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	Pay Sought after Mistrial By Sam Hemingway Burlington Free Press July 23, 2007 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070723/NEWS02/70723007/1007 Attorneys for James Turner, who sued the state's Roman Catholic diocese alleging he was molested by a priest as a teen in the 1970s, want a judge to award them $107,985 in legal costs after a trial in the case ended in a mistrial last month. "Unfortunately, this is what it takes to get a major case ready for trial," Jerome O'Neill, Turner's lead lawyer in the case, said of the legal bill Friday after filing his reimbursement request at Chittenden County Superior Court. O'Neill and a law partner, John Evers, said in the court papers that together they had spent 287.5 hours in pre-trial and trial time working on the case when Judge Ben Joseph declared a mistrial in the case June 25. Diocesan attorney David Cleary, in an interview, scoffed at the amount O'Neill was seeking. "I thought it was ridiculous when the mistrial was motioned, and I still think it was ridiculous, and the proof of that is in the amount the plaintiff is asking," Cleary said Friday. "It's all about the money, isn't it?" The mistrial came in the fourth day of the trial after Cleary had questioned Turner on the witness stand about an alleged sexual relationship between the Rev. Alfred Willis and Turner's brother in 1976. Turner claims he was molested by Willis in 1976 inside a Latham, N.Y., motel room following a religious and family ceremony connected with the pending ordination of his brother as a priest. Joseph had issued a pre-trial order prohibiting questions about the nature of the relationship between Turner's brother and Willis. O'Neill sought a mistrial after Cleary had peppered Turner with a number of questions about the relationship. Joseph agreed to the mistrial request and said at the time that he would consider ordering the diocese to pay costs incurred by Turner and his lawyers. The case is expected to be retried this year. MISTRIAL3BMISTRIAL: Lawyers seek reimbursement1B Willis, banished from the diocese in 1980 after it received complaints about his conduct with altar boys in Burlington, Milton and Montpelier, settled out of court with Turner last year and did not attend the trial. O'Neill, in paperwork filed with the court last week, called the $107,985 a "conservative estimate" of the time he put into the case and said he did not include costs that could be transferred to a retrial when it takes place. O'Neill said his per-hour rate was $300 and calculated that Evers, who was working on a contingency fee basis, be paid $200 an hour. Paralegal, expert witness and other staff costs accounted for the balance of the $107,985. Turner, in a separate affidavit, asked for $4,464 to cover his motel, food, lost wages and other costs connected with the trial. Cleary, in his interview, said he hoped Joseph would conduct a "fair, due-process review" of the reimbursement requests. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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