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	Lawyer for Priest Sex-Abuse Victims Says Diocese Is 'Judge Shopping' By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press [Vermont] May 6, 2006 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060506/NEWS01/605060314/1009&theme= The state's Roman Catholic Diocese is engaging in "judge shopping" by calling for the removal of the presiding judge in 15 priest sex-abuse cases now pending at Chittenden County Superior Court, the lawyer for the alleged victims charged Friday. In a terse memorandum filed with the court Friday morning, attorney Jerome O'Neill wrote that the diocese wants to hide its role in protecting pedophile priests over the years and is angry that Judge Ben Joseph has ruled documents exposing the church's conduct be made public. "Hiding information is deleterious to the victims, and if defendant diocese could think it through, deleterious to itself," O'Neill said in the memorandum. "The diocese in effect is judge shopping." David Cleary, the diocese's lead attorney, said Friday evening in a telephone interview that O'Neill's judge-shopping allegation was offensive. "Judge shopping is inferring you are looking for someone who will give you a better deal," Cleary said. "We are looking for an even playing field, and right now, we don't have it." Cleary, in the court motion he filed Thursday, wrote that Joseph's April 19 decision to lift a gag order covering church records and other documents earlier this month had caused a flurry of media stories. As a result, Cleary wrote, obtaining a fair trial is now impossible and Joseph is required to recuse himself, or step aside before the next case is heard later this summer. Joseph had put the gag order in place several months ago to ensure an unbiased jury could be assembled for the first case, involving claims by Michael Gay of South Burlington. Gay has claimed that, as an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington in 1978, he was molested by the Rev. Edward Paquette. Gay alleged the diocese knew at the time that Paquette had molested boys in parishes in three states, including Vermont. He settled his case with the diocese April 19 for $965,000. O'Neill wrote in his memorandum that the diocese knew the gag order would be lifted once Gay's case was resolved and that Gay had insisted as a condition of settling that the documents be made public. "There is no legitimate basis to keep those documents under seal and provide the diocese with another safe haven for its misconduct," O'Neill said in the court filing. Attorney Robert Hemley, representing The Burlington Free Press and WCAX-TV, also filed a motion with the court Friday, urging Joseph to make public all church records filed with the court in the Gay case, including diocesan personnel records. "For such documents, there can be no finding that there is a substantial likelihood that public access will cause irreparable prejudice at trial, particularly with regard to any case that has been concluded," Hemley wrote in his court filing. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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