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DOJ finishes investigation into Onalaska priest 10 months after his death
The state Department of Justice said today it finished its investigation into a Diocese of La Crosse priest who resigned from his parish after being charged with child pornography.
Great news, especially since the Rev. Patrick Umberger died in December of liver cancer.
The Tribune has been after reports from the DOJ since the onset of the case. Our requests were repeatedly denied because the matter was under investigation.
We continued to check on the request from time to time and always received a polite note from DOJ with the same response. Then today, the DOJ responded with this e-mail:
"Because the Umberger matter was closely tied with some other investigations that remained open up until recently, we were not able to provide those records without potentially jeopardizing the other matters. With the related investigations now closed, we have put your request onto our active response list."
Other investigations? This should be interesting.
The department continued that other requests have priority, but the Umberger records are being reviewed for release and should be available "soon." We'll eagerly await their arrival.