday was left with the diocese.
The change comes a week after attorneys for the diocese argued before the state Supreme Court that prosecutors did not have the authority under court rules to use a grand jury to investigate private church officials. Instead, the lawyers argued, the rule requires grand jury presentments to tackle public officials and government.
The high court has not yet issued an opinion on the arguments. It’s not immediately clear how the bishop’s new position would affect their ruling and whether the court might side with the diocese’s previous position.
The state attorney general’s office said in an emailed statement Tuesday that it welcomes the “introspection that produced this shift in the Diocese of Camden’s position.”
The statement pointed out that prosecutors are still subject to lower court orders that blocked the investigation.
Mark Crawford, state director of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said in a text message Tuesday that the change was “long overdue.”
“We are cautiously optimistic as this is certainly the right thing to do and for the right reasons,” he said. “This should have happened long ago and seeing Bishop Williams take a different approach is encouraging.”
The issue dates to a Pennsylvania grand jury report in 2018 that found more than 1,000 children had been abused in that state since the 1940s, prompting the New Jersey attorney general to announce a similar investigation.
But the results of New Jersey’s inquiry never became public partly because a legal battle led by the Diocese of Camden was unfolding behind closed doors amid sealed proceedings.
Then, this year the Bergen Record obtained records disclosing a trial court’s judgment in favor of the diocese and revealing the diocese’s objection to the grand jury. And in March, the Supreme Court ordered more documents in the case unsealed.
The core disagreement is over whether a court rule permits grand juries in New Jersey to issue findings in cases involving private individuals. Trial and appellate courts found for the diocese.
In oral arguments, Supreme Court justices at times sounded skeptical of the diocese’s then-position that the grand jury investigation would amount to a condemnation of the church and its officials.
“We don’t know what a grand jury would say, am I right?” Justice Anne Patterson asked at the time.
Minnesota
DOJ plans to investigate prosecutor’s office in most populous county
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation of the prosecutor’s office in Minnesota’s most populous county after its leader directed her staff to consider racial disparities as one factor when negotiating plea deals.
Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican lawyer who’s the new director of the agency’s Civil Rights Division, announced the investigation in a social media post Saturday night.
Dhillon posted a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, dated Friday. It said the investigation would focus on whether Moriarty’s office “engages in the illegal consideration of race in its prosecutorial decision-making.”
The letter, released to The Associated Press by the Justice Department on Monday, said the investigation was triggered by a new policy adopted by the county attorney that has come under conservative fire in recent weeks.
That policy, which was leaked to local media last month, says racial disparities harm the community, so prosecutors should consider the “whole person, including their racial identity and age,” as part of their overall analysis.
Moriarty’s office got the Justice Department letter via email on Monday, the county attorney’s spokesperson, Daniel Borgertpoepping, said in a statement.
“Our office will cooperate with any resulting investigation and we’re fully confident our policy complies with the law,” he said.
Moriarty, a former public defender, was elected in 2022 as the Minneapolis area and the country were still reeling from the death of George Floyd, a Black man, under the knee of a white officer. She promised to make police more accountable and change the culture of a prosecutors’ office that she believed had long overemphasized punishment without addressing the root causes of crime.
The federal inquiry will be a “pattern or practice” investigation, Bondi’s letter said. That’s the same kind of probe that the Justice Department conducted of the Minneapolis Police Department following the murder of Floyd nearly five years ago.
That process led to an agreement in January between the Biden administration’s Justice Department and the city on a consent decree to mandate changes to the police department’s training and use-of-force policies that are meant to reduce racial disparities in policing. However, the agreement still requires approval by a federal judge.
After taking office later in January, President Donald Trump’s administration froze civil rights litigation and suggested it may reconsider the Minneapolis agreement and a similar one with Louisville, Kentucky.
Trump took a step further last month when he signed an executive order directing the attorney general to review all ongoing federal consent decrees with law enforcement agencies and “modify, rescind, or move to conclude such measures that unduly impede the performance of law enforcement functions.”
The Justice Department had already asked the court to pause its decision on the Minneapolis agreement while Dhillon reviews the matter. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson has given the agency until May 21. Louisville’s consent decree is similarly on hold.
Catholic bishop says diocese will no longer oppose investigation into abuse allegations
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — The Catholic bishop of a New Jersey diocese said he would no longer oppose a state grand jury investigation of clergy sexual abuse that the church has been fighting behind closed doors in court for years.
It’s not clear, however, that the grand jury investigation will go forward because the state Supreme Court is already considering the diocese’s earlier argument against seating one.
Camden Bishop Joseph Williams, who took over the diocese in March, told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday the diocese no longer wants to prevent the attorney general’s office from seating a grand jury to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by priests and other religious officials.
Williams told the newspaper it was important to help those harmed by the church and that he doesn’t want to stop their voices from being heard.
“Our people need to hear this, the clergy needs to hear this, so that it never happens again, first of all,” Williams said.
A message seeking comment Tuesday was left with the diocese.
The change comes a week after attorneys for the diocese argued before the state Supreme Court that prosecutors did not have the authority under court rules to use a grand jury to investigate private church officials. Instead, the lawyers argued, the rule requires grand jury presentments to tackle public officials and government.
The high court has not yet issued an opinion on the arguments. It’s not immediately clear how the bishop’s new position would affect their ruling and whether the court might side with the diocese’s previous position.
The state attorney general’s office said in an emailed statement Tuesday that it welcomes the “introspection that produced this shift in the Diocese of Camden’s position.”
The statement pointed out that prosecutors are still subject to lower court orders that blocked the investigation.
Mark Crawford, state director of Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said in a text message Tuesday that the change was “long overdue.”
“We are cautiously optimistic as this is certainly the right thing to do and for the right reasons,” he said. “This should have happened long ago and seeing Bishop Williams take a different approach is encouraging.”
The issue dates to a Pennsylvania grand jury report in 2018 that found more than 1,000 children had been abused in that state since the 1940s, prompting the New Jersey attorney general to announce a similar investigation.
But the results of New Jersey’s inquiry never became public partly because a legal battle led by the Diocese of Camden was unfolding behind closed doors amid sealed proceedings.
Then, this year the Bergen Record obtained records disclosing a trial court’s judgment in favor of the diocese and revealing the diocese’s objection to the grand jury. And in March, the Supreme Court ordered more documents in the case unsealed.
The core disagreement is over whether a court rule permits grand juries in New Jersey to issue findings in cases involving private individuals. Trial and appellate courts found for the diocese.
In oral arguments, Supreme Court justices at times sounded skeptical of the diocese’s then-position that the grand jury investigation would amount to a condemnation of the church and its officials.
“We don’t know what a grand jury would say, am I right?” Justice Anne Patterson asked at the time.
Minnesota
DOJ plans to investigate prosecutor’s office in most populous county
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation of the prosecutor’s office in Minnesota’s most populous county after its leader directed her staff to consider racial disparities as one factor when negotiating plea deals.
Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican lawyer who’s the new director of the agency’s Civil Rights Division, announced the investigation in a social media post Saturday night.
Dhillon posted a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, dated Friday. It said the investigation would focus on whether Moriarty’s office “engages in the illegal consideration of race in its prosecutorial decision-making.”
The letter, released to The Associated Press by the Justice Department on Monday, said the investigation was triggered by a new policy adopted by the county attorney that has come under conservative fire in recent weeks.
That policy, which was leaked to local media last month, says racial disparities harm the community, so prosecutors should consider the “whole person, including their racial identity and age,” as part of their overall analysis.
Moriarty’s office got the Justice Department letter via email on Monday, the county attorney’s spokesperson, Daniel Borgertpoepping, said in a statement.
“Our office will cooperate with any resulting investigation and we’re fully confident our policy complies with the law,” he said.
Moriarty, a former public defender, was elected in 2022 as the Minneapolis area and the country were still reeling from the death of George Floyd, a Black man, under the knee of a white officer. She promised to make police more accountable and change the culture of a prosecutors’ office that she believed had long overemphasized punishment without addressing the root causes of crime.
The federal inquiry will be a “pattern or practice” investigation, Bondi’s letter said. That’s the same kind of probe that the Justice Department conducted of the Minneapolis Police Department following the murder of Floyd nearly five years ago.
That process led to an agreement in January between the Biden administration’s Justice Department and the city on a consent decree to mandate changes to the police department’s training and use-of-force policies that are meant to reduce racial disparities in policing. However, the agreement still requires approval by a federal judge.
After taking office later in January, President Donald Trump’s administration froze civil rights litigation and suggested it may reconsider the Minneapolis agreement and a similar one with Louisville, Kentucky.
Trump took a step further last month when he signed an executive order directing the attorney general to review all ongoing federal consent decrees with law enforcement agencies and “modify, rescind, or move to conclude such measures that unduly impede the performance of law enforcement functions.”
The Justice Department had already asked the court to pause its decision on the Minneapolis agreement while Dhillon reviews the matter. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson has given the agency until May 21. Louisville’s consent decree is similarly on hold.
