Wright County Cancels Contract With Ex-Priest

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A former priest who denies accusations of sexual abuse from the 1960s and 1980s has been suspended from teaching sex education for Wright County.

Harry Walsh has taught birth control, sexual disease prevention and human sexuality for the Wright County Human Services Agency in Buffalo for 16 years.

County Commissioner Charles Borrell said the county board voted Monday to cancel Walsh's contract effective Jan. 31, 2014. He said the board decided "without casting any guilt."

He says officials at the Monticello school district didn't want the 79-year-old working with them.

Walsh was one of five priests named in the 2002 archdiocese memo about parishes with "some connection to a history of clergy sexual abuse."

Walsh issued a statement last week denying allegations of abuse.