CAMBRIDGE (MA)
azcentral.com
Associated Press
Feb. 4, 2005 12:55 PM
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A jury resumed deliberating the fate of defrocked priest Paul Shanley on Friday, weighing conflicting views on the repressed memories his accuser said came to him decades after the sexual abuse allegedly took place.
The jurors received the case Thursday afternoon and deliberated for 30 minutes before the judge sent them home for the day. They returned to Middlesex Superior Court on Friday.
The accuser said his memories of the abuse were repressed for 20 years and then resurfaced when the Boston church abuse scandal broke in 2002.
But Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, said in his closing argument Thursday that they were false memories that were planted by a friend, who also had accused Shanley of abuse, and then were exploited by attorneys who filed a lawsuit.
"The core facts in this case are just not true," Mondano said.