By Dale White
The Herald-Tribune
February 3, 2011
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110203/ARTICLE/102031053/-1/sports?Title=Friar-faces-more-charges-of-sex-abuse-of-teens&tc=ar
[2007 criminal complaint]
 |
A Catholic friar accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenage boy is being held in jail on additional charges.
Detectives arrested William C. Wert, 53, this week on two counts of committing a sex offense on a victim between 12 and 15. On Wednesday afternoon, a judge refused to set bail on those two counts.
Authorities have also filed eight more charges against Wert: five more counts of sex offenses against a minor and three counts of lewd and lascivious behavior with a victim between 12 and 16. Bail for each of those eight counts is $10,000.
The jail booking staff said this morning that, even if Wert came up with $80,000 for bail for most of the counts, he cannot be released because of the two charges for which no bail was set.
Weir is a friar with the Order of Carmelites and has been living in a retirement home the religious order owns in Venice while on leave of absence. In 2007, he was convicted in Washington, D.C., of simple assault after being accused of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old and put on probation.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.