Providence, USA - A Rhode Island Superior Court judge heard arguments Monday on whether to unseal documents in a lawsuit contesting the will of an elderly widow who gave some $60 million to the Legion of Christ, a disgraced Roman Catholic religious order.
Bernard Jackvony, a lawyer for the niece of the late Gabrielle Mee, argued to Judge Michael Silverstein that it is in the public interest to release the documents, while Joseph Avonzato, a lawyer for the Legion of Christ, said that would compromise the order’s right to a fair trial. The judge didn’t immediately issue a decision.
Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined its founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women.
Silverstein this month threw out the lawsuit, saying the niece, Mary Lou Dauray, did not have standing to sue, though he wrote in his decision that Mee had been unduly persuaded to give the Legion her money.
Jackvony on Monday said information related to the case had an important public interest. He said the Legion has facilities in Rhode Island, has been the target of a petition from women once associated with the order and is being sued in Connecticut by a man who says he is Maciel’s son and was molested by him. He said many facts that were discovered in the course of the lawsuit are still not known by the public.
‘‘Those are facts that should be known. Why? Because the Legion is still out there,’’ he said. ‘‘That is information the public needs to protect itself.’’
But Avonzato said Dauray had once said that she wished to subject the Legion’s actions to the ‘‘disinfecting sunlight of public view.’’
‘‘That has ‘taint the jury pool’ written all over it,’’ he told the judge.
Steven Snow, a lawyer for Bank of America, which is named in one of three lawsuits surrounding Mee’s will, joined in opposing the effort to unseal the documents.
‘‘This is a private dispute that happens to be in a public forum,’’ Snow told the judge. ‘‘There is no public interest in this private dispute.’’
Avonzato argued that the judge’s ruling this month related only to whether Dauray has standing to sue, and so he may only consider whether to release to the public evidence that relates to that issue.
Jackvony is considering an appeal of the decision to throw out the case.