Posted on 03/04/2003 11:25:13 AM PST by NYer
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) _ A Long Island priest who admitted sodomizing a teenage boy was sentenced to two years in jail on Tuesday, as part of a deal with prosecutors in two counties where the abuse took place.
Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen Braslow gave the Rev. Michael Hands two consecutive one-year sentences after the priest pleaded guilty last month to the pair of sodomy charges stemming from sexual relations he had with the boy while he was assigned to St. Philip Neri Church in Northport.
The case against Hands stretched for more than 20 months through courts in both Nassau and Suffolk counties, and was delayed in part because he cooperated with a grand jury investigation into pedophile priests throughout Long Island. Hands had already admitted in a Nassau County courtroom last year that he also had sex with the boy in his living quarters at the St. Raphael Rectory in East Meadow. The relationship began in 1999 and lasted for a little more than a year. He was suspended from the Diocese of Rockville Centre after his arrest in May 2001.
Hands' sentence in Nassau County, on March 12, is expected to run concurrently with the Suffolk County term, said Bob Clifford, a spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota. With time off for good behavior, Hands would likely serve 16 months in jail and then be given five years probation, his defense lawyer, Peter Rubin, has said. He will serve his time at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead.
Spota told reporters he is satisfied with the sentence, noting that Hands provided key assistance to the grand jury investigation into the response of diocesan officials to allegations of priest sex abuse.
The grand jury's 180-page report released by the district attorney's office last month found that the Diocese of Rockville Centre repeatedly protected priests accused of sexual abuse by transferring them and shielding them from being discovered. The diocese has rejected those characterizations.
AP-ES-03-04-03 1415EST
Perhaps because in no State of the Union, nor the District of Columbia, nor any Federal Territory, nor the protectorate of Puerto Rico is any rape punishable by death.
If you have a disagreement with that state of affairs, take it up with your State Legislature.
...the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that he hasn't turned over any..!!!
You will want to drop in on this web site:
Cardinal Roger Mahony No Morals and No Ethics
It's just a matter of time .... but Mahony will get his due.
Which do you prefer?
Not sure ... here is his story
Here in the Albany Diocese, a local reporter from the Times Union has maintained a steady stream of stories on Bishop Hubbard. Last week, papers released by the Boston Diocese revealed a connection between the two diocese, where a local priest was sent there and eventually returned. Here is the story, along with links to some of the other stories as well.
One of the most comprehensive databases of stories is maintained by Poynter.org. The LA Times story on Mahony, appears there.
Mahony is a clever weasel ... but, he's running out of friends and money.
recal last summers vactation and the visit toi Williamsburgh, VA
They enacted a trail for a women that was accused of being a papist.
“The Roman Catholics or Papists are excluded by reason of such doctrines as these, that princes excommunicated may be deposed, and those that they call heretics may be destroyed without mercy; besides their recognizing the Pope in so absolute a manner, in subversion of government, by introducing, as far as possible into the states under whose protection they enjoy life, liberty, and property, that solecism in politics, imperium in imperio, leading directly to the worst anarchy and confusion, civil discord, war, and bloodshed.”- Samuel Adams
If he was any kind of priest at all, he'd very quietly tied a millstone around his neck and dropped into Long Island Sound.
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