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  Foley Lawyers Give Name of Priest to Prosecutors

By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald [Florida]
October 18, 2006

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/15790653.htm

Attorneys for disgraced former congressman Mark Foley say they've just given Palm Beach County prosecutors the name of the Catholic priest who allegedly abused their client when he was a boy.

In a one-paragraph written statement, attorney Gerald Richman said the lawyers believe the priest who committed "sexual misconduct" no longer lives in the United States. Richman issued the statement after telephone conversations with attorneys for the Archdiocese of Miami and the Diocese of Palm Beach.

A spokesman for Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer said the office will not release the name of the suspect at this time. Krischer spokesman Mike Edmondson said a criminal case will be tough to prosecute because the statute of limitations on the as-yet-undescribed crime has probably passed.

"In cases of abuse, we need a specific allegation and we don't have one right now," said Edmondson. "The victim would have to file a complaint, detail what occurred, when it happened and where."

After resigning his congressional seat over lurid messages sent to teenage House pages, Foley publicly declared he was gay, which many associates knew, and that he was an alcoholic, which has raised questions, because associates have said he was not a drinker. Foley then said he was sexually abused as a teenager. He is cloistered in a rehabilitation center at an undisclosed location.

Raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, Foley was an altar boy and attended Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach.

One of his former guidance counselors and a family friend, Palm Beach town councilman Bill Brooks, said he doesn't think Foley's claim that he was molested is credible.

 
 

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