[Photo above: Parishioners stretch their hands out in prayer for Michael Kelly on Friday, April 6, 2012, at St. Joachim Catholic Church in Lockeford, hours after he was found liable in a Calaveras County civil trial of assault, sexual assault and abuse. Kelly served as priest at the church since 2004. Lodi News-Sentinel.]
Deanna Hampton was “crushed” last month after reading a letter, barely over a page long, that came in the mail from California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office.
Last fall, The Sacramento Bee told the story of Father Michael Kelly, a Diocese of Stockton priest who fled to Ireland to avoid prosecution in a case of child rape involving Hampton’s son, Trevor Martin. Kelly fled in 2012 in the middle of a civil trial and amid a criminal investigation.
Martin died in 2016 in a base-jumping accident. At the time, Kelly had been picked up by authorities in…
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