The best we can do is, first of all, to find out the truth, to find out what really went on, what really happened. So we do have investigators who are here today, a third-party who are not associated with our diocese, not associated with me or with the school, who are working on this investigation to find out what happened.He did say, "This investigation isn’t going to be over overnight — it can’t be if it’s going to be thorough." He went on to say,
It is my hope and my prayer that, in the end, it will show exactly what happened and that we will be able to stand tall and proud. People will still criticize us one way or the other — people will believe it or not believe it — but at least we can say we’ve taken the time to talk to all the parties involved and to get all the footage we can that was taken that day and say, ‘Here, this is not what we think happened or what we would like to believe happened, but this is what in fact happened.Well, on February 1, a pretty good report did come out. It seems to have relied on "all the footage. . . that was taken that day", and I think it puts out the best, most objective take on what in fact happened. Here it is:
This is extremely thorough, it gives multiple perspectives, and it gives a complete timeline and a great deal more context than we've seen in any other report so far. As of this morning,, it's had close to half a million views on YouTube.
The trouble is that it comes from the Lin Wood law firm that represents the Sandmann family, not from the Diocese of Covington. I don't believe Bp Foys has said exactly whom he's engaged to do the investigation, but typically this is done by a law firm. So as best I can tell, the firm has been on the investigation from Bp Foys's first announcement on January 19. The Wood firm didn't announce that it was representing the Sandmann family until January 24.
So the firm hired by Bp Foys has been on the investigation for nearly a week longer than the Wood firm, but the Wood firm has been first to put out a thoroughly professional, very well-produced video report. Nothing, so far, from the Diocese of Covington. I've felt all along, though, that the "investigation" was from the start something for Bp Foys to hide behind, and it's no surprise that they have no work product to show.
In fact, although Bp Foys has strongly implied it will eventually be made public whenever it's finished, I very much doubt it will cover the initial contacts between the media and Foys, nor any discussions that took place among Foys and his staff, nor Foys and other bishops, who may well have coordinated their initial defamatory statements. As one commentator put it,
The worst thing about this mob against him and his fellows was to have their spiritual leaders -- the Dioceses -- join the mob and betray them without even knowing the full story. I've repeatedly pointed out that all mobs are demonic. Assuming that my assertion about mobs is correct, what can we conclude about the leaders of these dioceses?The Wood law firm specializes in winning major damages in rush-to-judgment media defamation cases. It has represented Richard Jewell, the hero of the Atlanta Olympic bombing who was wrongly identified as the perpetrator, and the brother of JonBenet Ramsey, falsely identified as a suspect in her murder.. . . Those who the Covington students should have been able to trust were their Judases. One wonders which god they serve. One wonder who those leaders call "father."
The final settlement amount was not disclosed, but the complaint, filed in Michigan, was seeking no less than $250 million in compensatory damages and no less than $500 million in punitive damages.The Wood firm doesn't mess around. The bishops, on the other hand, seem to be in a different class.
