MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge has stayed charges against defrocked Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, accused of sexually abusing a boy in the 1970s. On Wednesday he ruled that the former clergyman is not competent for a trial due to dementia.
The decision will be reviewed at the end of this year, according to court records.
McCarrick, who did not appear in person at the hearing but listened in by phone, was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man more than 45 years ago, court records show. He allegedly groped the man in 1977 while staying at a cabin on Geneva Lake in southeastern Wisconsin, according to a criminal complaint.
The alleged victim, who has not been named, also told investigators that McCarrick had repeatedly sexually abused him since he was 11 and even brought him to parties where other adult men abused him, the complaint said.
McCarrick’s Wisconsin attorney did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
Peter Isely, program director of Nate’s Mission, a Wisconsin-based project to end clergy abuse, issued a statement saying the indictment would “bring McCarrick to some form of justice. When a victim sees his perpetrator in court – even if by telephone – it can be a day of emancipation and liberation from bearing the terrible burden of shame and secrecy that are an inevitable consequence of these crimes.”
McCarrick was removed from the priesthood in 2019 after a Vatican investigation found he had sexually abused adults and children.
He became the highest-ranking Catholic official in the US to face criminal charges of sexual abuse when he was accused in 2021 of assaulting a teenage boy at a wedding reception in Massachusetts in 1974. His lawyers asked the judge earlier this year to dismiss the charges . in that case, McCarrick, now 92 and suffering from dementia, was not competent to stand trial.
The once powerful priest was ordained in 1958 and became Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, in 1986 and Archbishop of Washington, DC, in 2000. He came to power even though church officials were aware of the accusations against him. A two-year Vatican investigation into McCarrick’s tenure turned up credible reports of his problematic behavior dating back to 1999, including an investigation that confirmed he had slept with seminarians.
The church has confirmed that it has reached financial settlements with adults who accused McCarrick of sexual misconduct. The cardinal retired in 2006 but remained active in political circles until he was deposed by Pope Francis in 2019.
Prosecutors in Wisconsin learned of the alleged 1977 attack through a program aimed at prosecuting cases of abuse by faith leaders, they said in a statement when McCarrick was charged. Officials were able to charge him because the statute of limitations does not apply to people who are not residents of the state. A similar law allowed Massachusetts prosecutors to bring their case against McCarrick more than forty years later.