Attorney Hit With $400,000 Fine for Exposing Priest’s Inappropriate Relationship Says It Was Worth It

An attorney who led the charge to expose a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans for an inappropriate relationship he allegedly had with a minor has no regrets about the legal battle, even after getting slapped with a more than $400,000 fine.

According to a Wednesday, November 11 report from The Guardian, attorney Richard Trahant had been trying to expose former priest Paul Hart for years after discovering in 2021 that Hart had secretly admitted to having inappropriate contact with a 17-year-old girl he met during his time as a priest. On November 6, Hart was added to a list of Catholic priests and deacons facing credible claims of clergy abuse.

The story began when the Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy in 2020. This gave Trahant access to documents chronicling how Hart had confessed to the relationship, which occurred in the early 1990s.

The girl reported Hart in 2012, prompting his confession amid a private investigation at the time. The information was never made public until Trahant got his hands on the documents and took issue with Hart’s current position as a teacher at a Catholic high school in New Orleans. He notified the school’s principal and brought the story to a journalist. That journalist published a story in the New Orleans’s Times-Picayune newspaper using additional sources and reporting beyond the limited information Trahant provided, as the attorney sought to avoid breaching confidentiality.

Shortly thereafter, Hart retired from his role at the school in 2022, nine months before his death, after the principal was given documentation outlining Hart’s past misconduct.

However, a federal judge ruled that Trahant’s dissemination of the information he got from court documents in the bankruptcy case amounted to a confidentiality violation and slapped him with a $400,000 fine.

Speaking to The Guardian, Trahant said he wouldn’t do anything different if given the option.

“Sure, it’s exoneration – yet only after I paid a fortune,” Trahant explained “But if the question is: was it worth it? The answer is yes, and I would do it again tomorrow.”