many arguments for keeping the records secret. Marin County DA Ed Berberian. Those arguments are based in a remarkable reality: The Marin County District Attorney's Office did not seek a grand jury subpoena that would have compelled the church to give prosecutors the documents. Instead, the Marin DA signed a legal agreement, or protocol, that, the church contends, requires the documents to remain secret unless a criminal prosecution is instituted.



Some veteran prosecutors consider the protocol—a version of which the San Mateo County DA also signed—extraordinary and unwarranted. "As far as we were concerned, that was like making a deal with the devil," says Los Angeles Assistant DA Bill Hodgman, whose boss, District Attorney Steve Cooly, rejected a similar agreement pushed by church lawyers.



Marin County Superior Court Judge VernonF. Smith—the third judge to whom the case has been assigned—is to hear arguments on the church's petition Jan. 26.



At issue in the case is a trove of material that the church surrendered in 2002 after former San Francisco DA Terence Hallinan demanded that Levada turn over records pertaining to priestly sex abuse occurring as far back as 75 years ago. Such records could show, among other things, when Levada and other church officials became aware of specific accusations against individual priests and what was done about the accusations and the priests.



At the time, Hallinan's move elicited grumbling from various quarters, including the San Francisco Chronicle, which accused him in an editorial of engaging in a fishing expedition. But shortly after Hallinan's demand, Levada quietly began to jettison