ROCHESTER (NY)
Star-Gazette
August 3, 2005
By JEFFREY BLACKWELL
Gannett News Service
ROCHESTER - A suburban Rochester priest is accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy 50 times over nearly two years while he was a pastor at the Church of the Annunciation in northeast Rochester.
The Rev. Dennis Sewar, 54, of Spencerport, pleaded innocent Tuesday in Rochester City Court to misdemeanor charges of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. Sewar declined comment following the hearing.
But John Speranza, his attorney, said he will investigate the charges and intends to mount a defense to clear his client.
"He is strong," Speranza said of Sewar. "He denies the charges in that they never happened."
The alleged abuse occurred between October 1999 and August 2001, according to court documents. The young man told police that he and Sewar would watch baseball on Sewar's big-screen television in his private living quarters at the church rectory.