The Dallas Police Department is conducting an investigation on the alleged sexual abuse of a child in Texas when they raided the offices of the Catholic diocese in Dallas, the Agence France-Presse reported.
The raid was conducted after church officials allegedly declined to cooperate with the local authorities on the probe on a fugitive priest named Edmundo Paredes and at least five new allegations of abuse.
Paredes, who is believed to be in hiding in the Philippines, is charged with sexual abuse of a child and accused of molesting at least three other minors.
“These investigations stem from additional allegations made after the case against Mr. Paredes became public,” Major Max Geron of the Dallas police said.
Church officials, who denied that they refused to cooperate in the investigation, said the raids did not involve any suspects who had not been publicly disclosed on a list of 31 predator priests going back to the 1950s that was released in January.
According to the Diocese, Paredes was already under investigation for stealing between $60,000 and $80,000 from the church treasury at the time that the men came forward.
“To date, the Dallas Police Department has not been given the number of priests’ files flagged for sexual abuse,” the The Dallas Morning News quoted police as saying in an affidavit.
