A Cape Cod priest who was accused of two counts of rape between 2005 and 2008 has been found not guilty by a Superior Court jury. The jury deliberated for five days in total. The priest did not testify during the trial. He has been on leave from the Church since 2019.

Father waged an eight-year long battle to defend his reputation after a man in 2016 accused him of sexually abusing him as a teenager in the 1970s. From the start, the priest denied the allegation and passed a lie detector test. Civil authorities never brought criminal charges. The priest then sued his accuser in County District Court, and in 2018, a jury awarded him $13,500, finding that his accuser had interfered with his contractual duties and ability to earn a living as a priest. In 2019, the State Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.