Indian Catholic priest charged with sexual molestation
Topic started by Karuvayan (@ cs2417546-174.austin.rr.com) on Wed Mar 26 05:11:03 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=305507
Priest Gets Four Months in Molesting of Altar Girl
By ANDY NEWMAN - THE NEW YORK TIMES
Roman Catholic priest was sentenced yesterday to four months in jail for molesting a 12-year-old altar girl at her home in Brooklyn in 1999.
The case against the priest, the Rev. Francis X. Nelson, was the first sexual abuse prosecution completed in New York City based on old files turned over to prosecutors by the Brooklyn Diocese last year.
Father Nelson, 39, who was removed from the diocese after the abuse occurred but soon found work at a church in Harlem, insisted he was innocent.
"I did not do anything inappropriate, sexually, physically or morally, either on that day or on any other day in my priestly life," he said before he was sentenced in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, where he was convicted in a jury trial last month.
But Judge Albert Tomei said he agreed with the verdict and delivered a stinging sermon to the defendant. "When you became a priest, Father, you took a sacred oath," Judge Tomei said. "You became a trustee of your parishioners, spirits and souls. The safest haven was the church, where young women and young men could go and feel entirely safe."
He continued: "You didn't steal any money. You didn't assault her physically with a slap. You took her spiritual life away. You damaged her for life by your actions. This may be a misdemeanor, but it has greater ramifications than just being a misdemeanor."
The judge seemed particularly annoyed by Father Nelson's protestations of innocence. "The prosecutor, I think, was correct when she said this was not so much a crime of sexual abuse, but more a crime of arrogance," he said. "Pride goeth before a fall, Father Nelson. You know the proverb; it's in the Bible. And this is what you exercised in this case."
Despite his expressions of outrage, Judge Tomei gave Father Nelson a lighter sentence than the six months prosecutors had requested. He was sentenced to two jail terms of four months each, to be served concurrently, for his conviction on two counts of sexual abuse.
Although Judge Tomei said his decision in Father Nelson's case was "the most difficult I've ever faced in my entire life," he did not explain why he had given a lighter sentence than requested.
Judge Tomei also ordered Father Nelson to register as a sexual offender and granted the girl and her family an order of protection against him. The Brooklyn district attorney's office declined to comment on the sentence.
Father Nelson, a native of India, was a visiting priest at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church in Carroll Gardens in 1999 when he went to the girl's home, ostensibly to see her sick grandmother, prosecutors said. The girl said he brought gifts of watches and books.
At the trial, the girl testified that as her grandmother sat a few feet away in a wheelchair, Father Nelson pulled her onto his lap, pressed his crotch against her buttocks through their clothing and rested his head on her back.
She testified that after she got up and offered Father Nelson a glass of water, he pulled her onto his lap again, put his hand up her shirt and touched her breast.
The girl's family reported what had happened to the Brooklyn Diocese, which found Father Nelson's denial not credible and ordered him out of the diocese, church officials said.
The diocese said it told Father Nelson's supervising bishop in India about the case. But the bishop, Leon A. Tharmaraj, said he had never heard about the sexual abuse and had written a recommendation that helped Father Nelson secure a job at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Harlem, where he worked until his arrest last spring.
Several dozen parishioners from St. Charles Borromeo came to support Father Nelson yesterday and complained bitterly that the judge was biased against him.
Father Nelson's lawyer, Michael Warren, strongly criticized the judge, too.
"The judge was, in effect, a handmaiden of the prosecution," Mr. Warren said. "The arguments he made were based solely on the girl's testimony and didn't take into account any of Father Nelson's testimony and the testimony of those who support him. His tirade sounded more like a summation."
Mr. Warren said he would file an appeal.
After Father Nelson was led from the courtroom, his victim, sitting in the front row, looked shaken. "All I wanted was an apology," the girl, now 16, said in a tiny voice, "and I never got that."
Responses:
- Old responses
- From: Dick (@ cache-gtc-ab16.proxy.aol.com)
on: Fri Aug 6 15:30:19 EDT 2004
//my name was billa//
And then he and gearge bernard shaw did something and he lost his lid and pipe(c-o-ck).Poor fool so now he is 'blowing' pipes'(c-o-ck sucker). dotn u know this forum does not allow 9s like u .so shoo scat ,off u go.
- From: Dick (@ cache-gtc-ab16.proxy.aol.com)
on: Fri Aug 6 15:55:26 EDT 2004
Hey maybe this forum does allow 9s like u!!well goodluck and all that for u pipe blower!!
- From: Alex (@ pd9051926.dip.t-dialin.net)
on: Tue Nov 9 04:27:35
many cases are not true.it is just for money.the accused is not given suffucient chace to prove his innocence.very often the priest doesnot get justice.the law is one sided
- From: geno (@ 61.1.201.246)
on: Wed Nov 10 14:55:03 EST 2004
>> gearge bernard shaw said its the most x rated book in the world >>
so what did periyaar say about "Ramayana"?
Or what was Ambedkar's view of the hindooism??
Everywhere the social reformers think for the good of society. And when they see an evil social setup trying to suffocate a nation or a group of ppl. they fight against that majoritarian dogma and in this fight - they seek to dismantle all they "glorified myths" that is used to justiy majoritarian evil comunalism.
The Time period and the region determines which sect/cult/religion is being criticised by the social reformers and secularists and progressive people.
Whether they are atheists/rationalist or some faith beilievers themselves - the real Humanists/ social reformers think and work with just one aim - for the betterment of mankind.
- From: geno (@ 61.1.201.246)
on: Wed Nov 10 14:55:25 EST 2004
M.K.Gandhi was a believer - but he was a spiritualist of a different kind. All his life he was a beiliever; but he was also a Great Social reformer - truly and sincerely.
Ambedkar & Periyar had huge differences with M.K Gandhi - in his beliefs an political thinking - but they revered his sincerity towards the nation.
But alas! those with whom M.K Gandhi shared his "belief" brutally murdered him, and till today glorify the assasination of the Mahatma :((
Healing the Indian & the World Society - from the kind of "diseased mindsets" which killed mahathma - is the foremost task before mankind.
:=)
- From: R (@ 212.0.138.14)
on: Thu Nov 11 19:00:40 EST 2004
Gandhi began the job but he could not finish it. Although he did not personally desire it, the creation of Pakistan was one of Gandhi's failures. Gandhi should have acknowledged India to be primarily for Hindus... Hindus before all others, including Jains, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims. There is no humanity in politics; even in the West, one will never find a Muslim chancellor of Germany, or a Jewish King of England. The religion of the larger masses is ultimately interwoven with the history of the nation. So Gandhi should never have given into Jinna. That is why he was assassinated.
- From: geno (@ 61.1.202.96)
on: Fri Nov 12 05:48:09 EST 2004
Where was "India" prior to 1947???
Deluding about "India" as a "nation" in the sense we would denote "Germany" and "England" - is hilarious and blind towards the truth!
>> The religion of the larger masses >>
This "R" character called "cow dung" as an ungodly faeces in an argument with the Legend of the forumhub "Rohit"!
Does he have any idea of the "religious and cultural importance" of cow dung down here in south india?!!! ;=))
So what was the 'religion of the masses" in india anyway?!!
We celebrate DeepaavaLi down south here - a day ahead of the northies..why would that be so?
Think!!!
None of the "indian region" practices the same cultural and "traditional" spiritual practices - uniformly across "indian region " - coz every part has its own unique history and culture.
- From: geno (@ 61.1.202.96)
on: Fri Nov 12 05:48:31 EST 2004
"Indian region" has always been a melting pot of various cultures and theologies and would continue to be so until eternity.
Drilling this unquestionalble and unchallengeable truth - into religious fundamentalists minds - is the foremost task before "indian union".
BTW - Tamilnadu is not North india - where affiliation to a majority religion can be used to justify & glorify Murders - and get away with murders!! (Watched or read the latest NEWS???!!!!)
;=)))))
The stupid saffron northies should understand
this fact fast!!!!!
;=)))))
- From: R (@ 212.0.138.14)
on: Fri Nov 12 11:57:31 EST 2004
"Deluding about "India" as a "nation" in the sense we would denote "Germany" and "England" - is hilarious and blind towards the truth!"
Sorry geno idiot. Just because your Dravidian grandmother was raped by Aryans, then Moguls, then Portugese, then British, does not mean India is not a nation.
"This "R" character called "cow dung" as an ungodly faeces in an argument with the Legend of the forumhub "Rohit"!"
Yes, yes... whatever you say... just explain why you shudra-shi*ts had to throw chappals at Ram Mandir because Manu Shastras call you as "cow dung."
"So what was the 'religion of the masses" in india anyway?!!"
I forget you live in the KavidhaigaL section and only come out to release your smelly feces in the "Rohit" threads.
"We celebrate DeepaavaLi down south here - a day ahead of the northies..why would that be so?"
You also have many more backwards down south.. why would that be so?
- From: R (@ 212.0.138.14)
on: Fri Nov 12 12:00:42 EST 2004
"None of the "indian region" practices the same cultural and "traditional" spiritual practices - uniformly across "indian region " - coz every part has its own unique history and culture."
Of course, that is the brilliance of Santana Dharma. Adi Shankara the great uniter of Santana Dharma synthesized the various schools of thought so that Santana Dharma could withstand any onslaught from Buddhism, Christianity, and EVR.
- From: RSS Coolie (@ pd95129cf.dip.t-dialin.net)
on: Fri Nov 12 15:02:37 EST 2004
This forum is infected with RSS coolies.
- From: sheila (@ dsl-tn-009.33.101.203.touchtelindia.net)
on: Sun Nov 21 14:24:21 EST 2004
we hindus must be careful to throw stones at others as we live in a glass house. As our own Pontif or rather the Kanchi Seer is in police coustody for the murder of a temple employee.So before we cast a stone on other religions we must check out our own seer's story.
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on: Tue Nov 23 16:51:41 EST 2004
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