State digest 09/08/05

Senate minority leader may run for auditor

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State Senate Democratic Leader Maida Coleman said Wednesday she is considering running for state auditor next year. State Auditor Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said last week that she would challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Talent in 2006, rather than seeking re-election. State Sen. John Loudon of Ballwin and state Rep. Jack Jackson of Wildwood, both Republicans, already have announced their plans to run. Democrat Jason Klumb, a former lawmaker, also is considering the race. Coleman, a Sikeston native who now lives in St. Louis, said Wednesday that she too was "toying with the idea" of running for auditor. Coleman, 51, was first elected to the state House in 2000 and to the Senate in 2002.

Archdiocese posts bond for convicted priest

ST. LOUIS -- Members of a victims' advocacy group are fuming after church officials posted a half-million-dollar bond for a Roman Catholic priest convicted last week of sodomizing a teenage boy in the 1970s. The bond was paid last week, on the same day jurors recommended a 20-year prison sentence for the Rev. Thomas Graham, 71. Graham was ordered Tuesday to surrender his passport and continue to stay at a local retirement home for priests. "I find it hard to understand how the diocese can take the money that people donate every Sunday ... and use it to post bond for someone who has been convicted of a crime," said Barbara Dorris, the victim outreach coordinator for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "It sends a terrible message to victims." Graham, who was indicted in 2002, has denied the allegations. Bernard Huger, an attorney for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, said Tuesday that he expected the church would continue to pay for Graham's defense until the conviction is reversed or Graham's appeals are exhausted.

-- From wire reports