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	Court Upholds Fushek Charges By Gary Grado East Valley Tribune [Arizona] May 25, 2006 http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=66324 A Mesa justice of the peace on Wednesday denied a monsignor's request to throw out sexually related criminal charges against him. But Judge Sam Goodman granted the state's motion to drop three of the 10 misdemeanor counts brought against the Rev. Dale Fushek, who served as pastor at St. Timothy's Catholic Community in Mesa for 20 years. The trial is scheduled to begin June 2. Goodman also denied a slew of other defense motions, including one that asked for a trained lawyer to preside over the case. Justices of the peace are elected judges who handle small civil claims, traffic citations, misdemeanors and evictions. But they are not required to be lawyers. An attempt to reach Fushek's defense attorney late Wednesday was unsuccessful. Fushek, who founded the Life Teen program, argued that the charges should be dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. His attorney, Thomas Hoidal, wrote in court documents that the state had one year "after actual discovery by the state . . . or discovery by the state . . . that should have occurred with the exercise of reasonable diligence, whichever comes first." Fushek was charged Nov. 21, 2005 — more than 20 years since the first acts alleged in the criminal complaint occurred and almost 11 years since the most recent. The state knew about some of the charges in 2002, Hoidal argued. When the Maricopa County Attorney's Office began investigating sexual misconduct in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix in 2002, the diocese gave investigators documents pertaining to a sexual harassment complaint against Fushek, which should have started the clock on some of the charges, Hoidal said. The Chandler Police Department, investigating an unrelated sex case involving a Life Teen employee in 2001, questioned Fushek when detectives got anonymous phone calls from someone who alleged that the pastor was involved in sex abuse cover-ups and payoffs to victims. But deputy Maricopa County attorney Barbara Marshall argued that none of the victims reported the accusations until February 2005. Fushek stands accused of engaging in sexually related discussions with several men who were involved in the Life Teen program in 1980s and 1990s as boys. The three dropped charges accused him of giving unwanted back rubs and walking around naked in front of two men. Contact Gary Grado by email: ggrado@aztrib.com or phone (602) 258-1746
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