Priest pleads innocent; informant's testimony led to arrest

URBANA – A Catholic priest assigned to the Newman Center on the University of Illinois campus has been selling and using cocaine with regularity for several months, court documents allege.

The Rev. Christopher Layden, 33, wearing a suicide-risk reduction gown during his video arraignment from the jail Thursday, pleaded innocent to two counts of delivery of less than 1 gram of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a church and a separate count of possession with intent to deliver 1 to 15 grams of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a church. The proximity to a church makes it a more serious crime.

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