Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY / NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES
Waiving his right to a preliminary hearing and a jury trial, a Roman Catholic priest charged with 26 counts of molesting four altar boys chose an unusual courtroom move and asked a judge to decide his guilt or innocence.
The judge’s verdict: Guilty on all counts.
Father Andrew Christian Andersen, 34, a priest at St. Bonaventure Church in Huntington Beach since 1982, could serve up to 58 years in state prison.
“I just want to thank all of my family and friends and parishioners for their support,” Andersen said after the ruling by Orange County Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas. “I look forward to continuing with the judge’s recommendations and taking the appropriate responsibility for my actions and the opportunity for rehabilitation. . . . I feel remorse and sorrow over this whole matter.”
Andersen’s attorney, William M. Monroe, said his client took the unusual move to avoid the “circus atmosphere” of a trial and “to get it behind us, get through with the pain this has caused Father Andersen, the parish and the diocese, and get on with our lives.”
The 26 charges correspond to separate instances of alleged fondling.
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