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RIDERS BACK IN ACTION--Oakland Pigs Caught Setting Up Local Priest!
OAKLAND PIGS ENSNARED IN THEIR OWN POLITICAL HIT AGAINST ST.PATRICKS ABBEY & FATHER DONALD WEEKS!
Iggy The Pig (Ignacio De La Fuente) & His Henchmen In The Oakland Police Department Are Caught Red Handed In Their Own Slimey Efforts To Set Up A Local Priest!
Not Content With The Harm Done To Destroy The Abbey & Make 28 Men Homeless In The Process, Now The (PIGS) Accuse Their Hit Victim (The Priest) Of Being A Parasite After All The Charges Had To Be Dropped!
Iggy The Pig (Ignacio De La Fuente) & His Henchmen In The Oakland Police Department Are Caught Red Handed In Their Own Slimey Efforts To Set Up A Local Priest!
Not Content With The Harm Done To Destroy The Abbey & Make 28 Men Homeless In The Process, Now The (PIGS) Accuse Their Hit Victim (The Priest) Of Being A Parasite After All The Charges Had To Be Dropped!
THE RIDERS ARE BACK IN BUSINESS!
The Pigs that raided the Church & Set Up the Priest Do Not Represent Oakland And Must Be Defied By Any Means Necessary!
The Pigs went as far as to set up the Priest with some dope and a crack pipe. Even those charges back fired upon the Oakland Pigs.
Father Weeks & St.Patricks Abbey Can Use A Donation Or A Few Bucks If Anyone Can Spare It To Help Him Find New Housing.
It would be revolutionary move of resistance to defy the OAKLAND PIGS and offer a little charity to help out Father Weeks during this time of crisis.
Father Donald Weeks May Be Reached At 510/533-1231.
St.Patricks Abbey
3700 E. 12th St.
Oakland Ca.
(Corner of E.12th St. & 37thAve)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Repost From Trib Article
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2097873,00.html
Article Last Updated: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 3:37:11 AM PST
Attorney John Burris listens as Father Donald Weeks talks about the dismissal of criminal charges against him.(Nick Lammers/staff)
OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
Sex charges dropped against priest
Deputy D.A. won't prosecute the Rev. Weeks, pointing to evidence that accuser was 18
By Glenn Chapman, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- Sex crime charges against an Oakland priest who heads his own religious order were dropped Tues-
day in a move a defense attorney said affirms the cleric's innocence and condemns local police.
The Rev. Donald Weeks thanked "God and John Burris," after an Alameda County Superior Court judge dismissed the case against him at the request of Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman.
Burris, Weeks' attorney, said his client had been targeted because he gave refuge to paroled sexual predator Cary Verse for three days in March, at his Fruitvale District abbey.
The decision to back off prosecution was based in evidence that the "John Doe" who claimed he was 16 years old when Weeks began giving him oral sex at a 73rd Avenue abbey would have been past his 18th birthday by the time Weeks moved to that address.
"I'm so glad it's over with," Weeks said. "My abbey, my ministry, has been destroyed and the church desecrated by the Oakland Police Department."
The 60-year-old priest likened himself to the character Job in The Bible, and said he and the few remaining monks must work to resurrect St. Patrick Abbey. The parolees and recovering drug addicts housed at the abbey, in exchange for monthly stipends of $320 each, have been driven away by fear of police, Weeks said.
Burris vowed to ask a judge to declare Weeks "factually innocent" and have court records erased. The attorney said he will sue on Weeks' behalf if possible.
"What would you expect from a man who makes his living suing the police department?" Oakland police Deputy Chief Michael Holland countered rhetorically when reached for comment. "We are convinced that there is fire where the smoke is at, and we will continue to pursue this investigation."
Holland rejected a public demand by Burris that the officers involved in the investigation be punished.
"If I had significant doubts about the allegations, I would drop the investigation," Holland said. "We are going to proceed, because I think we are right. I don't take that lightly."
Holland declined to discuss the impetus for or results of a sealed search warrant executed at St. Patrick Abbey on Friday. Hubert Bowen, a brother at the abbey, said police raided the building about 1 p.m. and searched for hours, not disclosing what they were seeking.
When asked if he thought City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente's crusade to oust Verse from the East 12th Street abbey figured into the arrest of Weeks, Burris said there was a connection.
"If you connect the dots, you see there was no problem before Cary Verse arrived," Burris said. "This was egregious, outrageous misuse of police power and, maybe, political power. Once Weeks offered Verse a place to stay, all hell broke loose."
De La Fuente unabashedly confirmed that he was determined to get Verse out of Oakland. The council president, who represents Oakland's Fruitvale district, said publicity regarding the issue prompted calls from tipsters who he referred to police.
Once building code violations were noticed at the abbey, the city had a responsibility to act, De La Fuente said. Weeks has "a history" of renting substandard buildings, taking in parolees for a fee, then stiffing property owners for hefty sums of rent, according to De La Fuente.
"This guy is a parasite," De La Fuente said. "There is nothing special about this guy ... After referring callers to the police department, I washed my hands of it."
Among those callers was 50-year-old Phil Dominic, a former Marine and biker who told of kicking Weeks from Oakland raves in the early 1990s because he appeared to be trying to take advantage of young men stoned on alcohol and Ecstasy.
"I know what a chicken hawk is, and he was definitely a chicken hawk," said Dominic, who worked security at the underground events. "The first time I saw Weeks I asked him to leave, the second time I made him leave, and the third time I literally kicked him in the butt to get him out."
A man who once worked as a bookkeeper at the abbey reportedly came forward to say Weeks had spoken to him about being involved with "John Doe" when the boy was underage. Police spent days tracking down the purported victim, who backed the information, Holland said.
The 26-year-old told police he was certain of his age at the time because his interaction with Weeks began a few months before his grandmother died, according to Holland. A check of the grandmother's death certificate showed she died a decade ago.
Weeks and John Doe both reportedly told investigators of sexual encounters at a 73rd Avenue address Weeks lived in after moving to Oakland in 1996, after the young man's 18th birthday. The contradiction raised doubts as to whether Wellman could prove the case "beyond a reasonable doubt," as required at criminal trial. The probable cause required to make an arrest is a lower standard.
The man claiming to be a victim in the case has a history of crime, sexual promiscuity and drug use that indicate his word is not to be trusted without strong corroboration, Burris said. The former abbey member who gave police the tip bore a grudge because Weeks had stripped him of treasurer duties, the priest said.
Weeks described himself Tuesday as the top ranking official, called "Abbot Ordinary," of his Old Catholic Church order. Weeks said five other abbeys, most overseas, belong to the order, which broke from the Roman Catholic Church more than 200 years ago.
Priests who know of Weeks through his involvement in Internet dialogues and his Web site reportedly refer to him as the "Teflon Dom" in the spirit of the legendary Mafia don given a similar moniker for dodging prosecution. Benedictine monks sometimes refer to themselves with the Latin derived "Dom" instead of "father."
Burris maintained that he had provided "incontrovertible" evidence that Weeks was innocent and that instead of searching for the truth, police were in "a rush to convict and destroy."
Weeks said his "job is to forgive" and he took in parolees and drug additcts to raise money the way monks elsewhere sell wine or nuts.
"I don't know if I can rebuild; we are broke, we're homeless," Weeks said, noting he wants to move away from Oakland. "The police violated the sanctity of our church, threw relics on the floor and even stepped on host a priest blessed for communion."
RETURN TO TOP
The Pigs that raided the Church & Set Up the Priest Do Not Represent Oakland And Must Be Defied By Any Means Necessary!
The Pigs went as far as to set up the Priest with some dope and a crack pipe. Even those charges back fired upon the Oakland Pigs.
Father Weeks & St.Patricks Abbey Can Use A Donation Or A Few Bucks If Anyone Can Spare It To Help Him Find New Housing.
It would be revolutionary move of resistance to defy the OAKLAND PIGS and offer a little charity to help out Father Weeks during this time of crisis.
Father Donald Weeks May Be Reached At 510/533-1231.
St.Patricks Abbey
3700 E. 12th St.
Oakland Ca.
(Corner of E.12th St. & 37thAve)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Repost From Trib Article
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2097873,00.html
Article Last Updated: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 3:37:11 AM PST
Attorney John Burris listens as Father Donald Weeks talks about the dismissal of criminal charges against him.(Nick Lammers/staff)
OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
Sex charges dropped against priest
Deputy D.A. won't prosecute the Rev. Weeks, pointing to evidence that accuser was 18
By Glenn Chapman, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- Sex crime charges against an Oakland priest who heads his own religious order were dropped Tues-
day in a move a defense attorney said affirms the cleric's innocence and condemns local police.
The Rev. Donald Weeks thanked "God and John Burris," after an Alameda County Superior Court judge dismissed the case against him at the request of Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman.
Burris, Weeks' attorney, said his client had been targeted because he gave refuge to paroled sexual predator Cary Verse for three days in March, at his Fruitvale District abbey.
The decision to back off prosecution was based in evidence that the "John Doe" who claimed he was 16 years old when Weeks began giving him oral sex at a 73rd Avenue abbey would have been past his 18th birthday by the time Weeks moved to that address.
"I'm so glad it's over with," Weeks said. "My abbey, my ministry, has been destroyed and the church desecrated by the Oakland Police Department."
The 60-year-old priest likened himself to the character Job in The Bible, and said he and the few remaining monks must work to resurrect St. Patrick Abbey. The parolees and recovering drug addicts housed at the abbey, in exchange for monthly stipends of $320 each, have been driven away by fear of police, Weeks said.
Burris vowed to ask a judge to declare Weeks "factually innocent" and have court records erased. The attorney said he will sue on Weeks' behalf if possible.
"What would you expect from a man who makes his living suing the police department?" Oakland police Deputy Chief Michael Holland countered rhetorically when reached for comment. "We are convinced that there is fire where the smoke is at, and we will continue to pursue this investigation."
Holland rejected a public demand by Burris that the officers involved in the investigation be punished.
"If I had significant doubts about the allegations, I would drop the investigation," Holland said. "We are going to proceed, because I think we are right. I don't take that lightly."
Holland declined to discuss the impetus for or results of a sealed search warrant executed at St. Patrick Abbey on Friday. Hubert Bowen, a brother at the abbey, said police raided the building about 1 p.m. and searched for hours, not disclosing what they were seeking.
When asked if he thought City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente's crusade to oust Verse from the East 12th Street abbey figured into the arrest of Weeks, Burris said there was a connection.
"If you connect the dots, you see there was no problem before Cary Verse arrived," Burris said. "This was egregious, outrageous misuse of police power and, maybe, political power. Once Weeks offered Verse a place to stay, all hell broke loose."
De La Fuente unabashedly confirmed that he was determined to get Verse out of Oakland. The council president, who represents Oakland's Fruitvale district, said publicity regarding the issue prompted calls from tipsters who he referred to police.
Once building code violations were noticed at the abbey, the city had a responsibility to act, De La Fuente said. Weeks has "a history" of renting substandard buildings, taking in parolees for a fee, then stiffing property owners for hefty sums of rent, according to De La Fuente.
"This guy is a parasite," De La Fuente said. "There is nothing special about this guy ... After referring callers to the police department, I washed my hands of it."
Among those callers was 50-year-old Phil Dominic, a former Marine and biker who told of kicking Weeks from Oakland raves in the early 1990s because he appeared to be trying to take advantage of young men stoned on alcohol and Ecstasy.
"I know what a chicken hawk is, and he was definitely a chicken hawk," said Dominic, who worked security at the underground events. "The first time I saw Weeks I asked him to leave, the second time I made him leave, and the third time I literally kicked him in the butt to get him out."
A man who once worked as a bookkeeper at the abbey reportedly came forward to say Weeks had spoken to him about being involved with "John Doe" when the boy was underage. Police spent days tracking down the purported victim, who backed the information, Holland said.
The 26-year-old told police he was certain of his age at the time because his interaction with Weeks began a few months before his grandmother died, according to Holland. A check of the grandmother's death certificate showed she died a decade ago.
Weeks and John Doe both reportedly told investigators of sexual encounters at a 73rd Avenue address Weeks lived in after moving to Oakland in 1996, after the young man's 18th birthday. The contradiction raised doubts as to whether Wellman could prove the case "beyond a reasonable doubt," as required at criminal trial. The probable cause required to make an arrest is a lower standard.
The man claiming to be a victim in the case has a history of crime, sexual promiscuity and drug use that indicate his word is not to be trusted without strong corroboration, Burris said. The former abbey member who gave police the tip bore a grudge because Weeks had stripped him of treasurer duties, the priest said.
Weeks described himself Tuesday as the top ranking official, called "Abbot Ordinary," of his Old Catholic Church order. Weeks said five other abbeys, most overseas, belong to the order, which broke from the Roman Catholic Church more than 200 years ago.
Priests who know of Weeks through his involvement in Internet dialogues and his Web site reportedly refer to him as the "Teflon Dom" in the spirit of the legendary Mafia don given a similar moniker for dodging prosecution. Benedictine monks sometimes refer to themselves with the Latin derived "Dom" instead of "father."
Burris maintained that he had provided "incontrovertible" evidence that Weeks was innocent and that instead of searching for the truth, police were in "a rush to convict and destroy."
Weeks said his "job is to forgive" and he took in parolees and drug additcts to raise money the way monks elsewhere sell wine or nuts.
"I don't know if I can rebuild; we are broke, we're homeless," Weeks said, noting he wants to move away from Oakland. "The police violated the sanctity of our church, threw relics on the floor and even stepped on host a priest blessed for communion."
RETURN TO TOP
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Chron Story
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/21/BAGH568DVG1.DTL
OAKLAND
Sex charges against priest are dropped
Insufficient proof alleged victim had affair as a minor
Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Alameda County prosecutors dropped molestation charges Tuesday against an Oakland priest who briefly had given shelter to convicted sex offender Cary Verse.
Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman said there "was insufficient evidence" to prove the alleged victim was a minor when he had sex with The Rev. Donald Weeks.
At Wellman's request, Judge Winifred Smith dropped all 24 counts of oral copulation with a minor that had been filed against Weeks on March 30.
Wellman said that Weeks might have had a sexual relationship with the alleged victim in the 1990s, but "we felt we could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that sex occurred while the victim was still a minor.''
Weeks, who is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, was arrested at his St. Patrick's Abbey in East Oakland on charges he had oral sex with the boy from April 1994 to March 1996.
The alleged victim, now is now in his mid-20s, said he had met Weeks while he was a troubled teenager and had sex with him at least once a month for about two years.
But Weeks and his attorney, John Burris, said after court Tuesday that they had presented prosecutors with evidence showing the priest had been in San Diego until September 1996 and therefore had not had a sexual relationship with his accuser as a minor.
"Any reasonable investigation by the Oakland Police Department would have shown that it could not have happened in the location or the time period in which the allegations were made,'' Burris said. "There was no crime. There was no underage victim. This all could have been proven without arresting Father Weeks and ruining his life.''
Weeks told reporters that during the March 30 search of the abbey, police had violated its sanctity, scattering sacred relics and the wafers of bread that represent the body of Jesus Christ in Catholic tradition. Weeks and the abbey are affiliated with the Old Catholic Church, which broke away from the Roman Catholics in 1889.
"I thank God that the truth came out,'' Weeks said. "This has been a painful nightmare for me. Right now, my ministry is ruined. ... We may find ourselves sleeping on park benches soon.''
Weeks quietly operated St. Patrick's Abbey as a halfway house for drug abusers for five years at a nondescript building at 3700 E. 12th St. in the Fruitvale district.
He drew public attention in March when he briefly gave sanctuary to Cary Verse, a high-profile sex offender who had been forced to leave a downtown Oakland hotel and a Mill Valley motel under public pressure.
After Verse moved to St. Patrick's, Oakland officials ordered Weeks to leave because of building code violations.
The police also began a sexual-assault investigation based on a tip by a former associate at the abbey who had a falling out with Weeks. Based on the tip, Oakland police found the alleged victim, who told investigators he had had sex with Weeks while under 18.
After Weeks' arrest, another potential landlord in Oakland refused to rent to the priest, Burris said, jeopardizing plans to continue his ministry.
Burris said that police had made the young man "wear a wire" in an unsuccessful bid to elicit incriminating statements on tape from Weeks. But he said police had failed to make a "routine effort" to check out the young man's story.
"There was a rush to arrest my client without checking the facts,'' Burris said. "The investigation was designed to punish him for housing Cary Verse.''
Oakland Police Chief Richard Word defended the investigation, stressing that the case remained open.
"We are still working on this case and are very interested in talking to others who may have information,'' Word said. "Just because charges were not pursued doesn't mean that nothing criminal occurred. Time may tell us otherwise."
Wellman said prosecutors could refile the case if Oakland police found additional evidence to indicate any crime had occurred.
Burris said he planned to file a motion asking the judge to declare Weeks "factually innocent'' of the crimes. He said once his client was proved innocent, he would probably file a lawsuit against the City of Oakland accusing police of conducting a shoddy, irresponsible investigation.
"He's a ruined man,'' Burris said. "This accusation destroyed his abbey and destroyed his life's work.''
E-mail Jim Zamora at jzamora [at] sfchronicle.com.
Page B - 1
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Chron Story
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/20/state1945EDT169.DTL
Criminal charges dropped against Oakland priest who sheltered sex predator
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
(04-20) 16:45 PDT OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) --
Criminal charges against a priest who briefly housed a released sex offender have been dismissed for insufficient evidence.
Father Donald Weeks, 60, of Oakland was facing 24 felony counts of sexual abuse.
Prosecutor Tim Wellman said in court Tuesday that he had been unable to prove when the alleged two-year abuse started.
The victim reportedly said it began in 1994, when he was 16-years-old. Weeks' attorney, John Burris, said his client didn't move to the residence where the alleged victim lived until 1996, when the victim was already 18.
Weeks, who recently run Saint Patrick's Abbey in Oakland, became a public figure in the San Francisco Bay area in March when he temporarily sheltered Carey Verse, 33, after other communities rejected him. Verse has since moved to San Jose.
Verse is the second graduate of the state's mandatory treatment program for sexually violent predators. He is a four-time convicted sexual offender. He has been chemically castrated and is being monitored with an electronic device he wears around his ankle.
The transitional housing program for recovering alcoholics, drug addicts and the occasional sex offender that Weeks ran since 1999 was shut down in March.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Chron Story
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/08/BAGVH61UOI1.DTL
OAKLAND
Bail lowered for minister accused of sex with minor
Attorney says his client secretly recorded by alleged victim at request of police
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, April 8, 2004
An Oakland minister accused of having sex with a teenage boy is expected to be released from jail by today after a judge reduced his bail Wednesday to $50,000.
The Rev. Donald Weeks' attorney, John Burris of Oakland, said his client had secretly been tape-recorded by the alleged victim at the behest of police shortly before Weeks was arrested a week ago on 24 felony counts of oral sex with the youth.
Nevertheless, Weeks, 60, did not incriminate himself during those conversations or in interviews with police, Burris said.
"It was an effort to entrap him to make admissions, but he did not make any admissions," Burris said. "Father Weeks did not have unlawful sexual contact with this person when (the alleged victim) was under the age of 18."
Wearing a red jail jumpsuit and his hands shackled to his waist, Weeks appeared Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court on charges that he repeatedly had oral sex with the boy between April 1994 and March 1996. The alleged victim is now in his mid-20s.
Oakland police arrested Weeks on March 30 after he gained widespread attention for temporarily housing convicted sex offender Cary Verse last month at a halfway house for drug and alcohol addicts at St. Patrick's Abbey in East Oakland.
After a closed hearing in her chambers Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith reduced Weeks' bail from $240,000 to $50,000 and ordered him to stay away from the alleged victim. He is to return to court on April 20 to enter a plea.
Burris said he had told the judge that his client deserved a lower bail because other people were depending on him. Weeks would have no problem refraining from contacting the alleged victim, said Burris.
The defense attorney has previously stated that police learned of the accusations through an informant who is a disgruntled former associate who had a falling out with Weeks nearly two years ago. The alleged victim had never thought to raise the accusations himself and had remained on good terms with Weeks, Burris said.
"The prosecution has more work to do," Burris said. "The evidence is clearly not established yet."
Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman told the judge that the investigation was continuing. The prosecutor declined comment outside court.
Weeks and his ministry are affiliated with the Old Catholic Church, which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1889.
The abbey became the focal point of community outrage last month when Weeks sheltered Verse for four days. That attention caused city officials to try to close the abbey because of building code violations.
Verse is now living in San Jose, and Weeks has shuttered the abbey as he defends himself on the criminal charges, which Burris said Wednesday were not supported by any evidence.
Weeks, who is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, is expected to make bail by today, his attorney said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee [at] sfchronicle.com.
Page B - 5
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/21/BAGH568DVG1.DTL
OAKLAND
Sex charges against priest are dropped
Insufficient proof alleged victim had affair as a minor
Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Alameda County prosecutors dropped molestation charges Tuesday against an Oakland priest who briefly had given shelter to convicted sex offender Cary Verse.
Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman said there "was insufficient evidence" to prove the alleged victim was a minor when he had sex with The Rev. Donald Weeks.
At Wellman's request, Judge Winifred Smith dropped all 24 counts of oral copulation with a minor that had been filed against Weeks on March 30.
Wellman said that Weeks might have had a sexual relationship with the alleged victim in the 1990s, but "we felt we could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that sex occurred while the victim was still a minor.''
Weeks, who is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, was arrested at his St. Patrick's Abbey in East Oakland on charges he had oral sex with the boy from April 1994 to March 1996.
The alleged victim, now is now in his mid-20s, said he had met Weeks while he was a troubled teenager and had sex with him at least once a month for about two years.
But Weeks and his attorney, John Burris, said after court Tuesday that they had presented prosecutors with evidence showing the priest had been in San Diego until September 1996 and therefore had not had a sexual relationship with his accuser as a minor.
"Any reasonable investigation by the Oakland Police Department would have shown that it could not have happened in the location or the time period in which the allegations were made,'' Burris said. "There was no crime. There was no underage victim. This all could have been proven without arresting Father Weeks and ruining his life.''
Weeks told reporters that during the March 30 search of the abbey, police had violated its sanctity, scattering sacred relics and the wafers of bread that represent the body of Jesus Christ in Catholic tradition. Weeks and the abbey are affiliated with the Old Catholic Church, which broke away from the Roman Catholics in 1889.
"I thank God that the truth came out,'' Weeks said. "This has been a painful nightmare for me. Right now, my ministry is ruined. ... We may find ourselves sleeping on park benches soon.''
Weeks quietly operated St. Patrick's Abbey as a halfway house for drug abusers for five years at a nondescript building at 3700 E. 12th St. in the Fruitvale district.
He drew public attention in March when he briefly gave sanctuary to Cary Verse, a high-profile sex offender who had been forced to leave a downtown Oakland hotel and a Mill Valley motel under public pressure.
After Verse moved to St. Patrick's, Oakland officials ordered Weeks to leave because of building code violations.
The police also began a sexual-assault investigation based on a tip by a former associate at the abbey who had a falling out with Weeks. Based on the tip, Oakland police found the alleged victim, who told investigators he had had sex with Weeks while under 18.
After Weeks' arrest, another potential landlord in Oakland refused to rent to the priest, Burris said, jeopardizing plans to continue his ministry.
Burris said that police had made the young man "wear a wire" in an unsuccessful bid to elicit incriminating statements on tape from Weeks. But he said police had failed to make a "routine effort" to check out the young man's story.
"There was a rush to arrest my client without checking the facts,'' Burris said. "The investigation was designed to punish him for housing Cary Verse.''
Oakland Police Chief Richard Word defended the investigation, stressing that the case remained open.
"We are still working on this case and are very interested in talking to others who may have information,'' Word said. "Just because charges were not pursued doesn't mean that nothing criminal occurred. Time may tell us otherwise."
Wellman said prosecutors could refile the case if Oakland police found additional evidence to indicate any crime had occurred.
Burris said he planned to file a motion asking the judge to declare Weeks "factually innocent'' of the crimes. He said once his client was proved innocent, he would probably file a lawsuit against the City of Oakland accusing police of conducting a shoddy, irresponsible investigation.
"He's a ruined man,'' Burris said. "This accusation destroyed his abbey and destroyed his life's work.''
E-mail Jim Zamora at jzamora [at] sfchronicle.com.
Page B - 1
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Chron Story
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/20/state1945EDT169.DTL
Criminal charges dropped against Oakland priest who sheltered sex predator
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
(04-20) 16:45 PDT OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) --
Criminal charges against a priest who briefly housed a released sex offender have been dismissed for insufficient evidence.
Father Donald Weeks, 60, of Oakland was facing 24 felony counts of sexual abuse.
Prosecutor Tim Wellman said in court Tuesday that he had been unable to prove when the alleged two-year abuse started.
The victim reportedly said it began in 1994, when he was 16-years-old. Weeks' attorney, John Burris, said his client didn't move to the residence where the alleged victim lived until 1996, when the victim was already 18.
Weeks, who recently run Saint Patrick's Abbey in Oakland, became a public figure in the San Francisco Bay area in March when he temporarily sheltered Carey Verse, 33, after other communities rejected him. Verse has since moved to San Jose.
Verse is the second graduate of the state's mandatory treatment program for sexually violent predators. He is a four-time convicted sexual offender. He has been chemically castrated and is being monitored with an electronic device he wears around his ankle.
The transitional housing program for recovering alcoholics, drug addicts and the occasional sex offender that Weeks ran since 1999 was shut down in March.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Chron Story
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/08/BAGVH61UOI1.DTL
OAKLAND
Bail lowered for minister accused of sex with minor
Attorney says his client secretly recorded by alleged victim at request of police
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, April 8, 2004
An Oakland minister accused of having sex with a teenage boy is expected to be released from jail by today after a judge reduced his bail Wednesday to $50,000.
The Rev. Donald Weeks' attorney, John Burris of Oakland, said his client had secretly been tape-recorded by the alleged victim at the behest of police shortly before Weeks was arrested a week ago on 24 felony counts of oral sex with the youth.
Nevertheless, Weeks, 60, did not incriminate himself during those conversations or in interviews with police, Burris said.
"It was an effort to entrap him to make admissions, but he did not make any admissions," Burris said. "Father Weeks did not have unlawful sexual contact with this person when (the alleged victim) was under the age of 18."
Wearing a red jail jumpsuit and his hands shackled to his waist, Weeks appeared Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court on charges that he repeatedly had oral sex with the boy between April 1994 and March 1996. The alleged victim is now in his mid-20s.
Oakland police arrested Weeks on March 30 after he gained widespread attention for temporarily housing convicted sex offender Cary Verse last month at a halfway house for drug and alcohol addicts at St. Patrick's Abbey in East Oakland.
After a closed hearing in her chambers Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith reduced Weeks' bail from $240,000 to $50,000 and ordered him to stay away from the alleged victim. He is to return to court on April 20 to enter a plea.
Burris said he had told the judge that his client deserved a lower bail because other people were depending on him. Weeks would have no problem refraining from contacting the alleged victim, said Burris.
The defense attorney has previously stated that police learned of the accusations through an informant who is a disgruntled former associate who had a falling out with Weeks nearly two years ago. The alleged victim had never thought to raise the accusations himself and had remained on good terms with Weeks, Burris said.
"The prosecution has more work to do," Burris said. "The evidence is clearly not established yet."
Deputy District Attorney Tim Wellman told the judge that the investigation was continuing. The prosecutor declined comment outside court.
Weeks and his ministry are affiliated with the Old Catholic Church, which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1889.
The abbey became the focal point of community outrage last month when Weeks sheltered Verse for four days. That attention caused city officials to try to close the abbey because of building code violations.
Verse is now living in San Jose, and Weeks has shuttered the abbey as he defends himself on the criminal charges, which Burris said Wednesday were not supported by any evidence.
Weeks, who is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, is expected to make bail by today, his attorney said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee [at] sfchronicle.com.
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