TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A former vicar at a Topeka church will be sentenced Sept. 27 after pleading no contest to sexually assaulting a boy who attended the church.
Hugh Denton Cranford, 32, was taken into custody Tuesday after entering the plea to one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. He had been scheduled to go to trial Sept. 23 on three counts involving boys ages 7 and 9.
At the time of the crimes, Cranford was vicar at Faith Lutheran Church.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the boys and their parents attended the church, and Cranford and the boys’ father were friends.
Cranford, a student at the Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, was suspended by the seminary in June 2012.
