BishopAccountability.org
 
  Illinois Priest Waives Extradition to Wisconsin

Associated Press, carried in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [Milwaukee WI]
December 13, 2004

A Roman Catholic priest charged in Wisconsin with sexual abuse of a child more than 20 years ago on Monday waived extradition from Illinois, where he had been held without bail since last week.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's office had charged Francis Engels, 68, with two felony counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child.

Engels appeared in Henry County, Ill. Circuit Court Monday and said he would not fight the extradition, said Terry Patton, the Henry County state's attorney.

Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney Jane Carrol did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press Monday inquiring about when Engels might be brought to Wisconsin.

The victim, Dan Koenigs, now 37, said three priests, including Engels, molested him many times between 1980 and 1985, according to his attorney, Joe Klest, of Schaumburg, Ill.

Klest said some of the abuse took place in Kentucky and Wisconsin, and Koenigs was able to identify the Milwaukee motel where the abuse happened.

Charges could not be brought in Illinois because the statute of limitations has lapsed, Klest said, but the clock stopped on the Wisconsin allegations when the priest left the state.

Koenigs also has filed a $1 million civil lawsuit against the Peoria diocese and the three priests. He claims Peoria's late Bishop Edward O'Rourke knew the priests were dangerous because another family had reported abuse in the 1970s.

The diocese has said church officials didn't know of the alleged abuse until 1993, when Engels and another of the priests, William Harbert, were removed from public ministry.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.