Top Legion priest admits fathering child

A grand jury has indicted a US right-to-die group and several members for their actions in the 2007 suicide of a woman, prosecutors announced.

The 17-count indictment charges the medical director of Final Exit Network, Lawrence Egbert of Baltimore, and three other officials with felony counts of assisting suicide and interference with a death scene. It also charged the group in its corporate capacity.

“This investigation and prosecution is not a politically-motivated attack on the right- to- die movement,” said prosecutor James Backstrom.

“Rather, it is an effort to bring to justice a corporation and several of its officersandvolunteerswhowe are alleging advised, encouraged or assisted Doreen Dunn in the taking of her own life in violation of Minnesota law.”

Officials with First Exit Network have said they acted within the law and within their free speech rights when they coun- selled Ms Dunn. She was 57 when she committed suicide at her home after suffering through a decade of intense, chronic pain following a medical procedure that went wrong. She died of asphyxia from inhaling helium, which Mr Backstrom said is the method the group generally recommends.

Minnesota law prohibits aiding, advising or encouraging a suicide, and Mr Backstrom said he is obliged to enforce that.

The indictment names Egbert, 84; Jerry Dincin, 81, Roberta Massey, 66, and Thomas Goodwin, 65.

Wendell Stephenson, the president of Final Exit Net work, said he thought the indictments were “almost certainly misplaced”. The Legion of Christ religious order was hit by the second scandal in a week with the admission that its most well-known priest, a prominent author, lecturer and television personality, had fathered a child.

The Rev Thomas Williams said in a statement yesterday he was “deeply sorry for this grave transgression” against his vows of celibacy and would be taking a year off to reflect on what he had done.

The statement was issued after a Spanish association of Legion victims made the accusation in a letter, sent to the Vatican several weeks ago, which namedotherlegion priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Williams, who was not accused of abuse, said “a number of years ago” he had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. He did not identify the mother or say whether the relationship had continued.

The Legion has been beset by scandals following revelations its late founder, the Rev Marciel Maciel, fathered three children and sexually abused his seminarians. Maciel died in 2008 and in 2009 the Legion admitted his crimes.

Williams, the most prominent priest in the order, is the author of Knowing Right From Wrong.

James Backstrom