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Giuliani and the Priest
ABC News
October 23, 2007
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/popup?id=3752741
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Placa and Giuliani have been close friends for nearly four decades. The two were high school and college classmates.
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Placa was the best man at Giuliani's first wedding and officiated at the ceremony of Giuliani's second marriage to Donna Hanover.
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Placa was told by the Church to stop performing his priestly duties in 2002 after two former students and an altar boy came forward with allegations that they were sexually abused by him. Placa has denied the allegations.
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Richard Tollner, one of Placa's accusers, told ABC News that Placa groped and fondled him when he was a student at a Catholic boys high school where Placa taught in the 1970s.
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Tollner and others testified before a grand jury in Suffolk County, N.Y., which found that Priest F, who Tollner has identified as Placa, had sexually molested three teenage boys in the 1970s. Criminal charges could not be filed because the the statute of limitations had expired.
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According to the grand jury report, "Priest F" was instrumental in developing the Church's policy to handle allegations of sexual abuse of children by other priests. The report also concluded that the Church policy used "deception and intimidation" to essentially keep the scandals quiet.
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Placa, seen here in a video, touted himself as an expert on the legal issues surrounding child sexual abuse and intervened in hundreds of cases for the church around the country.
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Sex abuse victims' rights groups have protested Giuliani's support of Placa, who Giuliani put on the payroll of his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, just months after the allegations came to light.
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Giuliani, who has said that Placa is unjustly accused, has defended Placa at campaign stops in St. Louis and Milwaukee.
"I know the man; I know who he is, so I support him," Giuliani said. "We give some of the worst people in our society the presumption of innocence and benefit of the doubt," he said. "And, of course, I'm going to give that to one of my closest friends."
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