BOSTON - A judge threw out two child-rape charges against the former Catholic priest at the center of the Archdiocese of Boston sex scandal Thursday, saying that too much time had passed between the alleged assaults and the indictment.
John Geoghan, who is serving a 9- to 10-year sentence for fondling a 10-year-old boy, said 1999 charges that he twice raped another boy in the mid-1980s came after the statute of limitations had expired.
Suffolk County Judge Margaret Hinkle agreed. The county district attorney's office said it was reviewing the judge's order and had made no decision whether to appeal.
The boy in the case, now a 27-year-old mechanic with two sons, said he had not heard of the judge's decision and had no immediate comment.
Geoghan still faces a third criminal trial for abuse of a child and 80 civil lawsuits.
Since 1995, more than 130 people have alleged that Geoghan fondled or raped them during the three decades he served in Boston-area parishes. He was convicted of indecent assault in January in his first criminal trial.
The scandal in the archdiocese broke wide-open after reports that church officials had ignored warnings of Geoghan's pedophilia. Cardinal Bernard F. Law publicly apologized to Geoghan's victims and announced a revamped policy of "zero tolerance."