Judge Arthur Brennan Sentenced Father Gordon MacRae to Die in Prison

By Ryan A. MacDonald

     Judge Arthur Brennan




Former New Hampshire Judge Arthur Brennan was arrested at a Washington, DC protest in October 2011. In 1994, he sentenced Fr. Gordon MacRae to die in prison.

I spent some time last month poking around inside These Stone Walls, an extraordinary website that by all odds should not exist. I once wrote of all the random factors that had to coalesce for this story of a Catholic priest falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned to be told. "The Prisoner-Priest Behind These Stone Walls" tells that tale, and hopefully has drawn some fair minded souls to this remarkable site.

Spend just a minute or two at the "About" page at These Stone Walls, and consider its simple math. On September 23, 1994, in Cheshire County Superior Court in Keene, New Hampshire, Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Catholic priest, Gordon MacRae to consecutive prison terms for a combined sentence of 67 years in prison. The sentence was imposed after a highly problematic jury trial in which MacRae was convicted of having sexually assaulted Thomas Grover  during counseling sessions in 1983 when Grover was 15 years old.

The accused priest was between 25 and 30 years old when his "crimes" - now deemed by many to be fictitious - were claimed to have occurred. MacRae was 41 years old when the sentence was imposed. He is now 59 years old and still in prison. Barring the just outcome of a pending new appeal based on new evidence in the case, the priest will be 108 years old when his sentence is fully served and he is free to leave prison. There is no other possible conclusion. Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Father Gordon MacRae to die in the New Hampshire State Prison.

From a pragmatic perspective, and even with an emphasis on retributive justice, this makes little sense. Given that New Hampshire prosecutors sought a pre-trial plea deal that would have released MacRae over 15 years ago had he admitted guilt, a 67-year sentence seems an expensive folly that will cost New Hampshire taxpayers millions of dollars. Even if MacRae's sentences were imposed concurrently instead of consecutively - an option for judges when defendants have no prior felony record - MacRae would not still be in prison today.

Parole in New Hampshire for someone convicted of a sexual offense - true or not - invariably requires completion of a prison sex offender program which in turn requires an unqualified admission of guilt. Because of the vast numbers of men convicted of similar offenses in New Hampshire - by some estimates more than 40% of the state's prison population - the waiting list for the prison sex offender program requires that inmates must be within two years of their aggregate minimum sentence to be eligible.

By the time MacRae could fulfill this requirement for parole consideration, over 50 years will have passed between the charged offenses and the "treatment" program. At age 80, this priest's freedom would rest on his ability to reveal with consistency the details of fictitious sexual assaults alleged to have occurred when he was 29. What seemed to make perfect sense to Judge Arthur Brennan in this sentence eludes just about everyone else.

Nonetheless, these considerations are all rendered moot. From everything I have read on this case, MacRae is innocent of the claims, and cannot say otherwise just to avoid dying in prison. Justice is not served when an innocent defendant is coerced to plead guilty to something he did not do just to discharge a decades-long prison term. Coercive plea deals work well for the guilty, but not for the innocent. Careful readers of this story know that MacRae, sitting alone in a county jail awaiting sentencing, his meager assets wiped out by the trial, and his lawyers having abandoned the case for lack of funds to investigate and defend it, was coerced by circumstances into a post-trial plea deal on all remaining charges in exchange for a sentence of zero additional time in prison. He and others close to the case described this, then and now, as "a negotiated lie."

Today, I describe what played out in Judge Arthur Brennan's court after MacRae was found guilty in his first trial as an extorted lie, and it is nothing new. Attorney Barry Scheck, founder of the Innocence Project, reveals that of the hundreds of DNA exonerations his organization has championed to free the wrongfully imprisoned, a full 25% have involved coerced and extorted plea deals such as that inflicted on Father Gordon MacRae, post trial. It is for abuses such as this that a March 21, 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling vastly expanded judicial oversight of the pressures placed on defendants during plea deals, requiring that competent counsel advise them.

The details of the related, but untried charges against this priest render them highly doubtful as well. The Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote of these claims brought by three of Thomas Grover's brothers and others in "A Priest's Story: The Trial" (April 27, 2005). I wrote of other details related to these claims in "A Touch of Deja Vu" and "Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?" No just person can read these documents and conclude the legitimacy of Father Gordon MacRae's trial and imprisonment.

A SENTENCE DEVOID OF COMMON SENSE
Gordon MacRae, Prisoner No. 67546, has now been in prison for 18 years. Nearly 30 years have already passed since his charges were claimed to have occurred - charges that new evidence shows were highly doubtful. New Hampshire prosecutors were willing to let MacRae out of prison 16 years ago had he been willing to forgo trial and stand before Judge Brennan to utter a single word, "guilty."

MacRae refused three such prosecution overtures for a plea deal to end the case with a recommended sentence of only one to three years. One such offer was made to the priest's lawyers in writing. Another came in the middle of MacRae's trial. That offer was made just after 27-year-old, 220-pound Thomas Grover wept dramatically from the witness stand as he recounted being forced to endure sexual assaults five times during counseling sessions for his drug problem at age 15 in 1983. He vaguely claimed to return from week to week unable to remember being raped the week before. His heavily coached description of PTSD-induced "out of body experiences" was his only explanation for how such traumatic memories were "repressed." After this incredulous testimony, the two prosecutors looked at each other and headed for a hallway with MacRae's lawyer to offer a new plea deal - this time a sentence of one to two years. The priest refused it.

In the end, Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Defendant Gordon MacRae to more than thirty times the maximum sentence State prosecutors were prepared to request.  Those prosecutors are long since gone. One was inexplicably fired the day after MacRae's trial ended, and later relocated to another state under a cloud. The other has since committed suicide.

Even a cursory examination of new evidence in the MacRae case warrants vacating his convictions. Additionally, there are elements of the case that could not be part of the appeal process, and are not generally known. For example, MacRae agreed to two pre-trial polygraph examinations in 1994. The polygraph tests were based on the claims of Thomas Grover and his brother, Jonathan Grover, whose accusations amassed most of the indictments for which the priest faced trial. Father MacRae passed the polygraph tests conclusively. Even today, after the passage of 18 years, the polygraph examiner recalls this case and reported that Father MacRae "did very well" on these investigative tools. Neither Thomas Grover nor Jonathan Grover, nor any other accuser ever agreed to submit to polygraph testing.

There is more. A lot more. David F. Pierre, author of the book, Catholic Priests Falsely Accused and host of The Media Report, performed a public service by reviewing hundreds of pages of court documents and trial transcripts now published at the website of The National Center for Reason and Justice. David Pierre's summary of these documents, entitled "Alarming New Evidence May Exonerate Imprisoned Priest," includes the following eye-opening facts:

1.)  The ex-wife of accuser Thomas Grover has revealed this case as a fraud. Her statement describes him as a "compulsive liar" who "never stated one word of abuse by MacRae" until the prospect of money loomed. She describes him as a "manipulator...who can tell a lie and stick to it 'til its end." She reports that Grover's lawyer advised him to "act crazy before the jury" and hired a therapist to heighten the effect. Once Grover got his nearly $200,000 settlement, all therapy came to a halt.

2.)  Thomas Grover's adult stepson today states that Grover repeatedly told him before and after trial that he "had never been molested by MacRae," and that he was "setting MacRae and the Catholic Church up for money." He reports that Grover laughed and joked with him about this scheme before, during, and after MacRae's trial.

3.)  The former wife and stepson both report that before MacRae's trial, Grover repeatedly sought and obtained cash advances on his projected settlement from his contingency lawyer, a practice that is prohibited in the New Hampshire Code of Professional Conduct for lawyers.

4.)  Two observers present throughout the trial report having observed the manipulation of Grover's testimony by therapist Pauline Goupil, M.A., a victim advocate hired by Thomas Grover's contingency lawyer. According to signed statements Ms. Goupil influenced Grover's trial testimony using hand signals for him to feign sobbing during specific segments of his testimony. In several instances she was observed placing her index finger over her eye and down her cheek at which point Grover would commence sobbing, disrupting cross examination and, on at least one occasion, prompting Judge Brennan to call a recess.

5.)  Debra Collett, Thomas Grover's former drug addiction counselor, today states that Grover made so many claims of sexual abuse in the course of drug treatment that "he appeared to be going for some sort of sex abuse victim world record." She reports that his claims of sexual abuse targeted his adoptive father and others, but he did not accuse MacRae.

6.)  Ms. Collett also described that she was threatened by "coercion, intimidation, veiled and more forward threats," "overtly threatened" and confronted "with threats of arrest" by the investigating police detective to alter her testimony for the trial and "to get me to say what they wanted to hear."

7.)  A former accuser of MacRae has today recanted his claim of abuse stating, "I was aware at the time of [the] trial knowing full well that it was all bogus and having heard of the lawsuits and money involved, also the reputations of those who were making accusations." This former accuser attests that "[Keene, NH Detective James] McLaughlin had me believing that all I had to do was make up a story ... and I could receive a large sum of money as others already had. McLaughlin reminded me of the young child and girlfriend I had and referenced that life could be easier for us with a large amount of money." This witness reports he was given cash by Det. McLaughlin after this interview.

8.) James Abbott, a veteran career Special Agent with the F.B.I., today reports: "In the entirety of my three-year investigation of this matter, I discovered no evidence of MacRae having committed the crimes charged, or any other crimes. Indeed, the only thing pointing to any improper behavior by MacRae were Grover's stories - that were undermined by the people who surrounded him at the time he made his accusations."  

Fr. Gordon MacRae taken to prison on September 23, 1994

THE MONEY FLOWS

After Father MacRae was sent to prison, Thomas Grover’s three brothers reportedly walked away from this case with additional settlements from the Diocese of Manchester in excess of $430,000. I have written of these accusations in my column, “Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?” Two of the three brothers also accused another priest, but pre-trial discovery shows no indication that the other priest was interviewed or even investigated.

Following publication of the two-part "A Priest's Story" in The Wall Street Journal in 2005, Arthur Brennan defended his presiding over this trial and his sentence of MacRae by stating that it was all "more complex" than what Dorothy Rabinowitz reported. Indeed it was, and the complexities which continue to surface leave many doubts about the justice of the MacRae trial and the legitimacy of its entire pre-trial investigation and prosecution.

Arthur Brennan took early retirement from the New Hampshire bench for a brief stint with the U.S. State Department's Office of Transparency and Accountability in Iraq. The trial and sentence  of Gordon MacRae have transparency and accountability issues of their own still to be resolved.

Do the Math! Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Father Gordon MacRae to die in a New Hampshire prison. It's an outcome I suspect this priest would not shrink from if it comes down to it. For the rest of us, evidence now spells out clearly the travesty of justice this case was - and still is.


"We are disgusted with the lack of integrity in Congress, the Senate, The White House and the U.S. Supreme Court. We will stop these pretenders from stealing our freedom and our universal human rights."
By Arthur Brennan, quoted from "Forty years later, a new call to protest" (August 21, 2011).

For more information on this case consult the National Center for Reason and Justice.

Bishop Takes Pawn: Plundering The Rights of a Prisoner- Priest

By Ryan A. MacDonald

Bishop John B. McCormack, Aux. Bishop Francis J. Christian and  Fr. Edward Arsenault, announce names of accused

                                     priests of the Diocese of Manchester.     

                        

     

    "I do believe you will agree that we arrived at a point in our handling of these cases where canon and civil law are being eroded to the detriment and I think diminishment, not only of who we are as human beings, but of who we claim to be as Christians." (Catharine Henningsen, Voice of the Faithful Conference, February 5, 2004).

In October, 2000, Mr. Leo Demers - then Director of Engineering for WGBH-TV, the PBS-Boston television station that produces the news program, "Frontline" -  approached the Diocese of Manchester after being contacted by "Frontline" producers with an interest in the case of wrongly imprisoned priest, Father Gordon MacRae. Mr. Demers first called Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian who flatly refused to discuss any aspect of the MacRae case. Shortly after, Mr. Demers was then summoned to meet with Bishop John McCormack. According to a sworn affidavit of Mr. Demers, Bishop McCormack informed him in this meeting: 

"What I am about to tell you must never leave this room. I believe Father MacRae is innocent and his accusers likely lied, but there is nothing I can do to change a jury verdict." 

Mr. Demers decided that he could not in conscience honor the secrecy demand of his bishop when two years later he learned that the bishop sent the case of Father MacRae to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome seeking his canonical dismissal from the priesthood based upon no evidence other than the fact of his convictions.

A New Hampshire attorney has corroborated the statement of Leo Demers with a statement of her own. Her sworn affidavit reveals that in December 2000, she sought a meeting with Bishop McCormack after learning of the possible interest of Dorothy Rabinowitz and The Wall Street Journal in looking at the MacRae case. According to her statement, both Bishop John McCormack and Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian were present at that meeting, and both unequivocally stated their respective belief that Father MacRae is in fact innocent of the claims that sent him to prison. The two bishops informed the attorney of their intent to explore and fund an appeal of Father MacRae's trial and sentence. 

In 2001, Father Edward Arsenault, Bishop McCormack's "delegate for ministerial conduct," raised the following points in two confidential memos to the Bishop: 

"My suggestion is that we address the inequity in Gordon's lack of base remuneration over the last 8 - 10 years {a calculable number) . . . This would alleviate ... the burden from you for extraordinary measures and would be more consistent with Church law." 

"It was unfair of the Diocese not to assist Gordon with funding an appeal of his sentence leaving him with a public defender for his only remaining hope for appeal."

"We ought to admit to Gordon that we have no reason to doubt that the Grovers  [the accusers] may have embellished their testimony to suit their own purposes and that we have never supported Detective Mclaughlin's tactics.” 

The "base remuneration" never took place. However, other confidential memos to Bishop McCormack from other Diocesan personnel reveal their doubts about the trial testimony against Father MacRae, including these excerpts from a memo from Diocesan Attorney Bradford Cook: 

"Throughout this process it was obvious that all of the Grovers were expansive in their testimony and it was aimed at getting a certain result, and frankly none of the attorneys involved in the criminal or civil cases trusted their testimony to be completely accurate. Whether it was all trumped up or totally manufactured is impossible to know . . .  That it was embellished was clear." 

"Detective McLaughlin has been the instigator of many cases in the Keene area and seems to be a crusader on sexual abuse cases, engaging in questionable activities which border on entrapment on occasion." 

"As to the involvement of Father Scruton or anyone else at St. Bernard's, clearly there were several members of the clergy located at that church who had problems and it is impossible to discount that one or more of them may have been involved with one or more of the Grovers." 

THE BOSTON SCANDAL 

In a meeting in early January, 2002, Bishop McCormack promised the imprisoned priest that $40,000 in "non-donated funds" would be set aside to retain appellate counsel for him. Then suddenly the 2002 scandal broke out in Boston, implicated Bishop McCormack, and left Father MacRae outside the rapidly circling diocesan wagons. Bishop McCormack's subsequent memos to the priest continued to promise a defense, but with conditions. The memos called for MacRae's termination of any contact with The Wall Street Journal and Dorothy Rabinowitz before the diocese would agree to assist him further. Bishop McCormack's newer overtures promised help only if Father MacRae would agree to limit any inquiry to the length of his sentence and not the history and merits of the case or the convictions themselves.

Father Edward Arsenault contacted Father MacRae through the prison chaplain in 2002 with an assurance that the Diocese would retain Attorney David Vicinanzo to represent him. Reportedly, Father Arsenault asked the imprisoned priest to forward to his office all defense files retained by the priest. In December, 2002, Father Arsenault answered one of Father MacRae's letters with a statement that he "has not yet had an opportunity to discuss the materials you sent with Attorney Vicinanzo."

Months later, Father MacRae learned that his legal defense files were never given to the lawyer, and were instead taken by the state Attorney General's Office when serving a Grand Jury subpoena for priests' records on the Diocese. From that point on, Father Edward Arsenault and Bishop John McCormack both stopped responding to Father MacRae's letters. 

At the same time all of this was going on, Father Edward Arsenault and the Diocese of Manchester were deeply involved with negotiations with plaintiff lawyers for mediated settlements.  For a stunning review of what went on behind closed doors in these mediated settlements, please see an eye-opening article by Father George David Byers entitled, "The Judas Crisis...Follow the Thirty Pieces of Silver." 

When Bishop McCormack signed an agreement with the Attorney General's Office to publish the files of some 62 priests accused, a part of the agreement was that each priest would have a ten-day period to review and challenge publication of any files pertaining to him. Concerned that privileged legal documents and other materials produced post-trial by Father MacRae were about to be published, the imprisoned priest wrote to Father Edward Arsenault in January, 2003, asking that this ten-day review be afforded to him. He received no reply. 

Ten days after the files were published, in March of 2003, Father MacRae received a letter from an attorney for the diocese describing what he must do to obtain his files and review them before the release. The month-long delay in his receipt of that letter has never been validly explained to him.

After the publication of this vast release of files, Father MacRae wrote to both Bishop McCormack and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte protesting the publication of files that were fraudulently obtained by the diocese and published without regard for the priest's confidentiality rights. Bishop McCormack wrote that he tried to prevent the publication of files that were confidential, but was not successful. Attorney General Ayotte's representative wrote to Father MacRae stating that all files obtained by a Grand Jury in New Hampshire are considered confidential under law, but added that Bishop McCormack signed a waiver of confidentiality enabling all the accused priests' files to be published. 

In 2004, Bishop McCormack proposed in writing that he would like to meet with Father MacRae at the prison to discuss the norms under which he must send Father MacRae's case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Then the bishop cancelled this meeting and sent the case with no input from Father MacRae, with no defense, and without MacRae knowing any of the specifics of what was sent. 

In 2005, after Dorothy Rabinowitz published a two-part article exposing the clearly unjust trial and imprisonment of Father Gordon MacRae, officials of his Diocese, including his bishop, ceased all communication with him until 2008.

At that time, Bishop McCormack sent a letter to Father MacRae expressing his concern that he has "learned you have retained new counsel" in this case. Bishop McCormack wrote that he has retained counsel to represent him - though no one knows why the Bishop would need representation in Father MacRae's appeal. The Bishop's letter also detailed that he has commissioned lawyers to conduct a review of Father MacRae's trial for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Bishop's secret "review" bypassed all the lawyers and investigators diligently working on Father MacRae's appellate defense. Bishop McCormack has refused to divulge to the priest or his legal and canonical advocates the nature of that secret review.

Father MacRae has had no communication from his bishop since that 2008 letter. In a letter to Rome, Bishop McCormack asserted that since his imprisonment, Father MacRae has refused, through unnamed third parties, to have any contact with his Diocese or other priests.  MacRae has consistently maintained that he has never made such a request and has never learned the identities of these "third parties." It was upon review of the events I have described above that the late Reverend Richard John Neuhaus, Editor of First Things magazine, called the case of Father Gordon MacRae “A Kafkaesque Tale," the title of this editorial in the August/September, 2008, issue of First Things: 

A KAFKAESQUE TALE by Rev. Richard John Neuhaus 

"Among the many sad consequences of the sex abuse crisis are the injustices visited upon priests falsely accused. A particularly egregious case is that of Father Gordon MacRae of the diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. He was sentenced to thirty-three years and has been imprisoned more than twelve years with no chance of parole because he insists he is innocent. 

I have followed the case for several years. Lawyer friends have closely examined the case and believe he was railroaded. The Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Dorothy Rabinowitz published, on April 27 and 28, 2005, an account of the travesty of justice by which he was convicted. 

Now the friends of Father MacRae have created a website, www.GordonMacRae.net which provides a comprehensive narrative of the case, along with pertinent documentation. Bishop John McCormack, a former aide of Boston's Cardinal Law, and the Diocese of Manchester do not come off as friends of justice or, for that matter, of elementary decency. You may want to visit the website and read this Kafkaesque tale. And then you may want to pray for Father MacRae, and for a Church and a justice system that seem indifferent to justice."

(First Things, August/September 2008)


"For we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter." (Isaiah 28:15)

To learn more about the troubling case of Father Gordon MacRae's false accusations and wrongful imprisonment, consult the following: 

http://www.thesestonewalls.com/about/

Exclusive Report: New Evidence May Exonerate Imprisoned Priest
    by David F. Pierre, Jr. 

A Priest's Story Part One: The Trial 

by Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Wall Street Journal 

A Priest's Story Part Two: The Conviction 

by Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Wall Street Journal

A Touch of Deja Vu: The Case Against Rev. Gordon MacRae  

by Ryan A. MacDonald 

Psychotherapists  Send an Innocent Priest to Prison  
   by Ryan A. MacDonald at The Daily Estimate 

Should the Case Against Father Gordon MacRae Be Reviewed?     
   by Ryan A. MacDonald 

Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?  
   by Ryan A. MacDonald 

To Azazel: Father Gordon MacRae and the Gospel of Mercy      
    by Ryan A. MacDonald 

(Ryan A. MacDonald is a Spero News columnist who has written about the crisis in the priesthood for numerous print and on-line venues. He blogs at A Ram in the Thicket). 

http://araminthethicket.blogspot.com/2011/09/touch-of-deja-vu-case-against-father.html

Why Do SNAP and VOTF Fear the Case of Fr. Gordon MacRae?

by Ryan A. MacDonald

A new chapter has begun in the story of accused Catholic pr1ests, but some in SNAP and VOTF seem frantic to suppress it. Why fear the truth?

Last month, I was invited by the editors of These Stone Walls to write a "Special Report" about a new development in the case of Father Gordon MacRae, a priest of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire whom I believe - to a moral certainty - has been wrongly imprisoned for nearly 18 years. My "Special Report" described new evidence presented in a Motion for New Trial filed in the New Hampshire court system. The legal documents are posted in their entirety at the website of the National Center for Reason and Justice, and they are most compelling.  

In the weeks to follow my brief report, David F. Pierre, Jr., author of the book Catholic Priests Falsely Accused, presented an equally compelling synopsis of the new evidence in the case of Father Gordon MacRae in an "Exclusive Report" at The Media Report. If you do not have time to review the extensive legal briefs and exhibits at the NCRJ site, David Pierre's report provides a superb and accurate summary.

David Pierre’s "Exclusive Report" also had the effect of alerting some of the New Hampshire news media to this emerging story. WMUR News in Manchester, New Hampshire ran a fair and balanced account which can be viewed here. A few New Hampshire newspapers covering the story were far less fair and balanced. The New Hampshire Union Leader blasted Fr. MacRae’s 1994 trial and conviction in front page headline stories, but the recent news of new evidence challenging the conviction was buried in a three inch blurb on page 10. The Keene Sentinel, the sole newspaper in the community in which Father MacRae was tried and convicted in 1994, seemed hampered by its policy of not printing names of accusers in reporting the new evidence.

This is entirely new, of course. Most New Hampshire news outlets covered the 1994 MacRae trial with not only names, but photos, as a pitifully sobbing Thomas Grover described his lurid tales of adolescent abuse from the witness stand. What the news media did not see at that time was something described by witnesses who later came forward. A therapist hired by Thomas Grover's contingency lawyer was also in that courtroom. Two persons have attested seeing her run her index finger over her eye and down her cheek prompting Thomas Grover to begin sobbing. As Grover himself was reportedly overheard saying to friends in the parking lot after trial, "I should get an Academy Award for that performance!"

Indeed he should. There is substantial evidence today that Thomas Grover and his brothers committed fraud and larceny, not just against Father Gordon MacRae and the Diocese of Manchester - which was only too willing to write checks without investigation – but against the court system itself and the people of New Hampshire, including its news media. The citizens of New Hampshire should be rightfully outraged at how these scammers got one over on them. When all was said and done, Church settlements with the Grover family accusers alone amounted to more than $600,000.00. Such fraud has been widely enabled by the climate of Catholic scandal.

NOW COME THE VICTIM ADVOCATES  

Sadly, but predictably, the folks at the Bishop-Accountability website have ignored new developments in this story. They were eager to publish all the dirt on Father Gordon MacRae as it emerged in the great one-sided purge of Church settlement files in 2002 in which every money-driven accusation was treated as demonstrably true. However, more recent efforts to get Bishop-Accountability to live up to its self-description as a clearinghouse for the story of accused priests have met with silence. The Media Report's "Exclusive Report" has not been published by Bishop-Accountability. Several prior reports I have researched and published on this case have also been provided to Bishop-Accountability for publication, but without response. These include, "Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?" and "Should the Case Against Father Gordon MacRae Be Reviewed?"

Just as predictably, the much-diminished New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), along with a few members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have become a tag team trying to stifle news of new evidence in the Father MacRae case. In their predictably toxic comments following secular news reports of Father MacRae's appeal, SNAP and VOTF members seem not only agitated by the new evidence, but frightened by it. A member of New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful has waged a one-woman propaganda campaign that has minimized and misrepresented the new evidence in the hope that readers won't review it for themselves.

Meanwhile, a SNAP spokeswoman invited anyone who wants to score a windfall settlement to accuse this priest anew to help halt the momentum pointing to his innocence. The same formulaic comment by this one SNAP member has followed hundreds of news articles about virtually every U.S. priest who has been accused. Writing this single comment everywhere that will print it seems to be her full-t1me job. And it demonstrates why the names of accusers should be publicized.

SNAP's usual spokesperson, David Clohessy, has been silent, however, apparently busy defending himself against a court order that he turn over all SNAP’s records, files, and financial reports.  Mr. Clohessy emerged from that court hearing to do what he does best in front of any TV camera that will point in his direction: he cried. David Clohessy’s previous news sound bite about Father MacRae described the imprisoned priest's efforts to obtain due process and fair treatment as the work of “a dangerous and demented man.” This spoke volumes about SNAP's agenda, and its corporate fear of any version of the Catholic abuse narrative beyond the one they want the news media to report.

SNAP and VOTF discredit themselves and diminish their own credibility by taking the position that no Catholic priests have been falsely accused. Their attempts to minimize and cloud the emerging new evidence of Father Gordon MacRae's innocence belies their true agenda which has nothing to do with justice or truth or even protecting children. It is to control and manipulate the news in order to characterize the Catholic Church and priesthood as lecherous offenders unworthy of trust.

 

For the most part, SNAP and VOTF were once comprised of apparently good and honest people who took on a cause they believed to be right. What they have become, however, is a fearful lynch mob trying to influence justice through revulsion instead of due process. It is time for Catholics and the mainstream news media to give them the attention they deserve. Let the truth be heard.

Related links:

SNAP's last Gasp! The Pope's Crimes Against Humanity

Psychotherapists Help Send an Innocent Priest to Prison - Spero News 

Thy Brother's Keeper: Why Wrongful Convictions Should Matter to You

To Azazel: Father Gordon MacRae and the Gospel of Mercy 


Be Wary of Crusaders: The Devil Sigmund Freud Knew Only Too Well

The Prisoner-Priest Behind These Stone Walls

By Ryan A. MacDonald

A wrongly convicted priest fights back from his prison cell, and teaches a lesson in fidelity and Catholic witness in the toughest of public squares.

On October 13, 2005, Catholic League President Bill Donohue appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to square off against a panel of contingency lawyers promoting lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests.  In the heated debate, the lawyers and litigants painted the Catholic Church and priests with a broad brush as evil, lecherous offenders.  But Bill Donohue had the last word, and it was the most memorable sound bite of the day:

          “There is no segment of the American population with less civil

            liberties protection than the average American Catholic priest.”

              

Bill Donohue was referring specifically to the case of Rev. Gordon MacRae, a priest of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, who by that point had spent eleven years in prison for crimes that a growing number of people believe never occurred at all. What caught Bill Donohue’s attention was “A Priest’s Story,” (April 27/28, 2005) a two-part series on the MacRae case by Dorothy Rabinowitz, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist on The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board.

Father Gordon MacRae is 58 years old.  Last September he marked 17 years of a life sentence in prison, but if he had accepted any of the “plea deals” offered to him before his 1994 trial, he could have left prison after only one or two years.  This is what makes this case such  “a Kafkaesque tale,”as the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus described it.  If guilty and willing to say so, Fr. MacRae could have left prison fifteeen years ago.  For insisting he is innocent, this priest may spend 67 years in prison for claims – prosecuted with no evidence or corroboration at all – alleged to have occurred almost 30 years ago.

  

At a time when many Catholics reeled over the scandal in the Catholic Church, Dorothy Rabinowitz took a hard look at the facts of the case of Fr. Gordon MacRae – facts that the rest of the news media distorted or conveniently omitted. The result was a disturbing account of greed, false witness, and, as Father Neuhaus described it in First Things magazine (July, 2009) “a Church and a justice system that seem indifferent to justice.”

The Wall Street Journal series caught the attention of some civil liberties experts and lawyers troubled by the case, and an investigation is near completion.   It has revealed some remarkable evidence of fraud and larceny – and Church officials all to eager to accommodate both – but no evidence whatsoever that the claims against this priest might be true. It is hoped that resources will be raised to bring a new appeal in the case of Fr. Gordon MacRae in the not-too-distant future. 

In the meantime, this priest has been writing from the confines of his prison cell, and what he writes truly warrants the Church’s notice.  Sitting in his cell on an empty plastic bucket in front of an old Smith Corona typewriter, Father MacRae has produced some remarkable writing about the scandal of the last decade, about the Church in Western Culture, about fidelity, false witness, and prison itself.  His typed articles are mailed to a supporter in Indiana who scans and e-mails them to Australia from where they are posted on-line. 

It’s the most arduous cyber-process even, but the amazing result is These Stone Walls an eye-catching, conscience-grabbing blog that is both riveting and spiritually uplifting.  This blog’s fidelity to the Church, and to the truth, has been deemed by many to be the finest example of priestly witness the last decade of scandal has produced.

In November 2005, The Catholic League journal, Catalyst, published the first of two major articles by Fr. Gordon MacRae about the scandal in the Catholic Church.  “Sex Abuse and Signs of Fraud” was a well-researched account of how some have taken advantage of the Church’s scandal to score windfall settlements based on fraudulent claims.  The article made its way to the late Cardinal Avery Dulles who wrote to the imprisoned priest:   

           
 "Your article is an important one, and hopefully will be followed by many others. 
Unfortunate though your situation is, you are in a position to carry on an
 effective  apostolate on behalf of unjustly accused priests.
The time is bound to come when the tide will shift and even the bishops will be
ready to hear the priests' side of the story. The change will come, but not before
the public is prepared for it by articles such as yours. Your writing, which is clear, 
eloquent, and spiritually sound, will be a monument to your trials." 

It seems that tide is indeed shifting.  These Stone Walls was recently honored by Our Sunday Visitor’s “2010 Readers’ Choice for the Best of the Catholic Web.”  In recent months, These Stone Walls has been noticed in The Catholic World Report, Catalyst, The Catholic Response, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, and has become a growing presence in the important arena of evangelism and Catholic commentary on the World Wide Web.  The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has highly recommended These Stone Walls to its members.  

These Stone Walls and Fr. Gordon MacRae’s defense are endorsed and sponsored by the National Center for Reason and Justice , a Boston-based organization whose board of lawyers, journalists, and wrongful conviction specialists examined and unanimously approved the case of Father MacRae for sponsorship.  These Stone Walls is also endorsed by numerous civil liberties and wrongful conviction organizations and websites.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of These Stone Walls is what is not found there. The Lord has accomplished within this priest exactly what Cardinal Avery Dulles predicted.  These Stone Walls portrays articulately a spirituality for the wrongly imprisoned, and it does so with grace, dignity, and a challenge to all of us to seek justice upon the high road.  An example is this closing paragraph from Fr. MacRae’s recent, superbly written three-part series, “When Priests Are Falsely Accused.” His blog post challenged one accused priest who responded to his own plight with anger and vindictiveness:

        
“It’s ironic that this priest is often angry with me because he doesn’t think I am angry enough.  
I assure you, he is wrong on that score.  But being angry and feeling let down does not excuse
me from doing the right thing.  It does not excuse me from fidelity to the Gospel, fidelity to the Church, and fidelity to my own sense of right and wrong.  At the end of the day, I am still 
wrongly imprisoned, but I have the freedom to choose the person I am going to be while
wrongly imprisoned.”

No priest should be required to sacrifice his life to satisfy the demands of lawyers, insurance companies, and a rabid news media feeding on scandal.  The case of Rev. Gordon MacRae opens a new chapter in the story of scandal in the Catholic Church.  Have a long, hard look at These Stone Walls for a story of faithful priestly witness in the toughest of public squares.

A Compelling New Book : Catholic Priests Falsely Accused

“In 2002, the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, faced accusations of abuse from 62 individuals. Rather than spending the time and resources looking into the merits of the accusations, Diocesan officials did not even ask for specifics such as the dates and allegations for the claims. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ a pleased and much richer plaintiff attorney admitted.” (Catholic Priests Falsely Accused, p.80).

Thus is told the chilling tale of how decades-old claims of abuse by Catholic priests become “credible” to torte lawyers who score windfall profits from every claim, and Church officials cowered by a scandal-hungry media and the tactics of vigilante “victim” groups. Catholics disheartened by the sordid scandal of sex abuse in their Church would do well to read this well-researched account of how the Church’s tragedy was hijacked by contingency lawyers and others with nefarious agendas of their own. David F. Pierre tells the sordid story the mainstream media won’t touch.  It rings of both truth and justice.

Being very familiar with the trial of one falsely accused priest whose case is explored in David Pierre’s book, I marvel at the depth of his research and skill in telling this disturbing story. In succinct and lucid style, the personal accounts in Catholic Priests Falsely Accused leave the reader with some nagging questions:  How did the mainstream media fail to notice and report the extent of obvious fraud that took place in more recent years in the Catholic scandal?  Why did entire groups of self-described victim advocates, like SNAP, turn a blind eye to this fraud and blatantly deny its existence?

David Pierre goes on to answer these questions, and the answers are part of the horror of this story.  Mr. Pierre here exposes the sordid agendas of news media personnel looking to disparage the Catholic Church and “advocates” who have been transformed from the advocacy of victims to that of contingency lawyers, their ultimate masters.  As I have pointed out in other venues, “Greed ranks right up there with lust among the Seven Deadly Sins.” I highly recommend Catholic Priests Falsely Accused:  The Facts, The Fraud, The Stories.

Related link: A Book Every Priest Should Read:  Catholic Priests Falsely Accused. 

(Ryan A. MacDonald is a Spero News columnist, and an occasional contributor to These Stone Walls) 

Rev. David L. Deibel, J.D., J.C.L., An Advocate for Truth and Justice

By Ryan A. MacDonald


Canonist, Fr. David Deibel has endured unjust criticism as an advocate for Fr. Gordon MacRae at These Stone Walls and Fr. Frank Pavone at Priests for Life.

The Rev. David L. Deibel, J.D., J.C.L. is a respected and deeply committed Catholic priest with training and expertise in both civil and canon law. As such, he has proven to be a great asset to the U.S. Catholic Church throughout the last two decades of scandal and cultural upheaval.

Many Catholic priests who are accused of wrongdoing have found themselves without the benefit of solid canonical advice and advocacy to their own detriment and the detriment of the entire Church. Some canon lawyers with whom I have spoken are reticent to advocate for priests accused in decades-old sexual abuse claims because they say some U.S. bishops have themselves discarded observance of many of the tenets of canon law that provide for due process for priests accused. This has been especially so since the enactment of the Dallas Charter adopted by the United States Conference of Bishops in 2002.

The Charter and its much nuanced "zero tolerance" policy came as a result of the bishops' invitation to SNAP members to address the conference. It was, in effect, the sole voice the bishops heard as they embraced what many now believe to be a panic-driven policy that summarily discards the rights of priests and inflicts great harm on the relationship of trust between priests and their bishops.

For the moment, however, the American Catholic church has to live with this policy. Let me be clear here that the concerns I raise for both its efficacy and its fairness are mine and not Father David Deibel's. But he is left with some of its wreckage, and a part of that has been his unqualified and courageous canonical defense of a Catholic priest who I and many others have determined was falsely accused. For 18 years, Father Deibel has helped to preserve this man's rights under Church law when far too many in our Church were prepared to discard those rights.

A number of prominent writers have drawn that same conclusion, not least among them Dorothy Rabinowitz, the Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist for The Wall Street Journal who authored "A Priest's Story" in 2005. This gripping two-part series blew open the doors of judicial and prosecutorial tyranny that resulted in the 1994 witch hunt trial and conviction of Father Gordon MacRae. In that series, Dorothy Rabinowitz commended Father David Deibel, the sole Catholic official to tell the truth when the rest of the Church and court system was willing to settle for "a negotiated lie" in their condemnation of a priest, but with no evidence or corroboration whatsoever.

This is why the late Father Richard John Neuhaus referred to the MacRae case as reflecting "a Church and a justice system that seem indifferent to justice." The problem for nearly everyone involved in that debacle of a trial is that Father MacRae did not just go quietly into the night. He has been writing, and what he writes has captured the attention of fair-minded Catholics everywhere, and others willing to hear another side of the sordid story of sex abuse and unquestioned monetary settlements that have been its driving force in more recent decades. In "A Voice in the Wilderness," an article for Catholic Exchange earlier this year, I wrote of These Stone Walls:

"Sitting in his cell on an empty plastic bucket in front of an old Smith-Corona typewriter, Father MacRae has produced some remarkable writing about the scandal of the last decade, about the church in Western culture, about fidelity, false witness, and prison itself...The amazing result is These Stone Walls, an eye-catching, conscience-grabbing blog that is both riveting and spiritually uplifting. This blog's fidelity to the Church, and to the truth, has been deemed by many to be the finest example of priestly witness the last decade of scandal has produced."

If that is the truth - and I believe it is - then Father David Deibel's advocacy for Father Gordon MacRae, and his recent advocacy for Father Frank Pavone and Priests for Life is the second finest example of priestly witness the last decade of scandal has produced. It takes great courage to stand up for the truth, but even greater courage to stand up to an institution grown too complacent about compromising truth and justice. I shudder to think of the fate of these two priests without the canonical advocacy of Father Deibel in the current climate.


The Wall Street Journal commends Father David Deibel for the courage of his advocacy. So does The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, and The National Center for Reason and Justice. So do the many thousands of readers drawn to These Stone Walls and Priests for Life on a daily basis.

The Church owes a great debt of respect and admiration for the work of Father David Deibel, an advocate for Father Frank Pavone and Father Gordon MacRae, and for Church law itself. There is a far more expert opinion on the matter of this dauntless pursuit of truth and justice, and I defer to it.

Click here to read: "The Duty of a Priest: Father Frank Pavone and Priests for Life"

A Touch of Deja Vu: The Case against Rev. Gordon MacRae

by Ryan A. MacDonald



Whatever you think about the guilt of Catholic priests accused over the last two decades of the Church's sex abuse scandal, this short post may alter that view. I won't do your thinking for you or tell you what to conclude. Some things just speak for themselves. Pay a little attention to the details and look for common denominators, and then sometimes a light just goes on in your mind. This may be one of those times. Read the following citations from the story behind the story in the case against imprisoned New Hampshire priest, Father Gordon MacRae, then draw your own conclusions.

On the evening of November 14, 1988, a transcript of an episode of the "Geraldo Rivera" Show was faxed from its studio to the Keene, New Hampshire office of Detective James McLaughlin. The title of the show was "The Church's Sexual Watergate." I have a copy of the transcript indicating the date and origin of its transmission and a discovery number identifying it as part of Detective McLaughlin's "investigation" file. Here's an excerpt:

Source: "The Church's Sexual Watergate," Geraldo Live: 11/14/1988:

Geraldo: "What did the priest do to you, Greg?"

Greg Ridel: "Around the age of 12 or so, he and I went to a YMCA. And I was an altar boy at the time. And the first time I was ever touched, he began stroking my penis with his foot in a hot tub, I believe it was, at the YMCA. From there it went to what you might call role playing in the rectory where the priests live."

Shocking stuff! Jump ahead about a year and a half. Keene, NH Detective Jim McLaughlin has an interview with "Todd," a young man about to bring a lawsuit accusing a Catholic priest who was in the area several years earlier. Here's an excerpt of that police report:

Source: Case No. 90035705 Dated 06/06/1990, p. 006:
“Father [Stephen] Scruton was a regular at the YMCA.
Todd went to the YMCA with Father Scruton ••• When they did arrive they decided to use the hot tub. Todd showed me on
a diagram where he and Father Scruton were seated. At one point Father Scruton took one of his feet and placed it between
Todd's legs and rubbed his genitals ••• The touching was intentional and not a mistake. A rubbing motion was used by
Father Scruton ••• I asked Todd where he stood on civil lawsuits."

Now jump ahead another year and a half. Detective Jim McLaughlin has another interview with another young man from Keene about to file another lawsuit against another Catholic priest. Here's an excerpt of that police report:

Source: Case No. 93010850 Dated 08-27-1992 p.004:
"When Jonathan Grover was twelve or thirteen years of age he would spend nights in the Keene rectory . . . After racquetball
at the YMCA Father MacRae would have Jonathan Grover take a whirl pool with him and at times Father Scruton would join
them. It was during these times that Grover would be seated in the whirlpool and both Father MacRae and Father Scruton
would be joined in conversation and they would alternate in rubbing their foot (sic) against his genitals. Grover was unsure
if the priests were acting in concert or if they were unaware of each other's actions."

If the above three accounts were written by novelists, two of them would surely be accused of plagiarism. But that's not the only problem with that third account. Jonathan Grover was twenty-three years old when he sat in Detective McLaughlin's office allegedly relating this story. I write "allegedly" because, contrary to his own policies and protocols, the detective did not create a single audio or video recording of this or any interview in the entire MacRae case. We don't know who related what to whom.

What we do know, however, is that Father Gordon MacRae was never assigned to the Keene parish where these things were claimed to have happened until Jonathan Grover was fourteen years old. Father Scruton was never assigned to the Keene Parish until Grover was sixteen years old. Yet all three are there in that hot tub when Grover was twelve, just like the kid in the “Geraldo” transcript.

Strangely, another refutation of the third YMCA hot tub account above comes from “Todd,” the claimant in the second account. He revealed that at the times all these events were claimed to have occurred, he was a sixteen-year-old employee of the Keene YMCA, and says the YMCA’s strictly enforced rules would have barred Jonathan Grover from any use of the YMCA hot tub until he was sixteen years old.

In subsequent reports, Detective McLaughlin wrote of giving Grover a copy of Father MacRae’s resume “to help him with his dates.” Father Scruton was never mentioned again. By the time this case was over, Jonathan Grover had $195,000.00 in his pocket provided in settlement by the Diocese of Manchester with no corroboration of the account. When Father MacRae objected from his prison cell, he was simply dropped as a defendant giving him no standing to object.

The mysteries do not end there. About a year and a half after Detective McLaughlin wrote that third report describing a simultaneous sexual assault of Jonathan Grover by two priests, Fathers MacRae and Scruton, the detective responded to a question under oath:

Question: “Have you ever had a conversation with Rev. Stephen Scruton regarding Gordon MacRae? If so, please indicate
the date of the conversation(s) and provide a copy of your report(s) of the conversation(s).”

Answer: “On occasion, I have had conversations with Reverend Stephen Scruton, however I have no recollection of ever
discussing any actions of Gordon MacRae with the Reverend Scruton.”

The discrepancies in the above account of claims against Father Gordon MacRae are typical of this case. There's a lot left unexplained. One of MacRae's accusers, for example, was "an employee" of Detective McLaughlin "in a family-owned business" at the time he accused the priest. But a closer examination of the file reveals that this accuser never actually went to the detective at all. It was the other way around, and what served as probable cause for this detective launching a child sex abuse investigation was - are you ready for this? - a rumor that Father MacRae had once given the 15-year-old boy a ride home from school. According to the detective’s 1988 report, this alone “pointed to possible pedophilic activity on the part of MacRae.”

Armed with his suspicion, the detective interviewed twenty- six present and former teenaged acquaintances of the priest.
Not one would accuse him. Then, finally, the detective interviewed Jon Plankey, his employee, who supplied what the detective wanted. First, he claimed, MacRae had attempted to solicit 15-year-old Plankey for sex. Then, months later, he added that MacRae also took lewd photographs of him.

The photographs were never found. The photographs were never even looked for. Nothing in the case file indicates that the detective did anything at all to corroborate or refute the young man's claims about photos. Questioned a dozen years later by a Wall Street Journal reporter, however, the detective admitted, "there was never any evidence of child pornography."

The detective's police report omitted a few other important details as well. Before accusing Father MacRae, Jon Plankey also accused a county employee of soliciting him for sex. Then he accused a Congregational church choir director of soliciting him for sex and taking lewd photographs of him. Then he accused another man of soliciting him for sex.

He finally hit pay dirt, however, when he accused a Catholic priest. Jon Plankey has repeatedly declined to be interviewed or to answer any questions about this case, but his brother seemed eager to talk. He says the entire Plankey claim was a fraud brought for settlement money.

The above accounts are not the only such stories defying credibility in the case against Father Gordon MacRae. There are other accounts with even bigger holes than the above. Most alarming has been the role of the New Hampshire news media and victim advocacy groups like BishopAccountability. The above discrepancies have been hiding in plain sight for years, but New Hampshire seems not to have any news venue with the means or the will to investigate beyond what is fed to them by police and prosecutors.

The people at BishopAccountability have been quick to post on their website all the dirt they could find about Father Gordon MacRae. However, they have been entirely unresponsive to my repeated requests that they also publish reports I have investigated and researched - reports that directly refute information BishopAccountability staff has previously published without any attempt at corroboration. In other words, these victim "advocates" have the story they want. Nothing else is necessary.

For more information on the troubling case against Father Gordon MacRae, I invite you to read the following links:
"Should the Case Against Father Gordon MacRae be Reviewed?"
"Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?"
"How Psychotherapists Helped Send An Innocent Priest to Prison."
"To Azazel: Father Gordon MacRae and the Gospel of Mercy."