MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Stephen Montemayor Star Tribune MAY 22, 2015

A former Hastings priest testified Friday that he did not sexually abuse an altar boy more than 20 years ago.

“I’ve waited 18 months for this day,” Francis Hoefgen said inside a Dakota County courtroom.

During about 25 minutes of testimony, Hoefgen, 64, of Columbia Heights, said he didn’t remember the boy who said Hoefgen abused him at St. Boniface Church in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Hoefgen faces two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and is one of few priests to face criminal charges for alleged sex offenses that are decades old. As they have all week, about a dozen supporters sat behind Hoefgen in the courtroom.

The defense’s case concluded after Hoefgen’s testimony. The jury recessed for the holiday weekend and will return Tuesday to hear closing arguments and begin deliberating.

Hoefgen kept two white…