Former St. George's Chaplain To Face North Carolina Charges

MIDDLETOWN, RI — Howard "Howdy" White, Jr., the former St. George's School chaplain, has been indicted by a North Carolina grand jury for sex offenses. White, 76, is currently doing time in Massachusetts for assaulting a 16-year-old boy, charges that go back to 1973. He will be brought back to North Carolina to be tried on the new charges, which allegedly involve victims he knew when he was a rector in Waynesville, a North Carolina newspaper reported this week.

According to The Mountaineer, White, 76, is being charged with first-degree forcible sex; second-degree forcible sex (four counts); indecent liberties with a child (two counts); first-degree forcible rape; and second degree forcible rape. Two victims are involved. One is male, and one is female. The female was a minor at the time.

White, a defrocked Episcopal priest, was never prosecuted for sexual misconduct in Rhode Island when he worked at St. George's School. But Massachusetts successfully convicted him for sexually assaulting a St. George's School student during two overnight trips to Boston. The student was 15, and then 16, and White was an associate chaplain when the crimes happened more than 40 years ago. The statute of limitations did not apply because Massachusetts had not yet enacted the indecent assault and battery statute, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said earlier and because White had never been "usually and publicly a resident within the commonwealth" as required by that statute.

White was sentenced to 18 months. He has served 11 months so far.

Click here for The Mountaineer's story.