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	Diocese's Bid to Disqualify Judge Denied Boston.com January 25, 2007 http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/01/25/ dioceses_bid_to_disqualify_judge_denied/ Burlington, Vt. --An administrative judge has rejected a second attempt by the Roman Catholic Diocese to disqualify a judge who is presiding over more than two dozen lawsuits alleged child sex abuse by Catholic priests. Judge Amy Davenport ruled Wednesday that Chittenden County District Court Judge Ben Joseph could preside in sanctions hearing involving a longtime attorney for the Diocese accused of withholding church documents in a sex abuse case. Church lawyer William M. O'Brien had sought to have Joseph dismissed from the hearing. His lawyer said that Joseph used the word "wrongdoing" during two court hearings, which he said raised doubts about whether Joseph can be impartial in deciding whether O'Brien should be sanctioned. Davenport disagreed. "Judge Joseph's use of the word 'wrongdoing' did not imply that he had prejudged who, if anyone, was responsible for the failure to produce the missing records," Davenport wrote. "He has not prejudged whether sanctions were even appropriate." Jerome O'Neill, the attorney for 25 victims suing the Diocese over alleged sexual abuse by priests, requested the sanctions after more than 26 years worth of records relating to an accused priest turned up last August. The church said the documents, which deal with the Rev. George Paulin, a priest who allegedly molested a Newport altar boy in the 1970s, were misfiled.
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