Sun-Journal from Lewiston, Maine • A2

SUN JOURNAL SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2018 Maine A2 Banner up! Mystery over Boston Red Sox title banner deepens BOSTON (AP) The Boston Red Sox have put up an American League East championship banner, but not the same one three men say they found on a suburban highway earlier this week. That one is now in storage at the center of a police investigation. The new banner was put up Friday outside Fenway Park after the title-clinching 11-6 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday. Louie Iacuzzi, James Amaral and a friend said they found the original banner on a Somerville highway on Monday. The Red Sox said then it appeared to have fallen off a delivery truck.

But the owner of the company that made both banners, Tony Lafuente, says the original banner may have been stolen, so he contacted police. The men deny stealing the banner. Bus driver fired following assault of autistic student caught on video NEW GLOUCESTER (AP) A Maine school district has fired a bus driver caught on surveillance video smacking a teenager who has autism. Melissa Seavey tells WMTW-TV that thankful that an aide reported the assault on her 19-year-old son. Surveillance video captured the driver hitting her son on the head.

The Gray school superintendent promptly fired the driver. Tribal groups to get public safety funds PLEASANT POINT (AP) Three American Indian tribal groups in Maine will benefit from more than $100 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Justice designed to improve public safety in native communities around the country. The grants are also intended to assist victims of crime, stop violence against women and support youth programs in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The Aroostook Band of Micmacs and Penobscot Nation are both slated to receive about $900,000 for programs that address violence against women.

The Pleasant Point Passa- maquoddy Tribe is scheduled to receive about $750,000 for justice and drug and alcohol abuse programs. PORTLAND PRESS HERALD An advocacy group for low-income Mainers suing the LePage administration went to court this week to try to erase any reference to Gov. Paul request to federal officials to reject Medicaid expansion. In early September, LePage filed a form with Medicaid called a State Plan Amendment typically a routine document states use when applying for Medicaid expansion. But LePage took the unusual step of simultaneously filing the amendment and asking the federal government to reject it, which would halt Medicaid expansion.

The court filing with the Maine Business and Consumer Court on Thursday is the latest step in a monthslong legal fight over implementing Medicaid expansion, which would make about 70,000 low-income Mainers eligible for free health insurance. LePage, a steadfast op- ponent of Medicaid expansion, was forced by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to file a State Plan Amendment with Medicaid that would jump-start expansion. Maine voters approved Medicaid expansion by 59 to 41 percent in November 2017, but LePage has refused to implement it, citing budgetary concerns. Maine Equal Justice Partners this week filed a motion in business court that, if successful, would bring in a third party, called a receiver, to amend the State Plan Amendment. The receiver would remove Aug.

31 letter asking the court to reject the expansion, as well as portions of the Sept. 4 form itself that also ask the U.S. Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services to deny expansion. was not submitted in good faith to ensure (Medicaid) eligibility as was required by the said Robyn Merrill, executive director of Maine Equal Justice Partners. Julie Rabinowitz, a LePage spokeswoman, said governor will respond in court at the appropriate time, but believes this filing lacks LePage, in his letter asking Medicaid to reject the State Plan Amendment, argued that the state had not set aside money for the expansion.

LePage this summer vetoed $60 million in expansion funds approved by lawmakers, with the governor claiming they were one-time budgetary gimmicks. Another legal move under way to block medicaid efforts Former priest settles several lawsuits PORTLAND PRESS HERALD Michael Doherty remembers the moment he finally saw James Talbot in handcuffs. Talbot has a lengthy history of alleged child sexual abus dat in to the 197 0s at Boston College High School in Massachusetts and then at Cheverus High School in Maine. The former Jesuit priest and teacher has settled lawsuits with more than a dozen victims, including Doherty, who is from Freeport. But Talbot has been convicted only once.

He was never prosecuted in case and many others because the statute of limitations at the time had lapsed. Then, in October 2005, Talbot pleaded guilty to raping and sexually assaulting two students decades before in Boston. When Talbot was taken into custody 13 years ago, Doherty made sure he was in the courtroom. was an important Doherty said. a different level of satisfaction than there is in the civil litigation.

When I had the ability to see him taken into custody in Boston, it was Now Talbot will answer to criminal charges for the second time. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in Cumberland County in his trial for gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact. Neither the prosecu- tor nor the defense attorney has said whether Talbot will again take a plea deal like he did in 2005. If he does not, legal experts said he could face a challenging trial in the context of the broader sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, because jurors are not supposed to have prior knowledge of a case or past experiences that could create bias. been living under a rock, you do know about said Thea Johnson, an associate professor at the University of Maine School of Law.

A grand jury indicted Talbot on the two felony charges last year. He is accused of sexually abusing a 9-year- old boy on several occasions in the lat 19 90s at St. Jude Church in Freeport, where Talbot was a visiting priest. Although details about the current allegations have not been made public in criminal case filings, Talbot settled a lawsuit with the same victim last summer. The Press Herald does not name victims of sexual abuse without their consent.

Talbot, now 80, pleaded not guilty to the crimes in December. He then posted $50,000 cash bail and returned to the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Missouri, a Catholic Church-run residential facility for troubled or former priests, where he has lived since he was released from prison. attorney, Wal- ter McKee, declined to comment on the case. The prosecutor from the Cumberland County District Office did not respond to a request for an interview. The allegations against Talbot go back four decades.

He taught at Boston College High School from 1972 to 1980, when he transferred to Cheverus and remained there until 1998. That year, Doh erty am for wa rd to say that Talbot had abused him in the mid-80s, when Doherty was a student at Cheverus. Talbot was fired from the school about two months after the accusations were brought to the bishop. Doherty settled his law- suit in 2001. Even though prosecutors could not bring criminal charges, his case prompted others to come forward.

By 2003, 14 men had settled lawsuits totaling more than $5.2 million. Two years later, Talbot pleaded guilty to the first criminal charges and ultimately served six years in prison. He was later laicized by the Vatican, which means he is no longer a priest. New criminal charges were possible in Maine because the statute of limitations for such crimes against a child younger than 16 was eliminated in 1999 as long as the statute of limitations had not already expired. Talbot was one of the priests targeted in The Boston Pulitzer Prize- winning investigation into the abuse scandal, and the 2015 film includes references to his victims.

In a March 2002 article, the Globe reported that Talbot coached wrestling, as well as soccer, at Boston College High and that he engaged in a of wrestling with students who were in various stages of undress, including wearing only athletic supporters. That investigation rocked the Catholic Church across the globe and led to similar findings in other dioceses. Just this year, a sweeping grand jury report in Pennsylvania revealed more than 300 priests sexually abused children over seven decades. To ens ure a fai tria for Talbot, his defense team is likely try to weed out candidates who have negative feelings about the Catholic Church or Cheverus High School because of past allegations and investigations. have to peel back layers to determine whether or not a jury is going to reflexively condemn someone based on the allegations said Tina Nadeau, an attorney who also serves at the executive director of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Once the jurors are selected, it is unclear how much they would be told about past. State courts typically do not allow prosecutors to talk during trial about prior convictions for similar crimes, and standards vary across the country for presenting evidence about accusations that have not led to criminal charges. policy rationale is that we want to judge somebody based on their prior bad Johnson said. want to judge them on the facts of this But Johnson said there are exceptions to that rule. If a defendant testifies at trial, for example, his or her criminal history could be introduced.

In other states, other accusers also have been allowed to take the stand to describe a pattern of behavior by the defendant, like the women who testified at Bill most recent sex assault trial. Stephen Smith, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in sex abuse cases, said he would even ask a judge to exclude evidence about connection to the Catholic Church. (jurors) heard this person was a former Catholic priest accused of this sort of crime, there may be some prejudices that should not be Smith said. Still, Smith said he almost always prefers to take a sex rim cas a ju ry trial, rather than a judge at a bench trial. While most people will have an negative gut reaction to allegations of sexual abuse against a child, he said many jurors also have heard about cases in which accusations turn out to be untrue.

allows them to consider the possibility of a false Smith said. During the trial, both the prosecution and the defense would need to contend with the amount of time that has passed since the alleged abuse took place. a concern for both Johnson said. doing this 20 years down the road. How will that affect how people remember things, and how the jury perceives how people remember Whatever happens, Doherty will be in the courtroom again.

He now lives in Florida, but he was traveling back to Maine this week to support the anonymous victim in this latest case. BEN HERALD Former Jesuit priest James Francis Talbot is led in handcuffs after entering a not guilty plea to sex charges at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland in December 2017. Paymentenclosed VISA AmericanExpress MasterCard Discover MESSAGE: Messagelimitedto5lines(approximately20words) Cost 25 INHONOROF JOHNH.SMITH Weallmissedyou. SamanthaandJosh Yourphotowillbe publishedinthe VETERANSDAY SECTION Sunday Questions INMEMORYOF SALLYDOW Soproudofyou! Thankyouforserving Loveyour brotherandsisters InHonorOf InMemoryOf YOUAREINVITED! SEPTEMBER23 SUNDAY EABCwelcomesyoutothejoyfulcelebration ofournewbuilding. Pleasejoinusat 10AMforaceremonyandthenour worshipservicetofollowat11AM GrandOpening.