Retired Priest’s Invasion of Privacy Conviction Reversed

Associated Press
May 3, 2018

https://apnews.com/37a7e4e2af694e5e86269024bde5e8f6/Retired-priest's-invasion-of-privacy-conviction-reversed

The Iowa Appeals Court has overturned the conviction of a retired Catholic priest who’d been accused of invading the privacy of several students in a high school restroom.

The students had complained that the Rev. Paul Monahan repeatedly entered the public restroom during a high school track meet in 2016 and looked at their genitals. Monahan’s doctor testified that Monahan’s restroom visits were necessitated by a medical condition.

The Daily Nonpareil reports that the court said in its decision released Wednesday that the students had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public bathroom. Prosecutors are mulling an appeal.

Monahan had been sentenced in February last year to 30 days in jail, suspended and a year of probation. He also was ordered to register as a sex offender.