US bishop escapes child abuse trial

Just hours after an indictment against former Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre was unsealed yesterday accusing him of molesting two boys in the 1970s, the county prosecutor refused to pursue the case because the statute of limitations has expired.

The decision by Hampden District Attorney William Bennett means that, though Dupre is the first Roman Catholic bishop to face criminal charges in the sex abuse scandal still plaguing the US church, he won’t go to trial for them.

“I felt I took it as far as I could," Bennett said. ”We’ve done everything we could do.”

The grand jury returned indictments related only to child abuse, and not to other possible charges, such as witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Bennett said those other indictments were vital to the case.

Without them, the prosecutor said he was precluded from pursuing the matter because the statute of limitations in force at the time of the alleged crimes was limited to six years.

Still, Dupre’s legal troubles are far from over. He faces lawsuits filed against him by his accusers, and Bennett said he plans to turn over the results of the grand jury investigation to authorities in New Hampshire, New York and Canada, where some of the abuse allegedly took place. Bennett said those jurisdictions may not be hamstrung by the same statute of limitation issues.

“They could then make their judgment as to what, if anything, they deem appropriate,” he said.

Dupre, 70, cited health reasons when he resigned on February after nine years as head of the Springfield Diocese. But his departure came one day after The Republican newspaper of Springfield confronted him with allegations he abused two boys while he was a parish priest.

According to the indictment, Dupre started raping one of the boys in 1976, and started abusing the other boy in 1979.

There have been at least a dozen grand jury investigations in the last two years involving how bishops dealt with abuse claims, and four bishops have resigned after they were accused of sexual misconduct. Dupre was the first US prelate indicted on charges of abusing children.