PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
JOE DOLINSKY, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Tuesday, November 18, 2014
A former Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy at a Northeast Philadelphia parish from 1998 to 1999 died Sunday, just weeks after an appeal of his conviction was heard before the state Supreme Court.
The Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 67, of Wynnewood, was in the second year of a six- to 12-year sentence at the Coal Township Prison in Northumberland County, stemming from his 2013 conviction.
Engelhardt died at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, the Associated Press reported. He had been battling heart problems and had lost 50 pounds since accusations that he molested an altar boy at St. Jerome Catholic Church first surfaced in 2009.
Engelhardt denied the charges, saying he did not remember the victim, a fifth grader.
“I’ve accepted this injustice, and I will continue to do so until it is righted,” Engelhardt said at his sentencing in June 2013.
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