BishopAccountability.org
	Another Priest Sex Abuse Trial Gets under Way Today By Sam Hemingway BurlingtonFree Press August 13, 2008 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/NEWS02/808130309/1007/NEWS02 Lawyers probed prospective jurors Tuesday about their views on large monetary awards in civil cases before settling on a six-man, six-woman jury for the latest priest sexual abuse trial scheduled to get under way today in Burlington. "We need 12 fair people," Tom McCormick, an attorney for the state's Roman Catholic diocese, told the prospective jurors near the end of the daylong hearing at Chittenden Superior Court. The case going before the jury today is the second in four months involving nearly identical claims by former altar boys at Christ the King Church in Burlington who say a parish priest, the Rev. Edward Paquette, molested them at the church between 1976 and 1978. At the end of the trial that concluded in May, a jury awarded $8.7 million to a Colorado man who alleged that, as a Christ the King altar boy, he was fondled by Paquette between 40 and 100 times in the late 1970s. The size of the award stunned the diocese and prompted warnings from Bishop Salvatore Matano that the decision would have a "very serious impact" on the diocese's operations. The diocese has since appealed the verdict. The trial that begins today involves claims by a Waitsfield man that when he was a Christ the King altar boy he was fondled by Paquette at least 20 times, according to court filings. The Free Press does not identify the alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent. The alleged abuse involved Paquette's groping the boy's groin over the child's clothes while holding a hand over the boy's mouth. "Paquette would pick him up or sit him on his lap as he touched him," one court document said, describing the alleged abuse. "Paquette would become aroused and then would bump and grind against him." The Waitsfield man is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the diocese, claiming the diocese knew Paquette was a pedophile when it hired him and still put Paquette in a position to molest altar boys in Vermont. McCormick told the prospective jurors that the diocese does not contest the abuse allegations in the case but will argue the case is flawed because the victim waited too long to file his lawsuit and didn't do enough over the years to "mitigate the impact of that event." Potential jurors, responding to questions by McCormick and John Evers, a lawyer for the Waitsfield man, said they had concerns about how to justify a large damage award. "I don't want to be unfair," one juror said. At one point, Evers asked the entire jury panel whether any of them thought there ought to be a cap on how much a jury is able to award in damages. No hands went up. In addition to the case going to trial today, the diocese faces 19 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by former priests. Another nine cases have been resolved by trial or in out-of-court settlements. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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