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  Pedophile Ex-Priest Back in Jail in Texas

Associated Press, carried in Houston Chronicle
April 24, 2008

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5728200.html

— A former Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty in 1985 to sexually abusing 11 boys in Louisiana, in a precursor to the abuse scandal that rocked the church in 2002, was in a Texas jail Thursday, accused of violating that state's sex offender registration law.

Bond for Gilbert Gauthe, 63, was set at $200,000 after his arrest Wednesday at the Galveston Island State Park, said Capt. Donnie Head, with the La Marque, Texas, police department.

Gauthe had been living in the La Marque area as an unregistered sex offender because of a loophole in Texas law, Head said. La Marque is a Houston suburb.

Although the registration law was changed in 2005 to cover earlier sex offenders such as Gauthe, he did not register with police until last week after inquiries about the former priest were made by KTRK-TV in Houston, Head said.

Under the law, Gauthe is required to reaffirm his personal data, including his residence and employment status, every 90 days for the rest of his life, Head said.

Earlier this week, Gauthe called police as required to inform them "he'd be gone for a few days to get away from all the media attention," Head said. Police subsequently learned that Gauthe, who had listed his job as a charter bus driver, was no longer employed, leading the Galveston County district attorney to authorize an arrest warrant, Head said.

Gauthe was arrested at his motor home at the park. He was being held at the Galveston County Jail. It was not immediately clear Thursday if he had an attorney.

Gauthe, who once served in the Lafayette, La., diocese, was convicted of molesting boys beginning in the late 1970s. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but released after serving 10 years.

He moved to a small town in Polk County, Texas, and was accused of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty in 1997 to the crime of injury to a child and was put on probation.

 
 

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