WASHINGTON (DC)
WTOP TV
Nov. 20, 2019
By Neal Augenstein
A Catholic priest who faces more than 45 years in prison when he’s sentenced Friday for sexually abusing two girls is maintaining his innocence, telling a judge he “was too busy to do a crazy thing.”
Urbano Vazquez, 47, was found guilty of child sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances for sexually assaulting two girls from his parish — 13 and 9 years old — between 2015 and 2017, while Vazquez was an assistant pastor at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Northwest D.C.
On Friday, Vazquez will be sentenced by Circuit Judge Juliet McKenna, who oversaw his jury trial.
In a pre-sentencing memo, defense attorney Robert Bonsib asked McKenna to consider Vazquez’s lack of previous criminal record, years of service in the religious community, as well as punishment already endured.
The defense’s plea included a nine-page handwritten note from Vazquez to the judge. In the letter, Vazquez detailed his life story: from being born in Mexico, participating in volunteer work and his religious training to being ordained a priest five years ago in Pittsburgh.
After being transferred to Sacred Heart, located at the junction of the Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights neighborhoods, his duties include leading wedding masses, funerals, first communions, confirmations and hearing confessions.
However, Vazquez’s note made no mention of his victims, or the crimes he was convicted of committing.
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