Oregon

Young Eugene Catholic Lawyer Says this about DA Listening to Priest-Murderer Confession

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• published: 23 Jul 2015
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Were two decades enough time to forget about a local violation of religious freedom so egregious that it sparked an international outcry? Given the lack of reporting on the Lane County district attorney nomination process, the past has been forgotten by most. But not by me. While I may have only been a 10-year-old in tortoise-shell trifocals in 1996, I remember with great clarity the unrest caused by the taping of a private confession between a priest and a penitent at the Lane County Jail. I didn’t need to have any real-world experience to figure out that what had happened was simply wrong — a fundamental, holy sacrament of our religion had been violated, not just for the inmate, but for our parish priest and the church as a whole. It made me proud to be a Catholic to witness fellow Catholics and non-Catholics alike rally around Father Timothy Mockaitis, then pastor of St. Paul Catholic Church in Eugene, to defend the rights of people everywhere to practice their religion freely, unimpeded by government intrusion. Father Tim set an example for us all in making the Sacrament of Reconciliation available even to those deemed to be the lowest of our society — accused murderers. This infamous case involved Conan Wayne Hale, who in 1998 was convicted and sentenced to death for the brutal murder of three Springfield teenagers in December 1995. Before his trial, Hale made arrangements for Father Tim to visit him at the jail on April 22, 1996, to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation (commonly called “confession”). Father Tim regularly visited inmates at the jail to hear their confessions; nonetheless, his meeting with Hale was recorded by jail personnel, unbeknownst to either Father Tim or Hale. Thereafter, a detective filed an affidavit prepared by two members of District Attorney Doug Harcleroad’s office requesting to listen to the tape. Astonishingly, the affidavit actually acknowledged that “the Catholic confession is an integral part of Catholicism. It is a sacrament. The basic tenet of confession is that a person is absolved of his or her wrongdoing upon making a full and complete acknowledgment of what he or she has done wrong.” Shamelessly, they actually hoped to hear Hale confess murder to his priest. After a Lane County circuit judge issued the warrant, two deputy DAs listened to the confession. One of those prosecutors passed away a year later. The other is one of the few people on planet Earth, outside of the clergy, to have listened to this sacred sacrament, and the only known living government official to have done so. That deputy district attorney is Patty Perlow, who is asking Gov. Kate Brown to appoint her to succeed Alex Gardner as Lane County district attorney. Father Tim was made aware of the recording only after Bill Bishop, a reporter for The Register-Guard, contacted him for comment. People from all corners stood up in protest, including the Vatican. The story was covered by publications everywhere, from Time Magazine to The Washington Post. A lawsuit ensued, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the taping violated the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Recently, I was surprised to discover that one of the most heinous affronts to modern religious freedom isn’t even a footnote in Perlow’s biography as she seeks the appointment by the governor. While the case garnered international attention 20 years ago, where is the media attention now? Has this violation been forgotten by Catholics? Has this violation been forgotten by people of other religions and faiths, to whom this could have just as easily happened? Has this violation been forgotten by Lane County citizens who want their religious freedoms protected regardless of government investigative objectives? As citizens, we hope that public officials lead us with a certain moral compass, especially behind closed doors when insulated from public scrutiny. Listening to this sacred sacrament was not a close moral or ethical call. There was no gray area in its absolute wrongness. Perlow has the distinction of knowing the intimacies of this sacrament like few others — she should not be rewarded for it. I hope other Catholics and people of faith will join me in asking the governor to exercise independence over the appointment process and not reward these actions with a political appointment. Jessica May, an attorney at Arnold Law, is a graduate of Catholic schools in Eugene and the Creighton University School of Law, a Jesuit university in Omaha, Neb.