NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Nola.com [New Orleans, LA]
December 18, 2024
By Jillian Kramer
Hecker served for decades in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which has been besieged by claims of sexual abuse.
A judge on Wednesday sentenced Lawrence Hecker to mandatory life in prison following the harrowing statements of three men who say the retired Catholic priest sexually abused them decades ago.
Hecker, 93, unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Dec. 3 to raping one of those men nearly 50 years ago in a church gym, narrowly avoiding a trial set to begin that day in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. Hecker has not been charged in any other alleged instances of assault.
From the witness stand in Judge Nandi Campbell’s courtroom, the survivor at the center of the criminal case said Hecker offered to teach him wrestling moves in the weight room of St. Theresa the Little Flower in New Orleans, ahead of team tryouts at St. John Vianney Prep. “It started innocently enough,” the survivor said, until Hecker told him to get down on his hands and knees and raped him from behind.
“I tried to get up. I pulled up,” said the survivor. “I realized his left arm was over my neck. I don’t remember much after that.”
Hecker choked him until he passed out, the survivor said.
When the survivor reported the rape to his mother and the church, he was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for his “fantasy” stories, or face expulsion.
Hecker pleaded guilty as charged to first-degree rape, aggravated crime against nature, aggravated kidnapping and theft in that case.
Another survivor, who said Hecker fondled and molested him three times over a three-year period, called Hecker “an animal” and “an evil predator” who “deceived and manipulated us into believing your actions were OK.”
Hecker, the other survivor said, “robbed us of our innocence.”
A third survivor said he never reported that Hecker had molested him under the guise of a hernia exam in 1968. “My guilt all these years was not telling anyone in authority what had happened,” he said. “If only I would have told someone about you, perhaps, just perhaps, I could have saved others.”
The Times-Picayune does not typically identify survivors of sexual abuse.
Prosecutors said several men had been prepared to testify at trial that Hecker sexually abused them. The Archdiocese of New Orleans, where Hecker served, has recently been besieged by more than 600 credible claims of sex abuse by clergy as part of a its long-running bankruptcy case.
Campbell, the judge, tearfully sentenced Hecker following the men’s testimony.
“I think it’s hard for people to reach back and give of themselves,” she said. “I want to thank you for sharing your stories.
“Closure is not going to come from an apology,” Campbell continued, though Hecker had offered none. “You’re going to have to find it somewhere else. But I hope that this plea and this sentence give you some kind of closure.”
As the men spoke, Hecker sat in a wheelchair, fidgeting — twisting his fingers together, brushing his unkempt gray hair across his balding head, adjusting his thick black-rimmed glasses — often unwilling to meet the survivors’ eyes. He periodically groaned, interrupting their statements.
Claims of Hecker’s mental and physical degradation delayed his trial for nearly a year, as his attorneys argued the former priest was unable to assist in his defense. Psychiatrists deemed him competent after tests showed Hecker has mild-to-moderate dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
But Hecker’s trial was delayed yet again on Sept. 24, when Criminal District Court Judge Benedict Willard abruptly recused himself from the case, which he had presided over since Hecker’s arrest last year. Hecker’s case was reassigned to Campbell, who set the Dec. 3 trial date.
Outside the courthouse, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said, “I am in awe of the courage it took these boys, now men, some fathers, some grandfathers, to share their truth.”
Williams criticized the archdiocese, currently led by Archbishop Gregory Aymond, for sheltering and protecting Hecker and dozens of other credibly accused priests whose alleged crimes are now too old to pursue criminally. Hecker has also been credibly accused alongside dozens of others in the Archdiocese of Baton Rouge.
“A lot of people failed a lot of children in this community” and escaped prosecution, Williams argued. But, he added, Hecker “still has to answer to someone else, in terms of justice, when he meets God.”
Email Jillian Kramer at jillian.kramer@theadvocate.com.