By Sam Hemingway
Burlington Free Press
September 29, 2009
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090929/NEWS02/90928035
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| Judge Helen Toor oversees jury draw Monday in Superior Court in Burlington for a priest abuse case against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington. |
The latest trial involving claims that the Rev. Edward Paquette molested a Burlington altar boy in the late 1970s is expected to get under way today at Chittenden Superior Court.
The former altar boy is suing the state’s Roman Catholic diocese, contending it is to blame for the abuse because it put Paquette in a position to sexually abuse him knowing Paquette had previously molested boys in three states, including Vermont.
The diocese does not dispute the abuse occurred but claims it was assured by church psychologists at the time that Paquette was cured of his problem. Paquette, now retired and living in Westfield, Mass., is not a defendant in the case.
Monday, lawyers for the diocese and the former altar boy questioned potential jurors but were unable to pick a full jury by 4:30 p.m. The jury selection process will continue this morning.
Once the jury is picked, the two sides will present opening arguments in the case.
According to church documents on file at the court, the abuse took place inside the sacristy at Christ the King Church in Burlington. The Burlington Free Press does not publish the name of alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent.
The trial will be the fourth involving claims Paquette molested an altar boy at Christ the King Church. In all, 23 former altar boys from three parishes in Vermont have filed lawsuits alleging Paquette sexually abused them.
Two of those cases went to trial in 2008 and resulted in $8.75 million and $3.6 million verdicts against the diocese. Both have been appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court. A third case ended in a mistrial.
Late Monday, Judge Helen Toor huddled with lawyers in the case to decide on final pre-trial requests from the two sides, including a request from the diocese asking that the jury not view a videotaped deposition, or formal interview, of Bishop Salvatore Matano.
In the video, shown by the former altar boy’s lawyers at the last Paquette trial, Matano criticized and defended the handling of the Paquette matter by Bishop John Marshall, who was in charge of the diocese when it hired the priest.
Toor earlier had ruled that lawyers for the former altar boy cannot tell the jury about other diocesan priests who molested boys and limited how much information the lawyers can introduce about Paquette’s conduct while a priest in Indiana and Massachusetts. Judges at the earlier trials had allowed such evidence to be told to the jury.
Toor also ruled that the former altar boy’s lawyers cannot tell the jury about Paquette molestation incidents that were never reported to the diocese.
“Presentation of evidence about the unreported abuse of other children would create an ‘unreasonable and unnecessary risk’ of the jury making an award on an improper basis,” Toor said in her ruling.
Toor also denied a request by diocesan lawyers to ban evidence supporting an award of punitive damages on grounds that punitive damages were already awarded by juries in the two trials now under appeal at the Vermont Supreme Court.
Paquette, in an interview with The Burlington Free Press published Sunday, apologized for his conduct while a priest in Vermont. He was laicized, or defrocked, by the Vatican in April.
Paquette is not expected to attend the trial.
Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com. To have Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at www.burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters.
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