Milwaukee Archbishop Listecki at Center of Sex Abuse Cover Up Claim
MILWAUKEE - Is the Catholic church still trying to cover up sex abuse allegations by priests?
One woman says yes. She claims a priest touched her last August. Then dismissed her complaint, without ever telling police.
Milwaukee's New Archbishop Jerome Listecki is at the center of the cover up allegation.
When Jerome Listecki was Bishop in La Crosse he encouraged catholics to notify the diocese not law enforcement about sex abuse allegations.
So when a 47 year old woman complained last fall about being sexually assaulted by a priest she got a letter from Listecki that read,
"We have carefully considered your concerns," but "...I cannot conclusively determine what happened." The woman later went to police and the priest was arrested.
"Yeah, that would trouble me," said Tammy Klein.
"It demonstrates how these cases are not being turned over to police," said Snap's Midwest Director Peter Isely.
The clergy sex abuse victim's advocate says the La Crosse case sends a wrong message.
"You can see here how things have simply not changed," said Isely.
The policy in Milwaukee is to report sex abuse allegations to police but Listecki is coming under fire for how he handle the La Crosse case.
"Why not just publicly say just go to the local authorities?" asked state Senator Jon Erpenbach.
Lawmakers questioned Archbishop Listecki about the La Crosse policy last month and he seemed to suggest law enforcement would be called.
Klein hoped the church had changed, but now has her doubts.
When asked if you believed the church would call police she replied, "Not 100 percent. Absolutely not, because of the past."
Listecki was not available for comment. The accused La Crosse priest is in court next week.
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