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	Plaintiff Claims Bishop Protected Pedophile Priest WCAX June 1, 2007 http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=6600605&nav=4QcS Burlington, Vermont — Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese wants a judge to suppress evidence indicating prominent church leaders protected a pedophile priest. It's part of the potentially explosive evidence that could be introduced when the Diocese goes on trial next month accused of failing to protect a young parishioner from a predatory priest. The Diocese is being sued by more than 30 men who claim they were sexually abused as young men by priests in Vermont. The Diocese has already paid out more than $1.4 million to settle four of the cases. But the stage is set for trial next month in the fifth case, Church lawyers are fighting to suppress evidence that the Diocese knew about the abuse and did nothing. The accusation is that former priest Alfred Willis sexually molested a teenager thirty years ago. Lawyer Jerry O'Neill says there's lots of evidence and it shows that Willis's boss at the time, Bishop John Marshall, knew that Willis was a pedophile priest and covered it up. "We certainly intend as part of our proof to show that what Bishop Marshall was doing he was trying to prevent the state's attorney from prosecuting this individual," said O'Neill at a Friday pre-trial hearing in Burlington. "He (Marshall) could reasonably assume that there were other victims. He knew at that point that father Willis had victimized boys here in Burlington. He knew he had done it in Milton. And he was trying to cover it up later," O'Neill told Superior Court Judge Ben Joseph. The Catholic church's lawyers object. They say the evidence should be suppressed because Bishop Marshall first learned about Willis's sexual abuse of young parishioners two years AFTER O'Neill's client was allegedly molested and, even if Willis did it, it wasn't in a church setting. "This is not a claim of molesting by a priest in a sanctuary or altar boys," said Tom McCormick, Diocese counsel. "This is a claim of molestation by a man who's a family friend at a family function on one occasion and on the second occasion he was in the family home," added McCormick. Church records show Bishop Marshall reassigned Willis to other churches where he allegedly continued to abuse children until the church finally defrocked him in 1986, at least eight years after Bishop Marshall reportedly first learned about the abuse. Judge Ben Joseph says he hopes to decide by next week whether the evidence about Bishop Marshall's alleged cover-up can be used at trial. Jury selection is scheduled to get underway on June 18th. The trial is expected to last two weeks.
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