A former Catholic priest who served in Louisiana has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to drugging and molesting 17 men in the state, officials shared.
According to a press release from Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office, Stephen Sauer, 61, admitted to his actions, saying that he targeted men in New Orleans’ French Quarter who appeared to be “intoxicated, lost or in need of assistance.”
Sauer said he would offer the men help, but instead of getting them somewhere safe, he would drug them and drive them to his home in Metairie, roughly 7 miles west of the district, according to the release.
To drug the victims, the release said that Sauer would sometimes put the narcotics, described by prosecutors as “sleep-inducing substances,” into their drinks or use an eye dropper to give them the drugs while they were already passed out.
The release shared that many of Sauer’s victims were not residents of Louisiana but visiting New Orleans. It also said they were often “separated from friends or simply lost” when the former priest approached them.
While at his home in Metairie, Sauer would take photos of the victims’ identification cards, which investigators later used to help identify those who were taken advantage of, prosecutors shared.
Sauer also used a smartphone to take pictures of and record the men while they were unconscious. Some he molested and pleasured himself to before driving them back to their hotels or other locations the following morning, the release said.
Now, the former priest has pleaded guilty to a plethora of charges, including 13 counts of sexual battery, 17 counts of video voyeurism, nine counts of third-degree rape, and 16 misdemeanor charges of drug possession, according to court records.
Sauer was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday by District Judge Shayna Beevers Morvant. He has also been ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, the press release from prosecutors shared.
Police became aware of Sauer’s actions thanks to an investigation by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. The law enforcement agency found that the former priest was sharing images with other people online or via email, the release shared.
The investigation was launched in June 2021 when Sauer sent a computer hard drive to a New York-based computer repair company. While in New York, a data recovery technician found hundreds of the images Sauer had taken and notified law enforcement, prosecutors shared.
Detectives believe that more than 50 of Sauer’s victims are still unidentified and possibly unaware of what happened to them. His crimes are believed to have taken place from 2019 to 2021.
The DA’s office shared that Sauer’s previous time spent as a Catholic priest was not relevant to the case or their prosecution of the Louisiana man.
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