1. It may never be known how many children Heck abused after his appointment in 1958
Richard Trahant, the attorney who deposed Heck, questioned him about his relationships with more than a dozen separate plaintiffs.
Heck admitted in a 1999 statement to archdiocese superiors that he molested or harassed about six victims.
The testimony also pointed to another key document proving Heck was abusive: a letter of apology the archdiocese wrote on his behalf to a victim around 2005. Te said the contents of the letter were not provided to him before he asked Heck. But it was mentioned in archdiocesan records he referred to during his testimony.
Ultimately, Trahant submitted Heck’s deposition months before a critical filing deadline tied to the archdiocese’s decision to file for bankruptcy protection in May 2020. With the long-running clergy molestation scandal related to allegations of abuse, Trahant mentioned his expectation that this would produce more heck with the accusers.
During two days of testimony, Heck himself even felt overwhelmed by the numerous child abuse accusations he had faced multiple times.
“There’s been a lot,” Heck said. “We’ve seen a lot of this stuff – I can’t remember it all. It’s swimming in my head… It’s hard for me to understand all this stuff you guys are talking about.
During another part of the interrogation, Trahant told Heck, “You’ve committed so many felonies against children that you can’t remember, right?” Heck invoked the Fifth Amendment objection. The right of self-incrimination to avoid answering this question.
Heck, known colloquially as an “Article 5 appeal,” invoked that right 117 times during his testimony. About once every four minutes.
2. Heck’s complaint history spans the entire U.S. church abuse scandal
The abuse allegations against Heck often center around major milestones in the U.S. response to sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, which began in the 1980s when Louisiana priest Gilbert Gauthe admitted to molesting multiple boy. More accusations – and Heck’s confession – emerged in the 1990s, when Louisiana pastor Robert Melancon was convicted of raping an altar boy.
More allegations came in 2002, the same year a clergy abuse and cover-up scandal broke out in the Boston Catholic Archdiocese and led to promises of transparency and reform from U.S. bishops.
Meanwhile, public outrage over a 2018 grand jury report in Pennsylvania found that clergy abuse within Catholic institutions in the state was more common than thought, prompting the Archdiocese of New Orleans to release dozens of reports of abusive clergy. List. Not only did the list include Heck, but it was the first time he was revealed as a predator, setting off another wave of abuse allegations against him, including lawsuits that led to the deposition.
Hecker’s alleged abuse dates back to the early 1960s. An unspecified archdiocesan memo cited in the testimony said officials had reason to suspect abuse until 1997, five years before he was forced to retire.
3. In 2002, the church was advised to expel Heck from the priesthood.
In 2002, the same year Heck retired, an advisory committee designed to help the then-archbishop deal with the ongoing fallout from the unfolding clergy abuse scandal recommended that he remove the alleged serial child molester from the clergy.
If Archbishop Alfred Hughes had succeeded in putting Heck through the secularization process, he would not have been able to collect generous retirement benefits. Instead, because he was not secularized, Heck received a full pension until the judge in the church’s bankruptcy case asked the church to cancel much of it.
Heck revealed in his testimony that he was not even aware that secularization had been suggested to him, but that he would have objected to the process if it had been imposed on him unwillingly.
4. Heck pleads guilty to a statute of limitations federal crime, then tries to recoup
In one of the most striking exchanges during the deposition, Heck responded “yes” when Trahant asked Heck, “You would agree that some of these sexual harassments occurred on out-of-town trips outside of Louisiana, right?” ?
Heck apparently quickly realized what he was admitting and said frantically: “I – but I – no. I invoked my Fifth Amendment rights.” Trahant responded: “Well, I think You answered the question and invoked your Fifth Amendment rights. ”
Carrying a child across state lines for the purpose of sexual harassment is a federal crime with no statute of limitations. Heck has not been charged with any federal crimes.
5. Heck’s claims about his mental acuity are contradictory
Heck’s mental acuity is highlighted by the cases against him pending in state criminal court. A group of psychiatrists who evaluated him said he suffered from short-term memory loss that impaired his ability to assist lawyers in his defense, which the constitution requires him to do in order to stand trial for the crime.
Heck said in a 2000 letter to the congregation of the church where he worked at the time that he did suffer from short-term memory loss, explaining why he was leaving them.
But the real reason for his transfer was that a psychiatric care facility diagnosed him as a pedophile, a news his superiors welcomed by sending him on out-of-state leave. Records produced by the psychiatric evaluation made no mention of memory problems.
During the deposition, Trahant asked Heck point-blank: “Are you having trouble remembering what happened 15 minutes ago?”
“No,” Herc replied.
Heck also expressed ambivalence about his long-term memory during his testimony. He has clear memories of the church he worked at during certain years as early as the 1960s. However, he repeatedly said he was blanking or unable to recall information, primarily regarding what his superiors may or may not have known about the abuse allegations against him.
6. Heck is one of many living retired New Orleans pastors facing abuse allegations by trusted
One of the most shocking exchanges in Heck’s testimony was when he reviewed a list of 50 retired but still living archdiocesan priests. Most names are in blue – except for 11 names in red. Trahant confirmed that those in red are living retired priests whose abuse allegations the archdiocese itself considers credible.
“That will [mean] Twenty-two percent of retired and ordained priests in the Archdiocese of New Orleans claim to have been sexually abused,” Trahant said. “That’s a lot, isn’t it? That’s more than one in five.
Heck replied, “I don’t know.”
7. Heck’s lawyers showed a clear high level of dissatisfaction with him
New Orleans-area criminal defense attorney Eugene Redmann represented Heck during the deposition and repeatedly criticized him for being incoherent before answering yes or no questions.When Redman raised his voice in vain calling God’s name and Telling his clients: “No more diarrhea – oh my God. Just answer the questions. We’re never done.”
Typically, whenever Redman loses patience with him, Heck responds, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make things difficult for all of you.”
8. Heck claims he believes celibacy means only avoiding women
In a 1999 confession and in interviews with WWL and the Guardian in the summer of 2023, Heck blamed his serial molestation of children on the debauched attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s. But Trahant noted in his testimony that child molestation was illegal then, as it is now.
Heck then offered an alternative explanation: He said the church told him that priests could fulfill their promise of celibacy simply by ensuring they were never “privately alone with women.”
“In fact, we are encouraged to work with young people, especially young boys, with the hope that they want to become priests,” Heck said. “And then… it was definitely frustrating because we found out that sometimes priests get accused. So from that point on, I made a promise to myself to never be alone with anyone under 18 years old – period.
9. Heck and the church are worried about media exposure
Heck spoke candidly about how worried he was that the media would one day report why he was forced to retire in 2002. [friends] Got it,” Heck said. “None of us want any fanfare or anything.”
Trahant confirmed at one point that an archdiocesan official issued a letter saying the church’s “only concern” about Heck was that “someone from his past might decide to go public.” Heck made a fifth point when Trahant asked why he “didn’t care about the minors you raped, their families, or the children you might rape in the future.”
