Investigation of Father Mark Anthony Broussard
Submitted | Nov. 15, 2018 |
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Communications
From: Scott Soileau
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Louisiana Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
With names of victims redacted,
I am writing to request all documents, personnel records, and correspondence of the Diocese Of Lake Charles obtained in this investigation conducted by detectives of the CPSO.
Father Mark Broussard was arrested on 3/22/2012, 4/2/2012, and 6/27/2012.
These documents are necessary to determine who was aware of accusations of abuse, when accusations were made, and what was done when the accusations were received.
In particular this may include documents to or from
Notre Dame Seminary
Father Henry Mancuso
Bishop Jude Speyrer
Monsignor Irving Deblanc
Monsignor Harry Greig
Monsignor Charles Dubois
Deacon George Stearns
Bishop Edward Braxton
Bishop Glen Provost
Father Danny Torres
The Servants of the Paraclete (anything sent to or from New Mexico)
All documents sent to or from the Louisiana State Police
All documents created in this investigation and all reports written by the investigators from witness and potential witness interviews.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.
I would prefer the request filled electronically, by PDF format on USB hard drive or CD-ROM.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter.
I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 days .
Sincerely,
Scott Soileau
From: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office
Mr. Soileau:
My name is Rob McCorquodale and I serve as the In-House Counsel for the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office. Your request for records has been forwarded to me for response.
I have initially reviewed your request for our records in regard to the investigation of Mark Anthony Broussard. We have over 1000 pages of documents and reports in our system and after a brief initial review of a sample of the documents; we do not believe they are public record since they repeatedly refer to the names of juvenile victims of sexual assault. I notice that you are requesting that we attempt to redact those records, but to do so would be costly.
Since the records are voluminous, we would have to hire staff to go through them after hours and attempt to redact them. In addition, since the accidental release of these names would be horrific to the victims, I would have to personally review them, also after hours, to ensure that nothing that might indicate the identify of a victim is released. For example, if a parent is referenced, that information would have to also be redacted since it would help someone identify a victim. Any medical record would also likely have to be redacted or removed. A problem we would likely have is knowing the ages or identities of names that might encounter in records we collected. In that situation, we would have to redact just to be sure we were not inadvertently releasing the name of a juvenile.
As a result, it is my opinion that these records, in their current state, are not public record. If you are serious about wanting us to attempt to redact them, please feel free to give me a call and we can discuss the deposit required for such a request.
Sincerely,
Rob McCorquodale
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Scott Soileau
Mr. McCorquodale,
Thank you for your prompt response.
Since this is such a large request I would like to break it down into smaller segments.
I would like to begin with Father Mark Broussard’s personnel file which was provided by the Diocese of Lake Charles for this investigation.
Could you please provide an estimate of the number of pages in this file and the amount of time required to complete this request.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
From: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office
Let me see if we have that and what it consists of.
Rob
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~WRD000
From: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office
I can’t be sure, since I don’t know where these documents originated from without reading each and every one of them, but it appears we have about 460 pages. This makes the problem a bit more manageable, but the circumstances have really not changed.
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From: Scott Soileau
Thank you,
I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving.
That is about the size of a similar request Louisiana State Police was able to help me with.
https://www.muckrock.com/foi/louisiana-233/investigation-of-father-gerard-smit-60081/#comm-628439
Once they were able to start it took them about two weeks to complete.
Let’s go ahead and get started with only the personnel file please. It should contain most of what I am trying learn.
From: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office
I am going to need a $1,000.00 deposit. We charge one dollar a page for copying. I will have to ask staff to stay late to start reviewing records. I will get you the exact amount we will pay for the overtime, but I am out of town today and tomorrow. I have a court hearing in Dallas. I will return on Wednesday, but if you get the deposit in the mail to us, I will send you the specific details of the cost. We won’t start until you approve he expenditure and we will refund if any is left over at the end of the process.
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~WRD000
From: Scott Soileau
Okay what are your office hours and where are you located? I can bring you a check tomorrow.
From: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office
I am in the office today, thank you for your patience.
I will have accounting calculate the overtime rate for Deputy Soileau to go over these records after her normal employment hours. I will also have my overtime rate calculated. Once she has went through these records I will review her work. As we discussed in previous emails, it will be important that we do not accidentally release any confidential information, so we will err on the side of caution.
Once the 460 pages are edited, we will charge you a dollar per page plus our overtime costs in editing the documents. Assuming the $1,000.00 deposit is sufficient, we will forward the records to you immediately, while at the same time refunding you any balance. If the $1,000 is insufficient, we will let you know that as well.
I am requesting our accounting department give me the overtime rates and I will supply those to you.
Rob
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~WRD000
From: Scott Soileau
Hi Rob,
Could I get an update on the progress for this request or an estimated completion date?
Thank you for your help.
Scott
From: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office
Sorry I have not been more responsive. I am on the way to Houston for a doctors appointment. My assistant is through with her work, but I have to review. I worked all weekend on getting an appeal brief finished I hope to look at your stuff after hours this week.
Madisen make sure I do this.
Sent from my iPhone