DUNEDIN (FL)
St. Petersburg Times
By JACOB H. FRIES
Published September 22, 2005
DUNEDIN - A 50-year-old Dunedin man who supervised teens at a local Catholic church has been arrested on charges that he offered one boy $100 to perform a sex act, Pinellas County sheriff's officials said Wednesday.
The boy, who was doing court-ordered community service at the church, rebuffed the advances, but detectives are investigating whether William Forte had or tried to have inappropriate relations with other juveniles, said sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen.
Forte was employed at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Dunedin as a facility manager, according to a spokeswoman with the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg.
Sheriff's officials said Forte also supervised the community service program at the church where he worked.
This is not the first time Forte has been accused of illicit behavior with teens. In 1992, Polk County deputies accused him of showing teens pornography, providing them with alcohol and paying them for sex, records show. He ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and received six months' probation.