CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times
By City News Service
dailybreeze.com
Posted: 08/24/2012
SANTA ANA – A former Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to molesting an altar boy in the 1990s at St. John the Baptist Church in Costa Mesa, was sentenced today to a year in jail.
Seventy-eight-year-old Denis Lyons — who left the priesthood in April 2004 — also was put on five years of formal probation. Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno, who accepted the plea agreement the defendant reached with prosecutors, also ordered Lyons to complete 400 hours of community service and register for the rest of life as a sex offender.
As a registered sex offender, there is only one nonprofit organization Lyons can do his community service with, so if that falls through then he would pay a fine instead.
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