Oregon priest convicted of abuse in jury trial

PORTLAND, Ore. — On May 16, a jury decided that a Catholic priest sexually abused two teenage boys at a state reform school in the 1970s and awarded them nearly $1.4 million.

The jury determined that Michael Sprauer molested Robert Paul and Randy Sloan at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, Ore., in the 1970s. The civil suit was the first Catholic priest sex abuse case to go to trial in Oregon and one of the few that has reached a jury anywhere in the country. The jury sided with the plaintiffs despite their juvenile criminal records, substance abuse problems and defense accusations that they were making it all up. The verdict included $185,000 in economic damages, $1 million in noneconomic damages and $200,000 in punitive damages.

Sprauer, who was first sued in 2003, faces a dozen more lawsuits by men who accuse him of molesting them at MacLaren.