ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Robert Patrick
POST-DISPATCH
11/17/2005
The Rev. Thomas Graham was sentenced to 20 years in prison this morning for sodomizing a young boy in the rectory of the Old Cathedral in St. Louis in the late 1970s.
But Graham is not likely to spend any time behind bars soon.
Graham was released on a $500,000 appeal bond posted by the St. Louis Archdiocese the day he was convicted of the sodomy charge and that bond will remain in effect.
Graham was not handcuffed after Circuit Judge Angela Turner Quigless sentenced him, and was scheduled to be released later in the morning.
Graham’s lawyer, Christian Goeke, vowed to appeal the case, challenging both the trial and the constitutionality of the 1969 statute used to prosecute Graham.