Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Detective Joe Walsh In Bombshell Affidavit: "Billy Doe" Admitted That He Lied And "Just Made Stuff Up!" But The D.A.'s Office Covered It Up!

Alleged "Victim" A Complete Fraud
By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Detective Joe Walsh wasn't buying the BS that Danny Gallagher was peddling.

Back in March 2012, Walsh was prepping Danny Gallagher, AKA "Billy Doe," for his role as the D.A.'s star witness in the child endangerment case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, scheduled to go to trial in just a few weeks. Walsh was quizzing the former altar boy  about his claim that he was high on drugs when he told two social workers "graphic details" about violent rapes and beatings he  supposedly suffered at the hands of two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

But Walsh had interviewed Gallagher's father, a Philadelphia police sergeant, who said his son wasn't high on drugs the morning he talked to the two social workers. Because just a few minutes earlier, the father had driven his sober son home from the drug clinic. Danny Gallagher had also told many of those same graphic details the day before to his drug counselor, who told Walsh that Gallagher wasn't high when he made those same accusations.

"I asked" Gallagher about "all those graphic details," Walsh wrote in a blockbuster, 12-page affidavit filed Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. Those graphic details included allegations of brutal anal rapes, death threats, getting tied up naked with altar sashes, strangled with a seatbelt and being knocked unconscious by his assailants.

In his affidavit, Walsh said he asked the D.A.'s star witness: "Did he just make all that up?"  According to the detective, that's when Gallagher admitted, "He just made up stuff and told them anything."

The startled detective asked a follow-up question.

"So I asked him did he lie about what happened when he told [the drug counselor] and the two women about what he said occurred," Walsh wrote. "He said yeah I guess so," Walsh quoted Gallagher as saying.

"I asked him if he was lying about anything else and he would not answer me," Walsh wrote. "He just sat there and did not answer me."

But Walsh came to his own conclusions about the truth of Danny Gallagher's allegations of abuse. In his affidavit, Walsh states three different times that he concluded that Gallagher wasn't telling the truth when he claimed he was raped in separate attacks by two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

For five years, this blog has published a steady stream of formerly confidential records, including grand jury transcripts, police records, medical records, civil depositions and psychiatrist's reports, showing that Danny Gallagher was most probably lying at the grand jury and at two criminal trials when he made fantastic accusations of rape that sent three priests and a schoolteacher to jail. But Walsh's 12-page affidavit is a master's thesis on the subject, told in chronological order by the ultimate insider; the veteran homicide detective brought out of retirement by the D.A.'s office to lead the investigation into Gallagher's claims.

Walsh's inside account is packed with irrefutable facts, and will go down as the authoritative word on this legal travesty. The retired detective's account not only destroys what's left of Gallagher's credibility, but also the credibility of the D.A.'s office under Rufus Seth Williams.

According to Walsh's account, the detective repeatedly informed the prosecutor in the case, former Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen, that Gallagher wasn't a credible witness. Walsh also informed Sorensen that there was no evidence that backed up Gallagher's fantastic stories, and that the evidence gathered by Walsh actually contradicted Gallagher.

Yet, according to Walsh, ADA Sorensen went ahead with the prosecution anyway, repeatedly saying that she believed Gallagher. No matter what the facts said, as told to her by the D.A.'s own lead investigator, Detective Walsh.

SHAME OF THE CITY -- DISTRICT ATTORNEY RUFUS SETH WILLIAMS

Rufus Seth Williams remains in office as the District Attorney of Philadelphia, despite a 23-count federal indictment against him charging bribery, extortion, wire fraud and honest services fraud. The D.A.'s criminal trial is scheduled to start May 31st. Williams has stubbornly refused to step down from office despite repeated calls for his resignation from the governor of Pennsylvania, the mayor of Philadelphia, and the chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association.

As Williams heads off to his political corruption trial, Walsh's 12-page affidavit ensures that the legal crusade that the D.A. claims was his great accomplishment during his eight-year tenure in office --- his self-described "historic" prosecution of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia -- goes up in flames.

Instead, thanks to Walsh's revelations, the D.A.'s historic prosecution has been revealed as a state-sponsored witch hunt built around a complete fraud of a victim; a star witness that even the D.A.'s own staffers knew wasn't credible. A witch hunt that sent four innocent men to jail for imaginary crimes that came from the mouth of a lying junkie criminal with no conscience.

One of those innocents, Father Charles Engelhardt, died in jail after he spent his last hours handcuffed to a hospital bed. While the priest was under armed guard, and denied potentially life-saving heart surgery.

This, after he was falsely accused by a grand jury report packed with lies, hung out to dry in the media, and railroaded to his fate in a kangaroo court presided over by Judge Ellen Ceisler.

Walsh's 12-page affidavit reveals the depths of corruption in the D.A.'s office, in the form of intentional prosecutorial misconduct.

All the information detailed by Walsh -- the extended questioning of Gallagher, Gallagher's responses and non-responses, the lies Walsh caught Gallagher telling, and the failure by Sorensen to do anything about Walsh's repeated warnings that Gallagher was a non-credible witness -- all of that constitutes so-called "Brady violations." None of this material was ever turned over to the defense by the prosecution in blatant violation of Brady v. Maryland. That's the landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established that prosecutors have a duty to turn over any evidence that could potentially benefit a defendant in a criminal case.

Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright has already ruled that some of the evidence of prosecutorial misconduct disclosed by Walsh during a pre-trial hearing in January amounted to violations of Brady v. Maryland serious enough to warrant  a new trial for Msgr. Lynn.

Lynn was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's former secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004, who had a supervisory role over sexually abusive priests. He made national and international headlines when he became the first Catholic administrator in the country to go to jail in the clergy's sex abuse scandal, after a jury convicted him in 2012 of one count of endangering the welfare of a child. The crime Lynn was convicted of: placing an abusive priest, Father Edward V. Avery, back in active ministry where he allegedly raped Gallagher.

But Judge Bright declared from the bench that the Brady violations in the Lynn case did not reach the level of intentional prosecutorial misconduct that occurred in the infamous Main Line murders case, which was so egregious that a convicted murderer, former high school principal Jay Smith, walked off death row.

Judge Bright, however, never read Detective Walsh's affidavit.

Lynn's lawyers are now appealing Judge Bright's decision to state Superior Court. Armed with Walsh's 12-page affidavit, the Superior Court, which has twice already overturned the original guilty verdict in the Msgr. Lynn case, may make it a trifecta. The state Superior Court could decide to blow out any possible retrial in the Msgr. Lynn case on the grounds of intentional prosecutorial misconduct and double jeopardy

It would be a fitting end for this legal travesty where our corrupt D.A. was so hungry for headlines he was willing to put a star witness on the stand that his own people knew wasn't credible.

At the head of the list of Danny Gallagher's skeptics was Detective Walsh, a 35-year veteran of the police department, and a detective for 19 years prior his retirement in 2005. Walsh wrote his affidavit for the benefit of Jeffrey W. Ogren and George Bochetto, the lawyers handling the appeal for Bernard Shero, the former Catholic schoolteacher now serving 8 to 16 years in jail for raping Danny Gallagher.

It was the D.A.'s office in 2011 that summoned Walsh back from retirement to investigate the fantastic allegations of abuse made by Danny Gallagher. Walsh's affidavit may turn out to be Shero's ticket out of jail, where he's served four years for a crime that never happened.

THE GRAPHIC DETAILS THAT DANNY GALLAGHER MADE UP

Here are the "graphic details" that Danny Gallagher admitted to Detective Walsh that he lied about when he told his stories of abuse to two social workers for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as well as to his drug counselor:

-- Gallagher had originally claimed that Father Engelhardt had attacked him after a 6:15 a.m. Mass in the sacristy of St. Jerome's Church in Northeast Philadelphia. The priest, according to Gallagher,  had supposedly locked all four doors of the sacristy, stripped off his priestly garments, and then forced the boy to have oral sex. Next, Gallagher claimed, the naked rampaging priest flipped him over and pounded away with five hours of brutal anal sex. And when it was over, Gallagher claimed, the priest threatened to kill him if he told anybody about it.

--  Gallagher had originally claimed that Father Edward V. Avery had "punched him in the head" and knocked him unconscious. When Gallagher supposedly woke up in a storage closet at the church, he claimed he was naked and that the priest had tied him up with altar sashes. Avery then allegedly anally raped the altar boy so brutally, Gallagher claimed, that he "bled for a week." Gallagher also claimed that Avery allegedly forced the altar boy to suck blood off the priest's penis.

-- Gallagher had originally claimed that his homeroom teacher, Bernard Shero, had punched him in the face and attempted to strangle him by wrapping a seat belt around his neck. Before he supposedly raped the boy in the back sat of Shero's car. And when it was over, Shero allegedly threatened that if Gallagher told anybody, Shero would make his life "a living hell."

But when Gallagher told his story of abuse to the police and grand jury, all those allegations mentioned above were dropped from the story -- the anal rapes, the punch in the head from Avery, the punch in the face from Shero, the threats from the priests, the claim about the altar boy being tied up naked with sashes, strangled with a seatbelt, and forced to suck blood off a priest's penis.

All of those allegations, Danny Gallagher admitted to Detective Walsh, were a pack of lies.

Instead, Gallagher spun a completely new tale of abuse about oral sex and mutual masturbation with his alleged assailants. The revised tale featured brand new story lines about Father Engelhardt showing the altar boy pornography and plying him with sacramental wine in the sacristy. And Father Avery forcing poor Danny to perform a strip tease to music. And when he was asked under oath about his previous, more violent stories, Gallagher further perjured himself at the grand jury and two criminal trials by repeatedly and falsely claiming he was high on drugs.

DETECTIVE WALSH: HOW DANNY GALLAGHER'S LIES ARE DISPROVED BY THE SECRET ARCHIVE FILES

On the first page of his affidavit, Walsh described how, during a previous three-year investigation of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the detective read and reviewed more than 250 "secret archive files."

These were 45,000 pages of files stored in a locked safe that detailed the history of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as committed by 169 priests against hundreds of innocent children, dating back to the 1940s. During his investigation, Walsh interviewed many victims of sex abuse, as well as abuser priests.

Because of that prior investigation, Walsh writes, he knew that Danny Gallagher's tales didn't square with the documented secret history of sex abuse in the archdiocese pried loose by multiple subpoenas from the District Attorney's office under former D.A. Lynne Abraham.

"The most important thing I discovered was that in all of the cases turned over, there was a grooming process of the child and their family over a period of time," Walsh wrote. "The priest would buy the child gifts and take them on trips, or go on trips and vacations sometimes with the child's entire family."

Abuser priests "would have dinner with them at their home, or the child would have dinner or lunch with him [victim] at the rectory," Walsh wrote. In the secret archive files, abuser priests "would befriend both the family and child before sexually abusing the child."

But that's not what happened in the case of Danny Gallagher. When he typed his affidavit, Walsh switched to capital letters and boldface type, so that nobody could miss his next two points:

"DURING MY INVESTIGATION I LEARNED FROM BOTH DANIEL GALLAGHER AND HIS FAMILY THAT THIS TYPE OF GROOMING DID NOT OCCUR WITH EITHER PRIEST OR MR. SHERO."

"ALSO, I DON'T RECALL ANYWHERE IN THE SECRET ARCIVE FILES DID I FIND WHERE A PRIEST WOULD SEXUALLY ABUSE A CHILD AND TELL ANOTHER PRIEST ABOUT IT AND PASS THE CHILD TO ANOTHER PRIEST, OR TO A LAY PERSON FOR THE CHILD TO BE SEXUALLY ABUSED."


DETECTIVE WALSH: DANNY GALLAGHER'S FATHER THE POLICE SERGEANT WAS CONCERNED ABOUT A PERJURY RAP  FOR HIS SON

In November 2011, Gallagher and his parents came to the District Attorney's Office to met with detectives and ADA Mariana Sorensen. Gallagher's mother brought along her monthly calendars from 1998 where she wrote down the dates her two altar boy sons were scheduled to serve at Mass. The schedules were sent home on a monthly basis by Father Joseph B. Graham, pastor of St. Jerome's Church in Northeast Philadelphia.  Gallagher's mother had previously given the D.A.'s office all her monthly calendars from 1999 to 2001.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Walsh walked the Gallagher family to the elevator. Gallagher's father, Sgt. James Gallagher Sr., "pulled me aside and asked if I believed what his son said actually occurred," Walsh wrote. Walsh said he told the father he was just getting involved in the investigation and "really didn't have an opinion."

Walsh then turned the tables on the elder Gallagher, telling the father that Danny was his son; what did he think?

The father's reply, according to Walsh: "He said he didn't know what to believe," the detective wrote. "He said he didn't know if his son was lying or telling the truth. Then he asked me if it turns out his son was lying could he be arrested for perjury. I told him we just want to find out out the truth."

Danny Gallagher had claimed that Father Engelhardt assaulted him after a 6:15 a.m. Mass in December 1998, when he was a 10-year-old fifth grader. But his mother's calendars showed Danny Gallagher wasn't scheduled to serve at any 6:15 a.m. Mass during the entire 1998-99 school year, the detective wrote.

"I brought this to the attention of Mariana Sorensen and made her aware of the discrepancies the calendars provided," Walsh wrote. "I don't recall her response."

In his 12-page affidavit, Walsh went on to describe the other lies he caught Gallagher telling. Walsh also kept score of the three different stories Gallagher told authorities about his alleged assault by Father Engelhardt, the three different stories Gallagher told about his alleged assault by Father Avery, and the three different stories Gallagher told about his alleged assault by Bernard Shero.

It was Walsh's job in the weeks before the Msgr. Lynn trial to try and figure out which of these various stories were true.

The conclusion that the detective ultimately arrived at: none of the above.

CASE PREP: DETECTIVE WALSH GRILLS DANNY GALLAGHER

"Sometime in March 2012, I contacted Daniel Gallagher and asked him to come to the District Attorney's Office for a case prep to clarify some of the information and discrepancies he provided and to go over his possible testimony," Walsh wrote. "He agreed and came into the office and we went into a conference room. I explained to him that there were many inconsistencies in his various stories and we needed to go over them."

One of the stories Walsh wanted to review with Gallagher concerned the bell choir at St. Jerome's Church.

Gallagher had told the police and the grand jury that while in the fifth grade, he was a member of the bell maintenance crew, which assisted the bell choir.

As a member of the bell crew, Gallagher told the grand jury and the police that he was allegedly putting the bells and tables after a bell choir concert away when he was first approached by Father Edward V. Avery.

Avery, according to Gallagher, told him that he heard about Father Engelhardt's sex "sessions" with Gallagher, and that Gallagher's sessions with Father Avery were about to begin. In the 2011 grand jury report, ADA Sorensen presented this story straight from the lying lips of Gallagher, as absolute truth.

The bell crew was a group of 8th grade boys who set up the tables and bells before a concert by the bell choir. But Danny Gallagher had claimed that he was a member of the bell crew as a fifth grader.

In the affidavit, Walsh stated that he told Gallagher how he had interviewed the music director at St. Jerome's, and several teachers. "And they all informed me that only 8th grade boys were used in the bell crew because of the weight of the tables and cases of bells and that no 5th grade boy would have been in the bell crew," Walsh wrote.

The tables weighed 32 pounds each, Walsh wrote. The bell crew also had to carry three large cases containing a total of 36 heavy metal bells. [According to his medical records, 10-year-old Danny Gallagher weighed only 63 pounds].

At the trial of Engelhardt and Shero, the defense introduced school yearbooks from St. Jerome's that backed up the teachers' testimony that only eighth graders served on the bell maintenance crew.

"Also, they said that he [Gallagher] was not in the bell choir, and it was the bell choir who put all the tables and bells away, not the bell crew," Walsh wrote. Because after the bell crew helped the bell choir set up, the boys in the bell crew left the church and did not stay for the concert. So it fell to the members of the bell choir, which included two of the teachers that Walsh had interviewed, to put the bells and tables away, the detective wrote.

"When confronted with this information, Gallagher could not provide an answer and remained quiet with his head down," Walsh wrote. "I told him that at the trial the judge would instruct him that he had to answer the lawyers' questions, that he just could not be able to not answer the questions."

"Gallagher remained silent and did not provide an answer," Walsh wrote. "I concluded all this information was a lie."

DETECTIVE WALSH CATCHES DANNY GALLAGHER TELLING MORE LIES

Walsh asked Gallagher how he got to St. Jerome's Church to serve at the 6:15 a.m. Mass in December where he was supposedly raped by Father Engelhardt. Gallagher, whose family lived less than a mile away from the church, said he walked.

But Gallagher's older brother, James Jr., also an altar boy at St. Jerome's, had told Detective Walsh that his parents always drove him to church when he served at Mass, and then drove him home after Mass, so he could get ready for school. James Jr. had also told Walsh that his parents did the same thing for Danny.

But Danny Gallagher claimed that after he was abused by Father Engelhardt, he sat on the steps at St. Jerome's and waited for the school to open.

Wash told Danny Gallagher that the 6:15 a.m. Mass lasted only 20 minutes, and school didn't open until 7:30 a.m.

"I asked Gallagher to explain why his parents would permit him to walk approximately one mile from their house to the church carrying his cassock and school books at 6:00 a.m. in the dark, in December, when his older brother said he always got a ride to and from church when he served 6:15 a.m. Mass," Walsh wrote.

"I asked him how his parents would permit him to sit outside school for about one hour after Mass waiting for school to open," Walsh wrote. "I told Gallagher I didn't believe his parents would permit him to walk to church at 6:00 a.m. and then remain outside school for about one hour."

"Gallagher didn't answer me," Walsh wrote. "He remained silent. I concluded he was lying that this occurred. I also concluded Gallagher was not sexually abused by Fr. Engelhardt."

Next, Walsh asked Gallagher about his claim that Fr. Avery had ordered him to remain in the sacristy after a Saturday afternoon Mass, and then had him preform a strip tease to music, before he sexually abused him.

Gallagher had also claimed that after he was raped by Fathers Engelhardt and Avery, whenever he was scheduled to serve Mass with either priest, he would switch assignments with another altar boy.

This was another Gallagher lie printed verbatim as truth in the 2011 grand jury report, which even supplied a motive for the altar boy's switching of Masses. "But, like many children who are sexually abused, he [Billy Doe] was too frightened and filled with self-blame to report what had been done to him," the grand jury report said.

But the actions "Billy Doe" described, switching Masses to avoid alleged abusers, were disproved by the actual facts in the case, as uncovered by Detective Walsh.

Walsh asked Gallagher how he could have known which priest was serving Mass because the schedule changed daily. The schedule of priests serving Mass was posted only in the rectory, where Gallagher wouldn't have access to it. Only priests had access to the Mass schedule.

Walsh asked Gallagher how he could claim that he was sexually abused by Father Avery after a funeral Mass in July 1999. When the church register that listed all funeral Masses as well as all the priests who served at them showed that Avery had served at no funeral Mass.

In his affidavit, Walsh stated that he confronted Gallagher by showing him the church register.

"After a very long pause Gallagher then said there were two priests there who said the Mass. And that the other priest went to the cemetery and Fr. Avery remained at the church," Walsh wrote. "I then asked [Gallagher] where was the sexton, [an older man who was a church volunteer] who had to clean the altar and put the vestments away and put everything else away after Mass."

"When I questioned Gallagher about all these discrepancies, he just put his head down and did not answer me," Walsh wrote. "I asked him several times for an answer, but he would not answer me. I concluded Gallagher was not sexually abused by Fr. Avery."

Finally, Walsh asked Gallagher about his alleged sexual assault by Shero. And Gallagher's original claims, as related to two social workers and a drug counselor, that Shero had punched him in the face before he attempted to anally rape him.

That was when Gallagher stated he was high on drugs and didn't remember what he told the social workers or the drug counselor.

But Walsh knew from his investigation that none of it was true. In the affidavit, Walsh related how he explained to Gallagher that he had interviewed a trio of witnesses -- the drug counselor, one of the social workers, as well as Gallagher's own father -- and the three witnesses "all said he [Gallagher] was not high on drugs."

"Gallagher didn't answer me," Walsh wrote. "He put his head down and refused to answer. I concluded that Gallagher was not sexually abused by Mr. Shero."

ADA MARIANA SORENSEN BUYS IN ON DANNY'S BS

While Detective Walsh came to the conclusion that Danny Gallagher was a liar, Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen refused to change her initial view, that Gallagher was telling the truth. That's why she wrote lie after lie as told by Gallagher into the 2011 grand jury report that contains some 20 factual errors.

The lies of Danny Gallagher that were told in the grand jury report include:

-- Gallagher as a fifth-grader was a member of the bell crew.

-- Gallagher was  high on heroin when he talked to the social workers.

-- Gallagher underwent a drastic personality change in grade school at St. Jerome's, after the alleged abuse occurred. But Gallagher's own mother had testified to the grand jury that her son underwent a drastic personality change after he graduated St. Jerome's and entered Archbishop Ryan High School, where he was got busted as a freshman for possession of marijuana and brass knuckles.

The list of Gallagher's lies that Sorensen wrote into the grand jury report goes on and on. Those lies have never been corrected. In fact, that entire grand jury report still posted online at the D.A.'s office as an official document that now qualifies as a work of fiction.

Will the D.A.'s Office retract it?

Of course, the biggest lies in that grand jury report are the three alleged rapes of Gallagher by two priests and the school teacher. All of it according to Detective Walsh's affidavit are lies. Lies that the detective told Sorensen about, but she refused to listen.

In his affidavit, the last piece of fiction that Detective Walsh debunks from the 2011 grand jury report concerns two textbooks about sex abuse that Gallagher's mother found hidden under Danny's bed. In the grand jury report, the implication is that poor little Danny was self-disagnosing, trying to come to turns with his own horrific sex abuse at the hands of the monsters created by ADA Sorensen.

Here's a rhetorical embellishment from master fiction writer Sorensen in that 2011 grand jury report: Danny's mother "asked him about the books at the time, but he covered up for his abusers by telling her that he had them for a school assignment."

The two books in question were Know About Abuse, by Margaret O. Hyde, and Child Abuse, Brian J. Grapes, book editor. Both books were borrowed from the Ogontz branch of the Philadelphia Free Library back in 2004.

"I then asked Gallagher about the two books that were found in his bedroom by his parents dealing with sexual abuse," Walsh wrote. "During the investigation, Gallagher stated that while he was a student at International Christian High School, he asked another student to sign the books out of the library for him that dealt with sex abuse."

But this was another lie from Danny Gallagher. Library cards tucked into the books showed that they were taken out in 2004 by Chanee Mahoney. She was a 2005 graduate of the International Christian Academy in Northeast Philadelphia who was 24 years old when she was interviewed by a detective from the D.A.'s office in 2012.

"I then showed him [Gallagher] the interview with Chanee Mahoney where she stated that she took the books out of the library for herself and left the books on a table and school, and they were stolen," Walsh wrote. "She stated that she definitely did not get the books out of the library for Gallagher."

"Gallagher then laughed and said yeah, he did take the books and he would use the books to crush pills on them," Walsh wrote. "When shown the books, he [Gallagher] pointed out small circle indentations in the cover of the book[s] showing where he crushed the pills."

"At the conclusion of this case prep I drove Daniel Gallagher home," Walsh wrote.

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER AND ROLLING STONE PRESENT DANNY GALLAGHER'S LIES AS GOSPEL TRUTH

The lies of Danny Gallagher, as embellished by ADA Sorensen in the grand jury report, were printed verbatim in the media, which expressed no skepticism whatsoever about these fantastic tales.

Over the past seven years, The Philadelphia Inquirer has published 59 stories about "Billy Doe" the sexually abused altar boy that accepted as gospel Danny Gallagher's crazy stories.

In every one of those 59 stories, the Inquirer never mentioned Danny Gallagher's real name. While that same newspaper was repeatedly vilifying the defendants as child molesters, and Msgr. Lynn as their enabler.

As it turns out, according to Detective Walsh, none of those allegations that the editors and reporters at the Inquirer swallowed hook, line and sinker turned out to be true.

All 59 of those Philadelphia Inquirer stories were 100 percent wrong, and now qualify as "fake news."

Will the Inquirer print a correction?

Gallagher's lies, as retold by master fiction writer Sorensen, were also printed verbatim in the Sept. 15, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone, under the headline "The Catholic Church's Secret Sex Files." The article was written by another prominent fiction writer, Sabria Rubin Erdely.

She's the same reporter who was responsible for Rolling Stone losing a libel case over another fake news story Erdely wrote about the alleged gang rape at a fraternity of a University of Virginia freshman named "Jackie," another story that turned out to be a complete fraud.

At the time she wrote the Rolling Stone story about "Billy Doe," Erdely had an undisclosed conflict of interest -- she was married to Peter Erdely, a Philadelphia assistant district attorney. That article is still posted online on Rolling Stone's website, and makes no mention of Erdely's conflict of interest.

Rolling Stone has already retracted Erdely's story about "Jackie." Isn't it time for Rolling Stone to retract Erdely's story about "Billy" as well?

In his affidavit, Walsh described the deterioration of his relationship with Assistant District Attorney Sorensen.

"My daily routine was to get into the office early and make eight copies of the interviews and work I did the day before," Walsh wrote. "I would place the original and seven copies on a desk in the office we were using."

"Mariana Sorensen would get in early also and I would give her a copy to read," Walsh wrote. "She would make her tea and I would make a fresh pot of coffee and get a cup of coffee and go back to her office and discuss the interviews done and what I had planned to do that day."

"It was during these times that I told Mariana Sorensen several times that I didn't believe Daniel Gallagher was telling the truth," Walsh wrote. "That I am not able to find any information to corroborate his story of abuse. If anything, I am finding out information that contradicts what he is saying occurred."

"Mariana Sorensen would always say that she believed Daniel Gallagher and believed what he says occurred," Walsh wrote.

"There was one time before the trial began," Walsh wrote. "I gave her the copies I made and went to get my coffee . . . When I went back to her office she said to me, "YOU'RE KILLING MY CASE."

"I told her that I was only conducting interviews and writing down the truth and what people were telling me during the interviews," Walsh wrote.

"I didn't want to argue with her and I stopped having coffee there and talking about the case," the detective wrote. "I would just give her the copies I made and walk away."

DANNY GALLAGHER'S FINAL CRIME: ROBBING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

After Rufus Seth Williams got through with his own brand of warped justice, four innocent men were sent to jail based on the lies of Danny Gallagher. But Williams wasn't done yet.

By the time the D.A. got finished with Danny Gallagher, his arrest record featuring six busts for narcotics and retail theft would be scrubbed clean.

But the D.A.'s office did one more favor for Danny Gallagher. They bought him a lottery ticket.

This was revealed on the witness stand in 2013, by none other than Danny Gallagher.

The D.A.'s star witness was being cross-examined at the criminal trial of Father Engelhardt and Bernard Shero by Mike McGovern, a defense lawyer for Father Engelhardt.

McGovern asked Gallagher, "How did you get to Mr. [Slade] McLaughlin, your present attorney?" McGovern was referring to the the civil case Gallagher had filed against the Catholic Church, seeking money for Gallagher's alleged pain and suffering.

At the time, McLaughlin was sitting in the front row of the Engelhardt-Shero trial, hoping that a couple of convictions at the criminal trial would pave the way for a big payday in the civil courts for Danny Gallagher.

"His name was given to us," Gallagher testified about his civil lawyer, "By the D.A.'s office."

Running with a fraudulent story certified as fact by the D.A.'s office, Danny Gallagher was able to cash in on his lies to the tune of $5 million, when the archbishop of Philadelphia caved in to Gallagher's demands. It's a subject that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has refused to comment on.

For Danny Gallagher and his accomplices in the legal profession, it was fitting end to a travesty of justice that sent four innocent men to jail.

To add insult to injury, Gallagher was allowed to end his crime spree by looting the church treasury for $5 million.

21 comments

  1. The Inquirer must come to the realization that prosecutors lie to advance their own careers and that they being used as vehicle to corrupt justice by condemning a defendant before they walk into a courtroom.

    On any given day we are asked to decipher fact from fiction in the media, running with just the prosecutions side perverts justice. Winning at all costs matters to prosecutors. Do innocent lives not matter to the Inquirer if they belong to a priest or politician ? Is it ethical for the paper to discriminate, to jump on the bandwagon to malign a defendant as well.

    The Inquirer gives much the same answers as Sorensen did telling us they believe the prosecutions side and exactly like the prosecution they never admit they were wrong. Prosecutors never admit defeat nor does the Inquirer.

    Prosecutors are afraid to lose their hold on us and can never admit they lied but is the Inquirer more concerned about losing readership than telling the truth or printing a correction. Look where its lead us,who can we believe ?

    Crimes are committed and must be prosecuted by the justice department, we depend on them daily to keep us safe not to invent crimes for a promotion.

    Perpetuating a lie is not moving us closer to believing the Inquirer or the justice department. I suggest the Inquirer get out of the business of "exposing corruption" if they don't do the research on a case or sit and listen to all the facts of a trial.

    If the Inquirer would admit to their errors and were more critical of the justice department maybe we would start to see real justice being done, not the quota meeting prosecutorial indictments and trials we see coming from the justice department.

    If the Inquirer can't devote the manpower to get true and accurate facts for the public they need to stop printing only the prosecution's "facts" as truths.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Its sickening to think what the Inquirer has done to convict innocent people, having them plead guilty to nonexistent crimes rather than take their chances with a jury already contaminated by the prosecutions lies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I doubt if the the Inquirer will ever print an article about the FBI agent that lied during the Traffic Court trial,or how embrassing of a trial the prosecution presented, as it goes against their constant barrage of condemning all politicians or elected officials as evil self serving villains.
    Ingraining discrimination and hatred against a select class of people is a crime,we all agree, unless it comes from the justice department or the Inquirer.

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  4. Justice denied. Anyone complicit in this travesty should go to prison.

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  5. I learned a long time ago when I was studying to be a priest that the sins of a thief could only be forgiven when and if restitution was made. But – in the case of Father Engelhardt who died in prison on the deceitful testimony of Billy Doe - how can anyone make restitution to him for THAT heinous crime?

    Furthermore, how does one make restitution to Father Engelhardt’s family, to Monsignor Lynn and his family, to Father Avery and his family and to Bernie Shero and his family? We’re not talking just about money here, but also – and perhaps more importantly - the acute shame, slander and humiliation unjustly heaped on them by the testimony of a junkie, aided by his lawyer, promoted by the DA’s office, sanctioned by the courts, and ignored by the Inky.

    These are truly catastrophic, life altering events. How does one make that ‘right’?

    Sooner or later, we all have to die and stand before Almighty God to receive our just judgment. It could be in a motorcycle accident, a building collapse, a defective elevator, a mid-air collision or an undiagnosed embolism.

    Restitution needs to be made to those who have been wronged - - while there’s still time.

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    Replies
    1. Restitution will never happen, the prosecution NEVER admits defeat, they were caught in this deception, it doesn't usually happen. The public is ignorant of this type of deceit and manipulation that happens everyday, but the prosecution usually gets away with it.

      Having a witness lie for the prosecution is done everyday, the public needs to be made aware of this fact. The Inquirer is helping to erode our liberties with every article written that condemns an innocent, we all suffer.

      Prosecutors could NEVER say they got it wrong,they could NEVER take the risk of not being believed next time out . They must have ultimate control over the public.

      Nothing happens to them even when they are caught, all they have to do is say they still believe they were right. When lawyers that work for our government lie it's hidden from the public by the Inquirer.

      Even when innocents are exonerated after having spent time on death row or prison for 30 years, they don't get an apology from the prosecution. Correcting the record seems to be an easy enough job for a newspaper but not the Inquirer.

      As most of the public still believes what it reads in a newspaper and buys what prosecutors have to say when declaring someone guilty, we need the truth now more than ever.

      Restitution can only come from the Inquirer, they helped convict and destroy the lives of innocents,only they can help restore some measure of dignity . Its NEVER coming from the government NEVER. The United States Government NEVER admits it was wrong, NEVER ever.

      Its hard to believe that a newspaper that prides itself on getting it right is horrifically wrong when people's lives and liberty are concerned . The public deserves more from the Inquirer, we deserve the truth, why are they protecting the prosecution time and time again.

      How many more times do they need to be proven wrong before they start to believe they are inflicting irreparable damage to defendants and the general public. In my eyes they stand just as guilty of the heinous crimes of convicting the innocent as the prosecution.

      We need to pray that an Inquirer reporter gets indicted for a nonexistent crime before we see any change at the paper.

      Delete
    2. For the DA, for his minions, for Doe and for his attorney:

      "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul"?

      Delete
    3. Prosecutors don't care about their mortal souls, they only care about winning and staying on top of the heap, it's their culture, they are taught to win not seek the truth. The truth is inconvenient for a prosecutor, they hide the truth, they find fault or if none exists they invent their truth.

      The job description entails enslaving their fellow man by lying to grand juries, bringing false indictments against innocent people, lying at trial and to judges, whatever has to be done to get a conviction. All the while being lionized by the public.

      It dangerous to democracy to have a branch of the government that has no accountability whatsoever,they answer to no one.

      Without the Inquirer on our side there is no hope for justice, no wonder it is not listed as one of the publications in America that is trying to wake us up to these injustices. Shame on the Inquirer.

      Delete
    4. The Church and the Priesthood needs to start suing these victims and the lawyers who are caught lying to make cases. The Church and the priesthood is too "forgiving" and it's allowing the church to be beaten into the ground.

      Delete
    5. @R Edmonds. Agree. I understand that 'Checkbook Charlie' reads this blog and maybe he'll react to this.

      The shameful part is the $5 million Chaput paid out to Doe and to his mouthpiece. In so doing, he threw Lynn, Engelhardt, Shero and Avery under the proverbial ecclesiastical bus by tacitly admitting their guilt.

      If Chaput had just 'hung tough' a bit longer until the Walsh information and the Doe medical reports were aired, the A/D would probably have prevailed in the civil case and saved much of their parishoners' contributions.

      Then again, maybe Chaput was told to make everything 'go away' because the Pope was coming to town. I guess we'll never know in this life.

      Delete
  6. When Rufus is convicted, fitted with a nice jump suit, placed in protective custody, and hears that cell door clank behind him for the first time, he better be placed on a suicide watch.

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  7. The Oblates & Archdiocese of Philadelphia should SUE. It was a circus trial. The DA is on his way to prison & the ADA must be lawyering up.


    THEY CONVICTED INNOCENT MEN. And the groups who advocated for their convictions GOT IT WRONG. Where's their apology and outrage???! Where is it??!!


    The Inquirer should devote the same amount of time and attention in issuing AN APOLOGY.


    CORRUPT. CORRUPT. CORRUPT.

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    Replies
    1. it appears both Lynn and Shero's attorney's are heading in the right direction with this prosecutorial misconduct ruling by Judge Bright......

      why isn't there an effort being made on Fr Engelhardt's behalf to have his wrongful prosecution and conviction overturned...

      he's deserving to have his good name and reputation restored...legally......

      Delete
  8. The Inquirer has been riding on the back of a tiger and is finding it hard to get off. We have a president that calls news agencies that do not agree with him "fake news", when the Inquirer realizes that the Justice Department is directing its daily operations and finds it impossible to speak against them, it will be too late.

    I can conclude that the Inquirer agrees with the prosecution and delights in the degradation of citizens as it never corrects the record. Those that have been treated deplorably by their government get the same treatment from the Inquirer.

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  9. Prosecutorial Misconduct....that's what occurred here, a deliberate deceitful prosecution of innocent people orchestrated by the soon to be convicted and incarcerated EX DA Seth Williams...How many people in that office were complicit in this series of malicious prosecutions, starting with the always slimy exstate pornlover Patrick Blessington, but let's not forget Mariana Sorenson, a SNAP advocate who co-wrote that shameful grand jury report with the help of EX Judge Hughes several months before the detectives even started their investigation into those bizarre accusations of abuse at the hands of those innocent men.....talk about the cart before the horse, those individuals should be investigated for their roles in this travesty of justice...

    ah, but the God above is turning the tables slowly but surely...the Karma is shifting

    the now disgraced, scumbag of a soon to be convicted EX-DA Seth Williams now has 2 and a 1/2 dozen federal charges against him....this lowlife even stole from his own mother who needed that money to pay for her nursing care...

    Within the past year, God has also seen fit to bring the same kind of loss to the Danny Gallagher family as that of the Engelhardt family, loss of a loved one........I'll leave it at that for now but the old saying "an eye for an eye" certainly seems appropriate in this case...

    I keep lighting candles hoping for more retribution against those who participated in this prosecution, besides that retired judge buddy of seth Williams (died mysteriously in that house fire) who freely traipsed in and out of that courtroom and backroom in Ceisler's courtroom during Shero's and Engelhardt's trial, I pray others will feel the same pain and loss as the Shero, Engelhardt and Lynn families have...

    have a nice day...

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    Replies
    1. We've all heard it said that 'karma is a bitch', have we not?

      Ex-judge DeFino was on Rufus' payroll as a so-called 'consultant' and was present in the Ceisler courtroom where he most likely had unfettered access to the judges 'chambers' and (God knows) to whom else. He died in a house fire - see:

      http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/233664996.html

      Prior to that, Judge Adam Beloff who gave Billy Doe a 'pass' on a drug arrest committed suicide in 2012:

      http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/12/03/philadelpha-judge-found-dead-at-nj-shore-home-apparent-suicide/

      Mariana Sorensen was allegedly forced to leave the DA's office over her 'intellectually dishonest' grand jury presentment.

      Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes (who supervised the grand jury) had her judgeship revoked after she had a trial transcript redacted, see:

      http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20110506_Mark_Alan_Hughes__Judge_hit_for_removing_transcript_remarks.html

      Rufus is most probably going to jail for a long time.

      Who's next?

      Delete
    2. Patrick Blessington who left the state attorney general's office shortly before porngate evolved, which eventually brought down 2 Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices (though Justice McCaffrey had the situation with his wife getting "HUGE" referral fees from his civil lawyer buddies while also being employed by the state)

      and Mark Cippoletti, the Italian weasel who prosecuted Shero and Fr Engelhardt, allowed by Ceisler to pretty much say anything he wanted in her courtroom, truthful or not, and get away with it, final remark in his summation implying other potential victims were just waiting to come forward to accuse Fr. Engelhardt

      well it's 52 months since Shero and Engelhardt were convicted, 30 months since Fr. Engelhardt's tragic death at the hands of the prison system and not one accuser has materialized against either of those 2 innocent men....because there were none...

      yes, Karma is a bitch.....and it's clearly turning in the right direction

      Delete
  10. Hopefully, when Rufus goes to the 'big house', they'll take away his belt, shoelaces and bed sheets lest he be tempted to take the 'easy way' out - - - a la Hernandez.

    If I were Rufus, I'd put some of his adopted mother's money to better use by buying some loafers - while he still has the 'free' time.

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  11. THE INQUIRER

    +

    JEFF SESSIONS

    =

    TRUE LOVE

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  12. What a joy that Danny Gallagher has been declared a fraud! While I did not attend St. Jerome school, attending public school instead, I was always there. This was my church growing up. Peggy Long was my first piano/organ teacher. I played the organ there for years. I attended CCD at the church. I sang in the choir. I was an alter server. I knew Fr. Avery and Fr. Engelheart personally. I played for masses they said. I was there alone, countless hours, in practice on the organ. I've been alone in the sacristy with Avery and Engelheart more than once, and never did I feel threatened. These two priests inspired me, gave me confidence, helped me to grow as a church musician. I know everyone at St. Jerome's Church, and have been back many times - I know the choir members, I know Donna Clopp, I know Sharon Nenza, I know Janet McKeever - she's my mother. She asked not to be put on the stand last and they put her on the stand last. They made her feel a wreck. She taught this Gallagher fraud. These lies killed Pastor, Fr. Graham, these lies shook a whole church. I am Director of Music at a Church, and do this for a living, and was set on this career path by all the good priests, people, and leaders at St. Jerome's church. While I am happily no longer a Catholic, I cannot express enough my grateful thanks for St. Jerome's Parish and everything it has meant to me in my life. Nothing like this could have ever happened at the place. Gallagher is truly a liar!

    Here's what I hope happens to this sad example of human kind. This liar, this fraud, this Danny Gallagher. All the money he has won, let him spend it. Let him spend it on all the drugs he uses. We all know what happens to those who are addicted to the pain-killing opiates! Go ahead, and get high every single day with your 5 million dollars. One of those bags of heroin is gonna kill you! One of those bags is going to be cut with something lethal and you are going to wind up in a ditch!

    I can't wait for you to get your hands on that bag, Danny Gallagher. I hate you for what you did to these two wonderful priests, for what you did to my mother, for what you did to Fr. Graham, for what you did to Peggy Long, for what you did to St. Jerome's! I can't wait to hear that you've wound up in a ditch as a result of spending your hard earned, false money, on that one bag of dope that killed you. This will be my justice - and your reward for what you did to an unsuspecting, undeserving, church family. What comes around goes around, buddy. May you get what you deserve!

    Mark McKeever

    ReplyDelete

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