Connecticut priest charged with possession of child porn
By Nina Melendez, CNN updated 11:23 AM EDT, Wed July 4, 2012
(CNN) -- A Catholic priest in Waterford, Connecticut, has been charged with possession of child pornography, according to a statement Tuesday from Waterford police.
Dennis Carey, 66, who resigned recently as the pastor at St. Paul Parish Rectory in Waterford, was originally held on $100,000 bond after appearing Tuesday in New London Superior Court, the statement said. The court appearance was a bond hearing and no plea was entered, according to CNN affiliate WFSB.
CNN affiliate WTNH [ http://www.wtnh.com/ ] reported that Carey was later released on bond.
"It's an addiction that he's going through and he needs help for it," Carey's attorney, Ron Stevens, told WTNH. "And as he mentioned in court, he said to (the judge) 'I need help and I want help.' "
"There's no allegations here of any inappropriate touching of children or anything of that nature," Stevens said.
"He feels very, very, very bad about it. He has an appointment this afternoon with a psychiatrist," the attorney said. "He's going to look for forgiveness."
Waterford police said they arrested Carey on Monday.
According to the police statement, the investigation began in May after America Online (AOL) submitted a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children "concerning suspected child pornography that had been sent using an AOL email account."
The probe started in Los Angeles, but then led "to a possible suspect residing in the state of Connecticut," where authorities seized evidence at the St. Paul Parish Rectory.
"These allegations are extremely serious and run contrary to everything we believe as a church," said Catholic Bishop Michael R. Cote of the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut. "To exploit children in that fashion is absolutely reprehensible."
Salvatore Cordileone, Gay Marriage Opponent And Prop. 8 Creator, Named Archbishop Of San Francisco (VIDEO)
By Robin Wilkey Posted: 07/27/2012 8:30 pm Updated: 07/28/2012 4:16 pm
The Vatican dealt a huge blow to the Bay Area's fight for gay rights on Friday, naming Salvatore Cordileone--one of the California's leading opponents of same-sex marriage and a creator of Proposition 8--the Archbishop of San Francisco.
Cordileone will officially take his post on October 4. As Archbishop, he will oversee bishops in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Reno, Oakland, Stockton, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City.
Cordileone made headlines in 2008 when he helped draft Proposition 8, calling same-sex marriage "a plot by the evil one" to destroy the world during a radio interview. According to ABC, he personally donated at least $6,000 to the 2008 ban [ http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/gay-marriage-ban-supporter-named-sf-archbishop-16874635 ], and is currently the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.
"This isn't a marriage made in heaven," said state assemblyman Tom Ammiano [id.] to the San Francisco Chronicle. Ammiano represents San Francisco and is gay.
The Huffington Post contacted Most Holy Redeemer Church, a parish in the Castro known for its inclusive community, for a statement. Father Brian Costello, the pastor at the parish, said that the church did not yet have a comment, but that he would be sharing a few words about the appointment at Sunday mass.
Developer Eustace Mita bids $3.65 million - his final bid before dropping out. The property eventually went for $4.125 million. Elizabeth Robertson/Staff
Newtown Square couple win an auction for Phila. Archdiocese's Shore property.
By Amy S. Rosenberg Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Sun, Sep. 16, 2012, 6:55 AM
VENTNOR, N.J. - With a bid of $4.125 million, Steve and Ilene Berger of Newtown Square won Saturday's auction of an oceanfront villa owned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that played host to decades of vacationing and elderly priests.
The Bergers said they planned to preserve the former St. Joseph's Villa by the Sea as a family vacation compound for their children and grandchildren, retain longtime caretaker Fran McManus, and have the priests over for an annual party.
First, a second-story porch expansion, a total renovation - and a mezuzah, the ritual parchment placed on doorposts of Jewish homes.
"I feel very blessed to have this home," said Ilene Berger, who blurted out an incremental $25,000 raise in the bid price to seal the deal for the property. "It's a very spiritual house."
Before the auction, archdiocese representative Thomas M. Croke, who is handling property distribution for the church as it tries to solve its financial crisis, said there were "lots of mixed feelings."
Afterward, archdiocese officials, who watched the auction stoically from the side, declined to comment and left immediately after signing papers with the Bergers.
It was not quite a steal of the former church property at 114 S. Princeton Ave., but the consensus among those present, including two developers who bid against the Bergers, was that it was a very good deal.
The 21,875-square-foot, 11-room, Tudor-style mansion was assessed at $6.2 million and commanded $114,500 in property taxes.
The archdiocese, facing a $6 million deficit and legal costs of at least $11.6 million since the 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report on clergy sex abuse, was eager to unload the property.
The auction, conducted by the Max Spann agency, took place under a tent in the property's spacious backyard, with bidders facing what was once a shrine to the Virgin Mary, and onlookers from the boardwalk peeping over the brick wall surrounding the yard.
The winning bid came after fierce bidding between the Bergers, local contractor Maurice Davis, and two developers who both were planning to tear down the building and subdivide the lot.
The official sale price was $4,537,500 after a 10 percent buyers fee. The terms of the auction required the Bergers to post 10 percent immediately and close within 45 days.
The auction took a total of about 20 minutes, and nearly ended at a $3.8 million bid from the Bergers, with a going once, and going twice called out by auctioneer Joe Bodnar.
At that point, officials from Max Spann went off with archdiocese officials. They returned to say that the archdiocese had indicated it would accept any bid from that point on: The auction was now absolute.
They were able to coax out an additional $300,000, as the Bergers, who own a rental property business in Pennsylvania, went head to head with Mark Hankin of Elkins Park, a developer who was there with his wife, and on the phone with his brother-in-law.
At one point, with Hankin holding the high bid at $3.95 million, the Bergers were looking at each other and saying, "It's your call," and "No, it's your call," back and forth. Ultimately, they upped their bid.
Hankin let it stand. "She'll butcher me, but we'll let it pass," he said into the phone before ending his bidding.
Standing next to the Bergers, Deborah Buchalski, a renovator and builder who runs Remarkable Renovations and has preserved several historic homes in Ventnor, erupted in glee. She will oversee the renovation of the home for the couple.
"It was a little scary for me, but I'm just very thrilled," said Ilene Berger.
The backyard with its contemplative lily pond could easily be transformed into a generous swimming pool, and the Bergers - who have three children and four grandchildren, with two more on the way - said they planned to do just that.
It could also have been subdivided into six lots, and neighbors said they were relieved that the house would stay. (Another landmark Ventnor property, on Dorset Avenue, sold several years ago by the Sisters of Charity, was later torn down; much of the land is still vacant.)
"I think this is the best outcome for the archdiocese and for Ventnor, even though I'm a developer," said Eustace Mita, of Ocean City and Media, who dropped out of the bidding after it went above $3.875 million.
Gayle Economou, a neighbor on Portland Avenue, was also relieved. "I've been so nervous. It's critical to my view." She watched the auction from her balcony.
McManus, whose family had overseen the care of the priests for four decades, was all smiles. "It's wonderful," she said. She predicted the priests would take the Bergers up on their offer for an annual reunion.
Local real estate agents had predicted the property could command in the area of $5 million and would likely attract investors looking to raze the century-old residence and build homes on single lots.
The archdiocese has been engaged in massive restructuring, cost-cutting, and selling of assets, including the cardinal's residence outside Philadelphia.
Still, the property had enormous sentimental and practical value to the priests, especially the retired and elderly ones.
It was acquired in 1963 by then-Archbishop John Krol from Hannah G. Hogan, a real estate investor and owner of a plumbing supply company. Hogan wanted the home used for elderly and ill priests in memory of her brother, the Rev. Edward Hogan.
Though the property - which Hogan had bought for $55,000 in 1961 - was said to have been donated to the archdiocese, its June 2, 1963, deed shows tax stamps indicating a price of $100,000, according to the Atlantic County Clerk's Office.
That discrepancy was never resolved; the tax stamps could indicate a value placed on the property or a sale.
Under the direction of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, the church embarked on a $500,000 renovation at the same time it was closing parishes in Philadelphia, leading to protests at the property. The renovations later were said to have been paid for by the John Connelly family of Pittsburgh.
Archdiocese officials said they had found some indication in the papers of Cardinal Krol that Hogan wished the property to remain in the church's hands indefinitely, but there was no legal barrier to a sale.
In any case, Hogan was a significant donor to the church; the property is now one of the highest-assessed homes in Ventnor and amounted to a $4.5 million donation at the end.
By John P. Martin Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Tue, Sep. 18, 2012, 3:01 AM
In March, Edward Avery made a bombshell decision: He took a plea deal.
Avery, a former priest, admitted he had sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in 1999. He was sentenced to 21/2 to five years in prison.
Weeks later, the victim described the attack for jurors at the landmark clergy sex-abuse trial of Avery's codefendant, Msgr. William J. Lynn. After hearing the testimony, the jury convicted Lynn of endangerment because he had let Avery live at the boy's parish.
On Monday, Lynn's lawyers dropped their own bombshell in their latest bid to free him on bail. They said that Avery lied about abusing the altar boy in order to win a lighter term, and that "zealous and single-minded prosecutors" hid the information from them because they were determined to convict Lynn, the first church official charged with enabling abuse.
In a motion in Superior Court, Lynn's lawyers say they learned last month that Avery gave prosecutors a statement, and took a polygraph test, in which he denied even knowing the victim, much less assaulting him twice after Masses at St. Jerome Church in Northeast Philadelphia.
If Avery didn't abuse the boy, they argue, then how did Lynn endanger him? "At the very least, knowledge of this information would have affected the tactical decisions" of the defense, Thomas Bergstrom, Allison Khaskelis, and Alan Tauber wrote in their brief.
Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams, said the office would have no comment until it filed its response with the court.
The odds for Lynn remain long.
Polygraph results are not admissible in Pennsylvania courts. And Lynn's argument, part of a new motion for bail, requires an appeals court that already denied him bail not only to reconsider that decision, but to wade into an evidentiary issue usually left to the trial judge, who repeatedly rejected other arguments from Lynn.
But the allegation could recast the historic case, and affect others still looming.
One is the trial of another priest, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, accused of molesting the same boy at the same parish in the 1990s. The other is a civil suit that the accuser, now in his 20s, has filed against Lynn, Avery, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
In many ways, Avery, 70, was the linchpin in the prosecution of Lynn, the former clergy secretary for Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, who for a dozen years recommended assignments for area priests and was responsible for investigating abuse claims.
When a 28-year-old man told Lynn in 1992 that Avery had molested him as a teen, the clergy secretary had Avery removed from ministry and sent to a church-run hospital for treatment. Lynn also put Avery's name atop a confidential list of area priests he described as "guilty of sexual misconduct with minors."
But in 1995, he recommended that the cardinal return Avery to ministry, and let him live and celebrate Mass at St. Jerome's.
Twice in 1999, prosecutors said, Avery assaulted the altar boy after Masses there, forcing him to dance a striptease and engage in oral sex in a room near the sacristy.
The same boy said he had been previously abused by Engelhardt, a member of a religious order who was living at the rectory, and that Avery mentioned "sessions" with Engelhardt before forcing himself on the boy.
The assertion that two priests abused the same boy in the same church - and knew about each other's misdeeds - was among the most sordid details to emerge in a decade of allegations involving Philadelphia-area priests. It helped draw a national spotlight to a 2011 grand jury report that led to the arrests of Lynn, Avery, Engelhardt, and a fourth accused priest, James Brennan.
But Engelhardt was not a diocesan priest or under Lynn's authority, and he ultimately won a bid for a separate trial. And there was no evidence that Lynn had any prior knowledge of wrongdoing by Brennan. So Avery became critical.
Lynn's lawyers contended that Avery was the lone "mistake" in Lynn's tenure, the only priest ever accused of misconduct after the secretary for clergy had reviewed his case and recommended action.
At the trial, Lynn himself apologized for the attack on the St. Jerome's altar boy, but insisted he had no signs that Avery would re-offend.
Prosecutors said they had evidence that Avery might have molested as many as a half-dozen boys over the decades. But for the plea deal, they required that he admit an attack against just the St. Jerome's altar boy and conspiring with Lynn.
Asked during his hearing by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina if he felt he had to plead guilty because he was guilty, Avery paused, then said: "It's something I have discussed and decided to do."
In return he got a prison term that could parole him by age 72.
Avery's plea put Lynn's defense lawyers in a bind. The judge told them that if they tried to challenge the St. Jerome's altar boy on the witness stand, she would let prosecutors tell jurors that Avery had pleaded guilty to the crime. So they declined to cross-examine the accuser.
Bergstrom said Monday that he learned only weeks ago that Avery's lawyers had shared the polygraph results and Avery's denials with prosecutors before negotiating the plea deal. He maintains that it violated court rules that require prosecutors to turn over any material that could help a defendant prove his innocence.
"We all sort of suspected that Avery didn't do it," Bergstrom said Monday. But, he added, "we didn't know he told the commonwealth that."
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