DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press
April 7, 2006
BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
National leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests protested Thursday outside the offices of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, blasting her decision not to retry a Catholic priest on abuse charges after the Michigan Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
Barbara Blaine of Chicago, a cofounder of the organization, and David Clohessy of St. Louis, its national director, said Worthy's decision could discourage other abuse victims from coming forward.
"We want them to retry the case," Blaine said. Not doing so "just sends the wrong message to everyone involved," she said.
Blaine noted that few priests ever were charged with crimes or spent time in jail, even after abuse was revealed, in part because victims were afraid to come forward or statutes of limitation prevented charges from being brought for long-ago crimes.