Priest, former teacher at B.C. High acquitted of child rape charge

A Jesuit priest and former teacher at Boston College High School, accused of raping a student at the school, was acquitted Monday following a bench trial in Suffolk Superior Court.

Kevin White was indicted last year on a single count of Rape of a Child. Prosecutors said White assaulted a then-15-year-old student in his classroom sometime between 2008 and 2009.

Judge James Budreau heard evidence in the case over the course of two days and returned the not guilty verdict Monday morning. White waived his right to have the case heard by a jury.

Douglas Brooks, an attorney representing White, said the “evidence in the case demonstrated over and over that Fr. White was innocent.”

“He looks forward to getting his life back after having his reputation tarnished for the last four years as a result of the complainant’s fabricated allegation,” Brooks said in an email.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

In court papers, prosecutors wrote that White “took a particular interest” in his accuser while a teacher at Boston College High and repeatedly invited the teen to come to his classroom alone after school, according to court documents. White was accused of raping the student during one of these visits.

The accuser didn’t tell anyone about the assault until 2021, when they disclosed the assault amid a school investigation into an unrelated matter, according to court documents.

During the trial, prosecutors described White’s accuser, a transgender woman, as the “perfect victim” as a gay student at an all-boys school, according to The Boston Globe.

On the stand, she testified she didn’t first report the alleged assault because she “didn’t think anything that had been done to me was wrong,” the Globe reported.