Catholic Church Lawyers Will Depose SNAP Official

David Clohessy, the national director of Survivors of Those Abused by Priests, will have to appear for a deposition concerning a lawsuit brought against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph regarding sexual abuse allegations lodged against Rev. Michael Tierney.
The unprecedented move by Catholic Church defense lawyers requires the deposition be taken duces tecumwhich means Clohessy must appear with documents relating to abuse matters. The specifics concerning the document production is very broad and asks for items that are tangentially (if at all) related to the particular lawsuit in question.
Advocates for survivors of abuse have criticized the move stating that it’s heavy-handed and designed to intimidate survivors. Marci Hamilton, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law at New York’s Yeshiva University, told the National Catholic Reporter that the subpoena is “one of the uglier moves I’ve seen by any organization in these cases so far.”