Posted on 03/26/2011 12:59:03 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
At an intensely combative and vitriolic hearing Friday afternoon in a sex-abuse case that has shaken the Philadelphia Archdiocese to its core, a state court judge shocked one priest's defense attorney by disclosing that the government thinks he might be a witness as a former seminarian and could be disqualified from the case. The lawyer, who represents one of three current and former Roman Catholic priests charged with raping boys in their parish, fired back that prosecutors were being "anti-Catholic" and had uttered an "abomination."
Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes told defense attorney Richard DeSipio that she's received information that "might make you, in fact, a witness because of events that occurred while you were a seminarian."
The information "stems from the fact that you attended the seminary with a student who asserts he was abused," Hughes said, adding that DeSipio "may possess factual knowledge about abuse that occurred with that student."
She added that the substance of the claim that DiSipio witnessed something is still unclear. "I just don't know if it's true," Hughes said. "I really don't know if it's true."
Yelling and visibly upset, DeSipio demanded that the government, then and there, identify the source of the allegation. "Let them spill it out right now!" DeSipio demanded.
"How dare they send you a letter about that," DeSipio said, referring to the district attorney's office. "That's an abomination."
Prosecutors said only that part of DeSipio's seminary training overlapped with the tenure of a senior clergyman accused of endangering children by failing to protect them from priests with a known history of abuse.
Monsignor William Lynn, now pastor of St. Joseph Church in Downingtown, Pa., is reportedly the highest-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States ever to be charged with child endangerment. Between 1984 and 1992, he served as dean of men at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., according to his biography on St. Joseph's website. As the secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, Lynn acted as personnel director for priests. He is accused of ignoring reports of abuse, covering up for them and putting children in danger.
"They are anti-Catholic. I'll say it," DiSipio fumed. "[The district attorney is] attacking me as a Catholic!"
The judge rejected DiSipio's claim. "Attack you? You attacked me! You don't even know me!" Hughes said, referring to a prior argument over the necessity of a preliminary hearing, another hotly contested issue Friday afternoon.
"Mr. DeSipio, I suggest you shut up," Hughes said. "People are coming from out of the woodwork [to provide information to the commonwealth.]"
If the government can prove the allegation is credible in 30 days, DeSipio will be disqualified as the archdiocese's attorney.
"You can change lawyers now, you can change lawyers in 30," the judge warned DeSipio's client, the Rev. James Brennan. "[But] there are some conflicts that are not waivable."
DeSipio argued that the 30-day investigation was "really unfair to Father Brennan," given his mounting legal costs.
Judge Hughes was livid that DeSipio spoke up again. "If you open your mouth one more time I am going to have the sheriff take you out of here," she told DeSipio.
As DeSipio continued to argue, Hughes said she might have him "locked up and held in contempt." Instead she issued a gag order, responding to what she observed as attorneys having "gone to the airways to advocate."
"No more interviews with anyone," the judge ruled.
"Does that include the DA going on Chris Matthews' 'Hardball' and going to the New York Times," defense attorney Michael McGovern asked.
The judge responded affirmatively: "I don't want tweets. I don't want Facebook. I don't want IMs [instant messages]."
Hughes said the court will revisit the gag order on April 15, when defendants are to be arraigned. That date also marks the deadline for the DA to provide the defense with the first batch of discovery, she said.
All but one of the defense attorneys challenged the government's amendment to its case, which added a conspiracy charge that had not explicitly been requested of the grand jury.
"The issue here is that if the DA seeks to amend, it has to be subject to some sort of prima facie determination," the defense argued.
The judge found otherwise, ruling that the commonwealth established "good cause" in its pleadings and that "there is no constitutional right - federal or state - for a preliminary hearing."
It was "a technical error on the commonwealth not to charge conspiracy" originally, Hughes said. "Conspiracy is made," and the defendants will not be afforded a preliminary hearing, she ruled.
Hughes said there was abundant evidence to support the amendment.
"I'm the only person, besides the prosecutors, who has seen every stitch of evidence," she said.
Defense attorney McGovern argued that her admission was precisely the problem.
"Your Honor, this is patently unfair!" McGovern said. "You know the evidence. They know the evidence. I don't know what the evidence is! I haven't seen any!"
The attorney said proceeding to trial without a preliminary hearing was like saying, "Let's have a dart game in a dark room."
"What kind of country is this where we have this?" he shouted.
The judge yelled back, baring her teeth: "You sit down! Sit, sit, sit!"
DeSipio agreed with McGovern that their clients deserve a preliminary hearing, which could allow them to confront their accusers.
"There's no witness. I know that they [the prosecutors] don't like that he's in jail," DeSipio said. "This accuser says there was an erect penis in his buttocks."
"Was it in your buttocks, or was it in your anus," he asked rhetorically. "If that question wasn't asked [of the grand jury], and he didn't specify anus or butt cheeks, I have a right to ask that."
"What you can't do, and what I submit they're trying to do, is say just because we have a grand jury, we have good cause [to by-pass a preliminary hearing]," DeSipio said.
The judge also addressed a potential conflict of interest concerning Monsignor Lynn, who unlike the three current and former priests, faces child endangerment charges - not rape or sexual assault. Plans for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to pay Lynn's legal costs present "a whole array of conflicts that I can't even imagine at this point in time," Hughes said.
"It's real simple," the judge said to Lynn, who was donning his clerical collar, "your master is the person that's putting bread on the table."
"It may be in your best interest to put forth a defense that attacks other people [or the church]," Hughes said.
She told Lynn he was putting himself in the position of receiving "advice from people who are being paid by people whose interests don't necessarily align with yours."
The stakes of this gamble could amount to "14 years of incarceration versus probation," she said.
Lynn, in a calm voice, declined. "Well, I trust these two men." he said, adding that the church hadn't placed any conditions on the payment of his legal costs.
Hughes was incredulous. "You are making a knowing, voluntary and intelligent decision to place yourself in conflict with your attorneys?" she asked.
"I am," Lynn responded, waiving his right to any future appeal based on the argument that his attorneys had a conflict of interest.
"Then we're moving forward," the judge said.
After arraignments and release of the first batch of discovery, which will include grand jury notes and testimony, on April 15, the government will begin putting together a second batch. The government said that batch would take longer to produce, as it will include roughly 10,000 pages of documentation, much of which will need to be redacted.
Hughes said the government must give the defense a specific timeline for the production of the second batch. "There has to be some finality," she said.
In January, a grand jury returned an indictment for rape and sexual assault against one current priest, one defrocked priest and one man who taught at a Catholic school. Monsignor Lynn, the third cleric who worked for the archdiocese as secretary of clergy, is accused of giving known abusers easy access to minors.
When I say Catholic is the largest “denomination” in America and the world, you keep denying that by saying that there are more “Protestants” and “Evangelicals.” I don’t know what else you could be saying by that.
As an aside, not everyone agrees that Michael Archangel isn’t God
Really? The angels were created by God. So, Roman Catholics pray to the created, not the Creator, and then make the claim that somehow the Archangel Michael is God? And this from people who subscribe to the "Church" that claims to have given us Scripture?
Wow. If this doesn't go to prove the apostasy of Roman Catholicism, what does? Is it any wonder the nature, extent, and vileness of the pederasty that goes on in the cult of the Roman Catholic Church!
I'm stunned.
And there are those who would claim Protestants are heretics.
Hoss
The RCCs are simply a bigger target than most other groups.
I'd like for you to figure out why Philadelphia, obviously run by a bunch of pedophiles, is going after the RCC other than for the purpose of removing some of the competition.
Everybody knows the City Fathers were out after the Boy Scouts and want to have access for their pedophile friends, so why aren't they happy enough to have 37 of them infiltrated into one diocese?
You cannot deal with the one problem without also recognizing the other ~ so far your arguments simply Do Not Compute.
Certainly is a tip-off that Rome isn't Kosher. 8~)
If this doesn't go to prove the apostasy of Roman Catholicism, what does? Is it any wonder the nature, extent, and vileness of the pederasty that goes on in the cult of the Roman Catholic Church!
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." -- Matthew 7:16-20 "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Evil begets evil.
More deflection. More “but they all do it.”
37 priests in one city in one diocese.
The error is to think this diocese is exceptional. It’s much more likely to be illustrative of the majority of them.
It did take years, but as I said, patience pays.
They finally did get an answer on Alex Murphy.
So far you have not shown me where, as you accused, I have said Protestantism is a denomination.
Wouldn’t it be a lot simpler to say you misread what I wrote and in fact, I have not said Protestantism is a denomination?
These kinds of endless trajectories only serve to further ignore the article that began this thread.
Almost as if that were the intention.
You implied that Protestant is a denomination but did so with plausible deniability.
Nobody needs to *defame* the Catholic church. The church has done plenty all by its lonesome to defame itself.
If it would quit providing material for others to merely point out, it would have nothing to complain about. Then it could rightly say that it's all slander and lies.
But it isn't. All they end up screaming is *anti-Catholicism*. They aren't (and can't) denying that it's true. They're claiming that people pointing out the obvious and rightly condemning the behavior is being *anti-Catholic*.
Martyrdom only works when someone has done nothing wrong. When one is caught and condemned for wrong doing, it's called *consequences*.
lol. No, I didn’t. And the shoddy defense of “you implied” carries zero weight.
You implied you were a giraffe.
Disprove it.
What you'll find in statistics is that you usually need more than one sample cell (in this case a diocese) to work out your statistical norms.
You know very well your typical pedophile is NOT A LONER.
The RCC is just a larger target. Those women in all those public schools certainly prove the phenomenon is quite widespread although DC did have a "nest" several years back who got caught. Vermont, for example, has several judges who appear to have the job of turning these guys loose and you'll never hear Senator Leahy, for another example, criticizing any of his fellow Democrats who are soft on pedophiles.
“So, Roman Catholics pray to the created, not the Creator, and then make the claim that somehow the Archangel Michael is God?”
Catholics do not claim that Michael is God. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that he is Jesus. If you think that Catholics believe Michael the Archangel is God, then that shows how little knowledge of Catholicism you have.
“And this from people who subscribe to the “Church” that claims to have given us Scripture?”
Yes they did. It’s funny that you put “Church” in quotation marks, because it is an actual Church, unlike the various ecclesiastical communities that you may or may not belong to.
“Is it any wonder the nature, extent, and vileness of the pederasty that goes on in the cult of the Roman Catholic Church!”
Yes, the pederasty is less in extent and vileness than other organizations. And it’s funny that you call the Church a cult.
“And there are those who would claim Protestants are heretics.”
Cause they are.
It's not a case of "they all do it", but Philadelphia does seem to have a nest of pedophiles in positions of authority.
You can't excuse the city government and the local prosecutors for what they tried to do to the Boy Scouts by pointing to what they see to be doing to the RCCC now.
These two acts must be reconciled.
Spew food on keyboard and monitor....
Thanks a lot.
Terminological consistency requires that a Protestant to be a real Christian heritic first have been a Catholic.
Ok, then their doctrines descend from heretics.
That should be.....
Interesting term for a “newbie”
I think that would screen quite effectively on the seriousness of folks call . . .
I doubt it would help the priest shortage a lot.
So, Roman Catholics pray to the created, not the Creator
The post says basically, 'this prayer is good for those coming into this discussion' -- and it's a prayer to the Archangel Michael. Roman Catholics pray to a created being INSTEAD of praying directly to God?
"Our Father...."
No one else. Just God.
Please -- focus.
So.. Roman Catholics, according to your post (or at least some of them) pray to angels. This is heretical. Do you not see that? When Christ taught his disciples to pray, He didn't say, "pray like this: Archangel Michael/Mary/St. So-and-So, patron saint of Widget makers...." NO!
Hoss
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