Preti Flaherty attorneys Jonathan S. Piper and Sigmund D. Schutz won a Maine
Supreme Court decision on April 22, 2005 allowing the public access to
investigative records related to allegations of sexual abuse by 18 or more
deceased Roman Catholic priests. The decision, on behalf of the State’s
largest newspaper publisher, Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc., requires that the
Maine Department of Attorney General disclose the names of the priests accused
of sexually abusing children. The names of victims and witnesses will
remain confidential.
Blethen first requested access to records pertaining to the allegations of
sexual abuse by the priests in June 2002. When the State denied the
request under the Maine Freedom of Access Act, Preti Flaherty filed suit,
arguing that the names of the accused abusers and related investigative
information should be released. The Superior Court agreed. The State
appealed, arguing that the release would invade the privacy of the victims, the
deceased priests and the priests’ families and congregations.
After 11 months, the Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the public’s right to know
about the alleged abuse and the basis for the State’s decision not to prosecute
outweighs the deceased priests’ privacy rights.
The decision is the rare case in which the media has successfully obtained
investigative information from law enforcement. The decision is also
remarkable for the 3 Justice majority’s rejection of a 2004 United States
Supreme Court opinion, which, if followed, would have likely prevented release
of the investigative records Blethen sought from the Attorney General.
The opinion, Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc. v. State of Maine, 2005 ME
56, __ A.2d ___, (April 22, 2005), can be accessed on-line at the Maine Supreme
Judicial Court’s website, http://www.courts.state.me.us/opinions/supreme/index.html.
