"Do As I Say, Not As I Do": SNAP's David Clohessy scorns a court order
Since David Clohessy, the National Director of SNAP, has repeatedly flaunted judges' orders to produce documents related to an important Missouri abuse case, lawyers for an accused Catholic priest have requested that the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, hold SNAP and Clohessy "in contempt of Court."
[Click to read the court documents]
Lawyers for the accused priest have repeatedly requested that SNAP and Clohessy produce documents that they possess related to cases involving the discredited theory of "repressed memory," as the bogus theory plays an important role in their current case.
After displaying a timeline of events supporting their motion, the lawyers add that SNAP and Clohessy have repeatedly sought writs in the Missouri Court of Appeals and Supreme Court to oppose court orders and have repeatedly been denied. The lawyers then declare, "SNAP and Clohessy have failed to comply with every Court-ordered deadline for discovery."
(Important note: Contrary to the repeated claims by SNAP, Clohessy, and Church bashers, these lawyers do not seek victims' names or identities. They respect these individuals' privacy and agree with the redactions of their names.)
Clear hypocrisy
Clohessy and other leaders at SNAP have repeatedly railed against the Catholic Church when dioceses and/or bishops have lawfully appealed orders against them in courts of law. However, unlike SNAP, Church officials have always obeyed any orders that have reached the ends of their appeals.
Yet here is a crystal-clear case of Clohessy and SNAP picking-and-choosing which court orders they wish to obey and then breaking out their full panoply to avoid judges' lawful orders.
Hypocrisy? Absolutely.
Stay tuned.
What is crystal clear to me as an experienced lawyer is that the U.S. bishops are trying to destroy SNAP. Unlike the bishops with their $3 billions so far spent on covering-up for priest child abusers, SNAP's total payroll appears to be less than Bill Donohue's annual compensation package.
Even if the bishops succeed in bankrupting SNAP, the truth will still come out. The papal strategy of denial, cover-up and legal "slash and burn" has failed and, at this point, cannot succeed.
Increasingly, more Catholics are realizing this and voting with their feet and pocket books. It is time for the Catholic hierarchy to read the Gospels and stop destroying the Church.
So, what is your advice to defendant SNAP given their current legal situation?
Jerry, if you are who you say that you are, what should be crystal clear to you is the very real possibility of SNAP and trial lawyers colluding in order to manipulate the media and public opinion -before- the accused has had opportunity to defend himself.
On the one hand, we have Fr. Michael Tierney adamently maintaining his innocence, and he stands ready to mount a vigorous defense and face his accusers
On the other hand, we have SNAP boldly declaring Fr. Tierney a "serial pedophile" without EVER HAVING MET THE MAN, let alone hearing his side of the story, let alone giving him due process in the court of public opinion -and- in a court of law.
This is not the first time that this has happened in the history of SNAP's collusion with trial lawyers.
As a lawyer, can you look at me with a straight face and tell that you will not use public opinion to your advantage, even when the information presented to the public is cloudy at best?
-How- SNAP communicates with attornies and then uses that information to inflame public emotion before the first affidavit is even filed, that does have a bearing on this case, and quite frankly, Fr. Tierney's attornies have a right to that information. Anything less is putting spite above the truth.
Once again I thank Dave Pierre for breaking this down for us. The problem really is that the bishops are not doing nearly enough to destroy SNAP. This morally and spiritually bankrupt hate group has betrayed the Church and victims of abuse in a way that is nearly as unspeakable as the abuse itself. SNAP has used their suffering to further an agenda that has nothing whatsoever to do with protecting children. This is the message I am hearing quite clearly from many abuse survivors who today are convinced that SNAP's only interest is to keep them solidly in their victimhood for the purpose of bankrupting the Catholic Church and removing its voice from the American public square. These are not just idle words. I have many firsthand examples, and the testaments of many former victims of SNAP's agenda who have gone on record. Be wary of any organization that uses your pain to perpetuate its own agenda. Our bishops must wake up to this, the lawyer's commeht notwithstanding. Talk about agendas!
As the only up-front victim publishing here, I am always amazed by the mendacity of religious people. there is literally no end to your defense of your imaginations i.e. faith. I know the vast majority of right wing Catholics view themselves as honest people; but really folks The only conspiracy against your Church by anyone is from the top of that Church. SNAP is the Church,not so pure and not so simple. A fake organization fighting fake battles. I have had more time attempting to work with SNAP than any of you, hell than all of you combined. But you "know" more. You know nothing. This show is for hicks and buffoons.
If SNAP is the church, then the church is doing a good job of putting lies out there about itself.
That's exactly what I'm saying.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests is being attacked because, along with the Center for Consitutional Rights, they dared to file a complaint with the UN against the Vatican ( naming Pope Benedict, Cardinal Levada and others) for Crimes Against Humanity for keeping pedophile priests and bishops in business. So, the pedophile enabling bishops have taken their gloves off and are paying the lawyers to go after SNAP.
Sounds alot like these bishops are following Jesus, doesn't it?
More SNAP stuff from FAAF who – she insists – is not a member of that organization.
Sooooooo … let’s see here.
First, when in defending against a legal case, you take legally-allowed steps as prescribed in law and court procedure, you are … “attacking” the party against whom you have brought the legally-allowed procedure?
Second, of course: you only control – and you don’t even do that – your own attorneys who represent you. Thus they only submit what is in their opinion i) in your best legal interests, ii) legal according to law and jurispraxis, and iii) ethical within the parameters of the Bar. So what does that say about the lawyers? (Reminder: what’s good for the ‘Church’ lawyers is also good for the tort-victim lawyers, so be careful how you answer.)
Third, your procedures or motions are put before the Court as a proposal, and it’s actually the Court that then has to allow them. So for this phantasm masquerading as an explanation to work, then the Court – or in the SNAP case, all levels of that State’s court system in multiple reviews – has to be in on the game. Is that what you’re suggesting as the fact of the matter here?
Fourth, now that you mention it – what has happened to that lawsuit filed with the ICC at the Hague? It’s a fact that anybody with the price of a filing fee can file a lawsuit – as you no doubt know. So the real question is: what’s up with that lawsuit? Has it been formally accepted and put on the docket? Has the court politely acknowledged receipt of the envelope down in the mail room and politely consigned it to the circular file? I read that Complaint in its entirety: I think it’s in the Church’s best interests to let the silly thing get on the docket so the whole world can see what whackness SNAP is capable of. And did FAAF forget the charge of Torture that was also made in the Complaint? And the bits comparing priests serving the Church to rogue bandit-soldiers serving a rogue warlord? I think the problem isn’t going to be the Church trying to quash the lawsuit; it’s going to be having the ICC accept it with a straight face.
fit, question: what does the case involving a single priest have to do with the UN and what have you? Rhetorical question; the answer is obvious: absolutely NOTHING!
However, there IS evidence of collusion between contingency lawyers, SNAP, and the media to sway public opinion and taint the jury pool while the priest is adamently maintaining his innocence and is mounting a vigorous defense. The lawyers for the defendant have every right to know -how- this happened in spite of a gag order and the Missouri high courts agree.
It's all about due process for the accused. If you believe that the accused do not deserve due process and should be tried by a mob mentality operating on phone game information, well……..not in my America will I silently let that happen!
LOL!
The Vatican could care less about the International Court. Could care less. The Court skips Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq; and anything the big boys do but it's going after the Pope? The spiritual leader of 1 and1/4 BILLION human beings???? You could be sold anything if you buy that premise.
It won't happen. Not at all and not ever.
Your America? Sorry should the rest of us pay you rent?
Denial aint just an Eygyptian body of water. Mob mentality?? I see no mobs outside the Catholic Churches here. Unless you mean that crowd of intelligent Catholics walking away.
Jim,
the mob mentality exists in the blogs and forums and comments sections of opeds.
My America is your America, and if I see a potentially false accusation levied against you and the accuser's "advocates" try to decide your case before you are given due process and a chance to defend yourself, the same goes.
I don’t have an inside line on the Vatican’s assessment of matters, so I wouldn’t know and certainly couldn’t assert any fortune-telling predictions. But apparently we are to infer that the Church is more powerful and influential – in the ICC’s assessment – than the US government. But I don’t have an inside line on the ICC’s assessments either.
Such an assertion, however, might well be useful if and when it comes time to explain why the ICC refused to accept the lawsuit for adjudication. Although the Complaint has enough problems simply on its own: whether a statute intended to deal with rogue warlords and their militias is rightly applicable to the Church – and in matters of sex abuse; whether the Court – erected in 2002 – can rightly consider matters that allegedly took place before it was erected; and then whether the Court will follow the path of American jurisprudence and kinda-sorta take all allegations as presumptively credible and not require evidentiary-grade corroboration.
And how can the Church remain so powerful if so many “intelligent Catholics” (among whom – may it be presumed? – JR includes himself) are “walking away”? Are that many such persons indeed walking away? I know there are many who simply stop going to Church because of the general pressure of an increasingly secularized and metaphysically Flattened culture, but how many Catholics who are “intelligent” (however that might be defined) are “walking away” and for what reasons?
So, subtracting the jokes and the catchy sound-bite bits, a lot more questions are raised than answered or addressed.
The Church remains so powerful because it's money isn't walking away just it's former peasantry.
Thanks for "catchy sound bites" I call them ideas but so what. Only you Pub know real "ideas" when you see them. The rest of humanity and me live for your definitions of what are "ideas"; and what are "sound bites" Again from Inherit the Wind, "Brady tells the world" ( what to think).
That's X Catholic thank you. You can't even ordain new priests in any viable number and you pretend the Church is vital. Better head for the life boat Pub the not so good ship" Leaking Lena" is floundering.
Ken W I hear you. I think your emPHAsis is on the wrong SyLABle. But feel free.
The Vatican is part of the offshore banking empire…thanks to the 1929 Lateran Treaty and financial guru Bernardino Nogara, who allegely demanded that no moral limits be placed on what he could invest Church money in. So the Vatican is part of the global financial octopus, as many other governments around the world are as well. Who is the "good guy" in this debacle between SNAP and the bishops? Probably neither. People have to wake up to the fact that many in the Church are actually anti-Catholic, if by Catholic one means someone who believes in the Church. The wolves are in the Church.