The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from attorney Richard Trahant, who was fined $400,000 for attempting to remove an abusive Roman Catholic priest from his position as chaplain at a New Orleans high school. The justices issued a brief notice on Monday declining to hear the case, without providing an explanation.
Background of the Case
Trahant represents dozens of victims of the New Orleans Catholic clergy abuse scandal, which drove the archdiocese into federal bankruptcy court in 2020. Through his work on the bankruptcy case, Trahant learned that priest Paul Hart had confessed to sexual contact with a 17-year-old girl in the early 1990s, after meeting her through his clerical duties. Hart had admitted the misconduct during a confidential internal church investigation in 2012.
Although Louisiana state law sets the age of sexual consent at 17, the US Catholic bishops had raised the age of consent under canon law to 18 in 2002. At the time of Hart's misconduct in the early 1990s, the canon law age of consent was 16. An advisory board recommended that then-Archbishop Gregory Aymond remove Hart from public ministry, but Aymond allowed him to continue serving. In 2017, Aymond assigned Hart as chaplain at Brother Martin High School, an all-boys Catholic school in New Orleans.
Trahant's Actions and the Protective Order
In late 2021, Trahant became aware of Hart's past through his representation of abuse claimants in the archdiocesan bankruptcy. Concerned that girls participated in activities at Brother Martin, including the dance team, Trahant notified the school's principal, Ryan Gallagher, who is also his cousin. Trahant told Gallagher that Hart had a credible past allegation involving a minor but cited a protective order in the bankruptcy case that prevented him from providing specifics.
Trahant also emailed a journalist at the Times-Picayune, asking the reporter to keep Hart on his radar without elaborating. After the journalist published an article about Hart's departure from Brother Martin—using sources other than Trahant—the federal bankruptcy judge, Meredith Grabill, ordered an investigation into a possible violation of the protective order.
The Fine and Sanctions
Judge Grabill concluded that Trahant's communications with Gallagher and the journalist constituted a violation of the protective order, even though court investigators found evidence supporting Trahant's denial that he disclosed confidential information. She fined him $400,000, which grew to approximately $460,000 with interest by the time of the Supreme Court decision. Additionally, she expelled four of Trahant's clients from the survivors committee negotiating a settlement in the bankruptcy case.
Trahant appealed to the New Orleans federal court and the US Fifth Circuit, but both upheld the sanction. He then petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing that his due process rights were violated.
Reactions and Aftermath
Attorneys for the New Orleans archdiocese waived their right to respond to Trahant's petition. On Tuesday, Trahant challenged the archdiocese to direct the fine toward clergy abuse survivors, stating, "I maintain I did what I did to protect children." He added that the saga hurt his clients, his wife, his children, and his co-counsel.
James Adams, a Trahant client expelled from the survivors committee, said the Supreme Court ruling effectively "affirmed the protection of sexual predators over the safety of children." Another client, Jackie Berthelot, echoed this sentiment, saying, "It's a shame that somebody who spoke up against abusers and always has supported victims' rights would be penalized in such a harsh manner."
Hart died at age 70 about nine months after his removal from Brother Martin. Archbishop Aymond retired in February 2024, about two months after the archdiocese and its insurer agreed to pay approximately $305 million to hundreds of abuse survivors to resolve the bankruptcy. Survivors were initially told payments would begin in April 2024, but a later filing pushed that back potentially to the fall.
