Former KC priest and Wyoming bishop won't face sex abuse charges, alleged victim says

Jun. 10--After an investigation spanning two years, authorities in Wyoming are not filing criminal sex abuse charges against a former Kansas City priest who later became Bishop of Cheyenne, one of his accusers told The Star.

The man, who grew up in Cheyenne and now lives on the East Coast, said Tuesday that the witness coordinator in the Natrona County District Attorney's office told him that Bishop Joseph Hart would not be prosecuted because of insufficient evidence.

"I think I am a little bit numb," said the man, whose allegations were deemed credible by the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne in 2018. "Six people have come forward in Wyoming. What is the remedy for child sex abuse, then, if you don't believe the victims and you're not willing to take it to trial?

"The thing that I'm now hoping is that the Vatican will strip him of his priesthood while he's alive."

Hart, who served as Bishop of Cheyenne for 23 years, referred The Star to his attorney when reached by phone Wednesday. His attorney, Tom Jubin, did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the years, Hart has categorically denied all allegations against him. In 2018, he told a Star reporter who knocked on his door that "I've been told not to talk, but you could call my lawyer." He was on oxygen at the time but said, "I feel fine. Doing great." Then he closed the door, which bore a plaque that said, "Peace to all who enter here."

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If charged, Hart, 88, would have become the highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric in the country to face criminal prosecution for sexual abuse of a minor.

Though Cheyenne is in Laramie County, the case was being handled by Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen in Casper because of a conflict of interest within the Laramie County District Attorney's office. Itzen did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

Officer David Inman, a spokesman for the Cheyenne Police Department -- which conducted the investigation and last year recommended that charges be filed -- said he could not comment on the case until the department received official notification from Itzen's office.

The alleged abuse occurred decades ago, but Wyoming -- unlike most states ­-- has no statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions, so charges can be filed even years later.

The news about the lack of prosecution stunned and infuriated many of Hart's alleged victims and their families.

"I'm feeling shocked and disappointed in the process and the length of time it took to come to that conclusion," said Darrel Hunter, whose brother was among those Hart allegedly abused in Kansas City. "We're hoping that the church will now do the right thing."

The alleged Wyoming victim told The Star that the Natrona County witness coordinator left him a message late Friday and asked him to call.

"I called her back on Monday morning and she said they're not going to prosecute this case," he said. "And I was like, 'Are you kidding?'" He said he asked to talk to the district attorney but was told that he was busy. He said he called back multiple times and was told Tuesday afternoon that he would be receiving a letter from the district attorney explaining the decision.

"I said, 'How long do you think it will take to finish the letter?' She said, 'I can't really say.'"

Rebecca Randles, a Kansas City attorney who has represented numerous alleged victims in civil lawsuits against Hart, said she was floored to hear the case wouldn't be prosecuted.

"In this moment of reckoning, how many children equals a bishop?" Randles said. "If they're not going to prosecute, why did they even pick this up? The proof was fairly well established, and there are at least 15 victims that we know of.

"We've been fighting for 30 years to try to get victims to come forward, because sexual assault and abuse is the least reported crime that there is. This kind of failure on the part of the prosecutor just re-establishes in the victims' minds that they're better off not to come forward."

Hart still is facing a Vatican trial over allegations that he sexually abused minors years ago. If found guilty, he could be laicized, or removed from the priesthood.

Pope Francis took a similar action last year against former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting sex while hearing confession and of sexual crimes against minors and adults. McCarrick, 89, is the highest-ranking Catholic cleric to be defrocked.

Hart was a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph from 1956 to 1976, then served as auxiliary bishop of Cheyenne from 1976 to 1978 and bishop from 1978 until retiring in 2001. In Kansas City, he served at several parishes: Guardian Angel, Visitation, St. Therese, St. James and St. John Francis Regis. From 1964 to 1976, he was the vice chancellor of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese.

Allegations against Hart first surfaced in 1989 and 1992 in Kansas City. One man alleged that Hart had sexually abused him when he was in junior high and Hart was a priest. And the Hunter family said Hart sexually abused their younger brother, Kevin, when he was in his early teens. Kevin Hunter's life spiraled downhill after that, they said, and he died of AIDS in 1989.

Church officials deemed those allegations not credible, but the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese helped one of the men buy a pickup and paid for his counseling. The diocese also paid for counseling for two of Hunter's sisters. (In 2018, a diocesan spokesman said the diocese and Bishop James V. Johnston now deem both those allegations to be credible.)

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese told The Star in 2002 that it had informed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Papal Nuncio of the complaints against Hart. The vicar general told The Star, however, that there was no indication in the diocese's records that law enforcement authorities had ever been notified.

The diocese said it had recommended that Hart undergo a full psychiatric evaluation and that he had done so at an institution in Tucson, Arizona, in February 1993. The month-long evaluation found that Hart "does not appear to be a threat to himself or others on any level," the diocese said, and he returned to Cheyenne to lead the state's nearly 50,000 Roman Catholics until retiring in 2001.

In 2002 ­-- 10 years after the second Kansas City allegation -- the former Wyoming man accused Hart of sexually abusing him as a boy. Wyoming authorities concluded there was no evidence to support the allegations. But in July 2018, the new Bishop of Cheyenne announced that the diocese had reopened its investigation into Hart.

The previous investigation was flawed, Bishop Steven Biegler said, adding that a second man had come forward alleging sexual abuse by Hart and that both men's allegations had now been deemed "credible and substantiated." Not only that, Biegler said, the diocese was cooperating with a new police investigation, and he hoped the Vatican also would find the allegations to be credible and take disciplinary action.

At the end of August 2018, the Diocese of Cheyenne said it had received a third credible sexual abuse allegation against Hart. Since then, the Cheyenne Diocese has said it has received three more credible allegations.

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese has said Hart was named by 10 individuals in lawsuits regarding child sexual abuse claims dating from the 1970s. Those claims were part of two $10 million settlements the diocese entered into in 2008 and 2014 in cases involving dozens of victims and numerous priests.

Last September, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese said it had received four additional allegations against Hart in the past year. Two of those involved Missouri men who said the alleged abuse occurred on trips with Hart to Wyoming. Those were two of the three newest cases substantiated by the Cheyenne diocese.

That brought to at least 18 the number of sexual abuse allegations against Hart that were reported to the two dioceses.

Jubin, Hart's attorney, issued a statement in 2018 blasting the Cheyenne Diocese and saying Hart "continues to deny any sexual impropriety."

"Once again, the Diocese of Cheyenne is engaging in a smear campaign in an effort to try to influence public opinion with considerably less than the full story," Jubin said. "The Diocese of Cheyenne continues to refuse to inform Bishop Hart what the allegations are that have been made against him and who is making them."

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