🎭 Ex-Holy Man Serves Divine Justice: 25-Year Sentence for Nightmarish NOLA Debauchery 🕷️
TL;DR: 😲 Former priest, Stephen Sauer, 61, is off to serve a holy 25-year stint in the slammer after he confessed to drugging and taking advantage of 17 men in New Orleans’ tourist hot-spot, the French Quarter. Spotted preying on those who were intoxicated or lost, Sauer’s string of debauchery lasted from 2019 to 2021. The ominous trail to Sauer’s conviction started with a computer repair in New York, exposing hundreds of incriminating images leading right back to him. 🖥️🔍
Talk about a divine intervention gone wrong! ⛪🚫 But who were these victims, and how did this all unfold? And does this case challenge our perceptions of trust? 🤔
Full of sin and not an ounce of confession, the ex-priest would search for his victims among the crowd, selecting men who seemed drunk, disoriented, or in distress. But these were not all locals; many were tourists from out of state, seeking the charm of the French Quarter. Instead, they found themselves entrapped in a nightmare. 😵🌀
The chain of events leading to Sauer’s conviction is something straight out of a CSI episode. 🕵️♂️💼 In 2021, Sauer sent a computer for repair to an electronics company in New York. The technicians, on discovering hundreds of images indicating sexual assault, alerted local law enforcement.
What did they find? It seems Sauer had a sinister cocktail recipe—spike a man’s drink with narcotics or introduce sleep-inducing drugs after the victim had already passed out from drinking. Then, a taxi ride to Sauer’s home in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb, where he’d photograph, videotape, and molest the unconscious men. What’s more, the images were shared via email and on a website. Talk about keeping trophies! 🏆🚫 But how does one stop such a hideous crime wave? 🛑
Justice came knocking when Sauer pled 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 drug paraphernalia. Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant doled out the sentence, which includes mandatory sex offender registration and a contact ban with 12 of the victims.
So, the ex-priest’s dark secret is out, and he’s locked away. But isn’t this story a stark reminder about the people we place our trust in? Are we too quick to trust a friendly face in a crowd, and how can we ensure we don’t fall prey to such horrifying scenarios? 🤔🗝️
And for you, the reader: What could be done to better protect people, particularly tourists, from such predators? And should the church be doing more to ensure their priests adhere to the laws, both holy and secular? 💒🚔
