MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A former Catholic priest has been charged in Dakota County with sexually abusing an altar boy from 1989 to 1991.

County Attorney James Backstrom said Wednesday that 63-year-old Francis Hoefgen has been charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Hoefgen is accused of abusing the boy at St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Catholic Church in Hastings when the child was 9 to 12 years of age.

Hoefgen's attorney, Andy Small, declined comment.

Hoefgen is the subject of a lawsuit by a Minnesota man who claims he was sexually abused by the priest from 1989 to 1992. The lawsuit says the Twin Cities archdiocese should have known Hoefgen was a danger because he admitted abusing a teenage boy a few years earlier.

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