MASSACHUSETTS
NECN
A former Roman Catholic priest who spent more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to raping an altar boy will be freed after prosecutors withdrew a request to have him civilly committed indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person.
The Essex district attorney’s office announced Friday that it had withdrawn its petition because neither expert who examined Ronald Paquin found him “sexually dangerous,” which is required under state law for civil commitment.
The now 72-year-old Paquin pleaded guilty in December 2002 to child rape charges for molesting a boy between 1989 and 1992 while assigned to a Haverhill, Massachusetts, church. The boy was 12 when the abuse started. Paquin was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. His sentence ended in May.
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