LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville police twice investigated their former police chaplain - who quit the priesthood this year in the wake of the Roman Catholic sexual abuse scandal - for allegations of sexual abuse.

        The Rev. Joseph Herp was removed from ministry after allegations of sexual abuse from the 1970s.

        In a review of police records, The Courier-Journal found that in both alleged cases investigated by Louisville police - one in 1988, the other in 1990 - Father Herp was cleared after denying the allegations and remained police chaplain, a paid, part-time position.

        He also continued to serve as a pastor at two Catholic parishes. But Father Herp, 55, resigned in May as pastor of St. Leonard Catholic Church after meeting with Louisville Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly about the 1970s allegations.

        The Archdiocese of Louisville has declined to release details of those allegations and said the person who made them wished to remain confidential.

        At the time, Archbishop Kelly said in a letter to St. Leonard parishioners that “there have been other concerns expressed to us about Father Herp from this same era.” He did not elaborate.

        Father Herp, who also resigned in May from a job as chaplain with the Jefferson County sheriff's department, has since been accused of abuse in two lawsuits against the archdiocese - including one involving the alleged victim in one of the cases investigated by police.

        Doug Hamilton, a former Louisville police chief who was appointed in 1990, abolished the chaplain's job in 1992 as a cost-saving measure. But in a recent interview, he said he would have looked more closely at whether Father Herp was suited for the job had he known the city-county Crimes Against Children Unit had twice investigated the priest for alleged abuse.

        “It would have been a factor had I known about it,” Mr. Hamilton said.

        As chaplain for the Louisville Police Department from 1980 to 1992, Father Herp associated with the department's top officers, including former Chief Richard Dotson.

        Father Herp could not be reached for comment.

        Mr. Dotson said the priest got no special treatment when he was chief.

        Father Herp returned to chaplaincy in 1999, after former Louisville Deputy Police Chief John Aubrey was elected Jefferson County sheriff; he hired Father Herp as part-time chaplain for the sheriff's department at $27,000 a year.

        Mr. Aubrey, who also was acting Louisville police chief between Mr. Dotson and Mr. Hamilton, declined to comment about Father Herp.

        The two men who have named Father Herp in lawsuits they've filed against the archdiocese allege they were abused as teens but were reluctant to report their allegations because of Father Herp's ties to the police department.

        “Where's my credibility compared to Father Herp's?” said Kevin Spalding, who alleges in his lawsuit that Father Herp sexually abused him in 1990 at St. Elizabeth of Hungary parish when Mr. Spalding was 15.

        The 1990 police investigation of Father Herp was triggered after Mr. Spalding's mother filed a complaint, but it was closed as unfounded after the teenager denied any abuse.

        John Vandeveer, who also is suing the archdiocese, alleges Father Herp abused him around 1980 at St. Ann parish, but he never told anyone at the time.

        In an interview, Mr. Dotson said he lived with Father Herp for about six months in the late 1980s after he and his wife separated and that he paid rent for his room at the St. Ann rectory. Father Herp was a good chaplain and got no special treatment by police investigating the 1988 allegations against him, said Mr. Dotson, who is now head of the Louisville-Jefferson County Crimes Against Chi ldren Unit.

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