A jury in Burlington is expected today to begin deliberating a priest sex abuse case against the Diocese of Burlington.
In it, a 40-year-old former Burlington altar boy says the Diocese is partly to blame for molestation he suffered at the hands of a parish priest at Christ the King Church in the 1970s.
In closing arguments yesterday, attorneys for the Diocese and the man painted starkly different portraits for the eight-man, four-woman jury. The man’s attorney, John Evers, said church officials should be slapped with a multi-million dollar damage award for hiring Father Edward Paquette in spite of knowledge that he’d been accused of molesting children in other states.
Church lawyer Tom McCormick said church officials at the time believed pedophilia could be cured with prayer and psychological treatment, and that it’s ludicrous to ask for up to $14 million in damages, as the man’s lawyers have.
Judge Matthew Katz is scheduled to give instructions on the law to jurors first thing today, after which he will send them out to begin deliberating.