Former priest's aggravated sexual assault trial ends in mistrial

By Gary Kent
Beeville Bee-Picayune
March 03, 2017

https://goo.gl/BZ6PWB

Stephen Dougherty

BEEVILLE —A former priest in a week-long trial on a charge of aggravated sexual assault learned late Friday that a seven-woman, five-man jury was not able to come up with a unanimous verdict.

Minutes after receiving a note from jurors after more than nine hours of deliberation, District Judge Starr Bauer called the jury back into the courtroom and declared a mistrial.

Bauer told the jurors, “You all worked extremely hard for your $40.”

The defendant, defrocked Catholic priest Stephen Dougherty, was met by family members and friends immediately after Bauer sent the jury home.

Testimony in the trial had started Tuesday morning in Bauer’s courtroom with Assistant District Attorney Terry Breen and San Antonio defense attorney John Penckney III calling witnesses.

The trial wrapped up just before 1 p.m. Friday after closing arguments. The jury retired to deliberate at 12:50 p.m. and jurors had sent several notes to the court saying they were unable to get the 12 votes needed for either a conviction or acquittal.

Bauer read the final note of the night at about 10 o’clock and said the jury was still coming up with a tie each time it had voted since retiring to the jury room.

Dougherty was on trial for the rape of a 13-year-old girl living on a ranch house on Dec. 16, 2011.

Bauer announced new dates for another trial, saying a pretrial hearing will be held at 9 a.m. on May 25, an announcement hearing would be held on June 8 at 1:30 p.m. and a new trial, before a new jury, is slated to begin at 9 a.m. on June 12.