The Gazette-Enterprise

SEGUIN — A former Catholic school teacher and seminarian confessed his guilt Monday in 25th Judicial District Court, admitting he sexually solicited a Seguin area boy in text messages last Easter Sunday.

John Calvin Hegedus appeared before 25th Judicial District Judge Dwight Peschel for his scheduled arraignment on allegations of on-line solicitation of a minor and attempted sexual assault of a child.

Instead, he pleaded guilty to the on-line solicitation charges in a plea agreement between defense attorney Alan Brown and the Guadalupe County District Attorney’s Office.

Hegedus, 32, will have to serve no prison time if he complies with conditions of 10-year deferred adjudication probation.

The attempted sexual assault allegation will be dismissed if Peschel accepts the plea agreement at the conclusion of a pre-sentence investigation.

In a brief conference at Peschel’s bench, the judge read the grand jury indictment to Hegedus and asked if he understood the allegations.

The defendant, in chains and an orange county jail jumpsuit, said that he did.

Peschel asked if Hegedus was pleading guilty because he was indeed guilty, and Hegedus said he was.

Deferred adjudication probation is an alternative sometimes offered first-time offenders in which they are given an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves.

If an offender successfully completes the probation and meets all conditions, the original offense is not adjudicated, although the arrest record stands and in the case of an alleged sexual offense, the probationer must register as a sex offender.

If he fails to comply with the conditions of his probation and is hauled back before a judge, Hegedus faces anywhere from two to 20 years in state prison.

Hegedus admitted his guilt and has cooperated with authorities.

He also has no prior convictions.

“We basically took into consideration that he didn’t have a prior criminal record and that there was no physical contact with the victim,” said First Assistant District Attorney Larry Bloomquist. “We’ll try to rehabilitate him.”

Probation for a convicted sex offender is no piece of cake.

The conditions are numerous and stringent ones and the controls are onerous — including intrusive unannounced visits and interviews, the requirement to register his home and place of employment with authorities and to take and pass lie detector tests as ordered by his therapist or the court.

Conditions also restrict a probationer’s movements, potential places of employment, prohibit unsupervised contact with children and prohibit the commission of any criminal offense over the probation period.

Hegedus will also be required to cooperate in sex offender treatment, and pay a $1,000 fine plus court costs.

Hegedus was arrested April 13 by Sheriff’s Investigators Craig Jones and Sgt. Bruce Tubbs after he arrived at the home of a 15-year-old local boy he’d sent nearly 100 text messages to on Easter Sunday — some of which were sexually explicit.

Jones and Tubbs mounted an investigation into Hegedus’s activities after the boy’s parents contacted Sheriff Arnold Zwicke to report their son was receiving inappropriate text messages from Hegedus.

Hegedus was a seminarian at St. James Catholic Church in Seguin over the summer of 2007, most recently was a teacher at a Catholic school in San Antonio. Investigators said in court documents he maintained contact with the local boy and his family for two years after leaving Seguin.

In his probable cause affidavit, Jones reported Hegedus sent the youth 98 text messages beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday and continuing through midnight.

“I reviewed the April 12 messages to see a trend in the text message discussion went from initial inquiries about (the youth) going to church ... to a discussion about (the boy) having a girlfriend and then a specific inquiry about if (he) was still a virgin,” Jones wrote. “Thereafter, the inquiries from John Hegedus’s phone asked questions about (the youth’s) sex experience and partners and if (he) had ever tried ‘bi stuff.’”

Peschel reduced Hegedus’s $300,000 bail to $5,000 Monday, and Hegedus was released until his sentencing, which could take place in late August.

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