BOONVILLE (MO)
Missourian
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
BY Ben Nadler
BOONVILLE — A former priest accused of sexually assaulting young boys in the 1980s was in Cooper County Circuit Court on Wednesday for a hearing to decide if the statute of limitations on the alleged crimes had run out.
Gerald Howard is charged with three counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of attempted forcible sodomy and one count of kidnapping for incidents that were alleged to have occurred between 1983 and 1988. One charge of kidnapping was dropped because it was established that the alleged crime took place outside of Cooper County jurisdiction.
Howard was the priest at the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Boonville in 1983 and 1984. He was formerly a priest in New Jersey where he was charged with sexual contact with a minor in 1982 and pleaded guilty.
Barbara Dorris, outreach director at the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said earlier that Howard was placed briefly in a rehabilitation facility by church officials before he returned to the priesthood in Boonville in the fall of 1983.
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