NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times Picayune
Dec. 12, 2019
By Ramon Antonio Vargas
An Orleans Parish grand jury on Thursday handed up a child rape charge against George Brignac, the former Roman Catholic deacon who was removed from ministry decades ago amid multiple molestation accusations but still remained involved in a local parish until last year.
Brignac, 84, faces a count of first-degree rape in the newest bid from prosecutors to convict a man who decades ago beat similar allegations.
Thursday’s indictment against Brignac comes more than two months after New Orleans police arrested him on a warrant accusing him of multiple acts of abuse, including rape of an altar boy he met while teaching at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in the late 1970s. He is the first clergyman in the area to be indicted since the church’s long-simmering child molestation crisis boiled over last year, when Brignac and dozens of others were included on New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond’s list of clergy suspected of preying on minors.
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