Trial Begins for Priest and Teacher Accused of Abusing Altar Boy

By Jon Hurdle
The New York Times
January 14, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/us/trial-begins-for-philadelphia-priest-and-teacher-accused-of-sexually-abusing-altar-boy.html?_r=1&

The Rev. Charles Engelhardt. A grand jury accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of hiding abuse.

Bernard Shero

PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic priest and a schoolteacher sexually abused a 10-year-old altar boy at different times more than a decade ago, assaulting him in a church sacristy in Northeast Philadelphia and in the back of a car, a prosecutor alleged on Monday.

In opening statements before a jury of eight men and four women in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, Evangelia Manos, an assistant district attorney, said the boy was abused first by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, a priest with the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, a teaching order, and then by Bernard Shero, a Catholic schoolteacher, during the 1998-99 school year. Ms. Manos said the boy was also assaulted by Edward V. Avery, a former priest who has admitted the abuse and is serving two and a half to five years in a Pennsylvania prison.

“He was subjected to the most vile of acts by not one but three of those who were entrusted with his care,” Ms. Manos said. She said Mr. Avery would appear as a witness for the prosecution during the trial, which is expected to last several weeks.

Father Engelhardt, 66, who wore a black jacket with a clerical collar in court, pleaded not guilty to four charges including involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault. Mr. Shero, 49, pleaded not guilty to five charges including the rape of a child and endangering the welfare of a child.

The defendants are among five named in a 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report that accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of spending years covering up multiple complaints that some of its priests had sexually abused children in their care.

The most senior official to be charged by the grand jury was Msgr. William J. Lynn, former secretary for clergy, who investigated abuse allegations at the archdiocese from 1992 to 2004. Monsignor Lynn, now 62, was convicted in June 2012 on one count of child endangerment after a jury determined that he had not done enough to keep accused priests away from children. He is serving three to six years in a Pennsylvania prison.

Michael McGovern, a lawyer for Father Engelhardt, argued that his client is the victim of a growing public belief that many Catholic priests are child abusers after widely publicized abuse scandals.

“In our culture, there is a prescription of guilt that is sweeping the clergy of our nation,” Mr. McGovern told the court.

He said that the credibility of the accuser, who is now 24, is undermined by his differing accounts of what happened when interviewed by different people at different times.

“There are three, four, five versions of this assault, every time different from the other,” Mr. McGovern said.

Burton Rose, a lawyer for Mr. Shero, acknowledged that the accuser has a history of drug abuse and legal problems but rejected prosecutors’ claims that those problems resulted from being sexually abused.

Mr. Rose promised to show jurors school records showing that the accuser’s academic grades and extracurricular activities were unaffected for several years and that his drug and legal problems did not begin until he entered high school.

“He may be coming forward because he is finding a way to explain away his own bad choices in his life,” Mr. Rose said.

Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said Monday that nine other priests are still under investigation after the grand jury’s charge that at least 37 were still in active ministry despite “credible” sexual allegations against them. Seven priests have been removed from ministry as a result of the investigation.