BishopAccountability.org
	Choir Director Sexually Abused Minors, His Lawyer Says By Martin B. Cassidy The Advocate December 22, 2007 http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-christchurch4dec22,0,7513952.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines GREENWICH - A church choir director who was caught with child pornography also engaged in sexual conduct with minors, his lawyer acknowledged yesterday, but the incidents did not involve parishioners. Francis O'Reilly, a Fairfield-based criminal lawyer for former Christ Church Greenwich choir director Robert Tate, said his client has disclosed his actions as part of a treatment program for sexually deviant behavior. "It is important to understand there were very few instances of any improper sexual conduct by Mr. Tate," O'Reilly said. "Any such instances were many years ago, and there was never any disclosure of him engaging in such conduct with members of the Christ Church community." In a letter to parishioners dated Tuesday, church officials said they knew nothing of allegations of sexual abuse by Tate in October 2006, when they were discussing how to handle the child pornography found on Tate's computer. "At that time, the leadership of the church was not aware of any allegations of sexual contact with children anywhere by Mr. Tate," Senior Warden Ted Pryor and Junior Warden Timothy Carpenter wrote. The letter also denies that Christ Church Greenwich tried to cover up the discovery of the child pornography on Tate's computer, and it blames the advice of the church's then-attorney for missteps in handling the incident. The attorney, Philip Russell, 48, was sentenced Monday for destroying the laptop that stored the images, preventing it from being used as evidence. The wardens said yesterday they felt the need to respond to issues raised during Russell's sentencing. During the sentencing on Monday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Judge Alan Nevas scorned Russell and the church for their decision not to report the child pornography to police. Nevas said Russell's destruction of the pornography might have prevented the crime from coming to light. "They were absolutely getting the answer they wanted," Nevas said of church leaders. "They wanted it to go away." Also Monday, prosecutors said they had evidence that Tate had sexual contact with child prostitutes in his apartment at Christ Church Greenwich, and traveled to Thailand and the Philippines to have sex with young boys. In the letter, Pryor and Carpenter wrote that the church wasn't motivated to conceal the incident when it consulted with Russell in October 2006 on how to handle the illicit material. "Until he was replaced, the church relied upon and followed Mr. Russell's legal advice," the letter wrote. "There was never a desire or intention to participate in a 'cover-up.' " Nevas sentenced Russell to 12 months of probation, including six months of home confinement for one count of misprision of a felony for destroying the computer to thwart federal investigators. Church officials may have been misled by Russell's advice, Nevas said Monday, but their decision to accept Russell's advice that Tate's computer did not have to be preserved as evidence was questionable. Among the questions that Nevas said church leaders should have asked was whether they should report the pornography to law enforcement. "There were questions that should have been asked that obviously weren't," Nevas said Monday. Nevas did not return calls seeking comment yesterday. After reading the letter, Russell's attorney, Roy Ward, issued a statement saying the church might be unfairly characterizing its relationship with Russell. "Much of what was said to Attorney Russell by Mr. Walker and Mr. Pryor is protected by the attorney-client privilege," Roy Ward said of the letter. "All I can say is that Attorney Russell will not address with any specificity the inaccuracies which may be in that carefully worded statement." Russell was hired by the church Oct. 9, 2006, after an employee discovered child pornography on a computer belonging to Tate, according to prosecutors. In a meeting that day, according to prosecutors, Tate said he had downloaded the pictures. Church officials fired Tate, and Russell gave Tate the name of a defense attorney, which showed Russell knew a criminal case against Tate was possible, prosecutors argued. Russell then took the computer back to his office and destroyed it, prosecutors said. Eugene Riccio, an attorney representing the church, said yesterday that Christ Church officials made the best decision they could based on Russell's advice and said Nevas might have been too harsh on the church leaders. Riccio said church leaders asked Russell whether they were required to turn over the pornography to law enforcement, but declined to elaborate on meetings between Russell and church officials at that time. "I understand the anger of Judge Nevas regarding this situation, but I also think that if you examine all the facts related to those unfortunate incidents you would see the leadership of Christ Church Greenwich in a more favorable light," Riccio said. Riccio said federal investigators told church officials about alleged sex abuse allegations about Tate in fall 2006, after Russell left and the investigation began. In early 2007, the church learned from federal investigators of allegations that Tate might have sexually abused choir members, Riccio said, but federal investigators looked into the claims and have not charged Tate. Since Tate pleaded guilty in January to one count of possession of child pornography, he has been receiving treatment for deviant sexual behavior in a Minnesota psychiatric facility. Robert Casale, another lawyer who defended Russell in the case, said the letter failed to address the new allegations of sexual abuses by Tate. "I guess they are still sort of supportive of Mr. Tate," Casale said. "They submitted another letter to the court a little earlier with the we're-going-to-pray-for-everybody approach without really saying much." During his treatment at Minneapolis-based Alpha Human Services, counselors gave tate a polygraph test about his sexual conduct with minors, which indicated that he never victimized children who belonged to the church, O'Reilly said. "As part of the process of disclosure, Mr. Tate has disclosed any and all instances of actual sexual conduct in which he has engaged with minors," O'Reilly said. Tate is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 31.
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