Every time I write about
this story, my Inbox fills with messages from readers stunned and appalled by
the facts of the 1994 trial of Fr Gordon MacRae. A minority
pose questions such as "How do you know he is innocent?" to
which I usually reply, "What makes you think he may not be?" Then the
tirades begin, but they never answer my question.
Those
who labor to suppress this case of false accusation preface their answers with
statements like, "Priests did terrible things and bishops covered it
up!" "We all know these priests are guilty,"
and "The Catholic Church is a child raping institution!" (from
a SNAP member). The prevailing logic
here is that Father MacRae went to prison in
1994 for the sins of the Church, the sins of the bishops, and the sins
of the priesthood. For many silent
Catholics who just want to move on from The Scandal, that is okay. It is not okay.
In the trial of Father
MacRae, the sole evidence was the word of Thomas Grover, a 27-year-old,
220-pound man with a criminal rap sheet for assault, theft, forgery, and
narcotics charges - all kept from the jury by Judge Arthur Brennan. Grover had a long history of drug abuse, and gained nearly $200,000 for "telling a
lie and sticking to it," as his ex-wife describes his testimony. His ex-wife
also says, today, that he punched her and broke her nose before the trial.
And yet throughout this
case, with all these factors in plain sight
of everyone but the jury, not one person
questioned whether this man might be lying for money. Not the zealous detective who today reportedly responded
to the question of injustice with one of his own: "Why didn't MacRae just
take the plea deal?" Not the two prosecutors,
one of whom was fired after this trial while the other later committed suicide.
Not Judge Arthur Brennan who sent this priest to prison for
decades while citing evidence that no one has ever seen, evidence that never
existed.
Nor was the possibility of lying for money ever openly
considered by anyone in the Diocese of Manchester
when they wrote six-figure checks to pay Grover and his brothers off. By the time it was all over, Thomas Grover,
Jonathan Grover, David Grover and Jay Grover - all "remembering"
their claims in the same week over a decade
later - emerged from the case with combined settlements of over
$650,000. MacRae took, and passed, two
pre-trial polygraph (lie detector) tests in
this case. Thomas Grover and his
brothers never assented to take a polygraph.
Read the rest of this riveting story: "Bombshells and Black Ops in the Father MacRae Case"
What is even more disturbing than the false accusations and the poor trial is the time and expense it takes to free Fr Gordon - this is a huge blot on the American Justice system. It sets the system up as a laughing stock - something to be avoided at all costs. The system should pick up the bill for its lousy performance and compensate Fr Gordon - if that is even possible.
ReplyDeleteGood insight, thanks. New Hampshire, where Father MacRae is imprisoned, passed legislation several years ago that limits any claim of wrongful imprisonment to a total of no more than $20,000 no matter how long the person was unjustly incarcerated. And the State has never paid a single claim because they fight these claims tooth and nail just as they do any claim of actual innocence. And they still call themselves the "Live Free or Die" state.
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