D.A. Rolled out Red Carpet for Billy Doe
By Ralph Cipriano
Picked up [Billy Doe] from Graterford Prison. [Billy Doe's] parents ... were present during the interview. On Jan. 28, 2010, Billy Doe, the man who claimed he was raped by two priests and a Catholic school teacher, was 21 years old. He was not under 18, so there was no reason for his parents to sit in on the interview. The longstanding practice at the district attorney's office, and the Philadelphia Police Department, is to interview an adult complainant by himself; the parents typically would have been interviewed separately. The interviews are usually conducted in a Q. and A. format and recorded on an "Investigation Interview Record." In cop lingo, the Investigation Interview Record is known in the D.A.'s office and the Philadelphia Police Department as a "483," because of the form number on the bottom of the page. When the detective is through asking questions, the subject of the interview is asked to read over the questions and answers on the 483, make corrections, and finally, sign the document.
Did the district attorney's office bend the rules to let Billy's father, a Philadelphia police sergeant, and his mother sit in on the D.A.'s interview with their son? It sure looks like it. Also, why was there no official Investigation Interview Record done in the traditional Q. and A. format with either Billy Doe or his parents? In the parlance of defense lawyers, the D.A. was giving Billy Doe the "red carpet treatment." And the D.A.'s interview of Billy, with his parents sitting in, was just the start of it. A review of police records and formerly secret grand jury transcripts shows that District Attorney Seth Williams' self-described "historic" prosecution of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was a classic back-asswards operation -- first came the arrests, and then came the investigation. And what did that investigation finally reveal? That just about everything Billy Doe told Detective Snyder and Assistant District Attorney Sorensen on Jan. 28, 2010 was subsequently contradicted -- by church records, by his mother's own calendars, by a Q. and A. done with Billy's older brother, and by Q. and A.'s done with at least 30 witnesses from St. Jerome's, including priests, nuns, teachers and the church music director. A spokesperson for the district attorney's office did not return a request for comment. Meanwhile, while they were rolling out the red carpet for Billy Doe, the district attorney's office helped their new star witness shop for a new drug rehab. And, according to what Billy Doe testified on cross-examination at the trial of Father Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero, the district attorney also found Billy a lawyer to file a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Thanks to three convictions and a guilty plea at two archdiocese sex abuse trials, that civil case is probably now worth millions of dollars. Does that mean the D.A. gets a referral fee?
But there was another more immediate payoff for Billy Doe while he was on the D.A.'s red carpet: most of his legal problems stemming from several previous arrests disappeared after he became the D.A.s' new star witness. And so did a new arrest. On June 9, 2010 -- five months after the district attorney's red carpet interview with Billy Doe -- the D.A.'s new star witness was busted for possession with intent to distribute 56 bags of heroin. But the charges would subsequently be dropped. The question is, was it just a coincidence? THE D.A. DROPS THE BALL The district attorney's investigation of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was based on the premise that Billy Doe was telling the truth. The D.A. did not do the most basic steps of any investigation, such as conducting a routine Q. and A. with Billy and his parents on a 483 form, or going out to interview other witnesses in an attempt to verify any of Billy's allegations. Instead, the D.A.'s office made the decision to take Billy Doe's story and run with it. It didn't seem to matter that just two weeks before Billy Doe sat down with the D.A. to do his red carpet interview, on Jan 14, 2010, Billy Doe got arrested again for retail theft and taking merchandise in Philadelphia. Billy was already in jail at Graterford for a parole violation when Detective Snyder picked him up on Jan. 28, 2010, according to the detective's notes. It also didn't seem to matter that even Billy's police officer father didn't initially back his son's stories. When Detective Snyder first contacted Billy's father after Snyder began his investigation on Jan. 21, 2010, the detective recorded this response: Billy's father "briefly explained that his son had been using drugs since he was about 14 years old and that he has psychological problems." I asked [Billy's father] if he believed his son and [he] responded, "I don't know what to believe." [Billy's father] also commented that he does not know how far [Billy] is willing to pursue this issue. Meanwhile, in the criminal courts, Billy's past legal problems began to disappear. On March 8, 2010, charges against Billy Doe for an earlier arrest, on Nov. 11, 2009 for retail theft in Northeast Philadelphia, were withdrawn because a witness didn't show up. On March 5, 2010, Father Joseph B. Graham, pastor of St. Jerome's, turned over a register of funerals to the district attorney's office. Billy Doe had claimed that he was raped by Father Avery after a funeral service at St. Jerome's. Billy told Detective Snyder the funeral service was in July 1999; Billy told the jury in the Msgr. Lynn trial that Avery raped him in Spring 1999. Apparently, nobody at the D.A.'s office took the time to immediately examine that register of funerals, because it completely contradicted Billy Doe's story. The register showed that Father Avery had served only one funeral during the 1998-99 school year when Billy was a fifth-grader, in March 1999, but that funeral was held at Nazareth Hospital, where Avery was a chaplain, and not at St. Jerome's. On March 22, 2010, Detective Snyder picked up the phone and called Mark Besben, a drug counselor. Besben was the first person that Billy Doe told his story of sex abuse to back in 2009, before Billy called in a complaint on Jan. 29, 2009 to an archdiocese sex abuse hot line. What the drug counselor had to say should have alarmed Detective Snyder. Here's what the detective wrote in his notes: I talked to Besben on the phone. Although he won't say that he does not believe [Billy's] story, he finds it difficult to believe based on the amount of information that [Billy] told him. Besden stated that it is his experience that most victims of abuse do not open up that quickly. But the district attorney's "investigation" was moving in a different direction. It would be another two years before anybody from the district attorney's office would go see Besben and find out what else he had to say. What follows is a simple timeline in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia case, reconstructing the events as they happened in chronological order. BILLY DOE'S CASE GOES TO THE GRAND JURY On March 19, 2010, Billy Doe told his story to the grand jury under the veil of secrecy. Under the rules of the grand jury, no defense lawyer was allowed to question him. Billy Doe told the grand jury that after he was raped in fifth grade by Father Charles Engelhardt and Father Edward Avery, and after he was raped in sixth grade by Bernard Shero, he underwent a personality change: Q. [Billy], did you continue going to St. Jerome's? A. Yes. Q. Until what grade? A. Eighth. Q. Was there any difference that you noticed in yourself after these incidents? A. I wasn't -- I basically turned into a loner. I didn't want to be around any people. The music I listened to changed. My whole personality changed. On April 1, 2010, Detective Snyder stopped by Gaurdenzia House, Billy Doe's latest drug rehab, to see how the D.A.'s new star witness was doing: [Billy] told me that he wasn't doing so good at Gaurdenzia. Last week he went to Roxborough Memorial Hospital because he threw his back out. Yesterday, there was a fire on the floor that [Billy] is assigned and they are trying to blame [Billy] for starting the fire. They said that [Billy] was the only one on the floor at the time of the fire. [Billy] contends that there were numerous staff members on the floor, besides, [Billy] does not have access to the kitchen where the fire started.
On April 23, 2010, Detective Snyder briefly interviewed Sharon Nendza, longtime principal of St. Jerome's parish school: "I briefly spoke to Nendza, she said that she does not believe [Billy Doe]. I asked her why? And she responded by saying that [Billy] was like an "Eddie Haskell" (from the 50s show "Leave It To Beaver). Apparently, Snyder's curiosity was not piqued enough to drive out to St. Jerome's to see what else the grade school principal and Billy's former teachers would have to say. The prosecution of the church was well under way in secret grand jury proceedings. But it would be another 21 months before the district attorney would send detectives out to St. Jerome's to fully investigate Billy Doe's stories. On May 3, 2010, Detective Snyder drove back to Gaurdenzia House to check up on Billy Doe: I stopped by Gaurdenzia House to have [Billy] sign the release papers and was informed that [Billy] absconded. I talked to Jack Kelly, director of Gaurdenzia. Kelly stated that there were rumors of [Billy] using drugs. Kelly had no evidence of [Billy] using drugs but he did cancel [Billy]'s appointments for the day and they were going to search his room. [Billy] came down for lunch and left through the out-patient entrance. I talked to [Billy's] parents. [Billy] did call them and told them that Kelly accused him of using drugs and that his probation officer, Ryan Smith, was on his way to Gaurdenzia to lock [Billy] up and take him back to prison. On June 2, 2010, Detective Snyder got a phone call from Billy Doe: [Billy] told me he that he left Gaurdenzia because of his problems with the director, Mr. Kelly. [Billy] stated that he first was staying with a friend and then lived with a girl and her children in Glenside, PA. [Billy] did admit to using heroin for about a week after he first left Gaurdenzia but he assured me that he has been sober for the last couple of weeks. [Billy] is back home with his parents. ... [Billy] asked me if I could help get him into a rehab. I asked about Miramount and [Billy] replied that "they" are mad at him for leaving Guardenzia and then using. I told [Billy] to get me a list of some of the places that he would like to stay at and I would make some phone calls on his behalf. Despite what he told Detective Snyder, Billy Doe's latest attempt to stay sober would last only a week. On June 9, 2010, Billy Doe was arrested on charges with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, namely 56 bags of heroin. Billy Doe, however, when he was on the witness stand at the Engelhardt-Shero trial, told the jury he didn't plan to sell the drugs; he was going to use all that heroin himself. Meanwhile, Billy's past legal problems continued to go away. On July 8, 2010, before Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore, charges against Billy Doe stemming from a Jan 14, 2010 arrest for retail theft and taking merchandise in Philadelphia were withdrawn because a witness didn't show up. WHAT BILLY DOE'S PARENTS TOLD THE GRAND JURY On November 9, 2010, Billy Doe's parents were sworn in as witnesses before the grand jury. The district attorney on that same day issued subpoenas for Edward Avery, Father Charles Engelhardt, Bernard Shero and Father James J. Brennan. By this time, Billy's father was clearly in his son's corner. The prosecutor asked Billy's father about Jan. 30, 2009, the day two social workers from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia knocked on his door. They were seeking to interview Billy, who had phoned in a complaint on a church sex abuse hot line the day before: Q. Why did you not want to let the archdiocese in? A. At that time, I knew it was a serious problem and I figured he [Billy] would need legal representation before he made any statements to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia ... Q. When did you actually hear [Billy] talk about what had happened to him? A. There was times when we would confront him in reference to his drug abuse and he would blurt out that he was abused at the school and that's how I started to discover and then information was slowly but surely coming out of him. Q. And do you believe your son? A. Yes, I believe him. When Billy's mother testified before the grand jury on the same day her husband did, Nov. 9, 2010, she contradicted Billy's storyline that he underwent a personality change in grade school:
Q. Did there come a time when you noticed a change in [Billy's] behavior? A. Yes. At age 14, as he entered high school, freshman year at high school, he wasn't the same child. He was very troubling to us. Q. Ok. Prior to that, what was his personality? A. He was basically a very pleasant, active, happy person prior to that and he was defined by some people as either Dennis the Menace or the all-American boy up to that point. Q. Ok. So he's leaving St. Jerome's and entering into high school? A. Uh-huh. Q. And at this time what's going on that's different? A. Freshman year started in September and in February we were called and he was thrown out of Archbishop Ryan for having some marijuana and having brass knuckles. And he was arrested and because of the brass knuckles, he wasn't allowed back into a Catholic school for a year. So they sent him to CORA for treatment. It was an after-school program and that was his first contact with any type of mental health counselors, therapists or programs, and that was really difficult for us because we never had that before. The prosecutor asked Billy's mother about his suicidal tendencies: Q. How were you aware of the suicidal ideations? Would he talk to you about them or how would he express this? A. One day we came home and he was running around with his brother's decorative sword and we kind of cornered him ... And what we did was, when we went home, we like ripped apart his room ... We cleaned his room out, looking for any kind of drug paraphernalia, any notes. We found suicide notes and we found pictures of guns held at a head and [Billy] is -- can draw very well. They were very graphic and very scary ... Q. Did he ever get any tattoos? A. He has a bizarre one on his chest ... I think it's Mary holding Jesus and I often question him like where is that coming from and he doesn't have a clue ... On another arm he has one that says, Lost Soul ... Lost is a surfing company and he [Billy] was always into Lost products. His surfboard, his clothing would be from this company , Lost, and he had that put on there, but he added soul to it, like S-O-U-L, and that was -- that kind of defined, when I seen that, defined his life. TWO FLAWED WITNESSES To Billy's mother, Billy may have been a lost soul, but to the district attorney's office, Billy Doe was a savior. That's because the D.A. had been searching for a sex abuse case that fell within the statute of limitations so they could prosecute Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, for endangering the welfare of a child. In pursuit of a historic conviction, the district attorney's office was busy grooming Billy Doe for the witness stand. On Dec. 2, 2010, Detective Snyder called Billy Doe's father "and told him that I'll be picking up [Billy] at the prison on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. We want him to meet with our expert witness on clergy abuse. I need to confirm [Billy's] whereabouts." On Dec. 14, 2010, Detective Snyder had to get the district attorney's star witness out of jail again: Brought [Billy] in from DC [Detention Center] for one last meeting. [Billy] did not look too good, he told me that he hasn't ben sleeping well and that he was involved in a fight a couple of days ago. On Jan. 21, 2011, Detective Snyder wrote: The Grand Jury signed a presentment suggesting that Msgr. Lynn, Rev. Brennan, Rev. Engelhardt, Bernard Shero and Edward Avery should be arrested and Judge [Renee] Caldwell-Hughes signed off on the presentment. On Jan. 21, 2011, the district attorney issued a 124-page grand jury report that relied heavily on the unproven allegations of Billy Doe and Mark Bukowski. "These are sordid, shocking acts," District Attorney Williams proclaimed about the rapes allegedly perpetrated against Billy Doe and Mark Bukowski. The district attorney called for the indictment of Msgr. Lynn for endangering the welfare of children: This Grand Jury investigation began with the tearful testimony of "Billy." Billy was a 10-year-old student in Barbara Mosakowski's fifth grade class at St. Jerome School in Philadelphia when two priests molested and orally sodomized him during the 1998-99 school year. Billy had signed up to be an altar boy at St. Jerome Church because his brother, who was three years older, had been one. He also participated in the "maintenance department" of the school's bell choir, meaning that he took the bells out of their cases before choir practice and put them away at the end. On Jan. 26, 2011, Detective Snyder wrote: I prepared warrants on Lynn, Brennan, Avery, Engelhardt and Shero and had Judge Caldwell-Hughes sign the warrants. Detective Snyder wrote down in his notes that he was leaving messages for the district attorney's other star witness in the case -- Mark Bukowski. Bukowski had accused Father James J. Brennan, Msgr. Lynn's co-defendant, of raping Bukowski when he was 14. But Bukowski wasn't calling back Detective Snyder. More baby-sitting duties for Detective Snyder. On Jan. 31, 2011, Detective Snyder called the Bukowski family and "left another message for Mark." On Feb. 3, 2011, Mark Bukowski's father called back. Here's what Detective Snyder wrote in his notes: I must have forgotten but Mark is in prison. That must be why he doesn't return my calls ... Mark would also like me to visit him in prison. I have to do a couple of interviews tomorrow, but if I get time, I'll ask Mark to sign a waiver or whatever it takes so that we can get his records. In the criminal courts, Billy's lucky streak continued. On Feb. 7, 2011, the charges against Billy Doe for possession with intent to distribute 56 bags of heroin were dismissed after a motion to suppress evidence in the case -- namely the heroin -- was granted by a judge who possibly should have recused himself since as a private civil attorney he had previously consulted with Billy [See accompanying story]. On Feb. 10, 2011, Fathers Brennan, Avery and Engelhardt arrived at the district attorney's office to turn themselves in so that they could be formally charged. Bernard Shero did not surrender. He was arrested later that day after the fire department broke down his door, and detectives found the groggy suspect inside his residence after an unsuccessful attempted suicide with sleeping pills. Upon his release from the hospital, Shero was taken into police custody, arraigned and released on $95,000 bail. On Feb. 16, 2011, Detective Snyder met with John St. Peter, a former classmate of Billy's at St. Jerome's. St. Peter's mother had contacted the detective earlier saying that "her son John had some information in reference to" Billy Doe. It was through John St. Peter that the prosecution introduced the storyline in the Engelhardt-Shero case that as an altar boy Billy frequently changed Masses to stay away from Fathers Engelhardt and Avery after they raped him. Billy's parents did not contribute to this storyline and calendars kept by Billy's mother refuted Billy's story about switching Masses. So did the priests at St. Jerome's, but the district attorney wouldn't get around to interviewing them for another 10 months after they talked to John St. Peter. On Feb. 22, 2011, Mark Bukowski pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an July 5, 2010 arrest for possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was given a sentence of two to six months in jail and a year's probation. On March 16, 2011, Detective Snyder talked to Newtown Township [Bucks County] Detective Charles Palko about the D.A.'s other star witness, Mark Bukowski: Detective Palko came into the office today to discuss his involvement with the Bukowskis. Palko stated that the department is quite familiar with the Bukowskis. Usually when a new officer is being trained, they are usually driven by the Bukowski house and are told to expect "disturbance calls" from that location. Palko did go on to say that Mark was usually polite and apologetic when he would be arrested, except when he was high on drugs. Palko told me that the Bukowskis are having financial problems. [Mark's father] lost his job in New Jersey and his now delivering the newspaper as well as being a handyman. Palko said that Mark never once brought up the topic of him being a victim of abuse, but his mother would use it as an excuse whenever Mark was in trouble with the law. Mark Bukowski would also file a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. On March 30, 2011, Mark Bukowski pleaded guilty to forgery, theft, identity theft and was given a sentence of three years in jail. On Nov. 10, 2011, Billy Doe was arrested again in Philadelphia, this time for possession of a controlled substance. THE D.A. FINALLY GETS AROUND TO INVESTIGATING BILLY DOE On Dec. 12, 2011, Detective Joseph Walsh interviewed Donna Clopp, Billy Doe's second-grade teacher at St. Jerome's. She described Billy as a "happy kid -- he liked attention." Clopp recalled that Billy Doe as an eighth grader was a member of the bell choir maintenance crew. "He was one of the crew that would set up the tables and get the bells out and set things up."
Billy's story was that he was working as a member of the bell choir maintenance crew in fifth grade when Father Avery first hit on him. That's the story the D.A. ran with in that 2011 grand jury report. But Clopp and several other teachers at the school, including the church music director, told detectives that only eighth grade boys were big and strong enough to carry the heavy bells, bell cases and tables. No fifth or sixth or seventh grade boys were allowed to be members of the bell choir maintenance crew, the teachers said. On Dec. 13, 2011, Detective Walsh interviewed Sister Mary Fischetti, the parish director of services at St. Jerome's. The nun who had been employed at the school for 26 years told the detective that after Billy Doe graduated from St. Jerome's, "a woman would call the convent and ask whoever answered the phone to please pray for [Billy Doe] ... The woman never said what was wrong with [Billy Doe] -- just asked us at the convent to pray for him." On Dec. 19, 2011, Detective Walsh went out to interview Sister Mary Fischetti again. Sister Mary told the detective that Billy had gotten the time of the early weekday Mass at St. Jerome's wrong -- the Mass was at 6:15, not 6:30. Billy told the grand jury he was raped by Father Engelhardt after a 6:30 weekday Mass but when he testified at the Msgr. Lynn trial, he said he was raped after a weekend Mass; the Sunday Mass at St. Jerome's is at 6:30.
Sister Mary told Detective Walsh that there was usually a sexton, or sacristan, present during daily Masses, accompanied by two altar boys. The nun also told the detective that the sacristy where Billy Doe claimed that Father Engelhardt raped him had four doors. Detective Walsh asked if the nun knew who the woman was that had frequently called the convent asking for prayers on behalf of Billy Doe. Sister Mary said the usual practice in the rectory was that if someone requested intercessory prayer, the nuns at the convent would write the name of the person who needed prayer on a piece of paper and post it on the refrigerator so that all the nuns in the convent could pray for that person. "I remember some of the notes saying [Mrs. Doe] called asking for prayers for her son [Billy]," the nun told the detective. THE BELL CHOIR [AGAIN] On Dec. 20, 2011, Detective Walsh interviewed Margaret [Peggy] Long, the church music director for the past 23 years. It was Long who started the children's bell choir in 1990 and within two years after that, she started the adult bell choir. Long told Detective Walsh that only eighth grade boys could be members of the bell choir maintenance crew, and that the maintenance crew set up the bells and then left. The bell choir would perform for an hour and then put away their own equipment; by then, the maintenance crew was gone. Billy Doe had told the grand jury as a fifth-grader he had stayed late at church, putting away the bells by himself when Father Avery first hit on him.
"I read the grand jury report," Long told Detective Walsh, and "the information contained in the grand jury report concerning the bell choir could not have happened." On Jan. 4, 2012, Detective Walsh interviewed Donna Clopp for a second time. The teacher at St. Jerome's told the detective she had been a member of both the children's bell choir since its inception and the adult bell choir at St. Jerome's since its inception. Q. In 1998-99 when [Billy Doe] was in fifth grade, would he have been a member of the bell crew? A. I don't believe so because it was always eighth grade boys because of the weight of the table and bells. BILLY'S OLDER BROTHER REFUTES BILLY On Jan. 9, 2012, Detective Walsh interviewed Billy Doe's older brother, then a 26-year-old lawyer. Billy's older brother was in eighth grade at St. Jerome's when Billy was in fifth grade. Billy's older brother is mentioned in the grand jury report of Jan. 21, 2011. However, it took a year for the district attorney to send a detective out to interview Billy's brother, and discover that he contradicted Billy's stories on many key points. Billy's brother had served as both an altar boy and a sexton at the church. Billy had claimed he was a 10-year-old altar boy putting away the wine after an early Mass when Father Engelhardt first hit on him. But Billy's older brother told the detective that it was the sexton and not the altar boys who were responsible for putting away communion wine after church. Billy Doe had claimed that Father Engelhardt locked all four doors to the sacristy when he raped Billy after an early Mass. But Billy's older brother told Detective Walsh that there was a doorway between the sacristy and a room where the priests put on their vestments. "The door was never closed -- it was blocked by a chair against it," Billy's brother told the detective. Billy's older brother told Detective Walsh that he never saw a priest do anything inappropriate with children. The older brother said that no priest had ever asked him to stay after Mass, as Billy had claimed that Father Engelhardt had done with him.. Billy's older brother also contradicted Billy's story that Billy had frequently switched Masses with other altar boys whenever he found out he was scheduled to serve Mass with either Father Engelhardt or Father Avery. Billy's older brother told Detective Walsh that he never switched Masses with his brother, and that furthermore, a switch wasn't that easy to pull off. Billy's older brother said he would need the approval of his parents and the approval of the pastor before he could switch a Mass. MORE WITNESSES REFUTE BILLY DOE'S STORIES On Jan. 17, 2012, Detective David Fisher interviewed Chanee Mahoney, a 24-year-old young woman who was a 2005 graduate of the International Christian Academy in Northeast Philadelphia. It was Mahoney who, according to a library card, borrowed two books in 2004 -- Know About Abuse and Child Abuse -- that were found under Billy's bed by Billy's mother, and turned over to the district attorney's office as evidence. Billy's story was that he borrowed the books from a fellow student for a book report. Mahoney, however, told Detective Fisher that she never loaned the books to Billy: Q. How would you explain that [Billy] would have had your books that you borrowed from the Ogontz library? A. I never locked my locker at school because I kept my personal belongings on me. He could have gone in the locker. I could have left them out somewhere. I definitely did not give them to him. Q. So if [Billy Doe] was to say you loaned or borrowed the library books for him for a subject paper while at International Christian Academy, would that be the truth? A. No. Q. Tell me what you recall about [Billy]? A. He was always getting in trouble with school. On Feb. 3, 2012, Detective Fisher and Detective Snyder interviewed Mark Besben, a counselor at SOAR, a drug rehab attended by Billy Doe. When he talked to the detectives, Besben used the word "sessions" to describe the group sessions and one-on-one sessions that drug counselors had with Billy Doe. Two years earlier, Billy had told Detective Snyder and a grand jury that "sessions" was the code name used by Fathers Engelhardt and Avery to describe their rapes of Billy Doe. Both priests, however, told their lawyers that they had never used that word and had no idea where it came from. The grand jury report released on Jan. 21, 2011 mentioned Billy Doe's "sessions" with Fathers Engelhardt and Avery three times. Billy's version of sessions was carried in the media, and told to two juries in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse cases. But two years after Billy Doe first told the "sessions" story to Detective Snyder, it was Besben who supplied the district attorney's office with a far more credible explanation of where the word sessions came from. Besben was an important witness for another reason. Billy Doe had initially told Louise Hagner, an archdiocese social worker, that he had been punched in the head by Father Avery and when he woke up, he found himself naked and tied up with altar sashes. Billy also told Hagner that Bernard Shero punched him in the face and wrapped a seat belt around his neck before he raped him. Billy's alibi was that he was high on drugs when he talked to Hagner. But when detectives talked to Besben, he recalled Billy telling him in drug rehab a version of the bondage story, as well as adding a new twist about other possible victims: Q. Do you recall any specifics of [Billy's] details describing his abuse? A. He said it was when he was in Catholic elementary school when he was really young. He said his hands was tied up and how helpless he felt ... Q. Did [Billy] say or tell you how long his abuse sexual abuse took place? A. For two years ... [Billy] mentioned that he was not the only one. So by the time the district attorney finally got around to investigating the case, they found a slew of witnesses who contradicted Billy Doe. But by then, it was already too late. A district attorney and a grand jury had already made the mistake of believing a bunch of stories told to them by Eddie Haskell on heroin.
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