PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial
By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net
Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright asked Father Andrew McCormick if he was making his decision not to testify in his own defense of his own free will.
“I am,” the 59-year-old priest said.
It was the only time “Father Andy” has spoken in the courtroom since he pleaded not guilty to five sex abuse charges.
The jury did not hear Father Andy’s brief answers; they were in the back room on a break. And when it comes time to decide the priest’s fate tomorrow, the jury of 10 women and two men will have to try and reach a verdict without ever hearing a word from the defendant other than his repeated plea of “Not Guilty.”
Defense lawyer Trevan Borum told the judge that the decision for the defendant to not take the witness stand was “based on the Commonwealth’s evidence,” or presumably lack thereof. There is no physical evidence in the case, only the words of the alleged victim about an incident that supposedly happened behind closed doors of a church rectory 18 years ago.
But another factor in Borum’s decision had to be Father Andy’s disastrous performance on the witness stand a year ago during his first trial. William J. Brennan, Father Andy’s previous defense lawyer, conceded to that jury in his closing that Father Andy was “a bit of an awkward guy” who turned “beet red” on the witness stand and generally looked like “a deer in the headlights.”
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