State Won’t Retry Priest in Molestation Case

The state has decided not to retry a defrocked Baltimore priest who won a reversal of his conviction in the molestation of a boy who later shot him, saying the priest probably would avoid prison time even if he were found guilty again.

Maurice Blackwell, 58, was convicted in February of abusing Dontee Stokes, a former altar boy who shot Blackwell in 2002, nearly a decade after the alleged abuse. Two months later, the conviction was thrown out by a judge who agreed with defense arguments that jurors shouldn’t have heard prosecution witnesses testify about other alleged victims.