“Witness: After rape by teacher ‘I had to go’ to school” & related articles

philly.com

Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 11:37 AM

The witness – The Inquirer does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault – testified Tuesday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court that the serial sexual assaults by Shero and two priests destroyed his childhood and led to his life as a drug addict.

But defense attorney Burton A. Rose, showing the jury blow-ups of the man’s report cards from 5th through 8th grades at St. Jerome’s, noted that his grades and attendance barely changed during the time of the alleged assaults in 1998 and 1999.

“So you went to school the next day after this man [Shero] anally raped you in the back of his car?” Rose asked.

“It was school, I had to go,” replied the witness, who was identified as “Billy Doe” in the 2011 county grand jury report.

Rose has argued that Shero never assaulted the witness – or caused his later problems with drugs and the law.

The witness maintained that he was afraid to tell anyone about the assaults by the two priests in the sacristy of St. Jerome’s church, or the assault by Shero, who was his homeroom and English teacher.

Shero, 49, and the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, are on trial for the alleged assaults on Billy when he was in fifth and sixth grades at St. Jerome’s.

The other priest, Edward Avery, now 70, pleaded guilty last year shortly before he was to go on trial with two other priests in the investigation of clergy sex abuse of children in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Avery, now defrocked and serving a 2-1/2 to five years in prison and may be called by prosecutors to testify in the trial of Shero and Engelhardt.

The pair are the last two of five people charged as a result of the 2011 county grand jury report.

Last year’s landmark three-month trial ended June 22 when the jury found Msgr. William J. Lynn guilty of child endangerment, the first church administrator convicted for a priest’s sexual abuse of a child.

Lynn, 62, who as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004 was responsible for investigating allegations against priests, was sentenced to 3 to 6 years. He is in a state prison and appealing his conviction.

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Man, 24, testifies about childhood assaults by priest, teacher

The molestation began in the late 1990s when the man was a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome’s, a Catholic school near Pennypack Park, and left him overwhelmed by fear, guilt, and shame, he testified in Common Pleas Court. In his family and community, priests and nuns were given unquestioned authority, he said, and it would be years before he told anyone he had been abused.

“I was scared, I was embarrassed,” said the man, who was identified in a grand jury report as “Billy Doe.” The Inquirer does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault. “I was afraid I was going to get in trouble. I thought I did something wrong.”

After the assaults, Billy testified, he stopped seeing his friends, dropped out of most clubs and sports teams, and was expelled from two high schools. Within five years, he went from smoking marijuana to trying pills and hard drugs and, eventually, he said, developed a “full-blown heroin addiction.”

Billy’s alleged assailants, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, and Bernard Shero, 49, watched the testimony from across the room, at times glancing down at the table in front of them.

Another priest, the Rev. Edward Avery, has pleaded guilty to assaulting Billy in 1999 while living at St. Jerome’s rectory. Avery is expected to testify, possibly as early as Wednesday.

Engelhardt and Shero are the last two of five people charged as a result of the 2011 county grand jury report outlining a cover-up of clergy sexual abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The accuser’s 2009 complaint led prosecutors to file charges against church officials and higher-ups, including the Rev. William J. Lynn, who handled priests’ assignments for the archdiocese. Lynn was convicted last year of child endangerment and is serving time in prison.

In their opening statements this week, defense attorneys portrayed Billy as opportunistic and drug-addled, saying he “never told the same story twice” and suggesting that recent sex-abuse scandals have left the church vulnerable to false accusers. They are expected to spend much of Wednesday cross-examining Billy, who has been in and out of jail and in almost two dozen rehab programs since he was 14.

A slightly built man with dark, close-cropped hair and a goatee, Billy testified Tuesday that he had been sober for a year. He said he was an outgoing child who played sports, got good grades, and had plenty of friends.

As an altar boy, Billy sometimes assisted the priests with preparing for the daily Mass, and one day after an early-morning service, he said, Engelhardt caught him drinking the leftover sacramental wine. Instead of scolding him, he said, Engelhardt offered him more wine and asked him about himself, questions such as whether he had a girlfriend and if he ever looked at pornography.

Engelhardt then showed him several pornographic magazines, told him it was time for him to become a man, and said their “sessions” would start soon. A week or so later, he testified, Engelhardt asked him to stay after Mass and sexually assaulted him in a church sacristy.

“He told me God loves me, that it was going to be OK,” Billy said. “He said, this is what God wants.”

Billy avoided Engelhardt after that, but said Avery targeted him some months later in the spring of 1999. Avery told Billy he had talked to Engelhardt about their “sessions,” Billy said, and assaulted him twice over a period of about a month.

The next school year, Billy testified that Shero, his sixth-grade homeroom and English teacher, offered him a ride home. Instead, he said, Shero drove him to Pennypack Park and assaulted him in his car.

The first time Billy ever spoke of being molested was in an impulsive confession to his best friend in high school, he testified, when the two were sophomores. They were discussing a teacher they found “creepy” because of the way he hugged his students and stood overly close to them, and Billy said he told his friend why he was so bothered by it.

The friend, Leo Hernandez, testified Tuesday that he felt angry after Billy’s confession, but that the two did not speak much more about it. Hernandez never told anyone for fear of betraying Billy’s trust, he said.

“I’m pretty sure it’s not too easy to tell a guy that you were touched,” he said. “It’s hard for me to talk about it in front of all these people, so I can only imagine.”

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Man, 24, recounts alleged sex attacks by priests, teacher

 philly.com

Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 3:01 AM

HIS LOW, CALM voice and composed demeanor belied the fact that the young man was talking in open court of having been raped by two Catholic priests and a former Catholic-school teacher.

For more than two hours Tuesday, the dark-suited man, 24, sat just feet from a Philadelphia Common Pleas jury, recounting events that he alleged began in 1998 when he was a fifth-grader and 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome Parish, in the Northeast.

Speaking without tears but with bitterness in his voice, he explained to Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti how he had been raised to view churchmen, such as those on trial for allegedly assaulting him.

“They are servants of God,” said the tall, thin man, who lives and works in Florida, and whose name the Daily News is withholding. “They represent God. They are almighty. You don’t question them. They’re like another parent, just holier.”

He told jurors that the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, ex-teacher Bernard Shero, 49, and defrocked priest Edward Avery, 70, turned out to be the tormentors responsible for his slide into drug addiction beginning at around age 14.

Engelhardt and Shero are on trial together, facing a battery of sexual-abuse charges. Avery pleaded guilty last year and is serving a 2 1/2-to-5-year state-prison sentence. He’s scheduled to testify against Engelhardt and Shero, who have pleaded not guilty.

The alleged victim testified that Engelhardt began trying to seduce him after catching him drinking communion wine following an early-morning Mass. He said that the priest asked about his sexual preferences and showed him gay and straight pornography magazines during that first encounter.

During the second encounter, also inside the church, Engelhardt ordered him to undress and proceeded to fondle him and perform oral sex on him, the man testified.

“He said I was becoming a man, I did a good job and God loved me,” the man told the jury.

In 1999, he said, Avery told him that he was aware of the “sessions” that he had had with Engelhardt and that their sessions would soon begin. He said that Avery twice took him to a church storage closet and sexually abused him in various ways. “He kept saying everything was going to be OK … It’s what God wanted,” the man said of Avery, who he said played music from a small boom box during the first alleged assault.

Shero, his sixth-grade English and homeroom teacher, sexually assaulted him in the spring of 2000, after offering him a ride home from school, the man testified.

He said that the attack took place in the back seat of Shero’s car in a parking lot. As a teacher, Shero often touched and spoke with students inappropriately, the man testified.

After each attack, he told no one, due to fear and guilt, he said.

In time, he said, he became “darker” and depressed, got hooked on drugs and was kicked out of two high schools before graduating from Northeast Preparatory School.

He said that he has been in more than 20 drug-rehab programs, has been arrested several times and still has an open drug case.

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Man, 24, testifies of childhood assaults by priest, teacher

 philly.com

Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2013, 8:05 PM

The molestation began in the late 1990s when the man was a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome’s, a Catholic school near Pennypack Park, and left him overwhelmed by fear, guilt, and shame, he testified in Common Pleas Court. In his family and community, priests and nuns were given unquestioned authority, he said, and it would be years before he told anyone he had been abused.

“I was scared, I was embarrassed,” said the man, who was identified in a grand jury report as “Billy Doe.” The Inquirer does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault. “I was afraid I was going to get in trouble. I thought I did something wrong.”

After the assaults, Billy testified, he stopped seeing his friends, dropped out of most clubs and sports teams, and was expelled from two high schools. Within five years, he went from smoking marijuana to trying pills and hard drugs and, eventually, he said, developed a “full-blown heroin addiction.”

Billy’s alleged assailants, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, and Bernard Shero, 49, watched the testimony from across the room, at times glancing down at the table in front of them.

Another priest, the Rev. Edward Avery, has pleaded guilty to assaulting Billy in 1999 while living at St. Jerome’s rectory. Avery is expected to testify, possibly as early as Wednesday.

Engelhardt and Shero are the last two of five people charged as a result of the 2011 county grand jury report outlining a cover-up of clergy sexual abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The accuser’s 2009 complaint led prosecutors to file charges against church officials and higher-ups, including the Rev. William J. Lynn, who handled priests’ assignments for the archdiocese. Lynn was convicted last year of child endangerment and is serving time in prison.

In their opening statements this week, defense attorneys portrayed Billy as opportunistic and drug-addled, saying he “never told the same story twice” and suggesting that recent sex-abuse scandals have left the church vulnerable to false accusers. They are expected to spend much of Wednesday cross-examining Billy, who has been in and out of jail and in almost two dozen rehab programs since he was 14.

A slightly built man with dark, close-cropped hair and a goatee, Billy testified Tuesday that he had been sober for a year. He said he was an outgoing child who played sports, got good grades, and had plenty of friends.

As an altar boy, Billy sometimes assisted the priests with preparing for the daily Mass, and one day after an early-morning service, he said, Engelhardt caught him drinking the leftover sacramental wine. Instead of scolding him, he said, Engelhardt offered him more wine and asked him about himself, questions such as whether he had a girlfriend and if he ever looked at pornography.

Engelhardt then showed him several pornographic magazines, told him it was time for him to become a man, and said their “sessions” would start soon. A week or so later, he testified, Engelhardt asked him to stay after Mass and sexually assaulted him in a church sacristy.

“He told me God loves me, that it was going to be OK,” Billy said. “He said, this is what God wants.”

Billy avoided Engelhardt after that, but said Avery targeted him some months later in the spring of 1999. Avery told Billy he had talked to Engelhardt about their “sessions,” Billy said, and assaulted him twice over a period of about a month.

The next school year, Billy testified that Shero, his sixth-grade homeroom and English teacher, offered him a ride home. Instead, he said, Shero drove him to Pennypack Park and assaulted him in his car.

The first time Billy ever spoke of being molested was in an impulsive confession to his best friend in high school, he testified, when the two were sophomores. They were discussing a teacher they found “creepy” because of the way he hugged his students and stood overly close to them, and Billy said he told his friend why he was so bothered by it.

The friend, Leo Hernandez, testified Tuesday that he felt angry after Billy’s confession, but that the two did not speak much more about it. Hernandez never told anyone for fear of betraying Billy’s trust, he said.

“I’m pretty sure it’s not too easy to tell a guy that you were touched,” he said. “It’s hard for me to talk about it in front of all these people, so I can only imagine.”

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Witness in priest sex-abuse trial: I was molested

Northeast Times Star

01/16/2013 1:01 pm

By John Loftus

A 24-year-old former Northeast Philadelphia resident on Tuesday pointed to the two men he said molested him when he was 10 and 11 years old and said that abuse changed him and changed his life.

Testifying in open court for just the second time, the witness identified former St. Jerome elementary school lay teacher Bernard Shero, 49, and the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, as two of three adults who molested him when he was a pupil and altar boy at the Northeast parish. Both accused men have pleaded innocent to sexual assault charges. Engelhardt also has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge.

Before he was to go on trial last year, the third man, ex-priest Edward Avery, pleaded guilty to assaulting the witness in St. Jerome’s sacristy in the late 1990s. He currently is imprisoned but is expected to testify for the prosecution sometime this week or next.

On the stand Tuesday, the young witness, who now lives and works in Florida, told Assistant District Attorney Mark Cippoletti that Engelhardt caught him in a church bathroom drinking sacramental wine left over from an early-morning Mass at St. Jerome during the 1998-99 school year. Instead of scolding him, the witness said, the priest, an Oblate of St. Francis DeSales, told him not to do it again and to come into the sacristy, a church anteroom near the altar, and to sit down.

The witness said the priest asked him if had a girlfriend, if he had looked at pornography, and if he was interested in boys or girls.

The young man told the priest he had seen porn, and that the priest took papers and magazines from a little black briefcase. The magazines had pictures of naked men and women who were engaged in both heterosexual and homosexual acts, he said.

“I was a little scared,” the witness said. “But then, it was kind of cool.”

The witness said Engelhardt told him it was time for him to become a man and that “our sessions” would soon again.

“He said he would be seeing me soon,” the witness said.

“Soon” was sometime in the next week or week and a half, the witness said, when Engelhardt told the boy to stay behind after another early-morning Mass.

Again, he testified, Engelhardt told him it was time to become a man. He said the priest told him that God loved him and “this is what God wants.”

He said the priest told him to undress, took his own clothing off, told the boy, “just watch how it’s done” and proceeded to molest the child with oral sex.

The young man said Engelhardt told him he had “done a good job” and that God loved him. After that, the witness said, he avoided the priest as much as a he could.

Again, the witness told Cippoletti, he told no one about what had happened to him.

Months later, he said, Avery, who lived at the parish rectory, told him he had heard of his “sessions” with Engelhardt and that theirs would begin soon.

He described in detail two occasions in which those sessions involved oral sex with Avery in a church storage room. The witness said Avery, who worked part time as a disc jockey, had him strip to music during the first “session.”

At one point during that first time, the witness said, Avery tried to put his finger in the boy’s rectum.

“I screamed,” he said.

He told no one what had happened, he said. Two weeks later, the witness said, Avery told him in was time for another “session.” He was told to strip again while Avery sat there with the weird smile he always had, the witness said. The “session” ended with the priest ordering the boy to give him oral sex, the witness said.

He told no one about that session either, he said.

The witness said he traded altar boy duties with others to avoid Avery and never had another “session” with him or Engelhardt.

During the next school year, when he was in sixth grade, he said, Bernard Shero, who was his homeroom and English teacher, offered him a ride home after a detention. Instead of taking him home, the witness said, Shero drove him to a parking lot in Pennypack Park where he molested him.

The witness said he later experienced testicular pain, vomiting and coughing.

“I lost a lot of weight,” he said.

He said he began to smoke marijuana when he was 11. Later in the next decade he used harder drugs and became addicted to heroin. His last drug-related arrest was in November 2011. He graduated from St. Jerome’s parish school but was later kicked out of Archbishop Ryan High School for having marijuana and brass knuckles.

In their opening statements Monday, defense attorneys said the witness, the son of a Philadelphia police sergeant, didn’t tell anyone of these experiences until he was older than 18 and was only claiming they occurred to make excuses for a troubled life of drug use, arrests and unsuccessful drug rehabilitation attempts — as well as suing the archdiocese and his alleged abusers.

The witness’ mother on Monday said she and her husband initially thought the dark side of her son that began to show in early 2003 when he was 14 was due to his beloved grandmother dying just months before. She said she and her husband both thought their boy was acting out because of grief.

After he had turned 18, she said, her son made a one-sentence statement that he had been abused by a priest and then did not speak of it again.

Earlier Tuesday, however, a childhood friend told the court the witness had told him about the incidents when they were alone drinking beer when they were 16.

The young witness had testified during last year’s trial of the Rev. James Brennan and Monsignor William Lynn. Jurors couldn’t reach verdicts on charges Brennan had sexually assaulted a Bucks County teen. However, they found Lynn, who had served 12 years as the archdiocese’s secretary of clergy, guilty of endangering children because he had investigated Avery, knew he was a molester and had kept him in ministry, thereby putting children at risk.

The witness also had testified before a Philadelphia grand jury but never has been questioned by defense attorneys. That is expected to occur today in Courtroom 304 of the Criminal Justice Center, 13th and Filbert streets.

Get full updates of this story in the print version of the Northeast Times.

Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215-354-3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com