Crime & Safety

Former Principal Gets Life Term for Sex Crime

William Wert, assistant principal and athletic director for Joliet Catholic Academy in the early 1990s, was convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old boy.

A former assistant principal and athletic director at Joliet Catholic Academy will spend the rest of his life in prison for having sex with a teenage boy in Florida,

William Wert, 56, was living in Sarasota, Fla., when he was arrested for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old and charged with seven counts of sexual battery of a minor and four counts of lewd behavior, according to a story in the Joliet Herald News. He was not working as a priest at the time of his arrest.

A jury found Wert guilty, and he was sentenced Thursday, the story said.

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Wert had been an ordained priest when he came to the Catholic Diocese of Joliet in 1987, and was appointed to the JCA positions in 1990. He held them for three years before returning to his California, where he's worked previously, the Herald New story said.


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