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	Judge Delays Diocese Trial By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press March 5, 2009 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090305/NEWS02/903050308/-1/NEWS05 The judge presiding over 22 cases alleging molestation of children by priests pending in Chittenden Superior Court said Wednesday that the start of the next clergy sexual-abuse trial in Burlington will not be until autumn. "The reality is none of these cases are going to be set for trial until September," Judge Dennis Pearson said during a morning court hearing on the cases. "It's not going to be humanly possible to do so sooner than that." Pearson had earlier projected a late spring timetable for the next trial. He cited a combination of other trial work and the difficulty of assembling a jury during the summer as reasons for the delay. Three clergy sexual abuse cases went to trial last year. Jerome O'Neill, the lead attorney for the alleged victims -- nearly all of them former altar boys -- said he was disappointed in the judge's ruling. "It is incredibly frustrating," he said of the delay. "The reality is the court is doing the best it can, but my clients have been waiting for years and years to get justice, and the diocese is only too happy to have these proceedings delayed as long as it can." Pearson's ruling came after lawyers for the diocese complained to the judge that O'Neill's law firm was balking at providing information and access to potential witnesses in connection with the three cases that are most likely to reach trial in the near future. "When we made requests for a number of depositions, we were unable to make any progress," diocesan lawyer Kaveh Shahi told Pearson. O'Neill disputed Shahi's description of the situation, saying the diocese had "sat on its hands" for years in terms of preparing for trial and that some of the 51 witnesses on the diocese's request list were only vaguely connected to the claims in the cases. Pearson also appeared to take issue with Shahi's complaint. "You're talking about deposing 50 witnesses, when you count all the people on your three wish lists, over the next three to four months in cases that are now nearly four years old," Pearson said. Pearson also heard arguments from the two sides on the diocese's request to throw out the $3.6 million verdict reached by a jury in December in the case of David Navari of Takoma Park, Md., a former Burlington altar boy twice molested by the Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s. Shahi told the judge the punitive damages portion of the verdict, $3.4 million, was radically out of line for cases involving claims of negligent supervision. Shahi said that, based on court rulings in other recent cases involving punitive damages, the jury should have limited its punitive damage award to $192,500, the same amount it gave Navari in compensatory damages. "There was no evil intention here, no ill will, no bad faith," Shahi said. "It is very akin to the Exxon Valdez case involving the captain who ran the oil tanker aground." Shahi said the diocese trusted its priests to act properly with children, just as Exxon trusted the captain to operate the tanker properly. The U.S. Supreme Court last year reduced the punitive portion of the damage award in the Exxon Valdez case from $2.5 billion to $500 million, the same amount that had been awarded in compensatory damages. O'Neill said the Exxon example was not applicable in the diocese case. He said a different set of court rules was in force in the Exxon case and the diocese's hiring of Paquette, a known pedophile, led to repeated incidents of child sexual abuse that would have warranted criminal prosecution had police known about it at the time. "We're talking about a substantially different factual basis," O'Neill said. "The diocese knew ... (Paquette) was molesting boys, and it kept him around." Pearson said he would rule on the diocese's request soon to allow the lawyers the chance to appeal his decision quickly to the Vermont Supreme Court. The high court is scheduled to hear arguments later this month concerning an $8.7 million punitive damage award involving another clergy sexual abuse case. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail atshemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com . To get Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at www.burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters.
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