National Roundup

New York
Bishop: Albany diocese covered up priest abuse for decades
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The longtime former head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany says the diocese covered up sexual abuse by priests for decades and protected clergy by sending them to private treatment instead of calling police.

Bishop Howard Hubbard, who ran the diocese in New York’s Capital District from 1977 to 2014 and has himself been accused of sexual abuse, made the admission in a statement issued through his lawyer to the Albany Times-Union in response to questions from the newspaper.

The Times Union reported Hubbard’s statement on Saturday.

“When an allegation of sexual misconduct against a priest was received in the 1970s and 1980s, the common practice in the Albany diocese and elsewhere was to remove the priest from ministry temporarily and send him for counseling and treatment,” Hubbard said.

“Only when a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist determined the priest was capable of returning to ministry without reoffending did we consider placing the priest back in ministry,” he added. “The professional advice we received was well-intended but flawed, and I deeply regret that we followed it.”

About 300 lawsuits have been filed against the Albany diocese under a state law that allows people until Aug. 14 to sue over sexual abuse they say they endured as children, sometimes decades ago.

In the past, the 82-year-old Hubbard has denied allegations that he sexually abused minors. In an August 2019 statement, he said: “I have never sexually abused anyone in my life. I have trust in the canonical and civil legal processes and believe my name will be cleared in due course.”

Responding to allegations in lawsuits that he ignored, disregarded or covered up abuse by others, Hubbard told the Times Union in his statement that he was a leader on church efforts to prevent abuse, including support for background checks and compensation for victims.

Hubbard’s statement was not sanctioned by the diocese, the newspaper reported.

Pennsylvania
Man sentenced to 2 life terms in 2019 double murder, arson
EASTON, Pa. (AP) — A man prosecutors said baked and took cookies to the home of a 97-year-old bedridden woman before killing her and her adult son and setting fire to their eastern Pennsylvania home has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Drew Rose, 39, of Bethlehem pleaded guilty Friday in Northampton County Court of Common Pleas to criminal homicide, burglary, arson and robbery in the January 2019 slayings of Virginia Houck and 61-year-old Roger Houck in Palmer Township. Prosecutors earlier announced plans to seek capital punishment but took the death penalty off the table as part of the plea agreement.

Authorities said Houck, son of a former caretaker of Virginia Houck, needed rent money and hatched a scheme to rob the woman. Police say his ex-girlfriend told a grand jury that Rose arrived at the house with the cookies and told her son he was a family friend who had worked for his mother, but once inside, ordered the man to buy items online for him and have them shipped to the residence.

When Roger Houck refused, prosecutors allege, Rose assaulted and strangled him, fleeing with $280. Prosecutors allege that he returned in the early morning hours, tied up the woman and threw her down the basement steps before setting the home on fire. A coroner said Virginia Houck was found still bound and died of smoke inhalation and burns, while her son, also bound at the feet, died of “homicidal violence.”

“This is one of the most monstrously evil cases I have ever witnessed,” said District Attorney Terry Houck, who is not related to the victims.

Although the plea agreement spares Rose the possibility of a death sentence, the prosecutor pointed out that Pennsylvania hasn’t carried out a death sentence in decades. He said he “didn’t want to depreciate one iota what these people went through before they died.”

Judge Jennifer Sletvold sentenced Rose to two consecutive life terms without parole plus 9 1/2 to 60 years, saying he had “demonstrated layer upon layer of human depravity.”

“You took their lives in the most violent, inhumane and despicable way,” she said.

“You could have stopped and found your soul, and found your humanity, and you never did,” she added. “You never showed an ounce of remorse for those people.”

Stephanie Redding, who considered Virginia Houck her grandmother — Houck took in Redding’s father after his parents died — called her “one of the most amazing people God has put on this earth.” A devout Catholic, Virginia Houck would tell her family to forgive and pray for Rose, something Redding said they were still struggling to do.

“That’s the kind of person she was ... I don’t know how long that takes,” Redding said.

Rose told the court it was hard to accept his actions that day, but that he regrets all of it, lehighvalleylive.com reported. He said he wasn’t taking the plea deal to avoid the death penalty but to spare his daughter the trauma of having to testify.
“I just don’t have two lives to give, I have one life,” he said. “I know I’m never getting out.”


New Jersey
Father in family murder plot case loses bid to withdraw plea
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — A man serving decades in prison for conspiring with his daughter to kill her ex-husband in one of New Jersey’s most notorious murder cases lost a bid to withdraw his guilty plea on Monday.

Thomas Dorsett pleaded guilty to murder and arson for hire in the 2010 death of Stephen Moore. He admitted bludgeoning and strangling Moore behind the family’s house after Moore arrived to drop off the couple’s young daughter, then hiring someone to set Moore’s mother’s car on fire with Moore’s body in the trunk. Prosecutors said Dorsett wound up torching the car himself.

Kathleen Dorsett, a former elementary school teacher, also pleaded guilty in Moore’s death and she and her mother admitted trying to hire a hit man to kill Moore’s mother to stop her from testifying against them and keep her from getting custody of the girl.

Kathleen Dorsett was sentenced in 2013 to 58 years in prison and Lesley Dorsett received a seven-year sentence. Thomas Dorsett was sentenced to 45 years.

Prosecutors said the plot grew out of the couple’s failed marriage and an acrimonious divorce that led to a custody battle over their daughter.

On Monday an appeals court rejected Thomas Dorsett’s argument that he received ineffective assistance from his attorney when he negotiated his plea deal. His guilty plea was a condition for his wife to make her own guilty plea and receive a much shorter sentence than she could potentially have received if she had gone to trial, according to Monday’s ruling.

A message was left Monday with an attorney who argued on behalf of Thomas Dorsett.