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	Abuse Case against St. Elizabeth's Headed to Jury By Sean O'Sullivan News Journal November 30, 2010 http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20101130/NEWS01/11300337/Abuse-case-against-St.-Elizabeth-s-headed-to-jury DOVER -- The theme of priest sex-abuse survivor John Vai's case against St. Elizabeth's Roman Catholic Parish is simple, according to Vai's attorney in closing arguments Monday: where there is smoke, there is fire, and when it came to the repeated acts of sexual abuse committed by defrocked priest Francis DeLuca, "only someone with their head in the sand ... would ignore all that smoke." Attorney Thomas Crumplar said Vai had his childhood stolen from him in the late 1960s because of DeLuca's assaults and has suffered a lifetime of problems because of it. He told the jury that Vai's suit is not about money but added, "unfortunately the only justice you can give is monetary justice, and money talks in this world." Parish attorney Colleen Shields responded that St. Elizabeth's was also a victim of DeLuca's deceit and pleaded with jurors to punish DeLuca but spare St. Elizabeth's Church and its schools "for the sins committed by a devious criminal mind some 40 years ago." And while she continued to describe DeLuca as a monster, Shields also questioned Vai's truthfulness, claiming he is exaggerating his claims to get a more favorable verdict. The jury, which had one member replaced by an alternate midway through Monday's closing arguments because of illness, is set to return to Kent County Superior Court at 10 a.m. today to hear final instructions from President Judge James T. Vaughn Jr. and begin deliberations. DeLuca, who has admitted to molesting Vai, did not appear at trial and did not offer a defense. Vaughn has ruled that DeLuca is liable for damages, leaving the jury only to decide the amount. The jury must decide if St. Elizabeth's, through its actions or inaction, also shares in the blame and therefore should be required to pay damages. Crumplar said while it was a different time in the 1960s, officials at St. Elizabeth's were on notice about pedophile priests because months before DeLuca arrived, a different priest, Alfred John Lind, had been removed because of his sexual abuse of boys. So it wasn't "theory" at St. Elizabeth's, he said, and that's why what happened to Vai is "an unmitigated tragedy." And if parish officials didn't call around to check out DeLuca's background when he was abruptly assigned to the parish in 1966 -- after being out on "sick leave," often a code for priests who had been removed because of allegations of sex abuse -- the only thing worse would have been if they did call around and found out DeLuca's checkered history, Crumplar said. Shields, meanwhile, blamed the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, which is in bankruptcy and is not a part of the lawsuit, for assigning both Lind and DeLuca to St. Elizabeth's. She also charged it was only after meeting with attorneys that Vai's clear memory of a single incident of molestation by DeLuca on a trip to New York City -- far from the parish -- turned into more than 100 incidents, many of which were in the priest's home next to the church. Vai vividly recalled on the stand how DeLuca earned his trust and awe before he turned on him and began doing "sick" things, describing the steps leading to the priests' bedrooms on the second floor of the St. Elizabeth's rectory as "stairs to hell" and DeLuca as Satan. But Shields said that as recently as 2009, Vai did not remember such details in depositions, including his charge from the stand that he passed then-parish priest, now Monsignor Thomas Cini, on the stairs one night. Cini denies ever seeing Vai or any other boy at the rectory when he lived there with DeLuca. Shields also claimed that the plaintiff's case "just doesn't make sense," with at least four or five victims all claiming to have been abused 100 to 300 times by DeLuca -- on average two to three times a week -- during those three years. "The numbers don't add up," she said. Crumplar responded that what does not make sense is the church policy in those days of not calling the police when there were credible reports of a priest sexually abusing children, turning a blind eye and moving the pedophile priest to a different parish. Contact Sean O'Sullivan at 324-2777 or sosullivan@delawareonline.com.
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