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NEW ORLEANS (USA), April 29 (AP) – A federal judge overseeing New Orleans’ Roman Catholic bankruptcy case has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese and involved nearly 500 clergy, according to an Associated Press report. It has consistently ruled in favor of the Church in cases involving victims of sexual abuse by personnel.
U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry initially announced hours after the AP report that he would move forward with the case, citing other federal judges that no “reasonable person” could challenge his conviction. impartiality.
But under mounting pressure and persistent questions, he reversed course late Friday, submitting a succinct one-page document.
“I have decided to recuse myself from this matter to avoid any possible personal bias or prejudice,” Guidry wrote.
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The recusal of the 62-year-old jurist, who oversaw the three-year-old bankruptcy in an appellate capacity, is likely to throw the case into turmoil and trigger new hearings and appeals of every corresponding decision he makes.
But legal experts say that’s the only course of action available in the circumstances, citing federal law requiring judges to recuse themselves from any lawsuit where “the impartiality may reasonably be questioned.”
“It’s a clear and blatant conflict that’s been around for a while,” said Joel Friedman, a longtime legal analyst in New Orleans and now a law professor at Arizona State University.
“It creates the exact problem the rules are designed to avoid, giving the public the impression that he’s not an impartial decision maker.”
Guidry’s recusal highlights the church’s tight ties in the city’s power structure, a comfort that may come at a time when executives of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints secretly advised the archdiocese of a public relations message at the height of its clergy abuse crisis. Best example.
Since Guidry was nominated by then-President Donald Trump in 2019 to be a federal judge, nearly $50,000 has been donated from political contributions left over from his time as a Louisiana Supreme Court justice, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records. to a local Catholic charity.
Most of the donations, $36,000 of them, came in the months after the archdiocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2020 amid a series of sexual abuse lawsuits. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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