The first of two criminal trials of a former priest accused of molesting more than 130 people and engaging in improper sexual conduct with a child began today at the Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge.
According to authorities, John Geoghan, 66, of Scituate, indecently touched the buttocks of a 10-year-old boy in the swimming pool of the Waltham Boys and Girls Club in the fall of 1991. At that time, Geoghan was a priest at St. Julia’s Parish in Weston.
In December 1999, Geoghan was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court, where he entered a plea of not guilty. Geoghan also faces 84 civil lawsuits from people who claimed he fondled or raped them during the 30 years he served in Boston-area parishes.
Mark Keane, 32, who said he was abused by Geoghan, told the Associated Press he couldn’t be happier to see Geoghan charged criminally.
The Archdiocese of Boston has been under attack since it became publicly known Geoghan was sent to St. Julia’s in 1984, despite that he had been removed from two other parishes for molesting children.
After being expelled from the priesthood in 1998, Geoghan was declared indigent by the state after he reported income too low to afford a private lawyer.
However, according to a report in The Boston Globe, Geoghan sold off real estate that he and his sister shared seven years ago, which could have totaled between $895,000 and $1.3 million.
Geogan’s court-appointed lawyer, Geoffrey Packard, told the Globe he was unable to estimate how much the state has spent so far to defend Geoghan. He declined any other comment on the trial.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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