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	Late Bishop Allegedly Tried to Block Pedophile Priest Prosecution By Brian Joyce WCAX [Burlington, VT] June 21, 2007 http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=6693876&nav=4QcS Did a former Catholic Bishop threaten prosecutors with committing a sin if they arrested a pedophile priest? That charge was made Thursday in a Burlington court where a Virginia man is seeking damages from the Burlington Roman Catholic Diocese. He claims he was abused by a former priest -- and Diocese leaders could have prevented it. Thursday's testimony at the Superior Court in Burlington focused on the late Bishop John Marshall and his alleged personal intervention with prosecutors to protect a predatory priest. One of those prosecutors was the key witness. "Well Bishop Marshall did most of the talking," said former Chittenden County Deputy Prosecutor Susan Via, who testified on videotape about a meeting she and three other Chittenden Prosecutors had in 1979 with the late Bishop John Marshall. Via says the Bishop tried to persuade them not to bring child molestation charges against former priest Alfred Willis, charges the bishop had known of for some time. Via claims the bishop insisted criminal charges were NOT necessary. Via says he gave his personal assurance that Willis would never again be assigned to a family parish, that the priest had received church counseling, and the young victims' families had no interest in criminal charges. Via claims that's what the bishop told Mark Keller, the Chittenden County Prosecutor at the time. "He told Mark and all of them it would not be in the children's interests to have them testify or participate in a criminal investigation or criminal prosecution, and furthermore, they did not want the harm to come to the church that would come from such a thing," said Via. Via says when Keller rejected the Bishop's offer, Marshall appeared to become angry, sat back stiffly in his chair, and threatened Keller and the Roman Catholic prosecutors in the room with divine retribution. He said, "that this could be viewed by the church as Mark committing the crime of the sin of scandal," said Via. "From what I had been taught that was a person bringing, casting the church in an unfair and improper light so as to have the community at large react to the church or look at the church in a very negative light," said Via. Via says they tried to prosecute Willis for the child molestations, but were unable to because none of the families would co-operate. Diocesan records introduced at the trial Thursday indicated it would be six more years before the Diocese finally defrocked Willis after a secret church trial. In response to the allegations, Diocesan lawyers say another prosecutor present at that 1979 meeting will refute Via's account. But it won't be former prosecutor Mark Keller -- who is now a state district judge. He told Channel 3 that he has no specific memory of any meeting with Bishop Marshall, but he acknowledges there may have been one. Contact: joyce@wcax.com
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