BELOIT (WI)
Daily News
Sept. 16, 2019
By Henry Redman
After Judge William Hue read the not guilty verdict in the molestation trial of former Janesville priest William A. Nolan on Friday, the packed courthouse erupted with cries of “God is good.”
Nolan had been accused of molesting a middle school-aged altar boy while he served at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Fort Atkinson around 2007. The jury acquitted him on five counts of sexual assault of a child under 16.
In a weeklong trial that saw both the accuser and Nolan testify, the jury took four hours to decide the 66-year-old priest’s fate.
“Very, very stressful,” Nolan said about the trial. “I knew I was telling the truth. And I knew there were gaps and there were so many inconsistencies with the accuser’s stories. I felt that would eventually be discovered.”
During the trial, defense attorney Jonas Bednarek worked to poke holes in the accuser’s testimony and the prosecution’s case.
“I don’t believe any reasonable view of the evidence supports his claims,” Bednarek said in his closing remarks.
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