Mar 21, 2007 2:14 pm US/Central
Will Chicago Priest Admit To Abuse Allegations?
Source: Rev. Daniel McCormack Might 'Talk' About Guilty Plea In Abuse Case
CBS 2's Mai Martinez, Joanie Lum and The Associate Press contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Rev. Daniel McCormack (File)
CBS
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A Chicago priest accused of sexually abusing young boys might be ready to talk to prosecutors about a deal, but no details came out in court on Wednesday after a private hearing with the judge.
As CBS 2's Mai Martinez reports, a source on Tuesday told CBS 2 that Rev. Daniel McCormack might be ready at least to "talk" about a guilty plea.
On Wednesday, McCormack appeared before a Judge Thomas Sumner at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse, during which his attorney asked for a private conference with the judge and assistant state's attorney to discuss the case. The judge said such proceedings usually take place in open court, but McCormack's attorney insisted that it needed to be in the judge's chambers.
Judge Sumner eventually agreed to a private meeting with McCormack's defense attorneys and prosecutors. They met for about an hour in the judge's chambers. Judge Sumner granted McCormack's request for the private meeting in part because the victims in the case were children.
The hearing was given a continuance and is scheduled to resume on May 1.
McCormack declined to comment as he entered court.
Plea bargaining raises the potential for a guilty plea, but there is no guarantee.
Rev. McCormack is the subject of two separate criminal cases.
In one case, is accused of abusing two boys in the North Lawndale neighborhood, where McCormack worked as a teacher. The boys were 10 and 11 at the time of the alleged abuse.
McCormack is charged with fondling the 10-year-old once at the rectory of St. Agatha Church, at 3147 W. Douglas Blvd. The boy played on the basketball team McCormick coached.
But authorities said the alleged abuse of the 11-year-old took place on a daily basis between September 2005 and January 2006. That abuse allegedly happened at Presentation School, at 3900 W. Lexington St. in the city's North Lawndale neighborhood, where McCormack taught and coached basketball.
The two boys came forward after McCormack was charged with sexually abusing three other boys.
McCormack pleaded not guilty in March to charges that he molested three boys between September 2001 and January 2005 at St. Agatha and Our Lady of the Westside School. Those boys were eight, nine and 11 years old at the time.
McCormack's case resulted in several lawsuits and touched off a scandal in the Chicago Archdiocese, with some critics saying abuse allegations against McCormack fell on deaf ears.
Francis Cardinal George has conceded that the Archdiocese did not take action soon enough against McCormack.
"Every time one hears this, you're devastated," George said in May of last year, when the most recent charges against McCormack were filed. "This is a cancer that eats away at all of us, because in the church, we're connected, and in the society, we're connected."
As to the possibility of a plea bargain, Cardinal George has said he would prefer an outcome that would spare the priest's alleged victims from having to testify in court.
The alleged abuse of the second set of boys happened during a time when McCormack was supposed to have been monitored by another priest, after he was already accused of sexual abuse.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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