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American Morning

Interview with Robert Sherman

Aired June 21, 2002 - 08:10   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We want to get to Boston now, where a central figure in the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic archdiocese now in the legal spotlight again. The Reverend Paul Shanley charged yesterday with multiple counts of child rape and indecent assault. More new charges were added, as well.

Shanley has been in custody since his arrest last month and his lawyer says the 71-year-old retired priest will fight the charges against him.

Robert Sherman represents a number of Shanley's alleged abuse victims. He now joins us live this morning from Boston.

Sir, good morning to you.

ROBERT SHERMAN, ATTORNEY FOR ALLEGED ABUSE VICTIMS: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: How does the indictment yesterday and the new charges presented change this case right now?

SHERMAN: Well, I think it puts a lot more pressure on Paul Shanley. Instead of dealing with one victim, now he's dealing with four separate people who are making four separate sets of charges against him. It enhances the credibility of each charge when there are multiple people coming forward saying the same thing.

So I think that this is putting not only a lot of pressure on Paul Shanley, it's also putting a lot of pressure, again, on the Boston archdiocese in terms of their conduct here and the fact that they didn't take the appropriate steps to ensure that priests such as Shanley had, did not have access to children and were put in positions where they could commit rape and sexual assault on young boys.

HEMMER: I want to get into that argument a bit later here. But what is the reaction so far from the accusers?

SHERMAN: Well, I think that, you know, it's a sad situation. Nobody's happy to be able to say that this is, that they were sexually assaulted by a priest. But I think that there is a feeling after decades now that justice may be on the horizon. Everybody understands that Paul Shanley is presumed to be innocent. Everybody wants to make sure that he has a fair trial. But the accusers also want their day in court and to be able to say this is what this man did to me when I was six years old up to the age of 12, and this is why he should be put in prison.

HEMMER: Part of this story, as you well know, hits at the center of the archdiocese in Boston, and was the a cover-up, was there a shuffling of priests who they know allegedly that they had abused young boys at some point, be it 10, 15, 20 years ago. How much of your case can you anticipate right now will hit at the heart of the archdiocese?

SHERMAN: Well, I think there are a number of cases that are going to hit at the heart of the archdiocese. I, you know, I mean, for instance, there was a letter that Paul Shanley sent to the hierarchy of the archdiocese in 1994 where he raised the issue of public charges being brought against him and asked about his idea of creating a safe house for priests accused of sexual abuse, a safe house in the CIA sense of that word.

The response from the archdiocese was we're thinking about doing that anyway and that we're looking into finding an appropriate place. The notion of the hierarchy of the church taking church money and using it to put priests accused of sexual assault out of the reach of law enforcement authorities is abhorrent to anybody. And I think that certainly, you know, information like that that comes out is highly damaging to the credibility of the church.

HEMMER: It has been said, sir, the investigation is still wide open. Do you anticipate more coming forward?

SHERMAN: Well, I think that the difficulty in the investigation is the limited statute of limitations that many of them don't have the kind of elasticity to cover conduct that took place this long ago. And I think that that's certainly a frustration by a number of the district attorneys or expressed by a number of the district attorneys and the attorney general in the Commonwealth in terms of further criminal indictments.

Certainly the civil cases will move forward and I know that the criminal cases are still active.

HEMMER: Listen, I don't have much time left here. But it was a week ago today when Dallas broke and the new policy was announced.

SHERMAN: Yes.

HEMMER: I'm curious to know from the clients you represent, how are they reacting to the new church policy going forward? Are they encouraged by it? What are they saying?

SHERMAN: Well, I think, you know, the policy is great, you know, on its face. But a policy is only words on paper. Unless you have a commitment by the people that are running the organization to truly affect changes and I think that that's still an open question. Certainly the rhetoric from the Boston archdiocese has changed markedly over the last three days since Dallas, and there's been an expression of certainly a willingness to enter into potential settlement negotiations with the victims to put this behind.

You know, the proof will be in the pudding and we'll just have to see.

HEMMER: The trial begins when?

SHERMAN: The Shanley trial won't be for probably at least another year. We've gone on a 30 day cooling off period with respect to the civil suits to explore a settlement.

HEMMER: OK.

Robert Sherman, the victims' attorney there in Boston, thanks for your time. Good day.

SHERMAN: Thank you.

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