A report released this week by a Los Angeles law firm says 16 Catholic clergymen with Kern County connections have been accused of sexual misconduct, including five who did not show up on a separate list put out recently by a group advocating for abuse survivors.
The alleged abusers — at least three of whom are now dead — were among 43 clergymen with some association with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno.
The 16 with local ties were either assigned to local parishes or grew up in Kern, such as Dinuba priest Raul Diaz, who grew up in McFarland. Diaz was among the five not named in the list put out last month by Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, better known as SNAP.
Jeff Anderson & Associates, the law firm that produced and released the report, emphasized that most of the accusations it contains were settled or have not been evaluated in court. “Accordingly,” the report states, “the allegations should be considered just allegations and should not be considered proved or substantiated in a court of law.”
Read more at the Bakersfield Californian