Detroit-area priest pleads no contest in sex abuse case

DETROIT -- A Roman Catholic priest who admitted molesting at least a dozen boys going as far back as the 1940s pleaded no contest Friday to sexual conduct with a 13-year-old boy.

Robert Burkholder, 83, who lives in Leeward Oahu, Hawaii, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years probation. He also must register as a sex offender.

In August, Burkholder was charged with engaging in sexual conduct with the boy while the pair vacationed 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.

"While there is resolution of the case at hand, the archdiocese recognizes this is a sad and difficult time for everyone involved," Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said in a statement.

The archdiocese says Burkholder has not been defrocked, but is serving under a leave of absence and has been banned from wearing the collar and calling himself a priest.

Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan has branded Burkholder "one of the worst pedophiles we have ever had in this state."

Burkholder's attorney has said his client has dementia, a claim Duggan labeled a "sham."

"We just got carried away," Burkholder told The Detroit News of the 13-year-old boy. "He might have been lonely. And priests are lonely persons, too. We need friendships, and kids love priests. I weakened. I was looking for affection."

In an interview in August, Burkholder acknowledged misconduct in the 1940s and 1950s.

At least 30 Catholic priests in Michigan have left or been removed or suspended from duty since Jan. 1 amid sexual abuse or misconduct allegations. Three other men who once served as priests in the Detroit area also were charged in August.

In other developments related to the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church:

The Archdiocese of St. Louis placed a priest on administrative leave Friday after he was charged with felony sodomy for allegedly abusing a teenager in the late 1970s.

Prosecutors allege that the Rev. Thomas Graham sexually abused the boy -- then about 13 years old -- in a local rectory on at least one occasion between 1975 and 1978.

Graham, who was to surrender Friday, has been ordered jailed on $15,000 bond, prosecutors said.

The allegation against Graham, 68, was made public seven years ago, but he denied the charge and church leaders deemed the accusation unsubstantiated, the archdiocese said.

Graham will be kept on administrative leave from his position as a chaplain at a nursing home in south St. Louis County until his criminal case is resolved, the archdiocese said.