Verbal Jousting Monopolizes Father Michael Kelly Trial

By Katie Nelson
Lodi News-Sentinel
March 16, 2012

http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_9c0e408b-fd29-583d-b29c-24a4e97420b3.html

Cross examination of the plaintiff in the Father Michael Kelly sexual assault civil trial continued today, accompanied by frequent verbal jousting between lawyers.

The majority of the day was spent as defense lawyer Thomas Beatty read or presented videotape of the plaintiff speaking with Beatty or with Stockton diocese lawyer James Goodman about the plaintiff's alleged sexual encounters with Kelly.

Beatty would then question the plaintiff on what he said in the past during interviews regarding the case.

But Beatty's line of questioning, which ranged from the plaintiff's relationship with his father to the plaintiff's memories of door locations at a rectory, were often objected to by the plaintiff's attorney, John Manly.

Manly debated the relevance and the specifity of much of Beatty's line of questioning, stating that the questions Beatty was asking the plaintiff were irrelevant to the case or that Beatty was assuming things based on recorded testimony the plaintiff had made prior.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt, however, only occasionally asked Beatty to rephrase or clarify what exactly he was asking.

And despite Manly's almost constant objections, McNatt often dismissed them.

In one circumstance, Beatty asked the plaintiff how many doors the plaintiff would have gone through to get inside the church rectory at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton, where the plaintiff testified Kelly sexually abused him.

The plaintiff said he remembered there were a few doors people could have gone through based on how they got to the rectory, whether via the church or through the school grounds.

At one point, Beatty asked about a gated entrance to the rectory.

"I never said I remembered a gate," the plaintiff said.

Again, Beatty asked about the gated entrance.

The plaintiff returned with the same response, stating he mainly remembered a door on the side of the building where he knew people could enter the rectory.

It was this kind of mixing and mashing of possible events relayed during various testimonies that often had both lawyers approaching McNatt's bench to hash out which event coincided with which bit of testimony.

At one point, the plaintiff even became slightly agitated when Beatty intertwined two events that the plaintiff repeatedly stated occurred at different times.

Beatty asked the plaintiff to discuss an incident in which wine and money from church offerings were presented by Kelly to the plaintiff for free.

"Those were two separate incidents," the plaintiff said. "I never said those occurred at the same time."

Beatty, however, continued to ask about the incidents as if they happened simultaneously and the plaintiff, who continued to repeat himself, became frustrated at one point, shaking his head and stating repeatedly the incidents were separate.

Much of the day was the same, and at the start of the afternoon break, the judge addressed the jury regarding the many objections and the constant stream of conferences at his bench between him and the lawyers.

"Our line of work requires us to deal ... in words," he said. "Sometimes we have to be extremely specific to clarify and make sure what is said ... is correct."

The plaintiff, 37, whose name is being withheld by the News-Sentinel because he is a potential sexual assault victim, has sued Kelly and the Stockton Diocese alleging that Kelly sexually assaulted him when the plaintiff was an altar boy at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton in the 1980s.

Kelly hasn't been arrested or charged with criminal sexual misconduct.

Kelly has been pastor of St. Joachim's Catholic Church in Lockeford since 2004 and previously served in Stockton, Sonora, Tracy, Modesto and Ceres.

The trial will continue at 10 a.m. today at San Joaquin County Superior Court, 222 E. Weber Ave., Department 42, Stockton.

Contact reporter Katie Nelson at katien@lodinews.com