Sexual abuse survivors call for restart of cases tied to Baltimore Archdiocese
BALTIMORE -- Lawyers representing some sex abuse victims tied to the Archdiocese of Baltimore are calling on prosecutors to restart criminal investigations against those named in the Maryland Attorney General's recent report.
That report, released nearly two weeks ago, named more than 150 accused abusers. They're mostly clergy and church staff.
Baltimore attorney Thiru Vignarajah is now representing four victims, alonging Kurt Wolfgang. They want prosecutors to criminally charge the accused abusers who are still alive.
On Tuesday, They say their clients are ready.
"The people we represent are prepared to come back in, to testify under oath, to appear before a grand jury, to provide sworn statements," Vignarajah said. "Those are the kinds of evidence that you need to mount an investigation and a prosecution."
Both Vignarajah and Wolfgang say the charges they're calling for, like rape, are felonies. With felonies having no statute of limitations in Maryland, they say these cases are even more overdue.
"I think we were all very proud of the fact that the United States pursued perpetrators of the Holocaust until they were in their 90's. The same should be true here," Wolfgang, executive director of the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, said.
Ten credible abusers named have been redacted in the report, among other redactions.
Abuse survivor Teresa Lancaster renewed her call for redactions to be lifted. In an online FAQ, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said the redactions were made by the AG's Office request.
However, in response, the AG's Office said the church is free to release those names anytime.
"These people are among us. We need to protect other people from being harmed. I'm just asking the church to do the right thing, release the names and shed some light on this situation," Lancaster said.
No more than an hour after Vignarajah and Wolfgang held their press conference, a church sex abuse survivor from out-of-state also spoke to put pressure on the archdiocese.
Dr. Robert Hoatson, who is also a former priest, called on the archdiocese to release "secret archives or files."
He and Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who's represented church sex abuse victims for decades, say these archives could provide even more information on abuse.
Canon Law, the laws governing the Catholic Church, detail the rules and requirements for secret archives.
"Attorney General Brown mentioned that he had gotten thousands of documents when they first were doing the investigation, but there could be thousands more in these secret files," Hoatsen said.
WJZ asked the archdiocese about these secret archives. A spokesman said nothing was withheld from the AG's Office and they gave access to all documents.