Priest charged with sex abuse in court

Rochester, New York --

Fr. Dennis Sewar, 54, currently suspended from his duties by the Rochester Catholic Diocese, plead not guilty, Tuesday, at his arraignment in Rochester City Court, to counts of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

The allegations were made by a man, now 19, who says the priest molested him when he was a teenage boy. The accuser says he met Fr. Sewar when Sewar was Pastor at the Church of the Annunciation on Norton Street, on Rochester's northeast side. Sewar was most recently at St. John the Evangelist, in Spencerport.

According to a sworn statement by the alleged victim, Sewar began the abuse in 1999 by rubbing his hands and legs while they watched TV inside the priest's living quarters. He claims things escalated to the point where Sewar would rub his (the boy's) penis through his clothes, and that it probably happened close to 50 times although he "could not remember specifically."

Read the article at WROC TV NEWS 8 NOW Dated August 2, 2005

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