Geoghan's conviction to be erased

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Yvonne Abraham
Boston Globe
Aug. 27, 2003 12:00 AM

Dismaying victims of clergy sexual abuse, prosecutors who won a guilty verdict against John Geoghan for molesting a 10-year-old boy said Tuesday his conviction will be erased because the former priest died while appealing the case.

Case law dictates that the court where Geoghan was tried will automatically be ordered to invalidate his 2002 conviction, said Emily LaGrassa, spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.

"The Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that if a defendant dies while his appeal is pending, the indictments are to be remanded to the trial court with an order that they be dismissed," she said.

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