Catholic clergy abuse victims in California strenuously objected when Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris described herself as a top-notch prosecutor who went after sex offenders during her time as San Francisco’s district attorney.
Joey Piscitelli, 69, a clergy sex abuse victim and advocate for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, called Ms. Harris’ depiction of her record as being tough on sex offenders “bulls***.”
“She was handed a room full of cases and boxes of names of sex offenders, and all that in the church right there under her nose,” Mr. Piscitelli told The Washington Times.
“The priest that molested me in ministry with children under her nose in the city. I wrote her a letter and said, ’Hey, what about this guy? He’s a rapist,’” he said. “’He’s with kids right now at the oldest Cathedral in San Francisco, right under your nose. What are you going to do?’ [She did] nothing.”
Mr. Piscitelli said he was sexually molested by a priest more than 50 years ago at Salesian High School in Richmond, California. The abuse, he said, began when he was a freshman at the school.
A jury awarded Mr. Piscitelli $600,000 in 2006 from the priest and the Salesian Society, but that wasn’t because of Ms. Harris’ involvement.
Ms. Harris, who began her seven-year tenure as a San Francisco DA in 2004, refused to turn over personnel files of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse within the San Francisco Archdiocese, according to her critics, which include San Francisco news outlets.
That’s not the way Ms. Harris portrays her performance as a prosecutor and her qualifications to take on former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee.
“As a prosecutor, I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse. Well, Trump was found liable for committing sexual abuse.” Ms. Harris said at a Milwaukee rally on July 23. “I took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
The Washington Times reached out to the Harris campaign, but did not hear back.
Dan McNevins, 65, who says he was molested by a priest when he was an altar boy, said that when Ms. Harris talks about her record fighting sex offenders, he gets angry.
“She didn’t do anything for survivors of Catholic priests,” he told The Times. “I hope that in the last 20 years, Vice President Harris has reflected that she may have been on the wrong end of that equation and can change. I would like her to actually address the issue. She hasn’t ever addressed what went on.”
In 2010, San Francisco Weekly described how Ms. Harris refused to release the records to the paper when the outlet requested them in 2005.
Five years later, they followed up, and her office sent a statement saying: “District Attorney Harris focuses her efforts on putting child molesters in prison. We’re not interested in selling out our victims to look good in the paper.”
“When this case was brought under Terence Hallinan, prosecutors took the utmost care to protect the identity and dignity of the victims. That was the right thing to do then and it’s the right thing to do now.”
Mr. McNevins and Mr. Piscitelli now help others as leaders at the California office of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
According to SNAP, 211 clergy are being sued for sex abuse offenses in the San Francisco Diocese, which includes San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties. The number of clergy there who have been accused or sued has reached 499.
Mr. Piscitelli handed out flyers in front of Ms. Harris’ office in October 2005 demanding she and Cardinal William Levada, the former archbishop of San Francisco, “quit holding hands and remove clergy abusers from schools in San Francisco now!”
The flyer said: “Release your files and act like a DA who wants to protect children—and not a DA who wants to shield and protect child sex abusers!”
Mr. Piscitelli, said many clergy abuse victims face obstacles including church officials who claim ignorance about an accused priest who may no longer be part of the diocese, be deceased, or that the statute of limitations on such crimes has expired.
In these situations, he said, the type of files Ms. Harris withheld are necessary to file civil suits.
“What was she gaining by withholding information from people who are in civil lawsuits? If she says, ’Well, I couldn’t convict them, the statute had passed.’ Okay. Why were you withholding it for people in civil lawsuits?”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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