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	Victim Testifies in Priest Sex Abuse Trial By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press December 10, 2008 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20081210/NEWS02/81210001 A former altar boy told a jury Tuesday he felt so guilty after the Rev. Edward Paquette twice molested him in the late 1970s at Christ the King Church in Burlington that he kept quiet about the incidents for years afterward. "I knew it was really wrong and I thought I was going to get in trouble for it because I had let a man touch my private parts," the former altar boy, now a 43-year-old businessman living in Takoma Park, Md., told the 12-person jury. The man, who was 11 at the time the incidents occurred, said he initially blamed himself for what happened because he'd been taught by his parents that it was wrong for anyone to touch a child's genitals. The Burlington Free Press does not publish the names of alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent. "I felt guilty, I felt bad," the man said. "I thought I had done something pretty wrong." The man said he did not tell anyone what had happened to him until 2002, after hearing a radio report about the priest sexual abuse scandal in Boston. He filed his lawsuit against the diocese in 2005. The testimony came on the fifth day of the trial on allegations that the diocese knew Paquette was a child molester when it hired him and is to blame for alcohol abuse, anxiety, depression and other problems the man has suffered as a result of the abuse. The diocese does not dispute the abuse occurred but contends the man waited too long to file his lawsuit. A diocesan lawyer questioning the man on the witness stand also tried to raise doubts about the man's motives for filing his lawsuit. "Did you bring your lawsuit for money or to try to make a point," defense attorney Kaveh Shahi asked the man. "I did it to seek justice," the man replied. The former altar boy is among 19 men who have sued the diocese alleging that Paquette molested them when they were altar boys either at Christ the King Church in Burlington or St. Augustine Church in Montpelier in the 1970s. Four cases have been settled out of court, including one for $965,000 in 2006. One case ended with an $8.7 million jury verdict in May; another was declared a mistrial in August after a jury was unable to agree on a verdict. Paquette, who is retired and lives in Westfield, Mass., is not a defendant in the case on trial. He was banished from the diocese after a group of Christ the King parish parents complained to then-Bishop John Marshall in 1978 about his behavior with their sons, During questioning by his attorney, Jerome O'Neill, the man told the jury that he grew up in a strong Catholic family. He said his mother was so religious that she often took her children to daily Mass and, on occasion, would visit all nine Catholic churches in Burlington in succession to repeat an especially important prayer. The man said Paquette quickly became a family favorite after his arrival at Christ the King Church in 1976. "He gave a really good sermon," the man said. "He was a very personable man. He was a funny guy. He gave very interesting sermons, captivating sermons." The man said the family's frequent appearances at weekday Mass, which was lightly attended and lacked altar boys, prompted Paquette to invite him to become an altar boy. "My mom's face just lit up," the man told the jury. "I said that as long as I had some training on what I had to do, it was OK with me." The man said he was groped by Paquette in the sacristy shortly after putting on the altar boy garb for the first time. He said Paquette briefly fondled his genitals over the clothes. During the second incident, Paquette slipped his hands under the boy's pants and directly touched his genitals. The man said he subsequently quit being an altar boy but did not tell his parents why. As a student at Rice Memorial High School and then the University of Vermont, the man said he got high grades but also endured bouts of anxiety and insomnia. He said he began to self-medicate with marijuana and alcohol and sought counseling while at UVM after he "got a little crazy" during a run-in with campus police. The man said he has sought psychiatric therapy and counseling for severe anxiety and episodes of depression. He said he didn't connect his problems to the molestation by Paquette until he heard, in the 2002 radio report, a Boston victim of priest sexual misconduct describe the emotional and psychological impact of the abuse on his life. "I realized that that happened to me, too," the man told the jury. Shahi, the diocesan lawyer, asked the man if his parents' divorce when he was a teenager, plus his worries about getting good grades as a student, were the real cause of his anxiety and sleep problems in the years after the Paquette molestation incidents. "It didn't feel good, seeing them fighting," the man said, when asked about his parents' divorce. "Did it cause you anxiety, worry?" Shahi asked. "I would say yes," the man replied. Shahi later suggested that lots of students have anxiety about their academic performance as they go through school. "I know the anxiety I had was different than what others had," the man said. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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