CAMBRIDGE (MA)
TheBostonChannel.com
POSTED: 2:00 pm EST January 7, 2005
UPDATED: 2:07 pm EST January 7, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The attorney for Paul Shanley said Friday that the defrocked priest's last remaining accuser remembered being sexually abused only after he consulted with the Boston law firm that represented hundreds of alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Frank Mondano said that documents turned over to the court showed that the man had been in contact with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig before he claimed on Feb. 11, 2002, to have remembered being sexually abused.
"People are trying real hard to obfuscate the fact that the cart came before the horse," Mondano said during a hearing in Middlesex Superior Court, where he asked a judge to allow him to question the alleged victim before Shanley goes on trial Jan. 18.
A lawyer representing the Greenberg Traurig firm denied Mondano's statements.
The man is expected to be the prosecution's remaining key witness in the case against Shanley, a key figure in the clergy sex abuse crisis in the Boston Archdiocese.
Prosecutor Katherine Folger asked Judge Stephen Neel to deny Mondano's request to question the man, saying the issues Mondano raised should be put before a jury. The judge did not immediately issue a ruling.
Posted by kshaw at January 7, 2005 01:45 PM