Expriests Supporters Crowd Courtroom, Don Lajoie, The Windsor Star, November 13, 2009

Ex-priest's Supporters Crowd Courtroom

By Don Lajoie
The Windsor Star
November 13, 2009

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/priest+supporters+crowd+courtroom/2216663/story.html

Dozens of supporters and spectators filled a Windsor courtroom Thursday at a bail hearing for John Duarte, a former city priest who has been charged with molesting teenage boys at the mission he founded in Haiti.

WINDSOR, Ont. -- Dozens of supporters and spectators filled a Windsor courtroom Thursday at a bail hearing for a former city priest who has been charged with molesting teenage boys at the mission he founded in Haiti.

The hearing for Hearts Together for Haiti founder John Duarte, which had been expected to last just a few hours, was adjourned after a full-day of testimony by a single witness. All evidence given at the hearing and the identities of the alleged victims are subject to a publication ban.

Duarte, 43, is charged under the Criminal Code with nine counts of sexual exploitation of boys between the ages of 12 and 17. The offences are alleged to have taken place in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and in the fishing village of Labadie, on the nation’s north coast, where the priest operated a charity that included a school, a medical clinic and a sponsorship program for hundreds of impoverished families.

During the hearing the spectators paid rapt attention to the testimony. A Portuguese interpreter was employed by the courts to translate the proceedings to member’s of Duarte’s immediate family.

Following the hearing defence lawyer Andrew Bradie said he was surprised by the number of people who had shown up, apparently to support his client, who was a popular parish priest at three area churches, most recently at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Windsor. Duarte had built a reputation as an advocate for the poorest of the poor in Haiti and set up many of the charity’s programs while at the church, mobilizing hundreds of parishioners and even volunteers outside the congregation to support his work.

“They’re all supporters, I think,” said Bradie, before going to talk briefly with members of group, assembled in the hall outside the courtroom. “I haven’t met them and I can’t identify them.”

One of those in attendance was Rev. James Roche, of Corpus Christi Parish, who said he was at the hearing as a friend and private citizen and not as a representative of the Roman Catholic church.

“Well, it started and it has taken longer than expected,” said Roche. “At this point there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. I’ll wait for the full story.”