Judge, victims condemn the Worcester Diocese

Saturday, October 25, 2003

Kelley's lawyer urging leniency

Salerno says priest doesn't deserve prison

By Rich Nangle
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Worcester lawyer Anthony Salerno believes prison is not the right punishment for his client, the Rev. Robert E. Kelley, who has been convicted of child rape for a second time.

Mr. Salerno says the 61-year-old Rev. Kelley, who has already served a 61/2 year prison term, has been a model prisoner, has participated in rehabilitation programs and cares for his 91-year-old father.

To send him back to prison serves no purpose, the lawyer insists, emphasizing there is no evidence that his client has committed an offense since 1986.

Mr. Salerno is preparing motions to have his request for a house arrest-type arrangement revisited.

Others, including a criminologist and an advocate for abuse victims, say prison is appropriate.

Rev. Kelley received a 5-to-7-year state prison sentence in Worcester Superior Court earlier this month after pleading guilty to raping two young girls during the early 1980s.

It was Rev. Kelley's second conviction for child rape. In 1990, the priest was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to six counts of rape of a child, served 61/2 years, and was released in 1996. Rev. Kelley committed those offenses after the ones for which he was sentenced earlier this month.

``I was optimistic that we could fashion a more creative sentence, given his history,'' Mr. Salerno said. ``I was very disappointed to say the least. It's devastating to the rehabilitation process to know the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.''

In sentencing Rev. Kelley, Judge John S. McCann noted that the priest had been less than forthcoming 13 years ago when he said he could not remember the names of any other women he had raped while serving in the Worcester Catholic Diocese.

Mr. Salerno contends there is nothing to be gained by returning his client to prison, believing that Rev. Kelley is taking the fall for the sins of the diocese in reassigning pedophile priests, rather than removing them and turning them over to authorities.

``There's no question that he took on the responsibilities of both himself and the failures of the church,'' Mr. Salerno said. ``It was impossible to divorce him from that association.''

While Cardinal Bernard Law became a lightning rod in Boston for the priest sexual abuse scandal because of his record in reassigning priests, victims and their advocates in Worcester County had to look elsewhere. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington, who knew about some pedophile priests and reassigned them, was dead. And Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, who came to Worcester in 1994, was not around when Rev. Kelley and many others were offending.

``There have been absolutely no other complaints, no other conduct that was even suspect,'' Mr. Salerno said of Rev. Kelley. ``He's had thorough and complete treatment and he has basically lived the life of a hermit.'' Mr. Salerno said Rev. Kelley had been caring for his father in recent years.

``Given the past 18 years of no allegations and the past 17 months of one of the strictest pre-trial probation terms, I was hopeful the court would consider all those factors and fashion a sentence that would recognize that and, at the same time, address the concerns of the victims in their need for security,'' he said.

``I thought there were other alternatives to really satisfy those concerns,'' Mr. Salerno said. ``At age 61 in this current atmosphere I don't think prison for this defendant is going to serve any viable purpose.''

But others do, believing that incarceration serves a greater intent than merely rehabilitation.

``I absolutely think Kelley belongs in jail,'' said David Clohessy, the national leader of the victim advocacy group Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. ``It's terribly naive and dangerous to assume he hasn't reoffended.''

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston, acknowledges Mr. Salerno's point that Rev. Kelley may no longer be dangerous to the public.

``But that's not the only reason we punish people,'' Mr. Fox said. ``Justice requires a certain degree of punishment. The more victims, the more pervasive the harm done. There is probably much to be gained for a sense of justice that the victims sorely need.''

During his last go-round in prison, after his 1990 conviction for six counts of rape of a child, Rev. Kelley participated in a number of sex offender programs, according to Mr. Salerno. He said Rev. Kelley completed a relapse prevention program in March 1996 before his release. In addition, he said Rev. Kelley taught English language courses to his fellow inmates and that his behavior throughout his sentence was exemplary.

In the current case, Rev. Kelley was charged with four counts of unnatural rape of a child and two counts of rape of a child. The two victims were between 6 and 9 years old at the time of the offenses, which happened between 1981 and 1984. Rev. Kelley was a priest at St. Cecilia's Parish in Leominster and Sacred Heart Parish in Gardner at the time of those assaults.

Judge McCann said Rev. Kelley ``suffers from pedophilia which is not considered a mental illness but represents a significant character pathology that requires lifelong management.'' He ordered that Rev. Kelley participate in as much sexual offender treatment as available.

He said Rev. Kelley is a Level 7 offender at high risk to sexually abuse young girls again if left unsupervised. He cited testimony in a deposition in which Rev. Kelley admitted to at least 50 other sex offenses.

In addition to caring for his father in his Worcester home, Rev. Kelley had been making a $150-per-week payment on a large civil judgment against him in a child sexual-abuse lawsuit.

``The one common thread that Father Kelley shares with the victims is that the diocese turned their back on him as quick as they did on the victims,'' Mr. Salerno said. ``I would be cautious to call him a victim, but I would say he was an easy scapegoat.''

Judge, victims condemn the Worcester Diocese
By Matt O'Brien

WORCESTER -- The judge who sentenced child rapist Robert Kelley to state prison Wednesday joined the Catholic priest's victims in criticizing the Worcester Diocese for its handling of the pedophile priest.

"The only sacredness in this saga is the children," Superior Court Judge John McCann said before a courtroom crowded with abuse victims and their families. "The only darkness is the inertness of the hierarchy."

McCann said he imposed a five- to seven-year sentence on Kelley with "sadness for the thousands of very good priests who were stained by this ugly blemish; sadness that the church hierarchy could not and was not willing to deal with this extraordinarily difficult issue."

Lawyers and spokesmen for the Office of Bishop Daniel Reilly have consistently said Kelley was removed immediately from ministry when a previous bishop learned about the abuse.

"I'm a little bit surprised that the judge is expressing an opinion in this way," said Ray Delisle, diocesan spokesman. "This case does not involve the diocese. ... Clearly this was not what was being heard in court."

In 1999, a civil lawsuit filed by Cyndi Desrosiers, who said she was victimized by Kelley in Southbridge, found Kelley responsible for money damages but cleared the Worcester Diocese of responsibility in the abuse.

Kelley was still paying those damages before he was sent to prison Wednesday.

Another group of women who filed civil lawsuits against the priest and diocese dropped the suits a few months ago, but said Wednesday they didn't do it voluntarily. The statute of limitations prevented them from moving forward.

"I despise the Worcester Diocese for their lack of compassion, sensitivity, loyalty, honesty, concern, and their total indifference to victims," said John Mackey outside the courtroom where Kelley was sentenced for raping his daughter, Heather Mackey.

The father, a police chief in Tewksbury, said he and his wife, Barbara, met with the late Bishop Timothy Harrington, then leader of the diocese, when the couple's daughter was in eighth grade, nearly a decade after the abuse.

"Bishop Harrington told us that he believed Heather's story," John Mackey said. "Harrington also said that the church was responsible for her and that they would therefore provide psychological counseling. That agreement was sealed with a handshake."

Mackey said the diocese later reneged on the agreement when the family contacted a lawyer. Delisle said Wednesday that Harrington did meet with the family and agreed to reimburse the counseling until they received a claim letter filing civil suit.

Delisle said the late bishop may have stopped the counseling once records potentially could be used in depositions.

"I don't know if that was just his policy at the time," Delisle said. "I can't conjecture."

John Mackey said his family was recently forced to withdraw from Heather Mackey's joint lawsuit with other alleged victims because of a "statute of limitations that protects the church at the expense of children" and "the threat that the Worcester Diocese would sue Heather for triple their legal costs."

"If you are a victim of sexual abuse in the Worcester Diocese, refrain from making the cardinal sin of victims by going to the Worcester Diocese for help," Mackey exclaimed. "They are not your friend or advocate as they proclaim."

Robert Kelley, after spending six years in Canada attending seminary, first joined the diocese in 1968. He was ordained in that year and began serving at Notre Dame in Southbridge until 1974.

"Mr. Kelley first went to treatment in 1970 at Catholic Charities for an unspecified treatment from the records before me," McCann said at the sentencing. "He was counseled in 1972."

While at Southbridge, Kelley was alleged to have abused Cyndi Desrosiers when she was 4 years old. The woman later filed a civil suit but no criminal complaints against the priest. She said it was too late to press charges when she began recalling the alleged abuse.

"He had access to me all the time, at church fairs," said Desrosiers, who now lives in Maine but attended the sentencing. "Everywhere I was, he was, and my parents totally trusted him, naively. When I was 28, when my daughter was 4, I began to remember everything."

She said she is no longer a Catholic. She rescinded her baptism in an act of apostasy last summer.

She thanked the two women who pursued criminal charges for "those of us who can't criminally and those of us who can't emotionally."

From 1974 to 1976, Kelley was assigned to St. Boniface in Lunenburg. Some of the women who say they were victimized at St. Boniface were present at the sentencing Wednesday. None have filed criminal charges.

In 1976, Kelley was assigned to St. Cecilia's in Leominster, where he worked until 1976.

There, Debbie Doucet, now 35, of Fitchburg, said Kelley molested her and her sister, Nicole Cormier, now 33, of Fitchburg, in the late 1970s. Doucet said her family just wanted Kelley to get help at the time. She said her family was not aware of any other incidents.

By his own admission, Kelley has abused more than 50 girls, according to the Desrosiers deposition.

Doucet dropped a joint lawsuit with Heather Mackey a few months ago. She said the statute of limitations prevented her from pursuing a criminal case against Kelley.

In 1983 Kelley was appointed to his last post, as pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Gardner, where a new sex-abuse allegation arose that ended up sending Kelley to prison.

His lawyer in that case, Leominster attorney Thomas McEvilly, said at Kelley's 1990 sentencing he was "one of the youngest priests to be given a pastorate at that age in this diocese, in the history of the diocese."

The church sent the priest to a church-run House of Affirmation in St. Louis.

"He remained there for a year," McCann said. "The records of that program have since been destroyed, for reasons not disclosed to the court."

In 1986, while still at the treatment center, Kelley "wrote what essentially amounted to a love letter to the alleged victims in the first case to which he pled guilty to in 1990."

Kelley spent more than six years in prison and was released in 1996.

John Mackey said Wednesday he was "committed to exposing the Worcester Diocese and the Catholic Church for what it is."

"They don't care," Mackey said. "The Catholic Church mentality has allowed this horrendous behavior by priests to exist. That's why I am no longer a Catholic."

A priest who worked with Kelley at St. Cecilia's for six years in the 1980s expressed sorrow for the victims Wednesday.

"All our thoughts are for the victims," said the Rev. Francis Goguen, now pastor of St. Cecilia's. "We are extremely sorry these things happened. They should never have happened and pray God they never happen again in the future."

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