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	Lawyer: Bishop Intimidated Prosecutors By Kevin O'Connor Rutland Herald [Vermont] June 22, 2007 http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/NEWS04/706220385/1004/NEWS03 Burlington — Did Vermont's Catholic Church try to stop a state's attorney from prosecuting a priest who's now the center of a sex abuse trial? Lawyers for a man suing the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington charged Thursday that the late Vermont Bishop John Marshall tried to intimidate prosecutors investigating the Rev. Alfred Willis before the priest was defrocked in 1985 for molesting boys. Church leaders are defending themselves in Chittenden Superior Court in a case brought by James Turner, a 46-year-old Derby native who alleges Willis performed oral sex on him when he was 16 and staying at a Latham, N.Y., hotel in 1977. But three decades ago, according to Turner's attorney, the diocese was able to keep other abuse allegations from being heard by a judge and jury. Lawyer Jerome O'Neill played videotaped testimony Thursday in which Susan Via, a former deputy Chittenden County state's attorney now living in Arizona, recalled meeting with Marshall and then State's Attorney Mark Keller shortly after starting her job in 1978. At the time, both the church and county prosecutors were investigating charges that Willis — a onetime priest in Burlington, Montpelier and Milton — had molested several boys in the latter community. Marshall told Keller the abuse was "gravely wrong," the priest was "very remorseful" and the parents involved didn't want to press charges to protect their children and their church, Via said. When Keller told the bishop he still wanted to prosecute, Marshall's "attitude changed," Via said. The religious leader went from being "extremely gracious" to telling Keller that if he went forward with a court case, "this could be viewed by the church as Mark committing the sin of scandal." Keller, Via knew, was Catholic and a graduate of St. Michael's College and Notre Dame. "Mark visibly stiffened," she said. "Mark looked like he had been slapped." Via said she considered Marshall's comments to be an obstruction of justice. "This was one of the most inappropriate things I'd ever heard come out of a priest's mouth," she said. Keller eventually tried to prosecute Willis on felony charges of lewd or lascivious conduct with a child after "some degree of pressure" from others in the office, Via said. But the state's attorney ultimately couldn't file a court case because no parent would cooperate. "They felt it would make the church look bad," Via said. Marshall, who served as bishop from 1972 to 1992, died in 1994. Keller, now a state district court judge, wasn't at the trial Thursday. In a telephone interview, the former state's attorney said he juggled some 5,000 cases a year three decades ago and couldn't remember any specifics. "The meeting could have taken place," Keller said, "but I don't remember it to be as dramatic as what was portrayed." The plaintiff's lawyer in the current case said Marshall's alleged action was part of a half-century church pattern of cover-up and intimidation. To show that, O'Neill presented A.W. Richard Sipe, a San Diego expert on priest sexual misconduct who wrote the definition of the word "celibacy" for the Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. Sipe reviewed confidential personnel records of 102 Vermont priests accused of sexual abuse as early as the 1950s and found that the diocese reassigned almost 60 percent to another church, usually without reporting their sexual histories. "It was handled as secretly and silently as possible," Sipe said. "Attention to the welfare of the victim was not a primary concern. Victims were paid to go away. And this diocese, like many others, minimized what happened. What lay people would term a 'rape' would be 'improperly touched.'" "Real intervention did not come easily and did not come early," Sipe said. "Priests were sent for treatment only if there was danger of scandal or the problem couldn't be contained. I believe the state's attorney had to threaten something before real action was taken with Father Willis." The Willis case now in court centers on the plaintiff's allegation that the church was slow to investigate the priest, even though it knew he had broken his vows of celibacy as early as seminary. According to church paperwork, the rector of Willis' seminary told the diocese's director of vocations that Willis was suspected to be sexually active with another man. An investigation "failed to reveal substance to this concern and asked 'that the matter be dropped,'" one internal report said. "Vocation Director judged it unnecessary to convey the matter to the Bishop." Sipe questioned those statements. "Why would you even record 'I didn't tell the bishop' if you think you shouldn't have told the bishop?" Sipe said. "This is to me a red flag." Earlier, O'Neill asked the Rev. Wendell Searles, the former second-in-command at the diocese, to read aloud confidential church letters about Willis. O'Neill then questioned Searles about the church's definition of celibacy. "Celibacy means remaining single and being faithful to chastity for one's whole life," the 78-year-old priest said. "This is one of the bedrock teachings of the Catholic Church, agreed?" O'Neill asked. "Yes," Searles said. O'Neill replied that if a seminarian was suspected to be sexually active, "it would be important for the bishop for knowing about that?" "Yes," Searles said. But O'Neill said nothing in church paperwork showed that the diocese investigated the matter further. Willis, now 62 and living in Leesburg, Va., has called the charges "unfounded" but has settled with Turner for an undisclosed sum. As a result, he isn't attending the trial. Turner, now living in Virginia Beach, Va., is the first of more than 30 recent accusers to tell their story to a jury, having tried but failed to negotiate a settlement with the church. He is asking the jury for damages of more than $1 million. ContactKevin O'Connor at kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com
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