Lawyer Says Priest Pleaded Guilty to End Case

By Greg Moran
U-T San Diego
April 24, 2012

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/apr/24/tp-lawyer-says-priest-pleaded-guilty-to-end-case/

SAN DIEGO — A Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty on Friday to a misdemeanor charge that he groped a woman in December did so only to put the case behind him and spare the community a trial, his lawyer said Monday.

The Rev. Jose Alexis Davila, 53, was placed on three years' probation, fined $200, and ordered to do 150 hours of community service. He was also ordered to stay away from the now 20-year-old woman who initially complained that he had groped her when she visited his home on Dec. 30.

Earll Pott, one of Davila's lawyers, said Monday that the priest entered his plea under a legal provision that allows someone to plead guilty, even though the person does not admit to the truth of the charges.

The plea has the same force and effect as a standard guilty plea, according to the San Diego City Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case.

The basis for the plea was a legal stipulation — a factual agreement worked out between lawyers in a case — that said Davila unlawfully touched an intimate part of the woman's body.

Pott said that while Davila consented that the City Attorney's Office could read that stipulation into the court record, the priest contends he did not touch the woman.

The stipulation was made part of the plea agreement and is included in the official court record, according to a spokeswoman for the City Attorney's Office.