Priest Arrested On Child Rape Charges
Originally published by MSNBC and News Services, May 2, 2002
BOSTON — A retired Roman Catholic priest who allegedly advocated sex between men and boys was arrested Thursday morning in San Diego on three counts of rape of a child in Massachusetts, officials said. The investigation is continuing, officials said, and the Rev. Paul Shanley could soon face more charges relating to more alleged victims.
The Middlesex County, Mass., district attorney's office got information on the allegations against Shanley this week from the alleged victim, a man of 24 who was a boy of 6 when the alleged rapes began, District Attorney Martha Coakley said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Shanley has been at the center of the Boston church abuse scandal, which spurred other accusations and allegations against priests nationwide, sparked a crisis in confidence in Roman Catholic Church leaders over their handling of sexual abuse allegations, and led to an extraordinary gathering of U.S. cardinals at the Vatican last month.
Shanley was at a friend's residence in San Diego on Thursday morning, Coakley said. San Diego police and U.S. marshals went to the house at 7:45 a.m. PT (10:45 a.m. ET), made a phone call to Shanley in the residence and asked him to surrender, Coakley said. Shortly thereafter, the officers were let into the house and took him into custody without incident, she said.
RAPES ALLEGED FROM 1983 TO 1990
Officials allege that Shanley raped the victim between 1983 and 1990 at St. Jean Parish in Newton.
The charges were the first to be filed against Shanley, who has been the focus of a civil lawsuit against the Boston archdiocese. The district attorney's office does not release the name of rape victims. It was unclear whether the victim in the criminal case is the same man who has filed the civil suit leveling similar accusations against Shanley.
"This man was a monster in the Archdiocese of Boston for many, many years," Roderick MacLeish, who is representing Shanley's accusers in the civil case, said last month.
Shanley was being held on a fugitive warrant in the San Diego County Jail.
Shanley may fight that warrant or waive his right to contest it, in which case Massachusetts would move to have him brought to the state for arraignment on the rape charges, Coakley said. It was unclear whether Shanley would fight the fugitive warrant. An extradition hearing will be Friday, the U.S. marshal's office said.
The maximum sentence for child rape in Massachusetts is life in prison.
Coakley said her office moved quickly once there was probable cause to arrest Shanley to ensure that he did not leave the country. Police in Newton, Mass., showed probable cause Wednesday night, she said.
Coakley said her office had feared Shanley had fled the country until television reporters tracked him down in San Diego during the last few days.
"We're pretty relieved. We were concerned," she said.
'REIGN OF TERROR'
Parishioner Jacqueline Gavreau told NBC News' Rehema Ellis that she had been trying since 1981 to get the archdiocese to take some action.
"It's about time his reign of terror is over," Gavreau said Thursday.
In a statement, Donna Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the Boston archdiocese, said: "Our hope is that the arrest of retired priest Paul Shanley … will bring some level of relief and contribute to the healing of those who have been sexually abused as children and teenagers, their families, and all who suffer during this horrific time."
There are "other credible witnesses," Coakley said, and charges involving more rapes of more victims are likely soon. In some cases, allegations involve acts for which the statute of limitations has run out, she said. For child rape, the statute of limitations runs for 10 years after the victim's 16th birthday, she said. The alleged victim in the three charges is now 24.
LOCATIONS OF ABUSE
The victim alleges that Shanley would take him or other boys out of weekly Christian doctrine classes at the church to one of three locations: the bathroom, the rectory or the confessional, Coakley said. She said the witnesses indicated that such occurrences happened almost weekly from 1983 to 1990, except when Shanley was out of town or during the summer, when classes were not held. The classes are usually attended by children who are not enrolled at parochial schools.
Shanley allegedly told his accuser that if he told anyone about the abuse, no one would believe him, Coakley said. The accuser kept quiet but told authorities this week after media accounts of abuse allegations against priests became widespread, Coakley said.
Documents released a month ago in connection with the civil suit show that archdiocese officials had received reports of his attendance at a 1979 meeting in Boston at which the North American Man Boy Love Association was apparently created. And, despite receiving dozens of allegations of abuse, officials did not warn a California diocese when Shanley moved there in 1990.
The alleged abuse cited in the criminal case began months before Shanley was promoted from administrator of the parish to pastor.
"I am confident that you will have a zealous and fruitful ministry in your new appointment," Cardinal Bernard Law wrote Shanley in announcing the promotion in December 1984.
Last week, the archdiocese released 800 pages of records in the case. They included Shanley's own writings on his life as a street priest, including how he frequently visited clinics for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
Gregory Ford, 24, and his parents, Paula and Rodney, are suing the archdiocese and Law for negligence for allowing Shanley to be posted to the Newton parish, where Ford was allegedly repeatedly abused and raped as a child.
POSITIVE RETIREMENT LETTER
Despite the revelations that the diocese was aware of Shanley's advocacy of sex between men and boys, Law moved Shanley around the archdiocese and wrote him a positive retirement letter, the documents show. The archdiocese also recommended Shanley for a post at a California church without telling officials there about his background.
The family is seeking the release of still more records: Shanley's psychiatric and other medical assessments that were ordered by the Roman Catholic archdiocese during his tenure.
Attorney Frank Mondano, who represents Shanley, said Wednesday that his client never waived his right to keep psychiatric and other medical assessments private. He also said the archdiocese never had the records, though they are referred to in archdiocese correspondence.
Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders did not immediately issue a ruling on the release of the documents. Shanley had been scheduled to be deposed in the case Thursday.
Shanley, 71, has issued no public statements since the case began. A call to Mondano seeking comment on the arrest Thursday was not immediately returned.
Shanley, who was ordained in 1960, served as a street priest in Massachusetts until 1979. He was transferred to the San Bernardino Diocese in 1990. While serving as a pastor part-time, he also owned a hotel that catered to gays in Palm Springs, Calif.
Shanley was fired from a volunteer job at the San Diego Police Department after the sex abuse allegations surfaced in Boston.
