Sentence for clergyman in molest case

A judge has decided to sentence clergyman Alan “Skip” Stanford for child molesting although his victims recanted his accusations against the 55-year-old American Orthodox Church official.

Stanford, an archbishop in the church, faces 13 years and 8 months in state prison when he next appears in court June 14.

Superior Court Judge Raymond Giordano on Friday denied Stanford’s motion to change his no contest plea to charges he molested two brothers who were 17 and 14 when the incidents occurred two years ago in Healdsburg.

One of them, James Allen Davis, 19, testified Thursday that Healdsburg police and others coerced him last year into making statements against Stanford that were “inaccurate.”

Davis claimed his younger brother, who also accused Stanford of sexual misconduct, is a “pathological liar.”

Davis said when he made the accusations he was under stress because “I was having trouble with my sexuality. I didn’t know if I was gay or straight.”

At the hearing, Stanford revealed the contents of confessions made to him by the two boys, their mother and his fianc