Indiana priest reaches plea deal in sexual abuse cases

Associated Press/December 29, 2021

Columbia City, Indiana — A northeastern Indiana priest has agreed to plead guilty to child solicitation and sexual battery charges for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage girl and a young woman.

Father David Huneck was charged in October with felony child solicitation and sexual battery and misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, furnishing alcohol to a minor and two counts of battery.

If Huneck, 31, pleads guilty to the felony charges and a judge accepts his plea at a Jan. 27 Whitley County hearing, the misdemeanor charges will be dropped, The Journal Gazette reported. Huneck can also ask for the felony charges to be reduced to misdemeanors.

He was charged after two females, ages 17 and 19, reported two incidents in which Huneck allegedly sexually assaulted them at his home provided by St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church in Columbia City, where he was a pastor before the allegations surfaced.

He was also a chaplain at Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne when the incidents allegedly happened. Huneck resigned from those posts in September after the accusations surfaced.

He would face a one-year sentence on each count, with up to 90 days behind bars and the rest suspended. Those sentences would be served at the same time.

Huneck, a 2008 Bishop Dwenger graduate, was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 2018.

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