As Louisiana State Police continues to investigate the Archdiocese of New Orleans for its coverup of child sexual abuse committed by priests, questions remain as to how far this investigation will go.
According to the search warrant signed by a New Orleans judge, investigators are treating the case as a child sex trafficking case. Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino says that decision initially puzzled him because he did not see a "commercial purpose" mentioned in the document. However, Ciolino notes that part of the testimony included in the warrant application might explain why state police are treating this as a sex trafficking case.
"It's a bit uncertain to me as to what the commercial purpose was," Ciolino said. "The search warrant application does mention that gifts were given to some of these individuals--these victims. That is something of value. That, perhaps, could be one of the elements of the sex trafficking with minors charge."
Could members of the church's hierarchy face charges in connection with the case? Ciolino says it's unlikely. Ciolino says even though the search warrant is quite broad and goes back dozens of years to cover a broad range of sexual abuse against minors, he notes that previous church abuse cases rarely led to criminal prosecutions against members of the church's hierarchy, even if priests were charged an convicted.
"This is certainly unprecedented in Louisiana," Ciolino said. "Trying to prove that a supervisor such as a bishop or an archbishop is a complicit party in criminal activity is much more difficult, and very few of those cases have been investigated much less brought to indictment or a bill of information."
As for the pope and other Vatican officials: Ciolino says don't bet on them getting caught up in this investigation.
"That's highly unlikely," Ciolino said. "There would have to be probable cause that people in Vatican City had actual knowledge of these particular crimes and did something to aid and abet them with some purpose or specific intent, which would be difficult to prove. Then there are, no doubt, are all sorts of diplomatic and sovereign immunity issues that might be presented by the fact that the Holy See is essentially an independent nation."
