BishopAccountability.org
	Irish Priest Faces Civil Case Irish Emigrant June 30, 2009 http://www.irishemigrant.com/ie/go.asp?p=story&storyID=4612 STOCKTON, Calif. – The Rev. Michael Kelly, pastor of St. Joachim Catholic Church in Lockeford, was cleared of wrongdoing by the diocesan review board, based in Stockton, California. They found no evidence to support the claim of sexual abuse that Kelly was charged with last year. Kelly had been placed on administrative leave after being accused of abusing a 10-year-old boy in the mid- 1980s. “We categorically deny the allegation," said Albert Ellis, a Stockton attorney who said he has known Kelly for more than 30 years. "It's absurd. It never happened. The guy has a stellar record. He's extremely well-liked and well-respected." Ellis said he was surprised that Kelly had been placed on administrative leave after sharing with Blaire the results of a voluntary polygraph examination. That examination, sometimes referred to as a lie-detector test, showed Kelly was being truthful, according to Ellis, when the priest denied he had abused the boy or any other child during his 35-year career as a priest. Kelly, a native of Ireland, began his priesthood in 1973 at Our Lady of Fatima. Attorney Patrick Wall, who specializes in representing clerical sex abuse victims, said that the Stockton diocese has a poor record of protecting minors from abuse by clergy, so he wouldn’t allow his client to talk with the bishop and had little faith in their investigation. “The only way for all the facts to emerge in this case is for a civil action, which we have filed,” Wall told the press. "With every fiber in my body, with every breath left in me, I'm going to fight these vicious lies," Kelly told the News-Sentinel.
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