Ex-New Orleans priest pleads guilty to rape and kidnapping in sexual abuse case ahead of trial

A disgraced 93-year-old New Orleans priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges involving the sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975.

A disgraced 93-year-old New Orleans priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges involving the sexual assault of a teenage boy in 1975. Lawrence Hecker, who left the ministry in 2002, had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday. Hecker’s eyes were focused on the ground as a sheriff’s deputy pushed him toward Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Nandi Campbell’s courtroom, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. Hecker entered his plea to aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape and theft before Campbell, moments before jury selection was scheduled to begin, multiple news outlets reported. Sentencing was set for December 18. He faces life in prison. The trial had been delayed for months over concerns about Hecker’s mental competency and because District Judge Ben Willard recused himself from the case, citing a conflict with prosecutors. The case was reassigned to Campbell, who ordered Hecker to undergo routine physical and psychological evaluations before the trial. A doctor confirmed that Hecker has Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, but Hecker was found competent to stand trial, according to his attorney Bobby Hjortsberg, WDSU-TV reported. A grand jury indicted Hecker last year following an investigation that revealed he had confessed to molesting multiple juveniles over his decades of service with the Archdiocese of New Orleans. But, the charges brought against him stem from a single alleged incident that happened between 1975 and 1976, prosecutors have said.