Sentencing of former priest Ronald Paquin postponed

By Mike Labella
Eagle Tribune
March 29, 2019

https://bit.ly/2I2EisH

Sentencing scheduled for Friday in York County, Maine, for defrocked Haverhill priest Ronald Paquin was postponed. In November, Paquin was found guilty of sexually abusing a boy from his Haverhill parish during trips to Maine in the 1980s.

Sentencing planned for Friday for former Haverhill priest Ronald Paquin has been postponed.

According to officials with the York County Superior Court in Maine, sentencing originally scheduled for March 5 was continued to March 29 for a status conference, but Paquin's defense lawyer requested another continuance, which was granted by Superior Court Justice Wayne Douglas.

Another status conference date is expected to be scheduled in about a week, court officials said.

Paquin continues to be held without bail, they said.

Last November, Paquin was found guilty of sexually abusing a boy from his Haverhill parish during trips to Maine in the 1980s.

Paquin, 76, was convicted of 11 of 24 counts of gross sexual misconduct. He was found not guilty of similar charges related to a second boy. Now grown men, both accusers testified in sometimes graphic detail during the three-day trial. The York County jury deliberated for nearly five fours over a two-day period.

Paquin, who served at St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill from 1981 to 1990, and St. Monica Church in Methuen from 1974 to 1980, was one of the priests exposed in the early 2000s by a sweeping Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse. 

Paquin pleaded guilty in 2002 in Massachusetts to raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1992, beginning when the victim was 12. He was defrocked in 2004 and imprisoned until 2015, when specialists said he no longer met the criteria to be considered sexually dangerous.

Less than two years later, he was indicted on 29 counts of gross sexual misconduct in York County. Prosecutors later added two more counts, bringing the total to 31. Seven were then dismissed during the trial. Paquin was believed to be living in a Boston homeless shelter when he was arrested in February 2017. He has been in custody at the York County Jail ever since.