NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 93-year-old former Catholic priest sentenced to life in prison earlier this month for raping a teenage boy has died, Louisiana authorities and his lawyer confirmed Friday.
Less than two weeks after being sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars, Lawrence Hecker died of natural causes at 3 a.m. Thursday at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, according to Ken Pastorick, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections communications director.
Hecker had pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree rape and aggravated kidnapping shortly before jury selection for his long-delayed trial had been scheduled to begin earlier this month, with other victims prepared to testify against him.
The survivor of the assault to which Hecker pleaded guilty had said that Hecker raped him after offering to instruct him in wrestling moves ahead of tryouts for a school team in the mid-1970s.
“The only prayer I can come up with I hope he spends eternity in hell after God's judgment of him,” the survivor said in a written statement provided by his attorney, Richard Trahant.
“Now after his death I feel vindicated and free,” he said.
The Associated Press does not identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted.
Hecker's trial had been delayed for months partly because of questions around his mental competency. Hecker had suffered from dementia, his lawyer Bobby Hjortsberg said.
Hecker had been ordained as an archdiocesan priest in 1958 and remained in this position even after facing an undisputed complaint of child molestation in the late 1980s, according to court records. Hecker left the ministry in 2002.
Hecker's conviction occurred amid a wave of sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic church in New Orleans, many resurfacing from decades ago. The fallout has left the Archdiocese of New Orleans embroiled in bankruptcy negotiations.
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96
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This story has been updated to clarify that Hecker died at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center. Authorities had previously stated he died at a Baton Rouge hospital.