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	Re-Trial Starts Monday in Priest Sex Case Associated Press, carried in Boston Globe November 22, 2007 http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/11/22/re_trial_starts_monday_in_priest_sex_case/ BURLINGTON, Vt.—A man suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington over alleged sexual abuse by a priest returns to court Monday, five months after a judge abruptly declared a mistrial in his case. The civil suit, brought by former Derby man James Turner, 46, of Virginia Beach, Va., will be tried again in Chittenden County Superior Court, with the same lawyers, some of the same witnesses and the same issue at hand — but with a new judge presiding. Opening statements to the 10-woman, four-man jury — including two alternates — are set for Monday. "We look forward to bringing this case in front of the jury, and taking it through to completion," said Turner's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill. He declined further comment. The Diocese and its lawyers didn't respond to requests for comment on the retrial. The statewide Diocese, which represents about 118,000 Roman Catholics in Vermont, has about 25 lawsuits pending that allege sexual abuse by priests. It has paid out more than $1 million in settlements in other cases, but Turner's was the first to go to trial. Turner says former Rev. Alfred Willis performed a sex act on him in a Latham, N.Y., hotel room after attending a June 1977 ordination ceremony for Turner's brother. Turner, who was 16 at the time, didn't file suit against the Diocese until 2004 — more than 26 years later. Willis, who denies the allegations, settled out of court with Turner and was removed from the case against the Diocese, which alleges that church officials are liable for his behavior. The church contends that it had no prior knowledge of sexual misconduct with minors by Willis and that it can't be held liable for his alleged molestation of Turner. The first trial came to an unexpected end June 25 when Judge Ben Joseph ruled that Diocesan lawyer David Cleary had overstepped the limits of a pretrial order restricting what could be asked of Turner about an alleged sexual relationship between Turner's brother and Willis. Joseph later ordered the Diocese to pay Turner's legal fees and expenses — more than $112,000 — for causing the mistrial. But that doesn't address all the "bad effects" caused by the mistrial, Joseph wrote in an Oct. 5 order imposing the trial costs on the Diocese. It delayed the progress of other sex abuse claims against the Diocese and gave the church a leg up in preparing for the retrial, Joseph wrote. "The Defendant's attorneys have been able to hear the direct testimony of the Plaintiff's witnesses and to cross-examine them in a trial setting. This has given defense counsel a rare opportunity to weigh and measure the strength of a plaintiff's case and to analyze how to attack it in a second trial. The Plaintiff has not had such an opportunity," Joseph wrote. Joseph, whose one-year rotation in Chittenden Superior Court ended Sept. 1, 2006, nevertheless remained assigned to the case through the first trial. His successor, Judge Matthew Katz, will hear the retrial. Katz has imposed similar restrictions on testimony about Turner's brother, barring any implication that the brother was responsible for what allegedly happened to Turner. Katz recently rejected a motion to remove a juror because she is Catholic. Turner's lawyers said the woman — who attends Mass, reads the Diocesan newspaper and has "some opinion" about whether the Diocese is at fault in the sex abuse cases — will have conflicted loyalties to her church and the court system, making it impossible for her to be fair. Katz disagreed. "The undeniable product of Plaintiff's motion would be to ban all Catholics from cases such as this," Katz wrote in his Nov. 6 opinion. "Not only is that not required by law, it is prohibited."
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