Investigator says Bishop's accuser not cooperating

Mary Jo White, the former U.S. attorney who is conducting an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, has publicly invited his main accuser to cooperate with her inquiry.

To date, however, the accuser -- attorney John Aretakis, who has held multiple news conferences to generate media coverage for his claims against the Bishop -- has refused to provide information to her investigators, she said.

In a statement released this week to the media, Ms. White said that it was her intention "to interview each and every individual with relevant information of any kind....We have received broad cooperation from many people, over 200 of whom have been interviewed. We have specifically sought information from outspoken critics of Bishop Hubbard, and several such people have cooperated....We have not yet, however, received cooperation from Attorney John Aretakis or his clients who made the allegations. We are issuing this statement as a public invitation to them to cooperate."

Accusations

In February, Mr. Aretakis arranged news conferences at which he and his clients publicly accused the Bishop of sexual misconduct in the 1970s.

The Bishop vehemently denied the claims and said he had never engaged in sexual activity with anyone of any gender or any age at any time. The Bishop also said he would not investigate himself and called for an independent investigation of the allegations.

The Diocese first requested that the Albany County district attorney look into the allegations, but the DA declined since the claims were beyond the statute of limitations. The Diocesan Review Board, the panel charged with investigating claims of sexual misconduct against priests of the Albany Diocese, retained Ms. White to conduct an independent investigation. She is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and is now in private practice.

Meeting his demands

In her statement this week, Ms. White said that "Mr. Aretakis was the first person we contacted after our investigation was announced [in February]. To date, and despite repeated oral and written requests, he and his clients...have chosen not to cooperate. In addition, he has not responded to our request to provide the original versions of key documents for analysis."

Ms. White said that Mr. Aretakis "originally set several conditions on his cooperation, and we have met those that were reasonable and provided Mr. Aretakis, as he requested, with written responses to all his demands.

"We also provided written questions which we offered as an option in the event Mr. Aretakis or his clients chose not to meet with us in person. Mr. Aretakis and his clients have not answered those written questions, nor has he responded to any of our five letters since March 30, 2004."

Latest contact

In the latest attempt to gain cooperation from Mr. Aretakis and his clients, Ms. White said that "a member of our investigative team telephoned Mr. Aretakis [on May 5] to ask whether he intended to cooperate with the investigation. He responded that he would not do so until we provided our engagement letter [that is, contract] with the Diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. As we explained to Mr. Aretakis in a March 26, 2004 letter, he is free to examine the letter at a meeting with us, and we intend to make the letter public at the time we issue our report."

Ms. White declared that her office "will complete the investigation with or without the cooperation of Mr. Aretakis," but she added that "we very much hope that Mr. Aretakis and his clients will decide to cooperate in our efforts to determine the full truth. We look forward to speaking with Mr. Aretakis and his clients in the near future."

(Kenneth Goldfarb, spokesman for the Albany Diocese, told The Evangelist that "Bishop Hubbard has cooperated fully with the investigation by Mary Jo White. If Mr. Aretakis has factual information, it is hard to understand why he would not cooperate.")

(5/20/04) [[In-content Ad]]