Boston priest's child-rape case goes to jury

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A jury yesterday began deliberating the fate of defrocked priest Paul Shanley, charged with raping a boy at his Boston-area church in the 1980s.

The jury received the case after lawyers clashed over the validity of the repressed memories Shanley's accuser said came to him three years ago, when the Boston church abuse scandal broke.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for 30 minutes before the judge sent them home for the day. They were to return today.

The defense earlier presented a sole witness: a psychologist who argued that some people's repressed memories are false. Shanley's lawyer said the accuser's claims of sexual abuse were lies orchestrated by personal-injury lawyers.

But prosecutor Lynn Rooney said the accuser had no reason to lie, particularly since he was required to endure three days of intense questioning on the witness stand.

The accuser, now a 27-year-old suburban firefighter, testified that Shanley began raping him during second grade.

He says memories of the abuse came flooding back three years ago after he heard a friend's account of similar abuse.

In closing arguments, Shanley's attorney, Frank Mondano, said the man contacted personal-

injury lawyers soon after he recovered his memories in February 2002. The attorneys filed a suit on his behalf three months later. The man received $500,000 in a settlement with the Boston Archdiocese in May 2004.

Most priests accused in lawsuits avoided criminal prosecution because the alleged crimes were committed long ago, so charges were barred by the statute of limitations. But Shanley moved from Massachusetts, stopping the clock and allowing authorities to arrest him in California in May 2002.

Archdiocese personnel records showed that church officials knew Shanley advocated sex between men and boys, yet continued to transfer him from parish to parish. He was defrocked by the Vatican last year.

He faces life in prison if convicted.