By Seamus McGraw
(Continued)
In all likelihood, had he been convicted of the crimes, allegations that have even led the church to label him as a "known" child molester, he would, one day, have been released from custody. Had he been placed on a sex offender's registry afterwards, it would hardly generate more public attention or more discussion about the details of his alleged crimes.
But there are some who believe that a trial and conviction would have done far more to protect the community than all the publicity that Chet Warren has received.
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| Barbara Blaine |
Barbara Blaine, the woman who first identified Warren more than a decade ago as the priest who abused her when she was a 13-year-old girl and who founded Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and other church leaders, is one of them.
The way Blaine sees it, the fact that the allegations against Warren, though the church deemed them credible, are still just allegations, means that Warren can still to some degree escape scrutiny. She cites the church's warning to its principals last year after it was learned that he had, at least for a time, shared an address with a retired teacher who was offering a tutoring program. Though the woman later claimed that she taught her students exclusively in a local library, Warren, in a letter endorsing the teacher, wrote that she had taught for years in her home and that he had on several occasions observed her doing it. A investigation by the local child protective services agency stalled when neither the teacher nor the parents of any of her students would agree to cooperate, and no recent complaints have been lodged against Warren.
All the same, "if his name had been on a Megan's Law list a year and a half.... or two years ago people would have been warned.... that there's a sexual predator residing at the address where people were taking their children for tutoring," Blaine said.
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