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	Diocese Jury Retires without Verdict Burlington Free Press December 16, 2008 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20081216/NEWS02/81216022/-1/NEWS05 BURLINGTON — The jury in the longest-running clergy abuse trial in the state's history retired Tuesday night without reaching a verdict. They will resume deliberations at 9 a.m. Wednesday. David Navari, 43, alleges he was molested twice as an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington by the Rev. Edward Paquette in the late 1970s. The case was handed over to the jury at 2:10 p.m. Just before 9 p.m., the jury asked the judge for copy of testimony by Bishop Salvatore Matano. Told they would have to wait until the morning for their request, the jury said it would forge ahead in its deliberations. At about 10 they announced they would not reach a decision Tuesday night. Lawyers for the Diocese requested that any punitive damages awarded by the jury should be nominal. If the jury were to award compensatory damages, the Diocese said, it should award a maximum of $15,000 — the estimated cost of therapy recommended by a psychologist who testified on Navari's behalf. Earlier today, Lawyers for Navari asked the jury for more than $6 million in damages in closing arguments. Navari, now a Takoma Park, Md., business man, has argued the diocese is liable for damages because it knew Paquette was a child molester when it hired him. Paquette is not a defendant in this case. The diocese does not dispute the claim, but says the anxiety and other problems the man suffered over the years were not caused by the abuse. Chittenden Superior Court Judge Dennis Pearson ruled Monday a key diocese defense — that Navari waited too long to file his lawsuit — will not be considered by the jury. The plaintiff's lawyer, John Evers, asked the jury to award $886,000 in compensatory damages, and between $6 to $12 million in punitive damages.
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