MISSOURI
Columbia Daily Tribune
By ALAN BURDZIAK
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
BOONVILLE — A former Catholic priest pleaded guilty Tuesday in Cooper County Circuit Court to three felonies for molesting three teenage boys in the 1980s and was sentenced to 12 years, to run concurrently, on each charge.
Gerald J. Howard, who also was known as Carmine Sita, admitted to drugging two 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old and forcing them to commit sexual acts or forced himself on them between May 1984 and September 1987. In taking a plea deal with Cooper County Prosecutor Doug Abele, Howard pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible sodomy and one count of attempted forcible sodomy and four other felony charges were dismissed. Howard admitted to giving the victims marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, LSD and psychotropic mushrooms.
Two of the boys, the 14-year-olds, Howard befriended while a priest at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Boonville. Howard met the third after he left the parish, Abele said in court. Howard would take at least two of the boys on long rides in the country without other supervision and, in the first two cases, abused them either in the car, at his apartment or in the parish’s rectory. The third boy was raped at Howard’s apartment on Third Street in Boonville, Abele said.
All three of the boys were afraid to disobey a priest and Howard, who turns 70 next year, also threatened them with physical harm if they told anyone, Abele said. Howard also outweighed each victim by about 100 pounds and was several inches taller, Abele said. This size and weight discrepancy enabled Howard to “exercise his will over” the victims, Abele said.
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