Former Priest From Marblehead Admits to Assault, Receives Suspended Sentence

Franklin Huntress, a former Episcopal priest from Marblehead, received a suspended jail sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to two charges of assaulting a boy 30 years ago in New Hampshire.

Huntress, 81, pleaded guilty on Friday and on Monday was sentenced to two, concurrent 12-month suspended sentences plus ordered to have no contact with any children. He must also pay $10,000 to cover counseling for the now 44-year-old victim, The Union Leader in Manchester, N.H. reported. The charges will not require Huntress to register as a sex offender.

The guilty plea in Hillsborough County Superior Court to two counts of simple assault was part of a plea agreement where Huntress saw the original charges reduced from the original charges of four counts of felonious sexual assault. Assistant county attorney Michael Zaino told the Union Leader that the victim was in agreement with the sentencing.

The sexual assault of the boy occurred on two instances in Manchester and Bedford, N.H.,first when the victim was 14 and Huntress took him from New York to an annual baseball dinner in January 1984 and in April 1985. Huntress was working at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Schuylerville, N.Y. when the assaults occurred. He was there from 1979 and 1985, according to the Saratogian newspaper.

Huntress retired in 1995, but had been working until 2001 at St. Michael’s Church in Marblehead and Holy Name in Swampscott. He was removed from the priesthood by Massachusetts Bishop Thomas Shaw in 2011,