MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 09/05/2014
A Dakota County judge entered a not guilty plea for a former Hastings priest charged with repeatedly raping and molesting an altar boy from about 1989 to 1991.
The Rev. Francis Hoefgen of Columbia Heights appeared with his attorney in court Friday and waived his right to a speedy trial.
The trial is scheduled to begin May 18 in Dakota County court, with Judge Thomas Pugh presiding.
An adult man went to the Hastings Police Department in November 2013 and said he had been sexually abused by Hoefgen when the priest served at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish and the now-aduilt man had served as an altar boy. When the alleged abuse began, the boy was 9 or 10, he told police.
Hoefgen touched his genitals and penetrated him orally and anally, according to a criminal complaint in the case.
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