Judge: Fushek, high-profile accused Phoenix predator, entitled to 5 separate trials
From the East Valley Tribune, 9.19.2008.
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September 19, 2008 – 10:40PM
Judge: Fushek entitled to 5 separate trials
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Lawn Griffiths, Tribune
A judge has ordered five separate trials for Monsignor Dale Fushek, former pastor of St. Timothy’s Catholic Community, accused by five men of sexual misconduct in the 1980s and early 1990s while they were teens at the Mesa parish.
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San Tan Justice of the Peace Samuel Goodman ruled Tuesday that the priest, who founded the international Catholic youth program, LifeTeen, is entitled to face his accusers in separate trials with separate juries, with the first trial to begin Nov. 17 in the Chandler court. Fushek faces seven misdemeanor counts, pared down from 10 counts first filed in November 2005 after a Maricopa County Attorney’s Office investigation. Three counts were dismissed. One of the victims has died.
In his order, Goodman said criminal procedure rules require the cases to be “severed.”
Fushek’s attorney, Thomas Hoidal, had argued at a hearing Aug. 21 that a single jury would be ill-equipped to hear testimony on separate incidents from five complainants without one case prejudicing their thinking in other cases. The judge noted that originally he had intended to try Fushek on all counts in a single trial from the bench, with him determining Fushek’s fate. But the priest got the Arizona Supreme Court to rule that he was entitled to a jury trial.
Fushek had argued that should he be convicted, he would have to register as a sex offender under state law, thus penalizing him as a clergyman and preventing him from ministries with children. Fushek currently leads weekly nondenominational worship service in Mesa in defiance of Bishop Thomas Olmsted, who had put the priest on paid leave and then revoked it.
Goodman laid out the schedule for the five trials, saying the oldest cases would be heard first. Each trial is to follow the other “as soon as practical following the conclusion” of each previous trial.
The first is a contributing to the delinquency of a minor complaint brought by Carl Mawhinney, who accuses Fushek of “numerous sexually related discussions” about his sex life between 1984 and 1988. It is to be followed by a trial, on charges of assault and contributing to the delinquency of a minor between 1985 and 1987, brought by Marc Tropio. The third trial will involve charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and indecent exposure, between 1987 and 1990, brought by Marc Olson. The fourth trial involves contributing to the delinquency of a minor between 1989 and 1991 where Doug Cordano contends Fushek also discussed his sexual activities. The final trial focuses on a count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor between 1991 and 1993, brought by Russell Swingle.
A hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday to finalize jury selection process. Deputy County Attorney Barbara Marshall is the prosecutor.
Fushek, 56, who served as vicar general in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, is one of the highest-ranking American priests to be charged in the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the church.