An American attorney fined $400,000 for alerting a Roman Catholic high school that a priest stationed there admitted fondling and kissing a teenage girl during a previous assignment is seeking damages from church lawyers as he fights the penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit filed last week by the Louisiana-based attorney Richard Trahant accuses a law firm representing New Orleans\u2019s archdiocese in a bankruptcy protection case \u2013 and administrators of the proceeding \u2013 of trying to harm his reputation by widely but improperly publicizing the judicial order behind the fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement on Wednesday responding to the suit Trahant and his wife, Amy, filed five days earlier, the Jones Walker law firm said it followed the instructions of the judge who levied the fine. \u201cMr Trahant and his wife claim that they were injured by Jones Walker \u2026 following the court\u2019s instructions,\u201d the firm\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donlin Recano, which handles administrative duties related to the bankruptcy case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trahants argue they were unduly inflicted mental anguish by Jones Walker, firm partner Mark Mintz and Donlin Recano amid a dispute dating back to early 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the center of the dispute is a priest, Paul Hart, who died last October after retiring as chaplain of a school whose principal was Richard Trahant\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through his work representing plaintiffs whose suits alleging abuse by priests and deacons helped drive the New Orleans archdiocese to file for bankruptcy protection, Trahant learned that Hart inappropriately touched, kissed and at least once engaged in \u201cdry sex\u201d \u2013 simulated intercourse while clothed \u2013 with a girl who was 17 and participating in a youth group at a church in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She filed a misconduct complaint with the archdiocese in 2012, when she was an adult. Hart had been assigned to work at a church which ran a school her children attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Orleans\u2019s archbishop, Gregory Aymond, concluded that Hart behaved immorally but did not abuse a child because church law in effect at the time of the misconduct set the age of majority at 16. Aymond then assigned Hart to Brother Martin high school in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Trahant alerted his cousin about the allegations, Hart retired and left Brother Martin, which exclusively admits boys but allows girls to participate in activities including cheerleading and competitive dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trahant also sent an email to a local reporter, advising him to \u201ckeep\u201d Hart on his \u201cradar\u201d. Through sources that did not include Trahant, the reporter documented how the abrupt retirement came as details of his misconduct resurfaced. That prompted the judge overseeing the church bankruptcy case \u2013 Meredith Grabill \u2013 to order a leak investigation because Hart\u2019s personnel file was labeled confidential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In time, it was Trahant who faced the most substantial consequences from Hart\u2019s exposure. Grabill ruled that Trahant\u2019s alert to his cousin and email to the reporter violated confidentiality rules in the church bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge removed Trahant, two attorneys with whom he often collaborates and a number of their clients from a bankruptcy case committee representing clergy abuse claimants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grabill also issued an order containing \u201cYes!\u201d at the beginning of the title caption, which told Trahant to appear before her and face additional sanctions. That version of the order caused comment in the New Orleans legal community, and another omitting \u201cYes!\u201d from the title caption was later published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge ultimately added the $400,000 fine against Trahant, saying that was a little more than half of what the leak investigation cost. Trahant has asked a federal appeals court to overturn the fine, contending that materials on Hart should not be subject to the overly broad secrecy rules in the bankruptcy case, among other arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His recent lawsuit maintains that it was Mintz of Jones Walker who suggested ordering the leak investigation to Grabill, with whom he once taught a class at New Orleans\u2019s Tulane law school, according to information online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once Grabill concluded Trahant violated confidentiality rules, she held a hearing in which it was decided abuse survivors\u2019 lawyers would serve them copies of her findings. Grabill also issued an order in which she said the archdiocese\u2019s counsel should send her findings through first-class mail only to parties involved in the bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere can be no doubt that the service \u2026 was sensitive and was supposed to be limited,\u201d Trahant\u2019s suit asserts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suit says Trahant later determined that Mintz and Donlin Recano sent Grabill\u2019s findings to more than 16,000 people internationally, \u201cmost of whom have nothing to do with the archdiocese bankruptcy\u201d. Among them was the 18-year-old daughter of a friend of Amy Trahant, who was the first to give the Trahants an idea of how widely the order had been disseminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Grabill\u2019s punishment of Trahant made news headlines, his lawsuit argues that many people on the distribution list would not have readily found coverage of the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit also notes how Mintz \u2013 whose firm has earned more than $10m dollars from representing the archdiocese in the bankruptcy case, according to public filings \u2013 has called Trahant \u201ca bad actor\u201d engaged in \u201cscorched earth litigation\u201d. The Trahants say Mintz abused the legal process by having Grabill\u2019s findings sent so widely as part of an attempt to humiliate Richard Trahant and harm his potential future earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trahants additionally claim Donlin Recano should be held liable for failing to properly train or supervise employees involved in distributing Grabill\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple\u2019s lawsuit remained pending on Thursday, at a state courthouse in Gretna, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n