By Kevin O'Connor
Rutland Herald
September 30, 2009
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090930/NEWS04/909300346
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| Judge Helen Toor |
The latest in a string of priest sexual misconduct trials against the state's largest religious denomination just started. So why are lawyers already considering appeals to the Vermont Supreme Court?
Attorneys in the Chittenden Superior Court case of former altar boy Michael Keppler v. the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington presented opening statements to a jury Tuesday afternoon, kicking off yet another round in a seven-year saga involving nearly 40 negligence lawsuits against the church.
But even before Judge Helen Toor began the proceedings in Burlington, lawyers for both sides were questioning pretrial rulings that differed from past cases that have sparked more than $12 million in potentially bankrupting verdicts.
Toor, who just took over 25 pending civil lawsuits filed as far back as 2005, wants to pick up the pace by limiting testimony to specific priests in specific cases rather than, as in past trials, mentioning all other claims against other clergymen. Lawyers for Keppler disagree with that decision, believing it will impede them from arguing that the diocese systematically did nothing for decades to stop priest misconduct.
Church counsel, for its part, isn't pleased that the judge is allowing evidence supporting punitive damages even though the state Supreme Court has yet to rule on appeals of past awards. The diocese also is contesting the plaintiff's call for Vermont Catholic Bishop Salvatore Matano to testify, saying the current leader of the 118,000-member church shouldn't be liable for his predecessors' reliance on since-debunked medical advice.
The collected dissent meant that while lawyers were voicing their opening statements publicly, they were planning appeal strategies privately. And that could lengthen the legal process the judge wants to expedite.
Speaking first for the plaintiff, lawyer Jerome O'Neill said Keppler, a 44-year-old Burlington painting contractor and divorced father of three, was a preteen altar boy when the former Rev. Edward Paquette reached inside the child's pants about two dozen times at his hometown Christ the King Church in the late 1970s.
"Mike remembers Father Paquette's foul breath and his rotten teeth," O'Neill told the jury. "He remembers how much he hated being in that room."
Keppler numbed his resulting shame, anxiety and depression with alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, his lawyer said. Growing up, the altar boy blamed himself. But his lawyer pointed to internal records that showed the diocese assigned Paquette to work in Rutland in 1972, Montpelier in 1974 and Burlington in 1976 without telling anyone the priest previously had molested boys in Massachusetts and Indiana.
"The diocese protected Father Paquette rather than protecting children," O'Neill said. "We will ask for serious money compensation for the harm caused."
Representing the diocese, lawyer Thomas McCormick didn't dispute the abuse allegations but argued that his client wasn't liable, in part because former Vermont Catholic Bishop John Marshall was following the recommendations of mental health professionals who had yet to understand the complexity of pedophilia.
"Here's a given: Edward Paquette should not have fondled Mr. Keppler once, not twice, not at all," the church lawyer said. "Here's another given: Bishop Marshall made a mistake. He relied on medical personnel. He allowed Edward Paquette to serve in Vermont. That was a mistake."
But McCormick said that didn't mean the diocese should have to pay excessive punitive damages three decades later.
The trial is scheduled to last through the end of next week. Last year, two different juries in two different trials found the diocese negligent in hiring and supervising Paquette, now an 80-year-old Massachusetts resident who was suspended from the priesthood in 1978 and defrocked by the Vatican last spring.
The church says it doesn't have cash on hand to pay for costly verdicts and is suing its former insurer for support. In the meantime, the court has placed liens on an increasing number of Catholic properties to assure any and all judgments are paid.
Contact: kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com
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