Another priest arrested in sex scandal

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Posted 7:57AM on Wednesday, May 8, 2002

DANVERS, MASSACHUESETTS - Just hours after one former Boston-area priest pleaded innocent to three counts of raping a boy, another was arrested on similar charges. The Rev. Ronald H. Paquin, who has acknowledged in a newspaper interview that he had ``fooled around'' with boys, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at his home in suburban Malden, Mass. Essex County District Attorney Kevin M. Burke said he would ask for substantial bail at Paquin's arraignment Wednesday. Paquin, 59, has been charged with one count of rape and abuse of a child under 16. Burke said the charge involved more than 50 incidents with a boy about 12 years old between January 1990 and January 1992. On Tuesday morning, the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, 71, had pleaded innocent to three counts of raping a boy over a six-year period. Shanley, whose endorsement of sex between men and boys has grabbed national headlines, was extradited on Monday from San Diego, where he was living. Judge Dyanne J. Klein ordered Shanley held on $750,000 cash bail, barred him from contacting the alleged victim or his family, confiscated his passport and told him to avoid contact with children under 16. Authorities said they quickly obtained a warrant against Paquin on Tuesday after receiving a tip that he might be considering fleeing. A television station showed footage of workers loading furniture into a truck in front of his residence before he was arrested. ``Based on information we received today, we acted immediately,'' Burke said. Burke said Paquin assaulted the boy in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Canada. Paquin was associate pastor at St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill at the time, Burke said. Attorney Jeffrey Newman, who said the unidentified victim is his client, said the man approached him a month ago. ``We spoke for several hours, and it became apparent that not only did he have a civil claim, but he was one of the few Paquin victims who fell within the criminal statute for rape,'' Newman told New England Cable News. Donna Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Boston, declined to comment. The archdiocese removed Paquin from active service at St. John's in 1990 after allegations surfaced that he had molested boys there. The church has paid settlements to at least four alleged victims. In an interview with The Boston Globe in January, Paquin admitted he had molested boys, but insisted the abuse stopped when he was sent for treatment in 1990. Paquin also is accused in a lawsuit of abusing a teen-age boy while he was in a treatment center for wayward priests. He has denied the allegations. Paquin is also named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a 16-year-old boy who died in 1981 in a car accident with the priest. Paquin had taken the boy, James Francis, and three other teen-agers to a camp in New Hampshire. Francis' family alleges Paquin fell asleep at the wheel after a night of sex and alcohol with Francis. In developments elsewhere related to the church abuse scandal: - The Connecticut state Senate approved a bill early Wednesday that would overhaul child sex abuse laws, but struck down a provision in the House version of the bill that would require priests to report abuse allegations heard in the confessional. The House has until midnight Wednesday, when the General Assembly adjourns, to vote on the Senate version of the bill. - In Arizona, a woman accused a Scottsdale priest of raping her when she visited him for counseling in 1977. The Rev. Patrick Colleary has admitted fathering Sharon Roy's child, his attorney said, but claims his relationship with the woman was consensual. - Bishop Donald Wuerl of the Pittsburgh diocese said it will now report all child molestation allegations to authorities, no matter how long ago the assaults allegedly took place. The diocese formerly referred only cases in which the accuser was still a minor, the minimum reporting requirement under Pennsylvania law. - The Archdiocese of Miami agreed to give prosecutors the personnel files of priests accused of molesting children. Archbishop John C. Favalora and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle reached the agreement Monday, Fernandez Rundle's spokesman said.