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WBZ-TV says it has located Shanley By Boston.com Staff, 4/29/02
BOSTON -- WBZ-TV reported tonight that it has located Father Paul Shanley, accused of sexually abusing dozens of young boys, at the house of a companion in San Diego. The man believed to be Shanley, found last night outside a residence WBZ says belongs to his longtime companion Dale LeGrace, refused to answer a producer's questions. A cameraman filmed the man concealing his face with two jackets and getting inside of a car. An investigative team from the television station has been looking for the 71-year-old former priest for two and a half months, the report on the 6 p.m. newscast said. The man WBZ identified as Shanley has a beard. In the last known photo of Shanley, taken when he was a volunteer with the San Diego Police Department, he did not have a beard. After refusing to answer the reporter's repeated inquiries, the man drove away in the car, a Toyota Camry. WBZ footage filmed this morning showed the same car parked back in front of the house said to belong to LeGrace. WBZ said the house was located ten miles from the San Diego apartment building where Shanley was last known to reside. Shanley is scheduled to give a deposition on May 2 in a lawsuit filed by the family of 24-year-old Gregory Ford, who claims Shanley sexually abused him between 1983 and 1989. Boston attorney Roderick MacLeish, representing the Ford family, said today it was unlikely that Shanley would show up for his deposition. Shanley's Boston ministry began in the 1960s and was marked by controversy. Recently released documents show that the Archdiocese was aware of the so-called "street priest's" endorsement of man-boy sexual relations and his work with drug addicts. After being placed on sick leave by Cardinal Bernard F. Law in 1990, his first stop was in Southern California, where for several years Shanley led a dual existence. While running an inn catering to gay men with another Boston priest in exile, every other weekend he would drive 50 miles to San Bernardino to say Mass at a Catholic church where parishioners were unaware of his other life. When that fell apart, Shanley repaired to New York City, trying to refashion himself as a manager of a Catholic hostel, with the support of Cardinal Bernard F. Law. Once again, word of Shanley's past was not too far behind. In the late 1990s, he packed his bags for San Diego, living in relative obscurity at a fashionable apartment building for seniors until the scandal surrounding his Boston years roared into the public eye earlier this year. Despite his absence from the Boston area, Shanley has apparently been in touch with his lawyers, who have represented him in recent court proceedings. Neighbors in San Diego, who described Shanley as "priestly" and an opera lover, haven't seen him since earlier this month when local police officials fired him from a volunteer job after learning of the abuse allegations. Material from the Boston Globe and the Associated Press was used in this report. © Copyright 2002 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing Inc. | Advertise | Contact us | Privacy policy | |
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