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	Journalist Tells Personal Story in Powerful Show By David Zurawik Baltimore Sun [Maryland] March 11, 2007 http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/custom/aetoday/bal-ae.cnn11mar11,0,167013.story?coll=bal-aetoday-headlines As a journalist for cable channel CNN, 34-year-old Thomas Roberts usually is the one making the inquiries. But in Sins of the Father, a compelling documentary on the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest at Towson's Calvert Hall High School, he's the one answering questions. His emotional testimony makes for a powerful re-telling of a notorious Baltimore case that will air tomorrow night in a special edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. The facts of the story have been reported in The Sun, but Sins of the Father is a different animal altogether -- a cable TV rendering of a shocking tale that includes graphic details and an unabashed attempt to elicit visceral responses from viewers. No embellishment is necessary. The report is grounded in court documents and an admission of guilt from the priest, Father Jerome F. Toohey Jr. And the facts have enormous power; few viewers will remain unangered by what happened to Roberts as a teenager at the hands of Toohey. Emotionally rocked by his parents' divorce, Roberts first met the Calvert Hall chaplain in 1986. The priest, who is known locally as Father Jeff, noticed Roberts, then a rising ninth grader, at a local event. After learning the boy failed to gain admission to Calvert Hall, the priest offered to help. "A miracle occurred today," Michelle Roberts recalls herself saying shortly after her son met Toohey and they received a letter from Calvert Hall admitting the teenager for the fall semester. But within a year, the miracle became a nightmare. At his mother's urging, the boy turned to the priest for counseling. During 1987-88, Tooey abused the youth at the priest's private residence on Cottage Lane in Towson. Toohey pled guilty and was convicted in 2005. Anderson Cooper, in his role as correspondent on Sins of the Father, takes Roberts back to the rowhouse in Towson and asks his CNN colleague how he now feels about seeing the place. "It's probably the worst place you can be in your life," Roberts says, referring to his mental state at the time of the abuse. "There's so much shame that goes along with this. There's secrecy ... self-hatred. ... It was a prison. I mean, it was like backing me into a corner with nowhere to go." The teenager left a suicide note and tried to overdose on painkillers in 1987. But his older sister saved him. Her recollection of how she felt at the time is equally heart-rending. Cooper tells viewers that Toohey now is serving the remainder of an 18-month sentence on home detention in Lutherville after 10 months in jail -- and that he declined to be interviewed by CNN. A Baltimore County judge granted Toohey's release in December in response to a request from the convict that cited "extremely tough" jail conditions. "What's justice?" Roberts asks. "I mean, do I get early release from this? No. You don't get early release from knowing what happened to you. ... You had to put up with it to survive, and it'll be your story for the rest of your life. No early release from this story." E-mail: david.zurawik@baltsun.com
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