Refusal to cooperate 'regrettable,' investigator tells main accuser

Repeated invitations to cooperate in her investigation of allegations against Bishop Howard J. Hubbard have been rebuffed by his main accusers, so attorney Mary Jo White announced last week that she would proceed without their input.

"It is regrettable that the parties who have publicly accused Bishop Hubbard have declined to be interviewed or to permit the independent testing" of documents that they claim support their allegations, Ms. White said.

Ms. White is the former U.S. attorney who was hired in February by the Diocesan Review Board to look into claims made by John Aretakis, who has held multiple press conferences to generate media coverage for allegations made by his clients against the Bishop.

Conditions imposed

Over the past few weeks, Ms. White met several conditions Mr. Aretakis said were imperative before he would cooperate. However, after each of her concessions, he announced new obstacles to his cooperating.

Mr. Aretakis "has declined our repeated invitations to meet privately in order to advance the investigation of alleged sexual misconduct," Ms. White said. "We have conducted a thorough investigation which we will continue to conclusion."

She noted that more than 250 people "have cooperated with our investigation, and we have obtained substantial and significant information concerning the allegations against Bishop Hubbard."

Newspapers weigh in

Editorials in two daily newspapers in the Capital District have urged Mr. Aretakis to cooperate with the investigation.

On May 20, The Record in Troy wrote: "Why not cooperate?...There are no lawsuits filed. There are no crimes alleged....White will give us the closest thing to the complete truth about the Bishop we will ever get, and [the accusers] who started the whole thing have the responsibility to help her -- and us -- get there."

On May 27, an editorial in the Daily Gazette in Schenectady urged Mr. Aretakis to let the investigation "reach a proper conclusion. He will undoubtedly have a chance to spin the results, if he wants to, later on."

Background

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.

(For more information, go to www.evangelist.org and click on "coverage of allegations.")

(6/3/04)