Disgraced Priest, 93, Pleads Guilty to Rape

UPDATE Dec 3, 2024 6:27 PM CST

A disgraced 93-year-old New Orleans priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges involving the sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975. Lawrence Hecker, who left the ministry in 2002, had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday, the AP reports. Hecker entered his plea to aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape, and theft moments before jury selection was scheduled to begin, WDSU reports. Sentencing was set for Dec. 18. He faces life in prison. The trial had been delayed for months over concerns about Hecker's mental competency and because District Judge Ben Willard recused himself from the case, citing a conflict with prosecutors.

Sep 26, 2024 1:50 PM CDT

"Justice delayed is justice denied, and today, justice was unequivocally denied to those who deserve it most," Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement after a judge abruptly recused himself from the rape trial of a 93-year-old Catholic priest on what was supposed to be the first day of jury selection. The move further delays the trial of Lawrence Hecker, which Judge Ben Willard had overseen for more than a year, the Guardian reports.

• The DA's office had 11 witnesses set to testify, including the alleged victim, who said he was a high school student when Hecker choked him unconscious and raped him in a church in 1975.
• The witnesses, including several others who said Hecker molested them, "had to go through the sordid details of these abuses at the hand of this pedophile priest" as the DA's office prepared them for the trial, said Rafael Goyeneche of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans criminal justice watchdog group. "Everyone walked into court expecting that this is the day of justice, only to find out that the judge, without any advance warning, decided to transfer the case."

• The judge cited "disrespect" from the DA's office as his reason for recusal on Tuesday, WDSU reports. First Assistant DA Ned McGowan, a lead prosecutor in the case, called the move "vindictive," reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Willard and McGowan clashed in an unrelated rape case last month. Per the Guardian, after a male juror in that case allegedly commented on the looks of a female employee with the DA's office and made suggestive remarks, Willard, instead of replacing the male juror, allegedly called the woman a "distraction" and ordered her out of the courtroom. Willard also ordered bailiffs to remove McGowan from the court after McGowan asked Willard to put his reasons on the record and said the judge should recuse himself from the case.
• Hecker was charged with felonies including aggravated rape and kidnapping last year. In a statement he gave to church authorities in 1999, he admitted "overtly sexual acts" with underage boys in the 1960s and 1970s, per the Guardian. He was diagnosed as a pedophile at a psychiatric treatment facility but was allowed to continue working around children until he retired in 2002. The archdiocese didn't disclose that he'd been accused of molesting children until 2018.

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• In his statement, Williams said the unexpected recusal came soon after prosecutors were "blindsided" by Hecker's "unforeseen absence" from the courtroom. The defendant was hospitalized with a possible urinary tract infection. "Hecker might live to be 100. But I would imagine every time a trial date comes up, he is going to have some kind of ailment," said Richard Trahant, a lawyer for the alleged victim, per the Guardian. He said his client, who "put his life on hold" and traveled from out of state for the trial, was devastated by the setbacks. "This is why victims don't come forward," he said.
• The case was transferred to another judge, but no new date has been set for the trial, which has been delayed multiple times by competency evaluations. Earlier this month, a court-appointed psychiatrist found Hecker fit to stand trial despite mild dementia. In February, McGowan vowed to "roll him in on a gurney" if necessary, WWL Louisiana reported at the time.

(More priest sex abuse stories.)