PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsweek
BY RALPH CIPRIANO ON 3/11/16
I don’t remember.
I really don’t remember.
I honestly don’t remember.
That’s what former Philadelphia altar boy Daniel Gallagher had to say when questioned about the numerous and contradictory allegations of sex abuse he’s made over the years to doctors, drug counselors and social workers. During a confidential deposition over two full days in May and June 2014, Gallagher claimed he couldn’t remember more than 130 times.
The skinny, tattooed, 27-year-old former drug addict and admitted dealer was the Philadelphia district attorney’s star witness at two criminal trials in 2012 and 2013. Gallagher’s testimony about allegedly being repeatedly raped when he was an altar boy sent three priests and a Catholic schoolteacher to jail.
Since then, however, Gallagher’s credibility is unraveling under the scrutiny of expert witnesses, and the criminal convictions resulting from his testimony have been the subject of two successful legal appeals, with more challenges on the way.
In his deposition transcript obtained by Newsweek, Gallagher stated he couldn’t remember telling his doctors and drug counselors he’d been: sexually abused by a friend at age 6; sexually abused by a neighbor at 6; sexually abused by a teacher at age 7; sexually molested at 6 (or 8) by an unknown assailant; sexually molested at 8 (or 9) by a friend; and sexually abused at 9 by a 14-year-old boy.
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