Pope defrocks priest shot by 'altar boy sex victim'
A US priest facing trial next month for allegedly molesting a former
altar boy who later shot him has been defrocked by the Pope.
Maurice Blackwell (58), is scheduled to go on trial on January 3 on
four counts of child sexual abuse against Dontee Stokes.
Blackwell was shot by Stokes in May 2002, in the midst of the scandal
involving Catholic priests. In the aftermath, Baltimore prosecutors
reviewed Stokes's allegations and charged the priest with molesting the
former altar boy.
The pope decided in October to dismiss Blackwell, and the Archdiocese
of Baltimore received the official paperwork earlier this month from
the Vatican, archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said.
Blackwell's trial has been postponed five times.
Caine said the archdiocese decided then not to make a public statement
about Blackwell's defrocking out of consideration for how it could
affect potential jurors.
But after receiving media requests for information about Blackwell's
status and discussing the matter with the prosecutor's office, the
archdiocese "decided it would be prudent for us to acknowledge that the
pope has signed this decree, and it is in effect and Maurice is no
longer considered a priest in the eyes of the church," Caine said.
The alleged abuse began in 1989 and ended in 1992 - a decade before the
Baltimore barber shot Blackwell in front of the priest's home.
Blackwell has denied sexually abusing Stokes, who was a teenager at the
time.
Mark Serrano, a board member with the Survivors Network for those
Abused by Priests, described the pope's decision as "long overdue".
Blackwell was accused of sexually abusing Stokes in 1993.
Subsequently, a second person accused Blackwell of abusing him in the
early 1970s. Blackwell acknowledged a relationship had occurred with
that person, and the archdiocese removed him from the ministry in 1998.
Stokes was acquitted of attempted murder in December 2002 but was
convicted of gun charges. He testified he had an "out-of-body
experience" at the time of the shooting. He served a sentence of home
detention.
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