Following the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the diocese has an established Review Board, a confidential, consultative body whose primary purpose is to assist the diocesan Bishop in deciding of a cleric’s suitability for ministry upon receipt of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, young person, or vulnerable adult. The Review Board does not investigate the credibility of an allegation if the accused priest or religious is deceased as no action can be taken in terms of that cleric’s suitability for continued ministry. The Review Board is convened following notification to the appropriate civil authority and after the diocese is advised that civil authorities will take no further action.
All matters discussed by and all information presented to the Board shall be maintained confidentially.
In every instance of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest or deacon in ministry, the Diocesan Review Board will either:
The deliberations of the Diocesan Review Board will be strictly confidential, and no detailed minutes will be taken or maintained.
The Diocesan Bishop will forward all credible allegations to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which will, in turn, refer cases to a church tribunal or retain the case and determine the future of the accused. Those clerics found to have a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor will be placed on the List of Clergy with Credible Allegations.
See below for a list of Diocesan Review Board Members and their bios.Robert B. Murrett is a professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs faculty at Syracuse University and serves as the Deputy Director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT). He is on the RAND Corporation's adjunct staff, the Institute for Defense Analyses, and chairs the MITRE Intelligence Advisory Board. Mr. Murrett also serves on the Senior Advisory Group for the Boeing Corporation's Network and Space Systems branch. He is a member of the Board for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families. He is responsible for a series of ongoing research projects between Syracuse University and the Syracuse Veterans Medical Center.
Previously, Mr. Murrett was a career intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, serving in assignments throughout the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East during his thirty-four years of duty, retiring in the grade of Vice-Admiral. His duty station included service as Operational Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Assistant Naval Attaché’ at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and Director for Intelligence, U.S. Joint Forces Command. In recent years, he also served as Vice Director for Intelligence, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of Naval Intelligence, and Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Mr. Murrett holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Buffalo and a master’s degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Deacon Mark J. Berube was a career criminal investigator (Special Agent) with the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC), retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer with 23 years of active service and has served in various assignments in New York State, Panama, Germany, Alabama, Alaska, and Missouri. During his career with the Army CID, Deacon Berube served two separate tours with the Army Military Police School, being recognized as a Subject Matter Expert in Interviews and Interrogations, Child Sexual and Physical Abuse Investigations and he was responsible for the leadership/management education of junior and senior warrant officers. Deacon Berube served as a Military Police Officer, a Special Agent, Special Agent-In-Charge, Battalion Staff Officer, and Deputy Director of the Investigations Division with the US Army Military Police School.
Deacon Berube is the Special Agent in Charge of the Syracuse Field Office, with the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) – Office of Personnel Management, supervising 21 background investigators throughout the State of New York, outside of New York City. NBIB conducts background investigations on any person requiring a security clearance or is considered for a position of trust with the United States Military or Federal Government, as a military service member, federal civil servant, or government contractor. Based on prior experiences, Deacon Berube developed an Investigative Interviewing Techniques Course, which he later relinquished to the Training Department for incorporation with the Federal Background Investigator Training Program.
Deacon Berube also serves at the Divine Mercy Parish in Central Square, NY.
Deacon Berube holds an MS degree in Business Organizational Management from the University of La Verne, La Verne, CA.
Valerie A. Brogan began working in the law enforcement profession in 1988. She retired from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department (Police Division) in 2012 and is currently the Assistant Director at Colgate University Campus Safety Department.
Ms. Brogan was a detective in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Sheriff’s Department for sixteen years. She was assigned to the Abused Persons Unit, where she was responsible for investigating sexually based offenses against children and adults, child homicides, child abuse, and domestic violence cases. Ms. Brogan was the first detective to be assigned to the Onondaga County Child Advocacy Center until her retirement in 2012.
In Ms. Brogan’s current assignment, she is responsible for conducting investigations of sexual assaults, stalking, and dating violence cases reported to have occurred on the Colgate University campus. She is also the liaison with local law enforcement on those cases where a prosecution is desired.
Catherine Diana, LCSW, has over 25 years of clinical experience in sexual abuse and maintains a private practice working with adult men and women sex offenders. Ms. Diana has also been a part-time trainer on sexual abuse at Fordham University for the past 14 years. In 1993, Ms. Diana developed an on-campus residential program at LaSalle School in Albany for adolescents, and she was the Director of the Huntington Adolescent Safe Options Treatment Program in Syracuse. She helped Elmcrest Children’s Center develop specialized treatment programs for adolescents who have sexual offending behaviors. Ms. Diana has presented over two hundred workshops and training seminars on many different topics surrounding sex offenses. She has been a consultant both nationally and internationally on adolescent sex offending behaviors and programming issues. Ms. Diana has offered her time and expertise to McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center’s Advisory Board; the Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment Committee; the Sex Abuse Study and Treatment Team (SAST); the Onondaga County Family Court Judges’ Committee; and the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office Child Abuse Response Team (CART). She has a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work from Syracuse University.
Allison Spaulding is the Vice President of Foster Care and Evidence-Based Program
Ms. Spaulding has worked with and for children and families since 2002. Responsibilities included providing home-based clinical services to at-risk children and families and clinical services to children and families impacted by sexual abuse. In 2006, Ms. Spaulding became Program Director of the Family Transitions Program, managing a community-based, specialized sexual abuse treatment program for families impacted by sexual abuse, focusing on children who sexually act out.
In 2011, Ms. Spaulding was promoted to Director of Residential and Community-Based Programming, focusing on specialized sexual abuse services. She was responsible for managing two critical care residential programs for adolescent males with trauma histories and sexual acting out behaviors. Ms. Spaulding’s responsibilities increased in 2013 in her role as director. She now oversees Elmcrest's program operations for youth residential programming and county-funded community-based programs. This entails oversight of nine “Critical Care” level residential programs, an Agency-Operated Boarding Home, a 14-bed Emergency Respite Program, a 12-bed Non-Secure Detention Center, a family visitation program, and a discharge and support services program for residential youth. She is also responsible for specialized sexual abuse services for residential and community-based services serving 72 youth and families living in Onondaga County.
Ms. Spaulding has experience co-facilitating adult sex offender treatment groups and counseling adult sex offenders. She is also a Children and Families Institute for Research, Support and Training (FIRST) trainer for Fordham University.
Ms. Spaulding has a Masters in Social Work from Syracuse University and sits on the Onondaga County District Advisory Council.