In Bernardin .........
case, panel
i
faults lawyer,
CNN
CHICAGO (CNS) -- Most ..... ...... ....
panelists in a seminar analyz-
ing the sensational sexual
abuse allegations filed last
year against Cardinal Joseph
L. Bernardin of Chicago
faulted the accuser's lawyer
and the news coverage by
Cable News Network.
Most panelists said Chicago
and Cincinnati media treated
the story fairly, but some criti-
cized the media for overplaying
it.
Steven J. Cook made the al-
legations in a lawsuit in
Cincinnati last November. In
February he renounced all his
claims against the cardinal,
saying the recovercd memories
on which the allegations were
based were unreliable.
The seminar, held May 24 at
Northwestern University's law
school, focused on the responsi-
bilities of the legal and news
professions in dealing with the
allegations. Lawyers, journal-
ists and others -- including
CNN reporters and Cook's at-
torney, Stephen Rubino --
formed the panels debating
their roles.
Thomas Scorza, former as-
sistant U.S. attorney in
Chicago, said Rubino never
had enough evidence to allege
in a lawsuit that the cardinal
abused Cook.
"There was no time he had
any evidence that could be put
in a courtroom that could be
reasonably sufficient," Scorza
said. "This was a frivolous law-
suit. It could not be won by any
rational judgment of the pre-
ponderance of evidence."
Scorza said Rubino could
have been subject to disci-
plinary action, but "lawyers do
a worse job of supervising
themselves than churchmen."
Other panelists criticized
Rubino for exploiting the
media to publicize his lawsuit.
John Callaway, host of WTTW-
TV's "Chicago Tonight," who
moderated one panel, asked if
Rubino had used the Cook case
as a "loss leader" a case he
took on for the publicity and
additional business it could
garner even though he ex-
pected to lose it.
Rubino, who spoke before his
critics did, said he found Cook
"extraordinarily" believable
when he first interviewed him.
He also cited as evidence a
book which Cook said was a
gift from the cardinal.
"I felt it (the case) was well-
grounded in fact," he said.
He said the fact that Cook is
dying of AIDS as a factor in fil-
ing suit quickly.
Cook's claim of a recovered
memory of abuse by the cardi-
nal surfaced while Rubino was
preparing a lawsuit for him
against a priest of the Cincin-
nati Archdiocese. The memory
surfaced after Cook underwent
hypnosis with a counselor who
was not professionally quali-
fied as a hypnotist. Until then
the cardinal, who in the 1970s
was archbishop of Cincinnati,
was being named in the suit
only as the priest's superior.
John O'Malley, Chicago
archdiocesan director of legal
services, called Rubino's han-
dling of the casea "horrible
tragedy." .
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