Jury Selection Begins in Priest's Sex Abuse Trial

By David Owens
Hartford Courant
November 9, 2015

http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-priest-sexual-abuse-trial-1110-20151109-story.html

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in East Windsor.

The Rev. Paul Gotta, 57, is charged with second-degree sexual assault and six counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. Gotta, who had assignments at churches in East Windsor at the time of his arrest, is on leave from the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Gotta is also facing federal firearms charges. Gotta's defense attorney is William Paetzold of Glastonbury. Debra Collins is the prosecutor. Testimony is scheduled to begin Nov. 23 at Superior Court in Hartford.

Gotta is accused of abusing a teenage boy he met through one of the East Windsor churches where he worked as a priest.

The teen was arrested in June 2013 on allegations that he tried to manufacture bombs, illegally possessed explosives, illegally possessed a silencer, made disturbing comments about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and the Boston Marathon bombing, and about his own school, Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield.

Gotta called local and federal authorities to report the teen, according to court documents.

The following February, Gotta was indicted by a federal grand jury on federal firearms charges. His indictment noted that Gotta tried to have the teen arrested "when, in fact, Gotta himself was directly involved in the firearms and explosives offenses that he was reporting."

The next month, in March 2014, Gotta was charged by state authorities with sexually abusing the teen.

According to the warrant for Gotta's arrest, the priest spent years developing a relationship with the teen, whose family attended one of the parishes in East Windsor where Gotta served as priest.

Gotta employed the then-16-year-old to do odd jobs for the church in 2012, then allegedly used the employment as an excuse to be alone with him. The teen would often take the bus to the church rectory after school, the warrant says.

The teen told police that, at first, Gotta would grope him or ask him to reach into Gotta's front pocket to retrieve keys when Gotta had his hands full, the warrant says. Gotta had the teen do personal chores in addition to work for the church, including doing Gotta's laundry, and the teen told police that Gotta watched him as he folded the priest's underwear, the warrant says.

The warrant also says that Gotta showed the teen a pornographic video and once called the teen into his bedroom in the rectory and jumped on him, wearing only underwear, and pinned him to the floor.

The sexual contact escalated in the spring and summer of 2012, according to the warrant. At one point, Gotta allegedly began forcing the teen to strip before he could receive his paycheck each month for working at the church. The warrant also alleges that Gotta gave the teen extra money, which he referred to as "hush money."

During the summer of 2012, the teen went to Arizona on vacation with his family. Before he left, Gotta gave the teen money to purchase a firearm for him, the warrant says. The teen told police he thought that if he purchased the firearm for Gotta, the sexual contact would stop, the warrant says.

"Investigators discovered that a pattern of manipulation by Father Paul Gotta contributed to [the victim's] willingness to participate in illegal activities on Father Paul Gotta's behalf," the warrant states.

The teen pleaded guilty to reduced weapon charges in state court and received a suspended sentence. A prosecutor said Gotta's legal troubles weakened the case against the teen.