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  Teen Tells of Abuse in 2nd Grade
Youth Testifies in Civil Case against Priest, Principal

By Michael Hirsley
Chicago Tribune
June 10, 1994

The 13-year-old boy whose credibility is critical in a long-delayed sexual abuse trial of a Roman Catholic priest and school principal, took the stand Thursday as the first witness. Quickly and quietly, the teenager described two sexual acts in which the accused pair involved him in 1987, at least once when he was unclothed.

He also said Rev. Robert Lutz, the priest accused in the civil lawsuit, had punched him in the stomach, kicked him in the head and threatened that "he would kill me and my family members if I was to tell anyone."

The boy spoke so softly that he often could not be heard in the small courtroom in Cook County Circuit Court, even after Judge Jerome Lerner gave him his microphone.

The boy, identified as "Richard Doe" because the court ordered his real name protected, spent two of his three hours on the witness stand under intense cross-examination.

Under a barrage of questions from defense attorneys seeking to impeach his honesty and believability, the teenager repeatedly said he did not recall accusations against others, including classmates and parents, attributed to him in transcripts from meetings with attorneys, law enforcement officers and therapists.

And he said he was unaware of similarities between those accusations and fantasies that might have been inspired by sexual material and horror movies he had seen, particularly "Nightmare on Elm Street" and the character Freddy Krueger.

At one point, after reading a violence-laced composition the boy had written in 3rd grade, defense attorney Arlene Erlenacher pointedly asked, "Were you afraid that Father Lutz or Freddy Krueger was going to kill your parents?"

"Father Lutz, I believe," he replied.

Lutz, 69, pastor of St. Norbert parish in Northbrook; and Alice Halpin, 49, a former principal of the parish elementary school, are charged in an $7 million civil lawsuit with sexually abusing the youth when he was a 7-year-old 2nd grader at the school.

Attorney Thomas Decker, representing the youth and his parents, asked the teenager questions about hobbies and skills such as skiing, playing basketball, drums, and karate. The picture he drew was of a boy whose life was normal and active except for his two years at St. Norbert school.

Then, under questioning by Decker, Richard said that "four or five times" in his first year and a similar number of times in 2nd grade, he was called into the principal's office, where he said both Halpin and Lutz swore at him on occasion and where he said they sexually abused him.

He did not specify how many times it happened. Once, he said, the two rolled around on the floor, naked, in front of him. He said he didn't remember if he was clothed or not. On another occasion, he said, he was unclothed when Lutz sexually molested him on his face and buttocks.

When he entered the courtroom and sat at the prosecution table, Richard kept his back to Lutz and Halpin at the defense table. Throughout his time on the witness stand, he looked straight ahead. Lutz, on the other hand, sat at the end of the table where he could face the boy. His calm demeanor did not change when the alleged sexual acts were described.

Under cross-examination, defense attorneys Erlenacher, representing Lutz, and Patricia Bobb, representing Halpin, hammered away at portraying the boy as an emotionally troubled child who feared his father's anger, who had seen violent movies and nudity in magazines and movies as a child before attending St. Norbert, who had exaggerated stories of being beaten up by other children, and who had incorporated fantasies from movies into accounts of his own life.

The trial stems from a lawsuit filed in 1989. Northbrook police and the Cook County state's attorney's office investigated the family's criminal complaints, but never filed charges against Lutz and Halpin.

 
 

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