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	Struggle Ends at Abuse Verdict Priest - the Pain of the Victims and Documents Sway Most of the Jury to Side with the Ex-Maclaren Residents By Ashbel S. Green and Lynne Terry The Oregonian [Portland OR] May 18, 2007 http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11794569598680.xml&coll=7 Juror Devin Russo braced himself as the jury's verdict was read: A Catholic priest sexually abused two teenage boys at a state reform school in the 1970s; the boys, now grown men, deserve $1.4 million in damages. One of the accusers -- 49-year-old Robert Paul -- burst into tears. "All of us in the jury kind of said we weren't going to look at anyone but the judge, but I happened to look over at him and I almost started crying myself," said Russo, 38. "And in a way, that definitely reinforced my decision in favor of him because there's definitely a lot of pain there." For Russo, it was the most powerful moment in a tense and emotional two-week trial. Russo and nine other jurors decided Wednesday that the Rev. Michael Sprauer, 62, had sexually abused Paul and Randy Sloan, 49, at MacLaren Youth Correctional Institution in Woodburn. Jurors were dismissed from service Thursday morning, but agreed to talk about the case outside the third-floor Multnomah County courtroom where they spent much of the past two weeks. Presiding juror Steve LaMere, 35, said he sat six feet from the men as they testified in graphic detail about being sexually exploited. "Just to see the faces as they gave testimony really gave a lot of validity to the accusations," LaMere said. The jurors did not find in favor of a third plaintiff, Norman Klettke, 43. LaMere said he believed that Klettke had been molested, but said his attorney didn't back up the claim with enough evidence. Leann Pence, 18, said she struggled with her decision to vote against Klettke. "That was probably the really, really big difficult part for me was saying, 'No we can't give you damages for what happened,' " she said. The verdict was not unanimous. Two jurors voted no across the board. "There was no proof that the priest did anything," said Darrell Thun, 58, one of the dissenters. "I think it was basically over when they said Catholic priest and sex abuse." Thun did not stay around the courthouse with the other jurors, but later in a telephone interview he said the evidence showed that Sprauer wasn't assigned to MacLaren when virtually all of the abuse allegedly occurred. The other jurors, Thun said, "were looking for a reason to say he did it and it didn't make any difference what the facts were." Thun said it boiled down to Sprauer's word against the testimony of the plaintiffs. "To me it's all speculation," he said. "I don't know if they made it up. I don't know what happened. Who knows what happened? But I don't think you can convict him on who knows." Sprauer faces another dozen lawsuits, and Thun doubts the priest's chances. "Obviously he can't get a fair trial," Thun said. "All you have to do is say priest abuse and collect the money. I don't know why they bothered with the trial." Several jurors said they respected the opinions of the dissenters but defended their verdict. Jeremie Krehbiel, 28, said he didn't believe some of Sprauer's witnesses, including one who disputed a claim by Sloan that he was molested on the way to his sister's funeral. "Those were just (Sprauer's) buddies," Krehbiel said. "They were covering for him." For juror Jennifer Trilby Marlin, 38, it was not the witnesses who convinced her. "It came down to two pieces of paper to me," she said. One was an affidavit by a former MacLaren employee who said that Sprauer continued to revisit the school for several years after being reassigned as a prison chaplain at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in 1975. "And then also (there was) a letter from the archdiocese saying that Father Mike would remain in residency at MacLaren once he started working at OSCI," Marlin said. The standard of proof is much lower in a civil trial than a criminal trial, and Marlin still harbors some doubts. "I still don't feel like I'm ever going to know for sure. I do believe that the plaintiffs have been abused, very probably by Father Mike, but I'll never know for sure," Marlin said. "If Father Mike is innocent, I'm sorry for that." Ashbel "Tony" Green: 503-221-8202; tonygreen@news.oregonian.com
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