'The Keepers' women join fight to publicize report of child sex abuse within Archdiocese of Baltimore, The Baltimore Banner reports
BALTIMORE - Two women featured in the Netflix mini-series are helping in the fight to make public the investigation into child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, our media partners at The Baltimore Banner report.
The legal fight is to expose the accused priests and church leaders named in the 456-page report that alleges sexual abuse of nearly 600 children spanning over decades.
The Baltimore Banner reports that lawyers featured in the 2017 documentary, "The Keepers," filed a motion on Wednesday in Baltimore Circuit Court to disclose the state's investigation.
"Not only are we in support of the report being released, but we want all the names not to be redacted," said Kurt Wolfgang, executive director of the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, who filed the motion along with his colleague, Victor Stone, according to the Baltimore Banner.
The Baltimore Banner reports the attorneys to represent Jean Hargadon Wehner and Teresa Lancaster, two of the women who say they were raped and sexually assaulted in the 1960s and 1970s by the Rev. A. Joseph Maskell, the chaplain and counselor at the now-shuttered Archbishop Keough High School in Southwest Baltimore, as well as another priest at the school.
"The Keepers is a seven-episode Netflix series that explores the unsolved murder of nun Catherine Cesnik in 1969. Cesnik taught English and drama at Baltimore's all-girls Archbishop Keough High School, according to IMBD. Her former students believe that there was a cover-up by authorities after she suspected that a priest at the high school, A. Joseph Maskell, was guilty of sexually abusing students.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore covered up decades of child sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests, the Maryland Attorney General's Office alleged in a court filing.
The state's top prosecutor filed a motion seeking approval from the Circuit Court of Baltimore City to release its 456-page report on abuse in the diocese to the public.
The report allegedly identifies 158 priests and over 600 victims in the diocese since 1940.
"For decades, survivors reported sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests and for decades the Church covered up the abuse rather than holding the abusers accountable and protecting its congregations," Attorney General Brian Frosh said in a statement. "The Archdiocese of Baltimore was no exception."
The Attorney General's Office said the report summarizes the sexual abuse and physical torture perpetrated by all 158 of the identified priests who allegedly carried out sexual abuse on both boys and girls ranging in age from preschool to young adulthood.
"The investigation also revealed the Archdiocese failed to report many allegations, conduct adequate investigations, remove abusers, or restrict their access to children," the motion states. "Instead it went to great lengths to keep the abuse secret. While the archdiocese reported a large number of allegations to police, especially in later years, for decades it worked to ensure that the perpetrators would not face justice."