September 14, 2017
ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call
By Laurie Mason Schroeder
Priest’s lawyer worries how he’ll handle jail.
In a decision that seemed to surprise the 67-year-old Roman Catholic priest standing before her, a Lehigh County judge on Thursday sentenced Monsignor John S. Mraz, formerly of St. Ann Catholic Church in Emmaus, to six to 23 months in jail for viewing child pornography.
Judge Maria L. Dantos rejected Mraz’s request for probation or house arrest due to his many medical ailments, but noted that Mraz’s crimes didn’t rise to the level of what other Catholic priests have been accused of in recent years.
“Any time there is a case such as this and the headlines say ‘priest arrested,’ there are visions of sexual molestation, which we don’t have here,” Dantos said.
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