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  DA Won't Charge Former St. Raymond Pastor

By George Raine
Catholic San Francisco
July 15, 2011

http://www.catholic-sf.org/news_select.php?newsid=22&id=58736

The San Francisco District Attorney’s office will not prosecute Father William Myers, formerly the pastor of St. Raymond Parish in Menlo Park, who in April had what is believed to be an apparent violation of church child-protection norms with a 17-year-old boy.

Father Myers had followed the boy into a dressing room at a Ross Dress For Less store in San Francisco on April 19, alarming the boy’s father who saw what occurred and intervened.

San Francisco Police found that no criminal act had occurred but inspectors for District Attorney George Gascon continued to look into the incident. On Friday, Erica Terry Derryck, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office, said that the matter had been dismissed and no criminal charges will be filed.

She said “there is a lack of corroboration” about what had occurred at the store, “to the point that we felt we could not meet our burden of proving the case in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The Archdiocese of San Francisco learned about the incident on May 26, met with Father Myers on May 27 and placed him on administrative leave. The matter was referred to the archdiocesan Independent Review Board. The board was asked to determine if a “boundary violation” had occurred – a type of inappropriate behavior that falls short of physical sexual abuse but is considered an offense under the U.S. bishops’ 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

George Wesolek, communications director for the archdiocese, said the board “is looking into the actual action, of moving into the dressing room. That is what the board will be deciding his (Father Myers’) future on.”

Meantime, in June, the archdiocese named retired Msgr. Harry Schlitt as interim administrator of St. Raymond.

 
 

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