MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Jesse Bogan jbogan@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82553
ST. LOUIS • A 78-year-old St. Louis priest on trial in Colorado was sentenced this week to four years probation for being a bad influence on a teenager who’d come to him for guidance about the Catholic faith.
The Rev. Charles Manning was convicted in July on two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; he was acquitted of an additional charge of sexual assault of a minor.
Court testimony and evidence convinced the jury that Manning was guilty of giving alcohol and marijuana to the 16-year-old boy and a friend, according to a report in The Gazette, a daily newspaper in Colorado Springs. The judge in the case reportedly considered jail time for Manning but thought he’d spend all of it in a hospital wing.
Manning showed up to Thursday’s sentencing hearing in a wheelchair.
Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan, a former auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, removed Manning as pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel parish after the accusations against him were found to be credible.
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