California Catholic Daily [California]
March 9, 2007
http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=25973dc6-5d27-4329-a4d2-7b8c31731c2a
"Gay" and "Straight" molesters are not treated equally, says defrocked priest.
"Gay rights" became an issue in the priest molestation scandal when a defrocked priest facing molestation charges argued on March 7 that California law does not provide equal protection to "gay" and straight molesters.
Donald Steier, attorney for Michael Stephen Baker, 59, who awaits trial on allegations that he molested two boys between 1994 and 1998, argued in court Wednesday that state law does not apply statute of limitations provisions equally. Neither heterosexuals and homosexuals who force intercourse on minors can benefit from time limits for prosecution in California; but heterosexual consensual intercourse with a minor has a statute of limitations placed on it while homosexual consensual intercourse with a minor does not. "Had [Baker] been engaged in heterosexual intercourse with a female of the same age, he could not have been charged," said Steier, according to the March 8 Los Angeles Times. Baker's lawyer claims that his client had consensual intercourse with the two boys.
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Steier argued that a California supreme court decision last year bolsters Baker's claim. The court ruled in The People v. Hofsheier that California had denied equal protection under the law to a 22-year old man, Vincent Hofsheier, when it required him to register for life as a sex offender because he had received oral copulation from a 16-year old. The same penalty did not apply to someone who had engaged in sexual intercourse with a minor.
It is uncertain whether homosexual groups will champion this equal protection issue. "People don't have the right to abuse children regardless of their sexual orientation," Tara Borelli, a Lambda staff attorney, told the Times. "Abuse by a gay priest isn't a gay issue; it's about abuse of power."
Baker has said that in 1986, when he was a priest in the Los Angeles archdiocese, he admitted to molesting two or three boys to Cardinal Roger Mahony. Mahony placed Baker in therapy and then over the next 13 years placed him in residence in several parishes, for some of which he served as administrator. Though restricted from being with youth, he was reported in at least two non-sexual breaches during these years. The archdiocese says it received its first victim's complaint against Baker in 2000 and removed him from ministry. He was laicized the same year. In 2003, the archdiocese reported him to law enforcement.
In addition to the current accusations, Baker has been accused of molesting ten youths between 1976 and 1999.
"Baker was a classic example of how deceptive these kinds of people are," archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told KTLA last year. "He lied to the archbishop about the nature and extent of his problem, he deceived his therapists, and he deceived the young people who trusted him. That is the nature of this compulsion. This wasn't known in 1986. We know it now."
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