RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) —
The state attorney general is expected to dismiss charges Wednesday against a former Roman Catholic priest who died while awaiting trial on sexual assault charges.
The Rhode Island Medical Examiner’s Office said Barry Meehan died of a heart attack on Dec. 8. He was 67.
Meehan pleaded not guilty in 2014 to five counts of first-degree sexual assault on two young men in the late 1980s and early 1990s while Meehan was a priest at parishes in Providence and Cranston.
He resigned as pastor of St. Timothy’s Church in Warwick in 2013 after state police conducted a joint investigation with the Diocese of Providence beginning in 2012. The Vatican laicized Meehan last year.
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