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	Defrocked Priest Shanley Seeks New Trial By Robert Aicardi Wicked Local Braintree May 30, 2008 http://www.wickedlocal.com/braintree/local_news/x138488484/Defrocked-priest-Shanley-seeks-new-trial Braintree - A defrocked Roman Catholic priest at the center of the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal, who was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree in the late 1960s, is seeking a new trial based on a challenge to the theory of repressed memories. Paul Shanley, 77, is serving a 12-to-15 year sentence for repeatedly fondling and raping a boy at St. Jean's Catholic Church in Newton in the early 1980s. The victim, a member of the parish's CCD class when Shanley was assigned there, said that Shanley carried out the assaults, starting when he was six, in the bathroom, the rectory, the pews, and the confessional, and his repressed memories of what happened surfaced in 2002 when the media began reporting about the abuse scandal. After deliberating for 14 hours, a jury found Shanley guilty on Feb. 7, 2005 of two counts of child rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. Shanley was in Suffolk Superior Court on May 29 for a hearing on his motion for a new trial. Robert Shaw, Jr., his new lawyer, argued that the theory of repressed memories was "junk science." Shaw said that Shanley's attorney failed to challenge the theory vigorously during his trial. "Paul Shanley, just like any other citizen, is entitled to a fair trial," he said. Assistant District Attorney Loretta Lillios said that Shanley's defense did call an expert witness during the trial who questioned the reliability of repressed memories and cross-examined the state's expert on the theory. Judge Stephen Neel did not immediately rule on Shanley's motion for a new trial. Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented more than 100 clergy abuse victims who reached civil settlements with the Archdiocese of Boston, has been flooded with calls about the motion. "The victims are outraged that he (Shanley) might have any possibility of having a new trial," Garabedian said. "The victims desperately want closure." Robert Costello, a Norwood man who said that he was sexually abused by another priest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, explained that he attended the hearing to remind Shanley about the victims of clergy sex abuse. "He should not get a new trial," Costello said. "There was more evidence that just the doctors talking about repressed memories." Material from an Associated Press story by Denise Lavoie was used in this story.
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