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Wednesday, December 24, 1997

Report: FBI probes judge's link to pedophile priest

DALLAS (AP) -- Federal agents are investigating an appeals court judge who helped a pedophile priest get legal counsel when he was accused of molesting a neighbor, The Dallas Morning News reported today.

Two officials in Polk County in southeast Texas said that an FBI agent questioned them about 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Henry Politz's connection to Gilbert Gauthe.

Gauthe, who served in the Diocese of Lafayette, La., admitted in a 78-page sworn statement in 1984 that he had performed sex with altar boys in a confessional, his rectory, his van and a camp. He recalled molesting more than three dozen children as young as 6.

In 1985, he pleaded guilty to 11 counts and was sentenced to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole. He was released after serving 10 years, getting out early for good behavior.

It was one of the biggest of the priest-sex scandals of the '80s that forced the Roman Catholic Church to confront the issues of pedophilia among priests. The church paid millions of dollars in civil settlements in the case.

Politz, who grew up near the Gauthe family farm in southern Louisiana, said he has no knowledge of the investigation and wouldn't talk about Gauthe. "There will be no comment about that," he said Monday.

Gauthe moved to Texas after being released from a Louisiana state prison in 1995. When Polk County officials charged him with molesting a young neighbor in 1996, Shreveport-based Politz arranged high-profile lawyers for him.

They arranged a deal in which Gauthe pleaded no contest to injury to a child, a lesser charge, and was sentenced to seven years' probation.

Bob Price, a Polk County probation officer questioned by the FBI, said he and others in local law enforcement knew nothing of Gauthe's notoriety until news accounts began trickling in recently from Louisiana.

Price recalled that awaiting a hearing in the case, he recognized prominent Houston defense attorney Robert Bennett and asked him why he was involved in a seemingly routine molestation case in Polk County

"And he said, 'You know, when a federal judge calls and asks you for a favor, you do it,' " the newspaper quoted Price as saying. Bennett did not respond to requests for comment, the paper said.

The Polk County prosecutor, Lee Hon, said he told the FBI that Politz never contacted him. But he said he was troubled that Louisiana corrections officials didn't answer his request for records that could have shown that Gauthe was a repeat offender deserving of a stiffer sentence.

Last month, Gauthe's pastor wrote a letter published in The Times in Shreveport, defending Politz's relationship with Gauthe.

"A judge of impeachable ethics, acting out of charity and compassion, has had his reputation, which has been a lifetime in the making, besmirched," Monsignor Murray Clayton wrote. He also objected to "unsavory" characterizations Politz's visits to Gauthe during Gauthe's 10 years in prison.

Clayton said Gauthe entered a plea in Texas to "something that never happened" because he feared jurors would condemn him for his previous crimes.

That denial outraged Karen Munson, the woman who told sheriff's deputies in July 1996 that Gauthe -- her neighbor -- molested her 3-year-son.

"A judge and a priest and whoever else want to protect him," Ms. Munson said. "The little innocent kids don't have a chance."