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American Morning

Cardinal Law Resumes Testimony

Aired May 13, 2002 - 08:01   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, Cardinal Bernard Law resumes his testimony under oath today in Boston about his handling of a sexually abusive priest, John Geoghan. And there was a report out yesterday about details regarding the testimony several years ago of New York Cardinal Edward Egan. "The Washington Post" reports that in videotaped testimony in 1997, Egan, who was then the head of the Bridgeport, Connecticut, diocese, said he would not summarily suspend a priest even in the face of shocking allegations of abuse.

And joining us now with more on these developments is CNN's Jason Carroll in Boston -- good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Paula.

Let's start out with Cardinal Law. He's scheduled to be deposed in just about an hour from now. The attorney representing the plaintiffs in this case, Mitchell Garabedian, says he's going to focus on two subjects today. The first will be why Cardinal Law allegedly allowed defrocked priest John Geoghan to have access to children, even though there were several allegations of abuse. And two, why the archdiocese backed out of a multi-million dollar settlement after they had agreed to pay the 86 plaintiffs who say they were abused by Geoghan.

Last week, Law said the archdiocese's finance council overruled his decision to pay out that settlement. He also said he could not remember many details surrounding allegations of abuse. Now, that angered one of Geoghan's alleged victims, Patrick McSorely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK MCSORELY: Because he, it's obvious that he was lying and, you know, how could you not remember a letter, an urgent letter being sent to you saying that someone's child was molested and then pass it on to someone else and forget about the whole thing? I mean that just sickens me. Not only did, is he saying that he not remember, which was lying, but he passed it on to someone else and had someone else take care of it and brushed it off himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: There was an awkward moment during that deposition on Friday. Cardinal Law walked up to Patrick McSorely and asked to shake his hand and Patrick McSorely refused, saying it was something he simply could not do at that moment.

And, Paula, because of what's happened here in Boston, it's really put the spotlight on other cases of priest abuse in other cities. As you said at the top there, New York's Cardinal Edward Egan is now coming under fire for what he said during a deposition five years ago when he was bishop of the Bridgeport diocese. That was a civil case involving a priest by the name of Laurence Brett.

During that deposition some five years ago, Egan reportedly said that he wrote Brett a letter of recommendation even though there were allegations of abuse. He also said that priests were "self-employed" and not the responsibility of bishops. Well, most recently Egan has said that he has adopted a zero tolerance policy.

Now, getting back to Law, back here in Boston, once again, his deposition will begin in about an hour and Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney for the plaintiffs, has already indicated, Paula, that even though this is supposed to be the last day of the deposition, he says he might need an additional day or two to continue questioning Cardinal Law under oath -- Paula.

ZAHN: And then, Jason, if you would, talk about the process once the deposition is finished, the judge now saying that it won't even be made public for a month and during that period of time the cardinal can go back and review it and amend it. Is that a normal practice, to be able to amend your testimony?

CARROLL: It is a normal practice. But many of us are questioning, Paula, why the attorneys for the archdiocese made this decision on Friday. They could have made this decision on Wednesday. Many of us were speculating that after Wednesday, as you know, many of the transcripts came out. Some say that those transcripts were damaging because Cardinal Law was saying several times he couldn't remember key events in terms of these allegations surrounding John Geoghan.

But it is a matter of law. Cardinal Law does have the right to review the documents, to review the transcripts to make sure there are no errors or any mistakes. He has 30 days in order to do that.

ZAHN: It's interesting, Jason, what you just said, though, the selective amnesia critique certainly had an impact in this one.

Thanks so much for the update. Good luck in the continued coverage of this story.

CARROLL: Thank you.

ZAHN: It gets more complicated every day.

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