Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, age 92, has pleaded not guilty to sexually molesting a 16-year-old-boy at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1974. He faces three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. According to Massachusetts law every criminal count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. ( See: https://www.catholicnewsworld.com/2021/09/as-former-cardinal-mccarrick-age-91.html )
Attorneys for Theodore McCarrick told a Massachusetts court on February 28th that the former cardinal has dementia and is not mentally competent to stand trial. Thus, they asked the court to dismiss the sexual assault charges against McCarrick.
However, the case prosecutors say they will hire their own expert to conduct a second evaluation of the 92-year-old former cardinal, the Associated Press reports.
Many separate allegations of sexual abuse have become public against McCarrick over the last five years. He was found guilty in a Vatican administrative penal investigation, the Massachusetts case is the only criminal case against him. Most of the other allegations against McCarrick are beyond state statutes of limitation.
McCarrick’s attorneys indicated last month that he was being examined by Dr. David Schretlen, a psychiatry/behavioral science professor from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
They said they believe that the medical evaluation would show “significant neuropsychological deficits,” which appear “to be worsening rapidly, and to impair both Mr. McCarrick's cognition and his memory.”
In 2018, the Archdiocese of New York released that McCarrick had been removed from public ministry, at the request of Pope Francis, due to credible allegations that he had sexually abused an altar server.
In July of that year, he resigned from the College of Cardinals. Pope Francis ordered McCarrick to observe "a life of prayer and penance in seclusion" and accepted his resignation.
McCarrick was laicized after a Vatican administrative penal process in 2019, which found him guilty canonically of sexual crimes with minors and adults, including “abuse of power.”
However, the case prosecutors say they will hire their own expert to conduct a second evaluation of the 92-year-old former cardinal, the Associated Press reports.
Many separate allegations of sexual abuse have become public against McCarrick over the last five years. He was found guilty in a Vatican administrative penal investigation, the Massachusetts case is the only criminal case against him. Most of the other allegations against McCarrick are beyond state statutes of limitation.
McCarrick’s attorneys indicated last month that he was being examined by Dr. David Schretlen, a psychiatry/behavioral science professor from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
They said they believe that the medical evaluation would show “significant neuropsychological deficits,” which appear “to be worsening rapidly, and to impair both Mr. McCarrick's cognition and his memory.”
In 2018, the Archdiocese of New York released that McCarrick had been removed from public ministry, at the request of Pope Francis, due to credible allegations that he had sexually abused an altar server.
In July of that year, he resigned from the College of Cardinals. Pope Francis ordered McCarrick to observe "a life of prayer and penance in seclusion" and accepted his resignation.
McCarrick was laicized after a Vatican administrative penal process in 2019, which found him guilty canonically of sexual crimes with minors and adults, including “abuse of power.”
https://www.reuters.com/legal/former-us-cardinal-mccarrick-seeks-dismiss-sexual-abuse-case-citing-dementia-2023-02-27/
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