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Rev. Joseph Towle says his testimony did not violate Catholic doctrine

By Phil Hirschkorn and Jason Carroll
CNN New York Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Jesuit priest who says a New York City teen-ager revealed to him 12 years ago he committed a murder is defending his handling of the situation, which has become the focal point of a federal court appeal by a man who says he was wrongly convicted of the slaying.

"From the beginning to the end it was the intention of Jesus Fornes to make public what he was telling to me," said the Rev. Joseph Towle. Towle sat down with CNN to discuss the case Tuesday, the day after he testified about it in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In a setting Towle described as less formal than a sacred confession, Fornes told Towle in 1989 that he and two friends -- not the ones in custody -- were responsible for the beating and stabbing of a man killed in a South Bronx park in September 1987.

"He was crestfallen and guilt-ridden, because he was allowing at that point two boys in his group who had not been present and were not responsible for the murder to take the blame for something he had done," Towle said.

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"So I advised him then that if he had the courage and the heart to do it that he should go to the court and should reveal in detail, just as he had done to me," Towle said. "His purpose in having this conversation with me was to decide what he could do publicly to exonerate these two boys who were accused in his place."

Towle, 65, a priest at St. Athanasius church in the Bronx, had met all the boys involved in the case after becoming the parish priest in 1984. The boys were 17 or 18 years old at the time of the crime.

A state jury in December 1988 had found Jose Morales and Ruben Montalvo guilty of the murder of Jose Rivera. Just before Morales' and Montalvo's sentencing a month later, Fornes came forward.

"Fornes called me. I was very close to him. We had a trusting relationship," Towle said. They spoke at Fornes' home, not at the church.

The priest maintains that neither his actions in 1989 nor his subsequent court testimony have violated any Catholic doctrine.

"There is nothing, first of all, nothing more sacred then the seal of confession," Towle said. "I did not consider this to fall under that precise seal of confession because he had not come to me explicitly seeking absolution, but to find a solution on how he could help his friends."

With Towle's encouragement, Fornes spoke to Morales' attorney and Montalvo's mother. That caused their sentencing to be postponed. Towle also accompanied Fornes to a meeting with a Legal Aid lawyer, Stanley Cohen.

In an interview with CNN, Cohen said, "The priest essentially urged him to go forward immediately 12 years ago. And if there's anyone who may have deterred that from happening, it was me." Fornes had assumed that Morales and Montalvo would be acquitted, Cohen said. There were half a dozen alibi witnesses, and the only eyewitness was the victim's girlfriend, who had been drinking at a bar, defense attorneys said.

"When they were convicted he [Fornes] was shocked," Cohen said. "He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep. He felt guilty. He wanted to clear them."

But in a hearing before the trial judge, Cohen advised Fornes not to answer questions. Fornes invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

"I was afraid a 17-year-old would have to incriminate himself in the most serious of crimes without any guarantee that the reason for him to step forward would produce the end he was after," Cohen said.

In May 1989, Morales and Montalvo were sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. State courts denied their appeals for eight years. Fornes was shot to death in 1997, the year Morales filed his appeal in federal court.

Last year in an affidavit, Towle disclosed the account Fornes gave him in 1989. Towle repeated his story Monday before U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin.

"There was no investigation whatsoever by the district attorney's office," an attorney handling Morales' appeal, Jeffrey Pittell, said in an interview with CNN.

"He [Fornes] could have been put in a lineup. The eyewitnesses to the crime could have viewed him. ... They did nothing," Pittell said.

In the Bronx Tuesday, the son of the murder victim was eager for answers.

"I just want to know what happened that day that my father passed away. I want to know the reason why," said Jose Rivera Jr. "I'm rehashing the nightmare all over again."

The judge has scheduled a July 24 conference on the case. He has until July 27 to decide whether to overturn Morales' conviction, grant him a new trial, or deny his appeal. It is unclear how the decision would affect Montalvo.

"We hope the district attorney would take an objective look at this case and dismiss the indictment," Pittell said.

Assistant Bronx District Attorney Allen Karen argued that Fornes "believed his confession was secret and privileged and could never be revealed by his priest."

Towle disagreed, saying the conversation was not "a formal confession to begin with, but an appeal to me for advice, followed by a blessing."

Towle said Fornes "went publicly and conveyed this material to the lawyers. At this point the seal of confession is not in play."

Towle said he is confident did no harm to Fornes then or now.

"Far from feeling in giving this testimony that I was doing harm to him, I was revealing to the court and the people around that this was the most redeeming moment of his life and probably the most heroic moment of his life," Towle said.