Diocese Bars Priest From Duties Pending Church Molestation Trial
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LAGUNA HILLS — An Episcopal priest from Laguna Hills accused of sexual misconduct in Indiana involving a teenage boy has been formally prohibited from exercising his priestly office pending a church trial, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles said Wednesday.
The Rev. Thomas Sandy, rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church & Academy in Laguna Hills and headmaster of the parish’s kindergarten- through fifth-grade parochial school, has denied the allegations. But the diocese’s standing committee of four clergy and four lay members returned a “presentment” against Sandy on Tuesday, following a 17-month investigation. A presentment is the church’s equivalent to an indictment.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. May 16, 1997 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Friday May 16, 1997 Orange County Edition Metro Part B Page 2 Zones Desk 2 inches; 60 words Type of Material: Correction
Laguna Hills priest--An article Thursday about the Rev. Thomas Sandy inaccurately described his tenure with St. George’s Academy in Laguna Hills. Sandy left his job as headmaster about a year ago. He is rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church but was barred this week from performing priestly functions pending a church trial on charges he was involved in sexual misconduct with a teenager more than 10 years ago in Evansville, Ind.
In a letter Tuesday to St. George parishioners, the Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, bishop of the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese, which includes Orange County, said that the standing committee concluded that “the allegations are sufficiently well supported to go forth with [an ecclesiastical] trial.” No trial date has been set. In the meantime, Sandy will remain on full salary and benefits.
According to the diocese, Sandy was accused in December 1995 of having been involved in sexual misconduct 13 years earlier involving a then-teenage boy.
Borsch assured parishioners at St. George that “no children of the age of students at St. George’s Academy are involved in any way in these allegations.”
Unlike the criminal justice system, the church has no statute of limitations for bringing sexual misconduct charges against a priest.
A seven-member ecclesiastical trial court, includes both clergy and lay judges, will hear the case.
If he is found guilty, the church could strip Sandy of his priesthood.
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