Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic St. Louis County, Missouri, USA · 2019

United States: priest Fred Lenczycki sentenced for sodomy of two boys in a north St. Louis County parish

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic priest, parish assignment in north St. Louis County, Missouri

Organization

Archdiocese of St. Louis

Spiritual nexus

Lenczycki abused the two Missouri victims using the access and trust granted by his position as parish priest; church officials had moved him between dioceses (Illinois to Missouri) despite an existing abuse history, extending his access to new children under clerical authority.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2019-08-16 · guilty plea and sentencing

    St. Louis County, Missouri Circuit Court. Fred Lenczycki pleaded guilty in May 2019 to two counts of sodomy against two boys, committed 1991-1994 while assigned to a north St. Louis County parish. Sentenced August 16, 2019 to two concurrent 10-year terms. This followed an earlier 2004 Illinois conviction (five years) for abusing three boys in Hinsdale, Illinois in the 1980s, after which Lenczycki became, in 2008, the first U.S. priest civilly committed as a sexually violent person under Illinois law. No appeal of the Missouri plea and sentence has been located.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • parish and pastoral access to children
  • prior interdiocesan transfer despite known abuse history in Illinois

Primary record

Sources

national catholic press contemporaneous reporting Crux, 'Priest already deemed sexually violent sentenced again' (Aug. 16, 2019).

Reports the Aug. 16, 2019 sentencing to two concurrent 10-year terms for sodomy against two boys in St. Louis County 1991-1994, the May 2019 guilty plea, and Lenczycki's 2004 Illinois conviction and 2008 sexually-violent-person civil commitment.

legal case archive background reference Recovered Memory Project case file, 'Illinois v. Rev. Fred Lenczycki.'

Background on Lenczycki's 2004 Illinois conviction and abuse history across Illinois, Missouri, and California, corroborating the interdiocesan-transfer pattern.

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