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	Former Naperville Priest Won't Receive New Trial By Jennifer Golz Naperville Sun August 13, 2008 http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1104605,6_1_NA13_PRIEST_S1.article WHEATON -- A former Naperville priest and convicted child molester deemed a sexually violent person will not get a new trial. In March, a jury decided Fred Lenczycki, 64, might re-offend and committed him to the Illinois Department of Human Services as a sexually violent person. He is the first priest in the United States to be declared as such, and be civilly committed under the Sexually Violent Persons Act. The law allows prosecutors to seek civil commitment of convicted sex offenders thought to have the propensity to re-offend due to mental disorder. Although convicted of the aggravated criminal sexual abuse of three boys, ages 10 to 12, in 1984 while a priest at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church in Hinsdale, the number of alleged victims grew to an estimated total of 30 during the four-day commitment trial. Three of those allegations stem from Lenczycki's time as a pastor in the 1970s at SS Peter and Paul Church in Naperville. Four mental health experts also testified during the trial. While each had varying opinions of Lenczycki's recidivism rate, all agreed on his diagnosis of pedophilia. It is the testimony from one of those witnesses that was the basis for the defense's motion for a new commitment trial. Lawyers for Lenczycki contend Judge Bonnie Wheaton erred when the defense was not allowed to cross-examine psychologist Amy Phenix about portions of her testimony she provided as a witness for the state. They also say jurors were not instructed properly regarding that testimony when a question arose during deliberations. Tuesday, Wheaton denied the defense's motion for a new trial. While Wheaton said she did not feel either ruling was an error, if so, they were not so prejudicial as to change a new jury's ruling. "The trial Mr. Lenczycki received was a fair trial," she said. For now, Lenczycki will remain held in an IDHS treatment and detention facility in downstate Illinois. The facility is a former maximum-security prison. But the defrocked priest and his attorneys will return before the court next month to determine if he should continue treatment in an institutional setting or if he's ready for re-entry to the community. Lenczycki was an ordained Roman Catholic priest for 30 years until being removed from active ministry in 2002 after DuPage County filed its felony case against the priest. Shortly after, three men came forward to say Lenczycki also had molested them while assigned to a California parish where he was undergoing "treatment" ordered by the Joliet Diocese. Those allegations were never prosecuted. In 1997, a man identified only as John Doe filed a civil lawsuit in Will County against Lenczycki alleging the abuse of nine altar boys at St. Isaac Jogues. The Joliet Diocese settled the suit a year later for an undisclosed amount of money. Lenczycki is due back in court Sept. 25.
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