US priest accused of sexual assault turns down 20-year plea deal

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US priest accused of sexual assault turns down 20-year plea deal

A listening to at which a Roman Catholic priest with ties to Texas and south-east Louisiana was tentatively scheduled to plead responsible to legal fees of abusing his authority as a priest to pursue intercourse with spiritually weak feminine congregants was known as off, court docket officers mentioned Monday.

The continuing within the state legal courthouse of Waco, Texas, had been tenuously known as as Anthony Odiong spent greater than a month mulling a plea deal.

The phrases haven’t been made public, however the Guardian understood the supply primarily was for him to plead responsible in alternate for an opportunity at parole after accruing 20 years in jail.

There have been indicators Odiong, 55, or his lawyer indicated his willingness to plead out relatively than be publicly tried on the fees as a result of state prosecutors had ready victims within the case to ship Monday what are often known as affect statements, which generally occurs in the course of the sentencing part of such circumstances.

However the plea deal placed on the desk seems to have fallen aside, and the listening to was canceled someday over the weekend, officers’ remarks steered.

Courthouse employees instructed the Waco Tribune-Herald: “Father Odiong … has modified his thoughts.” And the employees confirmed Monday to the Guardian that the assertion relating to the reversal had been conveyed with enter from Odiong’s personal protection lawyer, Gerald Villarrial, who declined remark.

The canceled listening to left Odiong presumably continuing towards an eventual trial on 5 fees of sexual assault within the first diploma and two such counts within the second diploma stemming from encounters with three ladies. He may face life imprisonment if convicted of any first-degree fees.

A Waco lawyer representing a few of Odiong’s alleged victims in a civil go well with, Chris King, mentioned that his shoppers had been excited and stunned in regards to the anticipated responsible plea. Although he mentioned it was disappointing that it didn’t pan out, he expressed confidence that his shoppers would finally be vindicated.

“Now it’s a for much longer street,” King mentioned. “However so far as we’re involved, we all know what’s going to be on the finish of the street. And when it’s an extended street, it’s a stiffer punishment.”

Monday’s canceled court docket look had been scheduled after a late November listening to revealed that Odiong had violated Catholic clergymen’ promise to stay celibate by fathering not less than two kids with ladies whom he had met by means of his ministry. Authorities thought-about the kids proof that Odiong had a sample of pursuing ladies he met in his function as a priest, which in Texas is a felony.

There is no such thing as a indication that any of the three ladies on the middle of the fees in opposition to Odiong are the moms of his kids. Waco police detective Bradley DeLange testified in November that one of many kids – who lives within the US – was concerned in a DNA check which confirmed a higher than 99.99% that Odiong was the minor’s father. The Guardian understands the opposite little one lives in Odiong’s native Nigeria.

Odiong was arrested in July inside months of the Guardian having revealed a report on ladies who accused him of sexual coercion and undesirable touching to abusive monetary management. All of those that spoke to the outlet had been ladies who had met Odiong by means of his work.

Sworn police statements present that the Guardian reporting – revealed in February – prompted a lady to stroll into the Waco police division in March and allege that Odiong had sexually assaulted her in 2012.

DeLange’s ensuing investigation discovered proof to recommend Odiong would place himself as a religious adviser to ladies navigating private issues, significantly marital ones – after which exploit his closeness to them to have or search intercourse with them.

The detective has since testified that he has confirmed about 10 alleged victims of Odiong throughout the US and overseas, even when not all produced fees. Texas regulation allowed authorities to file fees in opposition to Odiong with out consideration for a way way back among the alleged crimes occurred due to the sheer variety of accusers to come back ahead in opposition to Odiong.

With respect to 2 of the three ladies who led to fees in opposition to him, Odiong is accused of sexually assaulting not less than considered one of them instantly.

Odiong was ordained into the Catholic priesthood within the diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, in 1993. In 2006, the bishop of Austin, Texas, on the time – Gregory Aymond – allowed Odiong to switch there and work in a area which incorporates Waco.

The identical yr of the alleged 2012 assault, Odiong moved to Rome, ostensibly to check. He then gained permission in 2015 to work throughout the archdiocese of New Orleans, the place Aymond had been appointed archbishop six years earlier, based on church paperwork obtained by the Guardian.

Odiong – a naturalized US citizen – spent years on the St Anthony of Padua church in the neighborhood of Luling, Louisiana, growing a big following partly by internet hosting particular plenty after which some congregants claimed to have recovered from medical illnesses.

Regardless of efforts to report his previous to native church authorities, the New Orleans archdiocese didn’t take away him from his function at St Anthony till December 2023, about seven months earlier than his arrest at a house within the deliberate group of Ave Maria, Florida.

Odiong stays in jail unable to make $5.5m bond, regardless of testimony from authorities that he has entry to a wealth of cash – together with from congregants who’re satisfied he’s harmless. A listening to in his case is tentatively set for Thursday after attorneys for the Catholic diocese of Austin requested to restrict the scope of a search warrant served on the group by Waco police as they attempt to perceive how the church dealt with his profession.

One other priest who as soon as served at St Anthony, Lawrence Hecker, on 3 December pleaded responsible to fees of kidnapping and raping a boy in 1975 at a church within the metropolis of New Orleans. He’s tentatively set to obtain a compulsory sentence of life imprisonment Wednesday.

Revelations from the investigation into Hecker in addition to an unresolved 2020 chapter safety submitting from the New Orleans archdiocese have prompted a Louisiana state police investigation into whether or not the church group regionally ran a baby sex-trafficking ring that inflicted “widespread … abuse of minors courting again a long time” that was illegally coated up, based on statements sworn below oath by authorities.


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