Connecticut Priest Gets Prison Time for Helping Teen Buy Explosives, Build Pipe Bomb

Register Citizen
March 24, 2017

http://www.registercitizen.com/general-news/20170324/connecticut-priest-gets-prison-time-for-helping-teen-buy-explosives-build-pipe-bomb

A priest from East Windsor was sentenced to 9 months in prison Friday for helping a minor purchase explosives and build a pipe bomb, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

The Rev. Paul Gotta, 58, who lived at St. Philip Church in East Windsor, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny in Hartford.

Gotta pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly and willfully distributing an explosive material to an individual under 21 in July 2013.

According to federal prosecutors, Gotta provided money and fake identification to a 17-year-old male in July 2012 to purchase a firearm in Arizona. Later that year, Gotta allegedly bought two pounds of explosives and gave them to the teen, whom he had also assisted in building a pipe bomb, the release from the U.S. attorney’s office said.