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Pastor of West Side Cleveland Church Charged with Soliciting Sex While Being Hiv-Positive

By Ron Rutti
The Plain Dealer
October 12, 2013

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/10/pastor_of_west_side_cleveland.html

Rev. James McGonegal

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Rev. James McGonegal, pastor of a West Side Cleveland Catholic church, was charged today with soliciting sex while being HIV-positive. He had been arrested Friday in Edgewater Park.

In the incident report released today, an off-duty Cleveland Metroparks ranger said McGonegal offered the ranger $50 to help him “get off,” then exposed himself and masturbated, all while sitting inside his late-model Jeep SUV.

The report said McGonegal had three sex devices in his Jeep when he was arrested around 12:45 p.m.

The priest, 68, was released on personal bond from Cleveland City Jail this morning other media reports said. He has not been arraigned as the charges were not filed until around noon.

McGonegal has been pastor at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, at Lorain Avenue and West Boulevard, since the mid-1980s. He has been a priest since 1971.

At a mass this evening at the church, the only mention of the incident was at the start when a lector greeted the 140 people in attendance and said, "Today we pray for this parish, and our pastor." A priest in residence at St. Ignatius said the mass.
 
St. Ignatius was on the chopping block in March 2009, when the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland decided to close a number of parishes. St. Ignatius parishioners and their pastor, however, were able to convince Bishop Richard Lennon to keep open the church, which has a towering steeple that can be seen from many parts of the city's West Side.

After the mass, parishioners approached for comment declined to talk.
 
McGonegal was also charged with public indecency and abusing harmful intoxicants.

The report said inside the Jeep was a bottle that contained an intoxicant. During questioning after his arrest, the priest said he bought the product at a sex shop and smells the contents to get “a buzz.”

Later Friday, McGonegal told workers at the jail that he is HIV-positive, the report said.

The report said McGonegal made eye contact with the ranger as the priest drove his black SUV into a parking lot at Edgewater. The ranger was off-duty and wearing civilian clothes.

The ranger said he walked to a trail, then looked back and saw that McGonegal had rolled down the driver-side window of the Jeep, and was tapping on the door frame and waiving at him.

The ranger wrote that he continued walking until he was out of sight, waited two minutes, then headed back.

By then, the report said, McGonegal was pulling out to leave the area, but returned to the parking spot when he saw the man returning.

When the ranger got near the Jeep, the two began to talk, with McGonegal saying he was “cruising.”

The report said the ranger asked McGonegal if he wanted to go for a walk, but the priest declined, stating he knew of people who had been arrested in the park by rangers.

The ranger wrote that after he refused an offer to get into the Jeep, the priest suggested that they go to his nearby home.

The two then shifted the conversation to what McGonegal wanted and how much he would pay, the report said.




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