PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press
BY MARK SCOLFORO
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A now-retired Roman Catholic priest was charged Monday with forcing a 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy to perform oral sex on him while counseling the fourth-grader about misbehaving on a school bus.
The state attorney general’s office accused the Rev. John Thomas Sweeney of committing felony involuntary deviate sexual intercourse at St. Margaret Mary Elementary School in Lower Burrell during the 1991-92 school year.
The boy, now 35 and serving in the Coast Guard, told investigators that after the attack Sweeney’s secretary gave him milk and cookies, prosecutors said.
“He is a hero for his service,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “Today we know him as a hero for coming forward to share his story with us.”
Defense attorney Francis R. Murrman said Sweeney, 74, “vehemently” denies the charges, noting they date back some 26 years and the details were only disclosed as Sweeney was being arraigned.
“There’s abbreviations in there, there’s dates, there’s all kinds of allegations,” Murrman said. “We don’t know if 75 percent of them are accurate, 60 percent of them are accurate or 30 percent of them are accurate.”
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