ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Kansas City Star
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - A trial of a Roman Catholic priest accused of sodomizing a teenage boy in the 1970s began Monday in a case that could test how well sexual abuse charges hold up decades after the alleged crime.
Rev. Thomas Graham, 71, faces one count of sodomy against a teenage boy at the rectory of St. Louis' Old Cathedral in the late 1970s.
Graham is being tried in St. Louis court. The St. Louis Archdiocese said it investigated the allegation in 1994 but could not substantiate it based on the information it had.
Graham has maintained the charge is untrue, the archdiocese said, but he was removed from active ministry when charged in November 2002. He has been living in a monitored residence.
Many Missouri prosecutors think the case could show the effectiveness of a sodomy charge decades after an alleged sex abuse crime. Standard child molestation laws require charges to be filed relatively quickly.