KENTUCKY
WDRB
May 11, 2017
By Gil Corsey
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — He’s both a convicted pedophile and a priest, and on Thursday Father Joseph Hemmerle was set to confess to molesting a second young boy.
“We spent weeks hammering out a plea agreement,” said Special Prosecutor Leilani Martin. “It was signed.”
It’s why Martin was stunned by the reversal in Meade County Circuit Court.
“Out of the blue, defense attorney David Lambertus decided not to go through with it — suddenly announced he was going to trial instead — and it was sort of a shock,” Martin said. “He announced it in the courtroom without his client present and just turned around and left.”
The attorney also refused to answer any questions from WDRB News outside the courthouse. The deal he turned down offered two years to serve for sex abuse and sodomy but no new prison time as Hemmerle’s already behind bars. He’s serving a 10-year sentence for child sex abuse charges dating back to the 1970s when he served at Camp Tall Trees.
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