CBS 2
May 20, 2009
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/priest.abuse.mcguire.2.1014535.html
MADISON, Wis. (CBS) —
An appeals court on Wednesday upheld the 2006 conviction of a once-prominent Jesuit priest on charges he abused two students during retreats in Wisconsin in the 1960s.
Donald McGuire, once a spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa and her religious order of nuns, is one of the most influential religious figures convicted in the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal.
The District 2 Court of Appeals rejected his request for a new trial on charges he sexually abused two teenagers during trips to a cottage in southeastern Wisconsin in 1967 and 1968. At the time, McGuire taught the boys at the Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill.
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| The Rev. Donald McGuire has been convicted of sexual abuse. Photo by CBS |
The court rejected McGuire's claims that the decades-long delay in filing charges against him hurt his defense, that his lawyer should have called other witnesses to discredit the victims and that other legal errors tainted the prosecution.
The decision vindicates the victims, prosecutors and investigators who were pressured to drop the case by McGuire's vast network of supporters, Walworth County District Attorney Phillip Koss said.
Nuns and priests packed the courtroom during the trial, and the judge received hundreds of letters from around the globe backing McGuire, who was known as a gifted preacher and philosopher.
"There were more collars and more habits there, they were all there at sentencing and all told us we did the wrong thing, so this is nice to see," Koss said. "It's been a long wait for this. This is a relief. This is huge."
Robert Henak, a Milwaukee lawyer who represented McGuire during his appeal, blasted Wednesday's decision and continued to insist the victims were not credible. He said he would consider asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to overturn the decision or pursue an appeal in federal court.
"It's very difficult to understand how somebody can wait 36 years to bring charges like this, wait until after all of the witnesses who could rebut your story are dead, and that can still be allowed to go to court," he said. "It just boggles the mind. To allow something like this simply in my mind is not justice."
McGuire was sentenced to seven years in prison in the Wisconsin case but was allowed to remain free pending his appeal. In the meantime, he was convicted last year on federal charges of traveling outside the U.S. and across state lines to have sex with a teenager between 2000 and 2003.
A federal judge in Chicago sentenced him in February to 25 years in prison, where the 78-year-old is almost certain to die. He is being held at a prison in Chicago, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Koss said he would not make any attempt to bring McGuire back to serve his sentence in Wisconsin. He said he was content the Wisconsin conviction paved the way for the federal case.
"The victim in that case said he would not have come forward but for this case," he said. "I don't know that I need him to be removed and taken to Wisconsin prison, but our point is made and he is now confined safely."
McGuire, who most recently lived in Oak Lawn, Ill., also has been indicted in Arizona for child molestation and faces civil lawsuits related to a string of other molestation accusations. He was stripped of active priestly duties in 2003, and the Vatican ordered him out of the priesthood last year.
McGuire was convicted in Oct. 2008 of taking a boy on religious retreats to have sex with him.
The jury deliberated a total of less than three hours over two days before convicting the former priest of both counts in the indictment.
The trial before U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer lasted 2 1/2 weeks.
McGuire, 78, was accused of engaging in sex with the young teenager after the boy's mother sent him to live with the priest in 1999. The now-22-year-old alleged victim testified the abuse lasted until 2003.
McGuire pleaded not guilty and his lawyers said the witnesses in the trial were just seeking legal damages from the Catholic church. But federal prosecutors described McGuire as a serial molester who took advantage of his status as a priest.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said the Wisconsin case lets victims of childhood sexual abuse know it might be possible to prosecute their abusers decades later. Wisconsin law does not count time that suspects live outside the state toward the statute of limitations for filing charges, allowing priests who fled or were transferred elsewhere to be prosecuted.
Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the decision shows powerful clergy who commit sexual abuse are finally being treated the same as other sex offenders. He praised Koss for bringing a case against McGuire, a brilliant classicist who commanded a worldwide following.
Even after he was convicted in Wisconsin, nuns who were members of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity and other backers stood by him.
"To tell you how persuasive he was, if Father McGuire could pull the wool over the eyes of Mother Teresa, who was someone who could read deeply in the souls of men," Isely said, "people ought to be a little sympathetic as to why children and kids and devout Catholic families might have been fooled by this individual."
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