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  Former Choir Director Pleads Not Guilty
Man Is Accused of Sexually Assaulting One of His Teenager Singers More Than a Decade Ago. Plaintiff Sues the Diocese of Orange over the Accused Abuse.

By Kimberly Edds
The Orange County Register
July 30, 2007

http://www.ocregister.com/news/schildknecht-church-sexual-1791651-abuse-orange

Laguna Niguel (CA) — The former music director of St. Timothy Roman Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel pleaded not guilty Monday to sexually assaulting one of his teenage choir members - more than a decade after the alleged abuse occurred.

Albert Lee Schildknecht, 56, of Laguna Niguel was charged Friday with two counts of oral copulation and one count of digital penetration of a minor in alleged attacks on a 16-year-old singer in his parish in 1995 and 1996.

His female accuser, now 28, sued Schildknecht and the Diocese of Orange three weeks ago, blaming the church leadership for orchestrating a "conspiracy of silence" to protect pedophiles within the church. Authorities are withholding her name because of the sexual-abuse allegations.

Schildknecht, who spent years teaching Orange County children and teenagers to sing, is free on $100,000 bail. A pre-trial hearing was set for Aug. 24.

Authorities began investigating Schildknecht in May after a 28-year-old woman complained to the Orange County Sheriff's Department that her former choir director forced her to have a sexual relationship with him when she was a teenager. He was 44 and she was 15 when they met.

Costa Mesa detectives took over the investigation after sheriff's investigators said any potential abuse in their jurisdiction happened beyond the 10 years prosecutors have to file charges in sexual abuse cases, a sheriff's spokesman said. Schildknecht was arrested June 29 on suspicion of molesting one of his former students.

California law's extension of statute of limitation section allowed county prosecutors to file the charges, said Susan Schroeder of the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Schildknecht was put on leave from his job as a pianist at Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano in May because of the allegations of sexual misconduct, church officials said. He later resigned.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff accuses the Diocese of Orange and the parishes of St. Timothy's and St. Edward's of purposefully keeping Schildknecht's "propensities and tendencies as a child molester, sexual harasser and sexual abuser" from parishioners. Despite complaints of abuse from the teenager, church officials suspended Schildknecht for just a month – and then allowed him to return to work, where he was around children and teenagers.

The suit alleges several lapses in hiring and training procedures by church and parish officials, and accuses Schildknecht of assaulting and sexually harassing the teenager.

The lawsuit asks for unspecified punitive damages along with changes in the way the diocese and the two parishes operate.

Schildknecht has also worked at St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Dana Point and Corpus Christi Catholic-Christian Community of Aliso Viejo.

Anyone with additional information or who believes he or she may have been a victim can contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Craig Kelsey at 714-347-8794.

If convicted of all counts, Schildknecht could be sentenced to as much as four years and four months in state prison.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or kedds@ocregister.com

 
 

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