WAUSAU (WI)
CBS 5
(AP) WAUSAU A state appeals court Tuesday upheld the 15-year prison sentence of a 77-year-old defrocked Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting two adolescent brothers in 1978 in Outagamie County.
The 3rd District Court of Appeals rejected arguments from John Patrick Feeney that the six-year statute of limitations for charging him had expired. The panel also said there was sufficient evidence that Feeney touched the boys, then aged 12 and 14, for the purpose of sexual arousal and gratification.
An Outagamie County jury convicted Feeney in February 2004 of three counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted sexual assault of a child. Feeney was parish priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom at the time.
The mother of the boys testified at Feeney's trial that she tried to go to church authorities in 1978 to report his behavior, and she also contacted a sheriff's deputy, but Feeney was never prosecuted.