MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
for immediate release: Monday, June 2, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )
A child sex case against a predator priest who is in Billerica has been dropped because of a legal technicality. We urge Cardinal Sean O’Malley to take aggressive steps to find and help others the priest has hurt.
Fr. Renald C. Hallee is accused of abusing a girl while he was a priest in Maine. He was later defrocked, but was still allowed to be a church volunteer and chaperone teenagers on trips. He was found to be working in Boston in 2012.
We applaud Christine Angell for her courage and persistence in seeking justice and exposing wrong-doing. If not for her brave and responsible actions, Fr. Hallee would likely still be working in a Catholic parish among unsuspecting families and perhaps sexually assaulting more kids.
We are disappointed by the Maine court decision. It is yet another example of why statute of limitations in child sex crimes should be eliminated. Those archaic laws only help predators and hurt victims.
We hope victims and whistleblowers will not lose courage because of the court’s ruling. We will never stop fighting to change or eliminate the archaic statute of limitations for child sex crimes. Several states have already made changes to this law.
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