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  The Shanley Case

Boston Globe [Boston MA]
February 8, 2005

1985 Then-Rev. Paul Shanley is appointed pastor of St. Jean's parish in Newton by Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

Mid to late 1980s A Newton woman says she twice confronted Law with an accusation that Shanley tried to molest a teenage boy.

January 1990 Shanley leaves for a sabbatical in California, surfacing at St. Ann Parish in San Bernardino.

1993 Shanley is recalled to Boston when several alleged victims make abuse claims against him.

1993-94 During treatment at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Shanley admits to having had sex with teenage boys.

April 2002 More than 800 pages of Shanley's personnel file at the Boston Archdiocese are made public under court order. The archdiocese later discovers hundreds more pages.

May 2002 Shanley is returned to Massachusetts for arraignment after being arrested in San Diego. He is arrested on a warrant by Newton Police charging him with three counts of child rape.

June 2002 Shanley is indicted by a grand jury on charges that he raped four boys in the 1980s in a since-closed Newton church. The boys were between the ages of 6 and 15.

July 2002 Shanley pleads not guilty in Middlesex Superior Court. He is charged with 10 counts of child rape and six counts of indecent assault and battery.

April 2004 The four accusers reach a financial settlement with the Boston Archdiocese.

May 2004 Shanley is defrocked by Pope John Paul II.

July 2004 Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley drops charges involving two of the alleged victims. A third alleged victim is also dropped from the case, leaving one witness to testify in Shanley's criminal trial.

January 2005 Jury selection begins in the Middlesex Superior Court trial.

Yesterday The jury finds Shanley guilty of two charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child.

 
 

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