Judge Juana Lombard granted police the search warrant last week, but the allegations in the warrant were not made public until Tuesday, April 30. It allows police to search personnel files, financial records, communications, and other documents related to allegations of sexual abuse.
The warrant acknowledges that the police have probable cause to suspect felony violations of the law that prohibits the “trafficking of children for a sexual purpose.”
Although the allegations contained in the warrant do not indicate when the alleged trafficking occurred, the information that led to a suspicion of sex trafficking was obtained by police during an earlier investigation into a retired priest named Lawrence Hecker, who is accused of raping an underage teenage boy in the 1970s. Hecker was indicted for the alleged crime but has not yet been tried.
The affidavit alleges that documents obtained during the Hecker investigation show that “previous archbishops … not only knew of the [widespread] sexual abuse and failed to report all the claims to law enforcement, but [also] spent archdiocese funding to support the accused.”
One document cited in the affidavit states that one specific archbishop “was aware of rampant sexual abuse throughout the archdiocese,” but the affidavit leaves out the archbishop’s name.
The affidavit alleges, without stating the exact time frame, that the archdiocese “disregarded” or “covered up” claims of widespread sexual abuse. It alleges that in many cases, abuse claims “were not reported to law enforcement.” In some instances, the archdiocese provided “monetary payments” to victims or their families “to dismiss the allegations,” according to the affidavit.