Posted on 03/29/2002 6:03:47 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
A bombshell development in the priest sex-abuse scandal currently rocking the Catholic church raises troubling questions about why decades-old sexual assault allegations against ex-president Bill Clinton were never subjected to law enforcement scrutiny.
Detectives in Nassau County, New York are currently probing complaints against two priests going back 25 years, including allegations from one victim who contacted police long after the statute of limitations for the crime expired.
"We are going to conduct a thorough investigation before we come to some conclusion on the statute of limitation," Nassau Chief of Detectives Herbert Faust tells the New York Post in Friday editions.
"Who knows what will be revealed," he adds.
"Two of the victims, brothers Mark and Rainer Welzel, reportedly contacted the DA's office in 1998, but no action was taken because of the statute of limitation, which, in the case of minors, expires five years after a victim's 18th birthday," the paper said.
But with the Welzel case now reopened despite the expired statute of limitation, some wonder about the case of Arkansas businesswoman Juanita Broaddrick, who told NBC's "Dateline" in 1999 that she had been brutally raped twenty-one years earlier by then-Arkansas state attorney general Bill Clinton.
Though polls in the aftermath of the NBC broadcast showed most Americans found Broaddrick to be credible, state and local law enforcement officials, as well as Clinton impeachment prosecutors in Congress and the Office of Independent Counsel, declined to launch an official rape investigation because Arkansas' seven year statute of limitation for rape had long expired.
Likewise, news editors and reporters repeatedly invoked the expired statute of limitation to justify undercovering Broaddrick's charge. "NBC Nightly News" anchorman Tom Brokaw, for instance, refused to report his own network's bombshell Broaddrick exclusive.
But the ferocity with which ancient, often vague and unsubstantiated charges of sexual abuse against the Catholic church are now being pursued by both the news media and law enforcement has prompted questions about why similar charges leveled against powerful politicians like Clinton have been dismissed almost out of hand.
In the Nassau County case, Detective Chief Faust cited "the gravity of the allegations" to justify reopening the case deemed too old to be legally relevant just four years ago.
In the Clinton case, investigators for sexual harassment accuser Paula Jones told NewsMax.com that their files were bursting with accounts of sexual assault and forcible rape and sodomy.
"If you want a pattern of aggressive sexual behavior, we have that," said Beverly Lambert, of Accuracy Investigations.
If Arkansas police were to follow the example of their New York brethren and waive the statute of limitations for rape, chances for a conviction against the ex-president would be good, according to former sex crimes prosecutor Cynthia Alksne.
"One woman's word is enough to prosecute a rapist," Alksne told the Wall Street Journal in 1999. "Indeed, the law explicitly permits a jury to convict a rapist on the word of the victim alone if her testimony is deemed credible . ... At a minimum, Broaddrick was a credible accuser."
Like Detective Faust in the priest sex scandal, Alksne cited the gravity of the charge, saying, "If these allegations are true, jail is where Mr. Clinton belongs."
"If these allegations are true, jail is where Mr. Clinton belongs."
Nudge nudge....wink wink....if you know what I mean....
Heck, the most important question is, why are all the Kennedys still running free? They should have kicked ole Joe Kennedy's arse out of the church back in the 30s, and thrown him in jail for illegal booze running. The church should have disclipined him for adultery and other things, but turned a blind eye. Law enforcement is not for liberal Democrats nor is church discipline for wealthy Catholics, I guess.
Bill Clinton? Har Har Har. He'll live and prosper and see us all to our graves before he gets his.
Dear Limbacher,
He's gone. I know, I know. Millions are just as infuriated that he skated as you are. He'll get his. Just let it go....
I guess these guys don't have anything else to do during Holy Week.
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