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  Molester Priest Is Jailed Twice
Probation Violated, Authorities Say

By Andrew L. Wang and Deborah Horan
Chicago Tribune [Wisconsin]
October 3, 2006

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0610030002oct
03,1,5079508.story?coll=chi-newslocalnorth-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

A Chicago Jesuit priest convicted in Wisconsin earlier this year of molesting two boys in the 1960s has been jailed for the second time in a month for violating the terms of his probation, said a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

Rev. Donald McGuire, 76, violated a 20-year probation sentence by failing to "complete programming needs" set forth in the terms of his probation, John Dipko said.

Dipko declined to elaborate on the details of the probation violation, but said the department was preparing to ask an administrative law judge to revoke McGuire's probation. If his probation is revoked, Dipko said, McGuire could face up to 30 years in prison for the violation.

McGuire was sentenced to two concurrent 7-year prison terms and three concurrent 20-year probation terms in May after a Walworth County jury found him guilty of five counts of indecent behavior with a child. The prison sentence was postponed, pending his appeal of the verdict, but the probation started immediately.

Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the two men who accused McGuire of abusing them repeatedly at a house in Fontana, Wis., when they were students at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, said McGuire had run afoul of his probation officer by refusing to take lie detector tests.

"One of the conditions of his probation is that he be available to take lie detector tests," Anderson said. "His refusals are a violation of those conditions."

Dipko declined to confirm whether McGuire had refused to take the tests, instead saying only that the priest had been jailed Sept. 25 in the Walworth County Jail pending a hearing on the probation violation. As of Monday, a hearing date had not been set.

Calls seeking comment from McGuire's attorney were not immediately returned.

The Wisconsin online sex-offender registry listed McGuire's current address as Walworth County Jail. But Barbara Blaine, a spokeswoman for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said that until last week, the Web site had listed his address as 300 E. Main St., Lake Geneva, a Comfort Suites hotel.

Dipko said McGuire had been staying at the hotel while the county searched for housing for him. McGuire had been staying at a Waukegan nursing home as a condition of his probation. But the home evicted him in July because the nature of his conviction violated its policies, Dipko said.

"We ended up getting him back [in Wisconsin] temporarily until we could secure another residence," Dipko said. "We kept a very close eye on him during that time."

McGuire's first probation violation occurred in late August, when he came to Chicago to attend the funeral of a Jesuit priest at St. Ignatius Church in Rogers Park, according to church officials.

He attended funeral services Aug. 30 and was given permission by his probation officer to stay in Evanston that night on condition that he register with the local police department, Dipko said. But McGuire never informed police he had arrived in Evanston, thus violating his probation, Dipko said. He spent three days in the Walworth County Jail for the violation.

Rev. James Gschwend, the Jesuit province's delegate for conduct inquires, said McGuire remains a Jesuit priest, though his status is under review. The review board's decision depends on the result of McGuire's appeal.

McGuire taught at Loyola Academy from 1966 to 1970 and later was spiritual director for Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity.

The two men accused McGuire of molesting them during retreats in the Lake Geneva area in 1967 and 1968. They also alleged that he abused them at the Wilmette school, but the statute of limitations in Illinois had run out. McGuire was tried in Wisconsin because the state's statute of limitations does not apply to out-of-state residents.

E-mail: alwang@tribune.com and dhoran@tribune.com

 
 

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