(LifeSiteNews) — The sexual assault charges against Theodore McCarrick were dropped today after a judge ruled that the defrocked prelate is not mentally competent to stand trial.
The charges against the former cardinal – who served as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 2001 to 2006 and who enjoyed a high profile in the Catholic Church and easy access to the Vatican – included three counts of indecent battery and assault on a person age 16.
James Grein, who is known to be McCarrick’s earliest victim, shared with LifeSiteNews his statement to the Dedham District Court regarding the Commonwealth’s case against McCarrick. Grein’s statement said in part:
[N]ow the Court has come to the conclusion that Mr. McCarrick is not competent to stand trial. This conclusion is based on reports filed by two professionals, both of whom are psychiatrists and one of whom is a forensic specialist. I am not aware of the length of the conversations between the experts and Mr. McCarrick to determine his competency level, but certainly they were brief, compared to my experiences with him. I understand that one of the experts stated that Mr. McCarrick was intelligent and articulate. I have trouble reconciling the concept that someone who is intelligent and articulate is also not competent to stand trial and answer for his actions.
I understand that being found incompetent to stand trial is not an acquittal. But, he will not be found guilty and there seems nothing to keep him and his defense attorneys from declaring ‘he was never convicted of the charges brought against him in Massachusetts.’
Grein concluded by pointing out the ongoing injustice concerning McCarrick, who will not be held accountable by the Massachusetts court. He contrasted the suffering inflicted on him throughout his life with McCarrick’s escape this morning from justice:
I fear that I may face retaliation from his followers. In 2018, after I went public with my name in Baltimore, MD, McCarrick sent followers to my house to remind me that he is the ‘most powerful man in the U.S., if not the world.’ The first time he said this to me was in 2012 at the funeral of my mother. His sinister eyes and voice warned me of retaliation if I went public.
I brought the charges in this matter, in the hope of finding justice in this court. Instead, McCarrick walks a free man and I am left with nothing. Nothing except the continuing fear of the twice-threatened retaliation.
In February, McCarrick’s attorneys requested that the case be dismissed because of their client’s “significant” and “worsening” dementia.
“While [McCarrick] has a limited understanding of the criminal proceedings against him, his progressive and irreparable cognitive deficits render him unable to meaningfully consult with counsel or to effectively assist in his own defense,” his attorneys argued, per the Associated Press.
In June, an expert hired by the prosecution agreed that the disgraced former prelate was not fit to stand trial.
In recent years, 14 minors and at least eight adult clergy and seminarians have come forward to accuse McCarrick of sexual misconduct, according to BishopAccountability.org.
Additionally, McCarrick was charged in Wisconsin in April with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old boy at a lakeside cabin in the southeastern region of the state in 1977. According to the Associated Press, the alleged victim told investigators that McCarrick had been sexually abusing him since he was 11 years old. He also alleged that McCarrick took him to parties where other men sexually assaulted him.
McCarrick has always denied all sex abuse allegations against him.
Defrocked in 2019, it is believed that McCarrick continues to live in Missouri.
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McCarrick victim James Grein’s full statement to the Dedham District Court regarding Commonwealth v. Theodore McCarrick
Thank you for permitting me to present this statement to the Court. While I do not expect it to affect the Court’s disposition of the matter at hand, I believe that the record should reflect what that disposition does to me.
It has taken great courage on my part to come forward, beginning in 2018, to reveal the real Theodore McCarrick. I had expected that these proceedings would bring closure to at least one of the many abuses I suffered at Mr. McCarrick’s hands. But that is not to be the case, not because the accusations are false – they are not – but because this brilliant man has been found by two psychologists to no longer be able to understand the nuances of the criminal proceedings against him. Not that he no longer understands the facts of what he did in Wellesley in 1974. The pictures and testimony proves he was present in Wellesley, proven predatory ways and his removal from the Catholic Church show the court the exact man presented here. Theodore McCarrick has been a part of my immediate family since 1945 and my abuser from 1969 until 1989. We were able to observe almost first-hand the trajectory of his role in the Catholic Church. McCarrick’s life was an immediate and incredible ascent to the top of the Church. All his accolades were well stated and published for the world to see. He was charismatic, intelligent and witty. His mind could work fast and he could control his audience rather quickly. He was brilliant and, methinks, still is. But he is also now known to have been a predator. He always understood what he was doing and believed that there would be no personal cost. But there was a personal cost to me. These proceedings were to have provided a modest level of payback.
But now the Court has come to the conclusion that Mr. McCarrick is not competent to stand trial. This conclusion is based on reports filed by two professionals, both of whom are psychiatrists and one of whom is a forensic specialist. I am not aware of the length of the conversations between the experts and Mr. McCarrick to determine his competency level, but certainly they were brief, compared to my experiences with him. I understand that one of the experts stated that Mr. McCarrick was intelligent and articulate. I have trouble reconciling the concept that someone who is intelligent and articulate is also not competent to stand trial and answer for his actions.
I understand that being found incompetent to stand trial is not an acquittal. But, he will not be found guilty and there seems nothing to keep him and his defense attorneys from declaring “he was never convicted of the charges brought against him in Massachusetts.”
His defense attorneys seem to have run out of continuances to delay the proceedings further, so they moved on to the competency issues. Only they and Mr. McCarrick know the extent of the coaching to prepare him for his two interviews. If McCarrick is found incompetent, they will have won and justice will have lost.
If McCarrick is found incompetent, he walks free and I fear that I may face retaliation from his followers. In 2018, after I went public with my name in Baltimore, MD, McCarrick sent followers to my house to remind me that he is the “most powerful man in the U.S., if not the world.” The first time he said this to me was in 2012 at the funeral of my mother. His sinister eyes and voice warned me of retaliation if I went public.
I brought the charges in this matter, in the hope of finding justice in this court. Instead, McCarrick walks a free man and I am left with nothing. Nothing except the continuing fear of the twice-threatened retaliation.
James Grein