PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial
By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net
There’s an unexplained mystery in the arrest of Father Robert L. Brennan.
The alleged victim in the case came forward in January 2013 to charge that between 1998 and 2001, when he was 11 to 14 years old, he was an altar boy sexually assaulted by Father Brennan. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia immediately reported the allegation to the district attorney’s office. Yet, District Attorney Seth Williams waited eight months to arrest Father Brennan on Sept. 25th.
Yesterday, Brennan’s lawyer, Trevan Borum, a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney, asked why.
“If the allegation was credible, why does it take nine months?” said Borum, who likened the case to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. “I’ve had no explanation whatsoever. I don’t know what on earth took them so long.”
For the past nine months, District Attorney Seth Williams has stonewalled questions from this reporter. So sadly, someone else in the all-too compliant local media will have to ask the D.A. to explain the eight-month gap in the record on Father Brennan.
All I can do is post the question publicly. So here goes: If Father Brennan was such a menace to society, as the D.A. contends, why wasn’t he taken off the streets immediately?
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.