Oral arguments in the trial of a Catholic priest and a former parish school teacher who are accused of molesting the same St. Jerome school boy in the late 1990s will begin Monday morning in Courtroom 1101 of the Criminal Justice Center, 13th and Filbert St.
Twelve jurors and six alternate jurors were selected by late Wednesday afternoon, according to online court records. Jury selection, from a pool of more than 100 persons, began Monday.
The Rev. Charles Engelhardt, an Oblate of St. Francis DeSales, and Bernard Shero are on trial on charges of endangering children, indecent assault against someone younger than 13 years old and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.
Common Pleas Court Judge Ellen Ceisler is presiding over the trial and has issued a gag order on all parties.
Shero and Engelhardt were arrested in February 2011 along with Monsignor William Lynn, the Rev. James Brennan and former priest Edward Avery.
In March 2012, days before he was to go on trial with Brennan and Lynn, Avery pleaded guilty to molesting the same boy Engelhardt and Shero are accused of abusing. Lynn, who was not charged with touching a child, was found guilty of one count of endangering a child because he had kept Avery in ministry although he was aware Avery was a molester. The jury couldn’t agree on Brennan’s guilt or innocence. He will be retried in March.
