By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Former Roman Catholic priest Daniel C. Clark has pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually abusing boys in Bullitt County under an agreement that could spare him further time in prison.
Clark was scheduled to face a retrial beginning today on two counts of first-degree sexual abuse after the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned his original conviction in 2003.
He already had served nearly four years of his 10-year sentence before the court overturned the conviction, citing errors the trial judge made in instructions to the jury and in allowing testimony from a previous victim of Clark.
Under the plea agreement, Clark would serve probation for the remainder of his sentence, Bullitt Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Mann said. Clark also would have to register as a sex offender.
The agreement, which Clark entered last Wednesday, must be approved by Bullitt Circuit Judge Rodney Burress at a sentencing hearing.
After the Supreme Court ruling, Clark was moved from the Kentucky State Reformatory near La Grange to the Bullitt County Jail, where he was bailed out in July on a $10,000 cash bond posted by John P. Maloney of Louisville, the brother of late Roman Catholic Bishop Charles G. Maloney.
Mann said he didn't know Clark's current address but said he might be out of state.
Mann said that, while he'd "like to see somebody who's been convicted of something like this serve as much time as possible," he agreed to the deal based on the victims' wishes.
"Based on our discussion with the family, the victims in the case, there was a strong desire on their part to keep a low visibility on this thing," Mann said.
He also cited the Supreme Court's ruling that he could not present a witness at retrial who had been instrumental in Clark's 2003 conviction.
Neither of the Bullitt victims or their families could immediately be reached for comment.
Clark was one of the priests at the heart of the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
He was accused in 19 lawsuits against the archdiocese, including one filed on behalf of the Bullitt County boys. The archdiocese eventually settled all the cases.
The archdiocese paid nearly $30 million in settlements and other expenses involving hundreds of cases in which more than three dozen priests and other church workers were accused.
Clark was accused of repeatedly fondling the two Bullitt County boys between 1999 and May 2002. After his conviction, he was sentenced to the maximum penalty of two consecutive five-year terms.
The Supreme Court ruled in May that Judge Thomas Waller erred by giving improper instructions to the jury and in allowing the previous victim, a man victimized by Clark more than a decade earlier, to testify at Clark's trial.
Though Clark had previously been convicted of sexual abuse and sodomy in 1988, he remained a priest until 2004, when he was removed by the Vatican after it approved stricter rules on abusers in the priesthood.
Because Clark's 1988 conviction took place before the establishment of Kentucky's sex-offender registry, he was not required to register his whereabouts.
The victim in the earlier case testified during the Bullitt County trial in 2003. The Supreme Court ruled that the testimony was prejudicial, prompting the jury to make an unwarranted assumption about Clark's guilt.
Courts generally limit testimony from victims whose cases are not currently being tried unless the testimony could demonstrate specific facts, such as the defendant's identity or pattern of behavior in committing a crime.
The Supreme Court also ruled that Waller gave "seriously flawed" instructions to the jury because he didn't give them the option of convicting Clark on second-degree abuse in the case of the older of the two boys.
The older boy turned 12 during the time the abuse occurred, according to the charges.
State law dictates that fondling children under 12 is a first-degree felony but a second-degree misdemeanor for minors 12 and up. The latter charge carries a lesser penalty and can only be prosecuted within 12 months of the offense, while felonies have no statute of limitations.
Victims' advocates are trying to change state statutes to make all sexual abuse of minors a felony.
Barbara Dorris, an outreach director for the national group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement: "While we are grateful that … Daniel Clark's victims will be spared the ordeal of a trial, we are worried that he may molest again. Kids are safest when serial predators are jailed."
Reporter Peter Smith can be reached at (502) 582-4469.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Final payments are going out to victims of sexual abuse in an $85 million class-action settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington.
The settlement is between the diocese and more than 350 people abused by priests and diocese employees since the 1950s in 57 counties across a large swath of Kentucky.
It calls for victims to receive from $5,000 to $1 million based on the severity and duration of the abuse they suffered. Some money has also been set aside to pay for counseling for abuse victims.
The settlement master in the case approved the final payments last week, said attorney Stan Chesley, who represents the victims in the case.
The payments should be in the hands of the plaintiffs by the end of the month, he said.
A message left with the diocese on Thursday was not immediately returned.
Two abuse victims who now work as advocates for others said the money helps but doesn't heal old wounds caused by sexual abuse and doesn't absolve the church from its responsibility to victims.
"Sadly, settlement alone does not equal recovery," said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, who works as outreach coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, said the payments do compensate victims, but are also a business decision by the church to "prevent embarrassing trials."
Without the lawsuit, it is unlikely the church would have acknowledged or compensated the victims, he said.
Covington is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. The diocese now spans 14 counties and has 89,000 parishioners. The lawsuit also covers some Kentucky counties that were part of the diocese until 1988, when a new diocese in Lexington formed.
Clark pleaded guilty in Bullitt Circuit Court shortly before he was scheduled to be retried on charges of abusing two Bullitt County brothers.
The Kentucky Supreme Court overturned his 2003 conviction in the case earlier this year, after he had served nearly four years of his 10-year sentence. The court said improper instructions were given to the jury and one of the witnesses should not have been allowed to testify
Clark pleaded guilty under an agreement with prosecutors that would enable him to serve the remainder of his sentence under probation rather than behind bars and would require him to register as a sex offender.
The deal is subject to approval by Bullitt Circuit Judge Rodney Burress.
For immediate release: Monday, Nov. 26, 2007
For more information:
Ann Brentwood of Knoxville, SNAP Southeast Regional Director 865 607 6119 cell
David Clohessy of St. Louis SNAP National Director 314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915
Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688
Sex Abuse Victims Criticize Kentucky Legislators
Notorious Pedophile Priest Re-trial Starts Tomorrow
In August, Lawmakers Honored Bishop Who Covered Up His Crimes
Support Group Says Politicians' Decision Is "Hurtful and Unhealthy"
On the eve of another criminal trial involving Kentucky's most prolific predator priest, a support group for clergy sex abuse victims is criticizing state lawmakers for honoring the priest's boss.
In August, the state legislature passed a resolution praising now-retired Louisville Catholic Bishop Thomas Kelly. For years, Kelly supervised and transferred Fr. Daniel C. Clark, who has been accused of molesting dozens of boys and was convicted in the late 1980s and again in 2003 of sexually assaulting several boys.
Leaders of a support group for clergy sex abuse victims call that resolution 'hurtful, unhealthy, and almost certain to prompt some deeply wounded child molestation victims to stay silent instead of calling the police about their predator.'
"Why prosecute the street corner dope dealer while publicly praising his drug kingpin and supplier?" said Ann Brentwood of Knoxville, the southeast regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's devastating and intimidating to victims of horrific child sex crimes when secular officials heap praise on a man who covered up those crimes."
According to his own deposition,Kelly knew of troubling reports about Clark at least as early as 1982. (Clark was ordained in 1980. Kelly became Louisville's archbishop in 1981. Clark was defrocked by the Vatican in 2004. Kelly retired in June 2007.)
SNAP wants to see Clark, who has been defrocked by the Vatican, to be locked up after a retrial. His child molestation conviction was overturned in May by the Kentucky Supreme Court. The group would also like to see a new legislative resolution passed that acknowledges Kelly's refusal to call the police about Clark's crimes.
"We support the courageous victims who have once again come forward in another attempt to have this predator removed from any opportunity to continue abusing children," said Brentwood.
"We know their brave efforts to find justice often subject them to brutal hard ball tactics of church attorneys. We applaud them for their strength and also the Commonwealth Attorney, Mike Mann, who continues to seek the protection of children."
Tonight, Brentwood arrives in Shepherdsville. On Tuesday, she and a few SNAP volunteers will attend the hearing.
Nineteen victims sued Clark and the Louisville archdiocese in civil cases.
"This is clearly a serial pedophile who needs to be behind bars," said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP's National Director. "The bishop should use his vast resources - church websites, parish bulletins, and pulpit announcements - to prod anyone who saw, suspected or suffered Clark's crimes to contact law enforcement immediately."
"It is imperative that Clark be strictly monitored and constantly supervised or children will not be safe," Brentwood emphasized. "We expect and strongly urge Archbishop Kurtz to support all efforts to have this predator added to the registry of offenders and to see that he is kept from access to children."
SNAP strongly encourages anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes, by Clark, or any other priest, to contact police officials.
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