NEW ORLEANS — The criminal investigation into child sexual molestation in New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese has entered a major new phase, as a judge ordered the church to turn over records showing how it responded to abuse allegations over the last several decades.
The order signed Monday seeks files that would identify every priest and deacon accused of molesting children while working in the US’ second-oldest archdiocese, when those complaints were first made and if the church ever turned all of those cases over to police, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Copies of Archbishop Aymond's communcation with Vatican sought
More telling of the significance of the inquiry, police are also demanding copies of all communications among New Orleans’ current archbishop, Gregory Aymond, his aides and their superiors at the Vatican, those sources said.
It appears to be the first time that authorities investigating the New Orleans archdiocese’s role in the decades-old, worldwide Catholic clerical child molestation scandal have gone after the full set of abuse-related documents in the local church’s possession.
"As always, the archdiocese will continue to cooperate in all law enforcement investigations," an archdiocese spokesman said.
In the rare cases where clergymen involved in the New Orleans-area scandal have been prosecuted – or even convicted – of child rape or molestation, investigators have generally focused on documents related to the individual defendants and their direct superiors.
Now, by essentially seeking the entire paper trail generated by the scandal, investigators could also learn what top church officials in Rome knew of the breadth of abuse at the local level in New Orleans.
Abuse victims' attorney reacts to state police investigating clergy abuse
Major report on Catholic clergy abuse in N.O. could be coming
It also introduces the possibility that authorities could one day produce a watershed report about the extent of Catholic clergy molestation in New Orleans as detailed as ones published previously by prosecutors in states such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Louisiana state police investigators sought Monday’s order from New Orleans criminal court judge Juana Lombard after reviewing documents, witness statements and other materials uncovered as part of a pending rape case they are helping local prosecutors pursue against retired priest Lawrence Hecker, the sources added.
Hecker was first confronted about rape allegations by the late archbishop Philip Hannan in 1988. But Hecker later told the Guardian and WWL Louisiana that Hannan accepted his assurances that he wouldn’t do it again and allowed him to remain in ministry.
Hecker was later clinically diagnosed as a pedophile, according to secret church records obtained by the Guardian – and he admitted to church leaders in a 1999 written statement that he had molested or sexually harassed at least seven children. However, once again, the church allowed Hecker to remain in ministry and he retired with full benefits in 2002.
Records obtained by the news outlets indicate the archdiocese reported a single allegation of sexual abuse against Hecker to the New Orleans police department in 2002, even though the alleged crime unfolded in another state, outside the agency’s jurisdiction.
The archdiocese did not notify the public that Hecker was a suspected abuser until it released a list of more than 50 credibly accused clergy in 2018.
That disclosure – which has since grown to include more than 70 names – didn’t mention the fact that Hecker had already admitted several crimes. And clerical abuse survivors as well as their advocates have long argued that the list has omitted dozens of clergymen who should be on there.
Furthermore, the church didn’t cancel Hecker’s benefits until after it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020, having been swamped with lawsuits seeking damages over clergy abuse.
Investigation into Hecker led to this order
In a sworn statement provided Monday to Lombard, state troopers said their investigation into Hecker and the archdiocese’s management of him had led them to suspect the church knew of widespread abuse but failed to properly report it.
Some of that abuse appears to have involved clergymen who had committed acts of child molestation that remain prosecutable.
The warrant signed Monday, though, stops short of naming any archdiocesan bureaucrats who may be under criminal investigation for covering up child rape and other abuse by rank-and-file clergymen under the command of Aymond, New Orleans’ archbishop since 2009.
Hecker’s case is unresolved. The 92-year-old priest has been incarcerated for eight months on charges of rape, kidnapping, crimes against nature and theft. But he was moved to a long-term care facility in February.
A panel of psychiatrists recently issued a report saying Hecker is mentally incompetent to stand trial at the moment, though a judge has not immediately accepted or rejected that finding.
Nonetheless, state troopers obtained Monday’s warrant after New Orleans district attorney Jason Williams said his office was committed to exploring the possibility of criminal charges against anyone who had a hand in delaying the prosecution against Hecker or any other clergy suspected of abuse.
“Anyone conspiring to cover up hurting children and hiding behind a veil of an institution will be found and found out and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Williams said during a news conference after Hecker’s indictment in September.
“We've always believed that we, as prosecutors, should not be deprived of evidence of a crime simply due to the reputation of the subject in question,” Williams added. “Historically, these matters have gone uninvestigated or reached multiple dead ends due to the cone of silence and protection too often afforded to those who were wrongly placed in positions of trust and confidence.”
Hecker’s alleged rape victim reported his allegations to his high school immediately in 1975 and received psychiatric treatment from the school but it was never reported to police, according to his attorney. He reported the allegations directly to the FBI in June 2022.
Earlier that year, the FBI had launched a broad probe of possible violations of federal law by clergy who took children across state lines to have sex.
Federal prosecutors have so far not filed any charges in connection with that investigation. But state police troopers assisting the FBI in that investigation decided to pursue a state-level case against Hecker individually through Williams’ office when it became clear he had acknowledged his history of child molestation but – unlike a small number of colleagues of his – had been protected from any substantial risk of prosecution to that point.
An attorney for the victim in the prosecution pending against Hecker said his client “was proud and humbled by the fact that his individual case led to the issuance of this wide-ranging search warrant."
The attorney, Richard Trahant, represents about 80 people who allege clergy in the Archdiocese of New Orleans abused them as children. He, and others who reached out to WWL after this story broke, say they've waited a long time for this.
"It's a great day for survivors," Trahant said. "It demonstrates that law enforcement has taken these complaints very seriously. And no matter when it occurred, if it was a year ago or 10 years ago or 30 years ago, all of these survivors are entitled to have this kind of effort by law enforcement on their behalf."