Judge to rule on priests’ court records

TV station seeks to unseal info on 3 former clergymen

A judge said Friday that he will consider an Albuquerque television station’s request to unseal court records about three former Archdiocese of Santa Fe priests who have been accused in dozens of lawsuits of sexually abusing children.

If 2nd Judicial District Judge Alan Malott approves the request, it would mark the first significant public disclosure of archdiocese’s records since the 1996 release of a deposition by former Archbishop of Santa Fe Robert F. Sanchez.

Malott said he would begin next week reviewing records obtained from the archdiocese by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall, who has filed more than 70 clerical abuse lawsuits since 2011.

Malott said he would review the records “with an eye toward what is appropriate for public disclosure.”

The records have remained sealed under a confidentiality agreement Malott approved in 2014 that bars public disclosure of a wide variety of records produced by the archdiocese in clerical abuse lawsuits.

Malott will review the records in response to a request by KOB-TV LLC, which filed in July as an intervenor in seven clerical abuse cases

for the purpose of obtaining court records.

“We just think the public has a right to know what’s going on in this courtroom in these cases,” KOB’s attorney, Geoffrey Rieder, told Malott.

The attorney for the archdiocese, Robert Warburton of Albuquerque, said release of the records would endanger the archdiocese’s right to a fair trial, and endangers the privacy rights of victims and their families.

If Malott releases records about the three priests, “there is nothing to prevent KOB or other members of the news media from later expanding the scope to include other priests,” Warburton wrote in a motion objecting to the disclosure.

Hall compiled the records to support allegations against three former archdiocese priests: Sabine Griego, Arthur Perrault and Jason Sigler. The records include contents of the priests’ personnel files and witness depositions, he said.

Hall said he compiled the records to support “timelines” he uses in ongoing lawsuits against the archdiocese. He filed his 71st priest abuse lawsuit on Aug. 24.

Hall said he has received similar requests for the records from attorneys, media organizations, and others.

“It is just a matter of time until some reasonable, principled, rational discussion about how to release documents should take place,” Hall told Malott. “It’s inevitable.”