Catholic Church's history with abuse cases was challenge during jury selection
By Catherine Martin
BridgeTower Media Newswires
ST. LOUIS, MO — A defense verdict has been somewhat rare in an alleged priest abuse case, but a team of Clayton lawyers recently obtained one in Lincoln County using a few key strategies, including focusing on the multiple stories the alleged victim told and the improbability of her original story, attorney Jerry Carmody said.
Carmody and his daughter, Ryann Carmody, represented The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang in a recent civil trial in Lincoln County. Jiang was accused of sexually abusing a minor.
The case is one of several they have handled for the St. Louis Archdiocese, which Jerry Carmody said they got involved with through a connection with the archdiocese’s general counsel, Tom Buckley.
Many of the cases are what Jerry Carmody described as “baseless accusations against priests,” which he said are an unfortunate byproduct of the Catholic Church’s history of mishandling priest abuse cases.
“It’s challenging and interesting work and we feel strongly about the Archdiocese [of St. Louis],” Jerry Carmody said.
They felt particularly strongly about Jiang’s case.
“When you meet him and listen to his story and recognize the type of person he is… I just believed him,” Ryann Carmody said.
Due to political circumstances, Jiang fled China for the U.S., where he was assigned to the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis.
Jiang faced a civil suit for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor whom he met at the church. A jury found him not guilty after less than two hours of deliberation. Criminal charges previously had been dropped.
There were, of course, challenges from the start of the trial, with the issue of the Catholic Church’s history with abuse cases coming up in jury selection, Jerry Carmody said. Some potential jurors said they would almost presume a priest was guilty of an abuse crime, he said, while others said they thought priests had been unfairly targeted.
“We had it running both ways. We dealt with it directly, with some who said they couldn’t be impartial,” he said.
During trial, the defense relied heavily on credibility issues.
The case focused on Jiang’s interactions with a teenage girl, who was a part of a family he grew close with after meeting them at the cathedral. His relationship with the family soured after he told them he couldn’t lend them money for a down payment on a new house, Ryann Carmody said.
After that, the matriarch cut off contact with Jiang, who she typically talked with several times a day. When he went to check on the family, they made the allegations of the abuse for the first time, she said.
The main claim was that Jiang inappropriately touched the girl while they were both under a blanket, sitting on a couch with her family, which is what Jerry Carmody said seems improbable.
“The idea of seven people, all family, together in the living room on one sectional, sitting there while there is this inappropriate touching happened… seems to be implausible,” he said. “I think that’s what the jury concluded. That it just didn’t happen.”
He also said that eventually evolved into two to three stories about “what was touched and what wasn’t touched” and then began to also include other events.
“I think the main strategy delved into the inconsistencies in the plaintiff’s story,” Jerry Carmody said.
Another key fact was that the plaintiff said she didn’t remember anything about the incident, but remembered other details about the night, like what she ate for dinner and how many times she got up to go to the bathroom, Ryann Carmody said.
“It wasn’t just that she couldn’t remember, it was that she remembered very specific things and couldn’t remember her allegations,” she said.
Another theme for the defense focused on the victim’s isolation – she was homeschooled and had little contact with anyone outside of her family for years until Jiang came into the home. The girl then fell in love with him, as described in her journal entries, Ryann Carmody said.
“At the end of the day that, coupled with her mom pushing this forward, just became, too much,” she said.
In addition to credibility issues, which they said were central to the defense, the Carmodys also said there was more evidence than typical in the case.
In interviews for a previous article, experts agreed that the circumstances of the case were unusual, and the outcome was not necessarily indicative of what may come of future priest abuse cases.
Ken Chackes, who represented the plaintiff in the case, also said the case had a lot of unusual features that led to the defense verdict, including the fact that there hadn’t been previous allegations against Jiang.
The plaintiff’s attorneys recently filed a motion for a new trial. The motion is under seal because “it contains information subject to a protective order,” Chackes said. For the same reason, he said he couldn’t comment on the specific grounds raised in the motion.
Previously, Chackes said one possible issue the plaintiff was looking at for an appeal was the issue of consent, which he said the defense brought into play at trial. The Carmodys said it was only mentioned in jury instructions.
Chackes also previously said there was some evidence against the archdiocese that was not admitted.
Jerry Carmody said they plan to file a response shortly. Jiang has not been assigned to a parish yet, but Carmody said he hopes to be assigned soon.
