PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS News [Baltimore, MD]
October 22, 2023
By Jessica Macauley
Former Philadelphia priest Armand Garcia will plead guilty to sexually abusing a teenage girl in court on Monday.
Authorities arrested and charged Garcia back in 2019. He was a pastor at Saint Martin of Tours in Oxford Circle, but the alleged crime took place between 2014 and 2017 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the city’s Andorra section.
Garcia also committed unlawful conduct with the same girl in his home in Delaware County, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said. He first met the girl when she was a 13-year-old altar server at the Immaculate Heart of Mary’s Elementary School.
The archdiocese put Garcia on administrative leave when the criminal investigation began in 2018.
The DA’s Office said the girl is expected to deliver a victim impact statement in court.
