CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant
David Owens
HARTFORD — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy.
The Rev. Paul Gotta, 57, is charged with second-degree sexual assault and six counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. Gotta, who had assignments at churches in East Windsor at the time of his arrest, is on leave from the Archdiocese of Hartford.
Gotta is also facing federal firearms charges. Gotta’s defense attorney is William Paetzold of Glastonbury. Debra Collins is the prosecutor. Testimony is scheduled to begin Nov. 23 in Superior Court in Hartford.
Gotta is accused of abusing a teenage boy he met through one of the East Windsor churches where he worked as a priest.
The teen was arrested in June 2013 on allegations that he tried to manufacture bombs, illegally possessed explosives, illegally possessed a silencer, made disturbing comments about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and the Boston Marathon bombing, and about his own school, Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield.
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