W.va. Monsignor Must Testify in Pa. Abuse Trial

The GoErie
April 21, 2012

http://www.goerie.com/article/20120421/NEWS06/304219948/WVa-monsignor-must-testify-in-Pa-abuse-trial

An aide to West Virginia's Catholic bishop has been ordered to testify in a clergy sexual abuse trial under way in Philadelphia after a state judge declared him "a necessary and material witness."

Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson issued the ruling late Thursday, and Monsignor Kevin Quirk's attorney, William Kolibash, provided it to the Associated Press on Friday.

Kolibash referred further questions to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

"We needed to have a valid legal process, which we do now have," the diocese said in an e-mail. "Accordingly, Monsignor Quirk will appear."

Wilson's order says Quirk must appear in Common Pleas Court between April 29 and May 1 in the case against the Rev. James Brennan.

Quirk was the presiding canonical judge at a church trial for Brennan, who is now in criminal court for an alleged 1996 child sex assault that he denies. Brennan's co-defendant, Monsignor William Lynn, is the first U.S. church official charged with child abuse and endangerment for allegedly protecting predators in clerical collars.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office couldn't subpoena Quirk directly because he lives outside Pennsylvania. It needed a West Virginia judge to issue the subpoena.

Quirk had fought the petition to appear, citing the confidentiality of the proceedings and denying that he was a material witness. But Wilson ruled that he is, and that his testimony "is essential in ascertaining the truth."

The judge also said he believes Quirk's absence "could cause the defendants' constitutional rights to confrontation and meaningful cross-examination to be lost." The Pennsylvania court has also assured officials that Quirk won't be arrested while in the state, Wilson said.

Whether testimony from the church trial is privileged information will be for the Pennsylvania court to decide, Wilson wrote. He noted, however, that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has already released a transcript of those proceedings to the district attorney.