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	Testimony Ends in Oregon Priest Abuse Civil Suit Associated Press, carried in KGW [Portland] May 15, 2007 http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8P4T76O1.html With the end of testimony, the first trial of allegations that a priest abused young men in Oregon headed for the jury. Closing arguments were scheduled Tuesday in the civil lawsuit against the Rev. Michael Sprauer of Salem, former chaplain at a state prison for young men. After that, the jury would get the case. During the two-week trial, his accusers described Sprauer as a pedophile priest who abused teenage inmates in the 1970s at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn. Their attorney, Daniel Gatti, said Sprauer repeatedly forced boys to engage in oral sex and mutual masturbation with him in detention cells, his office, a broom closet and a state car. Defense witnesses and attorneys said Sprauer was framed by ex-convicts seeking financial profit. Sprauer testified the charges are "absolutely untrue." The state of Oregon also is a defendant. The trial in Portland involves three accusers who say they suffered long-term psychological problems. They are among 15 plaintiffs who settled cases against the Portland Archdiocese, which recently won approval of a $75 million plan to emerge from bankruptcy. The settlement did not bar the plaintiffs from suing Sprauer and the state. Six more lawsuits are pending in Marion County. On Monday, Gatti called Sprauer back to testify on a key point in the trial — whether he had unfettered access to MacLaren after he took a chaplain's job at the Oregon State Correctional Institution. One plaintiff testified that Sprauer molested him in 1978, more than three years after the job change. Gatti quizzed Sprauer about a 1975 letter from the archdiocese that said Sprauer would maintain his residence at MacLaren after he became chaplain at the medium-security adult prison. Sprauer said the letter was incorrect, and he moved to Salem rather than live at MacLaren.
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