PUTNAM — Laurence LaPointe, an 81-year-old Catholic priest from Putnam, pleaded guilty November 4 in Baltimore City Circuit Court to fourth-degree sex offense and common-law assault, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced.
Judge Charles H. Dorsey III imposed a three-year prison sentence but suspended all of it, along with five years of supervised probation. The sentence therefore does not require an immediate prison term.
The probation conditions prohibit direct contact with anyone under 18, work or volunteering in educational settings involving minors, and contact with the victim. LaPointe must also undergo a psychosexual evaluation and follow recommended treatment, according to Brown’s office.
The case concerned abuse of a middle-school student at Baltimore’s Gilman School around 1976–77. Prosecutors said LaPointe, then a Diocese of Norwich priest temporarily assigned to the school, served as a chaplain and religion teacher.
The Diocese of Norwich announced in March that LaPointe, then pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Willimantic, had been placed on leave from ministry and church housing March 6. Its March announcement addressed a Connecticut allegation and a Maryland indictment; the November guilty plea resolves the Maryland criminal charges described by the attorney general.