Ex-Priest Gets Jail Term for Molesting Baby-Sitter

A former priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of children in three states was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail and 10 years of probation for molesting his children’s baby-sitter.

James Porter, 57, was convicted last month of six counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct for fondling the teen-ager on a living room couch in 1987.

Judge Kenneth Maas said he departed from state sentencing guidelines, which recommended 2 1/2 years of probation, because Porter showed “no sign of remorse, only denial.”

The former Roman Catholic priest was immediately taken to the Washington County Jail to begin serving his sentence.

“I’m glad that he’s getting some time,” said Frank Fitzpatrick of Cranston, R.I., a former altar boy who made the first public allegations against Porter and is the spokesman for a group of accusers. Prosecutors also said they were satisfied with the sentence.

The former baby-sitter, now 21, and members of her family were in the courtroom.

“There is a man in this room today with a very sick disease called pedophilia,” she told the judge. “His actions were unjust and immoral, as I was only a child and he, a man older than my own father.”

Porter declined to make a statement in court Thursday and did not testify during the trial.

Porter, who left the priesthood in 1974 and now lives in the St. Paul suburb of Oakdale, has been indicted in Massachusetts on 46 counts of molesting children in the 1960s. However, questions have been raised about the constitutionality of a Massachusetts law that stops the clock on the statute of limitations when an accused person leaves that state.

Porter also has been named in lawsuits in New Mexico and Minnesota.

Evidence of past allegations against Porter was not allowed in his trial in the baby-sitter case.