Ex-Cardinal McCarrick asks court to dismiss sex assault charge

BOSTON — Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick filed a motion Monday to dismiss a case charging him with sexually assaulting a boy decades ago, saying the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent to stand trial.

McCarrick pleaded not guilty in September 2021 in the Massachusetts case that alleges the priest sexually abused the boy at a wedding reception at Wellesley College in June 1974. He is the only U.S. Catholic cardinal, current or former, ever to be criminally charged with child sex crimes.

His attorneys said in their motion to dismiss that McCarrick was examined by a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who concluded the former cardinal suffers from dementia, likely due to Alzheimer’s disease.

“While he has a limited understanding of the criminal proceedings against him, his progressive and irreparable cognitive deficits render him unable to meaningfully consult with counsel or to effectively assist in his own defense,” McCarrick’s lawyers wrote. They say McCarrick maintains his innocence of all charges.

A prosecutor told the judge during a hearing earlier Monday at the Dedham District Court that the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office would be hiring its own expert to conduct a second opinion on competency, according to David Traub, a spokesperson for that office. The prosecutors’ office declined further comment on the defense motion.

McCarrick, who lives in Dittmer, Mo., faces three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. He can still face charges because he wasn’t a Massachusetts resident and had left the state, stopping the clock on the statute of limitations.

Mitchell Garabedian, a well-known lawyer for church sexual abuse victims who is representing the man accusing McCarrick, said Monday that his client has “shown a lot of courage in coming forward to report the crimes and he intends to see this matter through to the end.”