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  Father Bierman Has Cancer

By Paul A. Long
Cincinnati Post [Kentucky]
June 2, 2005

Earl Bierman is dying.

The suspended Catholic priest, who in Northern Kentucky became the epitome of the sex-abuse crisis in the church, has been diagnosed with cancer and given less than a year to live, said Parole Board executive director James O'Keefe.

Because of that, officials at the Department of Corrections are asking the state Parole Board to take another look at whether Bierman should be released a year early from his 20-year prison sentence.

"The board is hearing this at the request of the Department of Corrections," O'Keefe said. "It will consider a medical termination of his sentence."

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb confirmed the request, and said the board will meet with Bierman at the Kentucky State Reformatory outside LaGrange on July 7. But she said she could not release additional information about Bierman's health because of federal privacy laws.

"We have requested medical parole," Lamb said.

The hearing is a special addition to the board's regular hearings. Bierman was not on the original list, but was added last week, O'Keefe said.

With good time, points for educational classes and other credits, Bierman's sentence is now scheduled to end in March 2006, O'Keefe said.

The 73-year-old pleaded guilty in 1993 to 28 charges of sexual abuse involving the molestation of six boys in Campbell, Kenton and Mason counties in the 1960s and 1970s. Church records showed he had dozens of victims, and his crimes occurred while he was a priest, teacher and guidance counselor at St. Patrick School in Maysville, Newport Catholic High School and Covington Latin School.

A plea agreement centered all the charges in Campbell County, where Commonwealth Attorney Jack Porter said he has mixed feelings about whether Bierman should be released or should die in prison.

"On the one hand, we could show him some mercy," said Porter, who was an assistant prosecutor when the three-county deal was negotiated.

"But he never showed any mercy for his victims. I've watched him in the courtroom, and he never showed any remorse."

Porter said he wants to talk to victims before deciding whether he will oppose, support, or take no position on Bierman's parole. He said another factor to consider is where Bierman will live should he be released from prison.

A Kenton County jury in 1995 awarded a Fort Thomas man whom Bierman abused nearly $750,000 in damages. The diocese of Covington and its insurance company had to pay out the money after the jury determined the church was liable for not warning people about Bierman's behavior.

It remains the only such lawsuit to have gone to trial in Northern Kentucky, although the diocese has paid out millions of dollars to others sexually victimized by the clergy. The diocese is facing a class-action lawsuit in Boone County alleging a 50-year cover-up of sexual abuse by priests and other employees of the diocese.

In 1997, after serving four years of his sentence, Bierman went before the Parole Board for the first and only time.

Citing the nature of his crimes and his lack of remorse, the board ordered Bierman to serve out the remainder of his sentence.