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	Formerly Confidential Church Records Highlight Sex Abuse Trial By Brian Joyce WCAX [Vermont] June 20, 2007 http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=6688028&nav=4QcS Vermont's Catholic Church went on trial Wednesday, accused of failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Taking center stage on day one — 50 years of the diocese's own records detailing how church leaders protected pedophile priests and covered up their crimes. A man who claims he was molested by a former Roman Catholic deacon is suing the diocese for at least $1 million. He says the diocese must pay because for decades it has protected deviant priests and knowingly placed other kids in harms way. To prove the pattern, his lawyers obtained 50 years of confidential church records which Wednesday for the first time are becoming public. We want to warn you that some of the testimony may be offensive to some viewers. James Turner filed the lawsuit against the Diocese. He claims he was molested at age 15 by former priest Alfred Willis in 1977. Turner has agreed to be identified in his suit seeking at least $1 million against the diocese. His lawyer claims the church needs to pay extra large punitive damages because for 50 years it knew priests like Willis were abusing children — and did not protect them. "The Diocese could have chosen to turn in individuals for criminal prosecution, or, at least, at an absolute minimum, have taken away that Roman collar. It did neither. It chose instead to protect the pedophile priests rather then the children," said Jerry O'Neill, Turner's lawyer, in his opening statement to the jury. The Diocese lawyers told the jury that the diocese has convincing evidence that shows the alleged abuse never happened and that Turner is looking only for money. "Mr. Turner has known for decades that he had been abused, he says, and yet he never filed suit," said Tom McCormick, Diocese Lawyer, speaking to the jury of six men and six women. Turner's lawyers opened the offense by presenting hundreds of once-confidential diocese documents that detail how former Bishops Robert Joyce and John Marshall, now deceased, learned about pedophile priests in the diocese, but reassigned them to other churches, and tried to protect the church from lawsuit. "In MS's history as well as his awareness of fantasies clearly indicated a sexual object preference for adolescent males," said Fr. Wendell Searles, a retired Priest, to authenticate the documents, not because he personally did anything wrong, but because he was an overseer of dioceses documents for decades. "That same year he was sexually abused by E.M. And G.M. During a camping trip. The fathers went from tent to tent and performed oral sex on the boys," Searles testified. Turner's lawyers will continue to present more documents Thursday. There are hundreds of them that detail how the diocese protected priests from prosecution and itself from lawsuits. To win at trial, Turner must convince the jury that it is more likely than not that former Father Willis abused him AND the Diocese knew or should have known that Willis was a bad apple when the abuse took place. The Diocese lawyers indicated they have enough evidence to undermine both of Turner's claims. Contact: Brian Joyce joyce@wcax.com
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