Facing the prospect of paying more than $100,000 in legal fees, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington says a judge was to blame for a mistrial in a priest sex abuse case.Judge Ben Joseph declared the mistrial June 25 in the case of James Turner, 46, of Virginia Beach, Va., who sued the Diocese saying it was partly responsible for the molestation he allegedly suffered at the hands of former priest Rev. Alfred Willis.
Joseph ended the trial hours before it was to go to a jury, saying church lawyers violated pretrial rulings limiting what they could ask of Turner about an alleged sexual relationship between his brother and Willis.
He also ordered the Diocese to pay Turner's legal tab, which came to about $112,000, counting other costs associated with trial preparation by his attorneys.
In a motion filed in Chittenden Superior Court last week, Diocesan lawyers said Joseph never said he disapproved of that line of questioning by church lawyer David Cleary.
"On the contrary, the court's initial response to plaintiffs motion for mistrial indicates the court felt during questioning -- and still thought in chambers -- that Mr. Cleary's questions had been legitimate," Diocesan attorney Thomas McCormick wrote in a brief.
"The plaintiff obtained the remedy he sought -- a new trial," McCormick wrote.
In any event, a mistrial was unnecessary, according to McCormick, who asked for reconsideration of it.
Jerome O'Neill, Turner's lawyer, said it's only fair the Diocese pay Turner's legal bills. Cleary knew his questions violated pretrial orders and made Turner look evasive to jurors by pressing him for details about his brother's relationship with Willis, O'Neill said.
"The judge had made an unequivocal pretrial order; Cleary violated it, and he got caught," O'Neill said. "Now they're saying 'Oh gee, the judge should never have issued the order in the first place.'"
A retrial is expected later this year.
Willis, who was named in the original lawsuit, settled out of court with Turner and is no longer a defendant in the case.
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