PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
MATT GELB, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Thursday, March 26, 2015,
A state Superior Court panel upheld this week the prison sentences of a Catholic priest and former parochial-school teacher convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old altar boy from Northeast Philadelphia.
The Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero, a former St. Jerome teacher, were sentenced by a Common Pleas Court judge in June 2013 for abuse that occurred in the late 1990s.
Their lawyers appealed, contending prosecutorial misconduct and citing new evidence.
Engelhardt died Nov. 16, 2014, just weeks after his appeal was heard. He was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison for child endangerment, corruption of a minor, and indecent assault. Prosecutors said Engelhardt offered Communion wine to the boy, forced him to disrobe, and assaulted him at the church’s sacristy.
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