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	Accused Priest Maintains Innocence The CathNews September 9, 2011 http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2011/09/09/accused-priest-maintains-innocence/ A priest accused of “molesting a teenager” while working in US is maintaining his innocence despite the US diocese where he worked reaching a financial settlement with the alleged victim. “Despite the financial settlement, my client denies any misconduct,” Father Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul’s lawyer said today. “I am shocked and surprised by the settlement,” Pappa Mohan said. We were planning to fight the case in the US, he added. He was reacting to news that Crookston diocese in Minnesota, where the priest worked from September 2004 to August 2005, has agreed a US$750,000-settlement with Megan Peterson, the alleged victim. Last year the Indian priest, from Ootacamund diocese in Tamil Nadu, made international headlines after being accused of molesting the then 14-year-old, while serving at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush in 2004. He is currently charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct. According to a report on the Minnesota Public Radio website in April last year, Crookston diocese said he also misappropriated a large amount of Church money and tried to sell a car belonging to the Church before returning to India. Meanwhile, Fr Sebastian Selvanathan, procurator of Ootacamund diocese, said today that Fr Jeyapaul has been “suspended” and has no administrative or pastoral responsibilities in the diocese. He also said the priest is not in the diocese and that diocesan authorities do not know his whereabouts.
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