Group aims to change abuse laws Bishop called on to lobby Legislature to streamline prosecutions

PORTLAND – Several people who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests stood with supporters and called on Bishop Joseph Gerry to lobby for legislative changes that would make it easier to prosecute molesters.

The news conference outside Gerry’s offices Thursday was part of nationwide effort by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, to extend or eliminate the statutes of limitation on child sex abuse and to require clergy to report suspected child abuse, even if the information is learned in confession.

Cyndi Desrosiers, SNAP’s Maine coordinator, also called on Gerry to release publicly the names of all clergy in Maine – whether living or deceased, active, retired or on leave – who are accused of abuse.

The Portland diocese has given prosecutors information on allegations going back 75 years, and prosecutors plan to go through files to collect more information. But state officials are barred from releasing investigative records before charges result.

“The surest way to make arrests and imprison abusers is to have reasonable laws – laws that protect the vulnerable and the innocent, not the shrewd and cunning,” Desrosiers said.

Maine currently has some good laws but more needs to be done, Desrosiers said.

In 1991, the statute of limitations was eliminated for sexual abuse victims who were younger than 16 years old at the time of the crime, according to Leanne Robbin, chief of the financial crimes and civil rights division of the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

Since the statute of limitations could not be eliminated retroactively, the cutoff date for prosecution of rape and gross sexual assault is Oct. 9, 1985, with a possible extension of up to five years for cases in which the defendant left the state.

Releasing the names of all accused priests would help children and some adults who were abused long ago, SNAP contends.

“People like my brother are suspected as liars,” Courtney Doherty Oland said, her voice breaking with emotion. “When those names are known, all those naysayers who blamed it on my mother and father will know that this man who they respected and held in high regard – taught people how to kick soccer balls and read Shakespeare – was a horrible, horrible human being.”

Oland said her brother, Michael Doherty, was attending Cheverus High School in Portland when the Rev. James Talbot, a teacher and coach, began molesting him in the mid-1980s.

Talbot was removed from active duty in 1998 after Oland reported him to church officials. Talbot was among the teachers at Boston College High School in Massachusetts who were accused by former students in March.

Diocesan spokeswoman Sue Bernard said the bishop had not yet seen SNAP’s proposals. She said all the requests would be considered but that some, such as removing the reporting requirement for confessions, likely would be dismissed more quickly than others.

“That’s not something in the past that we’ve ever been able to entertain, simply because that’s part of the church teaching and it would be terribly hard to make a change in that,” Bernard said. “I’m sure that it’s something people will be thinking about because certainly we’ve never had this type of crisis come to our attention in quite the way that it has over the last few months.”

The diocese has given information about allegations to public authorities but is unlikely to release all such information to the general public, Bernard said.

“To turn over an allegation publicly – we’re not sure that’s due process because it’s an allegation,” she said, adding that prosecutors would publicize cases they pursue and that the diocese removes from the ministry any active priest who faces a credible allegation.