By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
December 11, 2011
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/nun_who_counseled_defendant_ex.html
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| Murder suspect Jose Feliciano gestures how he pulled the knife away from murder victim, Father Edward Hinds while the men argued during his murder trial last week. |
CHATHAM — A nun who counseled Jose Feliciano and his wife is expected to be among the witnesses this week as court officials hope to finish testimony in the former church custodian's trial in the slaying of a Chatham priest.
Feliciano will be on the witness stand in Morristown again Monday for a sixth day, in what is expected to be his last day testifying. It will be day five of cross-examination by Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi, who has been pressing Feliciano aggressively to find inconsistencies in his accounts of the Oct. 22, 2009, stabbing.
Feliciano's two public defenders are expected to bring one or two more witnesses after that. And then, court officials say, the prosecution will present four or five rebuttal witnesses — including Sister Catherine Morrisett, a staff therapist at Grace Counseling Center in Madison.
Feliciano, 66, of Easton, Pa., is accused of murder in the death of the Rev. Edward Hinds, 61, parish priest at St. Patrick Church, who was stabbed 44 times. Feliciano has admitted the killing, but says it was a "passion/provocation" manslaughter because Hinds allegedly provoked him.
Feliciano testified the priest fired him less than five months before his planned retirement after blackmailing him for more than four years. Hinds agreed to keep unresolved criminal charges against Feliciano quiet in exchange for letting him touch his genitals, the janitor said.
The prosecution says the sexual claims are fiction and contends Feliciano stabbed Hinds after the priest fired him upon learning he was a fugitive from the three 1988 charges in Pennsylvania, which included indecent assault on a child.
Exactly what the nun will reveal in her testimony is a mystery.
Morrisett testified during a pretrial hearing in October that she counseled Feliciano and his wife, Marisol, in 2004, but she did not discuss in open court the issues she talked about with the couple. Those personal matters presumably will be heard this week.
Bianchi said during the pretrial hearing that Morrisett's testimony would contradict Feliciano's assertions, especially regarding the alleged sexual relationship with Hinds.
However, during his testimony in the trial, Feliciano has maintained that he never told Morrisett or anyone else about his sexual liaison with Hinds.
Feliciano said he did tell Morrisett about how he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a 9-year-old boy in Brooklyn in 1954.
Neill Hamilton, Feliciano's lead attorney, had opposed letting the nun take the witness stand, saying her conversations with Feliciano were confidential and privileged.
But Judge Thomas Manahan ruled Morrisett does not qualify for either of two privileges allowed by state law.
The judge said she does not qualify for the therapist-patient confidentiality privilege because she is not a licensed psychologist. Nor does she qualify for the "cleric-penitent" confidentiality privilege because she was not acting as a cleric during the counseling sessions with Feliciano.
Morrisett, a pastoral psychotherapist, said her work follows guidelines set by the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, an ecumenical group that provides therapy to people of all faiths.
The trial began with opening arguments on Oct. 20 and officials hope to finish testimony by Wednesday so that closing arguments may be presented Thursday.
The case would go to the jury next week and officials hope to have a verdict before Christmas.
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