for Bigtrial.net
Father Charles Engelhardt was transported by ambulance from prison to a hospital last week after he experienced dizziness.
The 67-year-old priest is an inmate at the State Correctional Institution in Coal Township, Northumberland County, where he's serving a six to 12 year-sentence. A jury on Jan. 30, 2013 convicted Engelhardt of endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and indecent assault. The victim in Engelhardt's case, however, is Billy Doe, the former altar boy turned heroin addict whose crazy stories of abuse defy logic and common sense, as well as the evidence gathered by the district attorney's own detectives.
Just a week before he was stricken, Father Engelhardt's lawyer, Michael J. McGovern, was in state Superior Court, arguing that his client deserved a new trial because of judicial errors and prosecutorial misconduct.
Last Tuesday morning, doctors at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., diagnosed cardiac artery disease and found a blockage in the priest's heart, said his niece, Tracey Boyle, a nurse. The family does not know whether the priest suffered a heart attack because they have been unable as of yet to speak to his doctors. The family does know, however, that when doctors implanted a stent in the priest's heart, they discovered blockages in several other arteries, Boyle said. By Friday, the priest was back in the prison infirmary, as doctors weighed whether to perform further open heart surgery, his niece said.
"He told my aunt he feels good he does not want us to worry," Boyle said. But she believes the appeal in her uncle's case weighed heavily on him.
"This is do or die and he has to be feeling the stress," she said.
The family has been told to expect a decision from the state Superior Court within 60 to 120 days on whether the priest will be granted a new trial. If he loses in Superior Court, Father Engelhardt, who has already been in jail for nearly two years, will be facing the prospect of spending at least another four years behind bars for something his family knows he didn't do.
Boyle said her big Irish family has been reeling since they heard the latest news about her uncle.
"I pretty much blew up," she said. "I was so angry and so upset because they did this to him," she said of the priest's accuser and his family. "They caused him to have this episode," she said. "He shouldn't be where he is because he's an innocent man. In my eyes, he's a martyr for the church."
Last Tuesday, the priest "got up in the morning, took his hypertension medication and he started to feel dizzy," Boyle said. "His cellmate noticed how unsteady he was" and summoned a corrections officer, who took Father Engelhardt to the infirmary. The infirmary called for an ambulance.
Since the priest was stricken, information on his condition has been hard to come by since hospitals do not give out information on inmates, she said.
"We had no idea what hospital he was in," she said.
So Boyle did some detective work and sent the priest's great niece to visit the most likely hospital in the area near the prison to perform heart surgery. That's where the priest's great niece found the priest at Geisinger Medical Center, but she still needed the approval of prison officials before he she was allowed to see him.
The priest, according to Father Gerry Dunne, one of his most frequent visitors, spends his days in prison reciting prayers, psalms and hymns from the Liturgy of the Hours.
Father Jerry Dunne has known "Charlie" Engelhardt for more than 40 years. The two priests are fellow oblates of St. Francis DeSales.
"He's a person of very strong faith," Dunne has said of Engelhardt. "He believes there's a purpose for all this. He believes that ultimately justice will prevail."Father Engelhardt's defense lawyer, Michael J. McGovern, visited the priest days before he was stricken, and said Father Engelhardt appeared fine and was joking with him.
"He was super," McGovern said. "I was shocked to hear the heart event but I do realize how we all internalize stress."
"I only pray that God continues to give him the strength and protect him until the time comes when his wrongful conviction is overturned and his innocence is confirmed and proclaimed to everyone," McGovern said.
"What he has gone through up to this point is a tragedy in the truest sense," McGovern said. "I am confident, however, that he will recover, and in time prevail."