By Nate Raymond
DEDHAM, Mass. (Reuters) -Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick pleaded not guilty on Friday to fees he molested a 16-year-old boy in 1974, a case that makes him the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official to be prosecuted for sexually abusing a minor.
McCarrick, 91, a former archbishop of Washington, D.C., wore a face masks and hunched over a walker as he entered the courthouse in Dedham, Massachusetts, strolling previous TV cameras and a demonstrator yelling “disgrace on you.”
He mentioned nothing because the court docket entered a not guilty plea on his behalf to three counts of indecent assault and battery filed in July. Every cost carries up to 5 years in jail.
Bail was set at $5,000, and McCarrick, who now lives in Dittmer, Missouri, was ordered not to contact his alleged sufferer or kids. His lawyer declined to remark. McCarrick has mentioned he had no recollection of committing baby abuse.
McCarrick is the one U.S. Catholic cardinal to face baby intercourse abuse fees. He was expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood in 2019 after a Vatican investigation discovered him guilty of sexual crimes towards minors and adults.
A Vatican report in November 2020 discovered that McCarrick rose by way of the church’s ranks regardless of rumors of sexual misconduct and that Pope John Paul II promoted him regardless of realizing the allegations.
Whereas McCarrick has confronted lawsuits from males accusing him of sexual abuse many years in the past, the statute of limitations for legal fees in these instances has expired.
However a authorized quirk froze the statute of limitations within the Massachusetts case after McCarrick, a non-resident, left the state. Sexual abuse survivors hailed the uncommon prosecution.
“So many kids misplaced their lives, their innocence,” mentioned Susan Renehan, 73, who mentioned a priest sexually assaulted her when she was a youngster. “No person appears to care within the Catholic Church.”
Mitchell Garabedian, McCarrick’s alleged sufferer’s lawyer, mentioned the case “is sending a direct message to the Catholic Church that its reign of sexual abuse by bishops and cardinals goes to be confronted head on.”
In accordance to court docket information, the alleged sufferer mentioned McCarrick, a household good friend, started molesting him when he was a boy in New York, California, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
The person advised police that in his brother’s wedding ceremony reception on June 8, 1974, at Wellesley Faculty in Massachusetts, McCarrick advised him his father wished the 2 of them to have speak about his misbehavior.
McCarrick groped him as they walked round campus earlier than taking him right into a small closet-like room and fondling him whereas saying prayers, the person advised authorities.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Enhancing by David Gregorio and Steve Orlofsky)