Jurors fail to reach verdict in Orford sexual assault case

NORTH HAVERHILL — Prosecutors said they expect to retry a retired priest who was charged with sexually assaulting a minor at an Orford Boy Scouts camp nearly 50 years ago, after a mistrial was declared Thursday when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict in Grafton County court.

Richard Losch, 91, a retired Episcopalian priest in Massachusetts and Alabama, was indicted by a Grafton County grand jury in 2023 and charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault against a 12-year-old minor from Massachusetts when Losch had been director of a Boy Scouts camp located at Indian Pond in 1976, according to court documents.

The two-day trial began on Tuesday with closing arguments made on Wednesday and a mistrial declared on Thursday after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. 

Barring an unforeseen change, “We expect to go forward with retrying the case,” Marcie Hornick, Grafton County state’s attorney, said, adding that her office plans to continue to “pursue justice for the victim,” now 64 years old, who testified on the witness stand about how Losch's alleged sexual assault resulted in a lifetime of pain and trauma.

The Valley News does not generally identify people who allege they are victims of sex crimes.

The former Boy Scouts camp located on Indian Pond Road, then-owned by a Massachusetts Boy Scouts chapter, closed in the late 1970s. The property was acquired later by a former California business executive, who died in 2019, and remains owned by a family trust, according to Grafton County deed and Orford town tax records.