NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS and JEREMY BLACKMAN
Monitor staff
Monday, February 3, 2014
Monsignor Edward Arsenault, the former public face of the Diocese of Manchester, will plead guilty to charges he stole thousands of dollars from the church, a hospital and a colleague as the church struggled to rebound from a pervasive clergy abuse scandal.
As part of a bargain with the state, Arsenault has agreed to plead guilty this spring to three counts of theft in exchange for a minimum four-year state prison sentence, according to a court document made public yesterday.
The indictments in the case, filed in Rockingham County and Hillsborough County North superior courts, do not indicate how much Arsenault stole – or the manner in which he did so – but do establish that the amount was at least $1,500 for each count, the minimum required for a felony-level offense.
The thefts occurred between Jan. 1, 2005, and March 15, 2013, according to the indictments.
Arsenault is set to plead guilty to all three counts at an April 23 hearing in Manchester. In addition to the prison sentence, he will be ordered to pay full restitution to the victims: the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester, Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and the Estate of Reverend Monsignor John Molan, who died in 2010.
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