BishopAccountability.org
	Ex-Priest Says His Accusers' Stories Differ on Vidoetapes Associated Press, carried in Kentucky Post February 16, 2007 http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070216/NEWS02/702160356/1014/NEWS02 Frankfort - The attorney for a former priest convicted of sexually abusing two Bullitt County boys told the Kentucky Supreme Court a videotape shows the two accusers contradicting their stories. The attorney for Daniel C. Clark asked for a new trial Wednesday so he can present a videotape to a jury. Clark, 58, is serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted on charges of abuse in 2003. Clark was charged with abusing the two boys from 1999 - when one boy was 8 years old and the other was 9 - until 2002. Attorney David Lambertus said that Clark deserves a new trial because the original trial judge refused to show to jurors a videotape of a social worker interviewing the two victims. Lambertus said the tape shows the social worker was "coaching" the boys, and that their testimony on the tape contradicts what they later said in court. If jurors "saw these tapes, they could have said there wasn't a story here until the witness started talking to the social worker and the story developed," Lambertus said. Assistant Attorney General Susan Lenz said there was a simple reason the tape wasn't presented at the trial: because Lambertus didn't ask witnesses about it. "He couldn't have just played the tape for the jurors," she said. "He could have called the social worker and questioned her about the method of questioning." Lambertus acknowledged to Justice Will Scott that he didn't feel calling the social worker was "necessary" during the trial. Clark's appeal is the only one being heard by the state's highest court following the sexual-abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Louisville. Four priests and two lay teachers within the Archdiocese have been convicted of abuse since 2002.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.