By Brian Joyce
WCAX
May 5, 2008
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8270457&nav=menu183_2'%20and%20char(124)%20user%20char(124)=0%20and%20''='
Trial opened Monday in another lawsuit accusing Vermont's Catholic diocese of failing to protect a child from a pedophile priest. In this case, the diocese admits the priest in question fondled altar boys, but the church denies any negligence. This trial is the first of a dozen suits brought by former altar boys claiming they were molested by a Vermont priest thirty years ago.
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"The diocese hired a known child molester," said lawyer Jerry O'Neill.
O'Neill told the jury that the diocese should pay because it knowingly took on a pedophile priest 30 years ago.
O'Neill explained that pedophile priest Ed Paquette fondled many young altar boys at Christ the King church in Burlington, including O'Neill's client Perry Babel.
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O'Neill says the diocese should pay for the psychological harm to Babel because former Bishop John Marshall knew Paquette had molested boys in other states but hired him anyway.
"The diocese had a culture of supporting child molestation by its priests. Father Paquette was one of many priests who abused children in this diocese and who the diocese knew were likely to abuse these children," said O'Neill.
"It's easy to oversimplify," cautioned Kaveh Shahi, lawyer for the diocese.
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The diocese lawyers told the jurors that Bishop Marshall tried to protect the parishes and help the priest with psychiatric treatment, including electric shock therapy.
"And the fact that he made decisions that we can be critical of today, does not mean that he didn't care or that the issue wasn't important to him. I think at best what we can conclude today is that he was ill advised," said Shahi.
The jury will have a three-part test; one to decide if the church was in fact negligent, two if Babel was actually harmed by that negligence, and three-- perhaps most importantly-- did he file his suit on time?
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| Rev. Edward Paquette |
If the jury believes Babel waited too long to file that lawsuit, then he may get nothing at all.
O'Neill says his client knew of the abuse for years, but he only became aware of the Church's knowledge of Father Paquette's activity when church records became public in 2003. So then he filed his suit two years later.
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Paquette now lives in Massachusetts and will not appear at this trial. As in many of the other trials, plaintiffs' lawyers go after the church because that's where the money is. The priests often have no assets at all. The diocese has settled with many of the priest abuse victims.
Contact: joyce@wcax.com.
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