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	Trial Starts: Church, Victim's Lawyer Spar over Blame By Kevin O'Connor Times Argus May 6, 2008 http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/NEWS02/805060355/1003/NEWS02 BURLINGTON — Vermont's Catholic Church doesn't dispute that former priest Edward Paquette repeatedly molested altar boy Perry Babel 30 years ago. So how can the state's largest religious denomination say it's not liable toward the now 40-year-old Burlington native in a negligent supervision lawsuit? Church lawyers faced that question Monday with the start of a Chittenden Superior Court trial that may bring a call for damages of more than $1 million — and the threat of equally costly verdicts in 17 similar cases. "When we look back to what happened 30, 40 years ago, I think the general consensus is the issue of clergy abuse was badly handled," diocesan counsel Kaveh Shahi told a jury. "The decision-makers were ill-advised and did not have the understanding and sensitivity that we have now. But we have to keep in mind the information and knowledge that was available at that time was limited." Earlier, Babel's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill, read personnel records that showed the diocese had transferred Paquette to his client's Burlington parish without telling anyone it knew the priest had molested boys in Indiana, Massachusetts and the Vermont cities of Montpelier and Rutland. As a result, Paquette was free to fondle Babel, then a fourth- and fifth-grader, an alleged 40 to 100 times. "We are suing the diocese because it has refused to accept any responsibility for what happened," O'Neill told the jury. "The diocese enabled a known child molester to be exactly where he wanted to be — amongst boys, so he could sexually molest them." But Shahi, while noting "what Father Paquette did is wrong, immoral and illegal," said that admission didn't mean the diocese was responsible. Instead, the church lawyer argued that the late Bishop John Marshall was following since-debunked advice of mental health experts. "The fact that he made decisions that one can be critical of him today for doesn't mean he didn't care," Shahi said of Marshall, who led the diocese from 1972 to 1992 and died in 1994. "What we can conclude is he was ill-advised. But he didn't act out of malice." Whether the jury finds the diocese negligent in its hiring and supervision of Paquette will determine whether the church faces costly compensatory and punitive damages both now and in a string of pending civil lawsuits. In 2006, the diocese agreed to settle a similar case involving the priest for a record $965,000. Soon after, Bishop Salvatore Matano wrote a peer that he had projected a "negative verdict" of up to $5 million. O'Neill didn't say how much Babel will seek in compensation. But the lawyer said his client, afraid to speak out as a child, went on to have nightmares of Paquette chasing him. By sixth grade, the onetime Cub Scout turned to alcohol and marijuana. Today the plaintiff, now of Denver, Colo., complains of anger, anxiety, depression, loss of faith and trust and, specific to his four-year marriage, problems with sexual intimacy. "It has cost Perry a price," O'Neill told the jury. Noting he'll seek "serious money," the lawyer said "the amount we'll ask for equals the amount of harm the diocese caused Perry." That amount could signal how much the diocese will have to pay out in the future. Church leaders, having spent six years and more than $1.57 million to resolve at least eight past lawsuits, still must tackle 24 more involving nine past priests. Of those pending cases, 17 involve Paquette. In a courtroom packed with press, O'Neill explained in explicit detail how Paquette would sit in the church sacristy after Mass and bounce Babel and other boys on his knee. The priest called it a "pony ride," the lawyer said. "He'd reach over with his hand and grasp the boy's genitals. The boys are out of balance. They don't see what's going on with his other hand." Babel, in a court deposition, said he usually had his altar robes on. But on at least one occasion, Paquette told him to take his pants off. And Babel knew at least three boys who faced the same situation. "We looked up to this individual as our pathway to heaven, and he was doing things to us," he said in the deposition. "He was friends with our parents, and for us to stir the pot, if you will, was very frightening for us." O'Neill spent much of Monday asking retired diocesan Chancellor John McSweeney to read aloud records that showed the Vermont church knew about the priest's proclivities before his hiring. Paquette, in his 1972 job request, wrote Marshall: "I did have problems but received medical treatment, and I am now cured." The diocese heard from church leaders in Massachusetts, where the priest first served, and Indiana. Bishop Leo Pursley of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., for example, wrote about "three homosexual episodes involving young boys" and suggested the priest be assigned to an "institutional chaplaincy" rather than a community church so he could minister "with less likelihood of relapse." Even so, both Babel's lawyer and at least one church official agreed Monday that the diocese didn't seek a full background check that would have showed the seriousness and scope of Paquette's past. McSweeney, seated on the witness stand, confirmed his office didn't ask the Massachusetts church for specifics. "Could have and should have," the retired official said. But McSweeney added that the Indiana diocese should have passed on its Massachusetts files. McSweeney: "This man was Fort Wayne's responsibility." O'Neill: "He was the diocese of Burlington's responsibility." McSweeney: "It was Fort Wayne's responsibility to give us a fuller dossier on the man, but they didn't." O'Neill: "You never asked for the whole file, did you?" McSweeney: "Not the full file specifically, but it was assumed they would have given it." Shahi, in defending the diocese, said Marshall was relying on the advice of psychiatrists who at one point called for 11 sessions of electric shock therapy. "The bishop was the person who makes the final decision and at that time, as best as we can determine, Bishop Marshall was trying to do the right thing," the church lawyer said. "His belief was that through prayer, these things could be helped. And from the secular world, he was getting help from the mental health providers." Shahi went on to question whether Babel's case was too old to prosecute under the state's statutes of limitations. "We would have Bishop Marshall testify what he was thinking, but we don't have that opportunity," the church lawyer said. "As we painfully realize in this case, witnesses pass on, they forget — it's very difficult to present the case fully to you." In response, O'Neill said statutes allowed people to file lawsuits up to six years after they realized their abuse caused personal harm. In his client's case, that occurred shortly after the state attorney general went public with a clergy misconduct investigation in 2002. Babel's case is the second such lawsuit to reach a Vermont jury. Attorneys for both sides expect to argue before a jury of eight men and five women (12 members and an alternate) for at least a week. Contact Kevin O'Connor at kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com.
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