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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Media Seek Open Hearing on Saints’ Emails With Church

New Orleans news outlets on Thursday will ask a judge for an open hearing on the confidentiality of emails between Roman Catholic officials and the city's NFL franchise, the New Orleans Saints, concerning clergy sex-abuse scandals.

(AP) — New Orleans news outlets on Thursday will ask a judge for an open hearing on the confidentiality of emails between Roman Catholic officials and the city's NFL franchise, the New Orleans Saints, concerning clergy sex-abuse scandals.

Victims’ attorneys say that hundreds of Saints emails show team executives did behind-the-scenes public relations damage control amid the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ clergy abuse scandal. The team has gone to court to keep the emails from the public, saying court rules would ordinarily keep them under seal and that the plaintiffs’ lawyers want them released "for publicity purposes."

A state court hearing is scheduled in New Orleans next week before a court-appointed special master to determine whether they may be released.

The AP has been allowed to intervene in the effort to get the emails released and lawyers for the news cooperative are being allowed to participate in arguments for release of the emails. However, the Feb. 20 hearing before the special master was to be closed to the public.

The owners of The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, WVUE-TV, WWL-TV and WDSU-TV have filed a motion for access to the hearing.

Judge Ellen Hazeur will hear arguments at Civil District Court in New Orleans.

The Saints, whose devoutly Catholic owner Gayle Benson is close friends with the local archbishop, have disputed as "outrageous" any suggestion that the team helped cover up crimes. They have accused plaintiffs’ attorneys of mischaracterizing what is in the emails.

Benson said in a news release Monday that the NFL team played no role in determining which priests would be named in the list of "credibly accused" clergy published by the archdiocese.

Attorneys for about two dozen men suing the church say in court filings that the confidential emails show executives joined in the church's "pattern and practice of concealing its crimes." The attorneys say that included taking an active role in helping to shape the archdiocese's list of 57 credibly accused clergy, a roster an AP analysis found was undercounted by at least 20.

Categories / Entertainment, Media, Religion, Sports

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