CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Seattle Times
By Denise Lavoie
The Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A jury yesterday began deliberating the fate of defrocked priest Paul Shanley, charged with raping a boy at his Boston-area church in the 1980s.
The jury received the case after lawyers clashed over the validity of the repressed memories Shanley's accuser said came to him three years ago, when the Boston church abuse scandal broke.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for 30 minutes before the judge sent them home for the day. They were to return today.
The defense earlier presented a sole witness: a psychologist who argued that some people's repressed memories are false. Shanley's lawyer said the accuser's claims of sexual abuse were lies orchestrated by personal-injury lawyers.