WINONA, Minn. – A jury found former priest Ubaldo Roque Huerta guilty of sexual misconduct after a four-day trial. Huerto, 51, was accused of assaulting an intoxicated man in December 2020. Deliberations took onlv two hours. Judge Mary Leahy set sentencing was scheduled for January. At the time the Winona Catholic Diocese already had disassociated itself from Huerto. His unorthodox, sometimes rollicking services had raised eyebrows in the church hierarchy despite attracting large Hispanic crowds in every parish where he was assigned. After Huerto was arrested on the sex charge, he skipped bail. Nine months later he was found in Rushmore in southwest Minnesota and returned to Winona.
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