State prosecutors and the Diocese of Manchester were before a Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Yesterday. They argued the terms of the Diocese's 2002 settlement agreement over past sexual abuse by state Priests.
In December of 2002, the Diocese and the state struck a historic bargain……In exchange for avoiding prosecution for child endangerment, the diocese would submit to five years worth of audits to ensure it had enacted new child protection policies……At issue ever since is the audit's scope and who will pay for it …….The settlement never specified who would underwrite the audit, but the agreement did refer to it as being without limitation..... Diocese Attorney David Vicinanzo argued those words don't give the state a free hand to craft the audit as it's being performed.
"The nub of the issue is what happens during the audit what is it seeking to measure or what is done with it afterward……..Whether it was not this was an audit with fixed and determinate terms in 2002 or whether or not the state gets to decide what is effective and whether or not the state gets to substitute it's judgement for the judgement of the diocese."
The state meanwhile, contends the diocese is seeking to thwart the settlement agreement's very essence -- the ability of the state to ensure children are protected…..Associate Attorney General Ann Larney.
"The real nub of the disagreement is the state's ability, obligation, to measure effectiveness and effectiveness mean are the programs working……..The diocese suggests we cannot make this assessment, we can only verify."
But the state and the church weren't the only parites offering argument. Representing a group of Lay Catholics was Attorney David Braiterman. He told the court the diocese's refusal to pay for the audit was simply a backdoor method of limiting it’s scope……Braiterman also accused the diocese of using shifting arguments to fight what he claimed local Catholics know is sorely needed.
"This audit is seen by many catholics in this state clients as the only way for the church to purge itself for what it’s perpetrated here …..Some of my clients as well feel that the church's conduct in resisting the suaid similarly taint the church's good faith."
Speaking from eh bench, Judge Carol Ann Conboy made it clear she'd prefer the sides reach agreement on the audit without her being forced to rule on what is basically uncharted legal territory……A one of a kind agreement between church and state…… Conboy did allow, however, that's she'll be ready to rule if negotiations fail.
"I've got a contract and I'm going to be making a decision on whether or not the contract should be enforced and what the missing pieces are."
After the hearing, both the diocese and the state said they'd continue to work towards settlement…..Diocese attorney David Vicinanzo says just a few words stood in the way of progress. He also stressed that the Diocese has nothing to fear from state scrutiny.
"There is no entity in this state or any state that I'm aware of that does as much as we do for the protection of children you ask most laypeople today and they know that the Catholic church is the safest place for kids."
The state, for its part, aims to make sure that that's indeed the case. New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte.
"We firmly believe that the audit has to measure whether the polices they do have in pplace are protecting children…..They want to limit that portion of it and we simply cannot agree to that limitation."
There is no timetable for the court's ruling.
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