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Spotlight · written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy · 2015
Scene 86 of 143 · ≈ 3 min on screen · Act two
The Boston Globe's Spotlight team pries open the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up of child abuse — one sealed record, one silenced victim at a time.
Robby's Spotlight team operates comfortably inside its own routine, prospecting a modest police-corruption story under a departing editor's cover.
Baron's outsider question exposes what the paper has never done: investigate whether Cardinal Law knowingly protected an abusive priest.
The team sets aside its own project and enters unfamiliar territory: survivor networks, a hostile plaintiff's lawyer, and a legal fight to unseal church records.
The team pays the cost of the work — hearing survivor testimony, chasing MacLeish's stonewalling, and combing church directories for a hidden pattern of reassigned priests.
The directory search and Sipe's estimate deliver what they set out for: confirmation that the abuse spans dozens, then eighty-seven, priests across Boston.
In a nearly empty Springfield courtroom, Mike watches the Globe's lawyer Albano argue for unsealing the Geoghan documents while a Herald reporter fishes for a quote.
Sacha shows Robby a map of Boston tracking priests and victims by neighborhood, and Robby recognizes Father Talbot's name from his own BC High days.
Judge Sweeney corrects the Church's lawyer for conflating the Cardinal with the Archdiocese as Garabedian bristles at being accused of smearing Law's name.
This scene
Garabedian sits on the courthouse steps, eating a packed lunch out of tupperware. Simmering.
MIKE
How you doing, Mitch?
Mike walks up, sits down.
GARABEDIAN
I’m fine.
MIKE
(pushing him)
He’s tough, that Wilson Rogers.
GARABEDIAN
He’s smug. And he’s sloppy.
MIKE
He doesn’t seem sloppy.
GARABEDIAN
You don’t know the half of it.
Trust me.
MIKE
What’s the half of it?
(then)
Tell me the half of it, Mitch.
Garabedian looks at him, wrestling with something.
GARABEDIAN
Off the record.
MIKE
Off the record.
GARABEDIAN
Three years ago, I get a call from
an ex-Priest. Anthony Benzevich.
He was at Blessed Sacrament back in
‘62 and he saw Geoghan taking little
boys up to the Rectory bedroom.
Benzevich was appalled, he told the
Bishop. And the Bishop threatened
to reassign him. To South America.
MIKE
Jeez.
GARABEDIAN
Yeah. So, fast-forward 35 years,
Benzevich reads Geoghan’s been
charged with molesting more than a
hundred kids. Benzevich feels
guilty, he calls me.
MIKE
You have testimony from a priest
telling his superiors about Geoghan
in 62’?
GARABEDIAN
No, I do not. Because when I call
Benzevich in to give a deposition,
he shows up with a lawyer.
MIKE
Wilson Rogers.
GARABEDIAN
Suddenly, Father Benzevich has a
foggy memory. Can’t remember
anything. He’s useless. So I go
back to work, I forget about it,
whatever. Until about a year ago. I
find an article about a priest who
warned church officials about
Geoghan.
MIKE
(stunned)
Benzevich went to the press.
GARABEDIAN
Local paper, Patriot Ledger, nobody
saw it. But now I got Benzevich on
record, so I file a motion to depose
him a second time. And Wilson
Rogers, that smug son of a bitch, he
files a motion opposing my motion.
And that’s when I have him!
MIKE
Have him how?
GARABEDIAN
Rogers opposes my motion. So I gotta
make an argument as to why I’m
allowed to depose Father Benzevich a
second time. But now, I’m allowed
to attach exhibits. You follow what
I’m saying?
MIKE
The sealed documents...
GARABEDIAN
Yes, I can use the sealed documents
I’ve gotten in discovery, Mr.
Rezendes, the same documents your
paper is currently suing for.
MIKE
You’re shitting me.
GARABEDIAN
No, I am not shitting you. So I
pull out the 14 most damning docs
and I attach them to my motion. And
they prove everything.
About the Church, about the bishops,
about Law...
MIKE
And it’s all public? Because your
motion to oppose Rogers’ motion...
GARABEDIAN
...is public. That’s correct. Now
you’re paying attention.
MIKE
(head spinning)
So I can just walk into the
courthouse right now and get those
documents?
GARABEDIAN
No. You cannot. Because the
documents are not there.
MIKE
But you just said they’re public.
GARABEDIAN
I know I did. But this is Boston.
And the Church doesn’t want them to
be found. So they are not there.
MIKE
Mitch, are you telling me that the
Catholic Church had legal documents
removed from the courthouse?
Mitch collects his things, turns to Mike. With clarity.
GARABEDIAN
Look, I’m not crazy, I’m not
paranoid, I’m experienced. Check
the docket, you’ll see. They control
everything. Everything.
Mitch exits. Mike watches him go, UNNERVED. Is Mitch right? And was that just the mother of all tips? A beat... then Mike grabs his stuff and runs towards his car.