LOS ANGELES (CA)
KTLA
By Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writer
May 5, 2006, 10:12 PM PDT
Michael Edwin Wempe, the pedophile priest whom Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said he regretted returning to the ministry, was sentenced today to three years in prison for molesting a boy more than a decade ago.
The 66-year-old retired priest was found guilty in February in the first significant criminal conviction of a Los Angeles cleric since the church's sexual abuse scandal erupted four years ago.
Wempe received the maximum sentence, but has already served 600 days, so he will spend about another year in prison.
He made no statement to the court.