philly.com
13 March 2014
PHILADELPHIA A Philadelphia judge Wednesday declared a mistrial in the sexual-assault case against the Rev. Andrew McCormick after a tired and despondent-looking jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked.
Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright’s late-afternoon ruling came an hour after she urged the jury of nine women and three men to try once more to resolve differences and reach a unanimous verdict.
“Nothing has changed since your last charge,” read the forewoman’s note to the judge. “We are still deadlocked. Discussions have ceased.”
After the jurors were dismissed, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp told Bright she would retry the 57-year-old Catholic priest on charges he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 in the priest’s bedroom at the rectory of St. John Cantius church in Bridesburg.
Kemp’s announcement was immediately followed by defense attorney William J. Brennan Jr.’s request to be removed as McCormick’s lawyer.
“At this point, I’m done,” the ordinarily gregarious Brennan said in a whisper.
Several times during trial, which began Feb. 27, Brennan said he felt conflicted representing McCormick because he discovered only recently that he knew the extended family of the 26-year-old alleged victim. By then, it was too close to trial for Brennan to withdraw, and McCormick affirmed that he still wanted Brennan to defend him.
Bright granted Brennan’s motion and told McCormick to hire a new lawyer in time for an April 28 hearing to schedule the retrial. Bright also ordered lawyers, witnesses, and the jurors not to speak to reporters or comment publicly, to avoid prejudicing the retrial.
McCormick was the second priest Brennan defended on sex-assault charges and it was the second trial that ended in a hung jury. Brennan will represent the Rev. James J. Brennan – who is not related – at the 50-year-old priest’s June 16 retrial for the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996.
The mistrial announcement did not trigger any apparent reaction by McCormick, his accuser, or their families and supporters. The jurors had deliberated about 29 hours since getting the case last Thursday, and by Tuesday afternoon, their questions revealed a growing divide on the panel.
From the trial’s start, Brennan told the jurors they would have to decide whom to believe: McCormick, a priest for 32 years, or his accuser, who testified that McCormick targeted him because he was trying to accept his homosexuality and his mother had asked the priest to counsel the boy.
In an effort to break the stalemate, the jury spent 90 minutes Wednesday morning listening to the court stenographer read back the accuser’s Feb. 27 testimony.
The accuser, sitting with his family, began quietly crying as he heard his own words describe how McCormick took him to the bedroom, undressed him, and tried to force him to perform a sex act.
After the reading, Bright reinstructed the jury about weighing uncorroborated testimony.
Although the accuser said he saw no one else in the rectory the night of the alleged assault, the judge told jurors the law allowed them to return a guilty verdict on the “victim’s testimony alone if you believe it is true.”
McCormick, ordained in 1982, was pastor of Sacred Heart parish near Bridgeport, Montgomery County, when he and 26 Roman Catholic priests were suspended in March 2011 by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for possible inappropriate conduct with children.
After the mistrial, the archdiocese issued a statement emphasizing that McCormick “has not exercised public ministry” and cannot present himself as a priest in good standing. McCormick now lives with his parents in Pottstown.
The statement also said: “The archdiocese was not involved in Father McCormick’s legal defense and did not underwrite its costs.”
215-854-2985 @joeslobo
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Mistrial declared in priest’s case
The Indiana Gazette
13 March 2014
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a Roman Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting an altar boy.
The ruling Wednesday came after jurors said they were deadlocked. They’ve been deliberating since last week.
The 26-year-old accuser testified he was sexually assaulted in a rectory bedroom by the Rev. Andrew McCormick in 1997.
McCormick denies the allegations. He has been suspended from the church since 2011 over complaints about his behavior around children.
The case involves McCormick’s time at a Polish parish in northeast Philadelphia. A small but loyal group of parishioners has attended the trial to support him.
Prosecutors plan to retry McCormick. He remains free on bail and is due back in court on April 28.
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Accused Philadelphia priest denies molesting altar boy
ABC WFVI TV Philadelphia, PA
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – March 5, 2014 (WPVI) — A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting an altar boy briefly took the stand Wednesday to deny the 1997 encounter, but acknowledged being reprimanded twice for having children in his private living quarters.
The Rev. Andrew McCormick’s case is the latest priest-abuse trial in Philadelphia, where several priests have gone to prison for child sexual abuse. Deliberations could start Thursday to decide whether he joins their ranks.
“I never molested (the victim). I want to convince you of that. It certainly has been a devastation to me,” McCormick told the jury, before an objection cut him off.
The accuser, now 26, testified last week that McCormick molested him in his rectory bedroom at St. John Cantius, a large Polish parish in northeast Philadelphia. The alleged victim said he thought he was being punished for being gay and told the jury he tried to hang himself the next year, when he was 11.
A string of former altar boys, though, testified Wednesday for McCormick including two who went on trips with him to Poland.
One said he shared a room with McCormick on one trip, while his parents had another room. Another young man said the priest gave him beer on another trip the summer after he finished seventh grade. Both men insisted McCormick had made no sexual advances.
About a dozen ardent supporters have been attending McCormick’s trial to support the man they knew as “Father Andy,” who spent 30 years in ministry at various parishes.
The defense started its case on Ash Wednesday, a holy day that starts the Lenten season in the Roman Catholic church. At the Vatican, Pope Francis used the day to defend the church’s handling of abuse complaints, drawing criticism that he has largely avoided in his first year at the helm.
McCormick’s lawyers sought to discredit the accuser, suggesting he misidentified the type of underwear that McCormick wears. In an awkward moment, the priest’s 87-year-old mother testified Wednesday to support the claim, saying she has bought his underwear all his life, once a year at Christmas.
Another defense witness called Wednesday has an unusual perspective on the priest-abuse issue: he was a member of the jury that convicted a church official in a high-profile case.
Mark Pasternak worked at St. John’s in maintenance, coached there, and put two children through the parish school. He does not believe McCormick molested anyone.
Pasternak served on the 2012 jury that convicted an archdiocesan official of felony child endangerment for his handling of abuse complaints. Monsignor William Lynn was the first U.S. church official ever charged for his administrative failings, although his conviction has since been reversed on appeal, to Pasternak’s chagrin.
After three difficult months of testimony and a fourth month spent deliberating, the jury concluded that Lynn had not done enough to weed out a priest that Lynn himself deemed a “pedophile,” he said.
“If you have a dog that bites, you (can’t) put up a three-foot fence,” Pasternak said Wednesday.
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Former altar boy reveals grim details of Philadelphia priest’s alleged sex abuse
The accuser was a 10-year-old altar boy at St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Bridesburg when he says Rev. Andrew McCormick tried to force him into a sex act. Now 26, the man says he struggled with addiction and feared going to hell after the alleged attack.
New York Daily News
Friday, February 28, 2014, 1:31 PM
By Carol Kuruvilla / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Matt Rourke/AP The Rev. Andrew McCormick is accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy inside a rectory bedroom in 1997.
A former altar boy opened up in court on Thursday about the abuse he allegedly endured under the hands of a trusted Roman Catholic priest.
The Rev. Andrew McCormick, 57, quietly listened to the unidentified young man speak about the sexual encounter that left him scarred at the age of 10. “I remember trying to hang myself a lot. … Probably every week,” the man, now 26, told a Philadelphia courtroom. “I couldn’t deal with the guilt of what had happened, or what I am.”
McCormick has pleaded not guilty to the crime. The priest, who worked at St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg at the time, has been placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He was arrested in July 2012, the Philadelphia Daily News reports.
The boy’s mother had gone to McCormick for counseling back in 1997, suspecting her son was gay. Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp said that McCormick gained the boy’s trust by plying him with treats and giving him the run of the rectory.
The day of the alleged attack was a “Holy Day of Obligation” when Catholics are required to attend Mass. The boy visited the rectory after the service to eat some cookies and Dr. Pepper with the man he called “Father Andy.” The priest then reportedly lured the boy up to his bedroom, where he undressed them both. The accuser said McCormick fondled him and tried to initiate oral sex.
“I was in shock. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me,” the alleged victim said.
During the weeks after the attack, McCormick reportedly issued dire warnings to the child about God’s attitudes toward homosexuality and masturbation.
The talks made the boy feel “horrible.” He initially thought McCormick was punishing him for being gay.
“If it’s a sin, it means I’m going to hell,” the man said in court, his voice breaking at times.
The accuser said that he had gone on to have a “successful” career, but claimed he attempted suicide multiple times and struggled with drugs and alcohol for a decade.
Defense attorney William J. Brennan asked jurors not to pre-judge McCormick because of other abuse cases involving priests.
The priest’s lawyer claimed the accuser’s struggles with addiction might have clouded his memory. He also questioned why no one else has made allegations against McCormick.
Matt Rourke/AP McCormick faces misdemeanor counts of endangerment and indecent assault.“This is the only individual who has made a claim of molestation. How many other altar boys did [McCormick] have access to? If that’s his M.O., how did others escape?” said Brennan.
Philadelphia prosecutors have been investigating priest-abuse reports for more than a decade and have won several convictions. McCormick is one of 25 priests who were suspended in December 2011 for possible inappropriate contact with minors, The Inquirer reports. The accuser didn’t come forward about the alleged abuse until after the suspensions.
He now works for a New York design company and claims he isn’t in it for the money.
“I have a full-time job,” said the witness. “I don’t need money. I have a very successful career.”
But he apparently decided to launch a lawsuit against McCormick after he had a nightmare about the priest molesting his young nephew.
“I don’t want this to happen to any other little boy,” he said.
The trial scheduled to last through the end of next week.
With News Wire Services