An 80-year-old Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison for molesting a mentally retarded man at a Jesuit retreat for a period of several years.
Father Edward Thomas Burke sat motionless as Santa Clara County Superior Court as Judge Kevin J. Murphy told a hushed courtroom that the former high school teacher deserved to be punished for "inflicting severe, emotional injury" on his victim.
Murphy also cited the nationwide sexual abuse scandal dogging the Catholic church, saying that a lesser term of home detention recommended by a county probation officer would send the wrong message.
"This was not simply abuse by a caregiver. This was abuse by a friend," Murphy said. "A parent figure and a spiritual counselor."
The victim's sister, Debra Sullivan, said she was relieved and happy that Burke would have to spend time in a prison cell. She had asked Murphy to send the retired Jesuit to jail for three years.
"This is right. This is fair," Sullivan said. "I'm so happy that I can go to my brother and tell him that there is a true consequence for what Father Burke did. That will be my happiest moment."
Burke becomes the fifth Jesuit in Northern California in recent years ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender. All five of the Catholic priests have resided at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, a picturesque retreat nestled in the foothills above Santa Clara Valley.
Burke pleaded guilty on May 23 to committing a felony sex crime on a 50-year-old former kitchen worker at Sacred Heart. The case came to the attention of law enforcement authorities in March after the Los Angeles Times reported that top Jesuit officials quietly relocated Burke in April 2000 after he admitted engaging in sexual misconduct. Instead of notifying authorities, the Jesuit leaders moved Burke to a residence on the campus of Santa Clara University.
At Friday's hearing, the short, paunchy Jesuit appeared frail and slightly disoriented as he moved slowly in and out of the courtroom. Dressed in a faded yellow, short-sleeve sport shirt, light blue trousers and scruffy tan tennis shoes, Burke stared straight ahead without expression for most of the nearly four-hour hearing. Wearing black-rimmed glasses and a hearing aid, he did not speak in court.
After his sentencing was announced, Burke was escorted gently by Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies and booked into county jail. He will likely be transported by bus to a reception center at San Quentin Prison, where he will be evaluated by physicians and assigned to a facility that cares for aged inmates within the California prison system, said prosecutor Benjamin Field. Field had argued in court that Burke was better suited for state prison because the Santa Clara County Jail lacks special facilities for elderly inmates.
With credit for time served, Burke is expected to spend one year in prison.
Burke received a much harsher term than Charles Leonard Connor, also 80, a Jesuit brother who was sentenced to six months of home detention in January of last year for molesting another mentally disabled man at Sacred Heart. Unlike Burke, Connor's case received no publicity and was tried a year before the sexual abuse scandal made headlines around the country.
Field said the media attention in the Burke case "in no way affected our position on what the sentence should be." He added that the Burke prosecution justified a tougher sentence because the former priest allegedly committed sodomy.
Connor and Burke are among four Jesuits named in a lawsuit filed by attorneys on behalf of the two mentally disabled men who lived and worked as dishwashers at the Sacred Heart facility. The suit alleges that the two men were subjected to repeated acts of sodomy, molestation and false imprisonment for as long as 15 years. The victims are seeking more than $10 million in damages. Attorneys for the California Province of the Society of Jesus have been negotiating a financial settlement for more than a year.
Friday's sentencing is expected to bolster the victim's civil litigation, said attorneys representing the two men.
Defense attorneys for Burke appeared stunned by the sentence. The lawyers, J. Joseph Wall Jr. and Charles W. Hendrickson, had gambled that Murphy would grant Burke probation without any incarceration in exchange for submitting a guilty plea at the earliest possible moment in the legal proceeding. The lawyers had no comment.