Priest pleads guilty to abusing boy

Altoona Mirror
May 16, 2017

http://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2017/05/priest-pleads-guilty-to-abusing-boy/

BOSTON — A former Episcopal priest, who has been living in Bedford, Pa., has been given an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a student during trips to Boston in 1973.

Howard “Howdy” White, 75, was associate chaplain at St. George’s School in Middletown, R.I., when he took a 15- to 16-year-old boy on several overnight trips, including two to Boston where the teen was sexually assaulted. White had been accused of five counts of assault and battery.

Since moving to Bedford in 2007 until last year, White had served as a part-time replacement priest at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford. Church officials suspended him in January 2016, and Audrey Scanlan, Episcopal bishop for central Pennsylvania, formally removed White from the priesthood in October.

White’s attorney told The Boston Globe that he and prosecutors “came to an agreement on a plea and sentence that we thought was fair.”

The victim’s lawyer said his client was satisfied with the outcome.

White was scheduled to go to trial in late June.