PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
BY MENSAH M. DEAN
Daily News Staff Writer
THREE FELONY sex charges were thrown out Thursday against Andrew McCormick – a Catholic priest arrested last month and charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 – after a dispute in court over the definition of “penetration.”
The alleged victim, now 24, testified that when McCormick was assigned to St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg, the priest straddled his chest and tried to force him to perform oral sex. But Municipal Judge Karen Yvette Simmons discharged the most serious counts: involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and felony sexual assault.
After Thursday’s preliminary hearing, Simmons let stand misdemeanor counts of indecent assault, child endangerment, corruption of a minor and indecent exposure. McCormick now has a trial date of Oct. 18 in Municipal Court on those charges.
City prosecutors quickly announced they would refile the felony charges against McCormick, 56, who dressed in his clerical collar and black uniform despite having been placed on leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
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