VERMONT
Burlington Free Press
Published: Monday, April 17, 2006
By Sam Hemingway
The trial in the first of 12 cases involving a former Catholic priest accused of molesting altar boys at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the 1970s is scheduled to get under way this week in Burlington.
The case brought by Michael Gay of South Burlington against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington alleges the former priest, Ed Paquette of Westfield, Mass., "sexually abused and sexually exploited" him as a child and claims the diocese knew Paquette was a child molester when it hired him.
Judge Ben Joseph last week agreed to sever the case against Paquette, elderly and claiming to be in ill health, from the case against the diocese at the request of Gay's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill. Paquette's case will be tried separately at a later date, court officials said.