February 16, 2006

Jury Gets Second Reading In Former Priest's Trial

LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 2

(AP) LOS ANGELES Deliberations resume Thursday in the molestation trial of a retired Los Angeles Roman Catholic priest.

Jurors asked to again hear testimony Wednesday about Michael Wempe's purple-blue Thunderbird -- evidence critical to his defense.

Jayson B., who accuses Wempe of sexually abusing him between 1990 and 1995, testified that some of the acts occurred in the Thunderbird. But a car-leasing agent testified Wempe did not take possession of the vehicle until January 1995. The acts alleged to have occurred in the Thunderbird took place between 1990 and 1993.

Wempe has acknowledged molesting 13 boys in the 1970s and '80s, including two of Jayson's brothers, but says he is innocent in the current case.

Posted by kshaw at February 16, 2006 07:49 AM