Newspapers ask judge to unseal priest abuse records

Fort Worth, Texas --

Two newspapers have asked a judge to unseal records of sexual abuse allegations against priests who worked in the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese.
Tarrant County District Judge Len Wade ordered the diocese to surrender the records last year in a lawsuit that accused Bishop Joseph Delaney of employing known predators.

But the judge kept the records secret and ordered the plaintiffs to do the same.

The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram say the records should be unsealed because they concern public health and safety.

The diocese recently agreed to settle the lawsuit, without admitting wrongdoing, by paying two accusers of the Reverend Thomas Teczar more than four (M) million dollars.

Delaney employed Teczar from the late 1980s to the early 1990s after a Massachusetts diocese barred him from ministry because of misconduct with boys.

Read the article at KVIA.com dated 04/30/05

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