MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
By Stephen Montemayor Star Tribune MAY 26, 2015 — 6:02PM
A Dakota County jury on Tuesday acquitted Francis Hoefgen, a former Hastings priest, of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct following a trial on accusations of decades-old abuse.
Hoefgen, who is no longer a priest and lives in Columbia Heights, was accused of repeatedly abusing a boy who was a student at the parochial school at St. Boniface Church between 1989 and 1992. Hoefgen, 64, is one of few priests to face criminal charges for alleged sex offenses that are decades old.
Jurors deliberated about four hours before returning the not guilty verdict.
Throughout the trial, Hoefgen’s attorney, Michael Colich, questioned the reliability of the accuser’s memory and the lack of physical evidence presented.
“Simply say to yourself, where’s the evidence?” Colich said to closing arguments Tuesday.
Hoefgen’s accuser, now 36, testified last week that Hoefgen’s abuse progressed from fondling to oral and anal penetration when the man was in fourth, fifth and sixth grades at St. Boniface’s parochial school. He said “Father Fran,” as Hoefgen was called, abused him during the school year, usually after the two cleaned up after a funeral or midweek mass. The Star Tribune has not named the man during the trial because he was the victim of an alleged sexual assault.
“He liked the defendant, Father Fran. He trusted Father Fran. He came to be able to talk to Father Fran and tell him what was going on. [Hoefgen] took advantage of that,” Assistant Dakota County Attorney G. Paul Beaumaster said Tuesday.
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