CARIBOU — A 61-year-old parish priest was acquitted of sexual assault 45 minutes after a seven-man, five-woman jury began deliberations Wednesday in Aroostook County Superior Court.

A 13-year-old boy from Van Buren testified in the trial, which began Wednesday morning, that the Rev. Armand Thibault made him touch Thibault’s genitals three times one night last year as they slept together in a parish-owned camp.

Thibault had pleaded innocent to the charge of sexual assault. He said in court Wednesday that he kissed his accuser on the forehead after the boy had gone to bed that night, but that nothing else happened.

Thibault pleaded no contest Tuesday to a charge of endangering the welfare of a child, which involved furnishing liquor to minors not involved in the sexual assault trial. Justice Paul T. Pierson fined Thibault $750 on that charge.

Testimony was presented from five witnesses for the prosecution and one witness, Thibault, for the defense in the trial, which may be the first of its kind in Maine.

Thibault, a Marist priest, was assigned to St. Bruno’s and St. Remi’s parishes in Van Buren July 1, 1991, as his first assignment in Maine. He left the area in October 1992 after being confronted with sexual allegations. He has since been living in New Bedford, Mass., near the headquarters of his religious order. He was indicted on the two counts by an Aroostook County grand jury in March 1993.

After hearing the testimony of two boys and their mothers, Thibault denied that there was any sexual assault on the evening of July 23, 1992.

“Nothing took place between (us). I deny placing his hand on my genitals,” he said.

The boy, a seventh-grader at Van Buren District Secondary School, testified that he was invited by a friend to spend the night at the parish camp attached to a chapel at Long Lake, about 12 miles from Van Buren.

The three went to the camp after the boys had played in a championship baseball game at Van Buren. At the camp, they made pizza, looked at magazines and got ready for bed, they said. The room had two sofa-beds and each boy selected one. Thibault, they both said, interjected that he would sleep with the second boy invited on the trip.

According to testimony, the priest was dressed only in a robe when he offered to show the boys his injured knee. When he did that, the boys said, the robe opened and they saw his penis.

Thibault denied that he had an injured knee and said he never showed his knees to the boys. He bared his knees in the court to show he had no injuries.

The boy who shared the bed with the priest testified that the priest hugged him and pulled him closer. He said that a short time later, the priest took his hand and placed it on his genitals. The boy said he pulled his hand away, but the same thing happened again.

Pulling his hand away a second time, he testified, “he took my hand again and this time he had pulled his underwear down and my hand was on his penis.”

He fell asleep some time later and awoke early the next morning and went outside. When the priest and his friend awoke later, they had breakfast and the three left the camp to return to Van Buren around noon or shortly after.

The boy who claims he was assaulted did not mention the incident to anyone for some time. It was weeks later, when the two friends were tenting in the yard of the boy who was allegedly assaulted, that he told his friend what happened at the camp.

The second boy told his mother and she told the mother of the boy who allegedly was assaulted.

The friend of the accuser told nearly the same story in his testimony. There were some minor discrepancies having to do with furniture and the placement of things in the camp and times of the day.

At one point, proceedings had to be stopped when the accuser was being cross-examined. He broke down when defense attorney Allen Hunter wanted specific characteristics describing the penis that he had testified to feeling.

The mother of the boy claiming to have been assaulted said she confronted the priest about the allegations at the St. Bruno Rectory in October 1992. She said that he first denied that anything happened and then he told her, “I’m only human, I’m only human.”

The mother of the other boy said she confronted the priest twice. On Sept. 13, 1992, she said she asked why he had slept with the boy and his response to her was “because he wanted me to.” In a second meeting with him, she said the priest admitted that he had “kissed the boy on the forehead.”