NEW ORLEANS — A former deacon with the New Orleans Roman Catholic church was indicted on a rape charge Thursday, according to the District Attorney's Office.
George Brignac, 84, was removed from the Catholic Church after several sexual abuse allegations against him surfaced.
The indictment handed down by a grand jury Thursday charged him with the rape of a young boy nearly 40 years ago, according to the DA's Office.
Brignac faces one count of aggravated rape. If convicted, he faces a mandatory lifetime sentence.
On Friday, Brignac was taken into police custody as he attempted to appear in Orleans Parish Magistrate Court, which no longer had jurisdiction of his case after he was assigned to Section I Judge Karen Herman, DA's officials said.
His bond was set at $1 million and he was to be booked into the Orleans Justice Center and remain there.
"The time for this victim to have his day in court against a trusted church leader, whom we intend to prove sexually abused him decades ago, is long overdue," Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro said. "While we believe there are other victims linked to this defendant, some alleged offenses have prescribed, meaning they cannot be prosecuted because too many years have passed."
Cannizzaro said when the alleged rape took place, there was no statute of limitations for rape if the victim was younger than 12.
Brignac was arrested in relation to an Aug. 28, 2018 complaint, according to a report by The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate.
Brignac worked as co-director of the altar boy program at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish - which sits on the block where the complaint came from - in the 70s and 80s.
According to the newspaper's report, the Archdiocese of New Orleans has already paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to people who claim Brignac abused them. Despite facing charges of molesting boys at a Jefferson Parish church in the 1970s, he has never been convicted of a sex crime.
Similar charges in 1980 and 1988 had Brignac removed from the ministry. He was found not guilty of similar charges after a bench trial in Jefferson Parish in 1978, involving boys he allegedly victimized at St. Matthew the Apostle parish.
Until last year, Brignac had been allowed to read as a lector at a church in Metairie.
His name was on a 57-person list released in November that gave the names of priests and deacons with ties to New Orleans and credible child abuse accusations against them.
Brignac appears to be the first on the list to face charges.
No court date was immediately available for Brignac.
SNAP Louisiana, a survivor advocacy group, praised the indictment in a statement.
"This case is yet another reminder that children are best protected by secular law enforcement officials, not church officials," the group said in an emailed statement. "We also believe that, had church officials lived up to their promise to be 'open and honest' about cases of clergy abuse and posted a list of accused priests, nuns, deacons and other church staff earlier, the communities in which Brignac was working would have been better informed and better able to protect their children."
More Stories:
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
