February 22, 2002
Ex-Priest in Child Abuse Case Sentenced to 9 to 10 Years
By PAM BELLUCK
John Geoghan being escorted from court on Thursday after sentencing. He has been accused of molesting more than 130 children over 30 years.
AMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 21 — A priest whose sexual abuse of boys has ignited a scandal in the Roman Catholic church in Boston received the maximum sentence of 9 to 10 years today for fondling a 10-year- old in a swimming pool.
The defrocked priest, John J. Geoghan Jr., has been accused of molesting more than 130 children over 30 years in half a dozen parishes. Evidence that church officials badly mishandled his case had reached the highest echelons of the church hierarchy here, forcing Cardinal Bernard F. Law to apologize and fueling calls for his resignation.
In sentencing Mr. Geoghan (pronounced GAY-gan), Judge Sandra Hamlin of Superior Court in Middlesex County harshly criticized his actions. "This defendant hid behind his collar," Judge Hamlin said, calling Mr. Geoghan's behavior "reprehensible and depraved." She said his victims were helpless.
"They were unprotected," the judge added. "The defendant thought that no one would believe them."
Mr. Geoghan is one of about 24 priests to be sentenced to prison for abusing children, said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a support group.
"That certainly is among the more steep sentences," Mr. Clohessy said, adding that he was encouraged by "the increased willingness by prosecutors and judges to treat the church like any other institution."
Mr. Geoghan could be eligible for parole in six years.
Judge Hamlin ordered him to be placed on probation for life, facing strict monitoring. She sent Mr. Geoghan directly behind bars, even though Geoffrey Packard, his lawyer, intends to appeal. Mr. Packard said after the sentencing that it was difficult to say anything to mitigate his client's behavior, because "any explanation is looked upon as a justification or a rationalization."
He said the sentencing had stunned Mr. Geoghan. "He's just been sentenced to state prison," Mr. Packard said, "and he's 66 years old, and he's never been in an institution other than the Roman Catholic Church in his life."
The case has set off disclosures here and elsewhere about how the Catholic church has often handled pedophile priests, allowing them to remain in parishes, not reporting their activities to law enforcement authorities and settling victims' suits in secret.
Cardinal Law, the nation's senior Catholic leader, publicly apologized last month for letting Mr. Geoghan be reassigned to a parish even though he knew of the priest's long history of pedophilia. Documents released in civil suits by people who say Mr. Geoghan molested them suggest that church officials were more concerned with avoiding scandal than ensuring that he had no further contact with children.
Many of the archdiocese's two million Catholics have called for the cardinal to resign. Three times, he has explained why he would not step down.
In recent weeks, the archdiocese has given prosecutors the names of nearly 90 priests accused of molesting children. Nine of those were practicing. They have been suspended.
Other dioceses, including those in New Hampshire and Maine, have begun to give law enforcement officials the names of priests accused of molestation.
The sentence today, on a charge of indecent assault and battery, was striking, in part because it was given in a case that involved less severe accusations against Mr. Geoghan than those that have been made by dozens of boys, some of whom have said he raped them.
Mr. Geoghan's accuser in this case, now a 20-year-old college student, testified that in 1991, when he was 9 or 10, Mr. Geoghan offered to help him practice diving at a suburban Boys and Girls Club. The young man said Mr. Geoghan coached him for about 15 minutes and then squeezed his buttocks with his hand.
Mr. Packard, Mr. Geoghan's lawyer, pointed out in the trial that the witness did not remember the exact day, time or year of the incident and that some of his recollections differed from those of his mother.
Judge Hamlin said her sentence was not motivated by "the action or inactions of other priests or of the Roman Catholic Church." She said she made her decision based on this case, on Mr. Geoghan's admitted history of pedophilia and his attitude toward the accusations against him.
"There is no doubt the defendant is dangerous," Judge Hamlin said, adding that Mr. Geoghan should be severely punished because "he would use his office and his position as a Catholic priest to target" boys from broken homes. The judge said Mr. Geoghan, a small puckish-looking man who chatted with his sister and chuckled during much of the trial, showed "a total lack of concern for the damage his sexual molestation may have done."
The sentencing memorandum that prosecutors submitted to the judge includes a memorandum by Mr. Geoghan that offers a critique of an evaluation of him by doctors at an institute in 1995. The doctors wrote, "Father Geoghan has a long history of pedophilic behavior."
In his critique, Mr. Geoghan suggested that his behavior was somehow prompted by the fact that the children he encountered were "from dysfunctional families" who needed affection and, in some cases, were unable "to distinguish between normal and abnormal, good or bad, right or wrong."
The archdiocese has settled 50 civil suits against Mr. Geoghan and church officials for a total of $10 million. Some 84 civil suits against him and the church are pending, as are 2 other criminal trials.
The archdiocese issued a statement saying it was pleased by the sentence. "While we hope today's sentencing brings some measure of peace to victims, we also understand it cannot erase the tragic scarring many individuals have suffered," the statement said. "This case has helped trigger the comprehensive reform of the archdiocese's policies with regard to sexual misconduct by clergy."
For people who say Mr. Geoghan abused them, that could not be a better outcome.
"It's just a small first step in filtering out all pedophiles out of my church," said Patrick McSorley, 27, who said he was molested when he was 12 and Mr. Geoghan took him out for ice cream to comfort him after his father committed suicide. "He was never a priest. He's a predator."