Louisiana state police went into the office of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans on Thursday to begin the process of collecting records from the organization spanning the history of its decades-old clerical abuse scandal, as troopers investigate whether the local church hierarchy illegally covered up systemic child molestation.
Troopers arrived at the archdiocese’s headquarters at about 9.45am local time three days after a state court judge signed a search warrant authorizing them to take the entirety of the documents in question.
The troopers left after meeting with church officials and their lawyers for about 45 minutes. An archdiocesan spokesperson said the church did not immediately turn over any documents, with troopers treating the warrant in a manner more like a subpoena, which gives the targets of investigation a chance to gather and return targeted material.
