ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — Former Catholic priest Patrick Wattigny, already awaiting trial on child molestation charges, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to another molestation charge involving a second accuser.
Wattigny was arrested in 2020 and charged by St. Tammany Parish with molesting a 15-year-old in 2013, while the boy attended the high school where Wattigny was serving as chaplain. That accuser is now 24, and it’s one of the most recent criminal cases of alleged child molestation by a priest in the country.
Wattigny was awaiting trial in that case when he was charged with another count of molestation against another victim this past October. On Wednesday, that second charge was consolidated with the first in a new charging document, and Wattigny pleaded not guilty.
The combined cases are being heard by St. Tammany state Judge John Keller, and a trial date was set for June 12.
WWL-TV and The Times-Picayune broke the story of allegations against Wattigny in October 2020, shortly after Wattigny allegedly admitted the abuse to the New Orleans Archdiocese. He was chaplain at Pope John Paul II High School in Slidell until the summer of 2020, when allegations of inappropriate texts with a student forced him to resign.
WWL-TV’s reporting partner on those stories, Ramon Antonio Vargas, reported for British-based news site the Guardian this past weekend that Keller had offered Wattigny a plea deal to serve three years in prison, with five years’ probation and registering as a sex offender, if he pleads guilty to molesting the first accuser.
St. Tammany Parish District Attorney spokesman Shawn Smith confirmed Keller had offered Wattigny a specific sentence if he would plead guilty to the first charge, before it became part of a new, two-count charge filed Wednesday by the DA's Office.
"Today, we met with the judge to discuss both counts and what his sentence would be," Smith said. "He is thinking about it and is supposed to let us know by Friday."
The Guardian reported Saturday that the first accuser was very unhappy with the possibility of a plea deal that would give Wattigny anything less than 10 years in prison.
Wattigny's defense attorney, Bob Stern, declined comment.
Ordained in 1994, Wattigny spent the first six years of his career working at St. Peter Catholic Church in Covington; Visitation of Our Lady in Marrero; and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Kenner.
He became the pastor at St. Benilde Parish as well as the chaplain at Archbishop Rummel High School, both in Metairie, in 2000 and remained there until June 2013.
That's when Wattigny became the pastor at St. Luke the Evangelist in Slidell, a post he held until his removal from ministry.
While pastor at St. Luke, Wattigny also served as chaplain of Pope John Paul II High School and was its president for the 2017-18 academic year.
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