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	Abbreviated Trial Revealed Details on Inner Workings of Diocese By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press [Burlington VT] June 27, 2007 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007706270303 Leaders for two national groups monitoring clergy abuse cases said Tuesday that the lawsuit filed by James Turner against Vermont's Roman Catholic diocese helped shed light on the church's inner workings, even if the case ended in a mistrial. "Without a trial, it is so tempting to view claims like Turner's as isolated crimes by isolated criminals," said David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Terrence McKiernan of the Waltham, Mass.-based group BishopAccounta- bility.org, agreed. "This trial opened another door on the Vermont situation," McKiernan said. Turner, 46, of Virginia Beach, Va., sued the diocese, claiming it was responsible for his alleged 1977 molestation at the hands of Alfred Willis, then a Vermont diocesan priest, at a Latham, N.Y., motel. Turner also claimed that three months later Willis tried to molest him again at his family's home in Derby. The only defendant in the case was the diocese; Willis settled out of court with Turner last year. The trial in the diocese case was halted Monday in its fourth day when Judge Ben Joseph, responding to a complaint by Turner's lawyers, declared a mistrial. Joseph made the ruling after agreeing that a diocesan lawyer violated a pre-trial court order banning questions about the nature of the relationship between Willis and the Rev. Bernard Turner, James Turner's older brother. Efforts to reach diocesan attorneys David Cleary and Tom McCormick for comment Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful. McKiernan said the fact the Turner case reached the trial stage is rare. According to research done by his group, of all the abuse cases filed in civil court against priests or dioceses in the United States since 1986, only 31 made it to a trial. "Lawsuit settlements are kind of like a television news story, short and simple," Clohessy said. "A trial is like a book, an in-depth look at the big picture. It's exceedingly rare." During the abbreviated Vermont trial, Turner's lawyers made public a detailed accounting of child molestation allegations involving Willis when he was a parish priest in Montpelier, Burlington and Milton, and a 47-page report of a secret church trial that led to Willis' departure from the priesthood. Other diocesan records made public during the trial revealed repeated molestation of boys by two other priests, identified in redacted church documents by their initials. Both priests were said to be retired and no longer permitted to perform priestly duties. "Until the Willis case, the only publicly available information we had about the Vermont diocese was the Paquette case," McKiernan said, referring to the 19 cases filed in Chittenden County Superior Court alleging that the former Rev. Ed Paquette molested altar boys in three Vermont parishes in the late 1970s. The first of the 19 Paquette cases was settled for $965,000 last year the night before the trial was scheduled to begin. As part of the settlement, lawyers for the alleged victim, Michael Gay of South Burlington, were allowed to detail Paquette's sexual misconduct with children in Massachusetts, Indiana and Vermont and the diocese's efforts to contain the allegations. Turner, who left Burlington on Tuesday for his home in Virginia, was unavailable for comment. He said after the mistrial announcement Monday that he wants to keep pursuing his case against the diocese. "This is really tough for Mr. Turner," McKiernan said. "It's really hard for survivors of this type of abuse to get to the point where they are willing to come forward with their stories in such a public forum." Contact: Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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