MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News
Posted: Tuesday, November 4, 2014
BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER
IPSWICH — The trial of a Roman Catholic priest who ran a summer camp for disadvantaged boys in Ipswich decades ago is expected to get underway with opening statements Wednesday morning in Lawrence Superior Court.
Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of the Rev. Richard J. McCormick, 73, a high-ranking member of the Salesian Society of Don Bosco of North America, the order that ran the summer camp at what was then known as the Sacred Heart retreat in the late 1970s and 1980s. The site is now the headquarters of New England Biolabs.
The trial is the first of two that involve allegations brought by men who recalled being sexually abused at the camp by McCormick when they were boys.
In the trial now underway, McCormick is charged with five counts of child rape, involving a boy who attended the camp from the age of 9 to 12, prosecutors allege.
McCormick’s lawyer, Stephen Neyman, said his client denies abusing the boy, suggesting that the accuser has identified the wrong culprit for his abuse.
But prosecutors say that the victim was able to positively identify the man he knew as “Father Dick” decades later when he found a photo of him online, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said during arguments on several pretrial motions Tuesday, prior to the start of jury selection.
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