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	Pedophile Ex-priest Loses Bid to Have Court Proceedings Kept Secret By Manya A. Brachear Chicago Tribune November 5, 2009 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-mccormack-05-nov05,0,7668795.story Daniel McCormack wanted mental-commitment hearings under wraps A Cook County Circuit Court judge on Wednesday denied a request from a convicted former priest to seal records and keep private most of the court proceedings on whether he should be committed under a state law for sex offenders. In his ruling, Judge Dennis Porter said the process to determine whether Daniel McCormack should be confined to a state treatment facility under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act does not qualify for the same protection as a mental health proceeding. The Illinois attorney general and the Cook County state's attorney filed a joint petition to have him committed to an institution in September when McCormack, 41, came up for parole. He served more than two years of a five-year prison sentence for abusing five boys in the rectory of St. Agatha Roman Catholic Church. He was removed from the priesthood in 2007 by Vatican decree. Illinois law allows prosecutors to seek continued incarceration if a psychological exam leads them to believe another sex crime is likely if the inmate goes free. In September, a forensic psychiatrist diagnosed McCormack with pedophilia and recommended civil commitment. Citing details in that publicized report, defense attorney Daniel Coyne, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, asked Porter to seal records and hear testimony about McCormack's mental health behind closed doors. "Continued dissemination of the respondent's past crimes, current mental state, mental health history and psychiatric diagnosis to the Cook County jury pool will pose a serious and imminent threat to the fairness of the commitment proceedings," the motion said. Prosecutors and a lawyer for the Tribune argued against the motion, saying it was in the community's interest to keep the proceedings open to the public. "It's not just the state that has a stake in this. It's not just McCormack. ... It's not just the Tribune. It's the community at large," said Eric Mattson, an attorney representing the Tribune. Coyne disagreed, arguing the community has a right to know the verdict and whether justice was served, but not the reasons behind the decision. "Those interests are not safeguarded by knowing what a psychiatrist says about the inner workings of (McCormack's) brain," he said. McCormack's commitment hearing is scheduled to begin Nov. 19. Outside the courtroom on Wednesday, Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, expressed gratitude for the judge's ruling. Contact: mbrachear@tribune.com
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