Friday, April 24, 2009

Salinas Californian to fight gag order in priest molestation case

They reason the Catholic church has a long history of child molestation is they have an even longer history of secrecy.

The Salinas Californian has retained the services of a Fresno law firm to contest the motion by defense attorneys for the Rev. Antonio Cortes of St. Mary of The Nativity Catholic Church in east Salinas.

Cortes, now in Monterey County Jail on $750,000 bail, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to one felony count of sodomy of a person under the age of 18 and 12 felony misdemeanors counts including providing alcohol to a minor and child molestation. He was additionally charged today with two felony counts of possessing child pornography.

The charges in this case are horrific.

Cortes is accused of 20 counts in all, including selling liquor to a minor, one felony count of sodomy with a 16-year-old and two counts of child molestation, including a misdemeanor count for masturbating the victim…

The only reason the defense wants a gag order is so that the local populace does to break Pastor Cortes out of jail and string him up. But this is not the Old West. The best approach is to keep the trail in the public eye. The world need to see the level of depravity fostered by the Catholic church.