KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal
Written by
Jason Riley
The Courier-Journal
Prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to set a trial date for Rev. James Schook, whose trial on charges of child sexual abuse was delayed six months ago because prosecutors thought he only had months to live.
With Shook’s health about the same, the Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office said there had been a misunderstanding about how long the Roman Catholic priest could survive.
Jefferson County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Balliet said that while patients like Schook – who has an aggressive form of melanoma that began with a lesion on his back and spread – may live less than a year, he could also survive for up to five or six years.
“It was my belief,” after talking earlier this year with Dr. George R. Nichols II, the former longtime chief medical examiner for the state of Kentucky, “that we should hold off,” Balliett said.
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