Deposed CNY Episcopal priest receives probable 'life sentence'

BY STACI WILSON
March 25, 2011

MONTROSE - An 84-year-old deposed Episcopal priest will spend 4½ years behind bars for sexually assaulting two teenage boys more than a decade ago in his Susquehanna County home.

The sentence delivered Thursday to Ralph Johnson of Gibson Twp. is likely a "death sentence," said his attorney, John Petorak, after the hearing.

In November, Mr. Johnson pleaded guilty in Susquehanna County Court to two felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor. Mr. Johnson will serve two concurrent 4½-to-18-year sentences in a state prison.

District Attorney Jason Legg agreed to waive the five-year mandatory minimum sentences in each case but asked the court to fashion a jail term in the aggravated range. Given the fact that there were multiple victims, an aggravated sentence would "still be lenient," he said.
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Mr. Johnson was deposed in 2006 by Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams of the Central New York Episcopal Diocese after similar allegations of inappropriate conduct surfaced while Mr. Johnson was serving at a parish in Owego, N.Y.

Bishop Adams said in March 2010 that no victim ever came forward at that time to verify the allegations, but he felt the information was credible enough to merit Mr. Johnson's discipline.

While ordained, Mr. Johnson served in parishes in Buckingham, part of a Philadelphia area diocese; as well as at the New York churches of St. Paul's, Owego; Zion Church, Windsor; and St. Ann's, Afton.

Former Tier priest sentenced for sex crimes
"Justice has finally come to the victims," the Rev. David G. Bollinger said Thursday. Bollinger retired in 2009 after serving at St. Paul's in Owego from 1985 to 2005.

"The victims were courageous in coming forward in this case," he said.