Shanley repressed memory Massachusetts hearing

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`Repressed memory' at issue in defrocked priest's appeal - By Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff / September 10, 2009 Defrocked priest Paul R. Shanley, one of the key figures in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal, plans to challenge his rape and indecent assault convictions before the state's highest court today....The prosecutors say "dissociative amnesia'' is recognized as a legitimate disorder by many in the mental health field, including the American Psychiatric Association. Merely because specialists "may not be unanimous about dissociative amnesia does not rule out its validity,'' prosecutors wrote in their brief....But under cross-examination, she agreed that people can forget traumatic events and remember them later. Loftus is among those who signed the brief supporting Shanley's appeal. Shanley's lawyer said in his brief that no appellate court in Massachusetts has considered whether repressed memory is a valid, scientifically accepted phenomenon. If so, the high court's ruling in the case could have significant repercussions. Leone said recently that the concept of recovered memory "by victims of abuse has been accepted by both the scientific and legal communities, as well as the jury that convicted Mr. Shanley of child rape after hearing the full evidence in this case.'' He said the verdict was just and expressed confidence that it will be upheld.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/10/repressed_memory_is_at_issue_in_defrocked_priests_appeal/

Defrocked priest Shanley to challenge use of repressed memories in sexual abuse trial By Denise Lavoie/Associated Press - Daily News Tribune Boston - 9/10/09 Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, one of the central figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal, was convicted after a 27-year-old man tearfully described how the popular priest used to pull him out of catechism classes and rape him, beginning when he was just 6 years old....
Now Shanley is challenging his conviction based on an ongoing debate in the psychiatric community over the validity and reliability of repressed memories. The highest court in Massachusetts will hear Shanley's appeal today, at 9 a.m., at John Adams Courthouse, One Pemberton Square, Boston....The clergy sex abuse crisis erupted in Boston in 2002 after church records were made public showing that church officials had reports of priests molesting children, but kept the complaints secret, shuffling some priests from parish to parish rather than removing them. Shanley, now 78, was known in the 1960s and 1970s as a "street priest" who reached out to Boston's troubled youth. Internal records showed that church officials were aware of sexual abuse complaints against him as early as 1967....A wave of lawsuits led to massive settlements, including a record $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 alleged victims in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and an $85 million settlement in 2003 with more than 550 victims in the Archdiocese of Boston. All told, the U.S. Roman Catholic Church has paid more than $2.6 billion in settlements and related expenses since 1950, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The victim in the Shanley case received a $500,000 settlement from the Boston archdiocese about a year before Shanley went on trial in the criminal case. Prosecutors originally charged Shanley with sexually abusing four men when they were children in Newton during the 1980s. They later dropped three of the men from the case. All four men said they recovered memories of the abuse years later. During Shanley's 2005 trial, the remaining victim broke down and cried as he testified in graphic detail that Shanley raped and groped him in the church bathroom, the rectory, the confessional and the pews from age 6 to 12.
"It felt awful," he testified. "He told me nobody would ever believe me if I told anybody." Shanley was convicted of child rape and indecent assault and battery. He is now serving a 12- to 15-year prison sentence. A judge last year rejected Shanley's request for a new trial, finding that the theory of repressed-recovered memories, though controversial, is "generally accepted by the relevant scientific community of mental health professionals."....others believe repressed memories are well-documented among victims of traumatic events. "Holocaust victims, people who have been to war - the list goes on and on in showing the coping mechanisms to protect the mind from overwhelming fear and tragedy," said Wendy Murphy, a Boston attorney who is a director of The Leadership Council, a nonprofit organization of scientists, attorneys and educators. Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone, whose office prosecuted Shanley, said in a statement that he believes the theory will stand up to Shanley's legal challenge. "The concept of recovered memory by victims of abuse has been accepted by both the scientific and legal communities, as well as the jury who convicted Mr. Shanley of child rape after hearing the full evidence in this case," Leone said http://www.dailynewstribune.com/homepage/x302143055/Defrocked-priest-Shanley-to-challenge-use-of-repressed-memories-in-sexual-abuse-trial



good TV video on Shanley case
http://multimedia.wbz.com/m/video/26260680/shanley-challenges-repressed-memories.htm?seek=142.199



summary of case

Shanley was accused of sexual abuse in the 1960's, the 1970's, the 1980's and the 1990's. His church personnel records indicated he was transferred from parish to parish despite allegations of abuse. The Boston Herald (4/9/02) printed that Shanley "spoke in favor of sex between men and boys at a formative 1978 meeting in Boston of the “Man Boy Lovers of North America” and that he "admitted openly to raping and sodomizing minors when confronted by church investigators under Boston’s two past archbishops, Humberto Cardinal Medeiros and Law."

There is very strong scientific evidence that recovered memories exist. This has been shown in many scientific studies. The content of recovered memories have fairly high corroboration rates.


Paul Shanley - Summary of Case: Shanley’s career had four stages. He spent the 1960s as a junior parish priest at St. Patrick’s in Stoneham (a suburb north of Boston) and at St. Francis of Assisi in Braintree (a working class suburb south of Boston). In the 1970s he was a “street priest” designated as the Boston archdiocese’s minister to “alienated youth.” In the 1980s he was a priest and pastor at St. Jean’s in the working class Nonantum section of Newton, west of Boston. And in the 1990s he was a fill-in priest in the San Bernardino diocese and an acting director of Leo House, a Catholic hostel in the New York archdiocese. He is accused of sexual abuse in each decade. His alleged victims were mostly male, but some women have come forward. Ages of the alleged victims at the time of the abuse range from 6 to 26, and the alleged offenses range from fondling to forced oral sex and anal rape. http://www.projecttruth2.com/Paul%20Richard%20Shanley.htm



Ex-Priest Is Sentenced to 12 to 15 Years for Sex Abuse in Massachusetts By AP 2/15/05 “Boston (AP) Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, whose crimes shook the Roman Catholic Church, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison on child rape charges….Shanley became a central figure in the sex scandal in Boston after plaintiffs’ attorneys forced the church to release his personnel records. The documents indicated he was transferred from parish to parish despite allegations of abuse.”"

"Damning internal church documents on the Rev. Paul R. Shanley make clear that the Archdiocese of Boston knew the priest was a child rapist yet devoted large sums of money and decades of personnel resources to cover up his crimes." “The documents also show that Shanley spoke in favor of sex between men and boys at a formative 1978 meeting in Boston of the “Man Boy Lovers of North America,” a precursor of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA.” “Shanley admitted openly to raping and sodomizing minors when confronted by church investigators under Boston’s two past archbishops, Humberto Cardinal Medeiros and Law.” from Cover up: Documents: Archdiocese knew priest was a rapist - by Tom Mashberg and Robin Washington - 4/9/02 Boston Herald
http://web.archive.org/web/20020602180710/http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/shan04092002.htm



Websites citing journal articles proving the veracity of recovered memory include :
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Recovered_Memories
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/recovered-memory-data/
http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/suggestedrefs.html
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/Recovmem/index.html
http://www.jimhopper.com/memory/
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/tm/tm.html
http://cmx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/2/91