MILWAUKEE, July 22 (Reuters) — Prosecutors said today that they had found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in a $450,000 payment by former Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee to a man who had accused him of sexual abuse.
The United States attorney in Milwaukee, Steven Biskupic, and District Attorney E. Michael McCann of Milwaukee County issued a statement saying they were closing an inquiry that they began shortly after Archbishop Weakland's disclosure in May about the payment.
"No evidence that was reviewed establishes that the archdiocese obtained funds through misrepresentations on how those funds would be used," the statement said, adding that no evidence showed that the money was "obtained from contributions previously dedicated to other purposes."
The two officials said the money came from an account that had the proceeds of real estate sales. At the time the payment was made in 1998, they said, the account contained nearly $1 million from the sale of an office building that had been donated to the archdiocese with no strings attached.