“Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to imagine that any court would ignore the perversion of justice it represents.”
— Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Wall Street Journal
November 10, 2026 by Mary Ann Kreitzer
This article was originally published at Les Femme — The Truth, and is reproduced here with permission of the author.
+ + +
The persecution of the Jan sixers should have taught us all a profound lesson. Plea deals are sometimes acts of manipulation to pervert justice. How many citizens were welcomed into the Capitol and then the fact that they entered the building became “proof” that they were guilty of insurrection? I think of Dr. Simone Gold who had a permit for an event on the East side of the Capitol where a stage was set up. Others including newly elected members of congress were also scheduled to speak. They were not allowed. Dr. Gold was swept into an open door by the crowd and began to give her presentation in the rotunda. What exactly was she guilty of? Nothing criminal that’s for sure! Nevertheless she was threatened with a felony conviction with 20 years of prison time. So what did she do? She pled guilty to a trumped up misdemeanor charge and spent several months in a maximum security prison.
Many pro-lifers know exactly how that works although they seldom take a plea. Denied the right to offer the defense of necessity because they acted to protect and save the lives of helpless infants in the womb, the pro-lifers are convicted of trespassing and go to jail. In 1991 I spent 24 days in the Erie County Detention Center in Buffalo with over 100 other women during the Spring of Life. We were held waiting for trial. My charge? Blocking traffic! How many people are held with exorbitant bail requirements for blocking traffic? Not to mention that out-of-town prisoners couldn’t get bail from local bail bondsmen.
Do we live in the “home of the free?” That depends on who you are. The rioters who burned and looted our cities after George Floyd died received get out of jail free cards assisted by Kamala Harris. In many blue cities, looters can steal freely with no charges as long as they stay below a certain threshold. How many rioters and looters faced charges after their rampages in Portland or Chicago or St. Louis or you-name-it cities? Can you find any?
And today? Freedom just became a little more iffy after the Democrats swept the election. Do my fellow Virginians feel safe with an Attorney General who envisioned murdering a member of the state legislature? Do the horrifying amendments to the state constitution make you feel safer?
But I didn’t start this article to talk about the Jan sixers or my own jail experience or the election. I’m thinking today of Fr. Gordon MacRae who’s languished in jail for over thirty years with more to come. Like many others, he was manipulated into taking a plea deal after the trial and pled guilty to additional charges. What would you do after being delivered what was essentially a life in prison sentence and then faced with the prospect of another grueling trial and another attack on your good name? And who will pay your attorney fees when you’ve been abandoned by your diocese? The real issue is the three declined plea deals which would have traded a short prison term for a lie — admitting you did what you didn’t do. It enrages me to hear people use the post-trial plea deal as “proof” that Fr. MacRae was guilty of sexually abusing children. It was a lie from the pit of hell.
So let’s take another look at the facts.
In 2014 journalist Ryan MacDonald wrote an article about the post-trial plea deal and said this about a SNAP member whom he knows but doesn’t name who stalked the sites of those defending Fr. MacRae:
He appears to be highly motivated, however, to bury the truth of this case under the usual toxic rhetoric and hysteria that plague the subject of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse, and prevent constructive, rational investigation.
Like many members of SNAP, that writer does not post a lot of comments so much as he posts the same comment again and again in any venue that will accept it. In the case of Father Gordon MacRae, this Toxic Avenger’s favorite comment is that MacRae “has publicly admitted to molesting children!” The claim is by no means new, but like so much of this case it has become part of a public mantra, a snowball that grew ever bigger as it rolled downhill. It is but the latest chapter in this perversion of justice.
There is extensive material on Beyond These Stone Walls about the innocence of Fr. MacRae and the kangaroo court that convicted him. “Evidence” was manufactured by the “detective,” James F. McLaughlin. The liberal judge who sentenced him, Arthur Brennan, ruled over the perversion of justice and levied what was effectively a life in prison sentence. He instructed jurors to ignore inconsistencies in the accuser’s testimony and threatened Fr. MacRae if he took the stand to defend himself.
The state was determined to get a guilty verdict whether by trial or plea. Fr. MacRae was offered three plea bargains all of which he refused. The state couldn’t understand his refusal. I do. He walked in the footsteps of Eleazar who refused to pretend to comply with the tyrant’s order to eat meat offered to idols:
21 But they that stood by, being moved with wicked pity, for the old friendship they had with the man, taking him aside, desired that flesh might be brought, which it was lawful for him to eat, that he might make as if he had eaten, as the king had commanded of the flesh of the sacrifice: 22 That by so doing he might be delivered from death: and for the sake of their old friendship with the man they did him this courtesy. 23 But... answered without delay, according to the ordinances of the holy law made by God, saying, that he would rather be sent into the other world. 24 For it doth not become our age, said he, to dissemble: whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar, at the age of fourscore and ten years, was gone over to the life of the heathens: 25 And so they, through my dissimulation, and for a little time of a corruptible life, should be deceived, and hereby I should bring a stain and a curse upon my old age ... 29 And they that led him, and had been a little before more mild, were changed to wrath for the words he had spoken.
There wasn’t even “wicked pity” for Fr. MacRae, just a demand he make their evil look good. Fr. MacRae could have been out of jail in a year, but refused to plead guilty to what he did not do. Like Eleazar he shunned the lie. He also passed polygraph tests supporting his innocence. The whole sordid tale involves the culpability of the Manchester Diocese, which issued a press release before the trial that effectively joined the attack. And when he refused to comply with the prosecutor’s insistence on obtaining a guilty verdict, the “justice” system turned ugly and demanded its pound of flesh.
What of the “victim?” You can read about him here. Thomas Grover admitted later to scamming the justice system and the diocese. He received a $200,000 settlement which he squandered on gambling, high living, and pornography. His wife left him when she found him in bed with his biological sister. Here’s just a bit about this “victim” who went first to an unscrupulous lawyer with dollar signs in his eyes before he went to the police. The Manchester diocese was paying big bucks at the time to accusers with little or no investigation of the accusations. What an opportunity to hit the jackpot!
Grover’s former wife, Trina Ghedoni, and stepson, Charles Glenn, have admitted that he was a “compulsive liar”, “manipulator”, “drama queen” and “hustler” who had a long history of lying to get what he wanted. When confronted with his lies, he “would lose his temper”, and would then admit himself into the psychiatric unit at Elliot Hospital. While seeking “help”, he would accuse others of molesting him. He accused another unnamed clergyman as well as his foster father and baby sitters when he was a child. In addition to his psychological state and alcohol and drug addiction, he had an extensive criminal history prior to making his false allegations against Father Gordon.
Reading all this is painful for those who love truth and justice. There is, however, no injustice that will not, in the end, be rectified by the Lord of Justice. Fr. MacRae has served prison ministry from the inside for over three decades. His articles about his friend and cellmate, Pornchai Max Moontri, are inspiring. How many men has Fr. MacRae saved from a further life of crime because of his faithful witness? God will reward him. I have little doubt that he has served any merited Purgatory here on earth. May God reward him for his fidelity.
Please pray for Fr. MacRae and all the evil people who conspired to rob him of his good name. May they repent and work to undo to the degree possible the murder they committed against his priesthood.
+ + +
Editor’s Note: Please see AI’s analysis of this perversion of justice in “On Father MacRae and a Question of Guilt: AI Unmasks Media Prejudice.”