Posted on 07/16/2004 3:17:22 AM PDT by sidewalk
Investigators from a Massachusetts district attorney's office are looking into the possibility of launching a criminal case against defrocked priest Dozia Wilson, who had a long history of sexually abusing young boys while working in both the Albany and Boston dioceses.
Interest in the case by the Suffolk County district attorney's office was prompted by a civil complaint lodged by alleged clergy sex abuse victim Joseph Woodward against Wilson.
Woodward's attorney, John Aretakis, recently received a request from Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley to have his client tell investigators how he was allegedly sexually abused by Wilson as a teenager over a four-year period back in the 1980s.
Suffolk County investigators would also like Woodward to file a report with the Boston Police Department for a criminal investigation.
Aretakis, who specializes in representing alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, applauded the Suffolk County DA's office for taking an interest in the matter, despite statute of limitation laws that sometimes prevent such cases from going to trial.
"The Boston (district attorneys) appear to be aggressive and proactive in protecting children and past victims from pedophile priests, while the Albany District Attorney's Office has been aggressively hostile to the victims," said Aretakis.
"I'm sure (Albany DA) Paul Clyne hates pedophiles like all the rest of us, but he's definitely not asking questions or doing anything about it," Aretakis added. Calls made to Clyne's Albany office for comment were not returned.
Aretakis recently refused to allow the Albany Diocese's independent investigator Mary Jo White to privately interview some of his clients for her investigation that ended up clearing Bishop Howard Hubbard of all sexual misconduct allegations against him.
However, Aretakis says that since the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office is not being paid "millions of dollars for a one-sided investigation for the diocese," he has no problem allowing any of his clients to talk to them.
"Of course, we will fully cooperate. ... I've been doing this for two and a half years and no politician, judge, lawyer, DA, cop has ever tried to help," said Aretakis.
Wilson was removed from the Albany Diocese and sent to the Boston Archdiocese after getting caught with two boys in an Albany hotel. Hubbard was not bishop at the time of Wilson's removal.
No charges were filed against him, but then-District Attorney Sol Greenburg ordered the diocese to never allow Wilson to return to an Albany parish.
However, in 1979, Wilson was returned to Albany under Hubbard's watch after allegations of sexual abuse began surfacing about him in Boston.
That's when Wilson began a four-year friendship with Woodward (then 14) at St. Ann's Church in Fort Ann, Washington County, where the victim alleges the sexual abuse began.
Woodward even lived with Wilson for a short time and claims the priest distracted him with expensive gifts, trips to the West Coast and drugs (marijuana) so he could allegedly take advantage of him sexually.
The victim also claims he was repeatedly transported across state lines to Massachusetts by Wilson and sexually molested.
Wilson was finally removed from ministry in 1993 by Hubbard, but still somehow landed a job at St. Christopher Residential Treatment Center in Dobbs Ferry, Westchester County, where he had access to hundreds of children from dysfunctional family backgrounds.
He has since left that position after being found beaten unconscious by a male prostitute in a New York City apartment building hallway in 2003.
Wilson never pressed charges against the prostitute, who also stole his money and car.
Last year, the Albany Diocese paid an estimated $500,000 to an Albany resident in another case against Wilson in a Massachusetts settlement, according to Aretakis and published reports.
Woodward expects to meet with Boston investigators in early August.
"All these years I wished I didn't wait so long to come forward, but now their actions (the DA) tell me that justice can still be served," said Woodward. "To me, the thing that's really incredible is that they reached out to me. ... If I called the Albany DA's office myself, they wouldn't even talk to me."
Local Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) leader Mark Furnish said the Suffolk County DA's interest in the case could mean the Albany Diocese would have to open its records on priests, which could lead to exposing "a pattern of coverup" within the diocese.
A pattern of coverup was found to be so far-reaching within the Boston Archdiocese that the Massachusetts Legislature loosened the statute of limitations laws on sex abuse cases.
Kelly Downes, Suffolk County's deputy chief of the Family Protection & Sexual Assault Unit, could not be contacted for more details, but staffers in her office did confirm she was looking into the case.
You mostly hear about priests abusing children. There has been a case of a nun doing the same thing. Go to PilotOnLine.com, click on Local/Virginia News, click on More News, then Virginia Beach News, and then July 15th for the story.
Wilson was removed from the Albany Diocese and sent to the Boston Archdiocese after getting caught with two boys in an Albany hotel. Hubbard was not bishop at the time of Wilson's removal.
No charges were filed against him, but then-District Attorney Sol Greenburg ordered the diocese to never allow Wilson to return to an Albany parish.
However, in 1979, Wilson was returned to Albany under Hubbard's watch after allegations of sexual abuse began surfacing about him in Boston.
That's when Wilson began a four-year friendship with Woodward (then 14) at St. Ann's Church in Fort Ann, Washington County, where the victim alleges the sexual abuse began.
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