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	Raymond Larger Placed on Administrative Leave Following Criminal Charges The Catholic Telegraph [Cincinnati OH] July 21, 2005 ARCHDIOCESE —Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters announced criminal indictments against Raymond Larger, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, on July 13. The six-count indictment against Larger is comprised of three counts that include sexual battery and gross sexual imposition on a minor and three counts of rape of the same minor during the years 1995-1997, while Larger was pastor of St. James Parish in White Oak. The alleged victim was a student at St. James School during that period; he is now 21. Larger, 54, was released on $25,000 bond and has been placed on administrative leave by Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk effective July 13. Administrative leave is the strongest action that a diocesan bishop can take on his own authority. It means that a priest is not permitted to use the titles "Reverend" or "Father" to refer to himself as a priest, to administer the sacraments or to wear clerical garb. Further action by the archdiocese must await the outcome of the secular legal process. A native of Sidney who was ordained in 1977, Larger was pastor at St. James for 11 years. He then was named pastor of Our Lady of Visitation Church in 2002 but resigned the pastorate in 2003 when he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of public indecency in a Dayton public park. Following a period of administrative leave, psychiatric evaluation and a year of legal probation, Larger was returned to active ministry in May 2004 with residence at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains. He has been involved with work on the Futures Implementation project of the archdiocese and has assisted at various parishes as needed on weekends. Following the prosecutor's announcement, Larger said in a written statement, "To those of you who know me and to those of you who do not, I want to be very clear: this allegation is completely false. There is absolutely no truth to it. I have never had inappropriate behavior with the accuser or with any minor. As I stand before God, my conscience is clear and clean. I have done nothing wrong. I am confident that I will be fully vindicated, and I will do all in my power to bring forth the truth." Archdiocesan officials have said that the person who came forward with the allegations against Larger did so by filing a claim with the Claim Resolutions Fund, the $3,000,000 fund that was established in November 2003 in an effort to seek reconciliation with victims of sexual abuse. The Fund Tribunal administering the Claim Resolution Fund carefully examined the claim and declined to compensate the person who filed it. Larger's attorney, Hal R. Arenstein, said, "The Tribunal, made up of two former Common Pleas Judges and one respected civil litigator, declined to give him one penny. The case was then reported to the prosecutor, as required, because the statute of limitations had not run. Father Larger looks forward to the opportunity to present the truth and completely clear his name." Archdiocesan officials turned the information about the claim over to the Hamilton County prosecutor's office, despite the fact that the alleged victim, the alleged victim's family or anyone representing the alleged victim never brought this allegation directly to the attention of archdiocesan officials. Deters noted in a July 13 announcement that the archdiocese has fully cooperated with the prosecutor's office in their investigation. At the same time, the prosecutor announced that he would not reopen a criminal investigation into how the Archdiocese of Cincinnati handled cases of sexual abuse by priests and other employees. Several local victims of sexual abuse had complained that Deters' predecessor, Mike Allen, had made a deal with the archdiocese to come to the 2003 settlement in which Archbishop Pilarczyk pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of failure to report a crime. The archdiocese also announced the establishment of a $3 million victims compensation fund modeled on a similar fund in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Deters said that two attorneys from his office spent hundreds of hours reexamining the files but could not find reason to reopen the investigation. Anyone who was abused as a child by a priest or any other representative of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati or knows someone who was abused is urged to report the abuse immediately to legal authorities and to the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Father Joseph Binzer, at 513-421-3131 or 800-686-2724.
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