NEW YORK/MASSACHUSETTS
Albany Times Union
By Brendan J. Lyons
Published 5:38 pm, Tuesday, April 2, 2013
A Massachusetts appellate court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of a former Albany Roman Catholic Diocese priest who was convicted of raping altar boys during trips to Berkshire County in the 1980s.
Gary Mercure, 65, was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for his 2011 conviction on charges he raped two boys that he drove to Massachusetts on hiking and skiing trips. The victims were altar boys for Mercure at Our Lady of Annunciation parish in Warren County.
In his appeal, Mercure’s attorney argued that the trial judge should not have allowed the jury to hear testimony about uncharged sex crimes from the two victims raped in Massachusetts, as well as from four other alleged victims who testified about incidents of sexual abuse by Mercure between 1981 and 1993. The uncharged crimes took place in New York, where the statute of limitations time-barred any prosecution.
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