ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By WILLIAM C. LHOTKA Post-Dispatch
updated: 05/30/2003 09:24 PM
When lawyers began to pare down 60 candidates this month into a jury to decide if the Rev. Bryan Kuchar was a molester, it didn’t take long to see why a Roman Catholic priest would be a special defendant.
One of those questioned said repeatedly that he could not give an impartial verdict because he was ingrained since childhood to hold priests in high esteem. He said he doubted he could convict a priest of any crime, on any evidence.
A woman said she had felt the same until a year ago, when a priest in her parish was suspended on allegations of sexual abuse.
Neither of those panelists made the final 12.
Every one who did – in fact all 60 potential jurors – acknowledged having read, seen or heard news accounts about abusive priests. Most said they could still be fair.
Maybe the jury would not have become deadlocked May 22 if Kuchar weren’t a priest, and if he hadn’t worn the classic black suit and Roman collar on the witness stand when he swore that the confession he had given to police was false.
But clearly that outcome will be on the lawyers’ minds when they face the job of selecting a jury for a retrial in St. Louis County Circuit Court that Judge John Ross decided Friday will be Aug. 20.
