19
June
PHOENIX BISHOP QUITS
Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien, the Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix has relinquished some of his authority in an unprecedented agreement with prosecutors that will spare him from indictment on charges of protecting child-molesting priests. Under the agreement, he acknowledged he concealed sex-abuse allegations against priests.
O’Brien is now also charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident by the same prosecutor who struck the deal that allowed him to avoid indictment for sheltering molesters in the clergy. He was arrested Monday after police investigating the weekend hit and run