Listecki "cannot conclusively determine what happened"

Fr. Donkor-Baine of the Diocese of La Crosse was charged Feb 11th with sexual assault on a yet unnamed 47 year old woman.

The La Crosse Tribune reported on it today

The woman reported the incident to diocese administrator Monsignor Richard Gilles in September and met with diocesan attorney Jim Birnbaum, according to the report. It’s unclear why she met with Gilles instead of then-Bishop Jerome Listecki, now archbishop of the Milwaukee diocese.[Probably the same reason I don't meet with Gov Doyle when I have an issue with a local policeman]

“He (Gilles) told me that Bishop Listecki takes these things very seriously and that he would file a report and give it to him,” the woman testified in January before a state Senate committee in Madison. “Now, if I were the bishop[Anglican?], I would have had me sitting in a chair the next day.”

The diocese did investigate the report, Birnbaum said. Donkor-Baine, a Ghana resident[originally the Trib reported he was from Guyana, South America, not Ghana, Africa] who came to the U.S. for medical care, denied the offense[so I think this means he plead not guilty at the trial].

“Sufficient evidence did not exist to confirm the woman’s story,” Birnbaum said. “There were no other like or similar allegations ever made.”

A Dec. 22 letter from Listecki to the woman stated he “cannot conclusively determine what happened.”

Still, Donkor-Baine was ordered not to have contact with the woman or St. James parish, where he led Mass. Listecki also recommended she avoid Franciscan Skemp Healthcare and Viterbo University, where Donkor-Baine provided ministry services and occasionally led Mass.

“Basically, it was Bishop Listecki’s blow-off letter to me,[....Interesting way to phrase it]” the woman testified at the Madison hearing, which Listecki attended.

Journal Sentinel also picked up but did not quote the Listecki letter which I thought was odd.

Well if this is going to trial the Tribune didn't report when.  The La Crosse Tribune also ran a story today that SNAP feels the Diocese of La Crosse needs to change their policies.  The woman did approach SNAP who told her to report it to the DA in La Crosse, which sounds like good advice to me.

There does need to be a distinction made, any abuse reported involving a minor IS reported directly to police.  If the matter is between two adults the diocese tries to determine what actually happened first.  In this case, nobody's saying it but the diocese feels she's making it up.  So it's a he said she said match, no other witnesses.

As to the policy of not reporting adult abuse reports, I don't see a problem with the diocese policy.  What if she confesses later that she made the whole thing up?  What if she was asking the diocese for hush money or told Donkor-Baine he had to pay up or else she'd make something up?  A 47 year old woman sounds like she knows enough to report it to police herself.  Why did she not approach the police first?  I would be open to change my mind if I heard a good reason why this policy doesn't work.  But this case could end up being a good reason the diocese does have this policy.  Priest are targets of many groups out there, and even if found not guilty the damage has already been done to Fr. Donkor-Baine.

Update: Here is an update to this story