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CNN Live Today

Attorney Discusses Lawsuits Against Boston Church

Aired May 08, 2002 - 13:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: An unusual and difficult day for the Boston Archdiocese, with Cardinal Bernard Law being deposed in a lawsuit.

CNN's Jason Carroll is following the developments in Boston. He brings us more.

Hi -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Kyra.

The morning session has ended, and the afternoon session of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law of his deposition is just about to get underway. Cardinal Law arrived for his deposition just a few minutes before it was scheduled to begin early this morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time.

The deposition is related to a civil case involving defrocked priest John Geoghan. Geoghan was convicted earlier this year of molesting a young boy. But he is accused of molesting scores of children over the past few years. The Archdiocese of Boston has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with 86 of the alleged victims in the Geoghan civil suit.

But the Archdiocese backed out of that agreement last Friday, saying it didn't have enough. And basically, what happened after that is that prompted the attorney for the plaintiffs in that civil case, Mitchell Garabedian, to immediately push for Cardinal Law's deposition.

Earlier this morning, he talked about what he expected to get out of the deposition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCHELL GARABEDIAN, ALLEGED VICTIMS' ATTORNEY: I hope he's honest. I hope he isn't evasive. I hope he just gives us straightforward answers and comes clean.

QUESTION: How extensive do you expect the questioning to be?

GARABEDIAN: I think this will go on for days, with the court's permission.

QUESTION: What are you hoping to learn from the Cardinal today. What do you want to ask him?

GARABEDIAN: I want to ask him about his participation, his activity and his knowledge about Father Geoghan sexual molestations and his activity with regard to the Archdiocese and his policies involving sexual molestation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: The deposition is expected to take a few days. We are expected to get transcripts of the depositions sometime later this afternoon.

Very quickly, Kyra, I just want to recap about why this is such a difficult time for the Archdiocese of Boston, because not only are they dealing with this civil case involving John Geoghan, but they also have to deal with a criminal case involving Father Paul Shanley. He's accused of child molestation, as well. In fact, he's facing three counts of child rape. He was arraigned on those charges yesterday. In addition to criminal case there's also a civil case pending against Father Shanley.

Yesterday, former Priest Ronald Paquin was arrested and charged with one count of child rape. He was arraigned on those charges today. Paquin was removed from the ministry back in 1990. So what we have out here in Boston is different cases, some of them civil, some of the cases are criminal. But the one common denominator that seems to exist between all these different cases is that you have priest who are accused of sexually abusing young children, and yet they were moved from parish to parish. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Jason Carroll, thanks so much. Let's talk more about this.

Our next guest knows quite a bit about defending clergy.

Patrick Scheltz has defended 500 cases ranging from sex abuse to murder. He's currently interim dean of law at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

Dean, hello.

PATRICK SCHELTZ, FORMER DEFENSE ATTORNEY, UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS: Hi.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about the number of cases that you have handled. And talk about numbers here. I'm curious, the cases that were not that of false accusations. How did it weigh out?

SCHELTZ: Well, when I was in private practice, before I went into teaching, I was involved in about 500 clergy sexual misconduct cases. In my opinion, as the lawyer defending the church, probably fewer than ten of them involved false allegations.

PHILLIPS: Wow! How many of them were settled?

SCHELTZ: Almost all of them. Probably about a half dozen or so went to some kind of a trial. But all of the rest were settled one way or another.

PHILLIPS: You said that it's a weird thing, how the media turned on this story. What do you mean by that?

SCHELTZ: For someone like me that's been involved in this issue for 15 years, there's absolutely nothing new here. I just listened to your reporter who said the one thing all these cases have in common are priests abusing children. The other thing they all have in common is that they're all old. They're all ten years old, 15 years old, 20 years old. Not only were the cases old, but we knew about these cases. We knew about the priest. We knew about the conduct of the bishop. We knew about this years ago. And what's curious for someone like me is why suddenly so much attention.

PHILLIPS: You mention how many years back these go. Do you think that memory will be a factor in hurting this deposition?

SCHELTZ: Yes. I expect it will be. We have a case in Minneapolis here that just broke yesterday, where someone is accusing a priest of having abused in the mid 1950s during the Eisenhower administration. And church officials, those that are alive, will be asked about decisions they made over a half-century ago. You can't help but have memory effect those cases.

PHILLIPS: How would you prepare Cardinal Law for deposition.

SCHELTZ: There's a bunch of things you do. But the first, second and third things I would tell him are be honest, be honest, and be honest, because this is the first of what I suspect will be a long series of depositions for him. And if he screws up in this deposition, he will live to regret.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Now you talk about be honest, be honest, be honest. Let's talk about talking, talking, talking. A lot of time, men of the cloth, pastors, ministers have empathy, and they're very sensitive and they like to talk, and that can hurt them. Now you have somebody like Cardinal Law, and there's a bit of stoicism in his personality. Do you think that will hurt him or help him?

SCHELTZ: I've never met Cardinal Law. I suspect he'll be a terrible deponent. I say that for two reasons. One is that clergy, generally, for the reason you suggest, are terrible deponents because they love to talk, and they're used to talking without being interrupted. It will be a double problem for Cardinal Law because he's in a position of authority. He's not only used to talking a lot; he's used to people taking his word because it's his word. That's not the atmosphere inside a deposition room.

PHILLIPS: What about taking the Fifth? That probably wouldn't be smart idea. Could we see that happen?

SCHELTZ: He theoretically could. I've read the newspaper stories where people have speculated about whether Cardinal Law himself could be criminally prosecuted. So he has the ability to do it. For him to do so would just be a public relations disaster. I'd be very surprised if he would do so. PHILLIPS: What do you say we talk after the deposition and get your reaction?

SCHELTZ: I'd be happy to.

PHILLIPS: Terrific. Dean Patrick Scheltz, thanks so much.

SCHELTZ: You're welcome.

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