In an unusual ruling, Baltimore Circuit Judge John M. Glynn decided that the suspended clergyman — who was indicted this week on charges of child sex abuse that allegedly occurred more than a decade ago — need not be arrested, booked or fingerprinted, as is the customary procedure for most defendants charged in felony cases.
More Top Picks Best Segway Electric Scooters
Instead, Blackwell, 57 — who hobbled into the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse yesterday with a cane — was given a criminal summons to appear at his arraignment May 29.
He was shot three times last year in the hand and hip by former parishioner Dontee D. Stokes, 27, who was later acquitted of attempted murder charges.
“This case has a strange and tortured history,” Glynn said. “This is a very old charge at this point. Given his age and physical condition, going to a detention center could be detrimental to him.”
In a letter submitted to the court, Blackwell’s doctor, Daniel R. Howard, wrote that Blackwell suffers from several ailments, including nerve damage as a result of the shooting. He said that incarceration would “likely cause a deterioration of his medical condition.”
Glynn also noted that Stokes “is on home detention, not in a detention center.”
The judge also quashed an arrest warrant he had signed for Blackwell on Wednesday after a grand jury handed up a four-count indictment alleging that Blackwell sexually assaulted Stokes numerous times from 1989 to 1992, when Stokes was 13 to 16 years old.
The Roman Catholic priest — who was a close friend of Stokes’ family — could face up to 60 years in prison if convicted of all four counts.
Blackwell’s lawyer, Kenneth W. Ravenell, said he filed the motion requesting a summons for his client because he “is not a threat to anyone.” He said his client is innocent. “These are simply allegations and they will be proven as such at the end of the day,” Ravenell said.
Asked by the judge if Blackwell posed a danger to society, prosecutor Jo Anne Stanton said he is a “potential danger to any child under 16.”
“This should not be treated any different than any other felony case,” she argued. “Since day one, the impression has been that because of his standing in the community, he gets preferential treatment. We cannot continue to send this message.”
On May 13, Stokes shot Blackwell after the clergyman refused to apologize for the alleged abuse. Stokes was acquitted of attempted murder charges in December after telling a jury he had an “out-of-body” experience at the time of the shooting and was not responsible for his actions.
A West Baltimore barber, Stokes is serving eight months’ home detention for minor handgun charges he was convicted of in connection with the shooting.
Stokes told the grand jury this week that Blackwell sodomized him as a teen-ager, according to Stokes’ lawyer, Warren A. Brown.
He told authorities in 1993 that he was abused by Blackwell but he did not say he was raped. Prosecutors said at the time they did not have enough evidence to proceed with the case.
Blackwell, who has been suspended from his duties as a priest, refused to testify at Stokes’ trial, invoking his Fifth Amendment right. He also has declined to speak publicly since the shooting.
If the priest had been arrested yesterday, he would have received special treatment while he was being processed in jail, due to the high-profile nature of the case, said LaMont W. Flanagan, commissioner of Maryland’s pretrial detention and services division.
Blackwell also would have been placed in a holding cell apart from the general population for his safety, Flanagan said, and if he were held on bail, he would have been put in protective custody.
Since the shooting, the once-popular priest has been recuperating instead of working, his lawyer said.
In December, the Baltimore Archdiocese began the process of having Blackwell defrocked, although by church policy he continues to receive a $1,000 monthly stipend, said Stephen Kearney, a spokesman for the archdiocese.
Kearney said that the stipend will end when Blackwell is no longer a priest and that the archdiocese has requested that the Vatican revoke Blackwell’s clergy status. The archdiocese always thought the allegations against Blackwell were credible, he said.
More Top Picks Best Visual Schedules For Autism
<!– CUTLINE TEXTBlackwell
CUTLINE TEXT–>