Priest’s sex abuse conviction OKd
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The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the molestation convictions of a former Koreatown Catholic priest who was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for abusing three boys between 2001 and 2004.
Fernando Lopez, who testified in his own defense, served at St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church before he was arrested.
The high court, in a unanimous opinion written by Associate Justice Joyce Kennard, overturned an appeals court ruling that the prosecutor in the case committed misconduct when she alluded to the broader molestation scandal involving clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, and when she told jurors she thought Lopez was guilty.
The Supreme Court found that the prosecutor properly urged jurors to decide the case based on the evidence, not on the basis that Lopez was a priest.
-- John Spano
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