are the kinds of deals that have allowed the church sex scandal to go on as long as it has."



Hallinan isn't alone in his opinion.



In Los Angeles, Assistant District Attorney Hodgman, a career prosecutor who convicted former Lincoln Savings & Loan kingpin Charles Keating and oversaw the O.J. Simpson trial, says he learned about the template that the District Attorneys Association developed at about the same time Hallinan was rejecting it. He also wanted nothing to do with it. "We thought it was a bad idea; something wholly unsuitable for us to participate in," says Hodgman. His boss, Steve Cooley, turned to a grand jury to subpoena sensitive documents related to more than 30 Southern California priests accused of molestation.



Indeed, there are features in the Marin agreement thathas seen the protocol.



Dave LaBahn is the executive director of the district attorneys group that developed the template in consultation with the California Catholic Conference; he's a supporter of the agreement. He says he believes about "15 or 20" of the state's 58 district attorneys signed such agreements in their quest for church documents.



But even LaBahn acknowledges that "the protocol only works if there's willing cooperation [on the part of the church]; if there's no willing cooperation, then it's of no value."





Levada has won few friends among advocates for victims of sex abuse in the church. Those advocates and other critics charge that the archbishop has dragged his feet in response to pleas for help and that his top aides have worked to keep complaints about priestly sex