LOWELL (MA)
Boston Globe
By Peter Schworm and Melissa Hanson | GLOBE STAFF | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT AUGUST 05, 2013
LOWELL — Last November, police watched a driver cruise through a neighborhood for some 20 minutes, passing a prostitute several times to get her attention. When officers pulled the man over, he initially said he was “just driving around,” according to a police report.
But when police pressed him and suggested he was not being truthful, the man told officers he “wanted to just go home,” the report stated.
On Sunday afternoon, police had another encounter with Monsignor Arthur M. Coyle, a high-ranking official with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, this time arresting him and accusing him of soliciting a prostitute.
Coyle, 62, pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday at his arraignment in Lowell District Court. He voluntarily took a leave of absence from his position as episcopal vicar for the Merrimack region, the archdiocese said in a statement.
In that role, Coyle oversees one of five geographic regions within the archdiocese and reports directly to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley.
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