Predatory Jesuit priest who may have drugged and sexually abused more than 50 men is jailed for 25 years

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STEPHEN Sauer, above, was handed the sentence in Lousiana on July 7 after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges involving 17 adult victims.

His crimes, according to this report, were centred around the French Quarter neighborhood of New Orleans.

Detectives believe that there are more than 50 victims who remain unidentified.

The former Catholic priest pleaded guilty to 13 counts of sexual battery, nine counts of third-degree rape, 17 counts of video voyeurism, and 16 misdemeanor charges of possessing drugs without prescriptions and possession of drug paraphernalia, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Sauer, 61, who reportedly left the Jesuit order by his own request in 2020, would specifically target intoxicated men or those who were lost and in need of help. He would drug the men, sometimes by placing narcotics in their drinks at bars.

After some of the victims passed out, Sauer would use an eyedropper to feed the men “sleep-inducing substances,” the District Attorney’s statement said. 

He would then take the unconscious men to his home in Metairie and take photos and videos of them, “in various stages of undress,” with his phone, the statement said. 

Then, Sauer would molest some of the men and “pleasured himself,” the statement said. 

According to the statement, many of Sauer’s victims were not locals and were separated from friends or lost when Sauer offered to help them.

Sauer’s crimes were committed over two years between 2019 and 2021. 

The former priest’s LinkedIn profile says that he served as the pastor of Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans from 2008–2012. 

It also says he is Executive Director of an organisation called Arc of Greater New Orleans, which appears to have removed all mention of the predator.

A computer led to his downfall

Authorities began investigating Sauer in June 2021 after he sent a computer hard drive to be repaired by a company in New York. 

An employee at the company discovered hundreds of images on the hard drive showing that sexual assaults had appeared to have taken place.

Authorities in New York referred the case to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after determining the origin of the photos.

Many of the victims were able to be identified by the detectives because Sauer photographed their driver’s licenses and other forms of identification.

When detectives searched Sauer’s home, prescription pill bottles that had the name of a sex offender in Missouri were found. 

Zolpidem, which is known as a “date rape” drug, was found as well, the district attorney’s office said. 

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One response to “Predatory Jesuit priest who may have drugged and sexually abused more than 50 men is jailed for 25 years”

  1. Sauer seems to have taken some care in organising his predations. The title of his church “he served as the pastor of Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans” is somewhat ironic in view of his activities. Does religious conviction and its subsequent emotional repression somehow condition priests to this kind of behaviour?

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