Attorneys accused of violating gag order, collusion

Attorneys for Fr. Michael Tierney, one of several officials of the Kansas City – St. Joseph Catholic Diocese involved in growing allegations of church misconduct and a history of sexual abuse from priests, accused attorneys of abuse victims of violating a gag order and colluding with witnesses through a relationship with SNAP.

The same attorneys recently deposed local SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) director David Clohessy, requesting the organization to provide them with 23 years of internal records, correspondence and email.

Wagstaff and Cartmell attorneys Brian Madden, Diane Watkins, and Adam Davis represent Tierney.

Rebecca Randles, of Randles Mata & Brown, represents the abuse victims.  Jeffrey Jensen, of St. Louis’ Jensen Bartlett & Schelp, represents Clohessy.  Jonathan Haden, of Lathrop & Gage, represents the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese.

According to the National Catholic Reporter: In one case, Tierney’s lawyers allege that a press release issued by SNAP some six hours before a lawsuit was filed against the priest contained information that could only have been known by the plaintiffs’ lawyer.

“There is simply no way that the SNAP press release was made without the assistance of plaintiff counsel since the lawsuit was publically filed hours AFTER the press release was issued,” reads the filing.

“SNAP, through Mr. Clohessy, could be routinely advising plaintiff and others to claim repressed memory to evade the statute of limitations,” reads the filing. “Defendants are entitled to discovery on that issue.”

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From the National Catholic Reporter: Court documents reveal motives for deposing SNAP