By Susan Spencer-Wendel
Palm Beach Post
May 21, 2009
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/05/21/0521skehan.html
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| Jim Eisenberg, Skehan's attorney, speaks outside court Thursday. |
WEST PALM BEACH — A former Delray Beach priest is headed back to prison after a judge early this afternoon denied his request to be transferred to a local jail to serve his sentence.
Judge Jeffrey Colbath ruled that Father John Skehan's attorney had not met the burden of proof in showing the state Department of Corrections won't provide adequate medical care for Skehan.
Attorney Jim Eisenberg had asked that Skehan, 81, be reassigned to the Palm Beach County Jail in part because he was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and needs daily radiation treatments which he could more readily obtain here.
Since starting his 14-month prison term at Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown earlier this month, Skehan has received no care for the prostate cancer and inadequate care for a host of other illnesses, including diabetes, possible high blood pressure and major depression with suicidal thoughts, Eisenberg said.
"The Department of Corrections has totally failed to care for this man," he said.
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| Skehan, 81, asked to be reassigned to the Palm Beach County Jail in part because he was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and needs daily radiation treatments which he could more readily obtain here. |
Skehan was present in court today, waving to courtroom gallery that was packed with relatives and parishioners who came to support him.
"He looks terrible, just beaten-down," said his former parishioner Frances Bourque. "I can't understand what difficulty there was in making his sentence more reasonable."
The prostate cancer has not spread to other parts of his body and is "treatable and curable" testified a surgeon who was a longtime parishioner of Skehan's, Dr. Frank Kucera. But "like any cancer, delay can be lethal," Kucera said.
Prosecutor Preston Mighdoll questioned the timing of the prostate cancer diagnosis, which was made in the weeks after Skehan was sentenced to prison, but before he had to turn himself in. Mighdoll asked Colbath to deny the request to move him to the jail.
Skehan, who will be 82 in July, was put in the general population at the prison with "God knows who," said his attorney, and has been served macaroni and potatoes yet doesn't recall his finger being pricked to check blood sugar levels.
He could wind up in diabetic coma, or with high blood pressure from medications, a stroke or heart attack, and might attempt suicide, testified psychologist Phil Heller, who examined him.
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| Skehan says he has received no care for the prostate cancer and inadequate care for a host of other illnesses. |
Skehan earlier pleaded guilty to grand theft over $100,000 from St. Vincent Ferrer in Delray Beach, where he served as pastor for more than 40 years. He expressed remorse, admitting he took money he was not entitled to even though he knew it was wrong. He paid more than $780,000 in restitution.
A detective who arrested Skehan and fellow priest Francis Guinan described the men as "professional money launderers." Now retired Det. Tom Whatley estimated more than $8 million had been misappropriated over decades at the parish.
The stripping of his rights to function as a priest and the "character defamation by the constant media coverage", as well the loss of his home and his "reduced financial state" have piled on to bring Skehan down, according to Eisenberg's petition for resentencing, and his health has deteriorated rapidly.
Thursday's hearing was Skehan's one chance at mitigating his prison sentence. "He's at the Department of Corrections until the Department of Corrections releases him," Eisenberg told this supporters. "Hopefully the time goes by quickly."
While denying Skehan's request, Judge Colbath said he will do what can to try to get him more medical attention from the Department of Corrections.
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