Suspended Indianapolis priest gets home detention in teen sex abuse case

NOBLESVILLE — A decide on Wednesday sentenced suspended Indianapolis priest David Marcotte to a yr on house detention underneath a plea settlement that ends his trial on allegations he sexually abused a teenage boy six years in the past.

Throughout a listening to in Hamilton Superior Court docket, Decide Jonathan M. Brown addressed the teary-eyed mother and father of the sufferer as he accepted a plea settlement they each begged him to reject.

“Your son deserves some closure so he can put this behind him,” Brown stated, addressing the younger man’s mom and father sitting within the gallery of his court docket room. “The very last thing your son needs is for him to be discovered not responsible then stroll.”

The sufferer, now 20, lives in one other state and is attending school. In a letter to the court docket, the younger man referred to as Marcotte “the bald-headed pedophile creep within the defendant’s chair.”

“I noticed you baptizing infants, marrying younger {couples}, giving communion to each mouth within the church,” the sufferer stated within the letter. “But the entire time, you simply needed to see me, if not different boys, with out garments on.”

WRTV doesn’t establish victims of sexual abuse with out their permission.

Marcotte pleaded responsible final month to at least one depend of dissemination of matter dangerous to minors and admitted he shared lewd photos with a boy who was 14 or 15 on the time. Prosecutors, in flip, agreed to dismiss baby solicitation and vicarious sexual gratification fees.

Decide Brown handed Marcotte, 35, the utmost punishment allowed underneath the settlement. After he serves the yr of house detention, Marcotte should serve one other 18-months on probation. The decide additionally suspended a 2-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

The deal means Marcotte avoids jail and would not need to register as a intercourse offender.

Standing on the defendant’s desk, Marcotte apologized to the younger man and his household in court docket and promised to show daily by his actions that he was really sorry for what he is performed.

“it’s my intent to point out this court docket that I imply what I say,” Marcotte stated because the sufferer’s mother and father appeared on in silence.

“This complete authorized expertise has been all of the disillusionment a baby (and) younger man might ever ask for,” the sufferer stated in his letter. “Reliving this expertise by way of the lens of Indiana and Hamilton County regulation has been salt to an unstitched wound.”

Marcotte labored at St. Malachy Church and Faculty in Brownsburg when he allegedly despatched inappropriate photos and engaged in sexual conduct with the boy through social media and video chat apps.

Marcotte, ordained in 2014, was suspended on Feb. 12, 2019, simply six days after the Archdiocese of Indianapolis stated it had realized of the allegations.

A spokesman for the archdiocese stated Wednesday that Marcotte stays suspended from the ministry. The archdiocese spokesman declined to say whether or not Marcotte would have a possibility to be reinstated to the priesthood.

Marcotte additionally served at St. Martin of Excursions Parish in Martinsville; the College of Indianapolis; Roncalli Excessive Faculty in Indianapolis; and at SS Francis and Clare Parish in Greenwood.

The sufferer in his letter advised the court docket he is haunted by the abuse he suffered. He stated he is working by way of all of it and at the moment stated he’s gifted, thick-skinned and powerful.

“Molesting me was the worst mistake you’ve ever made,” the younger man stated. “If there even is a God, he deserted you a very long time in the past.”

Extra: Decide rejects plea deal for suspended Indianapolis priest in minor intercourse abuse case |Suspended Indianapolis priest avoids jail and pleads responsible in teen intercourse abuse case

Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on Twitter: @vicryc.