Baltimore priest facing sexual abuse trial is defrocked

Published: 2004-12-23

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Less than two weeks before Maurice Blackwell was to go on trial for allegedly sexually abusing a minor when he was a priest, the Baltimore Archdiocese said Blackwell has been defrocked by papal decree. "He is no longer a priest in the eyes of the church," said archdiocesan spokesman Sean T. Caine. "He cannot function as a priest publicly; he cannot function as a priest privately." Blackwell, 58, was to go on trial Jan. 3 on charges that he sexually abused Dontee D. Stokes between 1989 and 1992. Stokes was 13 years old when the abuse started and 16 when it stopped. The case made national headlines in 2002 when Stokes shot and wounded Blackwell. Later that year a Baltimore jury found Stokes not guilty of attempted murder although it convicted him of lesser gun charges. The young man said he had an "out of body" experience when he fired the gun. Caine released information about Blackwell's laicization to The Associated Press Dec. 22 in response to AP inquiries about his clerical status.

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