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	Judge Proposes Joint Trial for Burlington Diocese. By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press November 26, 2009 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091126/NEWS02/911260304/Judge-proposes-joint-trial-for-Burlington-Diocese. Judge Helen Toor said Wednesday that she wants to explore the idea of conducting a joint trial for 15 of the 27 clerical sexual-abuse cases pending at Chittenden Superior Court in Burlington. "We have all these cases, and I would like to see if there's a way to get them resolved," Toor told lawyers for the plaintiffs, mostly former altar boys molested by priests, and the defendant, the state's Roman Catholic diocese. The 15 cases Toor might group involve claims by former altar boys at Christ the King Church who say they were molested by the same priest, the Rev. Edward Paquette, during a two-year period in the late 1970s. Some of the pending lawsuits were filed more than four years ago. The other 12 cases involve either misconduct by Paquette at churches in Montpelier or Rutland, or alleged child sexual abuse by other Catholic priests years ago. Toor suggested, and the lawyers agreed, that the facts in each of the 15 cases are similar. In the Burlington cases involving Paquette, all of the alleged molestation incidents the former altar boys describe in their lawsuits took place in the sacristy of Christ the King Church before or after Paquette conducted Masses there. "It would take years and years to do these cases piecemeal," Toor told the lawyers. "My concern is about the plaintiffs' sitting out there without a resolution, and the diocese having this hang over its head." Jerome O'Neill, lead attorney for the former altar boys, said having a joint trial might be possible on what he called the "liability" portion of the 15 cases, but he opposed trying to extend that arrangement to the damages portion of the cases. The damages element involves decisions about how much money to award his clients. "We don't see a way that is feasible to go through and have a joint trial on all issues," O'Neill said. Thomas McCormick, a lawyer for the diocese, told Toor he agreed with O'Neill that the liability portion of the 15 cases could be addressed in a joint trial. The diocese is the sole defendant in the cases because it hired Paquette and allegedly put him in a position to have access to altar boys despite knowing he had a history of molesting boys. McCormick said resolving the damages portion of the cases jointly is problematic, particularly while the two sides are awaiting rulings from the Vermont Supreme Court about the appeals of two Paquette cases that ended with multi-million-dollar jury verdicts at the Burlington court in 2008. The five justices are expected to decide sometime within the next few months whether to uphold a $7.75 million punitive-damage award in one of the cases. A hearing about the diocese's appeal of a $2.2 million verdict in the other case is scheduled before the high court Dec. 16. "It makes sense to stay these cases until we have a decision from the Vermont Supreme Court," McCormick said. "Consolidation and joint trial is not going to be a one-time fix for these cases." O'Neill said he opposed staying -- or delaying -- the cases until the Supreme Court issues its rulings. "We think the court should put the next case on trial as promptly as possible," he said. A joint-trial strategy for the 15 cases, he said, might not speed up resolution of the cases because a joint trial result could be subject to a lengthy appeal process and be overturned, ultimately slowing the litigation process. Toor has expressed her interest in accelerating resolution of the cases. In August she urged the two sides to have the cases go through mediation, but the effort failed. She later issued pretrial rulings that limited the scope of testimony in a Paquette case that went to trial in October. That trial ended with the $2.2 million award, all in compensatory, or nonpunitive, damages. Also pending at the federal and Burlington courts are lawsuits from the altar boys alleging the diocese fraudulently conveyed assets to separate trusts to make it more difficult for victims of priest sex abuse to collect monetary damages if they won their cases. 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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