PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times
By JON HURDLE
Published: January 14, 2013
PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic priest and a schoolteacher sexually abused a 10-year-old altar boy at different times more than a decade ago, assaulting him in a church sacristy in Northeast Philadelphia and in the back of a car, a prosecutor alleged on Monday.
In opening statements before a jury of eight men and four women in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, Evangelia Manos, an assistant district attorney, said the boy was abused first by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, a priest with the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, a teaching order, and then by Bernard Shero, a Catholic schoolteacher, during the 1998-99 school year. Ms. Manos said the boy was also assaulted by Edward V. Avery, a former priest who has admitted the abuse and is serving two and a half to five years in a Pennsylvania prison.
“He was subjected to the most vile of acts by not one but three of those who were entrusted with his care,” Ms. Manos said. She said Mr. Avery would appear as a witness for the prosecution during the trial, which is expected to last several weeks.
Father Engelhardt, 66, who wore a black jacket with a clerical collar in court, pleaded not guilty to four charges including involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault. Mr. Shero, 49, pleaded not guilty to five charges including the rape of a child and endangering the welfare of a child.
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