Wagging the Court Dog

Wagging the Court Dog

The tail wags the dog in courts. Competency evaluations are a lucrative
business. (Dave Wedge, "Priest trial delayed for 33rd time," Boston Herald,
August 22, 2007) Competency is an issue of fact for the trier of facts. Judges
to avoid accountability by allowing psychiatrists to make the "decision."
If evaluations were scientific there would be no need for multiple
evaluations. Moreover they need to be done at the time of trial not at the time
of arrest or arraignment. In this case the advice of an alleged expert is being
used to delay the proceeding. The defense can argue that the defendant did not
get a speedy trial and blame it on the court. How convenient. One more way to
protect the guilty and abuse the innocent.

Roy Bercaw, Editor, ENOUGH ROOM

Priest trial delayed for 33rd time
By Dave Wedge
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

A Worcester victims rights group is fuming after the case against an alleged
pedophile priest deemed incompetent to stand trial was continued for a 33rd
time.
The molestation case against the Rev. John Szantyr has dragged on in
Worcester District Court for four years and was again continued Monday because
prosecutors didn't receive a doctor's report in time for the hearing.
Szantyr, who faces charges he molested an altar boy in Worcester in the
mid-1980s, has already been ruled incompetent by a judge, but District Attorney
Joseph Early Jr.'s office called for a new evaluation "due to information that
was brought to our attention."
Among the new information are reports that Szantyr, 76, was seen walking at
a rest stop just minutes after he appeared in court in a wheelchair and that he
has continued to oversee religious services in Connecticut. Szantyr, who
reportedly is too ill to feed, clothe and bathe himself, also recently renewed
his Connecticut driver's license, court filings show.

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