"admitted allegation"?

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks, John, that explains the usage.  And I can now see the lawyer
standing behind the Cardinal (or on his tongue?).

Joel

At 3/10/2011 11:52 AM, Baker, John wrote:
>         In a civil court, a lawsuit is initiated by filing a complaint,
>which recites a number of allegations by the plaintiff.  The defendant
>responds with an answer, in which each allegation is admitted or denied
>(or some permutation thereon).  So the cardinal's usage was quite
>unexceptional in a legal context.
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>Of Joel S. Berson
>Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2011 11:28 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "admitted allegation"?
>
>At 3/9/2011 11:06 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> >By confession or independent verification.
>
>Yes, I got the intent, but part of the usage grated.  Isn't it a
>*crime* that would be admitted (confessed), not an allegation?  "I
>confess to the allegation" or I confess to the alleged crime"? (On
>second reading, establishing / verifying an allegation now sounds OK to
>me.)
>
>Joel
>
> >DanG
> >
> >On Mar 9, 2011 9:58 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      "admitted allegation"?
> > >
> >-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>--------
> > >
> > > Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia is quoted as having said, in
> > > response to the grand jury report, that  ' there were no priests in
> > > active ministry "who have an admitted or established allegation of
> > > sexual abuse of a minor against them." '
> > >
> > > NYTimes, March 9, "Philadelphia Cardinal Suspending 21 Priests", by
> > > Catharaine Q. Seelye.
> > >
> > > How does an "allegation" become "admitted"?  Or "established"?
>
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