[Bumped from 2007 for rather obvious reasons.  Here’s what Matt Kennedy had to say earlier in summary about this case: “The Diocese of Central New York had more pressing concerns than the status of Good Shepherd. The wheels were starting to come off of the diocese’s contrived, trumped up, and ultimately failed case against Fr. Bollinger, former Rector of St. Paul’s, Owego who had openly questioned the dioceses’ failure to pursue accusations of sexual abuse against one of his predecessors.”  Ah yes . . . what a rich and typical example of a TEC bishop.]

Central New York Defends Its Defiance of Court Order

...In an interview with The Living Church, Canon Lewis described the case as complex with numerous rulings and motions prior to the start. She said it was regrettable that during the trial the court refused to consider any of the more than 1,000 pages of documentary evidence against Fr. Bollinger that the church attorney had prepared. She defended the diocese’s decision to withhold what became known as the Shafer Report from the court, describing it as a “privileged piece of attorney-client work product.”

The Shafer Report is identified with the last name of a previous church attorney retained by the diocese after Fr. Bollinger accused the former financial controller for the diocese of improperly gaining access to his personal financial records. In a letter to clergy after completion of the investigation, the diocese quoted a paragraph from the report, but the report itself has not been made public and there are no plans to do so, Canon Lewis said.

...more