A grand jury has been convened in the murder of Jonathan Wessner. And prosecutors on Cape Cod will ask a judge tomorrow to force two priests who were friends with accused killer Paul Nolin to testify before the grand jury. Fr. Bernard Kelly refused to testify before a grand jury this week, claiming that their conversations were privileged, although there is some evidence there was a sexual relationship between the two.
(By the way, the newspapers are still reporting that Kelly hired Nolin at his church, when in fact, Nolin was working for a contractor at the church. Who is feeding the reporters this misinformation and why has no one corrected it?)
The other priest, Fr. Donald Turlick, is a former psychologist at an institution for the criminally sexually dangerous who recommended that Nolin be released and continued his friendship with the guy after. (An ethically questionable friendship.)
What’s interesting is that we haven’t heard a peep from the Fall River Diocese on Kelly’s claims that his conversations are covered under the priest-penitent privilege. Usually the Church is quick to leap into any attempt to undermine that. Why not here? What do they know and why are they leaving Kelly twisting in the wind? Sometimes the interesting parts of news stories are the parts that aren’t reported.
