Hecker died at about 3 a.m. Thursday at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, of what were described as natural causes.
NEW ORLEANS — Admitted child rapist and retired Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker has died a little more than a week after he began serving a sentence of life imprisonment, according to officials.
Hecker, 93, had pleaded guilty on December 3 to charges that he had kidnapped and raped a teenager at a New Orleans church in 1975. He had received a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment on December 18, and four days later, had been transferred to a Louisiana prison known as Elayn Hunt, said the state’s department of corrections spokesperson Ken Pastorick.
Pastorick said Hecker died at about 3 a.m. Thursday at Hunt, of what were described as natural causes.
Hecker’s attorney Robert Hjortsberg said Hecker was meant to eventually be transferred to Louisiana’s maximum-security state penitentiary, which is nicknamed Angola, before his death.
Hjortsberg’s co-counsel, Eugene Redmann, said Hecker’s health had been deteriorating.
The child rape survivor who successfully pursued criminal charges against Hecker said Friday that he felt “vindicated and free” upon learning of his abuser’s death, which occurred about 15 months after the priest was indicted in the 1975 assault and arrested.
“I can’t find any words of kindness for his passing,” the survivor said. “The words ‘may he rest in peace’ are so hollow.”
Citing an empty feeling that he had been harboring since Hecker’s sentencing, the survivor added: “He received man’s justice, had his freedom taken away for 15 months, now the only prayer I can come up with: I hope he spends eternity in hell after God’s judgment of him.”
Hecker came to be one of the faces of the New Orleans Catholic church’s decades-old clerical molestation scandal – and had been protected from justice by his religious superiors for most of his life.
The survivor who proved to be Hecker’s downfall reported being a student at New Orleans’ St John Vianney high school – named after a patron saint of Catholic parochial priests – when the abusive cleric befriended him.
One day Hecker showed up in the weight room and engaged in small talk with the boy about his dream of joining a St. John sports team. Hecker suddenly put the boy – then aged 16 – in a wrestling-style headlock, rendered him unconscious and raped him, according to court filings.
The survivor later recounted telling his mother and school principal about his rape at the hands of Hecker. But he said the principal, Paul Calamari, never alerted police and instead threatened to expel him if he did not undergo psychological treatment for what the school leader characterized as “anger issues and fantasy stories”.
Hecker at first denied those specific allegations. But in 1999, he did admit in writing to Catholic church bureaucrats in New Orleans that he had molested or sexually harassed several other children whom he met through his work as a priest.
The church nonetheless allowed Hecker to return to work a few years before allowing him to retire with full employment benefits. The church then waited until 2018 to finally notify the public that Hecker, Calamari and dozens of their fellow clergymen had been faced with substantial child sexual abuse allegations – all of which collectively prompted New Orleans’ Catholic archdiocese to file for bankruptcy protection less than two years later.
After the church revealed Hecker to be a child predator, the former St. John Vianney student teamed up with a civil attorney, Richard Trahant, to lodge a formal complaint with law enforcement about the survivor’s rape. The case progressed slowly until the summer of 2023, when the Guardian and WWL Louisiana began publishing a series of reports on Hecker’s 1999 confession – as well as actions that the church took to hide that disclosure for more than two decades.
The outlets managed to publish those reports despite the fact that the church bankruptcy hid most archdiocesan matters behind a court-mandated seal of confidentiality.
Finally, in September 2023, Louisiana state police and the office of the New Orleans district attorney, Jason Williams, obtained a grand jury indictment charging Hecker with child rape, kidnapping and other crimes in connection with the 1975 attack at St John Vianney.
The case was delayed more than a year amid questions about whether Hecker, as a nonagenarian who has been grappling with dementia, had the competence required to legally stand trial. He was deemed competent in the end, setting the stage for a trial that was supposed to start on December 3.
Hecker, though, averted the trial by pleading guilty as charged and receiving a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment 15 days later.
The sentencing hearing left the judge presiding over the case, Nandi Campbell, in tears of sympathy for Hecker’s victims.
One who was prepared to testify in support of the former St. John Vianney student had the trial proceeded called Hecker “Satan in priest clothing,” someone who stole his childhood from him. Another survivor called Hecker “an animal” and thanked God his day of justice had at last arrived.
The former St. John Vianney student testified that his being raped by Hecker doomed him to a lifetime of disjointed personal relationships – including with his wife and children. “I have zero friends,” he said as Hecker wept and wiped at his eyes. “I pushed everyone away.”
That survivor has since expressed a wish for some of Hecker’s enablers to be prosecuted eventually. It remains to be seen whether that is a possibility, though a broader investigation spurred by the case against Hecker remains active and ongoing.
Law enforcement statements sworn under oath in April as part of the wider investigation explicitly state that authorities have probable cause to suspect that the archdiocese ran a child sex-trafficking ring responsible for the “widespread … abuse of minors dating back decades” that was “covered up and not reported” to authorities. But no one other than Hecker had been charged at the time of his death.
After news of Hecker’s death circulated Friday, Williams said: “We had no time to waste.”
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams sent a statement.
“Lawrence Hecker choked out and raped a little boy in 1975. I was 3 years old then. Since then, he was promoted and transferred to multiple posts with unfettered access to more boys.
Over a course of decades, Hecker maintained his position of trust and reverence in the Church as multiple young victims were ignored, disbelieved, and admonished for telling adults what happened to them.
Through re-victimization and pain they persevered; and I am thankful to these once boys, now grown men who were willing to trust me and my team to fight for them after so many other adults chose not to. These are the most courageous people I have ever met. I am honored to know them.
I am also extremely grateful to Judge Nandi Campbell for selecting a trial date this year and holding firm to it. Her decision set the stage for justice long denied.
Hecker’s measure of earthly justice was certainly not enough for his crimes. It seems his maker was anxious to meet him after there was no longer any question about his guilt here.”
The Archdiocese of New Orleans also released a statement on the death of Hecker.
“We hope and pray that his death will bring closure and peace to the survivors.”
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