A suspended Indianapolis priest has avoided prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in a case alleging that he sexually abused a teenage boy.
A Hamilton County judge sentenced David Marcotte, 35, on Wednesday to one year on home detention followed by 18 months of probation, and suspended his 2 1/2-year prison sentence.
The judge accepted Marcotte’s plea agreement even though the boy’s parents begged him to reject the plea deal, under which the Catholic priest avoids prison and does not have to register as a sex offender, WRTV-TV reported.
Marcotte pleaded guilty last month to one count of dissemination of matter harmful to minors and admitted that he shared lewd images with the boy when he was 14 or 15 about six years ago. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss child solicitation and vicarious sexual gratification charges under his plea agreement.
The victim, now 20, lives in another state and is attending college. In a letter to the court, the young man called Marcotte “the bald-headed pedophile creep in the defendant’s chair.”
Marcotte worked at St. Malachy Church and School in Brownsburg when he allegedly sent the victim inappropriate images and engaged in sexual conduct via social media and video chat apps.
Marcotte was suspended by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in February 2019, days after the archdiocese said it learned of the allegations. He remains suspended from the ministry, an archdiocese spokesman said Wednesday.