Prison Term Suspended for Priest Guilty of Abuse

By Philip P. Pan and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post
March 7, 1996

A Prince George's County judge has suspended the 16-year sentence he imposed on the Rev. Thomas S. Schaefer last year for sexually molesting altar boys, angering the priest's victims by ordering treatment for him instead of prison time.

Schaefer, 70, is scheduled to begin treatment today at St. Michaels Center in St. Louis, said his attorney, Martin Hertz. The center specializes in helping priests with psychological and substance abuse problems and is run by Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order.

"He will not have the freedom to come and go as he wants," Hertz said. "He is going to be supervised, and he is going to get the treatment he needs. . . . He still prays for [his victims], and he prays for himself."

Circuit Court Judge William B. Spellbring announced his reversal after a two-hour hearing Friday at which three of Schaefer's victims, now grown men, urged the judge to keep Schaefer behind bars.

Yesterday, the man who first accused Schaefer of abuse said the reversal was unfair and disheartening. "It is just absurd. The one positive thing that could possibly come out of this has been taken from me, from my family," said the man, a 35-year-old Baltimore executive, who asked not to be identified.

Said Tom Economus, executive director of the Chicago-based Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse Linkup: "It's a total injustice. . . . When something like this happens, most victims of any kind of abuse say, 'Well, why should we come forward?' "

Spellbring originally sent Schaefer to prison in October after the priest pleaded guilty to charges that he had abused five boys at churches in Prince George's and St. Mary's counties from 1966 to 1982. He had served less than five months before Spellbring granted his motion to reconsider the sentence.

Spellbring listed several reasons for his decision: Schaefer's age and poor health, the time that has passed since the abuses occurred and the fact that he would remain under supervision during treatment.

Attorneys at the hearing said Spellbring also said he was swayed by Schaefer's expression of remorse and his overall record in the community.

A former altar boy, Craig Johnson, said about Schaefer yesterday, "I've only seen him do good things." Johnson, 37, of Bowie, said his memories of Schaefer are all positive: the priest marrying Johnson and his wife and baptizing their son. "So I'm happy," he said of the judge's ruling. "I kind of feel bad saying that, but it's the truth."

The 35-year-old victim said the judge knew all the factors when he first sentenced Schaefer. He "knew how old [Schaefer] was when he sentenced him to 16 years. He knew he was punishing him for something that happened 20 years ago. I don't see how he can justify it."

Beverly J. Woodard, chief of the circuit division for the state's attorney's office, said she argued against the new sentence. "Four and half months is too short a time considering the damage he did to the victims and their families," Woodard said. "The victims made clear to him the pain and suffering they've gone through."

Schaefer was one of four area Roman Catholic priests who were stripped of religious authority and charged with sexual abuse in February 1995. One of the priests, the Rev. Edward T. Hartel, 59, was acquitted, and another, the Rev. Edward Pritchard, 51, pleaded guilty and received probation. The Rev. Alphonsus Smith, 71, received a 16-year sentence, and he also has asked the judge to reconsider that decision, Woodard said.