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	Former Priest in Fort Worth Diocese Gets 50 Years in Second Sex-Abuse Trial By Brooks Egerton Dallas Morning News March 28, 2009 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/ stories/DN-priest_28pro.ART.State.Edition1.4ac3382.html The Rev. Thomas Teczar couldn't stomach his 25-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a child. In 2007, he persuaded a Texas appeals court to grant him a new trial. As gambles go, it was a bad one. Jurors in Teczar's second trial sentenced the notorious Catholic priest to 50 years in prison on Friday, his 68th birthday. "Victims got to celebrate," Eastland County District Attorney Russ Thomason said. "This is effectively a life sentence." Teczar is a central figure in the cover-up scandal that has cost the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese several million dollars, led to the unmasking of several other predator priests and damaged the reputation of veteran church leaders, most notably the late Bishop Joseph Delaney. The scandal began unraveling in 1998, when The Dallas Morning News discovered that Teczar had fled Texas a few years earlier after refusing to answer questions from an Eastland County grand jury. Officials there were investigating allegations that two of Teczar's neighborhood friends had molested children and that he had encouraged them to destroy photographic evidence. Delaney initially told The News that Teczar left Eastland County, about 100 miles west of Fort Worth, simply because he didn't want to work there any longer. Later, he admitted knowing about the grand jury investigation but said he'd been assured, by Teczar's lawyers, that authorities agreed to end the inquiry if the priest moved away. Eastland County authorities denied making any deal and accused the bishop, who died in 2005, of thwarting their investigation. The Texas Rangers ultimately tracked down Teczar in Massachusetts and had him arrested.
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