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  Victim Has Mixed Emotions after Guilty Verdict for Catholic Priest

By Adrianna Hopkins
WHAS
July 15, 2011

http://www.whas11.com/news/crimetracker/Victim-has-mixed-emotions-after-guilty-verdict-for-Catholic-priest-125607563.html

[with video]

A mixed bag of emotions... vindication in court Thursday, for a 46-year-old Jeffersonville man who endured years of sexual abuse when he was 13-years-old and living in Tennessee.

But he says Thursday's guilty verdict for the catholic priest who raped him doesn't necessarily bring closure.

A jury found William Casey guilty of sexual misconduct and aggravated rape. WHAS11's Adrianna Hopkins talked with Warren Tucker, the victim, last year before he filed the charges against Casey. This happened 30 years ago in Tennessee and he didn't know if the statute of limitations would hinder justice, and worried whether Casey would ever be held accountable for his actions.

"You'd have to ask me in about a year if this has given me some closure... I can't tell you right now," Tucker said.

It's been a long and painful three decades for Warren Tucker. At 13-years-old and an altar boy, he says his innocence was stolen by a man he considered to be a representative of God on earth. William Casey -- his priest and his rapist.

"Molestation and rape have life-long effects on you," said Tucker.

Tucker filed sex abuse charges against Casey last year. The prosecutor in Sullivan County, Tenn. found a loophole in the statute of limitations. He spent last week in court recounting graphic details of sexual molestation and rape to the jury. His friend and fellow SNAP member Cal Pfeiffer stood by his side.

"It was very difficult. He's never been on the witness stand. Because the perpetrator, the fellow who raped him, was sitting next to him," Pfieffer said.

He testified in court Casey raped him twice at the rectory of St. Dominic's Catholic Church where Casey once lived and a third time at Tucker's mobile home. Manipulated by Casey to believe no one would believe him if he told people about the abuse. Tucker kept it bottled up for years.

"It caused an awful lot of problems... bankruptcy, failed marriages, personal problems," Pfeiffer said.

But now, 30 years later, a jury believed him beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Because of this vindication, he hopes it will bring awareness to people and protect children and maybe predators will think twice," Pfeiffer said.

"He's a master of deception and the people of Sullivan County saw through it, and I'm glad," Tucker said.

Casey is still facing charges for sex abuse in Scott County, Va.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville issued a suspension decree to Casey - permanently suspending him from priestly ministry and removing his priestly faculties, and decreed that he could not present himself as a priest.

 
 

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