Giuliani Defends, Employs Priest Accused of Molesting Teens

[DealMonkey]

The GOP's biggest stars keep self-immolating; destroying any chances at a future career. From Palin's quit-early-quit-often 'cause I have a book deal mentality, to Huckabee's pardoning of a career criminal who then goes on to kill 4 cops, and now to Giuliani defending and employing a known sex offender and pedophiliac.

It's gonna be difficult to spin this one, boys.

Giuliani Defends, Employs Priest Accused of Molesting Teens

Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani hired a Catholic priest to work in his consulting firm months after the priest was accused of sexually molesting two former students and an altar boy and told by the church to stop performing his priestly duties.

The priest, Monsignor Alan Placa, a longtime friend of Giuliani and the priest who officiated at his second wedding to Donna Hanover, continues to work at Giuliani Partners in New York, to the outrage of some of his accusers and victims' groups, which have begun to protest at Giuliani campaign events.

"This man did unjust things, and he's being protected and employed and taken care of. It's not a good thing," said one of the accusers, Richard Tollner, who says Placa molested him repeatedly when he was a student at a Long Island, N.Y. Catholic boys high school in 1975.

Related
PHOTOS: Giuliani and the Priest
At a campaign appearance in Milwaukee last week, Giuliani continued to defend Placa, who he described to reporters as a close friend for 39 years.

"I know the man; I know who he is, so I support him," Giuliani said. "We give some of the worst people in our society the presumption of innocence and benefit of the doubt," he said. "And, of course, I'm going to give that to one of my closest friends."

The accusations against Placa were made in testimony before a Suffolk County grand jury in 2002.

Tollner, now a mortgage broker in Albany, N.Y., says he was one of three people to testify about Placa.

"This man harmed children. He still could do it. He deserves to be shown for what he was, or is," says Tollner.

[...]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3753385&page=1

 

[Pens1566]

Between this and Bernie Kerik, Rudy has some "issues".

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

...pedophiliac.

Is that someone that doesn't stop leaking small children out of his body if he's cut?

 

[Drako]

Wow, 2 year old story is 2 years old.

 

[Corn]

Wow, 2 year old story is 2 years old.

He's a little slow on his talking point email chains........

 

[dahunan]

This is ALL I WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcz4_JL5b7c

 

[DealMonkey]

is that someone that doesn't stop leaking small children out of his body if he's cut?

lmao!

 

[alchemize]

Two year old repost?

 

[DealMonkey]

He's a little slow on his talking point email chains........

It got dredged up again because the Vatican decided to clear this douchebag. I guess you'd prefer that the story get buried though, huh?

 

[Drako]

It got dredged up again because the Vatican decided to clear this douchebag. I guess you'd prefer that the story get buried though, huh?

Which would have been fine if you actually linked todays article.

You linked a story from October 2007.

 

[DealMonkey]

Yeah, let's allow this guy to potentially work with kids again, simply because the statute of limitations ran out. Sounds like the Catholic Church all right. Back to its old tricks.

Sex Abuse Victims' Groups Outraged By Vatican Decision to Clear Accused Priest

Catholic Church Rules Alan Placa Not Guilty; Rudy Giuliani Defended, Employed Friend Accused of Molesting Boys

The Diocese of Rockville Centre announced on Friday that the Catholic Church had found Monsignor Alan Placa not guilty of molesting teenage boys, an allegation that first surfaced in a local grand jury investigation in 2002. The grand jury report concluded that Placa could not be prosecuted criminally because the statute of limitations had expired.

Victims' rights groups harshly criticized the Catholic Church's decision and the process of trying the accused priest.

"While not surprising, it's still heart-breaking to see that a victim deemed credible by virtually everyone else -- prosecutors, grand jurors, journalists, survivors, relatives and lay Catholics -- is deemed not credible by a couple of Vatican bureaucrats thousands of miles away," said David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountablity.org, a group that tracks sex abuse allegations against Catholic priests, called the decision a "slap in the face to survivors and all Catholics who want to believe the Church can change its ways."

Placa was placed under investigation by the Church after he was identified as "Priest F" in a grand jury investigation in New York's Suffolk County. The grand jury heard testimony from three alleged victims, two students and an altar boy, who said that a "Priest F" had molested them in the 1970s.

Richard Tollner, the only accuser to come forward publicly, told ABC News in a 2007 interview that Placa was Priest F, and that Placa had repeatedly molested him in 1975 when he was a teenage student at an all-boys Catholic high school in Uniondale, N.Y.

Alan Placa's Past Reveals Abuse Allegations
Placa later served as a lawyer for the diocese in dealing with allegations of abuse against other priests. According to the grand jury report, Priest F became instrumental in a church policy that used "deception and intimidation" to keep the church scandal quiet. Priest F claimed he had saved the church hundreds of thousands of dollars in his handling of possible litigation.

When the allegations first surfaced, Placa was serving as the Vice Chancellor of the diocese. After Placa was placed under investigation, and told by the Church to stop performing his priestly duties, Giuliani hired him to work at his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners. Placa accompanied Giuliani and his wife Judith on a trip to Rome in January of 2007, around the time a canonical panel was trying him in Albany.

[...]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/sex-a...raged-vatican-decision-clear/story?id=9268719

There. That up-to-date enough for you guys?

 

[werepossum]

Is that someone that doesn't stop leaking small children out of his body if he's cut?

LOL! Clever!

I'm not a fan of Guiliani, I think his ethics are far too northeast liberal, where a corrupt police chief and a boy-buggering priest are considered good friend material and keeping a mistress is considered no big deal. However I can point out that accused is not convicted.

And kudos to the Catholic Church for FINALLY stopping a priest accused of child molestation until his case is adjudicated, as opposed to hiding him in another area and paying off the victims.

 

[alchemize]

It got dredged up again because the Vatican decided to clear this douchebag. I guess you'd prefer that the story get buried though, huh?

It's basically a 35 year old he said/she said. People are getting big bucks for suing the church nowadays.

I would guess he would have more accusers if it was true...but not a lot on the story out there. Who knows who is lying, but one of them is. If the priest is lying, then Tollner should catch him in a dark alley sometime.

 

[DealMonkey]

Which would have been fine if you actually linked todays article.

You linked a story from October 2007.

Okay, okay, I get it. My browser did some sort of time warp. However, my post was more of a "this fits a pattern" of GOP'ers who are racking up one idiotic thing after another that will do nothing but drag them down forever.

Can you just imagine the negative ads you could run with Giuliani alone?

 

[alchemize]

Like he would run anyhow...he obviously lost his 9/11 glimmer, and it will be even more faded in a couple years.

 

[jonks]

LOL! Clever!

I'm not a fan of Guiliani, I think his ethics are far too northeast liberal, where a corrupt police chief and a boy-buggering priest are considered good friend material and keeping a mistress is considered no big deal. However I can point out that accused is not convicted.

I think you're misstaking NY for France. Try telling a NY wife that her husband is sleeping around on her, I don't think she'll opt for your "no big deal" reaction.

Giuliani is not a northeast liberal. He's a northeast republican, which resembles a liberal to those from the flyover states because he supports abortion rights for women and occasionally dresses in drag. NY republicans are probably to the left of most red state democrats.

But if the National GOP wants to keep on doing what it's doing, cleansing the party of all but the idologically pure, I hope they like sticking to that 20% number because it aint gonna get any higher. NY will not elect a pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-healthcare reform, uber-religious global warming denying republican.

I'm disappointed to see you suggest that corrupt police and pedophiles are somehow the domain of the left; you usually don't sink to such levels.

 

[Ausm]

LOL! Clever!

I'm not a fan of Guiliani, I think his ethics are far too northeast liberal, where a corrupt police chief and a boy-buggering priest are considered good friend material and keeping a mistress is considered no big deal. However I can point out that accused is not convicted.

.

Northeast Liberal? LMFAO

 

[Fern]

This old news about Giuliani didn't seem a problem for him in the election 2008 elections.

Huckabee's commutation of that guys sentence isn't likely to be a problem either. When I heard the facts laid out, if they were indeed facts, it's damned hard to criticize him for it and in no way led to the subsequent crimes nor constituted some sort of gross leniency. There were plenty of other people letting him out of jail even after he turned violent who'll bear the blame.

Fern

 

[PokerGuy]

So.... remind me again what this guy was convicted of doing? Oh wait. He wasn't convicted of anything. You're saying Giuliani should fire the guy based on a mere accusation, based on something that supposedly happened 35 years ago? I guess in your world the words "innocent until proven guilty" mean nothing.

 

[KMFJD]

9/11

 

[nageov3t]

once someone is accused of molesting a teen, should they just never be able to have a job ever again?

it's not like he's being employed in a capacity where he interacts with children every day.

 

[CycloWizard]

So.... remind me again what this guy was convicted of doing? Oh wait. He wasn't convicted of anything. You're saying Giuliani should fire the guy based on a mere accusation, based on something that supposedly happened 35 years ago? I guess in your world the words "innocent until proven guilty" mean nothing.

Exactly what I was about to post. When it comes to someone religious, however, DM is willing to shoot first and ask questions later. He considers anyone religious guilty by association. He believes in constitutional rights, but only his own.

 

[jonks]

This old news about Giuliani didn't seem a problem for him in the election 2008 elections.

Huckabee's commutation of that guys sentence isn't likely to be a problem either. When I heard the facts laid out, if they were indeed facts, it's damned hard to criticize him for it and in no way led to the subsequent crimes nor constituted some sort of gross leniency. There were plenty of other people letting him out of jail even after he turned violent who'll bear the blame.

That defense didn't work for Dukakis, who merely supported the furlough program and had zero direct interaction with Horton's parole at all. Tons of intermediary people were responsible for the process leading to Horton's release as well. Dukakis' involvement was that he vetoed a bill that would have prevented 1st degree murder convicts from being furloghed. Had that bill passed, Horton wouldn't have gotten out. In contrast, Huckabee personally commuted the sentence of his guy, without which the guy would not have been parole eligible. The bigger sin is that Huck is a Republican, who is supposed to be tough on crime, so this act runs counter to GOP narrative.

If it comes up at all, it will be a bigger fish in the GOP primary than it would in the general election, since the Dem's narrative is rehabilitation so it would be very tin-sounding for a dem candidate to rip a GOPer for giving a crook a second chance. But I would expect the GOP primary contenders will bring this issue up.

 

[werepossum]

I think you're misstaking NY for France. Try telling a NY wife that her husband is sleeping around on her, I don't think she'll opt for your "no big deal" reaction.

Giuliani is not a northeast liberal. He's a northeast republican, which resembles a liberal to those from the flyover states because he supports abortion rights for women and occasionally dresses in drag. NY republicans are probably to the left of most red state democrats.

But if the National GOP wants to keep on doing what it's doing, cleansing the party of all but the idologically pure, I hope they like sticking to that 20% number because it aint gonna get any higher. NY will not elect a pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-healthcare reform, uber-religious global warming denying republican.

I'm disappointed to see you suggest that corrupt police and pedophiles are somehow the domain of the left; you usually don't sink to such levels.

His wife for years put up with him openly having a girlfriend. However, my point was that Guiliani, having spent his time in the Northeast (where even as a Republican he has much more in common with northeast liberals than with most southern or midwestern Democrats, as you pointed out), assumed that his infidelity was "no big deal". He found out differently in the primaries. You can bet your ass no Republican seeking national office would assume recent and open infidelity is no big deal. Just look at Newt Gingrich, whose infidelity ended his political career, versus Bill Clinton, a hero of the left. A Democrat in the south or midwest with ties to a priest accused of child molestation or a corrupt cop stands a much better chance of losing re-election than does a Republican in the northeast. Can you honestly imagine a Tennessee Congressman whose boyfriend gets busted running a homosexual call boy operation out of their shared home - and the Congressman gets caught pressuring local government to fix parking tickets so the johns don't get embarrassed - repeatedly getting re-elected? Even in our most liberal district that's never going to happen. Being more tolerant requires accepting a wider range of behavior and associations, and we just aren't that tolerant. We still believe in guilt by association and that a man's actions toward those he supposedly loves and honors will be at least as honorable as his actions toward those he doesn't actually know (i.e. his constituents.)

Having friends that are corrupt, or crooks, isn't exclusively (or perhaps even mainly) the domain of the left, but like infidelity politicians with those ties pay a much bigger price on the right. Witness Dan Lassiter or Tony Rezko - no big deal, right?

 

[werepossum]

This old news about Giuliani didn't seem a problem for him in the election 2008 elections.

Huckabee's commutation of that guys sentence isn't likely to be a problem either. When I heard the facts laid out, if they were indeed facts, it's damned hard to criticize him for it and in no way led to the subsequent crimes nor constituted some sort of gross leniency. There were plenty of other people letting him out of jail even after he turned violent who'll bear the blame.

Fern

I tend to agree with jonks on this one; even though it was twenty years earlier and the perp did get a tremendously bad deal at sentencing, I think this comes back to haunt Huckabee if he runs again. One of my problems with Huckabee was his commuting of thousands of sentences, thus guaranteeing that he had no time to examine any of the cases. Shame, really; he did marvelous things with education and supports the FairTax.