{"id":1007,"date":"2012-09-06T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/despite-guilty-verdict-bishop-finn-grateful-for-end-of-trial\/"},"modified":"2012-09-06T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T22:32:00","slug":"despite-guilty-verdict-bishop-finn-grateful-for-end-of-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/09\/despite-guilty-verdict-bishop-finn-grateful-for-end-of-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite guilty verdict, Bishop Finn ‘grateful’ for end of trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Kansas City, Mo., Sep 6, 2012 \/ 04:32 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A Kansas judge has convicted Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph on one misdemeanor count of failure to report suspected child abuse and acquitted him on another count, while charges against the diocese have been dismissed.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI regret and am sorry for the hurt that these events have caused,\u201d Bishop Finn said in a Sept. 6 statement provided to CNA.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe protection of children is paramount. Sexual abuse of any kind will not be tolerated.\"<\/p>\n

\tThe bishop pledged to take \u201cevery reasonable step\u201d to protect children from abuse and misconduct committed by clergy, diocesan employees or volunteers.<\/p>\n

\tIn spite of the guilty verdict, Bishop Finn said he is \u201cpleased and grateful\u201d that the court and prosecutor \u201callowed this matter to be concluded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJackson County Circuit Court Judge John Torrence convicted the bishop during a short non-jury trial Sept. 6. He sentenced the bishop to two years of probation and suspended the sentence. The bishop\u2019s criminal record will be expunged if he completes a period of unsupervised probation without any new criminal incidents.<\/p>\n

\tProsecutors had sought two years of probation, while defense attorneys asked for the sentence to be suspended. The maximum penalty for the guilty verdict is a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.<\/p>\n

\tBishop Finn is the first American bishop and the highest ranking U.S. Catholic clergyman to be found guilty in an abuse case.<\/p>\n

\tThe trial concerned the bishop\u2019s and the diocese\u2019s response to the case of Father Shawn Ratigan. A technician found numerous lewd images of children, mostly prepubescent girls, on the priest\u2019s laptop. He informed a deacon who reported the find to diocesan officials on Dec. 16, 2010.<\/p>\n

\tThe priest attempted suicide on Dec. 17 of that year after diocesan officials informed him that they had discovered some of the images.<\/p>\n

\tBishop Finn had delegated the investigation of sexual abuse claims to Monsignor Robert Murphy, the diocese\u2019s vicar general.<\/p>\n

\tHowever, Msgr. Murphy did not contact law enforcement about the images until May 11, 2011. Bishop Finn was told about the pictures by the vicar general but never saw them himself.<\/p>\n

\tIn the facts presented at his trial, Bishop Finn acknowledged that he is a mandated child abuse reporter under Missouri law.<\/p>\n

\tThe Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph also faced charges on the same two counts, but they were dismissed.<\/p>\n

\tLawyers for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said that Bishop Finn\u2019s agreement to a bench trial led to the dismissal of the charges against the diocese.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tBishop Finn\u2019s lawyers, Gerald Handley, J.R. Hobbs and Marilyn Keller, said that the bench trial avoided the need for live testimony from diocesan employees, parishioners and others.<\/p>\n

\tHowever, they also said the diocese\u2019s operating procedures \u201cfailed to adequately identify the necessity\u201d to inform the government of the priest\u2019s behavior \u201cin a more timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cFor this, the bishop is truly sorry,\u201d the lawyers said.<\/p>\n

\tAn independent investigation of the case by Todd Graves, a former U.S. Department of Justice official who has worked on child exploitation cases, was released in August 2011. It found a failure to follow diocesan policy in a timely manner. Diocesan officials relied on limited professional judgments instead of the diocese\u2019s independent review board. The investigation said that Bishop Finn misplaced trust in Fr. Ratigan to comply with restrictions placed upon his behavior.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas City, Mo., Sep 6, 2012 \/ 04:32 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Kansas judge has convicted Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph on one misdemeanor count of failure to report suspected child abuse and acquitted him on another count, while charge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nDespite guilty verdict, Bishop Finn 'grateful' for end of trial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kansas City, Mo., Sep 6, 2012 \/ 04:32 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- A Kansas judge has convicted Bishop Robert W. 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