ALFRED, Maine — A jury is continuing deliberations in the trial of a defrocked Massachusetts priest who’s accused of sexually abusing two boys in Maine in the mid-1980s.
The case went to the jury Wednesday after 76-year-old Ronald Paquin declined to testify. Deliberations resumed Thursday morning.
Two men testified they were altar boys when Paquin befriended them and invited them on trips, including visits to Kennebunkport, Maine. Both said he repeatedly assaulted them. One of them believes he was drugged.
Paquin spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for sexually assaulting an altar boy in that state. He was released in 2015, and was taken into custody in Maine last year.
He was originally charged with 31 counts in Maine, but seven counts were dismissed on Wednesday.
