New Orleans Catholic priest charged with rape may be too sick to stand trial

Accuser fears Laurence Hecker may not live long enough to stand judgment in criminal court as lawyer argues priest is a ‘vegetable’

A 92-year-old Roman Catholic priest from New Orleans who is charged with raping a teenager after strangling him unconscious is now “in and out of consciousness” himself, according to the clergyman’s defense attorney, who is seeking to postpone a trial date in the case.

The assistant district attorney who is leading the prosecution of Lawrence Hecker said on Friday he was ready to “roll [the defendant] in on a gurney” to keep a 25 March trial date in the case. But a lawyer for Hecker’s accuser said they were growing increasingly worried that the suspected serial predator’s trial would be delayed – and that he may not live long enough to ever stand judgment in a criminal court.