Abuse priest jailed
A retired 83-year-old Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years probation for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in 1986.
Robert Burkholder, who has admitted molesting at least a dozen boys going as far back as the 1940s, pleaded no contest in the case in Detroit yesterday.
In August, Burkholder was charged with engaging in sexual conduct with the boy while the pair holidayed in Hawaii in 1986. The trip was an eighth-grade graduation present to the boy, prosecutors said.
A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
The Archdiocese of Detroit said Burkholder had not been defrocked, but was serving under a leave of absence and been banned from wearing the collar and calling himself a priest. He now lives in Hawaii.
