MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times
David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 26, 2015
HASTINGS – Calling the prosecution’s case against Fran Hoefgen “a disgrace,” his attorney urged jurors Tuesday in Dakota County to find Hoefgen not guilty of charges that he sexually abused a former altar boy more than 20 years ago.
Michael Colich told jurors that police and prosecutors assumed the altar boy’s story was true and did no investigation to find evidence to support the story. In fact, the only evidence presented to the jury, Colich said, was by Hoefgen’s defense and it showed that key points of the victim’s testimony are wrong.
“How can you convict someone when there’s no evidence besides (the victim) telling us it happened,” Colich told jurors during closing arguments.
Jurors were beginning to deliberate the case in the early afternoon and will decide whether Hoefgen is guilty of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Hoefgen, 64, is accused of abusing the former altar boy between 1989 and 1992, when Hoefgen was associate pastor at St. Boniface Church in Hastings. Hoefgen is a former St. John’s Abbey monk and priest who also served at St. Boniface in Cold Spring.
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