Outraged, Brandlin demanded his ministry back but was told it wouldn't be restored until he'd been completely cleared. On April 15, 1987, he asked for and received a notice of "factual innocence" from the Santa Barbara County district attorney's office, without ever having been charged with a crime.A few days later, Brandlin said, he again confronted Mahony, and finally his ability to function as a deacon was restored, but he was prohibited from working with children. Again burdened by suspicion and wearied by an effort that had already consumed two years, Brandlin decided to fight on.
. . . .
A psychological evaluation ordered by the diocese in '87 also cleared him, . . .
Letters went back and forth between L.A. and the Vatican, finally bringing pressure on Mahony to lift all restrictions on Brandlin's ministry. That was in April 1997. The entire process, Brandlin pointed out, took "11 years, two months, six days, 23 hours and 48 minutes."
When Mahony cleared him, Brandlin said, he immediately made him a prison chaplain. "He thought I'd hate it," the deacon says gleefully, "but I love it."
patent
Looked at objectively, it's much easier for someone to make a false accusation than it is for a pervert to carry out the deed.
The Boy Scouts have had a "two-deep" leadership policy for many years. When a new leader quizzed me on it once, I told him that it probably does more to protect him from false accusations than it does to protect kids from being molested.