By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Staff Writer
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, responding to claims from a national group of survivors of abuse by priests, said through a spokeswoman Wednesday that victims of abuse should come forward with information.
Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the district attorney, met with Barbara Blaine, founder and president of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Blaine claimed that as many as eight clerics affiliated with the Archdiocese of Denver have abused children but offered no evidence, officials say.
SNAP wants a Denver grand jury investigation similar to one in Philadelphia that recently issued a scathing report.
Kimbrough said that most sexual assault cases are filed directly, although a grand jury could be used.
The archdiocese has been named in civil lawsuits regarding allegations against a former priest, Harold Robert White, and the late Rev. Leon ard Abercrombie. The Diocese of Pueblo has been named in lawsuits regarding allegations against the Rev. William Mueller.
Fran Maier, chancellor for the Denver archdiocese, declined comment, saying the church “never resolves these matters in the media.”
Also Wednesday, Robert Kinney Jr. sued the Archdiocese of Denver and White in Denver District Court. The suit contends that White repeatedly molested Kinney when he was a teenager at St. John the Evangelist parish in Loveland. The lawsuit contends that from 1969 to 1972, Kinney was sexually molested and exploited by White.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
