February 28, 2005

Former priest misses hearing for sentencing

MARYLAND
The Courier

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — The sentencing hearing for Frank Benham of Lincoln has been rescheduled for 9 a.m. Friday after Benham missed a court date Thursday morning.

Benham is to be sentenced on second- and third-degree sex charges dating to the 1970s when he was a priest at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Forestville, Md.

Benham has entered into a plea agreement with Princes Georges County Assistant State’s Attorney Renee Battle-Brooks, chief of sex and family crimes for the office, in which he admitted to one count of child abuse with a 10-year-old boy and one count of sodomy with a girl, 15.

Through his attorney, Fred Bennett, of Greenbelt Md., Benham was to seek a lesser sentence of probation or home monitoring, according to Ra-mon Korionoff, spokesman for States Attorney Glenn Ivey.

Posted by kshaw at February 28, 2005 10:59 AM