{"id":8539,"date":"2014-05-21T12:44:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T19:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=8539"},"modified":"2014-05-21T12:44:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T19:44:30","slug":"minnesota-priest-charged-with-sexual-assault-of-altar-boy-from-1989-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/minnesota-priest-charged-with-sexual-assault-of-altar-boy-from-1989-91\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota priest charged with sexual assault of altar boy from 1989-91"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014_Booking_Hoefgen_Front.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-8541 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014_Booking_Hoefgen_Front-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"2014_Booking_Hoefgen_Front\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>(KMSP \/ Fox 9) &#8211; Former Rev. Francis Hoefgen was charged Wednesday in Dakota County with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with allegations he sexually abused a former altar boy.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The alleged abuse occurred from the spring of 1989 to the fall of 1991 when the boy was 9 to 12 years old. The victim brought the allegations to Hastings police in November 2013, telling investigators he was sexually abused by Hoefgen multiple times as a student and altar boy at St. Boniface Church and school.<\/p>\n<p>Hoefgen, now 63, began serving as a priest in the St. Boniface Church in Hastings in 1985. In 1987, the St. Boniface parish and Guardian Angels parish were merged into the new St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish.<\/p>\n<p>Hoefgen served as a priest in Hastings until Oct. 28, 1992. He currently lives in Columbia Heights, Minn.<\/p>\n<p>LAWSUIT: &#8216;THEY TURNED HIM LOOSE&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Last November, a Minnesota man filed a lawsuit against St. John&#8217;s Abbey, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the St. Luke Institute, alleging they should have known Hoefgen was a sexual predator<\/p>\n<p>Read more: St. John&#8217;s priest admitted abuse, returned to ministry<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit alleges the defendants should have known Hoefgen was a danger to children because he sexually abused another boy at the St. Boniface Church in Cold Spring, Minn. in 1983.<\/p>\n<p>Hoefgen confessed to the St. Boniface abuse in a signed statement to police, but was not prosecuted and never served jail time because he was immediately flown to a Catholic treatment center in Maryland called the St. Luke Institute.<\/p>\n<p>After 6 months of treatment, he returned to St. John&#8217;s Abbey, but attorney Jeff Anderson said that&#8217;s not where he stayed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With the permission of these two superiors, they allowed this known and admitted offender to go to Hastings,&#8221; Anderson said.<\/p>\n<p>Those two superiors were Abbot Jerome Thiessen of St. John&#8217;s and St. Paul Archbishop John Roach, whom the lawsuit says knew of Hoefgen&#8217;s sex crime and assigned him to St. Boniface Parish in Hastings.<\/p>\n<p>St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish is no longer associated with St. John&#8217;s Abbey.<\/p>\n<p>Read entire article and comments\u2026 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myfoxtwincities.com\/story\/25577477\/minnesota-priest-charged-with-sexual-assault-of-altar-boy-from-1989-91\">Here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Minnesota priest charged with sexual assault of altar boy from 1989-91<br \/>\nKMSP \/ Fox 9<br \/>\nMay 21, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(KMSP \/ Fox 9) &#8211; Former Rev. Francis Hoefgen was charged Wednesday in Dakota County with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with allegations he sexually abused a former altar boy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,19,416],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fran-hoefgen","category-jeff-anderson","category-john-roach","wp-image-borders"],"views":1454,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8542,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions\/8542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}