Ex-Priest Pleads Innocent to Rape

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A retired Roman Catholic priest charged with repeatedly raping a young boy, sometimes in the church confessional, pleaded innocent Tuesday and was ordered held on $750,000 cash bail.

The Rev. Paul Shanley, 71, who is charged with three counts of child rape, had recently left the country and is a flight risk, prosecutor Lynn Rooney said during the arraignment in Newton District Court.

Defense attorney Frank Mondano had asked that Shanley be released on his own recognizance and immediately requested that a higher judge review the bail decision. The review was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Middlesex Superior Court.

In addition to setting bail, Judge Dyanne Klein ordered Shanley to surrender his passport and avoid contact with children under age 16.

Shanley, shackled and wearing a collared red shirt over a red T-shirt and gray pants, indicated he was struggling to hear Klein when she entered pleas of innocent on his behalf.

"I'm having trouble," he said, motioning to a hearing aid in his right ear.

Shanley was arrested in San Diego on Thursday, several weeks after police first began searching for him. He was returned to Massachusetts on Monday, under tight security and wearing a bulletproof vest.

Shanley is one of the priests at the center of a the scandal that has rocked the Boston archdiocese and led to calls for Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation.

Rooney noted Tuesday that Shanley had recently been in Thailand. She read excerpts of several letters to church officials in which Shanley talked about fleeing the country.

"It might be cheaper and it might allay the concerns of the victims," Shanley wrote in a January 1994 letter proposing moving to Costa Rica.

Rooney also read letters she said referred to apparent past attempts by church officials to help Shanley hide. In one letter, the Rev. Brian Flatley detailed a September 1995 conversation with Shanley in which he discussed living in another country with a post office box in the United States to preserve his anonymity.

"Given his resourcefulness and independence, I think this is probably a good plan for him," Flatley wrote.

Shanley's defense attorney said Shanley had neither the means nor the intention to leave the country, pointing out he had family and other ties to Massachusetts.

"He stands before this court as an innocent man in connection to these charges and he has never been convicted on other charges," Mondano said.

Middlesex County prosecutors said Shanley would take the victim, now 24, out of religious education classes at St. John Parish in Newton and rape him in various places, including the rectory, bathroom and confessional. They allege the abuse occurred from 1983 to 1990, while the victim was age 6 to 13.

The victim came forward within the last two weeks after reading news reports about the Shanley case. Police, fearing Shanley would flee the country, moved quickly to arrest him after a TV station located him last week.

Documents released in a civil suit by a different alleged victim of Shanley showed archdiocese officials knew of dozens of sex abuse allegations against Shanley, but still moved him between parishes. The archdiocese also didn't warn the Diocese of San Bernardino when he moved there in 1990.

The documents also showed officials knew Shanley advocated sex between boys and men and had contracted venereal disease.

Shanley retired in 1993 and had been serving as a volunteer in the San Diego police department until April, when he was fired after officials learned of the allegations against him.

Michael O'Toole, 49, claims his now-deceased brother, Bill, was molested by Shanley when he was 12 and said he never thought Shanley would face a judge.

"He's 71, he's had 30 or 40 years of a reign of terror," O'Toole said. "There's no justice at this point."