Former priest dies months into imprisonment for raping boys

WEBVTT LATE LAST MONTH A FORMER SAVANNAH PRIEST WAS SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS BEHIND BARS FOR YEARS OF SEXUAL ABUSE HE INFLICTED ON YOUNG BOYS DECADES AGO. ONE OF HIS VICTIMS IS NOW SPEAKING OUT AND HOPING HE CAN HELP OTHERS. FRANK SULKOWSKI HAS THE STORY YOU WILL ONLY SEE ON WJCL 22 NEWS. THROUGH THE SUPPORT OF FAMILY AND FRIENDS, LOCAL PROSECUTERS....AND HIS FAITH, CHRIS TEMPLETON IS HOPING TO BRING AWARENESS AND HELP TO THOSE WHO HAVE SURVIVED UNSPEAKABLE TRAGEDIES LIKE THE NIGHTMARE HE CONTINUES TO LIVE TODAY..... "I MOURNED THAT 13 YEAR OLD SELF OF MINE. I LOOK BACK BECAUSE HE DIED."CHRIS TEMPLETON'S CHILDHOOD....HIS INNOCENT'S DIED AT THE HANDS OF WAYLAND BROWN DECADES AGO, BUT HERE HE STANDS.....A FIGHTER.....A SURVIVOR ....A VOICE FOR OTHERS WHO HAVE LIVED A NIGHTMARE SIMILAR TO HIS."IT'S A LONELINESS THAT I WISH NOBODY TO EVER FEEL. I KNOW THERE ARE OTHERS OUT THERE SUFFERING STILL. I AND MANY OTHERS WANT TO BE ADVOCATES TO SPEAK OUT AND LET THEM KNOW THAT WE ARE HERE TO HELP."TEMPLETON WAS A TYPICAL BOY GROWING UP IN SAVANNAH IN THE 1980'S......HE HAD A LOVE FOR SPORTS, FAMILY AND THE CHURCH ...BUT HIS LIFE CHANGED FOREVER, WHEN A CATHOLIC PRIEST, FATHER WAYLAND BROWN BEFRIENDED CHRIS...EARNING THE ST.JAMES STUDENT'S TRUST.... ONLY TO VIOLATE THAT TRUST AND FAITH IN THE MOST HEINOUS WAY IMAGINABLE."THAT 13 YEAR OLD BOY DIED THE FIRST TIME HE WAS RAPED BY WAYLAND BROWN. I REMEMBER THE TIMES BEFORE THAT, BEING HAPPY..PLAYING BALL AND JUST BEING A KID, BUT HE JUST DIED THAT FIRST TIME HE WAS ATTACKED INSIDE THAT PICKUP TRUCK."THE REPEATED SEXUAL ABUSE AT THE HANDS OF WAYLAND BROWN, REMAINED BURIED DEEP IN CHRIS TEMPLETON'S MEMORY FOR YEARS, UNTIL THE IMAGES.....THE HORRIFIC MEMORIES CAME FLOODING BACK, LEADING TO AN INVESTIGATION OF THE DISGRACED FORMER PRIEST. BUT AUTHORITIES COULDN'T PROSECUTE BROWN FOR THE ALLEGED RAPES OF TEMPLETON AND OTHERS LIKE ALLAN RANTA BECAUSE THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS HAD RUN OUT IN GEORGIA, BUT INVESTIGATORS DISCOVERED THAT THE SEXUAL ABUSE ALSO HAPPENED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SAVANNAH RIVER......TEMPLETON AND RANTA ALSO MOLESTED AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS IN HARDEEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA....WHERE THERE IS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. "THANK GOODNESS SOUTH CAROLINA HAD THAT STATUTE. I DON'T SEE A DIFFERENCE IN MURDER AND CHILD MOLESTATION.INSIDE THIS BEAUFORT COUNTY COURTROOM..... CHRIS TEMPLETON WOULD LOOK INTO THE EYES OF THMAN RESPONSIBLE FOR A LIFETIME OF PAIN AND SUFFERING.WAYLAND BROWN, NOW 76 YEARS OLD....WOULD B SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS BEHIND BARS AFTER ADMITTING HE ABUSED TEMPLETON AND RANTA WHEN THEY WERE JUST KIDS.....THOSE ONCE BROKEN BOYS...NOW GROWN MEN, STILL HEALING...STILL SURVIVING."IT WAS JUSTICE FOR THAT 13 YEAR OLD KID THAT DIED. IT WAS JUSTICE FOR MY 13 YEAR OLD SELF. I FELT LIKE I HAD DONE SOMETHING FOR THAT BOY, WHO HAD HIS GENERAL LEE MATCHBOX CAR IN HIS BACK POCKET AND HIS ATLANTA BRAVES HAT ON BEFORE HE GOT IN THAT TRUCK IN THE ST.JAMES PARKING LOT.NOW I CAN DO SOMETHING TO MAKE SURE OTHERS DON'T DIE LIKE THAT 13 YEAR OLD BOY" CHRIS TEMPLETON ADDS THAT IF HE CAN SAVE ONE PERSON FROM LIVING THROUGH THE HELL HE LIVED THROUGH, HE WOULD DO ANYTHING IN THE WORLD....AND HE WILL NOT STOP. TEMPLETON URGES ANYONE WHO HAS INFORMATION ABOUT OTHER OR SIMILAR CRIMES TO CONTACT THE CHATHAM COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE AT 912-652-8080. IN ALL, WAYLAND BROWN FOUND GUILTY OF NINE COUNTS OF SEXUAL BATTERY AND ABUSE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.VICTIMS AND PROSECUTORS BELIEVE BROWN WILL MOST LIKELY DIE IN PRISON BEFORE FINISHING HIS SENTENCE.

A former Catholic priest who pleaded guilty last year to raping two boys decades earlier has died just several months into a 20-year prison sentence in South Carolina.Wayland Yoder Brown, 75, died at a hospital June 8 from what appear to be natural causes, South Carolina Corrections Department spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said Tuesday. The ex-priest had been imprisoned since his guilty plea last October.“It’s too soon to have an official ruling, but it was expected,�� Shain said of Brown’s death. “There’s nothing suspicious.”Brown had already been dismissed from the priesthood and served five years imprisoned in Maryland for sexually abusing two other boys when he was indicted by South Carolina prosecutors in 2017.The South Carolina case originated in neighboring Georgia, where prosecutors said Brown more than 30 years earlier had abused two boys attending St. James Catholic School in Savannah. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah paid $4.5 million in 2016 to settle a lawsuit by a man who said Brown had raped him.Criminal investigators couldn’t pursue a case in Georgia because the allegations against Brown fell outside the state’s statute of limitations. But evidence showed Brown had committed some rapes across the state line in South Carolina, which imposes no such time limit on prosecutions.Brown entered the courtroom in Beaufort County, South Carolina, in a wheelchair Oct. 28 when he pleaded guilty to nine counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor. Outside the courthouse, Solicitor Duffie Stone detailed how Brown had attacked the boys at a church, a nature preserve and an abandoned train depot.Brown had worn his priest’s collar while abusing the boys, Stone said, and prayed the rosary with them afterward.“These were horrible crimes,�� Stone said in a phone interview Tuesday. “He violated their trust, but he also violated their faith. The pedestal he was on and the power he had over these children and what he did to abuse that power is unspeakable.”Stone said enabling Brown’s victims to hear him plead guilty before he died made the prosecution worthwhile.“I’m glad we were able to give them at least some measure of peace,�� he said.Chris Templeton is one of those victims. He says he was 13 when Brown raped him on multiple occasions. The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify victims of sex crimes. But Templeton has spoken out publicly, including at a news conference after Brown’s guilty plea, in hopes that his story will encourage other victims of abusive priests to come forward.Templeton told WSAV-TV that he has “conflicted�� feelings about Brown’s death.“Maybe I should say that I hope he repented,�� Templeton said. “But you know, I think I know where he is. ... And we will never have to hear from him again.��

A former Catholic priest who pleaded guilty last year to raping two boys decades earlier has died just several months into a 20-year prison sentence in South Carolina.

Wayland Yoder Brown, 75, died at a hospital June 8 from what appear to be natural causes, South Carolina Corrections Department spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said Tuesday. The ex-priest had been imprisoned since his guilty plea last October.

“It’s too soon to have an official ruling, but it was expected,�� Shain said of Brown’s death. “There’s nothing suspicious.��

Brown had already been dismissed from the priesthood and served five years imprisoned in Maryland for sexually abusing two other boys when he was indicted by South Carolina prosecutors in 2017.

The South Carolina case originated in neighboring Georgia, where prosecutors said Brown more than 30 years earlier had abused two boys attending St. James Catholic School in Savannah. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah paid $4.5 million in 2016 to settle a lawsuit by a man who said Brown had raped him.

Criminal investigators couldn’t pursue a case in Georgia because the allegations against Brown fell outside the state’s statute of limitations. But evidence showed Brown had committed some rapes across the state line in South Carolina, which imposes no such time limit on prosecutions.

Brown entered the courtroom in Beaufort County, South Carolina, in a wheelchair Oct. 28 when he pleaded guilty to nine counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor. Outside the courthouse, Solicitor Duffie Stone detailed how Brown had attacked the boys at a church, a nature preserve and an abandoned train depot.

Brown had worn his priest’s collar while abusing the boys, Stone said, and prayed the rosary with them afterward.

“These were horrible crimes,�� Stone said in a phone interview Tuesday. “He violated their trust, but he also violated their faith. The pedestal he was on and the power he had over these children and what he did to abuse that power is unspeakable.��

Stone said enabling Brown’s victims to hear him plead guilty before he died made the prosecution worthwhile.

“I’m glad we were able to give them at least some measure of peace,�� he said.

Chris Templeton is one of those victims. He says he was 13 when Brown raped him on multiple occasions. The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify victims of sex crimes. But Templeton has spoken out publicly, including at a news conference after Brown’s guilty plea, in hopes that his story will encourage other victims of abusive priests to come forward.

Templeton told that he has “conflicted�� feelings about Brown’s death.

“Maybe I should say that I hope he repented,�� Templeton said. “But you know, I think I know where he is. ... And we will never have to hear from him again.��

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Former priest dies months into imprisonment for raping boys

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