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	Sex Offender Counseling Decision Delayed Retired Priest, 82, Was Released from Prison on Monday By Gary V. Murray Telegram & Gazette October 20, 2006 http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061020/FRONTPAGENEWS/61020004 Worchester— A judge postponed action today on an 82-year-old retired priest's request that he not be required to undergo sex offender counseling as a condition of his probation on sexual assault charges. Dennis J. Kelly, a lawyer representing Rev. Paul M. Desilets, told Judge Jeffrey A. Locke during a hearing in Worcester Superior Court that his client is too old and sick to take part in a sex offender treatment program after his release from prison Monday. Rev. Desilets was sentenced to one year to one and a half years in state prison on May 11, 2005, after pleading guilty to charges of sexually assaulting 18 male victims from 1978 to 1984 in Bellingham. The victims were altar boys at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Bellingham at the time of the assaults and Rev. Desilets was associate pastor there. In addition to imposing the state prison sentence, Judge Timothy S. Hillman, now a federal magistrate judge, placed the retired Roman Catholic priest on probation for 10 years, to begin upon his release from custody. As conditions of probation, Rev. Desilets was ordered to undergo a sex offender evaluation and any related treatment deemed appropriate by probation officials, to have no contact with his victims, and to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under age 18. Mr. Kelly filed a motion Wednesday asking that Rev. Desilets, who plans to live in an infirmary at Les Clercs de St. Viateur, a religious community in Joliette, Quebec, Canada, be exempted from sex offender treatment because of his age and failing health. The lawyer also asked that Rev. Desilets' probation be changed from supervised to administrative, which would allow him to report to his probation officer by telephone or mail, rather than in person. Mr. Kelly told Judge Locke today that his client, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, is suffering from diabetes, anemia, cataracts, episodes of vertigo, momentary loss of consciousness and pain in his right hip and knee related to a bout with polio as a child.
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