Ex-cardinal unfit to stand trial for sexual assault in Wisconsin

A Wisconsin court found disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick incompetent to stand trial for sexual assault after he was diagnosed with dementia.

Sexual abuse charges against McCarrick, 93, were also dropped in Massachusetts in August, after a judge ruled the former Catholic Church official wasn’t fit for trial.

His diagnosis was reported to the Wisconsin court in Walworth County in November of last year when McCarrick’s attorney appeared before the judge.

The state asked for the cardinal to be present for an assessment and made attempts to set up Zoom and phone calls, but according to documents, the state was “not confident [the] defendant will be able to do that.”

McCarrick did not appear in court Wednesday, but the judge ruled McCarrick’s attorney could enter a waiver of incompetency on his behalf. Judge David Reddy declined a request to dismiss the case entirely, but suspended the matter.

A review hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 27, 2024.

McCarrick, a resident of Hyattsville, Md., was charged with one count of fourth degree sexual assault that took place in April 1977 against a man that accused him of repeatedly abusing him over several years and in several states when he was a teenager.

The Wisconsin judge relied on an assessment of the same psychologist who advised the court in Massachusetts from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who ultimately diagnosed the former religious leader with dementia.

Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney representing the accuser in both the Massachusetts and Wisconsin cases, said despite the judge’s decision, the fight isn’t over.

“My client is a courageous and determined clergy sexual abuse survivor who will continue to seek validation and justice in the civil courts of NJ and NY against former U.S. Cardinal McCarrick and all relevant parties,” Garabedian told The Hill in a statement. “Justice does not take a day off for clergy sexual abuse survivors and sexual abuse survivors.”

McCarrick was removed from his position in the Catholic Church and resigned from his cardinalship in 2018 over the sexual abuse accusations, making him the first cardinal to resign over allegations, The Hill previously reported.

The church conducted an internal investigation and found he was guilty of sex crimes against adults and minors, and he was removed from the clergy in 2019. The allegations were first publicized in 2018 in The New York Times, which reported that church officials were aware McCarrick had allegations against him dating back to 1994.

As a powerful archbishop in the Washington, D.C.-area, McCarrick participated in the funerals of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and President Biden’s oldest son, Beau Biden.

He also assisted the pope in responding to the child sex abuse crisis in 2002.