Felony Sex Charges Reinstated against Priest

Philadelphia Inquirer
October 2, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/crime_and_punishment/172298546.html

A Philadelphia judge has reinstated the felony sex abuse charges against the Rev. Andrew McCormick, the 56-year-old priest charged in July with assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 1997 when he was a priest at the St. John Cantius Church in the city’s Bridesburg section.

In August, a Municipal Court judge stunned prosecutors when she dismissed the most serious charges against McCormick at a preliminary hearing.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office appealed that decision and today Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick reinstated the felony charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and sexual assault.

McCormick faces a formal arraignment on the charges on Oct. 23 before his case gets assigned a judge for trial.

McCormick’s accuser, now 24, testified that he was an altar boy when McCormick invited him to the rectory after he served a Sunday evening Mass. After feeding the boy cookies and a soda, McCormick allegedly led the boy to his bedroom and sexually abused him.

McCormick, most recently pastor of the Sacred Heart Church in Bridgeport, Montgomery County, has been suspended from priestly duties by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He is free on $150,000 bail.

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