Ex-cardinal McCarrick charged with sexual assault
Charges relate to alleged assault by McCarrick on then 16-year-old boy at a wedding in 1974.
Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked after a Vatican investigation confirmed he had sexually molested adults as well as children, has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy during a wedding reception in 1974, court records show.
McCarrick is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14, according to documents filed in the Dedham District Court on Wednesday.
He is the first cardinal in the US to ever be criminally charged with a sexual crime against a minor, according to Mitchell Garabedian, a well-known lawyer for church sexual abuse victims who is representing the man alleging the abuse by McCarrick.
“It takes an enormous amount of courage for a sexual abuse victim to report having been sexually abused to investigators and proceed through the criminal process,” Garabedian said in an email. “Let the facts be presented, the law applied, and a fair verdict rendered.”
Barry Coburn, a lawyer for McCarrick, told The Associated Press that they “look forward to addressing the case in the courtroom”, and declined further comment.
The charges against McCarrick were first reported by The Boston Globe on Thursday.
The man said the abuse started when he was a young boy, according to the court records. The man told authorities during an interview in January that McCarrick was close to his family and would perform wedding masses, baptisms and funerals for them.
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