TEXAS
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
By Jim McBride
AMARILLO GLOBE-NEWS
A former Tulia priest has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting a young male parishioner who attended the Church of the Holy Spirit.
John Salazar, 58, pleaded guilty Monday in a Tulia court to a second-degree felony charge of indecency with a child — sexual contact. Judge Robert W. Kincaid ordered him to pay a $1,500 fine and $734 in court costs, court records show.
The case stemmed from an incident that occurred Dec. 23, 2001.
In Los Angeles, Salazar pleaded guilty in 1987 to one count of oral copulation and one count of lewd or lascivious acts with a child for molesting two altar boys, ages 13 and 14. Salazar, who was required to register as a sex offender and was banned from serving as a priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles, served three years of a six-year prison term before being sent in 1990 to a New Mexico treatment program for pedophile priests.
The Amarillo Diocese hired Salazar in 1991 and assigned him — while he was still on parole — to the Church of the Holy Spirit in Tulia, but diocesan officials said later they had received no complaints during his service with the tiny parish.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.