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The Guardian
18-04-2025
- The Guardian
Survivor of notorious New Orleans child sex abuser priest speaks out for first time
The clergy abuse survivor who helped prosecutors secure the only conviction against a notorious child rapist and retired Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans is still hoping that authorities file criminal charges against his former high school principal and everyone else who enabled the clergyman. 'Everybody that had any part … needs to be held accountable. Period – period,' Neil Duhon, whose rapist was Lawrence Hecker, said in an interview with WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, the first and only time he's ever revealed his identity to the public. Referring to the Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans, the institution that employed and protected Hecker for decades and kept doing so even after the cleric admitted he had preyed sexually on minors throughout his career, Duhon added: 'I hope they get some type of criminal charge. 'You know, they are responsible for all of this.' And Duhon, who is now 65 but was about 16 when Hecker raped him in 1975, had particularly harsh words for a judge who handled part of his ordeal. New Orleans criminal court judge Benedict Willard delayed Hecker's trial date for more than a year before recusing himself on the day that jury selection for the case was to begin. Only by handing the matter over to another judge did Willard finally clear the way for Hecker to plead guilty in December – shortly before the priest died. Duhon called Willard 'a coward – a coward. That's it.' The hours-long interview Duhon granted a pair of outlets whose reporting aided Hecker's successful prosecution provided the most detailed account yet of the stand he took against one of the Catholic church's most inveterate abusers. Hecker's prosecution also showed how the clergy molestation crisis roiling the US church for decades was not yet over. As Duhon told it, he was a freshman student at New Orleans' St John Vianney high school – which catered to boys interested in joining the priesthood – when he met Hecker in 1973. The school, which has since closed, required students to essentially help local Catholic churches with their masses and other services. And Duhon was assigned to do that at a church adjacent to St John called St Theresa and colloquially known as Little Flower, where Hecker introduced himself to him. Hecker left Little Flower – which has since closed, too – in about 1974. But during the summer of the following year, Duhon saw him again at one of the weekly pool parties that the Notre Dame seminary, an institution in New Orleans that educates and trains priests, would host for St John students. According to Duhon, Hecker recognized him and asked if he was still working at Little Flower. Duhon said he was. Days later, after finishing his mass-related duties at Little Flower, Duhon was exercising on a weight bench set up in a room attached to the church bell tower. Hecker appeared unannounced, offered to give him pointers that could help Duhon earn a spot on a wrestling team being started at St John, and eventually put him in a headlock. Duhon tried to force himself free of Hecker but couldn't. He said he suddenly felt Hecker's penis inside of him. As he tensed up, Duhon said Hecker's arm came across his upper chest toward his neck. Duhon said he lost consciousness and woke up alone. The shadows cast in the room were much longer than he remembered them, suggesting hours had passed. Duhon said he soon realized he had semen on his backside. His mind raced as he removed his gym shorts and underwear, changed into his trousers and rushed to his bus stop. Along the way, he said he suddenly realized he was carrying the soiled clothes and – overcome with disgust – threw them in a garbage can. Duhon said his mother was the first person he told about his rape, when laundry day arrived the following Friday. He said he disclosed the attack to her after struggling to give an answer when she asked where his gym shorts and underwear were so she could wash them. He said his mother said nothing but appeared to be in shock. Duhon said he was never sure whether she disclosed the rape to his father. But his parents soon decided he would not return to Little Flower and instead would work a newspaper delivery route with his father. Not immediately realizing that he was traumatized, Duhon said he returned to St John much more combative than he had been before. One priest and teacher, Luis Fernandez, had the habit of using a lengthy stick to strike students who were sleeping, talking or inattentive. He hit Duhon with it one day that year, and the pupil snatched it away, igniting a heated confrontation that got him sent to the office of the principal, Paul Calamari. Calamari initially punished Duhon with detention. But later that same day, Duhon was standing in the lunch line with a friend and began arguing with him over something he can no longer remember. They ended up in a fistfight. Teachers sent Duhon back to Calamari. Duhon recalled the principal saying: 'Ah … you're fighting now. Why you fighting, Neil?' As he remembered it, Duhon didn't mince any words and immediately told Calamari that Hecker had raped him. Duhon said Calamari's reaction was to angrily ask who else the boy had told. 'My mom,' Duhon recalled saying, which prompted Calamari to summon the boy's parents and meet with them without their son present. Ultimately, Duhon recalled agreeing to undergo treatment from a psychiatrist in lieu of expulsion over the fight with his friend and confrontation with Fernandez. The sessions – which Duhon suspects were paid for by the school – focused on managing his anger problems and what Calamari called 'fantasy stories' instead of addressing his rape at the hands of Hecker, he said. 'We never talked once about that,' said Duhon, adding that the sessions went on for months. Duhon said he eventually graduated from St John, burned his memorabilia from the school and threw his class ring into Lake Pontchartrain. Despite everything, his mother wanted him to become a priest, and he enrolled briefly at St Joseph seminary college north of New Orleans. Yet he said he intentionally tanked his studies and withdrew, having concluded he was not comfortable around priests and felt 'hypocritical' pretending he was. Duhon later served in the US navy and coast guard. And he served as an emergency medic and police officer, first in Louisiana and then in north-west Ohio. He got married, started a family in Ohio and tried not to think about St John. But that became impossible beginning in 2018 when, amid its efforts to manage the fallout of the worldwide Catholic church's clergy abuse crisis, New Orleans' archdiocese released a list of priests and deacons whom it had judged to be credibly accused of child molestation. Hecker was on that list in connection with reported abuse that had nothing to do with Duhon. Another person on that list was Calamari, who became a priest after Duhon's rape. Carl Davidson, a priest who worked at St John and had successfully recruited Duhon to join a choir there, was on the list, too. Robert Cooper, who taught at St John while Duhon was a student there, would be added after a 2020 investigation by WWL Louisiana and a reporter now at the Guardian. Not on the list was Fernandez, whom the reporters also investigated later. After the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 in an attempt to limit its liability from lawsuits prompted by the abusive conduct underlying the list, the church quietly canceled most of Fernandez's retirement benefits. The priest, who moved to Florida, later told the Guardian that a church attorney told him he lost the benefits because of a credible child molestation accusation, though he correctly said he had never been put on the New Orleans archdiocese's credibly accused list. Duhon noted that the credibly accused list's publisher, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, worked at St John at the beginning of his career alongside all those clergymen. Looking back, Duhon said it was as if his high school education unfolded within the clutches of 'a pedophile ring'. 'I actually feel [that] as an adult now looking back,' Duhon said. Louisiana state police troopers would arrive at a similar suspicion after Duhon was put in touch with attorney Richard Trahant, who frequently represents clergy abuse survivors. Duhon – with Trahant's help – reported Hecker to law enforcement in June 2022, formally accusing him of rape, a crime for which he could be prosecuted no matter how long ago it occurred. Duhon immediately realized how grueling the ensuing process would get. For example, immediately after Duhon described passing out as Hecker began raping him, an apparently inattentive investigator filling in that day for a co-worker jabbered: 'There's no penetration.' 'Yep – this is over,' Duhon recalled saying irately as he got up to leave and considered abandoning his complaint. Yet he calmed down and continued cooperating, though there was little progress for several months. In June 2023, the Guardian reported on a printed copy of a confession Hecker provided to his church superiors in 1999, in which the priest admitted molesting or sexually harassing several children other than Duhon. The Guardian provided the confession to WWL Louisiana in August 2023, and journalists from both outlets confronted Hecker on camera. Hecker told the outlets that his written confession about 'overtly sexual acts' with underage boys was accurate and authentic. Nonetheless, he insisted that the children were '100% willing' despite their legal inability to consent. As part of the New Orleans archdiocese bankruptcy, the judge overseeing the proceeding – Meredith Grabill – was provided that confession. But as she weighed whether such information about Hecker should remain secret because of confidentiality rules governing the bankruptcy or be accessible to the public, she indicated she would 'destroy' documents 'that this court received' pertaining to the self-admitted child abuser. Duhon, after learning about that during his interview with WWL Louisiana and the Guardian, said Grabill has 'got to get [her] head examined'. 'A judge squashing that … is absolutely ridiculous,' Duhon said. 'It's just ridiculous.' The media outlets were also able to report on a video deposition that Hecker gave during civil litigation stemming from a separate complaint against him. The video was confidential but obtained by the outlets. In it, Hecker outlined how New Orleans' last four archbishops had helped him avoid all accountability over the course of decades. Hecker also testified about collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of retirement benefits after he retired in 2002, in effect on his own terms. In September 2023, just two weeks after Hecker's on-camera confession to WWL and the Guardian made national headlines, the office of New Orleans' district attorney, Jason Williams, obtained a grand jury indictment charging Hecker with rape, kidnapping and other crimes against Duhon. The case was the first time Hecker faced consequences for his crimes. It was randomly allotted to Judge Willard. Hecker turned 92 shortly after his indictment. And over the next year, Willard repeatedly postponed trying the case over questions about whether Hecker – at his advanced age – had the mental competence required to withstand trial. Doctors determined that Hecker had dementia but fit the constitutional criteria to legally stand trial. It seemed that Hecker would be tried in late September. And Duhon flew in from Ohio to be the star witness, one of nearly a dozen victims of Hecker whom prosecutors had lined up to testify against the clergyman. Yet on the morning of jury selection, Willard suddenly recused himself from handling the case, citing nothing more than a clash of personalities with one of Williams's prosecutors. Duhon, through Trahant, released a media statement saying Willard's waffling on the bench offered an example of why many rape survivors decline to ever come forward. It wasn't immediately clear how much more time Willard's recusal might cost Hecker's prosecution. But the judge who took over the case, Nandi Campbell, set a trial date for 3 December. And Campbell made clear the trial would go forward that day barring the death of Hecker, who by then had turned 93. On the morning of the trial, as prospective jurors gathered outside the courtroom, Hecker suddenly pleaded guilty as charged. Campbell imposed a mandatory life sentence a little more than two weeks later. But first, she held a hearing during which Duhon addressed his rapist. It was the first time Duhon had seen Hecker in person in half a century. Duhon directed his words at Hecker, saying that he couldn't wear trousers without underwear to this day without thinking of the rape. 'My whole aspect of church changed' because of that attack, Duhon said to Hecker, as a weeping Campbell listened. Duhon also said he would never forgive Hecker – not that the priest asked for it when Campbell gave him the chance to address the courtroom before he was sentenced. Hecker served eight days of his punishment. He died early in the morning of 26 December of natural causes as he awaited transfer to Louisiana's maximum-security state penitentiary, infamously nicknamed Angola. Duhon got emotional reflecting back on his reaction when he first got word of Hecker's death. 'I actually felt free,' Duhon said. He said he regretted that he had lost both of his parents before ever experiencing the relief Hecker's death brought him. Still, 'my feeling [was], 'It's finally over,'' Duhon remarked. But he also feels the case isn't totally resolved. Duhon said he was aware that his case spurred a broader investigation into Hecker's former employer. Statements sworn under oath in April 2024 by the Louisiana state police investigator who built the case against Hecker, Scott Rodrigue, allege that authorities already have probable cause to suspect that the archdiocese ran a child sex-trafficking ring responsible for the 'widespread … abuse of minors dating back decades'. That abuse was illegally 'covered up and not reported' to authorities, Rodrigue's sworn statement said. Calamari was questioned about Hecker as part of that investigation. And he admitted he was a child molester, according to Rodrigue's sworn statement. However, Calamari has not been charged for, as Duhon put it, sending an underage boy to therapy without alerting police that the child had been raped. And neither had any of Hecker's other superiors – who Hecker acknowledged in his deposition had coddled him despite knowing he was a serial child molester. Duhon said he decided to shed his anonymity to lend weight to his plea for Rodrigue and his colleagues to complete that investigation, no matter the political and logistical hurdles that may complicate their efforts. 'We need to hold the archdiocese accountable,' Duhon said. 'I mean – their secrets cannot stay secret any longer. [They] really can't.' In prior statements, archdiocesan officials have said they are cooperating with the state police investigation. They have said that they 'hope and pray [Hecker's] death will bring closure and peace to … survivors'. Duhon furthermore said he wanted to openly tell his story as a demonstration of strength to his fellow survivors. As he put it: 'I'm Neil Duhon. I was sodomized [and] choked unconscious by a priest named Father Lawrence Hecker. 'I couldn't say that with my name attached to it prior to his death. But now … to publicly say this, I feel that it just sets [me] right.' In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
The Guardian
02-04-2025
- The Guardian
New Orleans clergy abuse survivors say they've lost confidence in case's judge
Clergy abuse survivors who were ousted from a committee trying to negotiate a settlement resolving the New Orleans Catholic archdiocese's bankruptcy say they have lost their confidence in the judge presiding over the case. Their comments come after it was revealed that Judge Meredith Grabill ignored US justice department recommendations against expelling the survivors from the group, delivering the latest twist in the child sexual abuse scandal roiling one of America's oldest Roman Catholic dioceses. 'I can honestly say that my faith in … Grabill is greatly diminished,' James Adams said about decisions that at first were largely made in secret against him as well as three of his fellow survivor committee members. 'It's shattered.' Grabill removed Adams, Jackie Berthelot, Theo Jackson and Eric Johnson from the group in question after tasking a justice department office which assists with administering bankruptcy cases to investigate an attorney for the survivors. The lawyer, Richard Trahant, drew Grabill's attention after taking steps to tip off a local high school that its chaplain, Paul Hart, was an admitted molester in early 2022. Investigators concluded that they believed Trahant had violated the terms of an applicable confidentiality order in what he maintained was an attempt to protect children – but their report to Grabill said the clients should not be punished. Grabill nonetheless ruled that she was 'forced' to kick his four clients off the survivors committee; imposed a $400,000 fine on Trahant; and then ordered the findings of the investigation by the US trustee's office sealed from public view. The Guardian joined news partner WWL Louisiana in recently obtaining the US trustee's investigative report through a successful public records request seeking files pertaining to the criminal prosecution of serial child molester Lawrence Hecker, who pleaded guilty to child rape and kidnapping charges in December and died in prison a few weeks later. An article published Monday by the outlets marked the first time that many learned of the findings of the US trustee report that preceded Grabill's punishments against Trahant and his clients, widely seen as one of the most consequential decisions issued during the New Orleans archdiocese's unusually tortuous chapter 11 reorganization. Not even Adams, Berthelot, Jackson and Johnson had seen the document, having been barred from accessing it even as they unsuccessfully appealed their removals. Asked to comment on Grabill's decision to remove them in light of the exposed US trustee investigation, Jackson said: 'We were just blindsided … with something that we [had] nothing to do with.' Johnson added: 'It hurts because you're trying to do good for the other survivors. Yet [they're] blaming you for everything.' Grabill also ignored a US trustee recommendation to hold a court hearing before taking any action after the completion of the Hart investigation. The judge ordered the committee removals one business day after receiving the US trustee report. She has not commented on the Guardian and WWL's recent reporting on Hart. Trahant's four clients all had Catholic upbringings in the New Orleans area and reported enduring child sexual molestation at the hands of clergymen or lay religious personnel amid the worldwide church's decades-old clerical abuse scandal. In May 2020, New Orleans' archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to limit their liability from such abuse claims. It is one of about 40 US Catholic institutions to do so. The cases reported by Adams and the others became ensnared in the bankruptcy, with Trahant representing them. And they all successfully applied to serve on a committee of abuse survivor claimants whose job it was to aid in settlement negotiations. In his role as the committee members' attorney, Trahant learned that Hart had been allowed to serve as chaplain of New Orleans' Brother Martin high school despite previously admitting to having sexual contact in the early 1990s with a 17-year-old girl whom he met at a prior assignment. In 2002, US bishops adopted a policy making 18 the age of consent under canon – or church – law. Before that, 16 was the age of consent. So New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond declined to substantially punish Hart and assigned him to work at Brother Martin beginning in 2017. Hart was forced to retire after Brother Martin learned of his past, the bulk of which was meant to be kept secret because of confidentiality rules in the archdiocesan bankruptcy. An investigation into how Brother Martin learned the truth about Hart concluded that Trahant violated the bankruptcy's confidentiality rules simply by making reference to the name and position of the chaplain while communicating with the school's principal. Brother Martin's principal, Ryan Gallagher, was Trahant's cousin and knew Trahant represented clergy abuse survivors. Trahant later testified he knew his cousin would infer Hart was likely an abuser from the mere mention of his name. Furthermore, the investigation asserted that Trahant violated the secrecy order by telling a journalist who later reported on the circumstances surrounding Hart's forced retirement to keep the clergyman on his 'radar'. But the investigation found it was actually the church itself that informed Brother Martin about the particulars of Hart's abusive past. And it essentially ruled out Trahant as having been the source of the information that the journalist reported about Hart, who has since died. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Trahant asserted to investigators and Grabill that he was careful only to share information about Hart that was publicly available, such as his name and job. That's because the bankruptcy confidentiality order allowed him to do at least that, he argued. Despite his assertions, Grabill decided Trahant had run afoul of the confidentiality order violation egregious – and that he and his clients deserved to be sanctioned. Trahant and his clients appealed. The appeal pursued by Trahant, who had access to the US trustee report but could not legally discuss it with his clients, remained pending as of Tuesday in the federal fifth circuit court. The clients' appeal failed after Grabill's seal on the report impeded them from viewing it. While the US trustee report opined that only Trahant merited punishment, Grabill said she was 'forced' to remove his clients from the survivors committee to ensure the smooth functioning of that entity. Adams, who had been the group's chairperson, pointed out that the US trustee never publicly indicated that the committee removals were against their recommendation. The expulsions were unnecessary, Adams added. He said virtually every one of the committee's votes during his two years of participation was unanimous. He said he wondered whether he and his colleagues were ousted – on the morning that they were scheduled to address Aymond as part of settlement negotiations – because they had expressed a commitment to 'genuinely investigating how the archdiocese ended up in bankruptcy'. Even with their removals, Adams and his former colleagues noted how the bankruptcy was unresolved as of Tuesday, nearly three years after their June 2022 removals. Berthelot, a Hecker survivor, said he 'absolutely' believes Grabill 'needs to step down' from the case. He described experiencing health problems and losing friendships amid the bankruptcy's various twists. By Monday, it had all worn him down so much that he resigned his elected office from the city council in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna, which he first joined in 2013. 'Judge Grabill has been compromised,' said Berthelot, whose council term was supposed to last until June. 'To me, as a victim, a survivor of clergy abuse, it was extremely shocking.' Adams said part of him wanted to see Grabill step down from the case after the exposure of the sealed Hart report. But he worried about how much longer something like that might delay the bankruptcy. Figures associated with Catholic institution bankruptcies settled elsewhere relatively recently suggest the New Orleans archdiocese's reorganization could cost the church and its insurers more than $300m to settle. As it continued efforts to finance a settlement with survivors, the archdiocese earlier in March agreed to sell a suburban orphanage with a lengthy history of child abuse to local government officials for $3.8m. Johnson survived abuse at a sister orphanage across the street from the one being sold. He said he hoped officials followed through on stated goals of redeveloping the property into a multi-use facility and building a memorial to all those who survived abuse on those grounds. 'Use it for something positive,' Johnson said. 'Use it for the good of the community.'
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Judge disregarded bankruptcy trustee's recommendation and punished New Orleans clergy abuse survivors
A federal judge used the findings of a justice department investigation to justify expelling clergy molestation survivors from a committee trying to negotiate settlements with the New Orleans Catholic archdiocese after their lawyer tipped off a high school that its chaplain was an admitted child molester. But now, for the first time, having obtained a long-sealed report on the matter, the Guardian and reporting partner WWL Louisiana can reveal that the judge, Meredith Grabill, made that decision even after the justice department's bankruptcy trustee specifically said the lawyer's clients should not be punished – though the trustee believed the attorney had violated a confidentiality order in trying to protect children from an abuser. The lawyer, Richard Trahant, has always denied violating the secrecy orders governing the New Orleans archdiocese's bankruptcy, one of the most contentious of the 40 such cases filed by Catholic institutions across the US amid the worldwide church's ongoing reckoning with its history of clergy abuse. He is still appealing a $400,000 fine that Grabill handed him. Meanwhile, three years since that ruling from Grabill, a settlement in the bankruptcy hasn't been reached, leaving unresolved a case first filed in May 2020 as the archdiocese sought to limit its liability from hundreds of claims of clergy abuse, mostly involving the victimization of children and spanning several decades. The archdiocese has racked up well over $40m in legal fees. It is selling off real estate. And it is preparing to nix its newspaper's print edition beginning in July. Court records also show how a then bankruptcy judge in Houston, David Jones, spoke with Grabill about the sanctions against Trahant as well as his clients before she imposed them. Jones then used Trahant's clients' removals in New Orleans as a legal basis to expel a member of a creditors' committee during a separate bankruptcy case in his court in Texas. Jones has since admitted having an affair with an attorney in that case, whose client was a business competitor to the committee member ousted by Jones. Jones has resigned and is now the subject of an FBI corruption investigation. Precisely how Grabill arrived at what is widely viewed as one of the most consequential rulings in the New Orleans archdiocese's tortuous bankruptcy case has been among the proceeding's most elusive secrets. To get the most complete glimpse yet of those circumstances, the Guardian and WWL Louisiana used a public records request to obtain the report that Grabill commissioned from the US trustee's office – which assists in administering bankruptcy cases – before punishing Trahant and his clients. Grabill had sealed the 41-page document, along with corresponding exhibits. Yet they all became part of the case file compiled by New Orleans state prosecutors in their aggravated rape and kidnapping case against Lawrence Hecker, a self-admitted child molester and retired local archdiocesan priest. Hecker pleaded guilty as charged in December and died days into serving a mandatory life sentence, making archdiocesan records obtained during his prosecution available under Louisiana's public records law. Essentially, the report determined that Trahant violated Grabill's secrecy order simply by making reference to the name and position of the abusive chaplain – Paul Hart – while communicating with the principal of Brother Martin high school, where the clergyman worked. Brother Martin's principal, Ryan Gallagher, happened to be a cousin of Trahant. The report also asserted that Trahant violated the secrecy order by telling a journalist – then with New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper but now at the Guardian – to keep Hart on his 'radar'. But the report found it was actually the church itself that informed Brother Martin about the particulars of Hart's abusive past after Trahant mentioned his name to both Gallagher and the journalist. Hart was forced to retire and leave the school, although the archdiocese publicly blamed his departure on his poor health. The trustee's investigation report said it could not determine exactly who may have assisted the journalist with an article he later published about how Hart's abusive past compelled him to retire. Investigators came to that realization partly because the archdiocese declined to cooperate with efforts to determine everyone on the church's side who had access to the information in the newspaper piece. All the report could really conclude was that it wasn't Trahant. Trahant has maintained that he was careful only to share information about Hart that was publicly available – his name and job, for instance – because the secrecy order enabled him to do that. He points to a provision of the order which reads 'information that is in the public domain at the time of disclosure … shall not be governed by [the] protective order'. Nonetheless, after the attorney testified that he knew his prior work representing clergy molestation survivors meant Gallagher and the journalist would infer Hart was an abuser simply from his mentioning the priest's name out of the blue, Grabill sanctioned Trahant and his clients, claiming she was protecting the 'functioning of the committee'. Asked to review the episode and comment on it as a knowledgable outside observer, Leslie Griffin, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas law professor, said it appeared to her as if Grabill's handling of the matter signaled that 'bankruptcy means the archdiocese can talk about whatever it wants while the survivors' or their advocates 'must be silent'. 'Both Trahant and the archdiocese [acted] on the confidential information … to ensure that Paul Hart could not harm anyone else,' Griffin said. 'To an outsider, it looks like Trahant and [the archdiocese] were treated differently for doing the same thing, namely using the court's information in trying to protect minors from a known abuser. 'It looks like a system that could be more protective of the abusers than of the abused. And the reasons for that are not clear.' Neither Grabill nor Trahant – nor his clients James Adams, Jackie Berthelot, Theodore Jackson and Eric Johnson – immediately responded to requests for comment. Hart has since died. The complicated legal saga in some ways centering on Hart began with the decision of the New Orleans archbishop, Gregory Aymond, to station him at Brother Martin beginning in 2017. Aymond made that decision even after Hart, in about 2012, had admitted to the archbishop that he kissed, groped and engaged in 'dry sex' – simulated intercourse while clothed – in the early 1990s with a 17-year-old girl who belonged to a youth group run out of Hart's church at the time. Aymond, though, declined to substantially punish Hart because church, or canon, law in effect at the beginning of the 1990s considered 16 the age of consent. US bishops adopted a policy making 18 the age of consent in 2002 – after the abuse happened but before Hart's admitted behavior. In late 2021, through his work representing people whose clergy abuse claims were tied up in the New Orleans archdiocese's bankruptcy, Trahant learned some of those facts. The archdiocese had never disclosed Hart's history. And because of that, on New Year's Eve 2021, Trahant sent Gallagher a text message reading: 'Is Paul Hart still the chaplain at BM?' Gallagher wrote back, 'Yes.' Trahant said, 'You and I need to get together soon,' prompting Gallagher to reply: 'Shit. 'That's … ominous coming from you.' Things developed quickly in the days that followed, according to the US trustee investigation. Trahant told members of the committee to which his clients belonged that there was a 'pressing situation' with respect to Hart but did not elaborate. Trahant did not represent the committee itself, but the lawyers that did told the archdiocese that they understood Hart to be 'a danger to children based on information' in personnel files produced to the body. They demanded the archdiocese remove Hart as soon as possible. In the meantime, by 5 January 2022, Aymond had gotten on the phone with the president of Brother Martin's governing board, David Gallo, as well as the director of schools for the religious order in charge of the campus, John Devlin. Saying he was concerned for the person whom the priest admitted abusing, Aymond indicated 'the information concerning Hart should not have been released … and sought to find out the source', the US trustee report said, citing sealed testimony taken later from Gallo and Devlin. Gallo subsequently recalled that Aymond 'provided … specific details of the abuse allegations: that the allegations against Hart involved a 'legal adult' under canon law applicable at the time', the report stated. As Devlin recalled, Aymond characterized Hart's behavior as 'a boundary violation'. Hart at the time had been diagnosed with brain cancer. But he planned to be back on campus before the end of that month, as Brother Martin understood it, according to what Gallagher said during a conversation following up on his initial text exchange with Trahant. And, despite Aymond's assurances that nothing criminal occurred, Brother Martin officials agreed that 'they would never have accepted [Hart] as chaplain' if they had previously known about any 'boundary violation or inappropriate behavior' by him, according to the report. Devlin reportedly testified that the school 'agreed to start the process to request that Hart no longer continue as chaplain'. Hart offered in writing to remove himself as Brother Martin's chaplain 'temporarily, until the matter in question has been resolved', just one day after the conversations Devlin and Gallo recalled having with Aymond. Aymond evidently waited one week – until 13 January 2022 – to answer Hart's offer in writing, saying the priest would instead be retiring and therefore would be permanently 'relieved' from his role as Brother Martin's chaplain. School officials at the time were insisting Aymond provide them something in writing showing the archbishop had removed Hart from Brother Martin. A community notice issued to Brother Martin said that the school had not learned of Hart's removal until 13 January. But the date on Aymond's letter is 10 January 2022, creating the impression that Aymond had actually written it days earlier. A survivors committee attorney, Omer 'Rick' Kuebel, eventually testified that the metadata on the letter – its digital timestamp – established that the document was not created until the 13th, according to a deposition transcript obtained through a public records request pertaining to the Hecker case. A US trustee investigator later asked Aymond, under oath, whether he wrote the letter on 10 January 2022. 'Correct,' Aymond said, according to a deposition transcript. 'Yes, sir.' The investigator did not ask Aymond about the metadata discrepancy. The archbishop later adjusted his testimony to say the letter may have been dictated on the 10th though not sent that same day. He said the decision to remove Hart 'was made already … so it would not have made any difference'. Similarly, while still under oath, Aymond denied that either he or anyone at the archdiocese provided Brother Martin officials confidential details about Hart. That strongly contradicted testimony from multiple Brother Martin officials who were cited in the US trustee's report as saying that they learned the particulars of Hart's past from the archbishop's side. But Aymond was not confronted about that discrepancy during his testimony, according to the transcript of his deposition. Asked for comment about his testimony, Aymond said in a statement recently: 'Very simply, I accepted Paul Hart's retirement while I was out of town on retreat and finalized it upon my return to the office.' He also said: 'I am a man of integrity and have dedicated my life to ministry in service to the people of God. These past years navigating the bankruptcy proceedings have been challenging and made even more difficult by constant attacks and insinuated accusations that are deliberate attempts to discredit me and undermine the archdiocese of New Orleans in our bankruptcy. 'I have instructed our team to bring the bankruptcy proceedings to a just and equitable conclusion for the good of all, especially the survivors.' The statement did not address his and Brother Martin officials' conflicting testimony about the archdiocese having disclosed the details of Hart's misconduct. Regardless of the timing of the archbishop's letter to Hart, in early 2022 the archdiocese told the journalist who wrote of the Brother Martin chaplain's retirement that he had stopped working to focus on his fight with cancer. The letter the school sent to its campus community was starkly different. It made no mention of Hart's health and said his removal came at Brother Martin's request after the school learned of 'an issue from [his] distant past that could preclude his being able to serve as chaplain'. Hart died at age 70 in October of that year. Gallagher at one point texted Trahant to thank him for putting Brother Martin 'in a better position … to weather this'. Gallagher added that the entire affair had left him 'completely disgusted'. The archdiocese was displeased, too. Its attorneys filed documents with Grabill alleging 'serious breaches of the protective order from the disclosure of the Hart information', prompting the judge to task the US trustee with investigating the matter. Beside sorting out exactly how Brother Martin learned of Hart's past misconduct, a major focus of the investigation was to determine who may have leaked the information reported in the Times-Picayune on 18 January 2022. Investigators determined that Trahant, Adams and other people on their side had access to the Hart information. But they all denied providing the journalist the information he reported. The US trustee's report acknowledged it could not defeat those denials. And, in fact, the report said there was evidence supporting Trahant's denials of being the journalist's source. Notably, though Trahant had first received a portion of Hart's files with minimal details more than two weeks before the article's publication, he had not gotten the full set of documents on the priest until a few hours before the story's release, the report said. After declining to comment to the journalist who wrote the article, Trahant asked a colleague to send him Hart's entire personnel file roughly three hours before the piece was published. The article 'was clearly well advanced by this time', the US trustee's report said. Several hours earlier, the journalist had already asked the archdiocese for comment about Hart's misconduct and retirement, making it 'difficult to see how [Trahant] could have been the source' for that information, the report said. Meanwhile, investigators' efforts to identify the source of the article's information were frustrated in part by the archdiocese's refusal to make available every person on its side who over the years may have known about Hart. Attorneys and various employees at the archdiocese who had access to Hart's information did submit denials of having provided assistance to the journalist. But the church said it was 'impractical and overly burdensome' to supply statements from members of a board that advised Aymond as he weighed what to do in response to the misconduct confessed by Hart. A US trustee investigator questioned the journalist, who – adhering to the ethics of his profession – declined to reveal his sources or methods. Ultimately, the US trustee concluded it 'cannot determine who provided … the information' about Hart reported by the Times-Picayune. Despite that, the office said it was confident Trahant had done enough to have 'violated the terms of the protective order'. But members of the committee are 'not responsible for these violations', the US trustee's report said. Trahant's 'actions cannot be imputed to the committee', the US trustee wrote in its report, issued under a court seal on Friday, 3 June 2022. 'To the extent the court believes further relief may be appropriate under the circumstances, such relief should be considered in further proceedings in open court so that the court may hear and consider all relevant evidence.' Grabill held no such proceeding. On the following Tuesday, the second business day after the US trustee report was issued, she ruled that Trahant deserved punishment over 'disclosure of confidential information'. The judge later fined Trahant $400,000. She also expelled Adams, Berthelot, Jackson and Johnson from their roles on the committee. Grabill maintained that she was 'forced to impute Trahant's actions to those of his clients' in order 'to protect against disruption of the bankruptcy process'. That morning, Adams – who had been the chairperson of the committee – and his three ousted colleagues had been prepared to read statements to Aymond about having endured clergy abuse as part of bankruptcy settlement negotiations. But that meeting was canceled because of Grabill's ruling. Trahant and his clients appealed. Multiple legal commentators – among them some who insisted on speaking privately for fear of ending up in court in front of Grabill – have told the Guardian and WWL that such severe punishments for Trahant and his clients were highly unusual, especially because the end result was a self-acknowledged abuser's ejection from a high school campus. But federal district judges have left the sanctions in place. Trahant's clients' appeal – arguing that their removals were unlawful – was shot down by the federal fifth circuit court in May. In that same court, Trahant's appeal remained pending as of the publication of this article. Among his main arguments is that Grabill – at the suggestion of the archdiocese – had already made up her mind to heavily fine him and punish those associated with him before she had even ordered the Hart-related US trustee investigation. Another of Trahant's arguments: while those who conducted the investigation knew what Grabill wanted, they still would not endorse what the judge at one point described as 'the nuclear option', which was booting Trahant's clients from the survivors' committee. Trahant has also noted that Grabill, along with other judges who have upheld her decisions, have repeatedly charged him with 'willfully' violating her protective order. But, Trahant has said in court, the US trustee report does not use that adverb in describing his actions concerning Hart. And at one point, before fining him, Grabill told Trahant in court, 'It became clear that you didn't think that you had violated the [secrecy] order,' according to a transcript. There has been one other prominent endorsement of the sanctions: from the resigned bankruptcy judge Jones. At one point before the removals of Trahant's clients, an archdiocesan attorney remarked in court that Grabill had spoken with Jones about what to do over the controversy. Grabill did not dispute the church lawyer's statement. Then, in his courtroom in March 2023, Jones brought up Grabill's sanctions himself. He said they were 'actually pretty thoughtful'. And then he held them up as a useful precedent to justify his granting a request from a bankrupt pharmaceutical firm, Sorrento, to remove one of the company's competitors from participating in a creditors committee in that case. The FBI later launched an investigation into whether Jones was fairly administering bankruptcy cases after a lawsuit revealed his sexual relationship with an attorney who had represented Sorrento in his courtroom. Jones had not been charged as of this article's publication. But he ultimately resigned in late October 2023, less than three months after he traveled to New Orleans and was the guest of honor at a continuing legal education seminar hosted by Grabill.
The Guardian
07-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Tumultuous, to say the least' week for New Orleans archbishop amid multiple scandals
By New Orleans Catholic archbishop Gregory Aymond's own admission, the past week has been 'tumultuous, to say the least' – for him and the city's bankrupt church, which became engulfed in twin controversies involving emails with leaders of two pro sports franchises as well as a feud with ousted directors of an affiliated food bank. Aymond on 30 January set off a firestorm by firing the longtime chief executive officer and top governing board members at the Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana food bank. The ousted food bank leaders said they were removed because they refused to bow to 'pressure placed on Second Harvest to contribute as much as $16m toward helping to resolve victims' claims' of child molestation by clergy which are at the center of a pending federal bankruptcy protection case that the church filed in 2020. Then, on Monday, the Guardian, its reporting partner WWL Louisiana, the Associated Press and the New York Times reported on copies of hundreds of emails the four news outlets exclusively obtained. The emails by top brass of the NFL's New Orleans Saints and NBA's Pelicans showed the teams' owner, devout Catholic Gayle Benson, and team executives were far more involved in helping Aymond spin media coverage of the clergy abuse scandal that precipitated the bankruptcy than the teams and church had previously acknowledged. And, though NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suggested he was unconcerned about the communications, many fans of the teams as well as advocates of clergy-abuse survivors have expressed disgust about the ball clubs' involvement. Aymond declined requests for interviews about the pair of controversies. And a church spokesperson told the WWL Louisiana reporter covering both stories that the archbishop would never again sit down with the journalist for an interview. Instead, Aymond's archdiocese has made statements saying the media have misconstrued the nature of the emails involving the church, Saints and Pelicans. And he also released a video-recorded statement primarily seeking to address aspects of the spat with Second Harvest – although its main assertion has drawn a strong challenge by the former food bank board members. Aymond's central contention in the video was that the leadership of Second Harvest had refused to sign what is known as a 'tolling agreement' to protect them and other church-controlled entities from being sued while the archdiocese tries to settle hundreds of child molestation claims under its bankruptcy. 'The deadline to execute this agreement was January 31, 2025,' Aymond said in the video. 'This is why the very difficult decision to transition leadership was made.' But court records filed in the bankruptcy case show the current tolling agreement, protecting Second Harvest and the church affiliates during settlement negotiations, runs through 1 May 2025, which is the five-year anniversary of the bankruptcy. Nick Karl, a former chair of the Second Harvest board who has supported and served at the non-profit since 2008, called the archbishop's statements in the video 'unfortunate'. Karl said the fired executive board members – whom Aymond subsequently replaced – supported extending the tolling agreement. He said the fired CEO, Natalie Jayroe, was planning on signing the extension well before the 1 May deadline. The archdiocese has approached more than 100 affiliates – or 'apostolates' – about signing a so-called channeling injunction, which protects those entities from being sued separately from the archdiocese and creates a combined fund for paying claims. Karl said he and the other ousted food bank leaders would have considered signing it, as long as Aymond agreed to remove himself as the sole corporate member of Second Harvest. Under the ousted leaders, Second Harvest had separate legal representation from the other apostolates in the church's bankruptcy case. Karl said having the archbishop of New Orleans as the sole corporate member of a non-profit that covers 23 south Louisiana parishes – which is the state's word for counties – from the Texas border to the Mississippi state line makes little sense when the archdiocese only covers eight parishes in the south-east corner of the state. In his recorded statement, Aymond said he came to accept the idea of divesting his control of Second Harvest. But 'a legal separation would include Second Harvest purchasing the assets that are controlled by the sole member', he said. That's where the $16m figure was proposed, Karl said. And he said that contracts Second Harvest has with its donors – including a $25m grant from billionaire and novelist MacKenzie Scott's foundation – prevent the money from going to any purpose outside the food bank's mission of feeding the hungry. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion However, Second Harvest's public financial report filed on 30 December shows it had $85m in net assets as of 30 June 2024, $55.9m of which had no donor restrictions. Aymond said in the recorded statement that he regretted that negotiations with Second Harvest had devolved. 'The characterizations of the archdiocese as stealing money from the hungry are completely false,' he said. 'The most difficult part of this is that it may have been preventable if the parties, including myself, would have put aside our pride and negotiated in good faith without threats of litigation.' But at the end of the week came a new revelation suggesting any 'negotiating' would have been merely for show. As the sole corporate member of Second Harvest, the archbishop of New Orleans already had the power to hire and fire the food bank CEO and members of the non-profit's board of directors. A day before Aymond fired the leaders, he used his unilateral powers to amend Second Harvest's governing documents to give himself even more power. On 29 January, he signed amendments giving himself the right to fire the CEO 'with or without cause' and appoint new leaders to board committees. He also gave himself new power to hire and fire any professionals working for the food bank, unilaterally execute all legal agreements for the corporation and even dissolve the corporation, leaving some board members feeling as if they were losing any power to negotiate the amount of money the non-profit would have to pay to be free of Aymond's control. Even the modicum of decision-making authority the board appeared to have over its own leadership now appears to be moot. Until recently, Second Harvest's corporate bylaws said: 'The Chair is elected by the Board of Directors. All Officers of the corporation other than the President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) shall be elected by the Board of Directors.' But at an emergency board meeting on Wednesday, the directors learned Aymond had named a new chair, vice-chair and executive committee member without the board voting. That reportedly prompted one director to ask: 'Why are we here?'
The Guardian
07-02-2025
- The Guardian
Death of Telemundo reporter covering Super Bowl LIX leads to woman's arrest
A woman who has previously been accused of drugging men and stealing from them has been arrested amid an investigation into the death of a journalist who was covering Sunday's Super Bowl in New Orleans – and whose body was discovered in his hotel room. The reporter, Adan Manzano of Kansas City's Telemundo affiliate, was staying at a hotel in Kenner, Louisiana – which is home to New Orleans' international airport – to cover the game when he was found dead on Wednesday. Hotel surveillance video showed Manzano, 27, with a woman later identified as Danette Colbert before she later left his room alone, Keith Conley, the Kenner police chief, said on Friday. Investigators later established that Colbert, 48, was using Manzano's credit card at multiple stores in the area. Police then determined his cellphone was pinging about one-tenth of a mile from Colbert's known address in Slidell, Louisiana, which is about 40 miles (65km) north-east of New Orleans, Conley said. Conley said officers had arrested Colbert on counts of fraud and theft. Investigators had not immediately determined Manzano's cause and manner of death, leaving it unclear whether Colbert could face additional counts. The coroner's office told Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana that there were no obvious signs of trauma on Manzano. Conley on Friday made it a point to say that Colbert has a history of financial crimes, including allegations of drugging men whose confidence she gained, stealing money and fraudulently using credit cards. Louisiana criminal court records show she was given five years of probation after pleading guilty in December 2019 to fraudulently using a credit card that a man reported losing at a New Orleans strip club. News of Manzano's death circulated widely after it was announced. The general manager of the Spanish-language Telemundo affiliate that employed Manzano said the late journalist had recently started anchoring while continuing his duties as a reporter. Steve Downing, the Telemundo Kansas City general manager, told WWL Louisiana that Manzano had a 'passion' for sports that 'led him to do great work, and always with a smile'. Downing remembered Manzano as 'enthusiastic and very well-loved and appreciated by the sports teams that he covered here', including the Kansas City Chiefs, who are pursuing an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl championship in New Orleans on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. Manzano, who also worked for Kansas City-based Tico Sports, was a native of Mexico City. His wife died in a car crash in Topeka, Kansas, in April. The couple's survivors include a two-year-old daughter. Downing said his station plans to honor Manzano in its upcoming newscasts. 'We're a small operation,' Downing remarked to WWL Louisiana. 'So we will be missing a family member.'
