SSPX PRIEST FOUND GUILTY ON ALL CHARGES IN ABUSING 27 CHILDREN

Jury returns verdict in 'horror' trial of Fr. Pierre de Maillard

VENDÉE, France (ChurchMilitant.com) - A priest of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has been found guilty on all charges involving sex abuse of more than two dozen children.

The jury returned its verdict Friday evening against Fr. Pierre de Maillard, charged with four counts of rape and 33 sexual assaults against 27 children over the course of 25 years. The crimes took place in his SSPX assignments in the Vendée and elsewhere.

The court agreed with public prosecutor, Emmanuelle Lepissier, in adopting most of her recommendations: Maillard will receive the maximum possible sentence: 20 years behind bars, two-thirds of that time without the possibility of parole.

This will be followed by a 10-year probation period that will require that Maillard receive treatment. Failure to follow the rules of probation could result in another five years in prison.

Lionel Béthune de Moro, who represented the victims, lauded the "exemplary and long-awaited punishment in view of the extraordinary nature of the multiple criminal acts brought before the Assize Court against a defendant who himself claims to be a paedophile."

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https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/sspx-priest-convicted-of-molesting-27-children

The Mob Is Making a Comeback in Construction as Demand for New Housing Grows in NYC

A string of new prosecutions highlight how organized crime is targeting the nonunion builders of tens of millions of dollars in projects.

Amid a drumbeat of demand for the creation of more housing in New York City, the mob is staging a potentially hazardous and costly comeback in the city’s construction business, where it has long been a sinister factor.

The evidence of its renewed involvement has quietly unspooled in a series of recent corruption prosecutions across the city involving significant affordable housing and high-rise hotel projects. Another case ended with the conviction of the head of the powerful state building trades council, who admitted taking $100,000 in bribes and was caught on tape consorting with mobsters.

All the cases present stark evidence of a shift by organized crime from corrupting union construction locals to aligning with nonunion contractors, including many that employ untrained workers and have lengthy records of on-the-job accidents, including fatalities. They also spotlight the sophisticated manipulation of government programs aimed at promoting the use of women and minority-owned businesses, as well as widespread cheating on workers’ compensation payments in schemes that have left injured employees without insurance protection.

Added up, they outline a series of risks — to safety, cost control and adherence to regulation — that mob interest in housing construction could pose to the widely advocated building projects endorsed in principle by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams.

“They are getting back into construction, but it is all nonunion,” said Bruce Mouw, a former supervisory special agent for the FBI who helped bring down John Gotti. The mob has less clout on the city’s largest building sites, but it has found other advantages in the nonunion sector. “They can pay half the hourly rate, no fringe benefits, and screw a bunch of guys who often can’t speak English,” Mouw said.

In a corruption case filed last month by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an 82-year-old contractor whose regular visits to the East Harlem clubhouse of the late Genovese kingpin Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno were spotted by the FBI is charged with orchestrating a series of frauds that won him lucrative carpentry contracts on affordable housing projects subsidized by city and state government.

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https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/6/5/23748736/mob-making-comeback-in-construction