BOSTON, May 7 (UPI) -- Just hours after an accused serial pedophile priest was ordered held on high bail on child rape charges in Massachusetts Tuesday, another was arrested and charged with repeatedly raping a young boy.
Former priest Ronald H. Paquin was arrested at his home in Malden, Mass., by state troopers and held for arraignment Wednesday in Haverhill, Mass., Essex County District Attorney Kevin Burke announced late Tuesday.
Paquin, who already faces a wrongful death suit involving a 16-year-old boy he alleged molested before a fatal car accident, was a priest when he allegedly raped another Haverhill boy repeatedly between 1990 and 1992.
Paquin was charged with rape and abuse of a child under 16.
Paquin already is facing a wrongful death lawsuit in the 1981 death of James Francis, 16. Returning from New Hampshire after an alleged night of drinking and sex during an outing with four boys from Haverhill, a car driven by the priest rolled over.
Paquin reportedly had been drinking heavily the night before and fell asleep at the wheel.
The lawsuit alleges that a few hours earlier, Paquin had crawled into the Francis boy's sleeping bag and molested him.
Francis is the first person believed to have died as a result of the alleged misbehavior of a priest.
Burke said Paquin was arrested in the latest case on information provided by the alleged victim, who was brought to his office by Jeffrey A. Newman, an attorney who represents numerous plaintiffs in civil suits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
Paquin was removed as a priest in 1990 after the archdiocese settled four lawsuits against him.
His arrest came just hours after a District Court judge in Cambridge ordered innocent pleas entered for the Rev. Paul R. Shanley and set bail at $750,000.
Prosecutors had argued for the high bail, saying Shanley was a "tremendous risk of flight." Shanley was arrested Thursday in San Diego on a Newton, Mass., police warrant charging him with three counts of raping a child.
If he is able to make bail, Shanley was ordered to surrender his passport, stay in Massachusetts, have no contact with any child under 16 or have any contact with any alleged victims.
While the case against Shanley moved forward, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law prepared to face tough questioning about child sexual abuse involving another alleged predator priest.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge on Monday ordered Law to appear in her courtroom on Wednesday to give sworn testimony about defrocked priest John J. Geoghan, accused of molesting more than 130 children.
In the Shanley case, Newton police charged him with three counts of child rape based on a complaint filed by Paul Busa, 24.
Busa said that starting when he was 6 years old, Shanley would pull him from religious class at the former St. John's Church in Newton and rape him on almost a weekly basis for more than six years.
Shanley, 71, arrived at the Middlesex County Superior Courthouse in Cambridge, Mass., wearing a bulletproof vest.
Known as Boston's "street priest" in the 1960s and 1970s for ministering to troubled youths, Shanley was arrested on Thursday in San Diego on a fugitive warrant and returned to Boston Monday night.
If convicted, Shanley could be sentenced to life in prison.
Both Shanley and Geoghan were transferred from one Boston-area parish to another more than 20 years ago even though church higher-ups knew they were accused of molesting children.
Mitchell Garabedian, who represents some 86 plaintiffs in the Geoghan case, will get to question Law on Wednesday. He said he wants to know why Law allowed Geoghan to remain a priest with access to children from 1984 to 1996 despite knowing of sex abuse allegations against him.
"I want to ask the cardinal why he did not notify parishioners of Geoghan's severe pedophilia tendencies despite knowing all about them as early as 1984," the year Law came to Boston, Garabedian said.
"I want to know about the 1984 conversation when he was told Geoghan had molested seven children, and why he did nothing about it," the lawyer said. "What did you know? What did you do? Where were you in your supervisory capacity."
Judge Constance M. Sweeney granted Garabedian's request for a speedy deposition because she was concerned the pope could call Law to the Vatican at any moment to avoid being questioned and because previously scheduled depositions had been put off.
She said the decision as to his availability is not entirely his. "If the pope tells him to go to Rome," she said, "he goes."
The judge denied a request from Law's attorney, Wilson Rogers Jr., for more time to prepare for the deposition.
"There is no reason to delay this any longer," she said.
Sweeney said she ordered the deposition to be conducted in her courtroom so she could quickly resolve any "numerous objections and constitutional challenges" that might come up.
The judge also said the deposition would be videotaped, but the tape would not be made public until any trial. The tape would serve as Law's testimony if he were not available.
Sweeney was also upset the archdiocese backed out of a $15 million to $30 million settlement with Garabedian's clients that she believed was binding.
"To say the rug had been pulled out from under them is an understatement," Sweeney said.
Law said through a statement from the archdiocese that its Finance Council refused to sign off on the settlement out of concerns the growing number of plaintiffs would bankrupt the archdiocese.
It has been reported some 500 alleged victims have joined in suits against the archdiocese since the clergy abuse scandal broke out in January.
Law had been scheduled to be deposed April 3, but Sweeney agreed to cancel it because she was told a tentative settlement had been reached.
Law is also scheduled to be deposed June 5 in the Shanley case.
