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	Jury Selection under Way in Priest's Trial By Conor Berry Berkshire Eagle February 1, 2011 http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_17250980?source=most_emailed Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a New York priest accused of raping two boys in the Berkshires in the 1980s. The alleged victims, both from New York and now in their 30s, were allegedly assaulted by the Rev. Gary Mercure in separate incidents in 1986 and 1989. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany permanently removed Mercure from ministry in August 2008, two months before a Berkshire grand jury indicted him on three counts of forcible child rape and one count of indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14. Mercure, 62, of Troy, N.Y., denied all charges at his November 2008 arraignment in Berkshire Superior Court, paving the way for a criminal trial that started Monday and is expected to last through next week. Jury selection is scheduled to resume today at 9 a.m. in Superior Court. Mercure sat quietly during Monday's impanelment process, which can take hours or days, depending on the amount of media exposure a case has received. In Mercure's case, the accused child rapist received extensive press coverage in neighboring New York and some coverage in Massachusetts, which could significantly slow jury selection. When Berkshire Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini asked prospective panelists Monday if they had heard or read about the Mercure matter, roughly half the potential jury pool raised its hand. The goal is to select a dispassionate jury with no bias or prior knowledge of a case. Agostini made it clear that the charges against Mercure stem from "two distinct allegations by two men," both of whom were minors at the time. Prosecutors said one incident happened in 1986 in a parking lot straddling the border of Great Barrington and Monterey, which is why both municipalities were named in the indictment, while the other occurred in 1989 in New Ashford. Mercure served as a parish priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and his alleged victims were altar boys and members of that parish, according to Agostini. Altar boys assist priests with the Catholic Mass. Berkshire First Assistant District Attorney Paul J. Caccaviello is prosecuting the case, with help from Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey. Caccaviello said he hoped testimony in the trial would begin Thursday. But Michael O. Jennings, Mercure's Springfieldbased defense attorney, asked Agostini for a continuance until a key defense witness could testify. That individual, whose testimony "goes to the heart of our defense," is presently unavailable, Jennings told Agostini, who denied the attorney's request. The judge said he anticipates opening arguments by Thursday and the trial continuing well into next week. "We could possibly use the entire week," Agostini said, adding that Wednesday's forecast of heavy snow and ice could delay the trial for a day. Various law enforcement officials are expected to testify in the trial, including Warren County (N.Y.) District Attorney Kathleen B. "Kate" Hogan, who provided key information to Massachusetts authorities. After receiving complaints from New York men regarding alleged sexual abuse by Mercure in the Berkshires, Hogan contacted Berkshire District Attorney David F. Capeless, who launched an investigation with Massachusetts State Police. The Warren County District Attorney's Office in recent years has received a number of past sex-abuse allegations regarding Mercure, but Hogan's office was powerless to charge the priest because New York state's statute of limitations had already expired. In Massachusetts, however, a more liberal statute of limitations essentially allowed time to stand still in Mercure's case. Because Mercure was only visiting Berkshire County when the alleged abuse occurred - he didn't live or stay in the county afterward - the priest's time outside the county didn't count toward the statute of limitations. "It's like a flash freeze," Hogan said, adding that the clock didn't begin ticking until Massachusetts became aware of the allegations in 2008. Jennings, meanwhile, has said that his client submitted to DNA testing and passed a polygraph, but so-called lie-detector tests are inadmissible in commonwealth courts. Mercure is permanently suspended from ministry by the Albany Diocese, which means he can no longer dress as a priest or celebrate Mass, among other things. But Mercure hasn't been defrocked - or permanently removed from the priesthood - which can only be done by the Vatican. To reach Conor Berry: cberry@berkshireeagle.com or (413) 496-6249.
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