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	Jurors Done for Day in Priest-Abuse Trial By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press October 8, 2009 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091008/NEWS02/91007033/Priest-abuse-jury--stuck--on-point UPDATE: 4:35 P.M. Jurors in the Burlington priest molestation trial have retired for the day after seven hours of deliberation failed to reach a verdict. They'll begin a third day of deliberations at 9 a.m. Friday. UPDATE: 2:45 P.M. The jury in the Burlington priest molestation trial has informed Judge Helen Toor that it is "stuck" on an issue in its deliberations, raising the spectre that the case could end in a hung jury, with no verdict. The note sent by the jury shortly before 2:30 p.m. said the panel of seven women and five men had "discussed one specific point more than three hours and are unable to come to common agreement." Toor, after consulting lawyers for the state's Roman Catholic diocese and the plaintiff, a former altar boy molested by the Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s, called the jurors into the courtroom and encouraged them to keep working toward a verdict. The case, tried over five days, involves claims by the former altar boy that the diocese was to blame for his abuse because it hired Paquette despite knowing he had molested boys in three states, including Vermont, before being assigned to the Christ the King Church in Burlington, where the abuse occurred. The diocese does not dispute the molestations took place, but has contended it hired Paquette on the advice of church doctors and psychologists who thought his sexual deviancy had been cured. The jury got the case Wednesday afternoon and have so far spent nearly eight hours in deliberations. A Burlington jury will continue deliberations this morning in the case of a former altar boy who sued the state's Roman Catholic diocese, alleging it is to blame for his molestation by the Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s. The seven-woman, five-man jury was handed the case just before 2 p.m. Wednesday and met for three hours before going home for the night. The former altar boy, now 44, says Paquette fondled him 20 to 25 times at Christ the King Church in Burlington from 1976 to 1978. The Free Press does not publish the names of alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent. The former altar boy is suing the diocese because it assigned Paquette to the church knowing he had molested boys in three states, including Vermont. The evidence the diocese knew about Paquette's past is contained in church records shown to the jury. Paquette is not a defendant in the case. John Evers, a lawyer for the former altar boy, asked the jury during closing arguments Wednesday to award his client $10 million or more in damages. "He'll never forget what happened to him," Evers said of his client. "He'll always be someone who was abused by Paquette. He's a member of that club. He has a lifetime membership in that club, and he's going to pay dues to be a member for the rest of his life." Evers said the diocese needs to be punished severely because it remains in denial about the harm it caused by employing Paquette between 1972 and 1978. "There is nothing this diocese has done that entitles it to a discount," Evers told the jury. Kaveh Shahi, an attorney for the diocese, countered in his closing argument that there is no need to punish the diocese with a big-money verdict today for a bad decision made 37 years ago by then-Bishop John Marshall. "Bishop Marshall made a poor judgment, but he wasn't trying to abuse kids, or hurt kids," Shahi told the jury. Shahi also said some elements of the former altar boy's story don't add up, including discrepancies in information he gave on how old he was when the abuse occurred and when he began using alcohol. The diocese does not dispute the abuse itself occurred. "Did he start drinking because of the abuse, or was it a part of his life that he is just trying to fit into this story?" Shahi said. "It's something you ought to consider." The case is the fourth to be tried at Chittenden Superior Court involving former altar boys who fault the diocese for the molestation inflicted on them by Paquette. Two 2008 trials ended with multimillion dollar verdicts against the diocese; a third ended in a hung jury. This case, however, is the first to be tried before Judge Helen Toor, who issued several pretrial orders forbidding the introduction of certain evidence that attorneys for the former altar boy had shown previous juries. Toor also ruled that, unlike the previous three Paquette trials, the jury could consider throwing out the case altogether on statute-of-limitations grounds, a legal term that limits how long someone can take to file a lawsuit after becoming aware of the effect of such abuse. Evers told the jurors his client had no reason — until recently — to suspect the diocese knew Paquette had abused boys elsewhere before being assigned to Burlington in 1976. "He was a good altar boy, and he was brought up not to question priests," Evers said. "That the diocese would be involved in hiring such a priest is 180 degrees off what a good altar boy would believe." Shahi exhorted the jury to take a hard look at the statute-of-limitations issue. He said it was difficult to believe the former altar boy did not connect the abuse by Paquette to some of his problems as an adult until recently. "He testified that by the time he went to high school he had stopped going to church," Shahi said, referring to the former altar boy. "Paquette was long gone by 1980. He (the plaintiff) lost faith in the church. He blamed the church for what happened to him."
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