A St. Louis County judge has refused to lower bail for a former Catholic priest who was previously imprisoned and labeled sexually violent.
Fred Lenczycki of suburban Chicago was charged in February with two counts of sodomy for allegedly abusing two boys in the early 1990s at a north St. Louis County parish. He is jailed on $500,000 cash-only bond and sought an unspecified reduction.
Circuit Judge Gloria Clark Reno declined the request at a hearing Monday.
Lenczycki is 74. He was removed from the ministry in 2002, when he was charged with sexually abusing three boys in Hinsdale, Illinois, in the 1980s. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Court and church files say Lenczycki admitted abusing up to 30 boys in Illinois, Missouri and California over 25 years.
