US Supreme Court Rejects Richard Trahant Appeal Over $400,000 Fine in Priest Abuse Case
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 1
US Supreme Court Rejects Richard Trahant Appeal Over $400,000 Fine in Priest Abuse Case
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 1
Summary
Monday’s order left intact a $400,000 sanction—now roughly $460,000 with interest—against New Orleans attorney Richard Trahant, who said he acted to get priest Paul Hart removed from a Catholic high school.
The fine stemmed from a bankruptcy judge’s finding that Trahant violated a protective order after alerting Brother Martin School and a journalist while representing clergy-abuse claimants in the New Orleans archdiocese’s 2020 bankruptcy.
Trahant argued he never disclosed confidential details; depositions showed the school got specifics from the archdiocese, and court investigators found evidence supporting his denial about leaking information to the journalist.
Judge Meredith Grabill still imposed the sanction and removed four of Trahant’s clients from a survivors’ committee negotiating the archdiocese’s settlement, a punishment lower courts and now the Supreme Court declined to undo.
The ruling closes a bitter fight in a case tied to the archdiocese’s roughly $305 million abuse settlement, while some survivors’ payments have already been delayed from April until potentially the fall.