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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 7 - 0 1 - 2 0 0 5 Shanley's lawyer cross-examines accuser
AP
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The lawyer for defrocked priest Paul Shanley sought to undermine the credibility of his accuser Thursday, grilling the man under cross-examination about his troubled childhood, abuse of alcohol and steroids, and gambling. The man testified for a second day of Shanley's rape trial, one of the few cases in which prosecutors have been able to bring charges against priests accused of molesting boys decades ago. The man, now a 27-year-old firefighter, is the lone accuser remaining in the case. He says Shanley raped and molested him at a Newton parish over a period of six years, beginning when he was 6. He says he didn't recover memories of the abuse until early 2002, when he heard a friend's account of being abused as a boy by Shanley, one of the central figures in the Boston Archdiocese's clergy sex abuse scandal. But Shanley's lawyer, Frank Mondano, has implied that the man's account was tailored to conform to those of three other alleged victims who were dropped from the case by prosecutors. The accuser said his mother left him when he was 3 years old, and his father beat him. Under a barrage of questions from Mondano, he also acknowledged that he drank heavily and abused steroids for eight years starting when he was 16. He also said he gambled away hundreds of dollars at a time. He blamed his steroid use on Shanley, saying the sexual abuse caused him to develop a "poor self-image." Steroids "just made me feel better about myself," said the accuser, who said he once smuggled steroids across the border from Mexico. "I just thought I looked better." Plaintiffs in the hundreds of lawsuits filed over the clergy sex abuse scandal have made similar claims that they spiraled into lives of drug abuse and depression after being molested by Roman Catholic priests. Mondano challenged claims the man made his lawsuit, which he settled with the archdiocese last year for $500,000. In it, the man blamed Shanley for his difficulty maintaining relationships and for his failure to realize his dream of playing major league baseball. "This, too, you blame on Paul Shanley?" Mondano asked. "Absolutely," the accuser said. Mondano has said the man made up his story to cash in on the multimillion-dollar settlements paid to victims of the Boston scandal. The man testified Wednesday that Shanley would pull him from Sunday morning catechism classes at St. Jean's parish and sexually abuse him in the church pews, confessional, rectory and bathroom. He said the abuse began when he was 6 and continued until 1989, when he was 12. "He'd unzip my pants," the accuser said. "Sometimes he would kneel down and try to teach me how to perform oral sex." Shanley faces three charges of raping a child and two charges of indecent assault and battery on a child. He could get life in prison if convicted. His case became one of the most notorious in the abuse scandal because personnel records released by the archdiocese showed that church officials knew Shanley publicly advocated sex between men and boys, yet continued to transfer him from parish to parish. The case hinges on the concept of repressed memory, in which past experiences are suppressed in the subconscious until a trigger brings them back. Shanley's accuser said the scandal in Boston triggered his 20-year-old memories of being molested. But Mondano has questioned the timing and validity of those memories and said he would call expert witnesses to debunk the science behind repressed memories. Most of the priests accused in hundreds of civil lawsuits avoided prosecution because the alleged crimes were committed so long ago that charges were barred by the statute of limitations. But because Shanley moved out of Massachusetts, the clock stopped. He was arrested in California in 2002. |
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