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	Priest Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Sexual Assault Associated Press, carried in Duluth News Tribune [Milwaukee WI] November 9, 2004 MILWAUKEE - A Catholic priest was sentenced to 16 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a child. Simon Palathingal, 62, a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order, had pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child in Milwaukee County Circuit Court in exchange for two other counts being dropped. Palathingal was charged in June with four counts of first-degree sexual assault. His accuser, now 23, said he was abused as a boy in Milwaukee during the 1990s while Palathingal was studying at Marquette University. Circuit Judge Karen Christenson sentenced the priest to two concurrent terms of 16 years. Prosecutors had recommended a 20-year sentence. A criminal complaint said the assaults occurred at Jordan House, a home for retired priests where Palathingal lived. Palathingal, who has family in India, was arrested outside his rectory in South Amboy, N.J. in June. He was ordered to surrender his passport.
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