Archdiocese faulted for keeping priest perpetrators off public list

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is being accused of reneging on a promise to publicly post the names of clergy who were accused of child sexual abuse in claims submitted during its long-running Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Lawyers for a woman who contends she was first abused as a child in 1957 by the Rev. Richard Spellman say church officials are violating the terms of the bankruptcy settlement agreement that ended the case in December 2022.

The archdiocese agreed to pay $121 million to 400 or so sex abuse survivors who submitted claims in the case.

But archdiocese attorneys have disputed the notion that the settlement also requires disclosure of alleged perpetrators whose names surfaced during the confidential claims process.

They contend the archdiocese is required by the agreement to list on its website the names of “all known past and present clergy perpetrators of ASF who have been determined by the Archbishop in consultation” with an independent review board to be credibly accused of sexual abuse. Thomas Walker, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the archdiocese in Albuquerque, didn’t return a request for comment on Tuesday.

Levi Monagle, one of the attorneys representing Mela LaJeunesse, filed a motion Tuesday disputing that interpretation and asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Mexico to intervene.

The motion states the settlement also provides that the archdiocese “will update the list to include any clergy who are identified in any proof of claims filed in the Chapter 11 Case” with one exception: if the identification has been withdrawn.

Since 2017, the archdiocese has voluntarily published a list of clergy who have been “credibly accused” of sexual misconduct. Currently, the names of 81 priests or other clergy appear on the list. The last update was in March 2023.

But there are other priests or clergy whose names surfaced in the confidential bankruptcy claims process that aren’t on the archdiocese public list, such as Spellman’s, Monagle’s motion states. It wasn’t clear on Tuesday how long Spellman worked in New Mexico, although the motion states he was originally granted faculties by Archbishop Edwin Byrne in 1943.

According to copies of emails included with the motion, the archdiocese considered Spellman for inclusion on the “credibly accused” list, but the independent review board recommended against doing so.

The board, according to the archdiocese website, is a “confidential consultative body to the archbishop, advising him by independent assessment of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and determination of continued suitability for ministry. The IRB meets quarterly or as needed. It is composed mainly of non-clergy professionals.”

Other new perpetrators were also to be considered for inclusion, stated a December 2022 email by Sara Sanchez, an attorney for the archdiocese, who added there were “many” other such perpetrators.

During the bankruptcy process, those who contended they were victims of priests or clergy in the archdiocese filed a “proof of claim” that was submitted to the court under penalty of perjury. Claimants were asked to fill out a supplemental questionnaire as part of the verification process.

LaJeunesse, according to the motion, received treatment for her abuse beginning in 2016, and filed a claim in May 2019. She was compensated through the Archdiocese Settlement Trust “for the harm she suffered as a child at the hands of Fr. Spellman,” the motion states. At no point in the bankruptcy proceedings did anyone object to her claim or assert that it lacked credibility, the motion added.

She is asking the archdiocese to publicly list all clergy accused of sexual misconduct in the proofs of claim filed in the bankruptcy, including Spellman.

The bankruptcy filing by the archdiocese brought to a halt some three dozen civil lawsuits in state court that alleged abuse of children by clergy and negligence by church hierarchy. Some accusations date back to the 1940s.