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THE WHOLE STORY Sister Plante's Downfall August, 2000 |
Trouble Brewing
The Explosive ConfrontationOn June 15, 1994, a meeting was arranged by Mrs. Susan Lyman, founder and at that time Vice Chairwoman of the New England Division of the American Suicide Foundation. Prior to this meeting, Mrs. Lyman sympathized with the Samaritans/FRNB, but was willing to act as a neutral mediator. The meeting was held at the office of Attorney Peter L. Paull Jr. in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was intended as a final attempt for Sister Plante, and others who were interested in settling the disagreements, to meet face to face with some of the board members from the Samaritans/FRNB. Present were:
The Samaritans/FRNB had a video camera set up and requested that the group allow the meeting to be taped. Susan Lyman and Sister Plante refused to permit this, since the Samaritans/FRNB informed her that the Ross supporters would not be allowed to have an unedited copy of the tape. The Samaritans/FRNB also asked Sister Plante and other persons present to provide proof of identity, including photo ID and social security numbers. There was no explanation for these requests. The meeting started on a note of distrust and antagonism and rapidly deteriorated from there. Mrs. Leite began the meeting by accosting Susan Lyman and saying that she was not going to answer any questions about money. "Don't you ask me about those checks," she told Mrs. Lyman fiercely. This was a striking limitation to place on a meeting that had been assembled primarily to resolve suspicions and questions concerning money. Mrs. Leite stated that all the uncashed checks from Mrs. Ross were "under her desk blotter" and that she did not intend to return any of them to the Rosses without knowing who they really were. The meeting continued under increasing tension until, according to Sister Plante, Mrs. Leite suddenly stood up from the table with a dramatic finger-pointing gesture and began to wildly harangue and accuse all of the supporters of the Rosses who were present, claiming that they were involved in "criminal activities" or "with criminal elements." She called Susan Lyman a "liar", and stated that Sister Plante was a disgrace as a nun and should be ashamed of herself. Mrs. Lyman later said of Mrs. Leite, "she was absolutely out of control." This outburst shocked the Ross supporters, who had attended the meeting in hope of resolving a misunderstanding. Mrs. Leite showed the meeting attendees a confidential letter that had been sent to Congressman Peter Blute by Mr. Florino requesting his help in resolving the issues between the praise campaign organizers and the Samaritans/FRNB. This letter had apparently been intercepted by Congressman Blute's Aide, Louis Cabral, and given by him to the Samaritans/FRNB, without Congressman Blute ever seeing it. Mrs. Leite then displayed the copy of Michael's poetry book that had been sent to her by Sister Plante. She ended the meeting by throwing the book of poems on the table and threatening to go to Bishop O'Malley and complain about Sister Plante's involvement with the Rosses and the poetry book's contents. Sister Plante, who had sent Mrs. Leite the book with honest and humble intentions, had no idea that Mrs. Leite would react in this fashion. Apparently, Mrs. Leite believed:
In any event, Mrs. Leite was either extremely offended by the book, or melodramatically feigned such offense as a pretext for further action against Sister Plante. No one can be certain which is the case. As a fallen-away Catholic, and a member of an evangelical Christian sect that condemns "occult" imagery much more harshly, Mrs. Leite seemingly did not understand the Church's actual position regarding Tarot cards and their pictures.
Following the meeting, Sister Plante wrote to Congressman Blute to complain about the fact that Louis Cabral had intercepted a confidential letter and forwarded it to the Samaritans/FRNB. She stated that she felt Mr. Cabral had behaved "unprofessionally." Congressman Blute never replied to Sister Plante's letter about Mr. Cabral. Meanwhile, Sister Plante and Yvonne George agreed that they should arrange to meet with the Bishop, and with Sister Plante's superior, Sister Rosemary Laliberte, and explain what was going on, before Mrs. Leite went to them with her emotional complaints. Unfortunately, they didn't realize that the Samaritans/FRNB would get there ahead of them. The Meeting With Bishop O'MalleyOn July 19, 1994, representatives of the Fall River Samaritans arranged a meeting with Bishop O'Malley, head of the Fall River Diocese. In attendance at this meeting were:
According to a deposition later taken from Barbara Mackowski, the Bishop told the group that "he could do something about Sister Michaelinda, but not about anybody else involved." Mrs. Mackowski testified that Bishop O'Malley "stated that Sister Michaelinda was basically being removed from her position in a very short time." On July 20, 1994, the Samaritans/FRNB sent the Bishop a letter thanking him for taking the time to meet with them. The Bishop is a Cool CustomerSister Plante remained wholly unaware that this meeting had taken place. The allegations were never investigated, and she was not asked to explain her side of the story. On the afternoon of July 19--by coincidence, the same day as the Samaritans/FRNB's meeting--Sister Plante and Yvonne George met with the Bishop to discuss the whole situation, including Sister Plante's concerns about threatening phone calls from Samaritans/FRNB Board members and notes she was receiving warning her to leave the Samaritans/FRNB alone. The Bishop told her that he had no idea who the Samaritans/FRNB were, and feigned complete ignorance of the entire story. He indicated to Sister Plante that he would contact the Samaritans/FRNB and try to rectify the problems. Sister Plante said that she would send him the names of references who would vouch for her integrity as an educator and a religious, and the Bishop agreed to contact these individuals. The following week, Sister Plante arranged to meet with Sister Laliberte, her immediate religious superior, to discuss the situation with the Samaritans/FRNB. According to Sister Plante, Sister Laliberte told her, "I don't see that you did anything wrong. Using a Sister of Mercy check might have been imprudent--but not wrong." Sister Laliberte never indicated to Sister Plante that she had been visited by representatives of the Samaritans/FRNB or that she had prior knowledge of the conflict. Sister Plante was sufficiently alarmed by the telephone calls she was receiving to report them to the New Bedford Police Department on July 31, 1994. Captain Lewis Silva responded to her complaint in writing on August 5, 1994, advising her to report future harassing calls to the police and to the telephone company. On August 2, 1994, Sister Plante wrote to Atty. Peter L. Paull, Jr. to advise him that since June 15 she had received over forty harassing phone calls, anonymous door-bell rings at her home and threatening letters. She asked him to put a stop to these activities. Mrs. Susan Lyman was also receiving threatening anonymous letters referring to the praise campaign and the Samaritans/FRNB at her summer home in Maine during this same period, along with harassing telephone calls that were traced to a Fall River, Massachusetts telephone booth. The Axe Falls
When Sister Plante went to her office on August 19th to return some completed typing work she had picked up before the August 15 meeting with Father Beaulieu, she found that the lock had already been changed on the door. The Diocese claimed that the lock was changed because the door was sticking, but according to Sister Plante, the lock had been completely replaced only a few months earlier and was virtually new. Sister Plante was told that the Samaritans/FRNB claimed that she had a file in her office on them, and was looking into their business. Father Beaulieu told Sister Plante that her mail had been read and that he had had one of the secretaries monitor her telephone calls. Furthermore, both Father Beaulieu and Sister Laliberte told Sister Plante that they too had been visited by representatives of the Samaritans/FRNB, although they did not specify what they had been told in those meetings. When Father Beaulieu found that Sister Plante was still in the Department of Education building on August 15 after their meeting, he harshly ordered her to "get out now!" Sister Plante was stunned by these events. She was given no warning whatsoever that there were any problems. Before the meeting on August 15, Father Beaulieu himself told Sister Plante that her job performance was excellent. She had already signed her employment contract for the coming 1994-95 academic year. The Diocese did not give Sister Plante any due process or opportunity to defend herself. She wasn't even asked any questions. Sister Plante cooperated fully with the demands for medical and psychiatric tests. The results, which are in the possession of her attorneys, showed Sister Plante to be in good physical and mental health. Absolutely no abnormalities or aberrations of any kind were found. While Sister Plante was seeing the psychiatrist who evaluated her, Dr. Maureen Malin, she was given copies of the July 20, 1994 letter of thanks the Samaritans/FRNB had written to the Bishop, and the September 30, 1993 "rough draft" from Atty. Paull. This was the first that she heard of the Samaritans/FRNB's visit to the Bishop. When Sister Plante realized that she and Yvonne George had met with Bishop O'Malley on the same day and the Bishop had pretended to know nothing of the situation or the Samaritans/FRNB, she knew that she was in very serious trouble indeed. All of these humiliations, and the indefinite "leave of absence," led Sister Plante to conclude that she was about to be terminated from her position in disgrace. Desperately attempting to salvage what she could of her forty-three-year career as an educator, Sister Plante saw no other way to save face than by voluntarily tendering her resignation. It was a bitter concession for her to make, and one that she saw as being made under extreme duress. In her resignation letter to Bishop O'Malley dated September 10, 1994, Sister Plante stated that the happiest years of her life were spent working in the Fall River Diocese. She went on to say, "knowing that you, Father Beaulieu, and Sister Rosemary allowed people (the Samaritans), who none of you really knew, to ruin the reputation of someone with fourteen years of work in the Diocese. That hurts very much." Sister Plante asked Father Beaulieu for a letter of reference so she could seek new employment. No letter of reference was or has ever been given to Sister Plante by the Diocese, or by her religious community. Sister Plante also asked to be allowed 90 days, as stipulated in her original housing contract, to find employment and a new place to live. On September 12, 1994--as soon as the Bishop received her letter of resignation--Sister Plante was evicted from the Diocese-owned rectory she occupied, effective as of that date. The Diocese later claimed that the rectory was needed to house a new priest. However, Sister Plante and another nun had occupied the rectory for some time and had been given absolutely no advance warning that they might lose their residence. It seems highly coincidental that the rectory would suddenly be needed for a priest the moment that Sister Plante had submitted a letter of resignation. Sister Plante was given no grace period to seek employment or housing, and was not even permitted to gather a picture of her deceased father or her personal belongings from her office. It finally took a letter from Patrick McCormack, Sister Plante's attorney, to Father Beaulieu before Sister Plante was allowed to retrieve her personal belongings in October, 1994--over a year later. Shunned by her religious leaders, Sister Plante was now left jobless, homeless, and with a tarnished reputation, never having had the opportunity to defend herself against any of the allegations made against her by the Samaritans/FRNB. A vowed member of a religious order, Sister Plante had devoted her entire life to the Church, and was under a vow of poverty. She did find temporary housing in an abandoned convent located in Tiverton, Rhode Island. She was unable to seek employment without a letter of recommendation from the Diocese. Ousted unjustly and alone in her quest to regain her reputation and get back her life, Sister Plante found herself with only one recourse: legal action. |
he Samaritans of Fall River/New Bedford were more than merely antagonistic toward mediation: they were actively threatened by Sister Plante's involvement. They called upon their lawyer, Attorney Peter L. Paull Jr., to contact Sister Plante. A three-page letter addressed to Sister Plante and dated September 30, 1993, typed on Atty. Paull's office letterhead but unsigned, somehow was faxed to the office of Father Richard Beaulieu, Director of Education for the Fall River Diocese and Sister Plante's professional supervisor. This letter accused Sister Plante of being a conduit for the Ross family and included threats of legal action against Sister Plante. Strangely, Sister Plante was not confronted with this letter until much later. Atty. Paull then claimed the letter was a "rough draft" that was never intended to be sent. No one knows how this "draft" arrived on the desk of Father Beaulieu. A very different letter dated October 5, 1993, was sent to Sister Plante via certified mail by Atty. Paull. This letter "politely" asked Sister Plante to have no further contact with the Samaritans/FRNB. It remains unclear what legal justification the Samaritans/FRNB had for making this request, given that so many issues remained unresolved.
When the meeting more or less adjourned, Mrs. Leite stormed angrily out of the room. Yvonne George followed, attempting unsuccessfully to reason with her. Sister Plante was reduced to tears by the aggressive accusations and hostility that she had been confronted with. Deeply shaken, Mrs. Lyman took Pamela Pollock aside, and asked if they could discuss the still unresolved issues privately. Mrs. Pollock agreed that she would stay in touch with Mrs. Lyman, but that at the moment, Mrs. Leite "needed to vent." However, when Yvonne George and David Andrews attempted to contact Mrs. Pollock shortly after the unsuccessful meeting, she responded with terse letters ordering all persons associated with the praise campaign not to contact anyone connected with the Samaritans/FRNB again on pain of legal action. After Susan Lyman began receiving unsigned harassing letters a few weeks later, she sent samples of these letters to Mrs. Pollock via certified mail. There was no reply. Mrs. Lyman sent a second certified letter containing samples of harassing letters to Mrs. Pollock, which was rejected. There was no further legitimate communication between Mrs. Lyman and the Samaritans/FRNB.
On August 15, 1994, Sister Plante was called to a meeting at the Department of Education with Father Richard Beaulieu, the Director of Education for the Diocese and her supervisor, and Sister Rosemary Laliberte, R.S.M., Sister's religious superior. Sister Plante's superiors told her that she was being placed on involuntary leave of absence because she was "stressed and tired." They also informed Sister Plante that the Samaritans/FRNB had threatened the Bishop with a lawsuit. Sister Plante was not told anything about the specific allegations made by the Samaritans/FRNB, or about their visit to the Bishop on July 19. She was ordered to submit to a variety of psychiatric and medical tests including an MRI, EKG, a complete physical, a psychiatric evaluation, and counseling, and was merely told that "the Bishop wants you to take these tests."
