By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) – Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is set to be arraigned on Friday on charges that he molested a 16-year-old boy in 1974, a case that makes him the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official to be prosecuted for sexually abusing a minor.
McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, D.C., is expected to appear in a state court in Dedham, Massachusetts, after he was charged in July with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 years or older.
Each charge carries up to five years in prison and a requirement to register as a sex offender. McCarrick, 91, is expected to enter a not guilty plea and has previously said he has no recollection of committing child abuse.
He was expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood in 2019 after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults.
A lengthy Vatican report released in November 2020 found that McCarrick had risen through the church’s ranks despite persistent rumors of sexual misconduct.
McCarrick faces several civil lawsuits from men who have accused him of sexual abuse decades ago, but the statute of limitations in those cases has expired, preventing criminal charges.
But the statute of limitations in the Massachusetts case was frozen when McCarrick, a non-resident, left the state.
According to court records, the alleged victim said McCarrick, a family friend, began molesting him when he was a young boy in several states, including New York, California, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
The man told police that during his brother’s wedding reception on June 8, 1974, at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, McCarrick told him his father wanted the two of them to have talk about his misbehavior.
McCarrick groped him as they walked around campus before taking him into a small closet-like room and fondling him while saying prayers, the man told authorities.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio)
