VENTURA : Ex-Minister Ordered to Stay in Prison
A former Ventura minister whose child-molestation conviction was overturned by a federal judge two months ago has been ordered to remain in prison.
Robert Henry, 62, former rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, had been scheduled for a bail hearing today in Ventura County Superior Court to determine whether he should be released while awaiting a retrial on the molestation charge.
In May, U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi ruled that improper evidence had been introduced at Henry’s 1988 trial and ordered him to be retried or released.
On Wednesday, however, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of Takasugi’s order, meaning that Henry will return to a state prison farm in San Luis Obispo County until the appeals court hears the case. He had been sent to the Ventura County Jail after Takasugi’s order in May.
The Ventura County district attorney’s office wants the appeals court to reinstate Henry’s conviction on one count of child molestation involving a 7-year-old boy.
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