PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review
December 12, 2018
By Rich Cholodofsky
The lawyer for a disgraced Catholic Diocese of Greensburg priest who pleaded guilty to molesting a Lower Burrell school student a quarter-century ago pleaded for mercy for his client before a sentencing hearing next week.
In court documents filed Wednesday, defense attorney Fran Murrman asked for no jail time for the Rev. John Thomas Sweeney.
Murrman said Sweeney, 75, is mentally fragile and, through his impending banishment from the church, understands that he will “never escape the consequences of his action.”
Sweeney pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of indecent assault in connection with what investigators said was a sexual assault against a 10-year-old boy who attended St. Margaret Mary Church school between September 1991 and June 1992.
Prosecutors said Sweeney forced the fourth-grader to perform sex acts in a conference room next to his office at the church.
Sweeney had ordered the boy to the room to be disciplined for being disruptive on a school bus, investigators said.
Afterward, a church secretary brought the boy milk and cookies, according to prosecutors.
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