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	Priest Retried on Sex Assault Charges By Celinda Emison Abilene Reporter-News March 26, 2009 http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/mar/26/priest-being-retried-on-sexual-assault-indecency/ EASTLAND -- A Catholic priest is being retried on sexual assault and indecency charges in Eastland County. The Rev. Thomas Teczar was convicted on three counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of indecency with a child in 2007, but the conviction was overturned last fall by an appeals court. The case is being retried in 91st District Court in Eastland County with Judge Steven Herod presiding. Teczar posted a $30,000 bond in February, according to the Eastland County Sheriff's Department. As a requirement for his release, Teczar must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet on his ankle until this trial is concluded. On the second day of the trial Wednesday, Daniel Hawley, 46, who has been in prison for the past 16 years for molesting Teczar's alleged victim, testified that he never saw the priest molest the then-11-year-old boy. Hawley, who is serving a 35-year sentence for molesting the boy, said he and Teczar had a homosexual relationship during the early 1990s when Teczar was the priest at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Ranger. District Attorney Russ Thomason grilled Hawley about his relationship with Teczar, the victim and several other men. Hawley testified that he drank with Teczar and showed him photos of nude, underage boys. "He knew about your sexual abuse of children and he didn't report it?" Thomason asked Hawley. "So Father Teczar was comfortable with you having sex with young, underage boys?" "He just told me to stop," said Hawley, who initiated a letter-writing campaign from prison after Teczar was convicted in 2007, saying that the priest was wrongfully accused. During cross-examination, Teczar's attorney Robin Norris, of El Paso, asked Hawley whether Teczar had been involved in the abuse of the victim. "He was not involved in the child abuse," Hawley said. According to court documents, the victim accused Teczar of sexual assault 10 years after Hawley was convicted of molesting him. Thomason challenged Hawley's claims, asking why the victim would tell the truth about everything but alleged sexual abuse by Teczar. "So the victim was correct about everything but allegations against Teczar, right?" "Yes," Hawley said. Thomasson suggested there was a "code of silence for pedophiles." "You don't tell on someone unless they tell on you, right?" Thomason asked. "No," Hawley replied. After his 2007 conviction, Teczar was sentenced to 25 years on each sexual assault charge and 15 years on the indecency count. The terms were concurrent. Last fall, an appeals court overturned the conviction because of problems with establishing a witness as an expert and for allowing testimony about abuse allegations for which Teczar wasn't charged. Teczar served as a priest in the Worcester, Mass., diocese until he was kicked out in 1986 on allegations of misconduct with boys. He was a visiting priest in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth from 1988-93 and served in several parishes, including St. Rita's Catholic Church in Ranger, where the 11-year-old was allegedly abused in 1991. Teczar returned to Massachusetts after the abuse allegations surfaced in Texas, diocese officials have said. According to officials at the Fort Worth diocese, Teczar is a still a permanent member of the Diocese of Worcester, Mass., which has asked the Vatican to remove Teczar from the priesthood. "To our knowledge in Fort Worth, the Vatican has not acted on Bishop Robert J. McManus' request for laicization," said Pat Svacina, a spokesman for the Fort Worth diocese. "Nor is there is a specified time in which the Vatican must act." In 2005, the Fort Worth diocese settled a civil lawsuit with two of Teczar's accusers, including the one who filed the criminal complaint in Eastland County, for $4.15 million. A few months after Teczar's trial, the diocese reached an undisclosed settlement with three more men who said they were raped by Teczar about 20 years ago in Ranger. In 2008, the diocese announced another undisclosed settlement with a sixth man, who also accused Teczar of sexual abuse. In a news release issued earlier by the Diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop Kevin Vann apologized to all of the alleged victims of abuse by Teczar. "The sexual abuse of anyone, especially minors, is repulsive to me," Vann said. "It is a sin and a crime. That it is done by a priest is disheartening. It results in a tragic damage to your faith, your families and the public at large. As a priest, I am embarrassed, disheartened, appalled and angered by this behavior."
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