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	Story of Jailed Priest Retold By Denis Paiste The Union Leader [Manchester NH] April 28, 2005 MANCHESTER — Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator Dorothy Rabinowitz appeared to take up the cause of imprisoned, suspended New Hampshire priest Gordon MacRae in the first of a two-part series in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. In an article that accused the Catholic Church of rewarding false claims of abuse against its priests, as well as legitimate grievances, Rabinowitz painted an unflattering portrait of several of MacRae's accusers. Yesterday, Keene Police Detective James McLaughlin, who helped put MacRae behind bars, and Diocese of Manchester Chancellor Rev. Ed Arsenault each noted that MacRae was convicted by a jury. "I have a problem with second-guessing a jury who take their duty seriously, who hear from witnesses, assign credibility to those witnesses, hear information firsthand — not through transcripts, not through sources that have agendas — and then deliberate as a group and look at the strengths and weaknesses of a case," McLaughlin said in a telephone interview. "They had no reservations about his guilt," he said of MacRae's 1994 conviction in Cheshire County Superior Court. McLaughlin, who would later establish a reputation for stopping Internet sexual predators, noted MacRae's conviction was based on witness testimony. "I think that he had a fair trial. He was represented by competent attorneys, his case was heard before the Supreme Court and his conviction holds," he said. "Unless there is new evidence or some compelling reason to believe that he was convicted on false evidence, then his sentence should be served." Arsenault said MacRae is on administrative suspension and cannot represent himself as a priest. In an artist's portrait in the Journal yesterday, MacRae was depicted wearing a clerical collar. "I also have a concern that Gordon MacRae is depicted in a Roman collar when he knows well that he is not to represent himself as a priest in any regard given his status in the church," Arsenault said. At the time of his conviction, Arsenault said, MacRae already was on administrative leave from the priesthood and had been told he could not function as a priest. "He's not entitled to use the title Reverend because he's on leave," he said. "All of the complaints that have been made against him have been investigated and reported to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who has the exclusive authority to decide the appropriate outcome of the complaints," Arsenault said. In particular, the authority to laicize, or defrock, a priest lies at the Vatican in Rome and not in the local diocese, he said. "The important thing to note is that Gordon MacRae is incarcerated and does not presently pose a risk to anyone," Arsenault said. "His criminal conviction was a decision that a jury made, and that a judge presided over," he said. Two sets of convictions Rabinowitz wrote in the Journal yesterday that MacRae was the victim of a bogus story naming him as a suspect in the murder and sex-mutilation of a Florida boy. "It was a while before word from Florida police, revealing the story as bogus, caught up with the social workers and police in Keene," she wrote. "Meanwhile, Detective McLaughlin was interrogating some 22 teenage boys whom Fr. MacRae knew of or had counseled," the Journal opinion piece, entitled "A Priest's Story," continued. "Despite determined, repeated questioning, he could find no one with any complaints about the priest." Convicted of sexual assault on a minor, MacRae is serving consecutive sentences that will keep him behind bars until at least 2028, when he will be 75 years old. He has been in the same medium-security housing unit at the New Hampshire State Prison for about five years and is allowed to hold a job in the prison and participate in programs and recreational activities, prison spokesman Jeff Lyons said yesterday. "He was sentenced for two different sets of convictions," Lyons said. "He was sentenced 11/14/94 on the one he's serving now." MacRae has successfully completed the sexual offender program, Lyons said. MacRae is due for parole March 22, 2007, on the first of four consecutive 7?- to 15-year sentences for sexual assault on a male between 13 and 16 years old. "The earliest he can get out is in 2028," Lyons said. $22,210,440 in settlements Reached at the Wall Street Journal yesterday, where she is a member of the editorial board, Rabinowitz declined to discuss her article, but indicated she would be willing to talk after the second installment is published today. By the end of 2004, Rabinowitz reported yesterday, the Diocese of Manchester had paid $22,210,400 in settlements of claims against priests by accusers. Reporting on the MacRae case, Rabinowitz wrote that MacRae had never heard of one person who made accusations, but that MacRae had no doubt the accuser walked away with a settlement from the church. Rabinowitz, who won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, is the author of "No Crueler Tyrannies, Accusation, False Witness and Other Terrors of Our Times," which critically reexamines several cases of alleged mass sexual abuse, including the Fells Acres Day Care Center in Malden, Mass. McLaughlin and Arsenault said they had been contacted by Rabinowitz prior to publication of her article, but each strongly disagreed with her characterization of the case. "There's some obvious factual errors," McLaughlin said. "For instance, she said, in the article, he (MacRae) was subjected to a four-hour interrogation. I don't think the guy was here for more than 60 minutes; that's just my memory over the years. "Then she said that we inserted the names of other children that he abused because no one would believe he only offended against one child," McLaughlin said. "I'm sure that's Father MacRae's position, so it's accurate reporting, but from the perspective of the police, that's absurd. "I mean, some of the factual errors are trivial. She's obviously done a great deal of research. I'm suspecting that one of her main sources is Father MacRae," he said. Diocesan Chancellor Arsenault noted the story was published on the Journal's Opinion page, not in its news pages. "The story is on the opinion page, so in my mind this is one woman's view, and I would say that it's stylized, the presentation of the facts," Arsenault said. "I can't discuss the substance of the accusations against Gordon MacRae, because his case has been sent to the Holy See in accordance with Church Law. "And we have agreed with the people whom we've assisted to not discuss the details of the reports they made or disclose their identity, and I would respect that," Arsenault said. "Having said that, I do have a perspective on the editorial or opinion piece," he said. "I think it's one person's view, and I find it to be stylized." Investigator McLaughlin took issue with Rabinowitz's negative characterizations of several of MacRae's accusers. She wrote that one had made accusations against several other individuals, including teachers at two different high schools. "Police Detective Arthur Wardell, who investigated, concluded in his report that this was a young man who basked in the attention such charges brought him, and that there was no basis to them." Of another, Rabinowitz wrote the alleged victim's mother had contacted church officials seeking a financial settlement before MacRae was aware of the allegations. Blaming the victim McLaughlin says, in essence, Rabinowitz is blaming the victim. "I did a study one time of 35 victims of one particular priest that I investigated, and I took those 35 victims and I took a random sample of 35 males that were equal to the same age of the victims that I had and I looked at all the criminal history from the control group and the victim group," McLaughlin said. "My victim group has an unbelievable number of misdemeanor arrests compared to the control group." Some of the victims had committed felonies; alcohol and drug arrests were common. "So we had all these elevated activities with our male victims, so in a sense, when you have a victim present that has this baggage, it's corroborative of their victimization," he said. "We shouldn't have a class of citizens that, given their troubled pasts, can't be victims," McLaughlin said. "Actually it's the more vulnerable people in our society that tend to be victimized, and the system has to be able to address that and give them legal relief as it does for others." In its March 2003 Report on the Investigation of the Diocese of Manchester, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office included a 26-page report on MacRae. Supporting documents released by the AG's office concerning MacRae measure more than eight inches thick. Yesterday, Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker said, "I think the trial and the jury verdict speaks for itself." "I remember in that case that at the end of the trial, the judge had very harsh words for Gordon MacRae, and his sentence reflected the seriousness of his offenses," Delker said. "I don't think there is any doubt that Gordon MacRae is guilty of the crimes he was convicted of," he said. "We went back and talked to many of the families and their victims when we were looking at how the diocese had handled the allegations against him."