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	Former Priest's Sex Abuse Trial Postponed until September By Don Lehman The Post-Star July 14, 2010 http://poststar.com/news/local/article_517b2076-8f90-11df-b686-001cc4c03286.html The child sex abuse trial of former local priest Gary Mercure has been postponed until September after Mercure's lawyer asked a Massachusetts judge to dismiss the charges just days before the trial was set to begin. Mercure, the one-time priest at Our Lady of Annunciation Church in Queeensbury and St. Mary's Church in Glens Falls who was defrocked in 2008 amid child sexual abuse allegations, faces felony counts in Pittsfield, Mass., related to allegations he molested boys there in the 1980s. His two alleged victims were parishioners from the Queensbury church whom he allegedly took on trips to Massachusetts, then sexually abused. Mercure, of Troy, was indicted by a Massachusetts grand jury in 2008, and the case was scheduled for trial on July 19. He faces two charges of rape of a child by force and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14, all felonies. He has pleaded not guilty. The trial has now been postponed until Sept. 13 after Mercure's lawyer, Michael Jennings of Springfield, Mass., asked Superior Court Judge John Agostini to throw out the charges. Jennings argued that the prosecution violated the state's statute of limitations for when crimes can be prosecuted. Massachusetts has a liberal statute of limitations law in criminal cases, which is why the alleged victims -- New York residents at the time -- were referred to Massachusetts prosecutors by Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan after they came forward to her. Prosecutors must show he was not a resident of Massachusetts and was generally absent from the state after the abuse, which would prevent the statute of limitations from tolling. Paul Caccaviello, the Berkshire County prosecutor handling the case, said his office will oppose the motion to bar their testimony. Caccaviello has also asked Agostini for permission to call as witnesses at the trial other men who were allegedly molested by Mercure as children in the Glens Falls area, but for whom Mercure has not been charged. "We have a lot of witnesses to bring in from a lot of different places," he said. Jennings, who did not return a phone call for comment Wednesday, is opposing that request. Mercure was a pastor at Our Lady of the Annunciation for about 12 years in the 1980s and 1990s, and at St. Mary's Church in Glens Falls afterward, until he resigned from St. Mary's in 1995, citing health reasons. He later resumed the ministry at churches in Troy, until the diocese suspended him in January 2008 amid an investigation into child sexual abuse allegations. He was formally removed from the ministry in August 2008. Contact: dlehman@poststar.com
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