Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Anglican and Episcopal Hagerstown, Maryland, USA · 2004

United States: Episcopal school chaplain Kenneth Behrel convicted of abusing two students, second sentence after appeal

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Episcopal priest and school chaplain, St James School

Organization

St James School, Maryland, Episcopal Diocese of Maryland

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

As ordained chaplain, Behrel held pastoral authority over students who came to him for religious counsel in a residential Episcopal school setting, using that specifically clerical access — distinct from a lay teacher or headmaster's authority — to isolate and abuse them.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2004-11-01 · conviction; appeal; second trial and sentence

Circuit Court for Washington County, Maryland. Behrel, chaplain of the Episcopal St James School from 1983 to 1986, was convicted by a jury in 2002 of sexually abusing a 14-year-old student and sentenced to 12 years; that conviction was affirmed on the merits of guilt but the sentence proceedings were revisited. A second victim's case, involving abuse in the 1980s, resulted in an Alford plea and a four-year sentence imposed in November 2004, to run consecutive to the earlier 12-year term.

Documented coercion mechanisms

chaplaincy authority over boarding-school students
access and isolation obtained through pastoral counseling role

Cited record

Sources

court record appellate opinion Behrel v. State, Nos. 750, 751, Sept. Term 2002, Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.: Appellate opinion addressing Behrel's conviction for sexual abuse of a student at St James School.
institutional reporting news report 'Former priest gets 4 years for sex abuse', Maryland Daily Record, 23 November 2004.: Report on the second sentencing, consecutive to the earlier 12-year term.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/cosa/2003/750s02.pdf Corpus classification: court-record; evidentiary role: appellate-opinion. SHA-256 2bc1b7c56e6ba8e316ed07b16d7635cf4c6393114600f9eef460a2e8ac8746e5
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://thedailyrecord.com/2004/11/23/former-priest-gets-4-years-for-sex-abuse/ Corpus classification: institutional-reporting; evidentiary role: news-report. SHA-256 499b40fc0db7f8e1aea01f75c2b881483372b64cb4d4b809c77a1aa34ab1f4f6
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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