NEW BEDFORD (MA)
Herald News
Gregg M. Miliote, Herald News Staff Reporter12/29/2004
NEW BEDFORD -- Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh is ready to tackle another year of criminal cases.
But before he does, he recently took a look back at the past year during a wide-ranging interview with a Herald News reporter, concerning issues ranging from budgetary constraints put on his office to the high-profile cases of pedophile ex-priest James Porter and notorious convicted cult killer Carl Drew.
Church plagued by sex abuse scandals
Walsh, who has been at the forefront of the Roman Catholic Church abuse scandal, pushed hard this past year to keep Porter behind bars for good.
Porter was set to be released this past January after serving 10 years in prison for molesting dozens of young boys during his tenure as a Diocese of Fall River priest.
But Walsh halted that release by filing a sexually dangerous person petition against Porter with the Superior Court. Instead of being released, Porter was held at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater and had to attend a week’s worth of emotionally charged testimony at a probable cause hearing to determine whether the commonwealth could go forward with a civil commitment trial.