FREDETTE SENTENCE IS 4-5 YEARS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
July 13, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - A Superior Court judge yesterday sentenced the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette to three concurrent terms of not less than four nor more than five years at Walpole state prison.
Fredette was found guilty Tuesday of three counts of committing unnatural and lascivious acts on Gary M. Melanson from 1971 to 1973. At the time, Melanson was a teen-age delinquent who had been committed to Fredette's care by the state Department of Youth Services.
Fredette was acquitted on two charges of sexually assaulting Francis R. Henault, now 37, of Sherborn, during the early 1970s.
Fredette, 63, an Assumptionist priest, will receive credit for 401 days he spent in the Middlesex County Jail awaiting his trial on child sexual assault charges. Under state law, he must serve two-thirds of his minimum sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
LENIENCY PLEA REJECTED
Judge James P. Donohue rejected a plea from Fredette's lawyer, Paul J. McManus, for a more lenient three-to-five-year sentence.
Fredette, McManus said, is a "feeble and vulnerable elderly man" who would be an easy target for the hostility of other prison inmates.
The lawyer said that Fredette had "taken pains" to eliminate temptation by living in self-imposed exile on a "240-acre estate deep into the woods."
"He's removed himself from the temptation of ever letting this occur again," McManus said. "He has punished himself. He has Spartan needs. He celebrates Mass alone. He goes weeks in solitude without company from any other human being."
Donohue also denied McManus' request to credit Fredette with nearly five months he served in Canadian jails in 1994 while he fought extradition to the United States.
"He was fighting rendition," the judge said. "He's not entitled to time he served in another jurisdiction. The sentence is not going to be changed."
Fredette was indicted in September and October 1992 on 15 counts involving three men who alleged they were sexually assaulted in the 1970s when they were clients of Come Alive Inc., a halfway house for delinquent youths. Fredette was the live-in director of Come Alive from its founding in 1969 until he left Worcester for Canada early in 1974.
Ten charges remain to be dismissed from those indictments.
Special Prosecutor Herbert F. Travers said other trials now being held before Donohue prevented an immediate hearing to dispose of the additional charges. A status hearing is to be scheduled at a later date.
APPEAL PLANNED
McManus, and co-defense counsel Gail M. Allard, said yesterday they planned to file a notice immediately with the clerk of courts to appeal the conviction.
McManus said the appeal would focus on a number of issues, including what he believes was prejudicial conduct of one juror. That juror, he said, watched a televised interview last Friday, before the trial ended, in which Melanson's mother, Beverly Melanson, discussed the effect of the alleged assault on her son.
That incident may have biased the jury's deliberations, he said. In addition, statements from potential witnesses given to police detectives in 1973 and 1974, when allegations against Fredette were first made, have been lost for years, he said.
Allard said she considered Fredette's sentence "harsh, given his age."
"The only reason for imposing a sentence at this date is to punish him," she said. "Rehabilitation is not an issue. This is only for punishment. It's going to be hard on him."
INMATE ABUSE ALLEGED
She said his sentence will be made more difficult because of the nature of the offense. She said Fredette already has been subjected to verbal and physical abuse from other prisoners who were incarcerated with him in the Worcester Superior Court lockup and at the Middlesex County Jail.
Fredette, she said, was assaulted by an inmate in a courthouse elevator while he was being taken by court officers to the lockup.
"He's constantly subjected to verbal threats and the catcalls of the other prisoners," she said. "They harass him; they come by and pound on the door of his cell. This is a man who is used to solitude and contemplation and it's going to be difficult for him."
Travers said, "I certainly thought the sentence was fair because I recommended it.
"I don't want to minimize what happened (to Fredette in the courthouse elevator) and I'm sure it was a terrible thing," he said. "But that's a matter of security procedures, not his sentence."
Travers said he believed the jury's acquittal on two charges relating to Henault stemmed from the jurors' interpretation of the law as it applied to the offense, and not to a disbelief of Henault's story.
He noted the charge of committing an "indecent and lascivious act" contained specific language about the nature and variety of nonconsensual sexual contact. Henault, he said, could only testify to conduct of a lesser severity, which, in the eyes of the jury, may not have been "indecent and lascivious."
FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS
The verdict apparently deeply affected Fredette's friends and supporters who had attended every day of his trial and a weeklong hearing in June that was held to see whether the charges against him would be dismissed.
Many of those people, including Sister Dorothy Reed, traveled from Canada to show their support for Fredette.
Reed is one of the few "hermits" in permanent residence at Fredette's retreat in Jailletville, New Brunswick. The religious community there, the Hermits of Mercy, was founded by Fredette in 1982 and has since attracted a following of associates, acolytes and pilgrims who seek the contemplative solitude and prayerful atmosphere of the hermitage.
Reed is the "superior" for the community and is handling the affairs of the Hermitage in Fredette's absence.
"I was astonished with the verdict," she said. "We'll just have to live it through now. One has to go on."
She said Fredette's arrest, trial and conviction had a serious impact on the Jailletville religious community.
"It's a loss just not to have Father Fredette there," she said. "But this has had a solidifying effect on the community. We have 130 associates, as well as hermits, acolytes and novices. We've had a wall of prayer around him for the last three years."
Fredette, she said, had been in "very bad health" recently, including four severe viral respiratory infections that had left him bedridden for three weeks at one point.
TRIAL "FAIRLY CONDUCTED'
In spite of her disappointment, she said she believed the trial had been "fairly conducted."
For Beverly Melanson, Gary's mother, the verdict was the best of news.
"I'm thrilled," she said. "It made me feel really good. Now the kids (at Come Alive) are going to feel better because they know somebody believed they weren't lying. This is great."

FREDETTE FOUND GUILTY \ JURY CONVICTS ON 3 SEX ASSAULT CHARGES
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
July 12, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - The Rev. Joseph A. Fredette yesterday was found guilty of sexually assaulting a boy who was placed in his care 20 years ago by the state Department of Youth Services.
A Superior Court jury of seven women and five men deliberated 15 1/2 hours over two days before finding Fredette guilty on three counts of committing unnatural and lascivious acts on Gary M. Melanson.
Melanson, now a 37-year-old inmate at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction, testified he was just 13 years old when the assaults began in 1971. The assaults continued, he said, until late in 1973.
The jury found Fredette not guilty of one count of assault and battery and one count of committing unnatural and lascivious acts on Francis R. Henault.
COME ALIVE INC.
Henault, 37, of Sherborn, testified he was a 16-year-old client of Come Alive Inc., a halfway house for delinquent youths, when he was drugged, then sexually assaulted by Fredette in November or December of 1973.
Fredette, an Assumptionist priest, was the live-in director of Come Alive when he left Worcester in 1974 for Canada as police were seeking a warrant for his arrest on child sexual assault charges.
At the time, a number of boys at Come Alive had complained that Fredette had sexually assaulted and, in some cases, raped them at the 18 Channing St. halfway house and other locations in and out of Massachusetts.
Worcester police Detective Thomas H. Belezarian, who handled the original investigation, testified that Fredette fled to Canada before the Worcester District Court complaints and warrants could be processed.
Police reopened their investigation of Fredette after a 1992 Telegram & Gazette series disclosed the priest was living on a 240-acre retreat in rural Jailletville, New Brunswick.
EXTRADITION
Fredette, now 63, was indicted twice in 1992 by a Worcester County grand jury. He was extradited to the United States to stand trial last June and has been held since in the Middlesex County Jail in Cambridge in lieu of $50,000 cash bail.
The jury reported it was deadlocked 11 to 1 late Monday afternoon and continued deliberations well into that night. But yesterday at 3:45 p.m. jurors returned to the courtroom for the last time to deliver their verdict.
Fredette sat silently at his table and stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read. His only visible sign of emotion came during the reading of the three guilty verdicts when he clenched his hands into fists in his lap beneath the table.
Nine friends and supporters, some of whom had traveled from Canada and attended every day of his trial and a week-long pretrial hearing last month, also listened in silence to the verdicts.
JURORS POLLED
Paul J. McManus, who, along with Gail M. Allard, had been appointed to defend Fredette, asked that the jury be polled. Each juror individually affirmed the guilty verdicts in open court.
Judge James P. Donohue ordered Fredette's bail revoked and scheduled sentencing for 9 a.m. today.
Fredette was taken into custody and did not respond to a reporter's questions as he was led out of court.
Fredette's friends and supporters also refused to speak to a Telegram & Gazette reporter after the guilty verdicts were read.
McManus said he intends to appeal the conviction.
He said Melanson's story had been difficult to refute.
"The irony is that by virtue of waiting so long and making vague accusations, it was impossible to prove that Melanson was not telling the truth," McManus said.
Allard said she was disappointed with the verdict. Nodding to Fredette's friends, she said, "It would have been nice to send him home to these people."
Special prosecutor Herbert F. Travers said the conviction writes an end to a long story.
"After more than two decades, with the police investigation and bringing this before the jury and to have the jury work that hard, I think everyone should be satisfied," Travers said. He said he would have liked to have seen Fredette convicted on all the charges, but was satisfied he was convicted on some.
Henault said the outcome of the trial also wrote an end to his personal story about his experiences at Come Alive.
"I've had a chance to face him and it's over," he said. "I know it happened and he knows it happened. I'm just sorry I couldn't convince the jury. But I'm satisfied. I'm content. At least they got a conviction."
He said he now intends to get on with his life and "bury this ghost once and for all."

JURY DEADLOCKED IN FREDETTE TRIAL
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
July 11, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - A Superior Court jury deliberated more than eight hours yesterday in the child sexual assault trial of the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette, but adjourned without reaching a verdict.
Judge James P. Donohue sent the jury home for the night at 10:30 p.m., after the jury reported being deadlocked 11-1 for more than four hours.
At issue is a single juror who has said he watched a televised interview with Beverly Melanson, mother of Gary M. Melanson, after the court recessed last Friday.
Gary Melanson testified Friday he had been sexually assaulted repeatedly by Fredette beginning in 1971. At the time the alleged assaults began, Melanson was a 13-year-old boy who had been sent by the state Department of Youth Services to live at Come Alive Inc., 18 Channing St.
Come Alive was a halfway house for delinquent youths founded and run by Fredette, who also lived in the home with the youths who had been committed to his care.
Fredette was indicted in 1992 on charges he had sexually assaulted Melanson and another Come Alive client, Francis R. Henault, in the early 1970s. Fredette was not arrested at the time because he had left the United States to live permanently in Canada.
He was extradited to Worcester to stand trial on those charges in June of last year.
TESTIMONY ENDS
Testimony in Fredette's three-day trial ended yesterday afternoon and the jury of seven women and five men began deliberations at 1:45.
In his final arguments to the jury, Paul J. McManus, Fredette's court-appointed defense lawyer, accused both Melanson and Henault of lying in their testimony. He pointed to the long criminal records of both men and suggested that they only wanted a guilty verdict so they could file a civil lawsuit against Fredette.
McManus suggested also that Melanson, who was an inmate at Concord State Prison in 1992 when he was interviewed by state police for the Fredette case, stood to gain leniency from the courts in exchange for his statement.
Special Prosecutor Herbert F. Travers, scoffed at those arguments. He said the evidence clearly pointed to a guilty verdict.
He said testimony of both men not only had been consistent, but was filled with the sort of detail that "had the ring of truth."
He said that Henault's testimony was also corroborated by 1973 records kept at the state DYS juvenile detention center on Belmont Street.
He said neither man had ever asked for any favors or special consideration in exchange for their statements to police. Neither had Henault or Melanson sought other legal action or filed a lawsuit, he said.
He asked the jury to "remember who is on trial" and not to reject the testimony of the alleged victims simply because they had criminal records.
`REACH THE TRUTH'
"Our system is built upon and must have even-handedness," he said. "The backgrounds of the people involved must not matter. All that matters is that you reach the truth in this case."
The jury was brought back into the courtroom three times to hear answers to its questions relating to whether copies of transcripts could be made available and what constituted "reasonable doubt" under the law.
At 6:30 p.m., the forewoman informed the court the jury had reached a verdict on those charges against Fredette relating to Henault but were still deliberating the charges relating to Melanson.
At 7:45 p.m., the forewoman sent out a note saying the jury was deadlocked 11 to 1 on the issues relating to Melanson. The jury asked for advice.
Donohue asked them to continue deliberations, saying no other jury would be more likely than they to reach a verdict or hear better evidence.
Donohue recessed the session at 10:30 with the jury still deadlocked.
Deliberations were scheduled to resume this morning at 9 a.m.

WITNESSES SAY FREDETTE KNEW OF CHARGES
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
June 16, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - The Rev. Joseph A. Fredette yesterday denied knowing that criminal child sexual assault complaints had been filed against him until 1992.
But testimony in Worcester Superior Court from the head of the Assumptionist Order in the United States and from the former president of Come Alive Inc., a halfway house for delinquent boys, suggested Fredette had been made aware of the allegations as early as 1974.
TIMING KEY ISSUE
The point when Fredette, an Assumptionist priest, learned of those charges has become a key issue in a hearing to determine whether the charges against him will be dropped.
The hearing began Wednesday and is expected to continue into next week, with nearly a dozen witnesses still scheduled to testify.
Questioning by Fredette's defense lawyer, Paul J. McManus, so far has focused on the 18-year delay between the time Worcester police first issued warrants for Fredette's arrest, in May 1974, and 1992, when extradition proceedings were initiated.
McManus has sought to show that Fredette lived openly in Canada and knew nothing of actual criminal complaints or warrants for his arrest.
MAY HAVE FLED
Special prosecutor Herbert F. Travers has countered with questions designed to show that Fredette was aware of the charges and may have fled Worcester in 1974 to avoid prosecution.
Fredette yesterday reiterated his claim that he knew nothing of the existence of the charges until he was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1992 at his 240-acre hermitage in rural Jailletville, New Brunswick. The arrest was the first step in his eventual extradition to the United States.
He said he never received a May 15, 1974, notice of a clerk's hearing from Worcester District Court that had been mailed to him when he lived at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Beauvoir, near Sherbrooke, Quebec.
He also denied that James Fleming, a lawyer he had consulted before he resigned as executive director of Come Alive Inc. in 1974, had informed him of formal charges during a subsequent meeting in Canada.
HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENT
But a key piece of evidence relating to the question of Fredette's knowledge may be a document written by his own hand. That document, a 1974 addendum to Fredette's application for landed immigrant status in Canada, seemed to show that Fredette was aware of some allegations of sexual misconduct when he applied for permission to live in Canada permanently.
The document was part of a series brought to court yesterday by Troy Sweet, who served as Fredette's Canadian legal counsel during his two-year attempt to fight extradition.
Sweet testified that Fredette had been granted an exemption from some of the application requirements to immigrate to Canada.
He said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police routinely check the backgrounds of applicants for criminal records and also attempt to confirm information supplied by applicants.
He said the immigration record did not show anything that would have denied Fredette permission to immigrate.
EXEMPTION
Fredette, under cross-examination by Travers, said he had been exempted from a requirement that he return to the United States prior to filing his application. Canadian law at the time, he said, required those who wanted to immigrate to return to their country of origin for at least 24 hours before being allowed to apply.
Fredette said he answered a question on the immigration application relating to past criminal convictions with the statement, "As far as I know, I have not been recognized as being guilty of any crime."
Fredette, at Travers' request, then translated a portion of the 1974 addendum, explaining that statement and the reason why he did not want to return to the United States.
He wrote in the addendum that before coming to coming to Canada he "worked with the Crisis Center and also in a rehabilitation center for delinquent youths. Apparently, I have been accused of immorality once while in Canada."
Fredette continued saying he did not admit the allegation and, "I still continue to ignore the formal complaint. On advice of my lawyer I stayed in Canada and my religious superiors are aware of the situation."
THREATS ALLEGED
Fredette said the statement went on to note that he became aware of many illegal activities during his work at the Worcester Crisis Center and that "high officials are implicated in all kinds of bribes."
"Someone tried to eliminate me several times," he said. "A youth was assassinated because he knew too much. Someone told my brother I should not return to the USA because I would be killed. I do not want to return to the USA even for 24 hours."
He did not go into detail concerning those allegations.
Fredette, however, then said he only understood that "allegations" had been made against him, not a formal complaint.
He said his meaning in using the French word "ignore," a form of the verb "ignorer," was to indicate his lack of knowledge about the charges.
The Rev. Roland Guilmain, provincal of the Assumptionist Order in the United States, said he was a priest in charge of the retreat center at Cassadaga, N.Y., when Fredette first stopped there in 1974 on his way to Canada.
Fredette has testified that he stayed at the Cassadaga retreat for three weeks after leaving Worcester and from there went to Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Beauvoir, Quebec.
Guilmain said he had "heard things" about allegations against Fredette in 1974, but did not actually learn of criminal complaints until reading about them in 1992 newspaper accounts.
He noted that Fredette's personnel file maintained by the Assumptionist Order contains letters written in May 1974 between then-Provincal the Rev. Joseph Loiselle and his assistant, the Rev. Edgar Burke.
One letter, a report from Burke to Loiselle, said, "I wish you could have come back from Europe with this thing all settled, but it was not meant to be."
The letter said that the police were looking for Fredette "who had his own lawyer."
Burke's letter said that he had telephoned Fredette in Canada and told him to return to Cassadaga. "But it's 10 days later and still no Joe," the letter said.
Burke then noted that Fredette had subsequently been told to remain in Beauvoir, Quebec, but to be ready to return to New York with a day's notice.
INFORMATION IN FILE
Guilmain said there was also information in Fredette's personnel file noting that criminal complaints had been issued. In addition, he said, the file also included newspaper articles about the issue.
Philip W. Callahan, former president of Come Alive Inc., testified that Fredette's resignation was "sudden" and "unexpected."
Fredette, he said, left in 1974 after being informed by him and another Come Alive board member that one of the Come Alive clients had made an allegation of improper sexual conduct against Fredette.
"We asked him (Fredette) if it was true and he responded, "No,' " Callahan said. ~We told him that until the matter was resolved, he could have no more contact with the children."
Callahan said Fredette was told to work out of the Come Alive office at 75 Grove St., which also was the location of the Worcester Juvenile Court, instead of the Come Alive residence.
He said Fredette resigned and left without saying goodbye. Callahan said he took offense at the way the resignation was done.

DETECTIVE "CONFRONTED' FREDETTE \ BELEZARIAN TESTIFIES PRIEST
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
June 17, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - A veteran police detective testified in Superior Court yesterday that the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette "fled" Worcester as child sexual assault charges were being brought against him in 1974.
Detective Thomas H. Belezarian said he sought warrants for Fredette's arrest two decades ago after six boys alleged that Fredette had sexually assaulted them.
But by the time the criminal charges were processed through Worcester District Court in May 1974, Fredette, an Assumptionist priest and the former live-in director of Come Alive Inc., had left Worcester for Canada. Come Alive Inc. was a halfway house for delinquent boys.
THIRD DAY OF HEARING
Belezarian's testimony came during the third day of a hearing to determine whether charges that Fredette sexually assaulted boys placed in his care by the state Department of Youth Services 20 years ago will be dropped.
Under intense questioning by defense lawyer Paul J. McManus, Belezarian maintained he had followed proper investigative procedures and police department protocol throughout the 1974 investigation.
He said that protocol included a meeting at the Come Alive home, 18 Channing St., in which Belezarian personally confronted Fredette with the child sexual assault allegations. Fredette denied the allegations, according to Belezarian.
Belezarian said that meeting was the last time he saw Fredette until Fredette was extradited from Canada to Worcester in June of last year.
Fredette, in testimony earlier this week, denied any such meeting took place.
Fredette also denied being present at a 1974 meeting in Boston called by Joseph A. Leavey, then commissioner of the state Department of Youth Services (DYS), to discuss allegations of sexual misconduct.
But Leavey testified yesterday that such a meeting had taken place in 1974 after a DYS investigation into an allegation that Fredette had sexually assaulted a Come Alive youth at a cottage Fredette owned in New Hampshire.
Leavey said the cottage was used by Fredette at the time with the knowledge of DYS to provide recreation for the youths who had been committed to the Come Alive halfway house.
Leavey said the investigation began when the alleged victim, who was being held at a Roslindale juvenile detention center, claimed he had been sexually assaulted by Fredette during a time he had been a resident at Come Alive.
"We sent an investigator to Come Alive to investigate the allegation," Leavey said. "He (the investigator) thought there was some credence to the young man's complaint."
Leavey said the investigation culminated in a meeting at his Boston office with Fredette, members of the Come Alive board of directors, and the DYS general counsel.
He said he explained the allegation to Fredette and that the DYS investigation had concluded the complaint had some credibility.
"Father Fredette denied the allegations and left the meeting," Leavey said.
Leavey said he told the directors that the DYS would stop sending clients to Come Alive unless Fredette's involvement in the program was terminated.
"The board members conceded this was a fair action to take," he said. Leavey said the complaint was then turned over to police.
Belezarian, who was on the stand most of the day, said he could not provide exact details of conversations and reports relating to the original 1974 complaints because the files from that time have been either destroyed or lost during the intervening 20 years.
He said that once Fredette was in Canada, the case became inactive because there was no way to serve warrants or bring Fredette back to Worcester. Canada and the United States had no extradition treaty at the time and Canadian authorities were uncooperative in local efforts to have Fredette returned to this country, Belezarian said.
CASE REOPENED
Belezarian said the case was only reopened after the Telegram & Gazette published a series of stories in 1992 about the unsolved case and disclosed that Fredette lived on a 240-acre hermitage in rural Jailletville, New Brunswick.
Belezarian said his superiors asked him to look into the Fredette case in response to that new information.
McManus yesterday questioned Belezarian repeatedly about the missing case files and whether they could contain information that might show Fredette's innocence. Belezarian remained certain the original investigation pointed to Fredette's guilt.
McManus, noting that police knew Fredette's Canadian address in 1974, asked whether Belezarian ever had mailed copies of the complaints or warrants to Fredette or had telephoned or visited him in Canada. Such activities, Belezarian said, were not part of normal police routine.
Under questioning by Special Prosecutor Herbert F. Travers, Belezarian said he had never heard of a single instance in his 27 years as a police officer of a warrant or copy of a criminal complaint being mailed to a suspect by police.
He reaffirmed his earlier statements that the original investigation had been done in accordance with proper investigative procedure and department protocol.
He said the reopened investigation included interviews with some of the alleged victims who were interviewed in 1974. However, two of those who alleged that Fredette had sexually assaulted them when they were boys could not be interviewed again because they have committed suicide in the intervening years, Belezarian said.
The hearing is scheduled to continue Monday with testimony from one of Fredette's accusers in 1974.

ALLEGED VICTIMS TAKE THE STAND \ TWO MEN TESTIFY AT FREDETTE
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
June 20, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - Two men testified in Superior Court yesterday they were sexually assaulted by the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette 20 years ago while they were residents of Come Alive Inc., a halfway house for delinquent youths.
The testimony, in the fourth day of a hearing to determine whether child sexual assault charges against Fredette would be dropped, was the first from Fredette's alleged victims.
The two men, Dana Vyska of Pittsfield and Gary M. Melanson, an inmate at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction, said they were too humiliated by their experiences to complain about them immediately. Instead, it was not until after they had left Come Alive that they told about what had happened to them.
Vyska said he first told his former foster parents, Henry and Maryann Friedland of Brookfield. He said he told his wife about the alleged assault soon after he was married, in 1978.
Vyska said it was not until 1992, after seeing news accounts of the arrest on child rape charges of James R. Porter, a former Roman Catholic Priest of the Diocese of Fall River, that he went public with his story.
The news accounts, he said, brought back vivid memories of his sexual experience with Fredette. He said he telephoned a radio station in Albany, N.Y. to tell them about Fredette and the Come Alive program in Worcester.
"I just wanted to let them know there was another one (priest)," he said. Vyska said he was also interviewed by a Telegram & Gazette reporter and Worcester police detectives about his allegations.
Melanson, who wore handcuffs throughout his testimony, said he was first assaulted by Fredette when he was "13 or 14 years old" and a resident at the Come Alive house, 13 Channing St.
Melanson said he had been at the group home about two weeks when he was assaulted for the first time.
It was late at night, he said, and he was in his room coming down from an LSD trip.
"Father Joe came up to the room and he picked me up and brought me downstairs into his office," Melanson said. Melanson said he had taken the drug some hours before and it had worn off enough when the assault occurred, so that he was coherent and aware of what was happening.
Melanson said he did not tell anyone what had occurred at first. He had later actually denied any assault had occurred when asked by Worcester Police Detective Thomas Belezarian in an interview at the Worcester apartment of Melanson's mother.
"You know, I was 14 years old," he said. "I wasn't going to say that in front of my mother. I didn't want to be branded as a homosexual."
He said he began to talk about the alleged assaults during group psychotherapy sessions in 1985 and 1986.
"I went to counseling 1 1/2 hours, twice a week," he said. "I had breakdowns in group over it."
Melanson said he kept up a correspondence with Fredette in the 1980s and in 1977 traveled with a female companion to Melbourne, Quebec, where Fredette was living at the time. Melanson said he had gone to Canada because he was facing criminal charges locally.
"He tried something on me again," Melanson said.
Fredette came into the room where Melanson was sleeping and took him back to Fredette's bedroom, Melanson said.
"I said, "Joe what are you doing?' He broke down and started weeping."
Melanson said he left Canada and traveled to California. He was eventually arrested and incarcerated at Concord State Prison. He said he made no allegation against Fredette to the police until he was contacted by a state trooper in 1992 who was part of the latest investigation into the 20-year-old allegations.
That 1992 investigation and accompanying news coverage caused an abrupt change in the small community of religious hermits, the Hermits of Mercy, that was founded by Fredette in Jailletville, New Brunswick.
Sister Dorothy Reed, a professed hermit and the mother superior at the Hermits of Mercy, said she first learned of allegations against Fredette Aug. 1, 1992, when she received a telephone call from a woman in Boston.
"I left him a note in his mailbox," she testified. "I said there was a message for him and I didn't like the sound of it. He left the next day for Quebec City."
Fredette, she said, was gone for three weeks and returned after a meeting of the hermitage directors.
Fredette remained at the hermitage until his first arrest Jan.13, 1994, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to face extradition proceedings.
Fredette was released on bail, she said, but returned to court Feb. 2, 1994, where he was taken into custody pending the outcome of his extradition proceedings.
Reed said that from the time the allegations surfaced in 1992, Fredette was barred by the archbishop of the Diocese of Moncton, New Brunswick, from celebrating Mass publicly.
"He was just to say (daily) Mass for persons living at Jailletville," she said.
Since his extradition to the United States, she said, the hermits have often had to travel to other areas to hear Mass.
She said Fredette is one of four hermits at the Hermits of Mercy. The others, she said, are herself, Sister Blanche Fredette, who is Fredette's mother, and The Rev. Noel Leblanc.
The hearing is expected to conclude tomorrow with additional testimony from Fredette

FREDETTE HEARING DELAYED \ WITNESS A NO-SHOW
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
June 21, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER - Superior Court Judge Diane Kottmyer issued a bench warrant yesterday for the final witness in a hearing to determine if child sexual assault charges against the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette will be dropped.
The hearing, which began last Wednesday, was to have ended yesterday with the testimony of the witness.
The witness has alleged he was sexually assaulted 20 years ago by Fredette. At the time, the man was a live-in client of Come Alive Inc., a halfway house for delinquent youths. Fredette was the founder and live-in director of Come Alive.
The witness had been in court and available to testify all day Thursday and most of Friday, but was not called to the stand. He was to have testified Monday, but notified Special Prosecutor Herbert F. Travers late Sunday that he could not appear because of a sudden dental emergency.
Travers yesterday told the court that the witness had telephoned his office Monday evening, leaving notice that he intended to testify yesterday. Travers said the witness also had arranged to be absent from work yesterday.
BENCH WARRANT
But the witness never appeared in court and Fredette's defense lawyer, Paul J. McManus, suggested a bench warrant be issued to compel the witness to appear in court.
A final Superior Court session was scheduled for 9 a.m. today to allow time for the testimony of the witness and any final remarks from the opposing lawyers.
Kottmyer has asked Travers and McManus to file any remaining papers with the court by Friday, after which she will take the matter under advisement.
The hearing was called after McManus asked that charges against Fredette be dropped.
Fredette originally was charged in May 1974 with sexually molesting boys who had been placed in his care at the Come Alive halfway house by the state Department of Youth Services.
Fredette left Worcester as police were concluding their investigation into the allegations and moved to Canada, where he applied for permission to live permanently.
CASE REOPENED IN 1992
Warrants for his arrest issued May 15, 1974, were never served since Fredette already had moved to Canada by the time the charges against him had been processed in Central District Court.
The case against Fredette was reopened in 1992. Fredette was extradited from Canada to Worcester in June of last year to stand trial.
McManus alleged in papers filed to support his motion to dismiss the charges that Fredette's constitutional rights to a speedy trial and to due process had been violated by the nearly two-decade delay between his arrest and the date of the original charges.
Kottmyer is expected to rule on McManus's motion before the beginning of the next Superior Court trial session July 3.

THIRD WITNESS TESTIFIES \ RULING DUE ON MOTION TO DROP CHARGES
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)
June 22, 1995
Author: George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER - The Superior Court trial of the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette began yesterday, 13 months after he was extradited from Canada to face child sexual assault charges here.
The charges stem from accusations first made 20 years ago when Fredette, an Assumptionist priest, was the live-in director of Come Alive Inc., a Worcester halfway house for delinquent youths.
Fredette was indicted in 1992 on charges he sexually assaulted youths who were placed in his care at Come Alive in the early 1970s by the state Department of Youth Services.OPENING REMARKS
In opening remarks, Special Prosecutor Herbert F. Travers told the jury of eight women and six men that their verdict would "write an end to a story that began nearly 25 years ago."
Travers said two of Fredette's alleged victims, Francis R. Henault and Gary M. Melanson, would testify they were sexually assaulted by Fredette when they were teen-age clients of Come Alive.
He said Worcester Police Detective Thomas H. Belezarian would testify he investigated the allegations when they were first made, then sought criminal complaints and a warrant for Fredette's arrest in 1975.
He said testimony would show that Fredette was confronted with the allegations in early 1974, not only by Belezarian, but by the chairman of the Come Alive board of directors.
"Suddenly," Travers said, "the defendant (Fredette) left. He turned up in Canada and never returned to the United States."
He said both victims had criminal records, but that "our system is built not to discriminate."
"The fact that 20 years has passed doesn't make this case any less important," he said. "Although you'll hear a lot about the passage of time ... If you are an adolescent boy who has been sexually assaulted, you are not likely to forget."
Defense lawyer Paul J. McManus told the jury that Fredette had "sacrificed" himself for Come Alive in 1974.
"But he will not allow himself to be sacrificed for Melanson and Henault," McManus said.
McManus said testimony would show that Fredette never had the opportunity to defend himself. Come Alive, McManus said, was founded by Fredette and funded mostly by the state Department of Youth Services.
McManus said former DYS Commissioner Joseph M. Leavey called Fredette to Boston in 1974 to answer allegations of sexual misconduct.
"Father Fredette denied it," McManus told the jury. "He said it didn't happen. But Leavey gave him a choice. He said if you stay at Come Alive, your funding will be cut off. Or, you can leave."
McManus said this was "no choice at all."
"He sacrificed himself for Come Alive," McManus said, and resigned as its director.
The lawyer said testimony would show inconsistencies and contradictions in the stories of the alleged victims.
1973 INVESTIGATION
Belezarian, a 27-year veteran of the Worcester Police Department, testified he first investigated allegations against Fredette in 1973, taking statements from "five or six" of the dozen Come Alive clients he interviewed. By the time his investigation was completed and an arrest warrant issued, he said, Fredette had left Worcester and was living in Canada.
"An attempt was made to extradite him then," Belezarian said. "But there was no extradition treaty and the Canadian authorities were uncooperative."
The case was eventually placed on "inactive" status. The original investigative files were subsequently lost, he said, when the Police Department was relocated to new headquarters at Lincoln Square.
He said he was asked to reinvestigate the case in 1992 when the allegations against Fredette surfaced again. The 1992 investigation included interviews with some of those he had interviewed earlier.
The 1992 indictments were based on information gathered during the second investigation, he said.
ALLEGED VICTIM
Henault, 37, of Sherborn, testified he was 14 1/2 or 15 years old when he first met Fredette in 1973. At the time, he said, he had been placed in the custody of the DYS because of a disruptive and unstable home life.
He said he has since accumulated an "extensive" criminal record, which included numerous motor vehicle offenses, car theft, assault and battery and a drug trafficking conviction.
He said he was committed to Come Alive twice. The first time was for several months in 1973.
Come Alive, he said, was home with "no bars on the windows," open doors and a relaxed environment where "so long as you did your chores, you could do pretty much want you want."
Fredette, he said, became a friend, someone to confide in and look up to. But his first stay at Come Alive ended when he broke a rule and was "kicked out."
He was incarcerated in various juvenile detention centers and in November 1973 wrote a letter to Fredette asking for readmission to Come Alive. It was during that second stay, he said, that he was assaulted by Fredette.
It occurred a few weeks after being accepted a second time, when he asked Fredette if he could talk about some personal problems. He said he went to the room that doubled as Fredette's office and bedroom.
He said Fredette offered him a beer, which apparently was laced with some type of drug that left him unable to use his limbs, then caused him to pass out.
He said that while he was still conscious, Fredette put him face down on the bed, stripped him and massaged him all over his body. He said Fredette ignored his pleas to stop.
When he awoke the next morning, he said, he was naked in bed with Fredette lying beside him. He said he yelled at Fredette that morning, "What you did was wrong."
But Fredette, he said, grabbed him and told him nobody would believe him. He said the priest threatened to have him sent away if he told what had occurred.
Henault said he ran away from Come Alive that day and walked to the DYS juvenile detention center on Belmont Street. He told officials there what had happened and asked to remain.
From there, he was transferred to another lockup at Roslindale and in April, after he tried to commit suicide by setting his cell on fire, was taken in as a foster child by a DYS consulting psychiatrist, he said.
CRIMINAL RECORD
During cross-examination, Gail M. Allard, co-defense counsel, focused on Henault's criminal record and 1974 logbooks kept by the DYS Belmont Street lockup.
Those logs, she said, do not contain a record of Henault being readmitted after he left Come Alive a second time. She introduced several court records showing convictions and charges against Henault, and asked him whether he could provide specifics about the dates of the offenses.
enault said he could only provide general outlines of the offenses, some of which he could not remember.
"I'm not denying I've been in trouble with the law," he said. "I have a lengthy criminal record and it's mostly motor vehicle (offenses)."
Allard noted that many of the lockups, but especially Roslindale, were severe "hard core" programs.
"Why did you set your cell on fire?" she asked.
Henault said he had wanted to die.
Henault is expected to resume his testimony today.